“A slight glimpse into the vast ocean.”
This is what this movie feels like, taking a slight glimpse into a vast ocean full of wonders awaiting you. If the gigantic ocean spanning more than one hundred episodes that is called Legend of the Galactic Heroes represented said ocean, then this particular movie would represent the shore before the galactic wave hits the viewer. It is a small, but intriguing introduction for the viewer to get a taste of what high caliber class the Anime medium could pull off. To put it simply, this movie is a touch of classy; it may not be as classy as
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Sep 15, 2019
Umi ga Kikoeru
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Have you ever experienced that feeling where the manager for your favorite sports team decides to rest the best player for an important match? The team is performing well enough to stand on their own and keep the game leveled, but nobody is there to advance the score or awe the audience with their brilliance. The players are competent enough, performing what they are supposed to perform and following the tactics to a tee, but it all feels so pointless since their work does not translate into a total victory.
This is what this movie feels like. The two biggest players in Studio Ghibli history: Hayao ... Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, are not to be found here at all, and that of course decreased immensely from the quality of this film. So, what is this film even about? It is essentially a mundane premise about love and romance between two students. Knowing Isao Takahata, he managed to turn a mundane concept similar to this one into one of the greatest Anime movies ever made - Only Yesterday. Here, Takahata is nowhere to be found so that he can show us his magical directing, which is why a trivial concept such as high school love turned out to be such a disappointing product at the end of the day. Without Takahata’s directing to save the day, there isn’t much merit to this film at all. Similarly, the concept of this film needed Miyazaki. His brain is imaginative, he creates some of the most imaginative, fantastical and surreal works ever put to the animation medium, and he would have created a movie that would be remembered for years to come and given endless amounts of praise if he were to take full control of the direction and script of this movie. Alas, he weren’t to be found here, which is why this movie is such a trivial work in the first place. You might be wondering why I keep regurgitating the same points about Miyazaki and Takahata over and over again, and never go into plot specifics regarding this film. Well, there really isn’t anything to talk about in this film. The concept is a mundane high school romance story and the execution, while being “realistic”, falls flat in direction. No matter how hard I try, I can’t come up with anything out of thin air to say about this film or describe it. It is mundane, it is trivial, and it is boring. It neither does anything new nor does it do said thing excellently, even when it isn’t offensively bad. To it’s credit, the movie is not of excruciating length, as it clocks in at about an hour and ten minutes, which is not much considering some lengthy titles Ghibli has pumped out over the years. The animation and the audiovisuals are good and are the typical Ghibli animations you would find anywhere in their discography. The soundtrack is good as well, especially the background Hawaiian music they chose for the lobby and money exchange scenes. Everything regarding the technicalities aspect is good and isn't offensive or anything. Overall, I can’t say that this movie was bad. The characters were not archetypes, as they went through change and character development, even if those developments weren’t the greatest. The plot is not offensively bad or poorly written, and the audiovisuals, while not completely standing out from anything else, were good enough for the typical Ghibli film. However, even when it had factors working for it, those factors were not enough to make it excel in what it did. The movie is average and trivial, and thus should not be given praise or a positive score.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 14, 2019
Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
(Anime)
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Recommended
Legend of the Galactic Heroes feels like reading a book.
I won’t sing LoGH any praises and call it the undisputed crème de la crème of the Anime medium, nor will I go ahead and call it a terrible experience simply because it felt nauseating during times. LoGH is good, but if you are expecting anything entertaining to come out of it, then please don’t watch it. This Anime barely has any action or plot twists of that sort, and while the occasional “surprising” death appears here and there, it barely makes up a percentage of the huge catalog of episodes this Anime contains. From ... this introductory paragraph alone, one would guess that LoGH has several strong points to it, but also has weak points as well that people seem to overlook most of the time. The strongest point regarding Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and the element which elevates it above many others, is that it takes itself seriously and sticks to it. It never sacrifices logic for entertainment of the audience, and it never falters or has any plot holes or plot conveniences. The characters may speak in gibberish mary sue dialogues at times, but one has to take into consideration that these characters are appointed generals and admirals at the end of the day, they know what they are doing and what they want to achieve, so it only feels natural for experienced admirals to know what their work job is. As for the complaints regarding the characters being “stock”, it is only logical for them to not express many emotions, as the emotional catharsis and the over the top reactions were not the thing this OVA was striving for. This Anime was trying to be as serious and as realistic as humanly possible at the end of the day, so it had to stick to a hackneyed feel with these characters. Would a politician act the same way a teenager acts when faced with a grand political situation? No. This is what Legend of the Galactic Heroes was striving for with it’s stoic characters, especially is the case with a character called Paul Von Oberstein. Oberstein’s whole purpose was to act cold, calm and collected, due to the fact that he wanted to achieve his end goal instead of letting his emotions get the best of him, it was only natural for him to act this way at the end of the day. These characters are not stock, nor are they underdeveloped or stoic, as they never needed to be developed more than they already were in the first place, and I feel that this is what people are missing when talking about them. Achieving realism in a story is a hard monument to achieve, especially with the fact that these characters never needed to express staggering amounts of depth or emotion, but LoGH does it well enough. As much as people like to complain about the stock characters and the lack of emotion in this franchise, not all LoGH characters go with that trope, as there are some exceptions for characters who exhibit some form of emotion and feel more human than the Galactic Empire, those characters being the entirety of the Free Planets Alliance. The Free Planets Alliance are the side who battle it out with the Galactic Empire for the entirety of the Anime. From the Free Planets Alliance, Julian is explored and develops, as is Yang, Frederica, Mashengo, Schenkopp and some others as well. This makes the contrast between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance feel much more organic than it already is, as it shows how strict the Galactic Empire is in comparison to the Free Planets Alliance, who live by loose ideals. The Free Planets Alliance’s loose ideals are all the more supported by Yang Wenli’s loose attitude and his lack of formality, from the way he sits to the way he scratches his head and speaks ill of himself. Another strong point which Galactic Heroes has, is that it is an intriguing work. Both of the political sides, the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, are so charming and full of potential, filled with many unique looking characters who exhibit many memorable actions, to the point where it becomes apparent that the viewer wants - no - needs to see a side win the whole war. Galactic Heroes intrigues the viewer to finish the story, regardless of it’s very long run and the other flaws it contains. When the Anime starts to show a death or two during the beginning, it lures the viewer in with the bait, and the viewer becomes attached to said bait, wanting to see more characters die, or wanting to see a side finally end the whole war and achieve victory, even when that takes a considerable amount of time for them to do so. As for the weakest part regarding this Anime, it is the fact that it is excruciatingly slow and overly analytical. There are some episodes, which could have been easily skipped and summarized in one to two sentences only, such as the historical episodes which show the previous tyrannical ruler of the Galactic Empire, or the episodes where they show Reinhard’s internal monologues with himself and him reminiscing over a dead loved one. These episodes or certain moments could have been skipped, skimmed or just not been repeated, since they are unnecessary to the grand scheme of things. One would argue that Reinhard’s inner monologues were necessary for Reinhard’s character to grow in the eyes of the audience. That is true, but those same inner monologues could have used some padding out, as the Anime repeats this melodramatic sequence several times throughout it’s run, which turns it rather trite. I mentioned earlier that some fans do complain about the characters being mary sues, and how they aren’t really mary sues due to their position and experience. What I didn’t mention is the fact that the LoGH characters speak in pretense and in quotes that come out of thin air, which in turn borders them on being mary sues. So, in essence, the LoGH characters are not really mary sues, but they can act as such at times throughout the series. For example, a character from the Galactic Empire will bring up a quote such as “A mouse cannot live amongst a lion no matter how hard he tried” in relation to a betrayal that happened within the Empire. Some quotes that are famous as well are “Don’t speak the human language when you’re but mere pigs”, “Once the lid falls off, the boiling soup will spill over and all that’ll be left will be chaos” and “Those Isehorn stray dogs must have barked for so long they thought they became wolves.” I do admit that they are cleverly implemented quotes, but they make the characters much less believable, leaning on unrealistic. The characters feel less like generals and admirals thanks to these quotes, and more like philosophers or professors, which isn’t what they are supposed to be. The third flaw that Galactic Heroes suffers from is the slow pacing and the incomprehensible amounts of dialogue littered throughout it’s long one hundred and ten episode run. There is barely any action as I have stated above, as most of the Anime focuses on dialogue rather than movement, and that takes a lot of exertion and focus on the viewer’s behalf. You can’t skip a moment during Galactic Heroes because of the colossal amounts of dialogue and info dumps it contains, as every moment is crucial to the grand scheme of things. The unnecessarily slow pacing does not make the info dumps fare any better, turning it into a chore to watch for some, rather than something one watches for enjoyment. It is a logical show, not one made for entertainment. An example of this would be a battle sequence taking up more than several episodes to commence and end, and the admirals taking their sweet time in explaining what their strategies and ways to win are, and all of this could have been done in just one episode, rather than being stretched over to three episodes just to make it as realistic as possible. To Galactic Heroes’ credit though, it was striving for a more realistic approach rather than the over the top war story, and it certainly succeeded in what it wanted to achieve, and felt that way at the end. The fourth and final flaw which Galactic Heroes suffers from is religion, or rather it’s portrayal of religion and religious men. Galactic Heroes tries to paint religion as something that is evil for the sake of being evil, and it tries to make the viewer believe that religion is the sole reason for why wars occur in the first place. This makes it’s portrayal of religion look rather inane, and it goes against what Galactic Heroes was striving for in the first place. Some viewers and hardcore fans who have went deep into this issue have pointed out the fact that Galactic Heroes only portrayed the religious leaders as the ones who wanted to cause wars and bring destruction, and that it wasn’t religion’s fault. That would be giving Yoshiki Tanaka, the original writer for Galactic Heroes, way too much credit. The way religion is presented in this show is atrocious to say the least, especially in comparison to what the series excelled in at the end of the day. It makes matters even worse that the non-religious characters act more competently than their religious counterparts. For example, the admirals of the Galactic Empire object to some of the things that the Kaiser has to say and to some of his orders, whereas the followers of the Bishop blindly follow his commands until the very end of the series. It does not work like that. Mentioning other flaws that many picky viewers have pointed out such as the two dimensional plane battles would be pointless since everyone has mentioned them already. It is also apparent that many viewers have picked up on the similarities between this and George Lucas’ Star Wars, and some have called out LoGH’s narrative as being wasted potential. Mentioning these points would be pointless, since they have already been mentioned to death. Also, just because there is a story about a war that takes place in space, does not make that story a Star Wars rip-off. Now that we are done with all the ups and downs this series has, let us get into the technicalities part of the Anime. The audiovisuals are half-memorable. When I say half-memorable, I am only referring to the musical part of the technicalities, and not to the animation part. The music is of course, you guessed it, well known classical music and orchestral pieces. From Beethoven to Mozart to Chopin, every classical piece is included. It is a treat to listen to the soundtrack of this Anime, especially due to the fact that the orchestral pieces fit in perfectly with the scenes that they are placed in. The openings are much better than the soundtrack part as well, especially is the case with the memorable second opening. As for the animation, it is flappy and inconsistent as well, but that really isn’t something the producers had control over at the end of the day. It is old, and it should be excused as such, and even when there were better produced works at the time, those works were rather short and needed the high budget due to the action they contained. Galactic Heroes is a dialogue heavy series, it doesn’t have any action, so it doesn’t need a high budget. When Galactic Heroes showcases action scenes, the animation alone becomes strong enough to carry the gore and those scenes. The strongest aspect though, when it comes to LoGH’s technicalities, is none other than the facial features and the way both the characters and the ships are drawn in. The characters look human, from the realistic hair colors that the producers chose, to the realistic facial features and expressions that the characters exhibit, and it helps with the serious tone that the OVA was striving for. Legend of the Galactic Heroes, at the end of the day, as I have stated in my introductory statement, feels more like a book rather than an Anime. It is inflated with many details and contains way too much dialogue for it’s own good. On a positive side though, this helps the Anime achieve the sense of realism that it was striving for, but on the negative side, it makes it boring to watch for those who are unwilling to go through the mental torture of reading twenty minutes of dialogue spanning over a hundred and ten episodes. I can see why many people would sing praises to Galactic Heroes as being a bold masterpiece, and I can see where others are coming from when they would call it average or even give it fairly low ratings. It has many positives, but also has negatives that some people tend to overlook. As for me? Galactic Heroes feels like the epitome of a passion project. It struggled with gaining fame, it struggled with studio switches and many more issues, yet the producers gave it their all to producing a hundred and ten episodes of the highest caliber they could produce. Is it perfect? No, but it does deserve some of the praise it receives, regardless of the flaws it contains.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 13, 2019
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho
(Anime)
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Recommended
--- This review spoils the entirety of Yu Yu Hakusho, and is advised to be read after completion of the series ---
I am astounded and equally appalled by the amount of idiocy and ignorance in some of the reviews for Yu Yu Hakusho, as it boggles the mind how some of them are even considered valid criticisms of the series in the first place. As you can already tell, this review won’t be a professional one, more so than a rant on the amount of hate this absolutely legendary franchise has garnered over the years. This also will serve as a refutation on the invalid ... and fallacious “criticisms” the franchise has received over the years as well, meaning that this won’t be a review discussing the show more so than it being a refutation against the undeserved hate the show has received. To put it bluntly, Yu Yu Hakusho has to be the most unfairly hated on Anime of all time. It is labeled as an old, unwatchable work by the casuals who hype up everything new and despise everything that came out before the 2000's. It is also a work which receives a lot of hate from the elitists, the same kind of elitists who place the same ten shows in their Anime favorites lists and think that they are cultured because of it. “Oh how I love thee, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Oh how I love thee, Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Oh how I despise thee, typical battle shonen trash, with the exception of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Hunter x Hunter of course.” They say, while throwing around fallacies with no backing evidence. I am beginning to stir away from the main point, so let us begin with the fallacies and my refutations to said fallacies before I stir away even further: 1.“Yu Yu Hakusho has no good villains. The main antagonist of the Dark Tournament arc is nothing more than a brute who receives no real character development.” This is inherently false. Yu Yu Hakusho has two main villains in the franchise: Toguro and Sensui, who are the central villains of the arcs they encompass. Toguro is a villain who receives development from the moment he is introduced up until the moment where he is finally beaten. Toguro is also a great subversion of all the other battle shonen villains, because he is beaten through his own will rather than being beaten through the power of friendship which most battle shonen use as a cheap way to progress the plot. His relationship with Genkai is developed thoroughly, and this makes him feel like a real character rather than some obstacle the main characters have to overcome in order to move on to the next obstacle. He is made all the more human when his dark past is shown, and even more so when the viewer starts to question if he is really evil or not. When a character does that, are they really the typical battle shonen villain? Are they one dimensional? Or is the viewer who is criticizing the show nitpicking at straws just to attack the series? You be the judge of that, because anyone can see that Toguro is a well-developed character. This refutation also applies to Sensui as well, as both he and Toguro are developed and get the same fallacies thrown at them over and over again, with no concrete evidence to back said fallacies up. The amount of hypocrisy these pseudo intellectuals adhere to is unbelievable! You mean to tell me that Father from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is a well-developed villain, whereas Younger Toguro from Yu Yu Hakusho is not? These people must be so far up their cranium to not see the obvious hypocrisy in what they say. 2. “Yu Yu Hakusho is a formulaic battle shonen, especially the first arc which is the Spirit Detective arc.” How can these people say that Yu Yu Hakusho is formulaic, especially the Spirit Detective arc, when they also contradict themselves in the same sentence and go on to say that the arc was needed to establish two of the central characters, Hiei and Kurama? No arc in Yu Yu Hakusho is formulaic, since the show develops it’s characters all the while moving the plot forward with each ongoing arc in the story. It would be illogical to start an Anime with the central thrust revealed to the viewer immediately, rather than developing it’s leads first and giving the viewers an insight into the world of the Anime. This is exactly what the spirit detective arc does: it introduces the characters, introduces the world, and introduces the concept so that the viewers can familiarize with what they are seeing. It does it well enough and also advances the story smoothly into the next arc. It would be illogical for tension to arise from the very first episode, and the spirit detective arc avoids that issue while introducing characters and developing them. As for the other arcs, while they border on some battles that were not entirely important to the main narrative, they still serve to progress the plot and develop the characters. The Dark Tournament arc was necessary to progress Toguro’s, Genkai’s, Kurama’s, Hiei’s and Kuwabara’s character arcs, all the while developing Yusuke and Keiko’s relationship and introducing new characters such as Gin as well. The next arc was all about developing the main villain, revealing more about the demon realm and the lore of the Hakusho universe, and finally closing in on Yusuke’s character, where his relationship with Keiko would come to fruition and he would meet his father and mature from a troublemaker into a person who is more responsible. The very last arc gives a final clause to the whole Anime: from the lore, to developing Yusuke and Keiko’s relationship, to developing the other characters, and so on and so forth. How is Yu Yu Hakusho a formaluic shonen where the plot barely progresses, when the plot does in fact progress and the characters are constantly developing? It makes zero sense what these people claim. 3. “The main characters are unsympathetic and slow-witted tough guys.” Again, this is wrong and the Anime proves it. A tough guy would be someone along the lines of a Jojo character, Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken, a Dragon Ball character, or any other meathead you could find from any other battle shonen out there. By this same logic, every battle shonen character has to be a dull witted buffoon, right? Even when the central characters go to school, unlike most samurais and ninjas which plague the genre, people still proclaim that they are dull-witted tough guys. For argument’s sake, let us suppose that the four central characters from Yu Yu Hakusho are dull-witted tough guys. Ok, what is so bad about that? Are they one dimensional? Are they underdeveloped? Clearly not, since the Anime develops them thoroughly throughout the course of it’s run. The central characters are neither slow-witted nor are they though guys, and even if they are, they achieve what most other battle shonen characters fail to achieve: Character development. Now to refute said argument, Hiei is a character who was abandoned and was shamed throughout the entirety of his life. Due to this, it only makes sense for his character to be a tough guy who lacks any form of emotion. Even then, he still does show some sympathy and emotion when talking about his sister, Yukina, as he still wants to protect her from all of the harm in the world. He not only does have very valid reasons as to why he is the way he is, but he is also sympathetic and far from the usual archetypical tough guy one would see in a battle shonen. Yusuke and Kurama grew up in neighborhoods which were filled with crime. Yusuke had been abandoned by his father and his mother had been an alcoholic for years, so it only makes sense for him to turn out the way he did. He was also hated on and ridiculed by some of his teachers, so it is not that hard to see why he puts a tough guy act on. It’s also an act, and he isn’t really a tough guy so to speak. As for Kurama, he isn’t a tough guy at all, far from it actually. 4. “Yu Yu Hakusho has no tough female leads, only tough male leads.” Yu Yu Hakusho was the first battle shonen to introduce strong female leads, which to this day barely any battle shonen does. Genkai is one of the toughest female characters one could find in a battle shonen. Mukuro is a girl as well, and she is stated to be the second toughest demon king in the franchise, and the second toughest character in the franchise overall, if not arguably the toughest. She beats up S rank demons fairly easily during the last arc, and comes close to winning the entire tournament all by herself. If this is not equal representation of males and females, then I really do not know what is. Of all the battle shonen one would pick on, people choose Yu Yu Hakusho to rant about the inequality between male and female characters. Even the females who exhibit no battle power whatsoever are still developed throughout the course of the Anime’s run, such is the case with Keiko and Botan, who are given time to develop and entire episodes dedicated to them. Other fallacies people like to throw at Yu Yu Hakusho include it having too much plot armor and convenience at times, and that the audiovisuals have not aged well at all. Aside from the latter, which is an entirely subjective critique and does not matter at all when discussing factors which are truly important such as narrative and characters, Yu Yu Hakusho barely suffers from the issue of plot armor. Keep in mind that these people who accuse Yu Yu Hakusho of having plot convenience are the same people who think that the original Rurouni Kenshin is a good Anime, the one where Shishio is defeated by the power of plot armor and the one where Himura Kenshin pulls a victory right out of his pocket every time he needs to win a battle, even against foes who are shown to be able to outclass him at first. Yu Yu Hakusho has no plot armor whatsoever. The reason Yusuke beats Toguro is because Toguro wanted for that to happen so that he could find someone worthy enough and fulfill his wish of death and end his suffering, not because Yusuke magically became stronger through the power of plot convenience. Other cast members are shown to lose at times throughout the tournament’s run, and that shows that the series does not reek of plot armor. Similarly, Sensui is defeated by Yusuke because Yusuke’s father, the demon king Raisen, willed that to happen, not because Yusuke magically became stronger due to plot armor. Moving on to the final arc, Yusuke is expected to win the battle against Yomi, especially after he had gained so many abilities and increased both his power and his abilities along the way. The series subverts audience expectations by showing Yomi winning and Yusuke losing, even though Yusuke had gained a lot of strength prior to that throughout the Anime’s run. How are any of the examples listed above plot armor? These are the opposite of plot armor. The last and final point people like to bring up about Yu Yu Hakusho is that it suffers from power creep, unlike it’s successor Hunter x Hunter. Rarely is this statement made, but let us address it nonetheless. Yu Yu Hakusho started to suffer from the power creep issue around the end of the third arc - the Chapter Black arc - where Yusuke defeated Sensui after a hard fought battle through his awoken demon form. The writer fortunately enough ended the series at it’s high note, and the power creep ended just as it had fairly started, and Yusuke did not end up becoming the strongest character at the end of the day (Even though it was logical for him to be, since he is Raizen’s son and shares the same blood with him). The lore was fully explored by then, and the series did not need to introduce any more villains since the narrative ended there, and the epitome of power was shown. Some like to say that it wasn’t Togashi’s intention to end the series there, as he only ended it due to time constraints and pressure from Shonen Jump magazine. Regardless of the validity of that statement, the fact still remains that he ended it there, right when the power creep started to show itself. After addressing all the fallacies thrown at Yu Yu Hakusho, I still cannot find one criticism which I think holds any validity to it. Moreover, the amount of hypocrisy coming from those who criticize it is unfathomable. The same people who call the villains one dimensional are the same people who like Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, which contains one of the weakest villains to ever come out of the Anime medium, Father. The same people also criticize it for having plot armor yet find no contentions with Rurouni Kenshin’s plot armor and conveniences whatsoever. Regarding the audiovisuals, they have aged well and I do not see any problem whatsoever in them. One listen to “Struggle of Sadness” should prove that the soundtrack is inherently well made and is still a great listen. The animation was consistent throughout all of the episodes, and has barely aged whatsoever. That’s all I have to say about Yu Yu Hakusho. It is a series which deserves more recognition, as it is one of the very few good battle shonen out there, and all the fallacies both the elitists and the casuals throw at it are not real criticisms, more so than they are nitpicks with no evidence to be backed up with. Yu Yu Hakusho was and still is ahead of it’s time, both in narrative and in technicalities. It inspired many series which were to later come after it, such as Naruto and Bleach, and it does not deserve the harsh treatment that it receives nowadays.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 12, 2019
Oyayubi Hime Monogatari
(Anime)
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The eternal dilemma which is always brought up infront of Anime and cartoon lovers, by those who are close minded is “These animations are for children, not for grownups.” As a result, you find a lot of Anime lovers resorting to Anime with evident superficial markings so that they could prove that Anime is not in actuality for children. Some examples of superficial markings is the presence of violence, blood, fatal injuries, or sexual intercourse. This way of looking at things is not accurate, because some Anime on the outset - such as Deadman Wonderland – look like they contain a lot of blood, gore
...
and violence, but their storytelling in general is unoriginal, weak, and most importantly, immature. The Anime Thumbelina: A Magical Story, on the outset, looks very childish and is made for kids, and it lacks any semblance of violence or gore. The surprising thing is that this Anime is more suitable for adults than, let’s say, an Anime that actually entails all kinds of violence in it. So, what is the general rule that is applied to knowing precisely if a work is for children or for adults? Hopefully after describing this Anime, you’ll get a better view.
The story is an adaption of the novel by writer Hanz Anderson, by the same name of Thumbelina, and it talks about a princess who is the size of a thumb, who comes out of a flower and faces many who would like her hand at marriage, until she settles in a true and loving relationship. The Anime adapts this in a light manner, and tells the story from a different angle. The main girl, Mia, is a normal human girl, who makes her mother exhausted due to her bad demeanor and shady shenanigans. Due to this trouble that Mia is causing, her mother seeks the advice of an old woman so that she could help her out with her issues. The old woman gives the mother a book by the name of Thumbelina, and the mother takes it before she falls asleep on her rocking chair, and is later picked up by Mia. Unfortunately for Mia, the book imprisons and traps her in it’s fantasy world, and from there on, Mia tries to return to her own world and her mother, and her true size as well, since she became much smaller upon entering the fantasy world. In that book, she will face a lot of enemies and circumstances, and form a lot of friendships as well in each passing episode. This is the body structure of the story, it is classic, and is ready to be filled with well-developed characters and a strong narrative. The script is very well done in the sequence of events and the speed at which they take place in, is intelligent in showing the necessary details. The writer is proficient at writing the script, and he respects the mind of the viewer. The Anime’s beginning is straightforward and spectacular, where the viewer gets to know the titular character Mya and the general goal of the story in a clear manner, and it contributes to sculpting a road for the writer to take later on in the story. The Anime is episodic, and each episode is different from the other, but they are all related in the fact that they have the general goal of adventure. Due to this, some episodes will turn out excellent while some others will turn out to be fairly average, and with that I find that the average mean score for all the episodes is fairly good. The main characters which are reoccurring in most of the episodes have a lightweight depth and are easy to understand, but they are still fairly developed, and that is something which makes it easier for the younger viewers to follow the story and understand the events that are taking place, while the older viewers are not deprived of any depth in the story as well. The most beautiful aspect of the story is that the development of the main characters, and that of the heroine are very concrete, and it begins to show more and more in a logical and natural way over time, and this is a professional achievement when it comes to storytelling. The secondary characters, or the guests of each episode, are complete in their compositions and are fairly developed. The ending is intact and beautiful, although being normal, and it was in dire need of a touch of brilliant directing to make it better, not better writing. There are some light negative points in weaving certain events and reaching their significance, and a lack of excellence in some episodes, and this deprives the storytelling in this Anime from reaching the highest level of writing, but does not deprive it from achieving a high quality nonetheless. All of the camera angles and movements have a significant meaning, and they contribute to the narration and making the Anime more exciting. The visual backgrounds throughout the Anime’s run are beautiful and very well done from a technical standpoint, and are filled with important details, to the point where they reflect on the personality of the characters that live in them, giving off a deep backstory for them, and contributing to making the story highly credible. The drawing of the movements and the characters maintain their quality throughout the Anime’s run, as most of the episodes contain incredible drawings and visuals, and there are episodes which are even greater, especially when those episodes become plot driven in a big way. The character design is imaginative and brilliant, even the secondary minor characters look unique in their own way, since each design reflects on the personality and traits of a character in a correct manner, without the need to make them look as outlandish as possible. The color palette is brilliant, especially when it comes to creating indoor lightning and mixing it in a way that comforts the eye and contributes on making the events more focused. The sound effects are also brilliant, as well as the music, which is harmonious with the events of the story and effectively contribute to aggregation and integration. All in all, this is an Anime that walks a fine line when it comes to writing, creative in showcasing it’s themes and has some of the best pacing in Anime. The characters are all well developed and lovable, appropriate for both young and old audiences. As for the old person, who suffers from the eternal dilemma of Anime being a children’s medium, this one proves otherwise. Don’t let the outer design of something fool you, rather let the essence of something be the most important. Plenty of times do we see something that looks like it was made for adults, but is in fact contextualized for a young audience of little experience in life, and plenty of times do we see a work that looks like it was made for a young audience, but rather becomes apparent through it’s context that it was clearly done for an older one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 11, 2019 Mixed Feelings
The writer Naoki Urasawa has a distinctive way of weaving stories, and he is one of the most capable writers when it comes to creating an element of mystery. His secret is that he knows exactly how much information is appropriate for each event, and when he should move from one event to another, so much so that he is able to take the viewer from an important and interesting event without showing it, to a completely shattered event without losing the viewer’s interest at following the story, and this is a difficult way of writing to achieve. Most writers only use it once in
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the script because it is a dangerous and unreliable technique, and it may cause the viewer to lose interest in the narrative, but Urasawa walks on it continuously as if he were walking happily on a circus rope. To put it simply, he is able to create a sense of mystery in a story that does not have any mystery elements in the first place. His most famous works are Monster and 20th Century Boys, and today we’ll be taking a look at his magnum opus, Monster, and seeing if it is truly the masterpiece many people rave about.
The story opens up with our main character, Tenma, a doctor of Japanese origins who studied in Germany and became a very skilled surgeon, to the point where any operation he leads turns out to be successful. He is in a close relationship with his boss’ daughter of a prestigious hospital, and is promised a high position and a bright future by his boss. One eventful day, a gunshot hits the head of a young boy. Tenma rushes to treat the boy, but is then interrupted by a phone call informing him that one of the city’s top officials needs immediate treatment. Tenma is puzzled - does he prioritize the life of the person who came first, or does he choose to save the big head? Tenma chooses to treat the boy since he came to him first, knowing how badly he would be hurt by this unwise choice, and his predictions turned out to be true in the end. What Tenma wasn’t expecting though, is that by saving the life of this young boy, he would open up a passage for a dark and grim future that would affect him and everyone he knows. Will Tenma be able to close the passage which he had opened? This is the body structure of the story, and as many of you can see, it is rather special and full of potential energy. The basic settings of the narrative are realistic and international, and here the writer completely stuck with these rules, and he uses the nationalities of the characters to assert that fact, but unfortunately to an average extent. This means that only from the conversation can the viewer deduce a person’s nationality, with the exception of the Turks, whom the writer distinguished through their facial hair. If the mangaka had used a more efficient way for distinguishing, then recognizing the nationalities would have become a lot easier, since the viewer could then recognize the characters through their appearance, their dress code, their movement and the general characteristics of the people from their particular country. This meant that the writer needed a light touch of the stereotyping element for this to work out. For example, Italians are known for moving their hands a lot when conversing with others, the English are known for their tact and quiet accent and back pitching, the Japanese are known for their general shyness and bending when greeting each other, the Turks are known for their facial hair and their love for tea, etc. That is why the level in which the writer was able to bring each nationality to life is average, and the story was in dire need of a higher level of national characteristics, and the reason for this is that the narrative’s backstory talks about the effects of the second world war on the countries of Europe, the lobbies which formed due to that war, and the wall which Germany built, etc. The writer also uses the atmosphere of adventure in his story, and research and investigation, all wrapped up in a sense of greater mystery. These are the essential elements which form Monster’s narrative, and they are elements that are not as equally strong as one another, so which element is the strongest? Many will point out towards the mystery element being the strongest, due to the fact that the writer is more than capable of using that element to it’s strengths when it comes to his stories, but from what I am able to see, although the mystery was built up in a correct manner by the writer, the lengthy seventy four episodes were able to lessen the effect of the mystery in the long run. The biggest nemesis when it comes to the mystery element is time, because when a mystery presents itself to it’s viewers, their nerves grow tight and their anticipation grows bigger and bigger, and if the time lengthens, then those tight nerves will undoubtedly become relaxed, or will get used to the tight feeling, and the anticipation will be killed off due to having to wait for a lengthy period of time. If the writer desired to prolong the age of the mystery, then he must not keep it in one form for a long period of time, and must add in new things to keep the viewers interested. Unfortunately, the writer made the grave mistake of never changing his mystery and keeping it in one form, where the mystery during the whole narrative revolves around one character only – Johan Liebert. So, if the mystery aspect is not the strongest element in the story, then what is the strongest element in the story? From what I can gather, it has to be the element of adventure, and this element depends on the plurality of the characters. Each case during the adventure is found to be centered on a particular character or several characters we meet and learn more of, until we finally leave them to go to the next character. The beauty about this is that all of the characters are filled with a variety of personality traits, and each character is easily memorable and hard to forget, due to how well written and credible they are in their actions, but as I said, they are quite lacking in how their nationality is displayed, because it is found to be foggy and weak in most of them. The research and investigation elements effectively serve ambiguity, but their fuel which drives them to continue being effective is the dialogue. The dialogue is very good, but if in addition to the dialogue there were more movements and motion added to the characters, then that would have made for a much better result, and would have moved the story to a level of excellence. Throughout the show’s long run, there happened to be a few times where the place effectively helped and played a role in the search and investigation elements, an example being the mysterious room in the red rose mansion, but it did not succeed at being spectacular, and the reason for that is there not being a reward after deciphering it’s secrets, and no significant turns to the story either. There was a very important example of research and investigation that was not centered on dialogue in the first place, but was rather centered on certain items instead, one of those items happened to be a children’s story book written by an obscure writer. It is believed that the content of his stories have the greatest impact on the whole case, and is found to summarize the main concept of the whole story. Every single thing that relates to the children’s book, and what it contains from drawings to story, was creative and breathtaking, and the reason being the fact that it carries with it a concrete explanation of the actions of the nameless monster and his ways of thinking, and it terrifyingly predicts about the events that will take place in the near future. With that being said, I find that the highest level presented by the writer in his story as a multi-component art is this children’s book. Let us go back to the mystery aspect of the show, because it is very important. Despite the writer’s ability to create excellent mystery, he managed to mess it up and made a serious mistake. Mystery equals a puzzle in a frame, which may be complex or singular. An example of the singular is a door you need to solve the mystery of it’s lock to know what it entails behind, then the mystery gets solved. As for the complex, it may be a mystery that you decipher to discover what is behind the door, then find out that what is behind the door is a book that contains information about a person, you travel to that person so that you can get something important, and so on and so forth. This is how the mystery increases with the increase of complexity of the puzzle, a positive relationship, and it decreases whenever data, time or hints unnecessarily increase. Of course, the time cannot be a zero, because if it were non-existent then that means there is no mystery or puzzle in the first place. The summation of the hints and the data should not be equal to zero as well. After unlocking the mystery by solving the puzzle, then there must be a result which could be a reward, or a loss, or anything new or extraordinary to the story. The result may also be a new mystery which is bigger or smaller than the previous mystery, and with that we get a series of mysteries. From all of this, I find that the most prevalent form of mystery during Monster was like this: Singular puzzles, carefully weighted data, and very clever use of hints throughout the story, and I find the latter to be the strongest aspect of the show, and the diamond that helped elevate the story’s sense of mystery to another level. There were two elements the writer was very misguided in using, and those were the time, which is found to be longer than necessary, and that weakens the mystery. The other element is the result, as often after solving the mystery, a simple effect is made on the course of the story or the characters, and that weakens the importance of the mystery. Why must the viewer care if the mystery did not result in a reward or a loss? The only mystery which has a significant result after the viewer deciphers it, is the mystery behind the children’s book which Bonaparte wrote. Despite this error, the writer was able to create a story of networked compositions using the element of mystery. It’s appearance seems complicated, especially since it’s mysteries are fundamentally dependent on the ideology of the characters and their large number, but the way he arranges the events which are mysterious makes it very convenient for the viewer to follow the story. The biggest problem that the Anime suffered from was the writer’s lack of developing two characters who were the most important to the story - Doctor Tenma and Johan Liebert - Yes, unfortunately these two have many flaws within their characters throughout the Anime, which became even harder to overlook or to ignore when the Anime was reaching it’s weak conclusion. As for the ending, it is very weak and borders on incoherent stupidity and illogicalness. This also showed that the writer, during the end of his story, was overwhelmed by emotion, so he ignored all logic for an ending that did not make sense. Although that is the case, I don’t find it to be an ending which ruins the Anime, but it decreases the impact it has on the viewers and the memorability. The character design is taken completely from the artstyle of the mangaka Naoki Urasawa, and the best thing about it is the drawings of the noses, and the unlimited diversity when it comes to hair and hairstyles, as the nose and hair are the features which make a human look unique. What is the most obvious thing you can see on someone from far away? Their hair and their nose. On top of that, the mangaka is very skilled when it comes to drawing the rest of the characters’ facial features, and he made a smart move by choosing the characters’ heights. Other than that, there are small features that help the viewers distinguish characters from one another, despite the similarities in those characters’ body language, and despite the lack of any nationality sticking out. Also, the style of the character design is realistic, which means that the mangaka cannot add the element of exaggeration like most other Anime and cartoons, and that makes differentiating between the characters easy. With that, the character design of Naoki Urasawa was more than able to achieve memorability and excellence. As for the movement, it is really standard, and it does not have it’s own feel nor does it excel in what it does, and this shows the weakness of the animators in giving the characters the appropriate movement, as they chose to play it safe with the standard movement and the few frames. The drawings of the backgrounds and places is weak and is nothing memorable, and this is a very big problem, since the story was in dire need of the the spirit of places due to it moving through Europe when it moves from one event to another. When it comes to a mystery adventure, the writer must work hard in distinguishing places from one another, otherwise the travel and mobility are of little value. As for the music, it is nothing special, and will be forgotten after finishing the Anime. In conclusion, Monster’s story has a strong main concept and an interesting story structure and many characters which are realistic, with the exception of the titular characters Tenma and Johan. The lack of building them up and developing them in a correct manner, obstructed the story from excellence which could have been reaped easily. Moreover, the psychology of the monster and the psychopath symptoms were ill explored and how they were implemented was almost non-existent. When the writer is forced to show them, I find them to be bordering on failure. There is poor violence implemented into the Anime, and this Anime is made for those who are over the age of eighteen, so where is the problem in presenting the violence in it’s full detail? The mitigation of the violence turns the Anime into one for an age above fifteen, not eighteen. It seems that the Anime’s producers wanted more space for a larger audience. Monster takes seventy four episodes in a story that revolves around one character, and this is truly very lengthy. If the Anime were twenty six episodes, then it would have been more useful and more appropriate for both the producers and the viewers. This was an Anime which excelled in the quality of certain things and elements it showed, but lacked a lot to be excellent, and a lot more so that it could be considered a masterpiece. On a personal level, what really impressed me and attracted me in this story is the children’s book. It’s art is memorable, and the color palette is striking, and the movements, and the way the narrator talks, and the dialogue which she was reading. I found in this children’s book a summary to all the ideas of the writer, and that the effort in many of the episodes is lost when compared to the quality of the episodes featuring the children’s book. Monster is an Anime that had a lot of positives, but also had many negatives, which were enough to detract from the whole experience. Monster is not a masterpiece at the end of the day, as it has many glaring flaws which cannot be ignored.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 10, 2019
Shanshui Qing
(Anime)
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Recommended
I do not believe that a beautiful short film such as Shanshui Qing deserves the low score that it has garnered on MAL. Yes, some of you may be right when you say that this is an old Anime, and yes, some of you might be turned off by the general score that this short film has, but I assure you that those things do not mean much in the grander scale of things. This short movie was made in the ancient year of 1988, yes, but the animation is still fluid and the visuals are still beautiful to look at, unlike most of the
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Anime that came out during that era. The music is some of the most calming in Anime too, and while this short film does not have any semblance of dialogue, it still manages to create enticing scenery throughout it’s short run and convey it’s message without uttering a single word.
The thing about Shanshui Qing, which separates it from other Anime, is that it is relaxing to look at and experience. Rarely is there an Anime where the feeling of comfort is prevalent all the way through while watching. Shanshui Qing does that, it relaxes the viewer, and it is as peaceful as they come. The beautiful imagery, accompanied by the pleasant music, gently grabs the viewer to undergo a dreamlike experience. Shanshui Qing has no dialogue during the entirety of it’s run, only the pleasant music playing over the short’s beautiful visuals. The only two characters the movie has do not utter a single word, only their actions speak for themselves, where they experience life and it’s stages together as a master and his apprentice. Here is where Shanshui Qing truly shines. It does not need several characters, nor does it need loads of information and dialogue to convey a beautiful message to it’s viewers. It is unaffected by time, as the beauty still looks visually pleasing today. All Shanshui Qing ever needed were passion and vision. It may be simple, but simplicity is not always bad, and Shanshui Qing is an example of that. Shanshui Qing, to put it simply, is a simple short that does not need complexity to be a beautiful work of art.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 9, 2019
Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
Studio Ghibli is the most illustrious Anime film studio ever conceived, and might as well be one of the best movie studios of all time, even outside the realm of Anime. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata have both produced some of the most imaginative works ever put to the animation medium, and their genius efforts show in most of their creations. Add in to the fact that Joe Hisaishi is one of the best soundtrack composers in all of Anime, and you’ve got yourself a trio that has produced works that were nearly perfect in every sense of the word. Unfortunately, a group of professionals
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and talents can’t always emulate perfection in every work they create, as consistent quality is something that is impossible to achieve, especially with the quantity of movies that Ghibli has put out throughout the years, and every person or studio will have their ups and downs every now and then. In Ghibli’s case, it's futile failure had to be a movie known as Castle in the Sky.
Considering that this movie has one of the highest review mean scores ever, it seems hard for someone to dislike it. Unfortunately, this movie never managed to be appealing nor striking nor cathartic in any way, shape or form, as this one is the most laborious and unimaginative movie Ghibli have ever produced, even with the fantasy elements sprinkled all over it. Saying that this movie should not be given such harsh criticism considering the old age of it is fair, but people tend to forget that Ghibli had made a movie two years prior to Laputa, which has aged extremely well, and that movie is called “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”. It’s really not about the age of the work at the end of the day, since a really old work can stand firmly against the test of time when given well executed directing and a well thought out script and characters. This wasn’t the case with Laputa though, as it’s plot feels trite now after it’s release, and so do it’s characters, due to several factors that is. Perhaps not having a manga to adapt to movie form, and it being the studio’s first film with no source material to work with, turned it into such a nauseating catastrophe. The plot tries to implement a sense of mystery with a missing father that the two main characters have to find, but unlike My Neighbor Totoro, the mystery is not intriguing nor does it work in any way. Isao Takahata was needed in order for the mystery to work, but he wasn’t there to save this film, and an amateur Hayao Miyazaki wasn’t enough to save it on his own as well. The plot is also unoriginal, compared to some of the better Ghibli movies out there, which have the same exact premise but are filled to the brim with better execution and directing. The characters are all one dimensional archetypes, be it the cartoony villains who switch from being evil to the side of good very easily, or the main heroine who resembles every other Ghibli heroine, only much less developed this time around. All of this wouldn’t be so bad if the movie was made by a third rate studio, but unfortunately, Studio Ghibli made this movie. Studio Ghibli, one of the best studios when it comes to creating memorable, well written characters in the short span of one to two hours only, made such vacuous and poorly thought through, simplistic characters with this movie. Perhaps it was trying to be simplistic, but with that, it deemed itself unwatchable for an older audience, and mostly became a movie for kids. It doesn’t tackle the same mature themes that others within the same studio tackle, and it lacks the directing genius that Miyazaki would later go on to showcase in his later works. As far as themes go, there is no theme exploration here, especially the environmentalism theme which Miyazaki likes to preach about in most of his other works. If there was theme exploration, then it was handled and conveyed in a much better fashion in most of his other works. The comedy displayed here is lackluster as well, and the emotional catharsis is nowhere to be found. Nothing, I felt nothing while watching this movie. It lacks the depth of Princess Mononoke, it lacks the imagination of Spirited Away, it lacks the emotional catharsis of Kiki’s Delivery Service, and it falls short in most regards, especially when it comes to creating emotion and resonating with people. The animation has not aged well at all, and it shows throughout most of the movie. At least Nausicaa had some memorable art and colossal amounts of imagination poured into it, something that made it age all the more better, even when it’s animation was flappy at times. What also made Nausicaa age very well, is how extravagantly Joe Hisaishi’s tracks flowed with the movie’s memorable moments and gave them a certain feel that is hard to find anywhere else. Laputa felt much worse than Nausicaa when it came to the animation aspect, add in to the fact that the atmosphere was not intriguing, and the artwork was not memorable, and you’ve got yourself a work that is inferior to it’s predecessor in almost every aspect. Laputa fails in the animation and visuals department, and even when it comes to the directing and memorable scenes, it fails as well. Moving on to the final aspect of the film, which is the soundtrack - it was neither striking nor memorable, nor could one say it was good, even as a standalone soundtrack and without having to compare it to Hisaishi's other works. This is rather surprising considering that this is a movie which composer Joe Hisaishi worked on. No track stood out, unlike some of the top Ghibli movies out there, and neither were the tracks immersive or good. Other contentions a viewer would have with this film is that it is excruciatingly slow, as scenes take forever to translate. This movie is also too long for it's own good, spanning a length of two hefty hours. Any movie which fails in the audiovisuals department, in the script department, and in the characters department, must at least redeem itself by not having the viewer tortured for hours on end. A perfect length for a movie is to span between an hour and an hour and thirty minutes, which are more than enough to tell an entire narrative. Two hours is very long for a movie, even the Studio Ghibli ones, especially when the movie has nothing of value or substance to convey. Aside from all of this, what is truly astounding about Laputa, is the fact that this movie might as well have one of the highest review mean scores an Anime could have, as there has yet to be a negative review for it. It being higher than movies such as Kiki’s Delivery Service and Only Yesterday in general mean scores adds more insult to injury, especially due to the fact that those movies surpass this one in almost everything - from sheer imagination, to directing, to the raw emotion poured into them, etc. All in all, there really isn’t much else to say about this movie. It is not memorable in the slightest, bordering on nauseating boredom. The animation has not aged well at all, and the soundtrack is neither striking nor helps in making the scenes better. It’s technicalities would have been forgiven if it had a good story or characters, but alas, it is boring and trite, especially for those who have seen many other Ghibli movies, which have taken the same exact premise and executed it in a much better fashion. Laputa is Ghibli’s first feature film, and the studio would go on to write and produce some of the best and most memorable Anime movies ever made, leaving this one in the dust, right where it belongs.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 8, 2019
Majo no Takkyuubin
(Anime)
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Recommended
Studio Ghibli movies have always been known for being creative, visionary and imaginative, filled with so much care and heart poured into them, to the point where they become distinguishable from the medium as a whole. For several years, Miyazaki and his buddy Takahata have devoted many hours of their days to making the best of the best when it came to animated features. For Takahata, some may say that his masterpiece when it came to movies was Grave of the Fireflies, others may say that his true masterpiece was Only Yesterday. Regardless of what Takahata’s true masterpiece is, both he and Miyazaki have produced
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many movies that have been hailed as masterpieces by many over the years, but what is Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece? What is his magnum opus? Many will immediately point out to the award winning, beautifully animated 2001 movie, Spirited Away. Others will point out to his famous 1997 movie, Princess Mononoke. At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to what Miyazaki’s masterpiece truly is, since everyone has their own subjective opinions, and picking out the best of the best when it comes to Miyazaki is a hard chore to accomplish, especially considering all of the quality movies he’s put out during his career. Regardless of subjective opinions and differences between Ghibli fans, today we take a look at Miyazaki’s most underrated gem, his overshadowed masterpiece - Kiki’s Delivery Service. A movie that is so beautifully directed and animated, and has been undeservingly overshadowed by many other Ghibli titles that have come out since this movie’s debut.
Kiki's Delivery Service is one of the very few Ghibli movies that would make a viewer cry. Spirited Away would come close, but it wouldn’t quite hit the mark with what it offers, and wouldn’t emotionally resonate with some viewers. Kiki’s true beauty, however, lies in the fact that it is a simple movie, and any person would have come up with both the plot and the ending, but it takes a lot of care and brilliant directing to make a plot so simple shine in such a prepossessing manner. Miyazaki took a simple concept that is magic and witches flying through the air, and turned it into a film that emotionally resonates with most of those who have seen it. The plot follows Kiki, a young witch who wants to find her place in the world, and this is where the narrative truly stands out from the rest of both the other Ghibli movies, and the other witch fairytales. Kiki’s Delivery Service may seem like a witch story on the surface, but as you delve deeper into it, it begins to show itself as a movie exploring the hardships of life and a masterfully crafted coming of age story as well. The titular character is one of the most relatable to ever come out of the Ghibli discography, and is the most explored heroine in Ghibli’s catalog as well. The central character Kiki, is relatable due to the fact that her relationship with her companions is explored thoroughly, from her relationship with her black cat Gigi, to her relationship with the young boy Tombo, to her relationship with the bakery owner, and so on and so forth. Not only are the character interactions believable and thoroughly explored, but so is the fact that Kiki exhibits human behavior unlike any other Ghibli character. When I say “human” I do not mean in the sense that it is forced like some of the other Ghibli characters, as her depression and lack of self-worth arise slowly after losing something that is deep to her, which makes her character all the more believable. It doesn’t come across as something that is shallow for the sake of gaining some sympathy and tears from the audience, since the thing she lost is something which she had owned her whole life, not something cheap which came out of nowhere and then vanished that easily to garner sympathy and tears from the viewers. This is one of the very few times where Miyazaki would go into such hard topics when it came to his characters. Usually, Miyazaki’s characters are mostly joyful and cheerful, whereas Takahata’s characters are the ones to exhibit such genuine lack of emotions and self-worth, which is another factor as to why this movie stands out as something that is both unique and exceptional in Miyazaki’s discography. As for the other characters, they aren’t as well explored as Kiki, but they serve their purpose well within the narrative regardless. Kiki’s black cat, Gigi, isn’t the typical black cat that a witch would carry around, he talks, and his attempts at humor land solidly. When something devastating happens to him, the audience relates with him and to his struggles. To be able to make the audience feel attached to a character that isn’t as deeply explored as a well-developed protagonist like Kiki, is a feat that should not be underestimated, but Miyazaki did it brilliantly this time around. As for the bakery owner, she serves to guide Kiki through her emotional struggles and as a maternal figure to Kiki as well, since Kiki is a character that was forced to depart from her parents as a part of undergoing a witch training program. The contrast between the owner’s kindness and Kiki’s depression makes the emotional catharsis all the more immense here, and makes Kiki even more relatable as a character. Kiki is also not a perfect character at the end of the day, which makes her all the more relatable to the audience, especially those who struggle with hardships. Yes, she may be a witch and she may have special powers, but she isn’t a princess nor a hero prophesied in legends like most other Ghibli heroines. Kiki is clumsy, acts haphazardly at most times, especially with her terrible ability when it comes to landing her broom, and she tries to better herself and develop throughout the movie’s run. As underrated as this gorgeous movie’s characters and direction are, the most underrated aspects of it are the animation and the visuals. People do not give enough credit to this movie’s audiovisuals, as it boggles the mind how a movie that is thirty years old, can have such animation that has not aged in the least bit. It is also nice to see Ghibli upping their game with this one, as the animation progressed from stills and flappy animation back in 1986 with Castle in the Sky, to some of the most fluid animation found in Kiki’s Delivery Service. Whether it’s the beautiful hand drawn animations, or the picturesque landscapes, Ghibli never ceases to amaze with this one. The backgrounds serve the story better and make the atmosphere all the more engaging, especially with the places they chose. The colors are vibrant and give the movie more life, and become pale and lifeless when the movie needs to be serious and grim. As for the character designs, Kiki is by far the most visually striking Ghibli protagonist, her most appealing feature being her tie that she wears on her head. Her dress is only one cloth, but it’s a nice change from the ridiculous clothes many other Ghibli characters wear, and it adds more to her humble character. As for the soundtrack, this is Joe Hisaishi’s best work. The soundtrack immensely captures the beauty of the film and the general atmosphere that it was striving to achieve. The best piece Ghibli has ever put out is “A Town with an Ocean View”, as it is immensely visceral and awe inspiring, and it beats out Spirited Away’s main theme, “The Name of Life”. The other pieces helped solidify the scenes that they were placed in as well. All around this soundtrack is Hisaishi’s most emotionally striking soundtrack, even when some may argue that it isn’t his absolute best. This is Miyazaki’s masterpiece. After seeing most of what Ghibli had to offer - from the bad, to the nauseatingly slow average, to the very good, I can assure readers that this is Miyazaki’s crème de la crème. This movie contends heavily with some others that Takahata has put out, and uncertainty always arises when trying to make sure what Ghibli’s absolute magnum opus is. Regardless of that, this is Miyazaki’s visceral masterpiece, without a shadow of a doubt.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 6, 2019
Nekojiru-sou
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
How could a thirty minute, one episode OVA turn into such excruciating boredom? Simply put, the answer is that this one had no end goal or general direction in mind. It crams - or tries to cram for lack of a better word - several ideas and themes down the viewer’s throat, and tries to present and highlight several topics and issues that aren’t even interminably connected, to the point where it becomes blurry as to what it’s reach and end goal is. It presents several ideas of religion, the circle of life, death and the afterlife, etc. yet it never explains why they are
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there. These are all good ideas, and the presentation is not iffy in the slightest, but the problem here arises from how forced the presentation feels. What is the general point of this short movie other than showcasing several incoherent ideas that don’t even mishmash together properly? None.
Moving on to the technicalities, they do their job well, but they aren’t enough to entirely save this work. The characters and the visuals look appealing and distinctive enough to differentiate them from other works, as is the case with all Yuasa works, but that really doesn’t excuse it’s redundant and unimaginative cat design. The soundtrack is fine as it is, and a short experimental movie of this type needed a minimalistic soundtrack to work and achieve some of it’s cryptic undertones, even when no track particularly stood out. If this Anime had an end goal in sight, or knew what it was going for and what it wanted to accomplish from the very beginning, then it would have been excused and given a good rating. Unfortunately, interesting visuals and ideas cannot save a meandering work. In fact, the more the ideas the more it’s chances of failing succeed due to becoming more and more pointless throughout, as a quote once said “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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