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I'm going to preface this review by saying that this largely could be a case of a work simply not being for me. The horror genre as a whole has never been something I've gotten too into and this has been especially true for comics and manga. The few horror comics I have gotten into (Preacher, Hellboy, Sandman) were largely due to me liking the story itself as opposed to the horror elements. However, a friend of mine recommended Fuan no Tane to me and here we are.

To be rather blunt, I kind of think the idea of these books, a series of horror shorts ... separated into chapters that share a similar theme, are inherently flawed. One of the biggest elements of horror in any form is the building of suspense. Graphic novels by nature have a harder time building suspense than both "real" books, which can vividly describe what's going on in a deliberate matter to build suspense and television/film, which has other tools it can use to build suspense like camera and musical tricks, because a graphic novel has to build suspense through images and word balloons. To try and do this successfully is a daunting task, but to try and do in is 2-3 pages is practically doomed to failure. Fuan no Tane does not circumvent this, there is no suspense to be had in this story, there is no reason to care about the characters going through the experience, and by the time you finished the story you MIGHT think "WTF?" but usually you're just onto the next story.

To make matters worse, the payoff for these stories is pretty much standard horror fare. I don't have to be a fan of the genre to be able to confidently assure you that if you are a fan of the horror genre, and quite honestly even if you aren't, you've seen everything here before and likely done to greater effect. The stories are also somewhat repetitive. In particular, spooky faces are used quite frequently to try and generate a scare. While the art is good, these aren't drawn in a particularly effective way in terms of trying to get the desired effect or a different way that's interesting.

If I had to point out positives, a few of the shorts end with what appears to be a little bit of humor and I actually did get a little bit of chuckle out of these. I'm unsure how many of these were intentionally trying to be funny as opposed to me just so happening to find them funny but it's something none the less. The art is good as previously mentioned, I think a few of the shorts do have the potential to be scary or at least interesting either in a different medium or as fully fleshed out stories, and the final story of Vol 3, presented more like a campfire tale, is pretty decent. Being a collection of short stories, it was also a pretty quick and easy read. If you are into horror or somewhat surreal WTFery, maybe pick it up if you see it on the cheap as this may be more up your alley than it was mine, but overall I'd say this is a "Skip."

This movie, in a lot of ways, is an examples of how cliches aren't necessarily bad. The story uses many, many cliches common to youth drama films (With a few twists and turns admittedly) but the way it uses them is very well handled and it tells it's story in a very engaging and captivating way. As someone who isn't the biggest fan of romance and teen drama I was honestly expecting to come away feeling this movie is largely being overrated but it ended up winning me over.

The 2 main leads, Taki and Mitsuha are both very likable and well written, and I think ... the voice actors did an excellent job handling the body switching element of this movie. It's somewhat subtle, but the speaking patterns and general tone to their voices shift enough to be noticeable and the VAs were able to keep it consistent between both characters. A problem some Freaky Friday plots have is that the actors fail to capture these mannerisms quite right, but when it's done well like it is here it really goes a long way.

The story is very good, but something that did bother me somewhat is that there is really no explanation for why certain things are happening, and, without getting too deep into spoilers, there is a bit of an inconsistency at the end that bothers me a bit due to this. I am, however, willing to give this work more leeway with this than I normally would as 1) it only has an hour and 47 minutes to tell it's story and the "Why?" behind it isn't so important and 2) it's story is told well enough that it makes up for it.

The animation and OST are both great. It's one of the most well animated movies I've seen in a while, with breathtaking landscapes in particular being a strong point. The music and general sound design of the movie is brilliant. This is a bit hard to get across in a review, but if you want to see an example of HOW to use a great score as opposed to just having a great score, this film is a good starting point.

Overall, I feel this film has earned it's place as one of the most beloved anime works of last year, and it really is something I think anyone should at least give a chance. I, for one, will actually try to check out the Funimation dub coming out this April since I definitely want to give it a rewatch, and while it's hard to tell how well Funi will handle it, if you are on the "Dub" side of Dubs vs Subs I strongly encourage you to do the same.

I enjoyed this anime and don't regret watching it, but am unsure if I'll remember a lot of it in a few months as it's largely carried by it's main protagonist, Mitsuhashi. Mitsuhashi is, usually, a jerk with a heart of gold, and a somewhat hyperactive one at that,. This character archetype can be rather difficult to pull off well as you a bit too often these types of characters' jerkass antics cease to be entertaining and start to become grating, but luckily Mitsuhashi doesn't fall into that. His antics, and the comedy style of the series as a whole, do start to become rather ... predictable but it's still entertaining enough. I never felt bored watching it.

His supporting cast, however, is rather bland by comparison. His best friendemy and "secondary protagonist," Itou, is cool and serves his role as the straightman to Mitsuhashi's antics well, but I didn't feel he did much of interest. The comic relief duo Imai and Tanigawa aren't too bad but Imai's antics became very predictable by the end and I also found Imai's tough idiot schtick slightly grating towards the end. The 2 female leads, Riko and Kyoko aren't bad either, but the former is a pretty standard action girl and the other is a pretty standard moral compass of sorts for Itou. This may have been intentional, as a more grounded supporting cast is likely justified so they can play of Mitsuhashi, but they all sadly feel a bit too firmly in the background.

The show has a rotating cast of antagonists throughout the series, most of which aren't too memorable. Not helping this is most of them are one-offs, so they simply don't have much a chance to make a lasting impression. I do feel one antagonist, Sagara, is an exception to this, and he is also the only one to reappear in any form beyond a cameo after his character arc. He's a pretty solid foil to Mitsuhashi, just as dirty and batshit insane but seemingly lacking the same humanity, I really would have liked to see more of him.

The story is pretty simple but told well enough. I do wish there had been more in the way of actual arcs but the largely one-off format is fine. The ending is very unfulfilling though, I suspect due to the manga it was adapting not being completed at the time the OVA ended.

On a technical level, the animation and music are pretty good by 90s standards and hasn't aged poorly or anything. The fighting scenes, in particular, still look good. The soundtrack doesn't have any tracks that really stood out to me aside from the ear worm of an ED theme that it has, which I sadly can't seem to find anywhere, but it was used well and the songs were never bad or out of place.

Overall, I'd say this is a series to watch if you have time to do so. It's nothing groundbreaking by any means but it'll likely hold your attention while you watch it and, of course, you may end up enjoying it more than I did.

A beautiful story that really hits the right buttons to make you initially dislike the protagonist before making you happy when he redeems himself. The portrayal of school bullying in this story is fairly realistic and it didn't shy away from showing that not everyone will be nice to someone just because they have a disability but also showed that when the bullies lose a target, they move onto the next. My expectations were actually subverted as I had expected the story to end very differently and more tragically but it's definitely to the story's benefit that it didn't. At just 62 pages, it's definitely ... worth the time to look at.