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High school girl suuuuuuper down bad for a chair goes on an adventure to kill a worm.

7/10 not enough rain.

Ok on a serious note, I'm actually surprised because after seeing what people are saying about this film online, I think I'm in the complete opposite camp. Unlike others who seem to have really liked Shinkai's previous films but find this one to be lacking, I've felt like there has been a steady decline in his films..but this one is really good. I found Your Name to be a very enjoyable film while Weathering With You was a horribly paced snoozefest. Suzume feels rock solid character ... writing wise, pacing wise (which is something I don't like about Shinkai's films in general), and storytelling wise. It's honestly from start to finish a very well written film.

I don't need to talk about the visual and sound design because of fucking course it is gorgeous; that's just to be expected this point by CoMix Studios. I will say the VAs fucking nailed it; every single one of them.

Yeah so overall, I thought Your Name was great, Weathering With You almost made me fall asleep, and Suzume was an extremely enjoyable film from start to finish. If I'm the outlier saying “fuck yeah go see this in the theater” then so be it..g....go fucking watch it already.

Enjoyment: 7.6/10
Overall: 7.8/10

Ah....TRIGGER...and Cyberpunk...two things that should...and for the most part, were awesome as fuck being smashed into each other. The setting of the Cyberpunk game, both its city and its lore/history, the visual aspect, the sounds of the weapons, the music of the game, it's all spectacular wrapped all together with the TRIGGER wrapping paper. However, as of late, the whole TRIGGER formula has, at least in my opinion, become a little stale. No not their visual and audio prowess, both of those are still fundamentally the best in anime. I mean more so that pretty much every TRIGGER product, well save for Kiznaiver and Little ... Witch Academia, start to end the same way. The beginning and middle show so much promise, usually showing us, the viewers a spectacular series of events that help mold the cast together. However, by the end of it all, it ALWAYS ends the same...some big stakes battle that, to some feels justified, and to others, feels...meh.

I sincerely loved the first 6 or so episodes of this one-off series. The characters are fantastic. The opening episode showed so much heart and really made me feel for the main characters. The rest of the cast are, in typical TRIGGER fashion, just impossible to hate. The problem is though, TRIGGER themselves. They always seem to take something so unique and just...make it end the same way over, and over, and over, and over again. Look if you watch TRIGGER to see a TRIGGER anime/film, then you'll probably just love all of this. Me though, I don't know I guess I expected something different for its ending. It thematically makes sense given what happens in the beginning and middle, it just..I wish it didn't go down that route.

TL;DR: It's a TRIGGER anime. If you want to see TRIGGER things then watch it. If you are hoping for this to be a departure from their normal story mold, it is not.

GitS: SAC is one of my favorite anime. Period. Hell I even really enjoy the finale OVA film “Solid State Society” even if it hankered back way too much to the first GitS film. After finishing this new SAC anime though...I feel like a lot of its issues could easily be brushed of if it didn't share that “SAC” branding.

It's honestly the same feelings I had with all the “Arise” stuff; not particularly amazing but was willing to see what direction the show(s)/film(s) would go in because it was an entirely new thing. To me, my experiences with the SAC entries is that it is ... distinct from the main-line films, it is distinct from Arise. This new anime feels pretty close, in my opinion, to the core values and “feel” of Arise. Sure there are some instances that make me feel like it could be a SAC themed entry, but overall the aesthetic, pacing, and how the majority of the shots are composed really make me feel like I'm watching something more akin to the “feeling” of Arise rather than SAC. That's my main complaint; I really feel like calling this a SAC entry really does the anime a serious disservice.

To get the easy point out of the way, I honestly am mostly in favor with the new look of the show. In nighttime/dark scenes, the CG looks quite good. However in more sunny-lit scenes, it can range from good to amateurish. This seems to be indicative of CG in-general though many Western studios such as Disney and Pixar have seem to have nailed how to make super lit scenes look really well done. The art style looks great, the action scenes are super fluid, and in general, the characters don't really do anything to stand out in a negative way. There are for sure some moments that look worse than they should, but they are outliers. I am 100% ok with this new direction though of course as many others will agree, I do miss the more traditional looking animation (I think SAC was mostly 2D hand drawn but I know in that era of animation for Japan digital animation was starting to be tinkered with).

The plot of the show is not necessarily bad; it's the pacing that really brings it down. I really feel like the first season meandered way too much then all of the sudden at the end, realized they needed to bring the important elements forward so that season 2 could finish things off. It felt honestly like a separate film separated from the second season which was more concise but messy with so many different ideas going on. I wouldn't be surprised if the show wasn't fully written and realized when they actually started making season 2. This show could have benefited, given if season 1 wasn't altered at all, a good 3 or more episodes to really flesh out the plot of the show. And that plot...in a lot of ways it feels like a re-hash of the “antagonist's” ideals from season 2 of SAC though with a couple important differences. Those differences though...don't matter much in the grand scheme of things; the thing that matters the most is that the overall pacing and order of key moments feels quite similar to the ending episodes of that second SAC season. Because of that, I felt a little apprehensive when watching the ending of this show. It just felt like a rehashing of so many previous ideas which really conflicts with the rest of the vibe of the show (whole new art style, animation, musical cues, ext). The ending itself is, for the most part, pretty open-ended to interpretation...but in my opinion not in a good way. It's open-ended because the show didn't do a great job setting up this ending. It's fine to let the audience interpret what they think happened but you need to not leave out so many important details in doing so. Films like “Inception” give you clues throughout the film that go hand-in-hand with an open-ended ending; giving much more context to it. This new SAC anime doesn't really give you any of these ideas leading into the ending; the ending just ends in such a way that you HAVE to decide on you own what happened. It just feels a little fragmented and not well handled.

My overall opinion of this new GitS anime is quite conflicted. If I just try to take a step back and have a more general overview of it, I do like it. There is a lot here to like. However, and again I apologize if this feels pedantic, but because this was touted as a “SAC” entry, I cannot help but feel disappointed. It doesn't at all in any way come close to the overall quality of the two SAC seasons or even the mixed reception of the SAC:SSS OVA film. This new SAC anime is worth watching, it's just severely lacking that “special sauce” that the previous SAC properties had.

Enjoyment: 6.6/10
Overall: 6.7/10

There is a stigma against fully 3D anime amongst the western anime viewing audience. To a shockingly large number of this audience, anything that is not 2D animation (or to their naivety cleverly done 3D animation that is rendered and presented in a way that looks 2D) is an “insult” to anime. I can somewhat see why they have this view due to the fact that is most situations, 3D is used as a tool of cutting corners in TV production rather than a purposeful aesthetic design choice. You see bad 3D scenes in TV anime all the time nowadays. However, to hate 3D animation ... just because it is not 2D hand drawn is, in my opinion, quite silly.

Enter Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, a show that, in some of its scenes, looks like absolute amateur dogshit while in the others, looks honestly quite amazing. Production IG continues to push their 3D agenda with this fully 3D production and I have to say, they really have made quite great strides in their endeavors. It does take a good getting used to but their character models (especially the Major's and Batou's) look quite great in 3D. Some of the others...not so much but it can be forgiven due to how great the show's lighting and camera work is.

Where the visual style of the show really takes a hit in my opinion though is in some of the daytime scenes. This is sort of the blind-spot for most 3D animated work; daytime scenes are much, much harder to make it “look right”. The abundance of light really shows all the imperfections in humanoid models and your animation game has to be fucking on-point or you'll notice jankyness much easier. However, the night scenes in this anime, honestly quite stunning. I 100% dig this new style that the show is going in (which is a relief seeing how horrid Arise looked). I will say though, I still vastly prefer the visual style of the original SAC TV show; not because it was primarily 2D animated but because a lot of the scenes had more...”umph” to the animation and poses. Also the character design seemed much more adult and the world felt more “lived-in” in that previous series.

The show itself has...issues. The pacing feels way off. More than half of the season is used to set up the reforming of Section 9 which I feel like is a major misuse of screen time. They spend so much time setting it up that once you are back in Japan, you don't even get a complete arc finished. In fact, the cliffhanger that this season ends on came so out of left field and was so unsatisfying. On top of all of that, the “deepness” that is usually associated with Ghost in the Shell seems quite lacking in this season. It honestly feels like a in-between feeling between the OG SAC and Arise which is not the worst thing in the world, but I was hoping for something much, much, much, muchhhhh more like SAC. The only saving grace of the ending of the show is that we might have a new antagonist that has the smartness and interest of the Laughing Man. However, seeing how this antagonist is part of a group that was already so easily taken down in a previous episode of the series, my fears is that the next season will just continue as-is and will just waste the character's potential.

Sound is great, actually it's fantastic. I watched this on Netflix in Dolby Atmos. Very, very, very good sound mixing. The OP is fantastic and fitting given the theme of financial ruin throughout the series. The voice actors are great though this show has a bad case of showing you characters in the background but not letting them speak. Borma is an example of this; I had thought given how much they showed him and didn't let him talk that they did not have a VA for him. He did end up saying like. 4 lines of dialogue but not until around the second to last episode. Other characters that are a staple part of Section 9 literally do not talk nor do...well anything in the series. Seriously wasted potential.

Overall this is not a bad production. I enjoyed watching most of it. It does seem like they wasted some opportunities and I have a large fear that the next season will be as...meandering as this one, but it is a very clear improvement over Arise and that is, if anything, a good place to start rebuilding this brand.

Enjoyment: 6.5/10

Overall: 6.4/10

It's honestly quite hard to be in the “middle” camp when it comes to Evangelion. It seems that you either love the original TV series and hate the Rebuild films, or you hate the original TV series and love the Rebuild films. For the longest time, I would say I fit into the first camp, loving the slow, but well paced story of the OG TV series, the well-written character development and drama, and the well-crafted hand-drawn aesthetic. Now after watching the final Rebuild film, I would have to say that I mostly stay in that first camp...but...

...I cannot deny that with these rebuild films ... (especially the 3rd and 4th films), if anything, they are a visual spectacle. People love to hate on CG in anime, and I can see why in most cases; it is almost always half-haphazardly put into anime as a time saving method, rather than an aesthetic design choice. In these rebuild films though, I really do think that the mix of CG with traditional hand-drawn style of animation is done really, really well. Like seriously, especially in this last film, there are some jaw-dropping scenes that somehow are both hectic and easy to digest which is quite hard to pull off with CG (looking at you Star Wars Prequels just throw as much shit onto the screen as possible just cus you can). Visually, I think there is no way for someone to knock this films on.

...again however...I think you are doing yourself a serious disservice whenever you go into a film thinking, “Yeah I'm just going to turn my brain off and enjoy a spectacle”. To me at least, cinema is a place where art is crafted by masters of storytelling, design, and audio prowess. In some circumstances, that level of artistry seeps into TV shows and anime (a la the first half of Game of Thrones, The Wire, The Monogatari series, Ghost in the Shell: SAC, ext). I can understand why people go into some films with this mindset, I just cannot. Call it “high standards” or whatever, I see films that demand you “turn your brain off to fully enjoy” as flawed films...and because of that...ALL the rebuild films (save the 1st one just because that one is a line-for-line retelling of some of the TV series...in a boring muted way) are flawed. They give you all this eye and ear candy to enjoy...only to fill them with salt in the middle...totally ruining the experience.

I'm sure some people out there are not at all bothered by the butchering of the character development of these characters. I'm sure people out there do not mind that with a lot of these films, the pacing is really all over the place (especiallyyyyy in this 4th film). I though, am and it really is unfortunate that such a great IP has be diluted over the years. In this 4th film, while the beginning is promising (finally taking a breath to give the character...well character development at a slow pace), it's almost wholly thrown away once “the film actually starts” (you don't see the title drop until halfway through the film) at which point the film devolves back into what made the 2nd and 3rd film so bad...just action action action for the sake of action. If you think back to the “End of Evangelion” film, that film had lots of action...but it all had a point...it had meaningful impacts on the film. When watching these Rebuild films...I cannot help but think there is action (mind you beautifully animated action) for the sake of action...rather than aiding the film's narrative.

I don't think I have the means of fully relaying my thoughts on why the Rebuild films seem hollow and hurtful to Evangelion. I apologize that this flurry of thoughts might not be cohesive enough to form a fully structured opinion. All I can say is that...the Rebuilds feel like a wasted effort. If they were not sequels to the TV series (which by this point it is obvious they are), I think they would be ok. However, they are..they attempt to carry on what was established in the TV series...and it does it quite poorly. This 4th film starts out promising...but again devolves into action action action inter-cut by a desperate attempt to rationalize an ending that feels thrown in from left field. I remain with the same opinion I had back when the first Rebuild film came out...if you really enjoy the TV series, do not watch the Rebuild films. There just isn't enough here to even risk recommending it. The TV series (along with the “End of Evangelion” film) gives you a conclusion that is...well a conclusion that has a well-tied up beginning, middle, and end. The Rebuild films just try to expand upon something that really did not need expanding, let alone 4 films worth of exploration on that endeavor.

Enjoyment: 4.2/10
Overall: 5.0/10

No spoilers here.

I cannot tell you how great it felt to have an excuse to go to the theater after being away for so long (last film I saw in the theater was Tenent and that felt like ages ago) and boy oh boy just like with uFotable's other films, it really is a treat to see this film in the theater. However...some of my initial worries ended up being quite true in the case of this film.

Before I start being a debbiedowner, I will say that I LOVE the fact that this film is 100% cannon. Too many anime films go the anime original ... route and end up having little to no importance in the grand scheme of the IP. This film however takes place just after the anime left off and continues it down the road ever so slightly. Please Japan, do this more often.

However because of that...it does feel like one realllllllllly long anime episode. Now that's not necessarily a bad thing and I think a lot of people will love that. However, for me, it felt...off. I think a lot of it came down to how the film was edited; it was edited like one of the tv episodes. A film needs to feel like a film...and when it starts to stray from that, it starts to mess with your head a little bit. There are a lot of strange cuts in the film; very abrupt scene transitions in a lot of spots but then suuuuuper drawn out scenes especially within the monologue variety. Now that's par for the course for a lot of shounen type anime (which I do group this series into in a lot of ways). However, for a film, you have the opportunity to stray a little bit from the “norms” of the tv anime. Look at “The Monogatari Series” as a perfect example of this. The “Kizu” films show that, even when drastically changing your visual and editing style for the film format, you can still make it feel like the IP (tv series). You use the realm of film to show something different and exciting.

Now I'm not saying this film looks bad or that the editing is so...”off” that the film is unwatchable. If you are a fan of the tv series, you are most likely going to love this to bits. It feels EXACTLY like the tv series. The same editing and dialogue style is in-tact (for better or for worse), the music feels right, the reliance on CG effects and animation is here (more about that soon), it feels like “Demon Slayer” through and through. Again though...I find myself a little disappointing with that. I was really hoping for something that could really blow my pants off. However, what I ended up seeing in this film was a slightly higher budget looking and sounding tv episode. There are a couple stand out scenes where the background is gorgeous and the animation is smooth and has great direction, but the vast amount of screentime here really doesn't at all look distinct over the tv series.

People are going to say that this film looks incredible. I sincerely ask you to go watch any of uFotable's latest film works especially the “Heaven's Feel” series and tell me this film looks “incredible”. When it comes to anime, since a lot of people realllllly get passionate about the series they love, I feel like people really over-sell things. This is a great looking film but again, compared to uFotable's other films, I'd say it's pretty standard really. Too much of the runtime of the film looks pretty standard and the scenes that do stand out...well stand out so much that it is almost distracting. Also, yes there is CG animation. CG animation is not always bad. However, it is VERY apparent when it is present in this film and it is quite...bad lol. The saving grace of the film is that it does look 100% like the TV series which is, at the end of the day, what is important for this film. Again, if you like the “Demon Slayer” tv series, you will like this film.

The dialogue is much in the same vain as the TV series; really over-dramatic and in a lot of scenes, cringy in my opinion. This was one of the things that really dragged down my enjoyment of the TV series. I know it is formulated in such a way because it is targeting a younger audience (I would think late teens to early 20 year olds) and yes a lot of the cast is young so it makes since they would act this way. However...idk maybe it's just me hoping we'll see the characters grow out of their immaturity traits of crying every 2 seconds over every little thing...

I mentioned the editing a little bit ago. It feels really out of place in the realm of a film. Lots of really weird cuts which ends up really hurting the pacing of the film. They take soooooo long on some scenes while really blazing through others. On top of that, there is very little build up to the final part of the film (no spoilers here). I don't know how it is in the manga but it really came out of left field and felt incredibly rushed. It's because of things like this that I really wish this whole mini arc ended up as a 3-6 episode run rather than a film. I was really hoping I would not come to that conclusion...but here were are.

In the end, if you love “Demon Slayer” you will probably enjoy this. Regardless, you pretty much have to watch the film since it is cannon. So in the end, I really do hope you enjoy the film. I had hoped that with the film, they would take some creative chances with the real of film. However, what I saw was a pretty standard execution of the “Demon Slayer” formula. It will work for the mega fans of the series and maybe some new fans trying to get into the series. However, I cannot in good faith say this is a “great” film. It really is just “ok” in my book and that's not a bad thing at all.

Overall: 6.2/10

Lupin the Third: The First is a showcase that not all anime is “anime looking”. The notion that animation has to be hand drawn for it to be “good” anime is stupid beyond belief. For many years now, there have been fully CG animation projects from Japanese studios. This just happens to be the first one that really pushes the “Pixar” levels of quality.

The film absolutely feels like a Lupin project. Lupin and his gang of thieves go to steal something. Before they are able to though, there are thwarted by Zenigata, an officer of Interpol. Little do they know that Fujiko as well as ... an unknown young female are also after the treasure. Add in literal Nazis and you have what feels like a bonified Lupin project.

As I mentioned earlier, this film looks absolutely stunning. The visuals are so crisp and detailed, the animation is so smooth (note it is of the motion blur variety in case you hate that), and the characters have so much visual personality. It is also worth noting that this film does not go overboard with visual content. In a lot of animation projects, you get the feeling that the animators just want to flood the screen full of shit because they can (Looking at you Star Wars Prequels). In this film though, there is clear direction and purpose to what is on screen. This is, in my opinion, a visual masterpiece.

On the voice acting and music side, yeah it is fucking great. Maybe I've been deceived but it sounds like to me that the full OG cast is here voicing their respective roles. They fit their on-screen counterparts perfectly. The music is also great and fitting. I will say that there were a couple scenes that really could have utilized some sort of music as they were completely silent. However, from what I can recollect, the film did a great job with the music+visual synergy.

The plot is fully a Lupin feeling thing. I will say though, it belongs in the more “wacky” Lupin plot group. Such as with the episodes of Castro in the Fujiko series, it's almost...too wacky. Plus Nazis have been the butt end of so many movie and tv plots that, at this point, it seems like a cop out to use them as the bad guys.

That all being said, the entirety of the film is a pleasure to watch. I am super glad we now have such a high quality CG anime film to point to all the fucking naysayers. I love hand drawn anime (thank god for TRIGGER). However, there is a place for CG. Yes it is mostly used as a timesaving technique, but when used correctly with proper direction, it is art as well. Seriously watch this film if you want a wacky thief filled time. If you enjoyed this, go watch the Lupin The Third: Part 4 and 5 tv series as well as the Fujiko Mine spinoff tv series. They are fantastic.

Enjoyment: 8.8/10
Overall: 8.6/10

Apparently, you have to wait until 4 episodes into a season to do a review for it. Guess the MAL staff never heard of the “3 episodes then drop” internet rule eh?

These are my thoughts after seeing the first 4 episodes. Also I think it is important to note that most of my thoughts are tied into both the entire first season and the episodes out so far in season 2. There is no gap between season 1 and 2 so it would be silly to separate season 2.

Honestly there were a lot of things that I liked about the first season of this show. ... The more notable elements such as the artwork and character designs were pretty good imo. However, the same exact issues I had with the first season seem to be overwhelmingly present in this season.

Dialogue and directing. The Dialogue is so fucking awful. It's both heavy handed trying to get easy brownie fan service points as well as too overbearing with monologue-esque scenes. It is also borderline insulting to the viewer with how much plot related things have to be pointed out through dialogue scenes. This mainly goes into the "bad" directing camp. I can say that, at the very least, there are good framing of shots and a couple good character moments so far in this season. However, the majority of how a scene plays out accompanied by the script is just so bad. Like when I notice that I'm spending almost 30% of the episode visibly cringing, it's really bad. I'm having a hard time getting myself down onto the emotional level of the characters. The show is trying to be serious but I cannot seem to give into what is going on.

Music. This plays into the bit I said in the sentence above. Along with the dialogue, the music is trying so fucking hard to make you feel the emotions that the director wants you to experience. However, what it ends up feeling like is an emotional gut punch. It's trying way too hard to sway you, the audience member. In some instances, this can work well. However in the case of this show (both seasons), it feels like, in my opinion, like the director is continuously giving me sweet candy and my stomach wants to vomit. Most of the scenes do not feel organic and meaningful due to all of these elements which in turn makes me lose interest in watching the show.

Now it's not all bad. I do think the artwork is pretty decent. The character designs in particular are just as pleasing to look at as last season. The animation is...well it doesn't seem particularly a stand out element but I'm not getting distracted by it (which honestly is an issue with so many modern anime). Also, even though I pointed out the musical elements seemed miss-used in this show, the music is pretty good as musical pieces separated from the context of the scene. Lastly there are moments here and there between certain characters that are very enjoyable to see play out. I just wish this extended to the bulk of the show and wasn't such an isolated experience.

You may think that evaluating a season 4 episodes in is harsh and I would normally agree with you. However given that this season picks directly off where the previous season left off, I cannot separate it from the first season. To me, I see Re:Zero as one continuous media. So here are my closing thoughts thus far:

The show's impact is about what I remember it as before season 2 started. I think that, while there are good moments here and there, buy and large the overall experience of the show feels way too forced and un-organic. I attribute most of this to the direction of the director(s). They have good elements to use in the show (great character designs, great VAs, good music capabilities, competent animation staff) but utilizing them to piece a story together is a huge miss imo.

I find myself chugging along with this because I'm a fan of the novel series. I feel like some of the same issues in the novel are present in the show (the dialogue mainly) but almost everything else (pacing and character interactions) seem way better and organic in the novel. I won't hold that against the show too much since they are two entirely different mediums but I do find it important to point it out.

I'll keep watching the show and update the review every 3 or so episodes. I do want to end up enjoying this show and I want it to live up to the hype that surrounds it. However at this point, it seems incredibly average which in most cases is actually worse than something being really awful.

Current Enjoyment after 4 episodes: 4.0/10

Current Overall rating after 4 episodes: 4.5/10

I apologize for the short blurt nature of this review. This film is part of a Pokemon film rewatch series I am doing with some friends.

We decided to thrown this film into our movie night because "hey lets get that really awful 3rd film in now so we say we watched it". This film is...hard to call a film. Its visual quality is on-par with a tv episode, the soundtrack/score for the film is quite simply awful, and the plot is extremely boring. The Unknown Pokemon are inherently interesting but they are used in such a way that trivializes their uniqueness.

Overall this is ... a hard pass in my opinion. The Pokemon films worth watching, to this day, in my opinion, are the first film, maybe the second, all of the "Advanced" generation films (the ones with May essentially) MINUS Jirachi the Wish Maker, and The Power of Us. Literally everything else is either very borderline average or just flat out awful. Pokemon The Movie 3 belongs with the latter.

Enjoyment: 1.5/10

Overall: 1.5/10

Rewatched this with some friends recently. This is the second feature-length Pokemon film. This film, like the first one, does have a fair share of filmatic moments, as in it actually feels like a film (which funny enough is not the case for a lot of the later Pokemon films starting in the Diamond and Pearl time frame onwards).

However, while you can chalk up a lot of the issues in the first film as "hey it was their first stab at it", there are A LOT of issues in this second film. The biggest issue I have with the film is the absolute failure ... of the villain. They try to pass him off as a bad guy for bad guy's sake (which sometimes is the best path for a film). However, he just doesn't have any stopping power. Also for large chunks of the film, he remains quite absent from the film. In a way, the three original legendary birds play the role of the chaotic evil "villains".

The pacing of the film is honestly not too bad although the intro sequence (with the villain and how Ash and company end up on "plot island") goes on a bit too long. The problem is that...there really isn't a whole lot of interesting things thrown into the film. It is literally "hey go to this island, pick up X item, go to the next island and repeat". There are also a lack of set-pieces, something that films like this need to motivate the audience.

The dialogue is quite simply, omega cringe. Like, yeah sure the target audience for this film is younger children but even then, tell me why Pixar films, for the most part, end up appealing to all audiences?

Overall, if you watch it in the right setting, it can be enjoyable. However as a film, it is quite boring. Still it is miles better than a number of the Pokemon films.

Enjoyment: 3.8/10

Overall: 4/10