Oh boy, what did I just watch? [ spoilers ahead ]
I finally came around to watch Nihon Chinbotsu and I gotta say, it's one burning dumpsterfire. So much so that I just had to write my first review on MAL ever.
Normally, I enjoy Anime with more realistic art and tone, but goddamn, that was far from it.
Let's start with the art - I really dig the artstyle but the animation just isn't consistent at all. Some scenes are gorgeous and feel very fluent but most of them just look like inbetweens or like that one weird background character you spot that just looks deformed.
...
That being said, the animation was probably the second best thing about this Anime. Gotta say though, I really liked the character design. A bit more down to earth than most shows.
Next thing - the music. I was expecting a lot in this department, seeing that Kensuke Ushio worked on it. Well, the music itself wasn't bad - except for a few tracks that just felt like loops - but the placement of certain songs was just unfitting. Grim situations fell flat due to the upbeat music. And let's be real - that rap part was ultimate cringe.
The characters. In my opinion, most of them didn't have enough characteristics to even be called a character. It's what almost made me quit the Anime. Ayumu was annoying until the very end, making unreasonable choices whenever she does anything, blaming everyone around her. And I know that a lot of people will say "Oh, but she's 14, of course she needs to vent!" right about now and, yes, I fully agree, but the poorly written - and badly timed - dialogue just didn't deliver those feelings. The only scene where I somehow found her to be an appealing character was when she was in that safety boat with Go. Other than that, the best character - Koichiro - died way too early, making all the other deaths in the show fall flat in comparison. Kite was quite okay as well, but let's be honest - he was OP, especially when you pair him with completely imcompetent morons. It would've been far more enjoyable if everyone in the group had something to contribute. I mean, Go somewhat did, even though he was only 12. Go's constant English lines were getting on my nerves though, especially since the timing of the line contribution was even worse whenever a character spoke English. One of the worst character I've ever witnessed in an Anime though was Daniel. What were they even thinking? Why put a slapstick comic relief that just felt unrealistic in a show like that? I wanted to bash in my screen every time he appeared.
The story - oh boy, how could they mess it up so badly with such a great concept? I'm not going to go into detail and pick apart every last bit - because I'd have to rewatch the show to be able to do that, and trust me, I won't - but I'm going to highlight the parts that annoyed me the most.
The Anime was supossed to feel a bit more realistic and dramatic, but it all fell flat and was comedic at times where it shoudn't have been. Most of the times, I found myself laughing due to the obvious build up of a main characters death, ridiculous death scenes ( I'm looking at you, weird-weed-cult-kid! ) and overall bad timing.
The beginning was mostly fine, really, but as soon as they started killing off the characters, it became stale. I gotta give it to Koichiro though, his last words were great.
Some of the scenes - like that almost-rape scene - made sense to be in there, but were poorly executed, which ultimately made them funny - which they really shouldn't be.
The worst part by far though was that cult arc. It's where I first stopped watching for a few days due to how annoying Daniel was. How did anyone think this was a good idea? It felt like it belonged in another Anime, was scrapped there, and therefore was put in Nihon Chinbotsu, as they've already animated it and didn't want to scrap it. It really didn't fit the intended tone of the Anime.
Also, what's up with these ships? 1000 people chosen by lottery and kids with a promising future? Seriously? When there could be another earthquake any second? Y'all really wanna check passports and ID's in a situation like that and not just try to save as many people as quickly as possible?
The last few minutes just felt like a filler, obviously put there to make you cry - but that's only possible if you were able to feel any connection to the characters at all. I'm somewhat annoyed by the fact that they have put Kite in the audience and haven't made it somewhat clearer that he's still alive, as a reunion between the main characters would've felt nice and more rewarding - especially if he's so close by. It just felt like they were teasing.
All in all, if they would've made this into a movie and would've gotten rid of half the plot and could've distributed the money better for the animation, it might've been decent.
Dec 6, 2020
Nihon Chinbotsu 2020
(Anime)
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Oh boy, what did I just watch? [ spoilers ahead ]
I finally came around to watch Nihon Chinbotsu and I gotta say, it's one burning dumpsterfire. So much so that I just had to write my first review on MAL ever. Normally, I enjoy Anime with more realistic art and tone, but goddamn, that was far from it. Let's start with the art - I really dig the artstyle but the animation just isn't consistent at all. Some scenes are gorgeous and feel very fluent but most of them just look like inbetweens or like that one weird background character you spot that just looks deformed. ... |
