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Feb 16, 2024
This film made me cry. Not just tear up, but cry. Properly sob. I will endeavour to talk about this film more, but I think this has to be put up-front because it has NEVER happened to me before. I mean never. This is why I have to give it the score I've given it, because I cannot plausibly have a film hit me on an emotional level I have never experienced before and give it anything else. It hit VERY close to home for me, and I will talk a bit (as impersonally as I can) about why, but that emotional response comes above ...
Jan 21, 2024
Overtake! (Anime) add
I'm a big fan of motorsports. In this coming year, I intend to follow, to some degree of commitment or another, at least seven different racing championships. I'm a little bit obsessed. So, hearing that one of my favourite studios, Troyca, and a director as respected as Ei Aoki, were making a series based around the Formula 4 junior category, I was pretty excited. I didn't really care what the show ended up being; I barely even cared if it was good. A proper anime about single-seater racing, sign me up.

I was expecting something a bit shouneny, to be honest. Big personalities, loud, dramatic, in-your-face ...
Jan 19, 2024
Mixed Feelings
Spoiler
I can't give this season of TV lower than a 7. It just doesn't deserve it. But, while I can acknowledge all of the show's many strengths, I think this is also going to be the end of my time with 'Jujutsu Kaisen'. I think it's a worthwhile approach to reviewing to explain why.

This show looks amazing; the character designs are fantastic, the animation is nearly unparalleled (thanks, unfortunately, to the work of many animators who deserve far better treatment than they get from their employers), the direction is strong and distinctive. The characters are unique and likeable, with the villains managed to be incredibly ...
Nov 15, 2023
Hal (Anime) add
Mixed Feelings
Spoiler
Conceptually, I love everything about this film. I love the art style and animation. I love the way it trickles the worldbuilding in throughout, teasing enough about this world of robots and other sci-fi technology to make sure the audience understands what's going on, but, while this might sound strange, doesn't explain just enough that the sci-fi aspects just feel like everyday life. By not explaining it, it makes it feel like it doesn't need an explanation.
Most importantly, though, I love the base premise. I love the dynamic between the two protagonists, the titular Hal and female protagonist Kurumi. I love the way it ...
Oct 31, 2023
Tsuritama (Anime) add
Spoiler
A strong, fun story, with a compelling concept, a fun cast, and a story that plays out at a mostly nice pace and has a solidly satisfying ending. Tonally, it reminds me a little of something Mamoru Hosoda would make, with its rural setting and slightly high-concept premise, but unfortunately this comparison also leads me to what docks it points.

While it's fine for a work to be more story-driven than character-driven, the Hosoda comparisons fall apart when you realise that most of the key characters don't really learn or change all that much throughout it. The ending scene (before the post-credits addition) kind of makes ...
Oct 28, 2023
Mixed Feelings
Spoiler
The issue with a show with a bit of an out there premise is that it can be very easy for a lack of care and thought to break the audience's suspension of disbelief. 'Yuri Is My Job' is a good example of that; at least, its second half is.

I say second half because this show adapts two fairly distinct arcs from its source material, primarily focusing on two sets of characters.
In both cases, the shows makes a self-aware nod at the modern shoujo-ai canon, with its premise pulling hugely from stories like 'Maria Watches Over Us', taking its prestigious girls academy full of ...
Oct 14, 2023
Spoiler
#Note: this review should be taken as referring to all three seasons of this show - but not the film.#

I really wish I could say slightly more about this show. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did. I definitely did. It's a well put together story, incredibly sharply refined storytelling. It's well-paced. The art-style is distinctive and sharp, and the animation itself is very strong. The English dub is one of the strongest I've seen; I feel like the fourth-wall-breaking, wise-cracking take on what in Japanese is a more deadpan style of narration probably would get on some people's nerves, but ...
Sep 13, 2023
Mixed Feelings
I've never seen a film that seems so genuinely unsure about what it wants to be. To an extent, I think it mostly wants to be a dystopian science-fiction alternative to the historical fantasy of 'Princess Mononoke', and that's not a bad idea in the slightest. And it puts the pieces in motion well. Introduces enough characters to build a story around, a compelling enough mystery box of a female lead, some good world-building. But at a certain point it sort of loses track of everything, and by the end I found myself a little confused as to what it was trying to do, be, ...
Aug 30, 2023
Mixed Feelings
Like I imagine a lot of these lower budget independent projects turn out, I think this would have been better pitched as a proof of concept than it is as a more complete work. As a proof of concept, there'd be a huge amount that should convince someone to put some more budget into it. There are definitely some strong concepts in there, a pair of protagonists I'd like to learn more about, strong vocal performances (always easier to make the standout with a lower-budget piece), and a really, really nice hero mecha design.

Unfortunately, it suffers from its budget and runtime. It crams a ...
Jul 21, 2023
A manga I'd recommend to the right person, 'Inside Mari' was an interesting manga to blitz through in an afternoon. The concept is obviously strange, and at points it risks dipping into some trickier places; either through fetishisation, or simply limited understandings of some of the thematic concepts involved. For the most part, perhaps one notable scene aside, it does avoid these issues, and the story is able to breathe enough to make it generally work.

Thematically, it dips its toes into ideas of gender, but it would be difficult, oddly for the premise, to make that the focus; in fact, once it gets the ...


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