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It was something like this.
Me: "Ah, another Netlfix CGI monstrosity."
Exception credits on screen: (original design by Yoshitaka Amano)
"Oh, OK then. Imagine hiring Amano for char design and you turn them into Gamecube CGI characters though. But let's try."
- I'd obviously try, as a big Yoshitaka Amano fan.
...
Me: "This opening piano chord doesn't fool me.. expecting some cheap crap already.."
Exception credits on screen: (music by Ryuichi Sakamoto)
Me: "FINE! You won. I'd better shut up and watch before anything."

Catchy show, low framerate CGI that didn't bother me, some very interesting ideas. Seemed like a light-hearted version of claustrophobic spaceship thrillers such as Event Horizon, Alien ... etc. I definitely didn't like the ending, it was actually funny and there are some unnecessary things I will not mention (spoiler). Reccomended but not anything high-priority. Could be better, yes, but they already achieved something extraordinary by making a series in this format/platform that doesn't disappoint me.

I'd also like to mention I took at least 3 episodes to notice I was watching the english dub. I don't know if the slow square graphics help to fit the dubs in a way I can't see working in a standard anime, but it was also the first time I could watch an eng-dub anime without laughing at or getting extremely annoyed.

If you're a fan of Amano and Sakamoto, go for it. Script is from the writer of Goth manga; can't remember because I read that around 15 years ago, but was an OK manga back then.

I appreciate how Japan can deliver to mainstream some story with barely any sense. OK, I heard about Denshinbashira Elemi no Koi which portrays love between a telephone pole (!) and a 25-yea-old man, but knowing how many people is actually crying over a serious GIRL x 3-LEGGED CHAIR romance is a strange phenomena.

Ok, I'd start telling that I remember a lot of hatred over the hype of Byousoku 5 Centimeter between people I consider less golden retriever about anime, when it came out. I believe that one is definitely among his best along Your Name, since those are within the few I've accepted watching ... and had patience to finish - I've found out a lot of those turn-off pretentious anime movie trailers I've seen in netflix had to do with him.

I believe Makoto Shinkai and his fellow producers are very clever. I mean, take Voices of a Distant Star which is a bit more serious in subject, or tries to, and think about it; it's a joke. And the more fantastic he gets, more unexplained bollocks comes. It always fascinates me to see people consuming nonsense, and that's my only reason to be intrigued here. However, it's undeniable he knows how to reach the audience with the music and script, making people emotional about any unbelievable matter.

This is a Ghibli film wannabe, that relies on using tricks, same tools learned from the studio classics on visuals (the food part is extremely forced, honestly), score, etc and now, even with a few references. You can tell this movie was an expensive production, though still uses some CG support (and that breaks any real link it could have with its main influences); that thing alone is pure gamble. If your work is good enough, whatever if you use CG background here or there. Though if boring, these minor lazy details start getting on my nerves.

The main plot is meaningless and tiresome at parts, but as I said, I appreciate the surreal way things are presented, without any reason; that's a positive point, and I'm glad a lot of japanese media still fights (much probably not consciently) the current need of everything completely solved, forgettable scripts that leaves no further thinking and cutting every artistic or intelligent trace off any media to feed a generation addicted to soulless, fast here & now entertainment. Even in shonen anime, it's funny how they tend to overexplain details about their skills then leave most things unsolved by the story ending. I don't even know why/how the cat was doing all that, and if they explained any of these subjects during the 5 minutes I fell asleep, please tell me so I'll have to decrease the rating of my review.

Then you have the romantic melodrama Shinkai is known for, what a hearbreaker; there is minimum to zero development between the girl and little chair besides they are running from one dimensional doors to another for them to feel this ridiculous love. Kissing the chair and all. The family drama didn't feel fresh. Being sincere, there were some moments I thought it was funny, but nothing that made me laugh.

To summarize, it's an absurd movie that fails to look absurd, a romantic drama that you have to be much of a philosopher in heavy drugs to take anything of it but comedy, pretty colored but CGI... And I didn't even hate it that much! Watchable mediocre Ghibli wannabe.

Based on a manga written by Kajiwara Ikki, well-known for Ashita no Joe. What most western people have no idea is the fact Ikki was a revolutionary gekiga artist on writing absurd works depicting harsh reality, with poverty and cruelty on focus. I have no idea how this OVA adapted the original manga, since these rental-VHS-only releases are specially awful, but the results are such of a masterpiece of ultimately trashy anime. It starts very idiotic then gets over-the-top brutal and nihilist, without losing its cheap charm. You have a cheesy karate and yakuza plot conflicting with WW2 and italian/nazi political themes. Eventually you'll find ... suicide, abuse, racism, the exploitation of minors and natives. If you think you had enough of those themes.. well, you don't know how those are presented in here. What about an old fat grandma into BDSM creatively leading your torture, humiliation and rape, finding a way to roast you alive beyond medieval? I mean, the grandpa whipping scene is already strange enough. Now imagine this same grandma naked and tied to a boat. Can't believe I lived enough to watch a scene like that. With psychological/physical violence and shitty artwork hand in hand, the level of cheesiness x background social commentary x gross vileness is way out of balance. Top notch shitty OVA, a forgotten classic among anime nasties.
Highly reccomended for anyone else looking for media of the worst quality.

Yankee OVA with some Batman's Bane wannabe, poorly done lewd action, cheap art and music. No subs available that I'm aware of, and I don't master japanese enough to understand more than a few words here and there while not paying attention (watched it while doing something else, but was surprised by how stupid it turned out), guessing it would just look like a lower grade Shonan Junai Gumi. I remember once someone returned from a cinema session shocked by a Nicolas Cage movie where he was shooting (bullets, with a gun) everyone while having sex - have no idea what movie is that. Well, ... in this anime there is a scene the guy runs naked holding a woman sexually attached to him and hitting people who have attacked them during intercourse.. I guess the woman was dead, judging by her face, bruises and blood. After all that, he continues banging her body. Second episode looks even worse, with additional trash sleaziness and even a group sex scene. I don't think any of the dirty jokes and comedy must be funny, though looks nonsense enough. Go for it if you're looking for awful crap. Extra rating point for being more interesting than the few first volumes of One Piece I ever tried.

I thought 'duck' in japanese was アヒル (ahiru). The title is Kamo ga Suki, or 'I Like Ducks', but the question is: do YOU like ducks? Then... are you certain of your answer, whatever it was? Because I wasn't until I watch this short and reflect about the subject. Yeah, I guess I love ducks too. But sometimes we need to refrain ourselves. There are things in life. Did you know? Coffee break. I had enough of my lungs, I think I'll start smoking; there are two kind of Robinsons - and one is: "my [(only!) friend?]..."

Ice cream and The Rear Window. Fire! Stalk ... it.

What's up with all the trembling. Very colorful cartoon, congrats. Was remembering when I was young and went to the US with my father and he said "very boy!" to someone's Golden Retriever.

10/10, please don't watch it.

Having lower expectations for a title that ends being nice or simply above average is definitely something that boosts overall enjoyment. Now, when a mainstream apparently cliché show gives you enough credibility in its first part just to throw you in a slow speed treadmill, it can be an opposite extreme; the second part of Spy x Family first season was, mostly, a disappointment that tuned down my enthusiasm to a point I started noticing how problematic the series is. I'll analyze a few points about my experience, the show as a whole until now, and how it went downhill after Season 1 Part 1. ... I'll start with the music because I'll not be able to fix this paragraph anywhere when I start talking about the show, since the music didn't change any bit of my enjoyment in a positive neither negative way.

The soundtrack does its job and isn't bad at all. Alhough it might impress a younger cosplayer audience used to watch only trendy shows, it's nothing really impressive. There is jazz to follow the classic "spy" thing but nothing brilliant as Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. Feels more like a parody of popular western jazz themes such as Henry Mancini's. As for the rest, everything's very bland and only follows the scene in a way it does its job without sounding too forced, or being much attractive to someone like me who'll pay attention to every little noise from sound department; it's just passive WITHOUT PRETENTIOUSNESS, which is the key to do this kind of subtle job. It could be better, but honestly, something too grandious wouldn't fit the show; something this way feels closer to any classic hollywood spy movie, where most of them had very cheesy jazz/orchestrated songs, there were actually few songwriters that stood out and we constantly hear about from that particular film genre in its time. I mostly skipped the opening/ending songs but that's just my taste, they're well performed and nothing really bad about its songwriting. I'd say it tries to sound much western pop sometimes, though you can say the same about a lot of the japanese music from the 80s I listen to, so.. whatever.

I didn't read the manga (but I heard the manga chapters, at least in the beggining, were very closely adapted), and I rarely pay attention to more than a couple of seasonal titles, yearly. But as often happens, there is a certain trendy show I see a good number of folks outside the weeb network rating it higher and reccomending it as "no, this is good, trust me" and then, well, why not? I didn't read the manga but I know Tatsuya Endo said he was just appealing to the masses and by reading its synospsis, yeah, it doesn't sound groundbreaking at all. So when I started watching the first few episodes, it took me by surprise: the animation was good and the story/situation of secrecy between Forger family members pave the way for a good, thrilling comedy.

The characters are funnier and more likeable than it looks by reading a brief bio. In fact I really liked them and the dynamic between them. The family relationship, also Yor and Anya by themselves (Loid is far more serious) have great potential for humor, and one of the show catchiest aspects at first was their interaction together with the fast paced mix of exaggerated comedy and action, without appealing to sex and gore. And that's the main problem with Season 1 Part 2: it loses its pace, what had worked as an enjoyable weekend show felt like fillers in its second half; the main storyline was dragging and stuck, and whether they wanted to provide more insight and generate attachment between the watcher and the characters or not, whatever they intended, it didn't work.

No, the second part didn't start so terrible; it gradually descended into bullcrap. It has some decent episodes, and since the show officially assumed an episodic format with little background plotline evolution, there were good episodes here and there. But I felt like fighting to jump off quicksand, and we lost. At some point to simply watch one episode per week became a burden. There was nothing really relevant with Anya at her school, some full-episode subjects could be much shorter, the development of Loid's mission/main goal barely had any progress, and Yor's role resumes to a lady at home trying to get better at cooking while having murderous dellusions, though not funny anymore.

One thing people should have notion is: everything has a limit; different limits, and to apply its right dose can make change a joke from genial to a pain in the butt. I feel the second half of the season didn't master it well. An example is the school's principal. He is a dangerous character to play, since everytime he opens his mouth or think, he will analyze if something is ELEGANTO or not. His presence isn't as continuous but last times he appeared, perhaps because I was already bored with the show? dunno, but that elegance pun was already feeling off.

I have no idea if that happened same way in the manga, but it feels they lost balance with Part Two's episodes direction. To know I wasted my time watching they waste the series potential extremely bothered me. As I guessed it would happen, the show finally got better again during its final bunch of episodes - the tennis arc was great and gave me some hope-, serving as a counterweight to pull the hideous taste I had in mouth to a truely average score, and ready to expect another season, though this time more critical and already expecting a 4/10 or 3/10 sequel. In fact, the show's main story is far from barely creative, and its attributes are all derived from character development/relationship, and the way its possible to create funny and unique situations with its particular triangle: Yor and Loid are very different persons that don't know each other's real job - both spies respectively working to opposite sides, while Loid's adopted daughter can read people's mind (yet nobody knows that) and is the only one aware of what's really going on in that mess. There are infinite ways to drive a thrilling screenplay with that setting, and the series itself proved it. Therefore, they also could ruin the magic with bollocks that perhaps could feel less annoying if well directed, at least. What about that episode when the kids start dancing and sing around the boy, did anyone find that cute or something? Ah, give me a break, I'm not a 2 years old baby with bad taste.

When I finished watching Season 1 first half, I felt bad I couldn't rate a somehow cheesy show lower than 7, because in the end I can't deny I enjoyed the show and its characters enough. Now i feel confused after finishing the second half, because same time I didn't want to rate it below 6/10 for its nice episodes, I almost dropped the show rating it a 3/10, if in a good mood. You know what to expect, for more details read other users' reviews, just sharing my view as a memory exercise. Watch at your own risk! :D

Kuniko Tsurita was a female pioneer of gekiga, in a time/place women were underestimated even within the more avant-garde circles, and even shojo was a genre written by men, mostly. Perhaps the first to include LGBT material into 'commercial' (I'm not using the word in terms of mainstream) comics. Indeed an intriguing character. Her personality was seen as asocial and trangressive back then: she'd be the only girl to visit jazz cafes alone; she'd wear short skirts and smoke in public, visit movie theaters alone to watch porn flicks late at night in an attempt to see other women as men did. Nobody knew much ... about her and there are more rumors than a solid true description by the ones around her.

Her stories were all short-shorts. They are very experimental and often, in a way or another, puts herself as a character in it (before Crumb or anyone doing it). It's hard to describe her music with words, however they carry a very distinguished feel. Deconstructed slice-of-life? Some of her stories are just like a maze and they use a sort of dadaism as an additional tool to shuffle a linear storyline with inner experiences and philosophy in a way that, surprisingly, feels strange but natural enough, never pretentious. I must admit I didn't notice the complexity of some, at first.

There is a sense of surrealism in her manga works that I might say is among the closest thing you'll find to very early collage/avant short animated movies. Perhaps that's what made her work much different than not only other mangaka of the time, but still unique and distinct if you compare to any comic artist in global terms still today. Maybe due to the fact she was the most cultured artist from Garo and the early gekiga movement; she was an avid reader, also into cinema and japanese avant-garde theater (which I assume includes Terayama), music and visual arts. Despite the eternal lack of money, she'd find a way to buy books and hardcovered editions by her favorites. So here's a list of verified favorites according to her collection and quotes: Nikos Koundouros, Ingmar Bergman, Dürer, Käthe Kollwitz, Aubrey Beardsley, Goya, Tadanori Uokoo, Aquirax Uno, Mitsuhiro Kushida, other underground comics, Lautreamont, Sade, Le Clézio, Camus, Rimbaud, Sartre, Boris Vian, Becket, Jean Genet, Robbe-Grillet, Michel Butor, Queneau, and Louis Ferdinand Céline (apparently her #1). You might figure she got no recognition during her brief life, and Garo (where she published 95% of her works) readers constantly bashed on her stories. I believe an artist can't find his influence within his own specific media and movement, only. Take music artists for example, when they listen to a wider range of musical genres, they tend to do what they want with more precision; also when they know about other forms of art, they end having greater influences to produce something more original. Now do you think artists can make original music within a particular subgenre if they only listen to that specific thing they are producing? If so, it's an exception, because they don't have the original references and will end being a repetition of an already processed product. I'm talking music because it's the kind of art I work with everyday, but I think that applies to everything, and Tsurita is a proof that a wider knowledge, instead of closing herself to gekiga and underground comics solely, can provide a fertile environment for one to come up with something unique.

I won't say it's the best reading experience ever and the overall enjoyment will depend pretty much on yourself, but I definitely reccomend this to anyone looking for something smart and weird. Furthermore, the relevance (not historical only) of her work is undeniable.

(All the personal information was taken from the brazilian portuguese omnibus "A Tragédia da Princesa Rokunomiya", ed. Veneta, featuring all her works)

Ok, this is my honest response to the tremendous hype I noticed within a week. I grew up buried under sci-fi books, comics and such; so at some point I had an interest in the Cyberpunk original RPG franchise, though never had a chance to explore when I was still obsessed with crazy techno-paraphernalia. And I'm not a gamer or anything, I have no idea how's that Cyberpunk 2077. Before start bashing on this atrocity called Cyberpunk: EDGYrunners, I'll point some remarkable titles I'll use as basis for you to compare with and notice is not even a question of taste. I'm certain a good ... number of people who are rating this 8 or 9, within a few years, if going further into the genre or consuming more of any other media than Netflix produced and season anime, will change their minds. I'll not include who rated it 10, they're mostly the ones who'll never change and are dog-like enthusiasts about anything - in a way, I envy them.

Perhaps this anime intented to reach the kind of more hot-blooded cyberpunk fans. So I'll be realistic: there's no way to compare this to classic Ghost in The Shell or Tehxnolyze, neither a more frenetic thing like Tetsuo Iron Man or 964 Pinnochio, those are another level of depth and experimentalism, and they had a philosophical meaning, after all. Akira? Maybe, but still too deep. Cyber City Oedo and those OVAs? Perhaps some, but I'm taking in consideration something with high quality standards since folks seems to love Edgerunners visually and I don't wanna be the old prick telling some kid my old shit is better than theirs. Let's take equal to equal. Hot-blooded cyberpunk with supposed high production values that doesn't feel dated in quality or artstyle. I'll pick 3 examples.

1. Redline; a racing sci-fi anime movie, and it's an example of how you never need Legend of The Galactic Heroes plot twists level to achieve a perfect score. Funny enough, Imaishi Hiroyuki (Edgerunners' director) was in charge of the key animation. It's totally based on action sequences and catchy visuals. It's too detailed, yes it took 7 years of production, but I don't think it's an unfair comparison: Cyberpunk is a 30yo+ franchise and Netflix at this point is one of the biggest money-making factories out there while literally providing in their catalogue 10 good classic film, series and anime titles that everyone already watched then filling the 99999999 remaining slots with sufferable leftovers from the industry and cringe self-releases.

2. Mad Max: Fury Road; The oldschool 2000ad comics are perhaps the best example of GAR and testosterone-filled sci-fi, those classic series such as Strontium Dog and ABC Warriors were a showcase of detailed grotesque art, contrasting stylish and deformed characters in intelligent, very creative settings full of machines and robots. It certainly influenced a lot of old mecha anime. The closer you can get from it, visually, is the Fury Road entry in Mad Max series. It was co-written/produced by Brendan Mccarthy, an icon of avant-garde and surrealist comics, who was Peter Milligan's main partner for his sci-fi titles. So you have a filthy tone (I don't mean sexually), acid writing, well produced action and a big load of bizarre ideas and mechanical gadgets and weird characters.

3. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; Not exactly cyberpunk, I'd say, but a real hyperactive sci-fi that again, was directed/produced by Edgerunners' staff, Imaishi and Wakabayashi. TTGL and Kill la Kill are the kind of "mixed feelings" series, with its lovers and haters. I particularly loved TTGL when I first watched, it turned into a favorite. I rewatched it partially around 2014 and wasn't the best thing, but my last experience was still enjoyable enough to update the perfect rating to a 9/10 (that's still a very high score). TTGL is very exaggerated, and while now I'm not sure of its meaning and depth, I remember well how the series was well done for its time and had an entertaining development, plotwise and characterwise. It's also a good title to compare with since it was mostly hated by people who tend to take everything too seriously. It was primarily a mecha show and genre elitists had plenty of disagreements about it. I always loved mecha and never had a problem with TTGL style, and bad or not, it was artistically groundbreaking in a number of points.

OK, so knowing the staff involved in Edgerunners' production have released actual high standard shows, there's no apologies. The artwork has nothing new, it has the less appealing character design from their own staff team, and although Netlix kinda hold the hideous FULL CGI thing in this case, I can clearly see the Netflix hand ruining something more in this series. One of the highlights of Imaishi's works I've watched previously were the colors and contrast + crazy animation. Seems they even tried here, but it was a definitive failure. Everything is graphically ugly, from the opening sequence to the tiresome palette and texture of the whole environment. There are a few.. animation techniques? used at some action sequences that were different, but the complete bollocks of it all and lack of anything interesting makes it just ridiculous and useless. So it fails even as a cheap blockbuster entertainment.

The plot; there's nothing captivating. I felt sleepy, and far from it being the results of a comfortable watch. Characters are mostly shallow or over-the-top edgy. There's a single character development topic I liked at first but in the end, it doesn't save the anime. The way things work in this world isn't coherent at all. Corporations take nonsense risks. The erotic content is totally skippable, just to increase the show's mature weight, and felt like those annoying uncomely ads popping up or at the corner of your web browser. Really, from the first episode already, when it shows that porn hologram screen, like.. why that? Isn't sexy, isn't funny, and adds nothing to the show - even if they meant any social commentary, a statement on sex industry or just showing what kids were into, the emphasis and tone was wrong, so the gory/porn clips rather sounds like trash fanservice. Most futuristic stories have a decadent setting full of violence and sex, isn't hard to pick a random title with a better take on the subject. I know in real life things are random, we had many projects left undone, romances can start then left alone, etc, but that's no excuse for a shitty writing as this show. What about a pseudo outcast character with that haircut looking more like a soccer player than one of those post-apocalyptical punks. Also I honestly don't think this was gory or dark at all. I don't think you necessarily need a perfect context to portray graphic content', but the digital blood and violence here was cheap and even the cyberpunk genre in this case actually seems forced to me, as a way to feed the niche while amusing the masses, though in every aspect it was retrogressive if put beside material directed by same names; except for Netflix - i.e. it was incredibly better than Blame!'s adapation, at least in this case they didn't ruin one of the greatest atmospherical artworks with a cheap digital movie. There was no need for this anime to be done, and there's no need for you to watch it if you're not planning on literally spending free time and have nothing better to do. You can find a trillion of titles with similar premise but better. The saddest part (if it was possible to have feeling for this show) is, it had potential. I tend to exaggerate sometimes, and yes I hated Edgerunners for everything I mentioned, but I felt the storyline had potential. And don't tell me it was in the wrong hands, they could do something better than this hollow cyberpunk casket.

An interesting point of Edgerunners' is how the more accurate ideas were actually part of what makes the overall enjoyment level of it so low. Those are the music and use of technology. One thing that we can stop lying to ourselves is future = nice aesthetics and better art.

On aesthetics and technology. During the past century, people used to believe from the 2000s on the whole Earth would look like an upgraded version of Tokyo with hover machines and thousands of wires and buttons everywhere. But it actually happpened otherwise because at some point they decided technology is the less, the simplest and smaller - you don't want a giant brick phone full of pushable things but one that is just a screen and fits your pocket. This "let's make things practical" thinking was applied to an extent that generated this era of lazy IRL designs and disposable tools. We live in the future and we don't notice, because is NOT stylish as early fiction - then most of modern science fiction consequently adopted a solid monotone appearance, add that to the repetitive script and you have a list of titles all looking same. While Edgerunner's brings back the multi-gadget cyberpunk outfit, it makes it rather dull, as people live around these things. The anime screen is filled with text messages and things similar to a videogame display. In my opinion, it doesn't look good, and there's nothing brilliant or experimental about that. But the whole technology thing in this series feels more real as if reflecting its role to society, how much of it is useful or just show-off and silly.

On music. When you choose music for your movie, you need to be careful about what you wanna transmit. You can choose something for the sake of creating an atmosphere that fits the mood and links the audience to your work exactly as you feel it; or using music in a more realistic way, just playing what the characters would listen, what was the music of the specific time/place in subject. Edgerunners' music is horrrible. But it's easier to think about people in the future listening to the worst kind of reggaeton than some well composed thing or some sophisticated jazz as in Cowboy Bebop. In fact most of the idea we had for the music of the future were based in the synth/theremin and early electronic music - that would make sense for its time, you know, sounds made by MACHINES... but in popular culture, electronic music went another direction. Then there were AOR kind, hard rock and heroic cheesy punk/metal, funky pop.. We relate that to cyberpunk sometimes but only because sci-fi was huge in the 80s, and this kind of soundtrack was just another product of its own age. Whatever was the BGM and in-between music, Edgerunners OST was bad; and random! - why'd they used an indie band such as Franz Ferdinand for the OP? I actually think their couple of first records were somewhat decent, much better than most of their contemporary genre crap, though it doesn't fit the anime, and the specific OP song is terrible. I have a humor for misplaced soundtracks and odd, awful productions, but the mistakes in this show weren't funny. Anyway, other than Franz Ferdinand, the bad music made things more credible.

I know both points that 'made more sense' for me were not intended to be seen that way and is just the aftermath of my own reflection/experience. Please don't take personally my distaste for this show, if you liked it. I felt the urge to write since everyone is praising it and I have a VERY different vision (if everyone thought the same what's the point of writing and sharing thoughts, just leave a reccomendation note goddammit). I knew this show wasn't going to be great, though I decided to give a try since I currently don't have a laptop or a way to watch anime from my bedroom, but a TV with Netlix and MUBI, so I took the risk of watching some cringeworthy stuff. It's a bit of a torture, definitely not the best random pick to watch before sleep - was not too cozy to make me sleepier until actually fall asleep neither too good to lively waking me up but kept me in a sleepy limbo through hours. Other hand, it's far from unwatchable. I've seen FAR worse. It's not an atrocious crime against humanity, it served well the anime fanbase, is an overrated hype without being a 'painintheass of a hype', if you know what I mean, and I already never expect anything from a Netflix production so..

Yep, just totally skippable.

Close to what Camus called Absurdist, there is no trace of hope during this whole autobiography manga written by a Hiroshima strike survivor. Hadashi no Gen is indeed one of the heaviest pieces of all literature. Nakazawa Keiji bleeds ink from his own veins in a clearly distressed, and perhaps the most angry, dissatisfacted writing out there. Although Gen Nakaoka's life is a heavy duty, he never gave up. But what for?

One of the things I appreciate the most in any form of writing is honesty. I'm someone who always struggled with depression, and I've been through harsh moments in life. To produce and ... consume art helped me keep going. Although I'm attracted by angst and the heavily emotional, depressive, or just generally weird and avant-garde material, I can sense when something is bullshit. Some works are seen as mature by throwing up "dark" themes when they're just teenage nihilism. By circumstances, and very unfortunatelly, this manga is the best example of something REALLY dark but honest and relevant. There's no philosophers' quotes, there's no need to understand what the author means; this is it and nothing else, no explanation, just the harsh reality. Good people fighting for good causes are totally disrespected. Poverty and difficulties. Then suddenly hell on earth arrives, the devastated land turns into a freak circus of deformed zombies and corpses. If you think fellow patriots left alive would help each other, you're wrong. Everyone is distrustful and selfish, sometimes due to their own state of need during scarce times; other times is just their hostile nature.

This work is extremely existential. The writing is filled with hatred and it doesn't refrain on telling the truth. The nuclear strike was one of the top hideous acts in history, but following Gen's daily life from before the nuke and years after, we see how japanese people were also arrogant, evil, and constantly turning their back to their own kind, despising and torturing chinese and other races. Nakazawa exposes and question japanese acts such as the outrageously brutal Nanking Massacre. So we ask ourselves if history would be any different in case atomic bombs were produced and handled by some other country. In the end, is not about a national flag, but mankind - we're disgusting, and power only emphasizes what's worse in each of us. It's wrong to say something terrible is "inhuman" when cruelty is very human. At this point, it's even sad to understand there are still good people in this world.

The true, devastating script and very detailed graphic content mixed with the 60s character design creates a very unique cynical tension. Reading this hurted me much more than reading Peter Sotos when I was a teenager. It was hard to finish this, such a relief when I reached the end. Hadashi no Gen is a document that was relevant to japanese people back then to know what was happening within their own country since news or any word about the bomb was prohibited by americans at the time. I heard kids studies this manga in history lessons at school, in Japan and some other countries in Europe. And it's still relevant today, to anyone, anywhere. Unfortunatelly, the looping is endless: people everywhere sucks and won't change their ego and stupid ideas, and I'm afraid the people who needed the most to read this shocking truth will never have a chance. But well, would it change their minds? Thomas W. Feerebee, the pilot who dropped the bomb over Hiroshima, said he has no time for regrets, and when he walked the ruined lands of Hiroshima later and saw personally the radioactive results, the suffering people, death and destrutcion, he thought something with himself: "Good Job!"

First, take note this was created by Otsuka Eiji, who also did MPD Psycho. I have no idea how I'd feel about the latter nowadays, since I started reading it around 2007 and when I finished the manga circa 2016, I'd barely remember the previous part; I was much younger so I can't say it was really sick and weird or just edgy. But I liked it at the time and it surely has some weird and psychological stuff.

So.. I really never got what's the deal with all this chibi fixation. I hate 99,5% of the chibi related anime stuff I had contact with in ... my life. It's already a bad point for the anime enjoyment here. But I wouldn't watch a cheap and dusty VHS rip like this looking for something great; in fact, the fun is purely in the opposite.

The plot is completely incoherent, as you might expect of a title trying to fit so many random things into a 20 minutes OVA. It's a maho shoujo (it features the most useless sidekick of the genre, by the way) hentai about a little girl who gets a magical lipstick from an intergalactic 'salesman' pig that makes her a few years older to hit on her teenage friend's older boyfriend. You'll find a couple of (laughable) H scenes, some Megazone/Macross kind of mecha action, and a disco scene in which the lighting and colors + low quality made me briefly dizzy. There is some nice cheesy city pop music soundtrack. Gotta love the out of place soundtrack for H scenes in these OVAs - not saying that as the smooth jazz funk and psych rock from italian softcore makes more sense with the film situations. Oh, there are possibilities of the lipstick spell break and she returns to her original child body, so I don't have to tell you of how innapropriate is the ending sex scene.

Nonsense facepalm fun. Available from Kingmenu subs.