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Apr 13, 2019
Mixed feelings. I deeply enjoyed the sakuga sequences, Meow's character, and various scenes and designs scattered throughout. However, for a fun pastime Dandy can come across as lukewarm depending on how tolerant of wasted potential you are. Not saying it doesn't take its concepts somewhere, but more like the canvas is so big it begs for things to transcend what one would expect. While the show does have its fair share of surprising twists, it mostly plays out like a Watanabe series, filled with predictable jokes and perfunctory resolutions. Its carefree nature excuses most of its underthinking, but just the thought that it could be
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far better and push its ideas much further bothers me. Conceptually, Space Dandy isn't far from something like Rick & Morty. The execution, however, shows the gargantuan distance between the two.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 11, 2019
The worst thing Oshii has ever laid hands upon. Rebels fighting the government for four episodes. Both sides feel generic and unconvincingly brought about, probably due to the staff forcing their conflict into the narrative without fleshing things out enough so the audience could actually give a shit. Self-serious exploration of a theme that goes nowhere thematically, and the drama is cringeworthy with eye-rolling interactions, contrived chemistry and a final sequence that pretends to be epic while being just hard to sit through. Basically, 80s cheese trying to be more than what it is and whose only redeemable aspect would be Oshii's directing, which to
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be honest is far from noteworthy in here. How he went from this to directing one of the most beautiful pieces of arthouse ever in little more than a year remains a mystery to me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 11, 2019
I like Takahashi and how he actively seeks to make his creations plausible and palpable. It sometimes works, it sometimes doesn't. His earlier works are so littered with so many flaws it's impossible to take the damn thing seriously despite his most genuine efforts. I don't know how much of that falls on him or the people he had to ultimately please in the process. Regardless, Galient, in spite of its interesting elements scattered throughout, is a badly animated, childish, cheesy, and sometimes even cringeworthy tale whose messages are tackled with the finesse of a derailed train exploding midair. It does play out slightly better
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than some other of its genre, but that shouldn't be hard to do. Such annoyingly blatant forthrightness is characteristic of the 70s/early 80s where few works managed to be as effective as they wished to. It goes against any attempt to be insightful and believable. As a piece of entertainment it should go without saying the production values here don't help at all. Unless you're already desensitized to constant static keyframes, zooming in and out, panning shots, rough and erratic drawing, generic music, etc, you better walk away. It's not like it was its intention to be entertaining either, it's clearly striving to make a statement. It is pretty silly actually, and the way characters react to it is hilarious, as if it made any sense, when it doesn't for anyone with half a brain cell. To be honest, it's not like I'd ever expect a Japanese kids cartoon from the 80s to approach the pettiness of humanity and the damaging nature of peace (???) with actual wit.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 5, 2019
I don't know what is weirder, a tiny female genie rubbing her breasts for magic purposes or Tezuka's fetishistic side blatantly displayed in the sensual pink panther sequence. For better or worse, the movie is littered with moments that defy common sense and beg the question “why” at every turn. The problem is however that a supposedly adult movie that does have various sequences of clearly adult content is littered with such misplaced bullshit. If his intention was to make something lighthearted and ultimately devoid of pretense, there shouldn't be entire dramatic segments that are far from self-aware, let alone subverted. He can't focus, his
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tone and pacing are always all over the place. Les Réusltats du Féminisme from fucking 1906 managed to be both absurdist, thoughtful, and the most ahead of its time film in history, which believe it or not, can be done. What this movie represents is basically utter waste of talent on a project that sucks from its very conception. Considering Belladonna came just a bit later, this is just inexcusably lame even for the period it came out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 5, 2019
I haven't read most of Tezuka's manga, but as far as anime is concerned, he sure isn't very good. He seemed to lack some basic discernment, much like Tomino does for example, and littered his shit with unbecoming tonal shifts and jokes that have no place and exist merely cause he thought it would be funny. When reading some of his titles, it is common to have the flow interrupted by some visual gag and I wondered just why it was there to begin with. Cleopatra is a disaster in most senses, starting with its premise that sounds like one which would be promptly refused
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by any funder with more than two brain cells. The movie goes and goes and as you realize it's absolutely all over the place a thought arises: why does this exist? There aren't bad jokes interrupting a relatively thoughtful story... there is no thoughtful story and the whole thing is the bad joke. It's a wholly half-assed product made out of toying with history without the quality control, tonal consistency, and self-awareness required for it to be minimally interesting to watch. Tezuka's self-indulgence can seem nearly solipsist at times, but sometimes that means utter boredom for the audience as absolutely nothing matters if it's just a piece of incoherent mess with bits and pieces of cultural and historical references. The Animerama project consists of two ill-conceived pieces of shit followed by one cleverly crafted arthouse masterpiece. Guess which one Tezuka did not work on? You're right on the money.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 3, 2019
Ugh, what a dull movie. Much like most biopics out there, this has nothing potent to it and all it has to offer is exactly what you'd expect every step of the way. A dream motivated by limitation, a career marked by ambition and at some point, a slight conflict. Looking back to your past work and feeling both proud and sorry. All emotional segments are undermined by the erratic pacing and characters lacking any depth whatsoever. Basically what The Wind Rises amounts to is Miyazaki being able to build a universal metaphor that can fit many places while indulging in his fetishes as much
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as he can. However, if his intention was to evoke a genuine emotional reaction he better improve his dramatic writing to be efficient. For people to buy into your shit you need to be actually convincing, something Miyazaki has never been on a realistic level. He prefers to criticize Patlabor 2's cynicism cause to him it was contrived and manipulative, after all, that is just using reality as is to build your message around. However, by denying reality when tackling reality the result is exactly what happened here: artificiality. His idealization of a protagonist has no place in a narrative about a real person, his idealization of a relationship has no place in a real life romance, his idealization of Europe has no place in such dark periods of our history, and by distancing himself from that which actually is, he makes it impossible for me to take the whole thing seriously. It tries to be unconventional by the standards of Miyazaki only to be extremely conventional, fascinating really. And so, due to its lack of content and unwelcome fantasized approach, I hope his next project to be as far from "unconventional" as possible.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 2, 2019
LOGH feels like watching an amiably autistic child with an unyielding discipline and sense of duty giving their absolute best to perform a rather ambitious task. It's unbelievably cute, and that says more about me than years of therapy would. This anime lives and dies by an ethos that oozes through and through, one which is heavily based on integrity and professionalism, on functionality and quality control. In respect to that, allow me to describe what is so amazing about it. First, the fact the animation not being particularly fluid is justified by obsessively complex drawing that impresses merely by virtue of moving. That is
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not to say the animation isn't good though, cause it most definitely is given such tremendous circumstances. Constantly moving accurately anatomic bodies while maintaining consistency and even finding time to properly display a plethora of facial expressions, tics, manneirisms, and whatnot is extremely difficult. Keep in mind that back in the day, even anime with a lot of slapstick humor and simplistic drawing had to discard a ton of cels in the process of animating and ink coloring. Now think of how many LOGH discarded by being so overwhelmingly intricate all the time. Every character looks different. EVERY CHARACTER from perhaps one of the most expansive casts you'll ever see. And by looking different I mean looking humanly different, not just changing hair colors. It means changing all minimal features so the viewer can identify each and every one of them as a distinct individual. No hair covers the face, so the eyes are always visible. Such hair, which is already baroque levels of unnecessarily detailed, never coincides with the outlining of the eyes, a technique all too known in anime. Not here no, cause such minute detail is unacceptable to the LOGH staff. Did I mention all environments are also extremely detailed even when they don't matter much? Well, to the LOGH staff, not mattering much doesn't mean it shouldn't be fully realized just like a real structure would be. Character designs, uniforms, ships, architecture, all built from the ground and thoroughly presented despite being mere details for the most part. Such visual splendor isn't all the anime is obsessive about. The way characters approach each other, given the heavily military vibe, is always according to established hierarchies. The way they talk always reflect their positions, interests, motivations. Why is that of any interest? Well, because LOGH staff couldn't afford to leave characters unaccounted for in terms of believability, not in relation to their world, no. The anime also gives insight to most characters who matter, admittedly forced at times. But they don't care if it will feel a tad unnatural, after all, all characters deserve to be gray and fairly realized. The effort envisioning to grant them humanity as much as possible is admirable. Did I mention every episode builds on the previous? There is absolutely nothing in LOGH that could be taken away without damaging the narrative. The pacing is almost scientifically precise. In every episode, something important MUST happen so it will feel necessary both standalone and as part of the whole. A lot is said, but the dialogues are built to be equal parts understandable and believable. Doesn't always happen, but the fact I was never bored through endless conversation must mean something. Nothing of importance happens off-screen either, cause the staff believes in being truthful at every turn and despite telling you a lot, they also leave a lot to be viewed and interpreted. They ultimately respect the audience's intelligence and capacity to understand the plans... oh yeah, they actually plan stuff. It doesn't just happen out of nowhere. Things also go wrong a lot, cause that happens a lot in real life. When something breaks, it remains broken for some time until it's fixed, and it will be fixed in front of you so you can see who fixed it, how, and why. Guess that suffices to clarify my position here. Also, Oberstein is the ultimate side-character who stole my heart unlike any other in anime. He's thoroughly fascinating and on the same level if not above the main duo, Reinhard and Yang, who in turn are nothing short of amazing, individually and in conjunction. I have a soft spot for Reuenthal too. Almost everything is carefully built, effectively elaborated, and competently concluded. And with the same grace it carried from the very beginning, in the fashion of a Greek tragedy, as the curtain falls, the Legend ends, and History begins.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 2, 2019
This movie could use some naturalism. I appreciate Shinkai's sensibility where it's due, but the narration sucks. It takes away a lot of the credibility, especially considering how easy to grasp the movie still is without such unwelcome poetry. There is a better way to handle things called visual storytelling. The final scene is a prime example of that, though I still think it was too short for its own good. Looking at the other side in total silence while the audience contemplates the last threads of relationship fading away, that is what a mastermind such as Takahata would be able to pull off effortlessly.
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Shinkai always tries to make something that feels transcendental and evocative, but there is always an underlying juvenility going against his intentions. Still, it had the heart in the right place for once, and it's definitely the most thoroughly well executed of his works, perhaps alongside Someone's Gaze. Counting on the fact he just won't let go of romance and separation as core themes, hopefully we will get a maturely handled masterpiece in years to come.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 31, 2019
Okiura is such a great animator, it irks me his talent got wasted on this piss poor script. Not only is the plot a bloody wreck, the thematic exploration is nothing short of contradictory. It sets up sides, it frames them accordingly, but at some point it just fucks it up and things become very confusing. There are few things more frustrating than seeing a build up to a statement just so it can fall apart and leave you totally underwhelmed. It almost feels like they had no idea what they were doing. I couldn't bring myself to finish the original manga cause Tezuka isn't
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exactly my cup of tea, but regardless of how bad the content gets, there is no excuse. Otomo is a great artist but a sucky writer, which makes putting names like Hamasaki, Kanada, and Rintaro to work under his pathetic screenplay even more of an embarrassment. I kid you not, the number of great people working on this genuinely saddens me for what it turned out to be. Even the animation itself kinda got too heavy for me after a while, so I ended up getting more impressed by its amazing structural complexity, with awesome attention to detail and colors. Metropolis could have been steampunk Ghost in the Shell, but lacked the actual substance that makes for a timeless masterpiece.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 28, 2019
Otomo is an autistic folk. Just take a look at his obsessively detailed artwork as a mangaka. He's so passionate he took upon himself the task of adapting his baby into something that would enter history and shock audiences all over the world. Needless to say I adore his ethos of breathing life into every frame of this audiovisual masterpiece, in a fashion not only unheard-of in the industry at that point, but also untouched by virtually anyone up until Miyazaki and Koike decided to join the party, mind you, many years later. The man single-handedly brought about and popularized Japanese cyberpunk, inspiring tons of
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people in the process. Also, props to the cel animation, ink coloring, and avant-garde soundtrack. Sadly, in all his enthusiasm Otomo refused to make some sacrifices in order to attain higher quality to his final product. Akira cuts huge chunks of the original story which in turn undermines its potential to impress beyond its presentation. There is a plot, but it's more a vehicle for iconic moments than a commentary on society, corruption, technology, and whatnot, which is exactly what it strives for. It's not a rule of cool, it's serious business, and that tone can't help but constantly clash with all the stupid shit that could easily come out of a parody of its own genre. Such neglecting of competent storytelling while trying to remain poignant ruins my enjoyment even as I try to see it as mere dumb fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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