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Mar 26, 2022
I've been reading the manga, at the same pace as the anime was weekly airing.
The source material is really well adapted and respected, be it the shots or the style. There are quite a few good additions, for instance the scenes about the fictional characters who are used in the cosplay, are very interesting and more fleshy than in the manga, it helps tremendously in understanding our lovable characters’ motivations.
I think the pacing is appropriate, scenes are fast when needed, slow when it's needed. I'm thinking about a particular scene involving the male MC and his grandfather inspecting his latest doll : you would not
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see that kind of slow but important scene in most of the entirely forgettable rom-com's that are out there. Most of the story-telling qualities are already present in the manga. The anime manages not to squander them (it could happen), rather it builds on it with excellent execution in the other departments :
- the VA is great, Marin being the main attraction, great voice acting, perfect intonation and very few mistakes. Gojou dead-pan reactions are hilarious and he is a really great counterpart to Marin tempestuous personality.
- animation is HQ, sometimes it's even breathtaking. Sometimes you can see there's great attention to it when characters are speaking, their lips will be spelling the japanese words, not on every scene but on the most important ones that also are close-up shots. You’ve got to understand what is anime industry ; people have to make hard choices, and sometimes, the story just does not need to be on a Ghibli level… yes you will see some lazy framing and angles choices, to save time and money (frames showing the ceilings, the back of the characters etc.) but most of the time they manage to show something really convincing on terms of cinematography (thinking about a certain scene of a certain beach, so poetic..).
- the music is strong, you’ll remember it for a long time, as it is matching with the scenes every time, in terms of pacing and rhythm (thinking again about that beach...).
- the character development is great : we get a lot of information, via smart and funny and touching dialogues, flashbacks and important inner monologues for everyone.
- last technical aspect that wraps it all up : the directing. It is top-notch, and perfectly serves a charming and refreshing and… heart-melting romance. I must confess I've been brought to tears on multiple re-watching of the same scenes (like wtf…). I'm one of those spectators who think you can tell me pretty much whatever story you want, provided the execution is on point. Well I think the execution is as good as it gets here. Yes the story is another high-school romance, with another kinda meek male MC and a female MC who literally barges in his personal space, does some Mary Poppins tricks and turns his life upside down. Whatever guys. The alchemy is there between the characters and in the directing, which gently handled the source material to extract all of its beauty and latent sublime. The most romantic scenes are handled with SO much care, you’re gonna die time and again, before the additional poetry.
There is fanservice ; some of it is kinda excruciating and unnecessary, but in the end all the stupid stuff is utterly banished to nothingness because of the execution and the MC’s relationship. And if there is still too much skin for your prude self maybe you should consider exclusively watching woke stuff from Netflix & Co. You know Japan right? Its particular way of depicting aspiring teenagers, with their growing and unaccepted desires, which are never fully understood if not at all. Also Japan with their specific vision of male/female or in this case artist/model relationship, be it right or wrong to you, and there lies the only bit of criticism I could input that is in the boring politics zone (which is unbecoming of me, because this show is supposed to be lighthearted, goofy, and positive). If you’re taking this show from an educational point of view (which you should), it’s not gonna be entirely appropriate for our modern western country, because of what’s conveyed in terms of male/female interactions and stereotypes, and I can totally see woke people thrashing this show because of it. In a nutshell this story is a modern take on the Pygmalion and Galatea Greek mythology. Now it’s literally written in the title : Marin is a dress-up doll, so people don’t need to act surprised before this of japanese content. Also I’ve read maybe older spectators taking this show from a moral standpoint… like come on, just enjoy the humor and the emotional value and put the fanservicey stuff aside. That being said I think teenagers can benefit from this show no matter the gender stereotypes, it has very very beautiful things to teach.
Alright, if you want a second season you know what to do, get the volumes of the manga that are available to you in your region, the drawings are worth the while, also : support the authors you love.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 5, 2021
At this moment, this is actually my second attempt at watching and finishing this anime.
The MAL rating goaded me into trying this again... Unfortunately I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish even this season. I may very well be stopping at ep.19. I'm kinda annoyed.
It just has been so hard, not to literally fall asleep before this show, and I am genuinely amazed at how watchers have been enjoying it so much, when both the story and its narration are really really poor. I am gonna stay very vague and maybe not precise enough to have an impact... I could not feel anything
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for the MC, could not let myself be enthralled by anything (except some side characters).
The pacing was weird from the get go. Four episodes in, and the narration is already trying to hit us with some damn heavy shit, while allegedly deep feelings are forced upon the duo of male characters. There are some shows which succeeded in setting up these kind of relationships very quickly. It's possible. In Fruits Basket it just does not work at all, maybe because the overall tone is too much immature and shallow, with nothing really serious at stake, leading naturally to zero legitimate bonding.
The MC being such a bland character does not help at all. How the heck are we supposed to root for a dimwitted airhead, who's just gonna let people trample all over her with a cherry on top? I totally disagree with people thinking this is a stronk MC. She's meek, stupid and naive, and by far the worst aspect of this show so far. Another character I could take for comparison is the MC in Ancient Magus Bride. These are the kind of helpless princess characters I find the most boring ; I'm nothing of a rad-fem, but these stories are imbued with a very special type of sexism. We know how is japanese culture, so I always watch animes with critical distance and a grain of salt. Fruits Basket did not succeed for me, at telling me how cute and kind and stronk Tohru is supposed to be, I think because there's just no fun to it, no element of surprise, she's a perfect housewife. Great. Now what? The show fails miserably at fleshing her out, and it's not necessarily a personality issue ; "Chihayafuru" gives us a pretty similar type of MC, she's optimistic, naive, and dorky, in the end flat-out likeable, because the show knows how to make irresistible comedy out of her flaws.
The humor is severely lacking some punch. I did laugh to Ayame's antics, and Shigure's twisted mind. Apart from these two, nothing worthwhile, everything else being generic, lacking subtlety and novelty. It's weird because I could let myself enjoy easy repetitive jokes in other shows. Here the Care Bears overall mood is just killing it. Maybe I'm watching this wrong ,maybe I'm supposed to take this show only as a feel good thing. But then why all the drama and heavy stuff and useless tension? This show is actually so pretentious and first degree, while trying so hard to still be goofy.
Okay it's supposed to be a shoujo manga, well I guess this is the worst kind of shoujo? Like please don't show this stuff to your kids. In my mind, mangas are a great medium, for stories about bravery, resilience, and cunning. You want yourself or your daughter to discover a
strong role model, maybe to start thinking about human relationships, then you need a show that makes sense, about the whole array of human emotions. If the following seasons are on par with the first season, Fruits Baskets ain't gonna be this show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 27, 2020
Small review for a kinda small show but still enjoyable. Writing this mainly because it deserves to be defended, as I think there are really good aspects about this show that entirely redeem its weaker spots. I've finished it a couple hours ago. I should probably watch it a second time as it has replay value, given the multiple clues you can find in every episode.
Okay I think there's no debate as to what is wrong with Munou na Nana : the goddamn low IQ canon fodder of a character ensemble. They flat out suck, their development is terrible, we are not given time to
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really know them (they have very simplistic personalities anyway). There are a few lovers who can even die without us giving a sorry shit about it. It's near being unforgivable how weak character building is.
The crime mystery aspect of it, though being quite comprehensible and overall pretty solid technically, really suffers from the stupidity of the victims. They kinda ruin the smart stuff in this show and the author really tries hard to entertain us with some great chess-like mindgames (these get really A-grade in the manga btw). It would have been so great to have more insight in regard of all these characters who fall victim before the MC. Maybe the first episode format needed to be repeated more that once, meaning we would have been closer to every characters and their wits, before they finally checkmated by Nana-chan's. Anyway there is a major issue with the story-telling. We are emotionally tethered to people only but too late in the show. Even the first episode not being subtle enough and seeming really off from the get-go, because of the gimmicky false MC and Nana's really pushy behavior, fails to make us care about anybody. Nana's tragic past should have been introduced much sooner, maybe from the second episode, maybe only partially, bit by bit. She is the greater part of this show.
After the 13th episode, I think Nana has been successfully fleshed out, thanks to the insights we get on her flaws and her relationship with Michiru. Even with all the weak spots aforementioned Nana grows out to be a really likeable character. Following her thinking has been really interesting and the VA is doing an awesome job. Her schizogirl personality and her facial expressions helps a lot with us giving her attention and investing our emotions. Yes she starts off as being kinda deranged, but that being said, we understand quite quickly that she is maybe the sanest person on-board ; the main flaw of the story is once again the fact that the author fails quite miserably to depict the Talented as being essentially monstrous rather than retarded, Mirichu-chan being herself the exception who makes Nana's iron-will and certitudes crumble violently.
Technically you know there's not much money nor time invested in the show. It's by no mean ugly, it's simple and efficient, with details on critical scenes. Clearly the supporting characters lack a little bit of something, they have no charisma whatsoever. I think the visuals needed to be maybe darker, more mature. Concerning the sound, I feel like the music has been very discreet. Scenes with strong emotional value are accompanied with rather generic violin, so pretty forgettable. Now the ED, I've found it to be really cool and efficient, always coming in after a systematic cliffhanger. The strong aspect of the show is the voice acting, I've never felt anything was uncanny about it ; the actors did a great job in a show that is kind of an emotional roller-coaster at times, especially the MC's VA.
In the end the path from manga to anime should have been a stronger, more free adaptation, with more depth and a different storytelling. In a nutshell, more work, more characterization and whatnot's, but then I guess this would have needed a lot more episodes. I went in by curiosity, I stayed for the MC. Being a reader of the source material, I do believe there's some potential in it, things become really interesting at around chapter 50, but it's a really long way to go, as the story from the end on this first season up to there, gets kinda weird and awkward ; stuff that has low probabilities of making the cut in anime format, without an overhaul of the story-line. So I'll watch a second season sure, but I won't bet my savings on it!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 12, 2019
First things first : Please watch this. Get the season 1 & 2 and take your time to appreciate them, before coming back here and enjoying this third season, which is really starting in a most beautiful and endearing manner. I'm positive fans of this show keep on watching this because it's such a well-rounded piece of entertainment. Even the word entertainment sounds improper to describe Chihayafuru, because you're just gonna fall in love with the game which it's about (Karuta card game) and at least a couple characters.
If you're not gonna read much further, please know that it's a delicious piece of Japanese culture
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and a masterful anime, with everything you could wish for, in a manga adaptation : it's goofy in a heartwarming way (with the MC which is the goofiest of all and a couple of scenes in the first S3 episode entered my own personal anthology of goofiness). It's the definition of funny, but a genuine funniness not in a trying-hard way at all. It's of course super heartwarming because it does not forget to be frustrating and very naturalistic in the character growth department. It's not just an entertainment piece. It's the kind of stories which are gonna make you a better person, provided that you keep yourself opened enough in order for the characters to make you feel real funny inside, and let'em be a part of your persona!
Only six episodes are out at the moment I'm writing this, but to be clear and maybe hasty about it, I'm convinced everything I could think now about the show will still be valid after the S3 finale. In one hour of running time, the show accomplishes the tricky job of maintaining a good continuity in between seasons, while introducing new characters and changing up their equilibrium, in terms of sportsmanship. I can't begin to tell how much it felt like home, with this new season finally coming out after so many years (not so many but it really seemed like decades). The overall quality of the show are unchanged, maybe there is more care in the art, or maybe I am just totally biased on this judgement by my enthusiasm.
We get the same awesome voice actors team again which I never felt like there was a weakness anywhere. Unfortunately one actor passed away in between seasons which is major league sadness because he did one of the most awesome fatherly figure everyone could wish for in existence, and I could perceive the changes in the character despite all the substitute's efforts. I think the MC's voice is really fitting perfectly, she's really doing the job in an even and solid fashion, and it's not an easy task, because as the MAL page says it it's about Drama, Game, Josei, School, Slice of Life, Sports and far so FAR from being humorless even if it's not a straight casual comedy. So the shifts in tones are numerous and yes the voice team are totally managing them. A few words about the music : after three seasons, the different pieces are now engraved in my soul, for the better or the worse but I think mostly for the former. Since when the first notes of a specific music are played, oh boy, I know what's about to take place and I brace myself for it. So the music is now completely part of the vocabulary of the storytelling and the director really respected that aspect of the spectator's side or experience, in my opinion it really enhances your reception of the visual aspect of the show, maybe some people are gonna want changes and new pieces, I don't see the point in that.
The narration has always been this show's forte, and it has yet to disappoint. Every technical aspect I've been writing about are reinforcing the storytelling. To me everything is making sense, because every detail has a purpose, every sequence. For instance new flashbacks are keeping on giving us more information about our heroes' childhood ; those flashes are feeling natural and grounded in present times. Also characters are loyal to who they are, what they believe in, who they're attached to, they're growing and yet they stay the same, only stronger albeit hopelessly flawed in the most human way. Best example for this is the Taichi character, which has grown to be one of my most loved piece of fiction. Yeah, never have I experienced a moment where I told myself : huh that was a little off (okay maybe in the OVA, but c'mon, it's an OVA...). Big plus : characters don't have "plot armor". We don't get Deux Ex Machina's or super duper twists/cheats that gives us stupid happy endings or a way out of dire situations. Life is just life in this show : lose some, win some, #gitgud.
I feel like I have not given enough technical arguments and precisions in this little review, to try and convince you to watch this but that's because this show really is the best advocate it's ever gonna get. In the end it's a matter of experiencing the shear emotions maelstrom it has to offer, first hand. So please watch it, and please buy the mangas. Simple reasoning behind this and - I want to be adamant about it : this story has awesome educational value. People and younger people need the kind of role models Chihayafuru is carefully putting together, female or male (Josei, Seinen, Shoujo.. I'm not even sure these could make any sense in this case). If you got spare money, use it as a vote, and vote for Chihaya and more highly smart content and respectful for its viewers' IQ.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 4, 2019
Maybe is it still too soon to emit a judgement about this show, but well, I'm kind of bothered by how things turned out for me, watching this show. *Rant alert*
The first few episodes were very enjoyable, discovering new characters, a new world...
I immediately liked Carole, she's a strong character, she's got style and she's driven. The supporting cast is decent, and funny at times, at least they try very hard to be funny... Tuesday would be my least favorite aspect of this show, although I understand her background as well as the fact that every character needs room for growth and improvements. Now I
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have to admit I did not care one bit for the given "antagonist" of the first half of the show.
Which is why maybe the show at some point began to dangerously stall for me, in its narration, also in the way the main characters were put in weird situations that seemed a bit random and irrelevant to their core. The story after 16 ep, still does not feel as a whole, which is a terrible shame because the characters ends up drowning in that lack of direction. Like ep16 was ALL over the place. Bad aspect that repeated a lot : new supporting characters emerge and fade into nothingness, every episode, not time given for long development and character building.
This show is about music, it's supposed to be its cement. Maybe I'm totally not the right person for this show, but I thought the music really wasn't on par, with anything. When are the moments where playing music and singing really becomes a genuine token of liberty, when is it that our heroes are saved from emotional breakdowns by music? I think there's nothing strong about them playing music. And the songs in this show even sound like the absolute worst the music industry has to offer. Overly edited or autotuned voices when they're not totally stereotypical, stupid retarded lyrics, maintream melodies and lovey dovey egotistical themes. This is what you get. This show is trying to rehabilitate music, in its genuine expression, with some of the most annoying pop songs I have ever heard. And why aren't the voice actress singing the songs as well? How are you supposed to feel something for a character when there's is such a great discrepancy between her speaking voice and her singing voice? Voice actors are supposed to fully embody a character ; as a viewer such disparity annoyed the hell out of me and ruined it for me everytime there was a singing sequence. Next time just put Japanese lyrics and be done with it. Did you think everything needs to be in English to be cool or something?
I guess this show was supposed to appeal to me in a sense given how I hate the nowadays music industry blend sounds. Now come on people, the setting of your show is on Mars, like in space. Show us some sublime, some grandiose, make us feel those girls know that they are connected to something greater! With music and not cheap cringeworthy Top 50 charts teenager stuff...
The sound aspect is upsetting, compared to the big effort given to the visuals. Although I don't have much to say about it, you will see by yourself, that show gots moneyz. One detail though, at some point we get a shot where we can see Earth... in the Mars' sky... almost as big as our moon, thing that would never occur. Like from Earth the most of Mars we ever can see is like a big yellowish star, so yeah here went my suspension of disbelief.
Not sure I'm gonna finish this show. After so many episodes already, the story is getting really boring for me, seen as the music does not help one bit. Music and music industry does not offer much room for personal accomplishment, music is all about sharing. Now in terms of accomplishment everything you're gonna get in that part of our society, is gonna be granted to you by some suit, producers, critics and such. It's all about the network. Fans? Yeah the story is gonna be about two girls and their growing instagram account, awesome isn't it? I had hopes for something more, I had hope the writers would find the trick as some other show did, something about camaraderie, bonds and confrontations, forgiveness, breaking free together with music... but it seems those emotions are gonna be some of the minor things in the show, the main piece being completing their first candy pop album, I guess. Even though it could have been interesting to really see up close what's going on when one wants to craft a masterful piece of music, but nope. Nothing solid there neither, only some vague patronizing pep talk about passion here and there.
Well let's cut it short, if you want to feel what is music essentially, go watch or re-watch "Kids on the slope". You want to know what is industry and team effort (albeit in a different industry) go watch "Shirobako".
Because I feel like "Carole & Tuesday" peeps got too much money to waste and forgot to put some real heart in their show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 3, 2019
One more review to help a wee bit this anime in getting more attention because it certainly does deserve it, a lot more. I'm actually gonna speak about it kinda overall, including season two, SPOILER FREE.
Okay Chihayafuru hit me in the face with EPICNESS. As for a lot of viewers, I suspect, I would not have thought I'd be so hooked by an anime about cards and poetry. And yet I've binged this in a day and an evening.
First thing that made me stay is the MC. Jesus, finally a strong female character who can live independently from love affairs. You know it very soon
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in the series, Chihaya-chan is all about accomplishments and friendship and loyalty. Her story does not care about romance, well not much and I have to admit : it's damn refreshing and funny as well. The second season has a big negative point though, one of the new character is the polar opposite of that i.e she's all about boys and I hated her for this. Now I totally get that a story is about how a character is starting from point A to get to point B and how he's gonna grow in the process. So not necessarily that negative of a point.
The show is thusly all about the sport, Karuta. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, of course everything is gonna be thoroughly explained in the first few episodes of S1 (which are really amazing introduction/origin story, ever). But now the show keeps on being very detailed in its depiction of the matches in which our heroes are gonna clash. Big kudos to the artistic direction : the anime is pretty much on par with how Karuta matches take place in real life. The speed, the rituals, the players behaviour, everything has been studied and given the little bit of punch and grit which belong to the world of animes.
Thanks to the character building, there isn't a single moment I was bored while watching the Karuta game : you're gonna care (SO MUCH) about the people in this series, because god everyone of them has purpose, I guess this is thanks to the source author's commitment and love for the world she's been crafting with so much attention. The story takes you very close to each protagonist, may it be hero or foe, the screen changes your point of view at multiple occasions during a single match, in doing so the story leads your mind to a multitude of possible outcomes and 90% of the time, things are unpredictable. Foes never are random NPC existing only to make the story move forward, all of them have purpose, goals and background. The screen time is pretty much perfectly balanced, and I loved that no supporting character is left out to dry. Speaking of which most of them are introduced really soon in the series, reinforcing the world building really fast, seen as rivalries and friendships are going way back in each character individual path. Consequently to this, the story is going to make sense really easily for you and soon too, as you will get involved in the situations effortlessly.
Another huge plus will be the voice acting. Every character has got a very distinct vocal identity for which I guess we can thank the actors direction. As for emotions, you're gonna see a lot of tears but one nice thing is that you shouldn't be bothered by weird/bad cry-acting xD. A very charming detail : some characters like Arata one of the main, have a regional accent which is awesome to hear, and I have to say concerning Arata the voice actor/accent combo suited his character perfectly, you're gonna root for this guy solely on this detail. Also you get to hear the voice of Yagami Light/Okarin in this show (I'm partial to Hououin Kyouma :D).
Visually the show never disappointed me. It's not top notch on every sequence, but when quality is needed, quality is present. It's colorful, it never seems overly cheap even if some wide shots let us see some character drawings which could lack in precision, but nothing shocking, also I guess I'm always bearing in mind the time/budget strain now when watching an anime (thanks to Shirobako). The character design is really interesting, and the MC is absolutely lovable. Maybe Taichi is a little bit too much of a shoujo character, when compared to how other boys are depicted, but he's supposed to be the golden boy of the story, what can I say.
I did not care much for the music at first, not because it's bad, but because I was too much focused on the events and the... subtitles. On second viewing I have to say the music did not bother me because precisely, it came on point and only when needed, to support what happens onscreen and to complement the characters' emotional status. I have to say I easily let the S1 opening credit roll because the sound of it is so energetic, it's kind of a healing potion to my ears, but I guess that's because I'm totally into the MC...
In a nutshell, I really enjoyed this show which surprised me tremendously. The direction is masterful. It's smart, the characters are smart. It's got heart, the characters have got heart (SO MUCH). It cares about its material (Karuta) and maybe sources as well seen as how the story is so intense and complex. I didn't talk about the humor, maybe because the show just is not a comedy, but it's got its many funny moments, which make it into one the most well balanced show I have seen in my small anime enthusiast career. I'm done, go watch it now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 23, 2018
I got really curious about Shoujo Ai, and Bloom into you was only a couple episodes in at that time ; the score was around 7.5-ish? So I told myself what the heck let's try it, and whatever will be will be.
The show surprised me with really nice art, you can see there's some good time and money invested in the cuts and details. Great lines and amazing colors, really. After 12 episodes, the art never falters, even the visual storytelling is good, it's just like watching a Hitchcock or something, only it's an anime xD
On the contrary the main character starts off pretty badly
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in my book, as she's having pretty much the same issue as a certain auto memory doll... Yes the premises appeared to be a bit ridiculous to me, that's how I felt about it anyway, but then I'm not used to that type of anime ; eventually the first episode left me circumspect about what would only serve as pretenses for the show, and wanting to know how it was going to unravel. The main characters are burdened with relatively straightforward core issues which were of course going to clash and create a bunch of happy accidents among which the classical love triangle. By the way one interesting fact and strong point for the show : the hell with boys and men. Male characters are just left aside to dry (some are even faceless) with the exception of one that maybe could remotely have an impact on the story.
I have to admit that piece by piece the show did everything it needed to do to keep me within its reach : there's good humor supported by awesome voice acting, the rapport between the main girls builds up in intensity at a fair pace, the supporting cast is no accessory and there's no episode that feels like a filler... And of course the "shoujo ai" sides of the show seemed pretty good and convincing to me. When they happen I don't feel anything off or awkward about them, maybe because there's a lot of silence. Yes words tend to ruin things for me, because why would you use words when you can use visual story telling and faces and silence. Sometimes your viewer just do not need you to explain everything because he's just that smart. Also some things are just absurd and can't be explained with words!
There's only one episode left at the time I'm writing this. I can try and guess a couple of different conclusions, but I think I hope I'll be surprised by 'how' they're going to present the ending to us, more than 'what' is going to happen. Because the show is no crazy mindfuck, it's a piece of heartwarming animated events, don't expect something super deep and you won't be disappointed. "Bloom into you" is a focused story, well executed, not pretentious for a cent, the characters start pretty stupid, then we discover them as being wicked, weak, lost and flawed. In one word : humane.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 30, 2018
Alright, I started watching this anime because the first few episodes received some good reviews and the score was and is still high, so why not? I did not get hyped or anything though. But then slowly but surely the disappointment came through.
Over the whole serie, in terms of character arc, Chise feels really incomplete. I know we're supposed to root for her ; the show deals with very serious matters. But her development is stuck in the same pattern for quite some time, maybe well until the very end actually, to the point where she seems like she's never gonna get from place A
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to place B.
Elias is just foggy and unlikeable. We basically know nothing about him, his abilities are confusing and most 'action' sequences ends up just being some mumbo jumbo casually thrown at us without any sort of solid context. I know it's a magical world, but this 'hush hush, it's magic' thing, is not good enough.
Their relations is where the show fails the most hardly. From the get go the story gives us a complicated situation where an old dude buys a 15 year old as a slave : the show never makes the best out of it. I could not grasp any tangible tension between the two, despite the dialogues and the pretty good music and the on screen events, all tried very hard to make me understand that these two are supposed to have a strong connection, that connection was always paper thin, because the show had a lackluster script : no rooted emotion, no visual storytelling, too much words, too much of the same pattern one episode after another. Sadly it's not as if they did not know how to do it, because the OVA's were pretty good and gave me hope.
One detail that made me tick, I can't begin to describe the cringe everytime Elias lifts Chise with his arms to carry her, or just talk to her or sometimes even for no reason at all. It made no sense and I'm sorry to say, made the Chise character a very weak female lead and Elias an awkward character, the wrong not the endearing type of awkward.
I don't kow about the source material. Now this show suffers from not being able to take a straightstep towards a dominant tone for its narration. It tries to be fantasy, romance, comedy, dark, there's mystery and there's supposed to be psychological developments. Well nothing's done the right way. One interesting detail about Elias is his appetite for humans, they try to use it in his unfolding relation with Chise, but even there, the show falls flat on its back, because of bad storytelling and wrong tonality. One thing I read a lot and can't agree more is the senseless useage of weak so weak cliffhangers, which is a very serious symptom for headless chicken storytelling syndrom.
If you want the romance with a touch of magic, how about going back to Spice and Wolf. Even the currently airing show Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi feels more satisfying, even though it's very similar in terms of premises. Because this Ancient Mumbo Jumbo Fest is actually closer to the Twilight saga more than anything.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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