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Oct 8, 2021
As a big Mamoru Hosoda fan, his new movie "Belle" signified a return to what, in my opinion, had always been the director's strongest suit. After Wolf Children's depiction of a single mother's struggles, Bakemono no Ko's story about raising a kid on a magical world and Mirai no Mirai's four-year-old protagonist's tale, Hosoda was back at directing stories about high schoolers and high school life by extension.
Belle's protagonist Suzu is a depressed 17-year-old girl that ends up hitting it huge as a mysterious singer on a virtual reality life simulator called "U". I don't want to delve too much into this, but I feel
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it might be necessary to as it does account for a huge portion of Belle's screentime. The digital hub people connect to in the movie feels very much like an afterthought. It's way too lifeless and generic, specially for a Hosoda movie. All we ever see users do while in "U" is fly through this city full of buildings and watch concerts. There's no reason 5 billion people around the world thought they couldn't miss out on this much fun. It also doesn't help that it's basically all done in CG (Crowds look Gross). At one point it even becomes difficult to understand how "U" can be accessed. Characters can be seen interacting with people in real life, then logged into "U", back and forth, it's crazy.
The other half of "Belle" is composed of the kind of slice-of-life magic patented by Hosoda. It's interesting and has some really fun cuts. I do wish it could have back some of the huge amount of time allocated to the Dragon's subplot inside "U" to develop the characters better. And that's not the only way in which the existence of the "U" harmed "Belle" as a movie. One of the merits of "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", pointed out by reviewers at the time was how it "instead of dealing with vast movements of history", chose to "concentrate in the small movements in the emotional lives of its Japanese urban high school protagonists over several days.". In Belle however, we at times have the opposite. Suzu's alter-ego becomes an ultra pop-star and the whole internet stops to check out what she's doing. Talk about egocentrism.
If you were to tell me, back in 2007, that this is what a Mamoru Hosoda feature would look like in the 2020's, I would have asked: "Who the hell's Mamoru Hosoda?". But if you were to tell that to the community instead, I honestly don't think "Belle" is what they would expect. It doesn't feel like the work of the idiosyncratic director, who prioritized believable characters and making everyday life look fun above anything else. His new movie is a modern Japanese retelling of a Disney princess' story, and it ends up being similar to a Disney movie in many ways. I still enjoyed watching it and, despite the many plot contrivances, it doesn't stop being a heartfelt and fulfilling movie that stays true to something Hosoda has always advocated for throughout his career.
"What I really want to capture are the moments that cause people to change, and also why people evolve into someone that differs from who they used to be. Those thoughts are always in my mind when I work."
So go watch it!
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 19, 2021
It's hard to believe just how much more attuned Anno and the crew were to what people and critic considered unique, quality work, back in the 1990's in comparison to 2021. How could Anno's perception of the ideal ending for his own story change so drastically 20 years after The End of Evangelion? 3.0 + 1.0 is the exact opposite of what End of Eva was, it's a broken movie. It crams together two separate stories with basically no correlation and introduces concepts like "anti-universe" and "imaginary EVA" with a straight face.
Before the first of these two stories kicks in, we are presented with
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a 12-minute or so introduction starring Mari and Ritsuko in a mission to restore the city of Paris after the "Near Third Impact". It's a really effective opening segment in my opinion. However weird it may be seeing an EVA fly through the sky destroying hundreds of enemies, when back in the day they had to divert the power of a whole country to shoot a rifle, it was still a fun action scene. When the main story started rolling, I was enjoying myself. Shinji, Asuka and Rei (a.k.a Sokkuri-san) try to resume a normal life in a rural community formed by survivors of the near-apocalypse, including Toji and Kensuke. Well, at least two of them do. Anyway, the time they spent working on the farm, while not great by NGE standards, was somewhat entertaining. I enjoyed most of Sokkuri-san's scenes, despite it feeling like utter filler, and I especially liked the place her and Shinji would meet up every day. Yes, the compliments to this movie end up having to be about petty stuff.
On its second half, Thrice Upon a Time turns into some weird version of Diebuster (2004), but with Eva characters, which obviously doesn't make any sense given the nature of both shows . And what I actually mean by "Eva characters" is "Rebuild of Eva characters". Pink-haired girl still feels completely out of place on every scene, Misato is a one-note side character, and a boring one at that, and Gendo was turned into a mindless "final boss" (maybe that was on the prefrontal cortex he lost). It was incredibly frustrating to watch the sort of plot decisions that were being made throughout this whole segment. It's endlessly dumb, overdone and streches out for way too long. As its title suggests, 3.0 + 1.0 is tied down do the same vision of Evangelion its predecessor introduced. I don't know why, after the disaster that was You Can (Not) Redo, I expected anything to be different. In a sense, maybe Thrice Upon a Time doesn't deserve to be blamed for the irrecoverable direction that was taken by Anno on the third rebuild movie, but at the same time, it doesn't make sense to me how it was so much better received than 3.0.
Approaching the two-hour mark, we see a shift in how the movie operates, and honestly I'm still not entirely sure on how to feel about this last segment. What I do know is it's not special, as many people are suggesting. Inserting scenes with some stages of production to be done, that's cool and all, even though it doesn't feel natural on a feature film. But let's be real here. Is that the most creative a team with Anno, Tsurumaki, Imaishi, Hiramatsu, Nishio, Inoue, Arai and Nishigori can get? Animation blended with live-action? Questionable use of CGI? That just makes me sad.
So these are my two cents on Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0. Cursed movie. Complete joke of a conclusion to the most iconic anime series ever. If this ends up being someone's introduction to director Hideaki Anno, I hope they can give a chance to the shows old GAINAX used to produce. That would ease the desolation I feel seeing some of these guys waste 14 years of their careers on the Rebuild movies. Thrice Upon a Time might be terrible, but NGE isn't, End of Evangelion isn't, Diebuster isn't, FLCL isn't, KareKano isn't, well, you get the point.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Sep 9, 2020
Let's get the (I think) obvious out of the way. I find Kaguya-sama really fucking funny. Its comedy is diverse, creative and fresh, and it incredibly manages to not drop the ball in any of the 30+ chapters adapted. However, there is one important asterisk that prevented me from being all on board with the show.
--------------------------RANTING ABOUT EPISODE 1--------------------------------
I despise the obnoxious concept with which the show was sold to me and that permeated one of the worst first episodes I have seen in a long time. I really think episode 1 is nothing more than a narrator yelling and characters reacting to uninsteresting and
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uncleverly thought out situations and plans. The "battle of geniuses" premise and how it was presented in episode 1 made me drop the series for almost six months before giving it another shot. That is why I was somewhat disappointed when in episode 9, having thoroughly enjoyed the show, Kaguya reverted to it and prioritized the "plan", leaving her loved one alone stuck at school with no means of coming back home. That made no sense.
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What Kaguya-sama is, for most the most part, is the cutest and funniest romantic comedy I've seen in a long time. The characters, led by the four members of the student council, Shirogane and Kaguya, the love duo, as well as Chika and Ishigami, have great synergy (I know I'm mixing up given names and family names, but that's how most people refer to the characters I think). Special praise goes to Kaguya's seiyuu Aoi Koga for the no less than legendary performance. The show also does a good job exploring the main characters growing romantic feelings for each other. And as they can't show their affection in public, Kaguya's and Shirogane's relationship ended up being a welcome change to the standard stuff we see in romances (with all the blushing, etc).
I'm willing to say this series is probably THE most effortless watch out there in anime. It's constantly fun, flows very well and uses different scenarios and characters to never get stale. The cast is endearing and Kaguya is cute in every situation imaginable.
As I was getting closer to completing Kaguya-sama I was gifted with the very rare feeling of intimacy with Kaguya and her friends. That was when I knew it did more things right than I had realized up to that point. I'm glad I didn't give up on it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 20, 2020
School Days' onset looks like what Oregairu (or any highschool love triangle) would be like if the characters were not afraid of dating and some 10 times as horny. And then it goes way, way beyond that.
There's no denying the show's relevancy, with its popularity reaching my ears long before I was as into anime as I am now. It's impossible to watch the first 2 or 3 episodes of School Days and go around saying you know anything about it. If you're looking for a decently well-made romance story (for my taste a really good
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one actually), my advice is to stop right after episode 5. It is from that point on that School Days builds its infamous reputation while also destroying any good foundations it had as an enjoyable anime for (most) watchers.
School Days is not psychological, it's dumb and it's harem. However, it is also an almost comical, but nonetheless true, subversion of the genre. Expect the unexpected and believe the unbelievable when it comes to this show's story. In my case, not unlike Another, the amount of shocking happenings on School Days latter part made it inevitably uninteresting and a chore to watch.
Even though the show's looks aren't the greatest, sort of a Haruhi clone, but not as well animated, it is completely watchable. The main character designs are good, but the side characters look way more generic, as expected. Once again, the plot continuation after episode 6 is what will make or break the anime for whoever is watching it. Just like the harem visual novel genre this adaptation spawned from, misunterstandings are the story, and in this case, those are created by simply ignoring the elephant in the room for episodes straight.
In the end School Days makes as much sense as the phrase on its cover. In the school the three guys met. Their relation had been changed in the season, and turned into three love stories. Go figure.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Aug 10, 2020
I have always been a big fan of Ghibli as movie makers. Though not exactly a critic watcher, I am a rather critic scorer. Even so, 3 Ghibli's are either 9's or 10's on my list, 2 of them by Miyazaki.
Whenever someone mentions Totoro as the perfect anime movie for kids and adults, I always think they mispelled Spirited Away or Kiki's Delivery Service. Totoro itself became Ghibli's most recognizable mascot, but using that fact as reasoning for it being a great movie that you actually loved watching is the same as saying Mickey Mouse cartoons are best in class.
I decided to rewatch My Neighbor
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Totoro in order to write most of what is in this review and the whole experience was very mixed and somewhat strange. The movie's scenes are incredibly well linked, to the point it is difficult to stop watching at any given time, however, it is almost never being actually fun to its audience, a more "mature" one in my case.
Totoro's story is... not at all striking. The main characters are... not at all striking either. There are cooler directing tricks and character interactions in Porco Rosso. There are more interesting settings in almost every Ghibli movie, both in the fantastical side and in the down-to-earth side.
I didn't laugh, I didn't get emotional, I wasn't wowed by its best moments.
My honest opinion is that My Neighbor Totoro is in fact a really important milestone for Ghibli as a studio, and 1988, the start of an escalade in movie quality that peaked with Princess Mononoke in 1997 and Spirited Away in 2001.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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