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[Spoiler Warning]

No Game No Life (TV) is, to me, a flashier version of the detested Sword Art Online as both anime share many similar strengths and faults. These similarities include poor pacing, overpowered characters and an outstanding soundtrack. However, unlike Sword Art Online which, aside from the gradual deterioration of its concepts, has relatively consistent quality, No Game No Life throws many of its strengths out in No Game No Life: Zero, the prequel to the TV series.

One of the most noticeable changes is the shift from a vivid palette to a duller one which helped enforce the movies more serious and dismal tone. ... Unfortunately, despite the visual adjustments, the writers could not get this tone across as the utilized poorly placed jokes to lighten the mood. These jokes, though humorous, ruined almost all of the more serious, melancholic moments this movie had to offer, altering the atmosphere and creating a lighter tone. These tone setting (and ruining) jokes made the visual modifications futile as the only offered to deduct from No Game No Life: Zero’s quality.

The creators of No Game No Life: Zero, despite changing the palette, fail to improve the overall caliber of its animation, keeping its quality relatively the same as the TV shows. This lack of color, however, expresses the negative aspects of the movies animation as it flaunts the numerous errors that passed us by in the first season. These poorly animated scenes, though prevalent in the TV series as well, were less prominent as the series used vivid colors and unique backgrounds to divert our attention from their errors. However, without the palette No Game No Life is so well known for, this facade is easily seen through.

Battles in No Game No Life: Zero are the exception when it comes to the animation quality as it revives many of the shows vivid colors and combines them with fluid animation. Many of these astounding fight scenes were, unfortunately, ruined by the CGI that accompanied them. Though I don't believe this CGI is necessarily bad when compared to many other anime, I do feel CGI itself has a long ways to go before it can consistently and excellently be implemented into anime without ruining its overall quality. This poor CGI animation was only made more evident because of its brighter pigmentation, creating a stark difference between it and the somber background of the show.

Aside from their shabby attire, the characters themselves are quite aesthetically pleasing, using many of No Game No Life's original character designs as templates for No Game No Life: Zero, retaining at least some of the artistic choices the series is so well known for. The characters themselves, however, are riddled with a multitude of flaws.

One of the more noticeable flaws these characters exhibit is their lack of rational thought. Throughout the movie, almost every character, both main and side, make irrational choices that only serve to push the plot forward. Riku, for example, uses his anger at the world (and how unfair it is) and presumed thirst for vengeance as the driving forces behind his will to survive. However, despite knowing Schwi was the one who destroyed his town and forced his neighbors underground, he is willing to take her in and care for her. This hatred and fear for AI among the humans is also demonstrated when Riku forces Schwi to conceal her identity from the rest of his group for her own safety.

Similarly, Schwi, hoping to learn about the human “heart” leaves her swarm, cutting off all connection to them to be with Riku.Why an AI, which is known to only make rational decisions, left in the first place and why she was allowed to, however, is never explained. What is explained, upon Riku and Schwi’s first encounter, is that Schwi is under the misconception that to understand the human heart she needs to have sex. This misunderstanding prompts her to consistently request Riku’s body. Surprisingly, it is later revealed that Schwi is incapable of having sex, making her reasoning for leaving the safety of the swarm in a chaotic world pointless (and therefore irrational). Why Schwi left her swarm to understand the heart despite physically being unable to (because of her misconception) is also beyond me and the rationale behind it is never explained within the anime.

No Game No Life: Zero’s cast also lacks a backstory of any kind. What Schwi did in the swarm, how Riku survived the destruction of civilization despite being a human child and how he becomes the leader of his group of dwellers (among many others) are never addressed and are only there for plot convenience. Without Riku having survived we couldn’t have had this story, without seeing Schwi’s actions in her swarm we can grow to like her (as she presumably made some inhumane choices which is why Riku is wary of revealing her identity to his fellow humans) and without Riku being his clan’s leader, he could never have ordered his allies to die for his sake and therefore would never have fallen into as depressed a state as he did (if he had still managed to survive) therefore giving him little to no motivation.

Regardless as to whether you want to know the backstories of the characters or not, their futures are just as poorly written. Aside from the cute and entertaining interactions between Schwi and Riku, there isn’t much depth to their relationship. In the anime, you see the dynamic duo meet and their first interactions and then there’s a one year time slip that leads to an anti-climactic confession.

At this point you’re probably extremely confused and are asking yourself, “What time skip?” I myself didn’t actually notice it but, researching the anime on several different sources, I discovered there is a major one hidden within the anime as the movie itself spans roughly a year and a half. What exactly happened over this year, however, is left up to speculation.

This major time skip, however, affects the shows pacing dramatically as it rushes major events with little to no actual build up. Because this movie also tries to cover such an enormous amount of events in so little time, the buildup and excitement meant to be felt in a lot of these scenes is lost and the anime itself feels rushed as it jump from one major plot point to another.

To make up for the lack of emotion presented in and around (chronologically) these major scenes, No Game No Life: Zero implements multiple “shock factors” to move the audience. A prime example of this is with Ivan, a deceased human whom we see sacrifice himself (at Riku’s command) so that others might survive on an outing during the first 5 minutes of the movie. Apart from knowing his loyalty to Riku and his clan, the only thing we really know about Ivan is that he has a (presumably young) daughter. After this scene ends (where Riku and another young man escape the crashed Dwarven ship), the anime cuts to a makeshift classroom where a young girl proudly proclaims that she can write her own name and can’t wait to show her father. Aside from this and a name, nothing else is known about poor little Nonna.

The movie then transitions to Riku’s return where Nonna rushes out to greet her father. The father who didn’t come home. The movie then tries to play this off as Riku’s breaking point (ruining it with a bad joke mind you), making us feel pity for both him and Nonna; characters we know next to nothing about.

Emotionless scenes similar to that one are abundant in No Game No Life: Zero as they express where certain characters relationships are in the movie. However, because of the time skips, these relationships aren’t fully expanded upon or developed and we’re left with poorly written shock factors and our own assumptions to fill in the multitude of blanks.

To make up for its poorly written “emotional” scenes, No Game No Life: Zero implements a heart wrenchingly beautiful soundtrack. Though the songs themselves aren’t as catchy or memorable as the TV series, they’re much better at eliciting the desired emotions from the audience. Unfortunately, No Game No Life: Zero, despite boasting a beautiful soundtrack, misuses its OST which, more often than not, takes more from a scene than it gives to it. Music in most anime (including No Game No Life: Zero) is meant to add to the scene and the dialogue but, in No Game No Life: Zero, the music competes with the actual dialogue for the limelight. This competition takes a lot away from the scene and I found myself becoming much more emotional because of the unbearably loud music than the actual dialogue or story it was supposed to be aiding in the delivery of.

Overall, despite being satisfied with the concepts No Game No Life: Zero had, I found the experience ruined by a multitude of factors ranging from poor writing to poor volume control. These negative aspects took so much from the actual experience of the movie that I just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy it, especially as it became more evident that my burning questions wouldn’t be answered.

“A dictionary is a ship that navigates an ocean of words. Without words, you cannot express your thoughts or be able to have any sort of deep understanding of others. People board the ship we call dictionaries and find the perfect words to gather the small lights floating to the top of the dark waters. Words are lights. But in the ever-changing world, unable to find the right words, there are those who lead troubled lives caged with their own trapped feelings. We need a ship people like that can feel safe boarding. This is the dictionary we are trying to create.”

Words are a ... boat that we use to sail across the vast ocean that is society. They carry us through our lives and connect us to other people through conversation. However, when someone is incapable of using those words to express themselves, they become lost both socially and emotionally. This is the central and most basic message presented to us in Fune wo Amu, the slow story of Mitsuya Majime as he discovers the power of the words he carries in his day to day life while aiding in the creation of a dictionary named The Great Passage in hopes it will help others in realizing the importance of words themselves.
The story of The Great Passage is one of words and dialogue - something unique and rarely seen in anime in which works normally present themselves visually, not verbally. Though other anime, such as Katanagatari are far better at focusing on the progression of the story through dialogue and while others, such as Serial Experiments Lain are better at showing that progression visually, Fune wo Amu manages to take the middle ground. It spectacularly presents the audience with both powerful and moving dialogue and imagery. Aspects of the visual progression of Fune wo Amu can be seen with the image of words forming an ocean that separates our protagonist from the rest of society or the Ferris wheel that represents the connections between people (and more specifically between Mitsuya Majime and Kaguya Hayashi). On the other hand, many of the lines given to Tomosuke Matsumoto are, to me, extremely powerful and deep and we can see obvious character progression in Mitsuya in regards to how he speaks (especially with his crush, Kaguya Hayashi) showing that he, as a person is growing both mentally and socially alongside his relationships with others.
However, despite having a powerful presentation at times, Fune wo Amu’s story frequently moves at a snail's pace. Though having a slow story is not necessarily a bad thing, stories still have to be engaging for the majority of its audience to enjoy it. Fune wo Amu often loses sight of the necessity of engagement and therefore often times lacks enjoyment as it slowly lugs its plot forward.
This lack of engagement, however, allows Fune wo Amu to have some of the most realistic and down to earth characters I’ve seen in anime. Many anime use egregious and exaggerated cliches (-deres, OP main characters, overly depressed characters who are socially awkward and so on) to connect to the audience and engage/entertain them. Though these cliches work, they’re boring and outlandish to those more critical of the content they follow. Fune wo Amu, however, despite using some of these cliches as the foundation for its characters, (the playboy Masashi Nishioka, the klutzy Mitsuya Majime and the wise old Tomosuke Matsumoto being just a few examples) turns them into something more and makes its characters, though not perfect, much better than what the anime community is normally present with.
Unfortunately, Fune wo Amu forgets the main demographics within the anime community and fails to cater to their tastes, creating characters and situations the younger teens that are the foundation of the anime community find hard to appreciate and engage with. This, paired with poor advertisement, is why this show often times goes unnoticed and unmentioned by the bulk of the anime community.
The animation in Fune wo Amu is, much like its characters; down to earth and more realistic. There are no outlandish hair styles or colors and the characters look like actual people. This, along with some impressive visual metaphors is why I gave the art a 6 instead of the 5 I’d normally give a show with this level of animation.
Fune wo Amu also has a unique but forgettable opening sequence and a similarly composed OST. Despite occasionally using this softer OST effectively, Fune wo Amu, much like its animation, has an average OST that fails to implement any unique or outstanding techniques.
Despite having many obvious flaws in all regards, Fune wo Amu is an anime that I, as a writer, as a member of the audience and most importantly as a human being, can enjoy and it is something I don’t think I’d hesitate to call “good”. However, for many people, this anime lacks the key elements and themes an entertaining and good show to them would have and therefore cannot and will not cater to a mass audience.

Scores:
Story: 7
Art: 6
Sound: 5
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 8

As an anime established around people and how those people interact with one another, Kiznaiver’s cast should be memorable and fleshed out. However, for over half the characters, this just doesn’t seem to be the case as they fall short when compared to other anime with similar goals such as Hibike Euphonium and Zankyou no Terror.

In fact, Kiznaiver flounders in almost every aspect aside from it’s stunning visuals and decent soundtrack. These strengths are made apparent in the anime’s opening theme which pairs a decent and memorable song with flashy visuals that catch the viewer's attention. I think this opening is also full of ... meaning, focusing mainly on the eyes and reflections of the characters showing that the anime itself is about seeing eye to eye. However, after this fabulous opening, the show almost immediately becomes sour.

We are introduced to our cast of walking tropes from the airhead loli to the guy who is extremely cold because of some dark event that happened in his past and, like most anime that feature similar tropes, these characters (excluding Maki, which we’ll get to later) barely change from their original state. When we leave off, Niko is still as much an airhead as she was episode 1 and Yoshiharu is still as masochistic as ever.

Though some might fawn over “how unique this anime is making all these different tropes interact” there are actually many other anime that have something similar. This list, though extremely short, includes almost every generic harem that’s come out. It’s no stretch to say that, these interactions are in no way unique and a varied cast can be found in almost any anime made in recent years.

Not only can varied casts be found easily, but so can relationships that are deeper than the ones found in Kiznaiver. Many anime breath life into the relationships the characters have with one another and try to make them as human as possible to best connect the characters to their audience. Kiznaiver, on the other hand, creates empty relationships between its cast. These platonic bonds that were forced upon them through the Kiznaiver system quickly turn into romantic interests. Literally every character is romantically attracted to another, creating a confusing web of love. Though I don’t think a show doing this is necessarily bad, I do believe doing this in a fashion where there is no clear reasoning for said attraction is. Kiznaiver, though an anime about relationships, falls into the latter of the two categories, making this simple, yet devastating mistake.

However, these bonds are not the only problem this trainwreck of a cast has. The characters themselves undergoes little to no change throughout the series, the primary exception being Maki who has an entire arc dedicated to her. I found this arc to be the best part of the anime as it fleshed out and gave life to one of the it’s 8 main characters. If the anime had had arcs similar to this one for its diverse cast, I think it would have been much better. Unfortunately, Kiznaiver, most likely due to funding issues which only allowed them a meager 12 episodes, does not do this. It fleshes out Maki in her arc and gives Katsuhira a deep backstory throughout the course of the anime, changing the audience's perspective on him but leaving him relatively unchanged as a whole. However, the rest of the cast is left a mere reflection of their respective tropes.

As stated earlier, the one thing that does remain constant throughout this anime (besides the characters personalities) is it’s art style, bringing us beautiful characters and scenery which are by far some of my favorites. Not only does the art style and animation breath some life into is rather dull cast, but it also remains constant throughout the show. From the fast paced scenes such as when the characters first meet to the slower ones where they’re sitting on a train, I found the images before me to be as stunning and catchy as those presented in the opening.

The visuals alone are no reason to watch a show, however, and Kiznaiver fails to accomplish anything it was aiming for. It had poor writing, poor directing, poor relationships and most of all, poor characters and because it lacked these essentials, I have to say that Kiznaiver is in no way an outstanding show.

Story: 4
Art: 8
Sound: 6
Character: 4
Enjoyment: 4
Overall: 5

In This Corner of the World is a fairly decent anime about a woman as she grows up in pre-war Japan and how her life changes during the later years of World War 2. This anime’s undoing, however, is due to the fact that it focuses on a specific niche of people and this niche is one that is not very prevalent in the anime community.

The movie itself takes a look at the effects of the war through the eyes of a young bride named Suzu who claims she is always dreaming. This dream state, however, can lead to some confusion as several of ... the events in the story can feel surreal while only a small fraction of those events are actually dreams. An example of this is when Suzu visits home for the first time after her marriage and comments upon waking up from a nap, “that was a good dream” personally confusing me as to whether or not the events we had witnessed were real. I do feel that this lens and idea of a dream is a unique way of looking at war, avoiding the gritty aspects of it and viewing it in a more positive light, encapsulating the Japanese nationalism at the time. This ongoing theme the anime has also becomes very important in the story; specifically when you’re identifying the anime’s climax.

The movie itself has a very obscure yet dull climax. The director of the film, Sunao Kabuchi, was asked at a French screening of the movie “what the climax of the movie was” and didn’t give a decisive answer, leaving it up to speculation. This anime has (in my personal opinion) multiple climax’s though there is a singular event, a singular climax in this story, that shifts the plot from it’s rising to its falling actions. I won’t say what this event is, but I will say it “wakes” Suzu up from her dream like state and the reality of war becomes much more apparent and the anime itself takes on a different, more gritty perspective on the war as it slowly begins to penetrate Suzu’s peaceful life.

The anime’s falling action is very unique as, instead of slowing down the pacing and bringing the anime to a close, it leads to more exciting and thrilling events with a much faster pacing. I think this can also be connected back to the dream like state Suzu has been awoken from. Though some might say the event that woke Suzu up from her dream was “unnecessary” and it’s only goal was to arouse the audience, I’d argue that, without this event, the anime would not be as impactful as it is. Without an event like this occurring, Suzu would never have awoken from her “dream” and the anime would have no decisive conclusion.

The pacing of the movie, however, in the first half, is poorly done as it skips around through different periods of Suzu’s younger life, sometimes skipping weeks to years. This is something I and many others are not fond of as it seems to pick the time and place it wants certain events to take place. Though this might be connected with the historical accuracy this anime presents, I still feel that the skips, especially since they vary in length, are uncalled for. Many of these small tidbits of Suzu’s childhood provide little information to the viewer and much of it becomes irrelevant later in the movie.

The movies animation, though beautiful and exquisite, is also very bland. Many characters are similar in many ways because of this animation style and I often mixed them up. The animation, though part of the anime’s aesthetics, could have been done in a way to make the characters more identifiable. The animation, though it focuses on making the anime, in a way, realistic, falls short of making their characters stand out amongst both each other and their environment.

The characters themselves were very well thought out. Each one had a unique personality that matched their short but interesting backstory and though a majority of them don’t develop over the course of the story, those that do, like Suzu and her sister-in-law, Keiko, do so in a very well scripted and realistic way.

The film itself is very well directed and I find less and less anime as well written and directed as this one. It has many impactful and heartfelt moments that truly make you feel for the characters it presents. I feel that many people will not understand why certain events in this movie are so overlooked and skimmed over and that’s because we have a very different culture from 1940s Japan. This unique culture which Japan has lost much of in its post-WW2 state is what makes this anime very selective in its audience, something I see as a major flaw. However, this movie becomes much more immersive if you do look at it with the mindset of a Japanese citizen in the 1940s, making it a big hit or miss.

The music the anime has along with its placement, however, dilutes these heartfelt moments. The OST itself is charming but the placement of the music is where this anime is its weakest. The film has many very powerful moments both spoken and unspoken but the placement of the songs focuses primarily on the spoken moments of the show. These spoken moments, though powerful, are not as powerful as some of the unspoken ones and drowns out much of the softer music. The music itself would have had a much more apparent effect on the audience had it been placed into some of the more powerful, unspoken moments such as when Suzu is pushed into a ditch by Shuusaku, effectively saving her life. However, as it seems the priority of giving those spoken moments more impact, much of the music in the anime was used in them.

Personally the coolest part of this anime is how historically accurate it was. The anime itself has been in production since 2010 and everything from the locations to the weather is accurate and, had you been in each location on that date, it would have been the exact same as it was presented in the movie. I feel this unnoticed but unique aspect made this movie (once you find out about it) much more enjoyable and likeable.

Overall, In This Corner of the World was one of the more enjoyable anime I’ve seen these past few years, competing with other popular titles such as Koe no Katachi and Your Name. Though each of these titles has their own unique strong and weak points, overall I feel this one is the one I personally found most enjoyable (though objectively it lagged slightly behind the other two).

Final Scores
Story: 9
Art: 5
Sound: 4
Character: 9
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 7

Kimi no Na wa, or Your Name, is a film directed by Shinkai Makoto who is often called the “next Miyazaki”. The movie itself is about destiny and fate, focusing on Mitsuha, a girl living in a small town, and Taki, a boy living in Tokyo. The two begin swapping bodies and the movie continues with, bringing in themes of time travel and love along with a large amount of tacky plot conveniences. Despite its obvious and many shortcomings, I believe that Kimi no Na wa is an anime everyone should consider watching at least once.

Story (4/10)
Kimi no Na wa is 1 hour ... 46 minutes long and I feel it was, in the first half, unnecessarily prolonged. The introduction of Kimi no Na wa, though it introduces vital components that become important later on, drags on for an extended period of time making this anime feel like a slice of life akin to the likes of K-On. This movie continues with its snail-like pacing until after the climax end and then suddenly the film feels very rushed as the pace rapidly picks up and leads to a less than satisfying conclusion (though it is a conclusion nonetheless). The beginning of the show is very disconnected from the actual plot of the show and, despite a few moments of foreshadowing, really avoids giving any hints as to what will happen later on in the movie when everything really goes downhill.

In the second half of Kimi no Na wa, the movie feels a lot different in both theme and pacing when compared to the first half as the actual meat of the story is fed to the audience at a much more rapid pace. Even though certain points in the second half are just as slow as they were in the first half, the second half begins throwing large amounts of information at the audience that is all relevant to the plot. I began to feel that the first half of the film was meant to do nothing except introduce the simple characters that populated the world along with a few key things that you will miss as they feel irrelevant to the actual plot. The one thing I will commend Kimi no Na wa for doing is making it so the information is easily understood despite being thrown at the audience in large portions, allowing everyone to continue to understand most of what is occurring.

In the second half of Kimi no Na wa, the movie also begins to throw new, plot convenient devices at the audience, such as time travel, and forces them to swallow these plot devices, making the story feel more and more forced. I don’t want to say to much on this topic as I’d like too refrain from spoiling as much of the show as possible, but I really do feel there were a lot of unnecessary and complicated themes thrown into the film for plot convenience that do nothing but hinder its value.

The final thing I’d like to cover in this section of my review is how well the movie evokes numerous emotions from you. Though some might argue that these heart wrenching scenes are forced and pointless, I do feel they serve a purpose as they are successful at pulling the intended emotions from within you. I’ve heard that, while directing this film, Makoto had a board on which he would write what he wanted the audience to be feeling at certain points and I feel he nailed it. The presentation of these countless emotional scenes along with the stunning visuals and soundtrack evoke the intended emotions out of a majority of the audience and are able to continue doing so no matter how many times you watch the movie.

Art/Animation (10/10)
I feel that visually, Kimi no Na wa is one of the best anime I’ve seen to date. Its wonderful animations paired with its vivid colors and it's beautifully detailed backgrounds make it very aesthetically pleasing to the viewer and there’s really nothing negative I feel I can say about this aspect of the movie.

Sounds (9/10)
Though it’s not the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard, Kimi no Na wa’s music was still above that of the average animated movie. Almost any song can become extremely effective when placed at the right moment in the right anime and I feel this is something that Kimi no Na wa accomplished almost perfectly. Each song was perfectly inserted at the right moment and is heavily involved in the emotions you feel during the movie. Most of the major songs are also enjoyable to listen to outside of the movie and, in some cases, without any prior knowledge on it.

Characters (3/10)
The two main characters, Taki and Mitsuha act as most of us most likely would if we switched bodies. At first they believed it was a dream and once they realized it was reality they freaked out and began demanding the other not do certain things. Though these characters are written at a lower level than they should be considering the production value, they are still passable (even if barely) and I believe that, though their motives are weak, being a mostly distant feeling of love, they are still somewhat acceptable to the current teen population that this movie was trying to reach.

However, aside from the passable main characters, the audience is also introduced to a vast array of side characters who are poorly written. Despite their friendship with the characters, they never seem to worry or recognize the vast difference in personality the two have and never question obvious actions that the character, had they been themselves, never would have done. These side characters are never really explored and almost nothing is learned about them except the fact they’re friends with the main protagonists. The motives for their actions are left to our imagination and they do some of these actions on a whim despite the substantial consequences that come with said actions.

These side characters did, however, have plenty of opportunity to be developed. This includes Mitsuha’s father, the mayor, who has a poor relationship with his daughter and Katsuhiko Teshigawara (or Tessie) who makes a comment about how hard his life is in the movie. As I said before, Kimi no Na wa seems to want to focus on what seems like irrelevant information and never really develops the side characters, barred the audience from properly connecting with them. I will say, however, that the audience can connect to the main characters and said characters are able to elicit empathy from the audience.

Enjoyment (10/10)
Kimi no Na wa is something that I had the pleasure to see in theaters 3 times and it’s something I didn’t regret. Despite being boring and slow at points, the show manages to draw you in with its amazing music and visuals, making each moment memorable. It’s an anime that I have taken several different people to see in theaters and something I plan to show many more on my TV. This anime was very enjoyable despite obviously lacking in many departments and was something I was able to sit through multiple times despite not being able to sit through other movies that are, in a critical sense, better than this one. This movie keeps me coming back and it continues to make me feel what it wants me to feel like a puppet and that’s something I feel is much more important than any critical review of a show.

Overall (7/10)
Though critically I know and agree it’s not the best anime, Kimi no Na wa kept me coming back and kept me entertained. I understand why people might give it a 10/10 but unfortunately I just can’t while looking at this show critically without bias.