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Jan 25, 2021
As it's known by its English title, "I sold my life for ten thousand yen per year" did hardly anything for me despite how high my expectations were of it. Granted, I did not read the novel that this is based on, so I can't comment on it as a whole, but just going off of this manga, this was a huge disappointment. I was recommended it by many of my close friends, but I fail to see what any of them assumed I'd enjoy out of this.
STORY: 5/10
The story is the definition of mediocre. It has a premise straight out of the tripe
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known as Black Mirror that is too ridiculous to buy but not fleshed out enough to believe. This could have been a very interesting Kafkaesque story about the possibility of "selling your lifespan" and the ethics behind this as an institution, but instead, the protagonist immediately decides to sell it for the pitiful amount of 300k yen for 30 years (roughly $2.9k). We're presented with three options: Selling lifespan, selling time, or selling health. The health aspect is never brought up again despite it sounding like the most logical answer. It's incredibly vague and never attempts to put actual thought into it, but it sounds to me like the customer could just use some of the gained money to help nurse back to health.
Of course, that's the logical thing to do, and logic is something this series is devoid of. The story, as minimal and stretched as it already is, is pushed along by numerous plot conveniences and hand waives. The twist with the childhood friend is predictable and laughable at how hard it tries to shock the reader. It's something I personally cannot feel sympathy for, and it just made me hate both parties more than I already did.
The romance between the guy Kusunoki (had to look up his name because he's so bland) and Miyagi is beyond forced too. I'm a staunch opponent of the "romance via circumstance" story type because it feels lazy, contrived, and phony. There's nothing really that special between the two other than they're stuck with one another until Kusunoki has to explain to the reader "She's exactly my type" because, well, of course she is! Never mind that she looks and acts nothing like the supposed love of his life.
ART: 4/10
Nothing to say here, it's not-great-not-terrible. There's no unique style or flair to it. That's probably intentional because it doesn't want to get in the way of the story, or it's just because the artist didn't attempt to try since it's just adapting a book. Character designs are stock and backgrounds are virtually nonexistent. A hyperrealistic art style maybe could have worked to help the story have more actual weight to it, but as it stands, it's just serviceable and vapid.
CHARACTER: 2/10
The absolute worst part of this manga. The protagonist is an insufferable idiot, and I understand he's supposed to be a cautionary tale, but I just cannot be bothered to slog through three volumes of him. Miyagi is not much better. She has no character until she suddenly decides to. The hyped-up childhood friend ends up being a cheap plot device and attempt at character development for another's sake, and we never get to see the serious ramifications of her actions. A large part of her character is waived away prior to ever getting a payoff for it. The only good character is the protagonist of the bonus epilogue chapter because he does what any reasonable and worthwhile person would do. I get that if it was about him, there'd be no conflict and the message would be one-sided, but I do not need a misery porn loser to tell me "Hey, selling your lifespan is not good!"
In the end, the harder the manga attempted to get me to care about its characters, the more I resented them.
ENJOYMENT: 3/10
There are so many missteps in this manga that could have led to me enjoying it greatly. There's a small part of it that I actually liked a lot, the whole performance bit arc of thee protag with how he is perceived by others regarding Miyagi (who only he can see). It leads to a nice worthwhile development which is take away at the end of the manga for a safe and convenient ending. I despised the attitude and moral of this manga. It attempts to say something positive about life and choosing to make the most out of it, but to me, it was just a weirdly pessimistic way of shouting "YOLO," maybe more akin to "YOLASLP" - "You Only Life a Short Lifespan"
Instead of choosing/being allowed to face his life, no matter how miserable it may be, head-on in an honest and optimistic way, he chooses the easy way out. Then Miyagi decides to do the same thing because muh love. It's a love that is not earned nor does it feel impactful because of how short of a time it lasts and how little of an impact it has on the world around them. It's not a romance, it's a cope.
There is one great epilogue featuring a great character who actually does something respectable and representative of a worthwhile moral to follow, but he's locked away in the epilogue extra chapter. It feels very insulting to end the story like this despite how great of a chapter it is. You make me sit through three miserable volumes hammering an idea on my head only to suddenly deliver a much better entire story, moral, and presentation of it all in a single chapter that renders the logic of the entire previous series null. Maybe it would have been an interesting and bold move if the core story was half as long and this epilogue taking up the rest, offering evenly balanced stories of opposite ends. This is how you present counter-arguments, something Spike Lee mastered in "Do the Right Thing." Here, this is just juvenile and unbalanced.
OVERALL: 3/10
This is the type of shallow manipulative drivel that Makoto Shinkai would pump out. It's just such dry, uninteresting, manipulative, shoddily thought and executed drivel that forces the reader through the wringer with a wallowing miserable retch posing as a protagonist. Despite how much I wanted to quit throughout the whole story, I kept holding out on the thought of him redeeming himself or living a better life, but nope. Not here. The manga, like its protagonist, takes the path of least resistance, leading to an end result with least gain.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Nov 5, 2020
Getter Robo G, the sequel to Getter Robo, is in my eyes, a total upgrade to the original. While still not perfect, it addressed many of my complaints of the first and feels like an organic and fitting continuation of this crazy world.
STORY: 8/10 - G picks up after where the first ended, with the Getter Team including new recruit Benkei Kuruma. Now their enemies are the Hyakki Empire, the race of demons created by ancient aliens, who have grown in numbers and strength since the end of that. The Hyakki want to steal the Getter Generator in order to fuel their own evil
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plan. I like the story here a lot more because the Hyakki are a lot more interesting conceptually than the Repilioids in the first. There's an element of mystery to them that we later learn a lot about. The story goes through many interesting developments and mini-arcs, including one I can only describe as "Die Hard with mechs." The final is simply awesome, some of the best shit I've read recently. This is where I see a lot of Gurren Lagann and Gunbuster influence be conceived. All in all great shit.
ART: 10/10 - Man, the art in this is something else. It's so much more ambitious than the original in every way. Characters look sharper, the Hyakki have a lot of varied designs, and the two-page spreads are some of the best in the medium, particularly towards the end. Paneling is superb and the action is easy to follow and there's a lot of instances where the barriers of a panel are exploited to increase the sense of scale of the action and its subjects.
CHARACTER: 7/10 - The returning characters from Getter Robo 1 are just as great as before, but G still has some character issues. Benkei doesn't compare to Musashi and it's disappointing that they pulled a "Landfill" from Beerfest by replacing him with someone that looks and acts just like him but has no character of his own. Just as with the first Getter Robo, we're also suddenly introduced to a new faction towards the end, but they're pretty interesting despite them not being on screen for long.
ENJOYMENT: 9/10 -The Getter Robots themselves also have a new design for each of them and have very expanded abilities and capabilities. There's always something new on the table for practically everything which makes the series great fun. The stakes of the series increase to a drastically larger level than the first as the plot shifts into a new territory and MacGuffin. I'm glad it didn't stick to just one thing for too long, and while chapters still are very long, the pace of everything does feel better due to the extra variety.
OVERALL: 8/10 - Getter Robo G is great fun and so many impressive elements in it. I'm sure it will wow you more than the first, and it's clear to see from this how and why Getter Robo as a franchise is so influential. It has a few faults still, but for the most part, this is a total improvement from the first and feels like a great evolution of the series. But as they say, the best is yet to come.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 4, 2020
Getter Robo is one of the most important and legendary series ever made, and I'm shocked at how unpopular it is on this website. With Getter Robo Arc finally getting an anime adaptation that will finish the story, I figured it was time to go share some thoughts on this franchise with each entry. Getter Robo is the lovechild of co-writer Go Nagai and writer/artist Ken Ishikawa. Ishikawa, unfortunately, passed away before he could finish the manga yet despite that, Getter Robo has preserved through the years with multiple OVAs over the decades. But here everything starts, and while it's far from perfect, it does
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a good job setting up such an iconic series.
STORY: 7 - Getter Robo's influence is vast in the mecha genre, both in and out of Japan. It introduced the concept of separate combinable transformable mechs into one large one. Voltron, Transformers, Macross, Mobile Suit Gundam, Gunbuster, Gurren Lagaan, and even Megas XLR are just some of the series whose existence is directly owed to Getter Robo. But this is a humble start, and its genius doesn't show much here. A majority of this manga is your typical good vs evil fight with over the top stereotypical villains who comically laugh and have absurd names (Reptiloids? Really?) as they plot to take the Earth away from humans, so naturally the humans fight back. But you're not here for the story, you're here for the mech fights, and there's plenty here. That being said, the story does have some interesting developments, particularly in the middle and especially towards the end. The writers do some pretty bold stuff especially in regards to one of the main characters that makes for something a bit more than mindless action.
ART: 8 - Getter Robo looks like your typical early 70s manga, but it has excellent paneling and the fights are very easy to follow. It is a bit inconsistent at times, but not in a way that's bad per se, just different. There can be great detail when there needs to be, particularly in regards to gore and mechs. I love all 3 of the Getter's designs, and when combined, Getter Robo has a pretty unique look. It uses an ax! How cool is that?!
CHARACTERS: 6 - Admittedly, Getter Robo's characters are far from great, but our three main pilots are a lot of fun regardless. There's Ryoma Nagare, Hayato Jin, and Musashi Tomoe. The introductions of these characters are super memorable, and I love how absolutely crazy and violent they act. They're not your typical mech heroes that became popular after. They really help sell the humans as the underdogs in this war. I like how the Getters they pilot reflect their personalities. Getter 1 is all-around strong and can fly while Getter 2 is built more for speed and Getter 3 is stockier. Frankly, I can't remember too much of the villains. They're just fodder for the most part, but I do like how the Reptiloids are able to corrupt humans, and this comes into play in a very interesting way. As expected, the strong heroes get all the attention, but they're lots of fun.
ENJOYMENT: 8 - Getter Robo is just such a cool series. It gives you exactly what you want out of a big mecha action. A big hurdle for me though was how long some chapters can get. I know that's typical for the time, but it can really hurt pace if you try to read a bunch of them at once. I suggest you take your time with it. The pace is insanely fast despite the long chapters and it can be kind of hard to follow at times, but if you stick with it, the finale will be well worth it.
OVERALL: 7 - Getter Robo is a lot of fun, and while I like it a lot, it just doesn't compare to its future sequels and frankly, to some of the stuff it inspired. Still, it's well worth reading not only because of how influential it is to the genre and medium but because it really is just a fun time! Even after over 45 years, the classic Getter Robo still holds up, and I think a big part of that is due to how unique and just flat out crazy the protagonists are. But yeah, you're pretty going to want to read this so that you can get to the much better future entries.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 30, 2020
After being hesitant to get into Made in Abyss despite glowing recommendation by Hideo Kojima, I finally decided to take the plunge last night by starting the manga. I heard the anime was excellent, but I always try to go for the purest way to experience something first. However, after hearing unending praise for the Made in Abyss film Dawn of the Deep Soul, which adapts Volumes 4 and 5 of the manga, I decided to read up to where the anime ended and then watch this film as my first exposure. I was going to wait until I read those Volumes before I made
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a review, but these are words I feel I need to get out now.
Words cannot do Made in Abyss justice. It is something best experienced with as little context as possible, and even if I were to go into the specifics of what this series entails, I cannot come close to conveying the sense of adventure, terror, anxiety, and awe that this series evokes. All you need to know is it's about the perils young delver Riko faces as she ventures through a bizarre and dangerous world trying to find her long lost mother.
With Made in Abyss, Akihito Tsukushi has already created an utter masterwork that will surely go down as an all-time great. The world-building is unparalleled, the setting and premise immediately grabbing, and the characters are so easy to love (too easy actually, this will cause you lots of pain!). It along with One Piece are the peak examples of "it's the journey, not the destination" which is something Reg and Riko are constantly battling with as they go deeper and deeper into the unknown, certain that they will never return even just a few feet up without serious repercussions. It's about the journey to find one's self more than to find whatever lies beneath.
I'm very happy with this recent trend of adapting manga arcs as movies (such as the upcoming Demon Slayer: Infinity Train and in a much looser sense with My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising). A movie makes for a more grandiose and fast paced execution of an arc typically seen as one that truly deserves as much as it needs to capture just how great it is. After experiencing this film, I can easily see why the decision was made to make this into a movie. Not only is this by far the best arc of the series so far, but it is also easily the most graphic and disturbing in every sense of those words. Dawn of the Deep Soul does stuff here that no other series I've experienced would even dare.
It is no exaggeration when I say this may have been the hardest film for me to watch and the first film to just completely break me into a sobbing husk since Dear Zachary. Even just writing this, I can feel the emotions and even tears coming back with a vengeance.
The core of this film is the enigmatic Bondrewd himself (who the viewer will already be familiar with if they watch/read the previous content, and oh you will despise him before this movie begins), performed masterfully by legendary voice actor Toshiyuki Morikawa (Sephiroth from Final Fantasy, Yoshigake Kira from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Griffith from Berserk, and Dante from the Devil May Cry series). This guy is without a doubt one of the most fascinating, compelling, and outright terrifying villains I've ever seen. Seriously, nothing can prepare you for him. I'd love to go into him more, but I just can't. If you know, you know. He just rocks. His voice, his theme, his design, his motive, his everything. His daughter Prushka is instantly one of the most endearing girls I've seen in recent anime. There's such a beautiful purity to her that, while shared with the other members of the shockingly young cast, hits harder given how isolated she has been from the outside world. This is especially true with the reminder that at this stage of the Abyss, It's practically impossible to return without some serious damage. Pushka is another great performance by Inori Minase (Rem from Re:Zero).
I could sing praise for all the voice acting, but pretty much everyone else in the movie is also in the anime, so you'll know how good they are by the time of this film. Everything in this film is just absolute pinnacle filmmaking. Art? Flawless. Animation? Flawless. Soundtrack? Flawless. Character? Flawless. Story? Flawless. THE SOUNDTRACK! Kevin Penkin's OST (also composed for Shield Hero and Tower of God) is another home run. Too many good tracks to count, and they all fit perfectly not just in placement or sonically, but also compositionally. There's so much thought put into each song, many of them having care and attention with specific details that relate to the character or action present on screen. The Rumble of Scientific Triumph, Tozo Hanoline, reBirth, and Cartridge Tears will all go down as anime OST legends (Gotta love the title of Bondrewd's theme being a reference to a terrible translation of Made in Abyss that called science "rumble").
The rawness of power, violence, and emotion here is unparalleled to any other. This series already was not for the faint of heart, but the movie cranks everything up to eleven. There were many instances of me just begging for the film to not go that far, to have some decency to not show me something, but it always did one way or another. I respect the Hell out of that, especially since the agony this film instills is done in an overall very tasteful and artistic way, and there is a lot of context to it all. This isn't mindless edge, which while I can enjoy that stuff as-is for other reasons, I just really appreciate it. Masayuki Kojima's direction perfectly walks the line of bold and reasonable, but that being said, yeah there's stuff in here you likely won't find anywhere else. It's easy to see why there's so much controversy over this series, and out of context, many of the actions it depicts are absolutely deplorable and shouldn't really be shown, but context matters, and Made in Abyss has a noble and thoughtful goal and mind behind it all. Outside of these few moments of completely boundary-shattering content, a lot of the horror and disturbance comes more from the personal attachment we gain to the events and content that surrounds it. This series just knows how to make an opera out of your heartstrings!
I probably shouldn't have done a review for the third Made in Abyss film before reviewing the anime or manga, but this film was just such an overwhelming experience that I needed to get words out. I sincerely believe this film as well as the series overall is a prime example of peak storytelling. There are very, very, very few pieces of art that so powerfully moved me in such a short amount of time I was exposed to it as Made in Abyss. It is such an immediately and powerfully gripping series, and this movie is all of that and more. I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again, but that first experience is one I will think about until the day I die. A totally powerful exceptional filmmaking feat.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 3, 2020
Man, this got really heavy and emotional towards the end. Z does a lot of things very well, but it fumbles a lot of other stuff along the way. Ultimately I think it's very good, even if it drags and sinks in some areas. The full experience is definitely worth it. Just a shame none of these movies are in any way canon because it does some very interesting things with the main story.
I love its focus on Aokiji, who I think is a super underrated and fascinating character. Every Straw Hat gets their moment, even Nico Robin (more than I can say for Stampede)!
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Franky is underutilized for most of it but makes up for it and more by the end. However, the fights just aren't that exciting save for the end, and that's an issue since this is one of the more action heavy One Piece movies. There's this gag with Nami, Chopper, and Brook that just goes on for so long and doesn't really do anything it was stupid (though it leads to a very funny scene with Brook but it's still inconsequential). Always hate seeing the Straw Hat girls shafted (yeah you think I would be used to ti by now). The MacGuffin of the Dynastones is also extremely lazy and dumb. They act like these along with the three volcanos are some huge deal that even Nami knew about as a kid, but it all just comes out of left field. Having all the volcanos so close to each other was a massive missed opportunity. They show the Sea Train and I thought we'd go back to Water 7 but nope. Not interesting at all on the exploration level.
What really carries this is the villain, Zephyr. His power is simple, but still interesting, and it's refreshing to have a villain with no Devil Fruit. His arm is made of Sea Prism Stone and is meant to be the ultimate Devil Fruit User counter. It's a cool concept, but it's deflated a bit by a certain thing that happens towards the end. I won't spoil it, but it just made no sense and was a bit too much "rule of cool" for me to buy given how tight logic tends to be in One Piece.
But besides his power, Z has a super interesting dynamic with the rest of the cast, leading a corrupted version of the Marines called the Neo-Marines and even if not canon, it's still really cool seeing how he ties into the story of so many characters. One aspect of his backstory raises some seriously high questions and assumptions which are very fun to speculate even if it's ultimately meaningless. I respect how firmly Z believed in his cause and he stands out from many One Piece villains who are simply power-hungry. There's definitely shades of Ozymandias in him, that same type of radicalized self-assured savior of people who he ends up doing more harm to than good. The final battle with him and Luffy was refreshing because it's largely without gimmick, ultimately boiling down to a brutal and weighty fistfight. Everything about this climax just hit a raw emotional note I wasn't really prepared for, but it never goes as dark or hard-hitting as Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island which is still my favorite One Piece film. Overall it's a good time. Looks and sounds good as you'd expect from One Piece. I especially love the fashion in this film. Not much else to say, it's definitely worth watching as a One Piece fan with a unique and compelling villain.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 11, 2020
Paranoia Agent is the only full anime that the legendary Satoshi Kon directed. There, that's all you need to know if you're thinking about watching it. Go watch it! I want to start with a disclaimer: This is an anime that is very difficult to talk about without spoiling, and while I will try my best to keep spoilers at a minimum, a lot of what I really want to say about it involves heavy spoilers. If you're interested, feel free to DM me. I'm always down to discuss Kon. Anyways, onto the review.
STORY: 10/10
Paranoia Agent is a piece of media that continues to only
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grow in relevance with each passing day. What Kon was able to accomplish in 2004 with this series is utterly mind-boggling. It is leaps and bounds beyond any anime made since, and there is no better time to watch it than right now. The fact that Kon was able to accomplish this right before the advent of Twitter, YouTube, mass social media, etc is truly prophetic stuff.
The themes and content this anime deals with are fake news, mass media and its psychological effect on people, cultural hysteria, mass consumption, and unchecked escapism. The basic initial premise details a popular character designer who is coasting off the sudden success of her Hello Kitty-esque character, a pink dog named Mamori. She's faced with pressure to design a new character until she is randomly and brutally assaulted in the street by what she describes as a ghoulish 6th grader with a bent baseball bat. This kickstarts a media crazy over the "Shonen Bato" (or Lil' Slugger in English), a story that festers in the minds of people, a story which only develops more and more as other people suffer similar incidents. This is just the tip of the iceberg though, and the plot goes into some crazy surreal territory.
The story is told in an episodic nature, each episode focuses on a different character who is somehow affected by Shonen Bato. The way Kon is able to contextualize seemingly minor characters with incredibly fleshed out stories is unreal, and it only reminds you of how complex the world really is. It is masterfully told in the grand scheme of things, but towards the middle, it can be very frustrating because a viewer might wonder what the point of these apparently random stories is. Nevertheless, everything comes together in a most impressive way in the final few episodes.
This is not a story for the average anime fan. Not only is it incredibly complex and layered, but it also deals with very dark and heavy subject material ranging from suicidal thoughts/actions/pacts, substance abuse, pedophilia, rape, incest, nymphomania, debilitating disease, etc. Kon takes a magnifying glass in every unseemly aspect of seemingly normal Japanese life, and it is also very critical of otaku culture and the binge/consumerist culture that runs rampant in Tokyo. The ultimate message of Paranoia Agent is one that can be very hard to accept, especially for otakus. It's essentially saying that if you are suffering from fear and anxiety about yourself or a situation you're in, deal with it. Don't try to escape from your responsibilities, shift the blame onto others, or drown out the world with the words and works of others.
To sum it all the best, here's one of my favorite Carl Jung quotes, "Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event." It is okay to not be okay, to have a desire to feel free, but if this is at the cost of one's own perception of reality and self, everyone around that person will suffer. Consciousness creates pain, and it is a pain everyone must accept. If everyone in a society commits unchecked reality rejecting escape, it will implode on itself. Paranoia Agent is a grueling and challenging vision of its future, of our present. Every crime must have a motive, and if we ever get to the point where people are senselessly committing crime and disregarding humanity, that is when society has failed.
ART: 10/10
You will not forget for a single frame that this is a Satoshi Kon production. It may be hard to believe that he could preserve his artistic quality throughout 13 episodes, but he dies with flying colors. It's one of the most vibrant and striking anime ever made with exceptional attention to detail in backgrounds and character designs. Kon's incredible editing and direction is always present and makes the whole anime one true singular vision. There is no bad looking episode or dip in quality, everything is expertly executed. Madhouse continues to prove to be the undeniable best at mixing detail with fluidity in animation and making budget last. Truly movie quality stuff throughout with direction in spades.
SOUND: 10/10
Kon reunites with longtime collaborator Susumu Hirasawa, and this is certainly one of his finest works. The opening is astounding, one of the most overwhelming and thematically resonant I've ever heard. Coupled with the incredibly eerie animation, it's one for the ages. It's a haunting and unique score full of dissonance, off-tempo blips, and unnerving vocals. At other times, it can sound very spacey and beautiful. The refrain of the opening theme is always effective. It's reminiscent of something from a 90s point & click like Suda51's The Silver Case or recent indie games such as Lisa: The Painful. There are many standouts, but the track Tai Touge Mousou especially stands out as seriously one of the best of all time. It feels like an evolution of Akira's soundtrack, mixing tribalistic noises with the tools of the digital age, perfectly reflecting Paranoia Agent's reflection of our animalistic past through the screen of a TV. The ending theme is one of the most disturbing yet serene tracks I've ever heard. Coupled with some of the ways episodes end, it makes for a truly horrific and agonizing ending sequence.
CHARACTER: 10/10
Every episode focuses on a different character, and Kon is able to flesh all of them out beautifully. It may be challenging to follow at times because for some characters, their biggest development happens offscreen, but this just adds to the realism and heaviness of the show. Despite how insanely surreal the series gets (in typical Kon fashion, starting out very normal and then evolving into a Lynchian nightmare), it can feel documentary-like at times. Kon's unbiased look at his characters, flaws and all, is reminiscent of one of my favorite filmmakers, Todd Solondz. Both artists enjoy painting fully realized and dimensional depictions of some truly depraved people and challenge the viewer to come along the journey with them, experiencing the horrors that they can commit. It is a deeply humanizing experience that makes the viewer realize that not everyone is likable, but everyone still has a right to understand their story. Society is made up of different perspectives and views on morality, and it never creates an easy mix.
A prime example of this is Officer Hirukawa. The things this man does I don't even want to list here not only due to spoilers but due to their utter depravity. He's by all accounts a monster, but he still deserves to have his story told. Whether you sympathize with him or not, Kon still presents us with this uncomfortable reality, that people like this exist and have fully fleshed out lives and interactions with others. The way his story is juxtaposed with a fictional seinen manga that depicts romanticized old school Japanese masculinity with how warped and disgusting Hirukawa's actions and views are is shocking, but it makes the viewer understand why he acts the way he does, even if it's absolutely twisted and warped.
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
Paranoia Agent is a complete experience. Throughout the journey, it can test one's patience and fortitude, but by the end, it all works. Every diversion Kon makes that appears irritating and pointless ends up being some of the most relevant and important content for the bigger picture. Every type of emotion will be felt throughout the series. You will laugh, you will cry, you will scream, you will cry again. Sometimes all at the same time! The juxtaposition is wickedly sly at times, such as a story about a suicide pact told like a quirky road trip story which is an easy highlight of the series. Ultimately, if you give the series the time and attention it deserves, you will walk away feeling extremely fulfilled and awakened.
There's a specific episode that is easily, in my eyes, one of the best episodes of anything I've ever seen. It follows an animation studio struggling to make an anime for the Mamori character. This episode alone deserves an entire review, but basically I think it's Kon's entire style in its absolute prime. This episode works very well on its own, but it is nevertheless extremely important to the grand scheme. It's a nightmarishly meta look inside the medium that Paranoia Agent exists in with an ending that will surely haunt you for a good while. Storytelling perfection, it alone would warrant a perfect 10/10. Luckily...so does the whole series!
OVERALL: 10/10
Just as with any Satoshi Kon work, it's difficult for me to discuss them much because the pain of losing such a brilliant mind still hurts me to this day. With only four films and one series under his belt, Kon accomplished more than most people have in the history of the medium. I really do wonder what Kon would think about the time we live in now, and what art he would create in retaliation to it. Even though that is a luxury we will forever be denied, at least works like Paranoia Agent are so masterfully executed that we can enjoy them for all time.
As I write on series and process the series mentally, I find myself struggling to fight back tears. Tears of joy, horror, sadness, a mix of all of them really. Paranoia Agent is a prime example of a work of full artistic perfection, a complete experience of catharsis and awakening. You will come out of it a different person, and in a world of uncertainty, misinformation, scapegoating, and record-setting self-doubt and deprecation, there is no time more important for someone to experience this masterwork as right now.
"Let's accept reality."
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 29, 2015
Puni Puni Poemy is a two episode OVA that is a sequel to the comedy classic Excel Saga, and despite being undeniably shoddily made and disappointingly short, it is still one of the funniest anime I've ever seen.
STORY: 1/10
Puni Puni Poemy's story is terrible. There's no denying it. In fact, it may be the worst story in all of anime. Don't believe me? It's about Nabeshin (Who is in fact the anime's director) and his adopted daughter Poemy who play the characters Nabeshin and Poemy in an anime called Puni Puni Poemy (You may remember it from Excel Saga) in which a girl
...
gains powers through a dead fish and must stop evil Joker-resembling aliens with testicles shaped like maces from stealing all the porn on Earth. I can't make this up.
Puni Puni Poemy's story goes absolutely nowhere and the second episode in fact ditches the plot in favor of another even stupider one.
ART: 8/10
One of the greater aspects of Puni Puni Poemy is the art. The colors are rich and vibrant. The animation is also very smooth and expressive, often going through great flexibility over the two episodes. Character designs are reused from Excel Saga, but that's kinda the point.
SOUND: 8/10
It has one of the most bizarre opening out there. The soundtrack served well though it isn't groundbreaking. The voice acting is praise worthy, especially the dub (Same performers as Excel Saga, which also had an excellent and hilarious dub). In the Dub, Larissa Wolcott is back as Poemy (Who is very similar to her character Excel Excel from Exel Saga). Once again, her voice work is unbelievable and it's a miracle her throat hasn't been torn in half by now or she hasn't passed out from oxygen loss from how fast and ear piercing she speaks.
CHARACTER: 3/10
The characters in Puni Puni Poemy are dreadful horrible people who all act so mind numbly idiotic it's very difficult to comprehend them for even just two episodes. Poemy is somehow more hyper than Excel Excel. All of her sisters do jack squat (One of them being an overdone version of Hyatt from Excel Saga but now with D-Cups), and the aliens are zany and unbelievable in their characterization. The highlight is Nabeshin, who is still just as badass as he was in Excel Saga, though he is absent for a lot of Puni Puni Poemy but is the center of the anime two best and funniest scenes.
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
Puni Puni Poemy is almost repulsively terrible, but damn is it hilarious. This anime is a laugh factory in just two episodes. The humor isn't for everyone however and there's no denying it is without a doubt some of the most low brow humor around. But hey, it's only two episodes so you might as well try it. Plus it's pretty standalone from Excel Saga, though it is much crazier and more sexually explicit (Nabeshin even jokes at how they can get away with more nudity in an OVA than a TV series like Excel Saga). Puni Puni Poemy is a nutty blast from start to finish and its breakneck pace and constant barrage of weird and random is enough to make heads spin.
OVERALL: 6/10
An utter failure as an OVA but a masterpiece of comedy, Puni Puni Poemy is completely devoid of craft or intelligence. It's vulgar, loud, tasteless, and just plain dumb. However, by giving such a large dosage of all of that in just two episodes is a staggering feat and it just works. If you're a fan of Panty and Stocking, check it out. Many of the same jokes were told in Puni Puni Poemy first.
Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnsMyUrE_0M
Episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2w40OrOly0
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 18, 2015
"TEEEEEETTTSSSSSUUUUUUUOOOO!!!!"
"KAAAAAANNNNNNEEEEEDAAAAAAA!!!!"
"SHUT UP!! THAT'S *MR.* KANEDA TO YOU, PUNK!!"
25 years after this cultural phenomenon was released in cinemas worldwide, it is still unbelievable to fathom its almost traumatic impact it has had on nearly every form of media since. AKIRA, an adaption of quite possibly the greatest game-changer of illustrated literature, was among the first anime to cross the Pacific over to the United States of America. It was a test of the waters, to see if the West could appreciate anime as a new media form.
Few other decisions in film have left nearly as large of an impact.
From the start AKIRA was a cult classic,
...
an innovation, a new art form screened in art houses across the country. It was a whole new look at a new style in storytelling, one the general public could never experience in the West. Much like Akira Kurosawa's impressive filmography it is almost unfathomable how much of an impact it has had on film since. It has heavy and prominent influence in such media as Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil 4 and 5, Cloud Atlas, AI: Artificial Intelligence, one of the best episodes of South Park (Trapper Keeper) , Ghost in the Shell and nearly every other manga/anime since, and most notably The Matrix. The Wachowski Brothers even said if it weren't for AKIRA, The Matrix could not have been made.
The manga series it is based on is massive, spanning 6 expansive Volumes and chronicling a larger than life saga of greed, corruption, madness, and anarchy all surrounding a tragic event that will forever change Neo-Tokyo. The film does its absolute best to try to cover the 2000+ page manga series, but to be fair the manga wasn't even finished by the time the film was released. It summarizes entire issues with 2 sentence lines, and though not required at all to read the manga prior (As I had not) reading it would give a possibly overwhelming clearer picture and backstory. However, the film is articulately crafted enough so these densities go unnoticed to one who simply wants to enjoy the greatest and most influential anime film ever made.
Yes it is an anime film, but don't think of it as simply drawing on paper. This is a full blown deep psychological science fiction cyberpunk social commentary on humanity and brotherhood, one that demands constant viewings to keep up with. The more I think about AKIRA, the better it becomes. The animation has aged like fine wine and it still the greatest traditional animation I have seen since Fantasia. There is so much effort put into every line, every color choice (As them manga is black and white color choice really stands as noteworthy here), and it diverges away from the anime cliche of mouths flapping to "kind of" make it match their words. The audio and mouthing are as perfectly synced as they can be, and that's very rare for anime.
It doesn't take much to think of this as not animated and simply a moving canvas. From the blazing neon of Neo-Tokyo's gangs riding their motorbikes to the mass destruction of a man-made God leveling the entire city, every frame looks like a deep and extravagant artwork. There is a ferocious and lively intensity and passion that pops out to the viewer and demands attention with its pure extravagance.
Aside from animation, the film score is simply majestic to say the least, easily being Top 5 material for my favorite scores in film. Shoji Yamashiro has created something truly unique here, a style I have yet to see replicated at all. Diverging from the trope of cyberpunk setting requiring synth electronica music bombarding out of computers, AKIRA's score is a tribal one, with chants in Latin and Japanese, oriental chimes, melodramatic organs, and tribal beatings of drums. Few film scores get me as hyped and pumped as "Kaneda's Theme" or "Tetsuo" or make me feel enlightened as "Requiem". It feels almost evangelical, which is perfect considering the film's heavy religious parallels and Hiroshima influence. It's beautiful, disturbing, angelic, upsetting, enlightening, and haunting all at once.
While still being strikingly philosophical and cerebral the film is still one of the most compelling and crowd pleasing I have ever seen, and every time I watch it with company we all anticipate the next "TETSUO!" or "KANEDA!" and cheer with passionate euphoria at their cues. Though it pales in comparison with the sweeping epic of written fiction it is an adaption of, this was sort of intended, as author and director Katsuhiro Otomo intended to make 2 totally different stories. The film, a religious commentary while the manga is a political one.
And this is all without even gracing the plot.
In the year 1988, all life as we knew it came to an end. However, the end was just the beginning.
2019. Neo-Tokyo. A wasteland of innovation and chaos. Anarchy reigns in riots on the streets, and the army and government try in lal their power to suppress it and reclaim order and civility. A biker gang, two members of which named Tetsuo and Kaneda, roam the streets, fighting other biker gangs. In a freak accident, Tetsuo is seriously injured and is seized by the government. In hidden labs he is experimented on, turning him into a psionic soldier, a God among men.
They fail to understand what a God does when he finds out he is being controlled by mere ants. Thus, the true end comes.
NEO-TOKYO
IS ABOUT TO
E.X.P.L.O.D.E!
This is all you need to and should know. An epic by every definition, AKIRA was, is, and always will be a true landmark, a pinnacle of animation. Calling it the greatest animated film made is a horrible understatement given the connotation of "animation" as it is much more. It's an artistic pinnacle, the beginning of a revolution of storytelling here in the West, the bridge to a whole new world in Japan, the bringing of anime to the West. A haunting, bizarre, at time revolting, yet all in all poetic and strikingly beautiful and breathtaking experience you will never forget, and find it hard to walk away from.
Oh yeah, as rule of all anime, sub over dub. The English dub is laughable and the Japanese audio actually fits the mouthing of the characters.
The manga however totally and wholly CRUSHES this film in every way possible. If a fan of this film, check out the manga. It is unbelievably better. But it's fine, they're both totally different stories.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 17, 2015
Comedy is an art. Throughout human existence comedy has existed. It is a way to bring humans together in fun and merriment. It can also be used to make light of serious issues. There have been many historical landmarks in comedy.
1900 BC: The first joke is told in Sumeria
446 BC: The first comedic playwright, Aristophanes, is born.
1475 AD: Geoffrey Chaucer begins his epic quest for universal comedy with The Canterbury Tales but ultimately never finishes.
1605 AD: Miguel de Cervantes releases the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha, a piece of literature still hailed to this day as one of the funniest things
...
ever written.
1895 AD: L'Arroseur arrosé, the first comedy film, is released.
1926 AD: Buster Keaton releases the film The General, and slapstick comedy is created.
1974 AD: Blazing Saddles, what I consider the funniest film ever made, is released.
2004 AD: Cromartie High School, what I consider the funniest TV series ever made, is released.
STORY: 8/10
No anime has made me laugh harder than Cromartie High School. The misadventures of Kamiyama and his gang of juvenile delinquents are ones that I could experience over and over again and just laugh harder. Is the story some avant garde masterpiece? No, in fact it is non-existent. Cromartie High School is episodic in nature. It has no real plot, no resolution, and little to no character arcs. The series works as showcasing six months of a Sophomore year in what is both the best and worst school in fiction. At Cromartie, there's no teachers or faculty, just delinquents left to their own devices. This allows the series to go into truly bizarre territory, and it does so on an episodic basis.
It is not a perfect set-up, however. While it's fun not knowing what to expect every episode, that feeling of aimless wanderlust starts to diminish as the series come to a close and is replaced with a feeling of pointlessness. If you're watching this for a story, the final episode may be the worst you've ever seen. But if you buy into the hilarity of the premise, you'll know what to expect. You may not know what exactly, you just know it will be funny.
ART: 9/10
The art in Cromartie is, well, terrible, and there's very little of it. This is used however to the anime's benefit and results in some of the funniest sight gags the viewer will ever witness. Every character has the same exact face with just a few alterations, adding to the satire of the educational system being a factory pumping out identical products. Don't expect some flashy stuff to happen; the anime is mostly just people standing around. However, even this is made interesting and hilarious due to the gags and quirks found in the animation style.
SOUND: 9/10
When one of your characters is Freddy Mercury, you know your soundtrack should be good. And as the cover suggests, much of the music in Cromartie High is a love letter to rock n' roll like Queen. The opening is fantastic and memorable, being oddly melancholic despite the sheer hilarity of the opening sequence, resulting in a laugh being heard upon each viewing. The ending theme is equally as bizarre and random as the series itself. The voice acting for the Japanese version is inferior, anyone who says otherwise is wrong. If you are to watch this anime, which I highly advise you do, go with the English Dub. It is without a doubt one of the most hilarious dubs ever made, and an objective improvement over the original Japanese.
CHARACTER: 10/10
Without a doubt the anime's strongest field are its rich and diverse characters. Takashi Kamiyama is the main protagonist. He was an exceptionally good natured student until he went to the longest domino chain in Japan and glued the last piece to the floor. Because of that, he is banished to Cromartie High School for Delinquents. It's assumed he's the toughest guy in school because he is such a wimpy figure in such a tough environment. Kamiyama goes through some truly hilarious revelations as the series progresses, and his letters to his mom (read during the preview to the next episode) are comedy gold.
Next up is Kamiyama's right hand man, Shinjiro Hayashida. Hayashida is the dumbest man alive and sports a pink mowhawk with a mind of its own. I would say he's comedy foil, but everyone is. Every single character in this anime is bafflingly stupid in some way. Because of that, I like to call it "Japan's Beavis and Butthead". If the anime was just Kamiyama and Hayashida, they'd be a perfect comparison to Beavis and Butthead. Thankfully, the cast is shockingly massive for such a short series, and every single character steals the show in concept and comedy.
Just to rattle some students at Cromartie off, there's a gorilla, Freddie Mercury, a robot named Mechazawa, the only semi-competent physical foil named Maeda (Who is kidnapped on a frequent basis and is apathetic to it), a massive beast of a man named Takenouchi who is cripplingly chronologically motion sick, a rich elitist named Hokuto (Who goes to a different school and accidentally shows up at Cromartie and stays there for some reason, hence his different uniform), Hokuto's lackey (A nameless character who follows Hokuto around and tries to let people know his name but is always interrupted), a terrorist pretending to be Takenouchi named Masked Takenouchi, a gang leader named Noboru Yamaguchi who is a connoisseur of sophisticated humor and constantly criticizes the show's humor, and many more. Somehow, they all get ample screen time and each one is perfectly hilarious. The cast in Cromartie is one of the best I've ever seen. Unique, memorable, hilarious, and somehow compelling, they're the friends I wish I had. And they're all somehow 16. Yes that includes Freddie.
ENJOYMENT: 9/10
If it wasn't clear yet, I cherish Cromartie High School. It is one of my most quoted and rewatched anime. I often like to watch it with friends as we laugh heartily at the hilarity of the show and the bizarre resemblance to our own lives. Juvenile delinquent genre is a genre I never knew I loved until I watched Cromartie, which helped me fuel my love for my 2nd favorite part of Jojo, Diamond in Unbreakable (Very, very similar series). I wish I could give this a 10 in Enjoyment, but alas the series does lose some steam in the final few episodes, especially one serious episode that just is not interesting (The only joke is that there was suddenly a serious episode of Cromartie). Even then though, this series always shocks and surprises me, and it ended in a way I never could have seen coming but at the same time should have expected. The series deserved to go on longer than twenty six 11 minute long episodes.
OVERALL: 9/10
Cromartie High School begins bizarre and only get increasingly so. I will admit it is an acquired taste. It is very likely you will only be increasingly annoyed at the sheer stupidity and brain cell killing cast and atmosphere, but then again that's how school feels. Cromartie is a near perfect satire of Japanese school lifestyle with clear cut references that even strike American school lifestyle. It is a series that only seems to get better upon each rewatch. Like the slogan of another juvenile delinquent anime AKIRA, Cromartie High School is good for health but bad for education. You will learn absolutely nothing watching Cromartie High School, but they say laughter is the best medicine. If that's the case, Cromartie High School will keep you alive forever.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 23, 2015
"Chant these words three times in your mind! A HERO APPEARS! A HERO APPEARS! A HERO APPEARS! Do that, and I'll come to you!"
How does Masaaki Yuasa live up to the near perfect masterpiece that was Tatami Galaxy? By making what is undeniably to me one of the most perfect anime series ever created. I can't say it any other way. I loved Ping Pong. It is one of my favorite shows of all time. It is what I consider the single best anime of the 2010's.
And it may very well be what I consider to be the single most perfect anime series
...
I've ever seen.
STORY: 10/10
Ping Pong is not really about ping pong. Rather, it focuses on the players themselves outside of the sport. Their personal lives, their passions, their backstories, their motivations. It is raw and real, while the narrative itself is very artistic, impressionistic, and experimental. The anime follows four ping pong players all intertwined by fate who ultimately confront each other in two grand national tournaments, one at the beginning and one at the end. The characters change throughout the middle, and these changes ultimately impact the second tournament and make it leap bounds above the first in both thematic and stylistic ways.
ART: 10/10
Ping Pong's artstyle is unique. Many will brush it off as being "terrible" and it's very, very easy to see why. I believe it is a masterwork of animation. The animation itself is not crap. It is extremely fluid and dynamic, and hardly ever resorts to still images. The art perfectly replicates the style that is found in the manga it's based on. This dedication makes Ping Pong one of the most perfect manga adaptations to grace the medium.
SOUND : 10/10
Ping Pong's soundtrack is a masterpiece of itself. Such tracks like A Hero Appears and Dragon are among my favorite songs in anime, and others like Ping Pong Phase are in my running for among the greatest songs I've ever listened to. The OST is one of the few anime soundtracks I listened from beginning to end in one sitting, and is even one I'd buy a physical copy of. It is without a doubt one of the greatest soundtracks these ears have experienced.
The voice acting is also top notch. Each performance is raw and believable, and Kudos to Kong's VA for speaking Mandarin AND Japanese.
CHARACTERS: 10/10
It is utterly impossible still to me to believe that in only 11 episodes the cast of Ping Pong was so well developed. Hell, I'd even say it's the most developed cast of characters I've ever seen in a 26 episode or shorter anime series. Everyone is pitch perfect, and while they adhere to certain cliche stereotypes at first, it turns out that, like real people, there's more to them than their first impression. As the viewer spends time with these characters, a very real sense of growth is felt as they mingle with each other on the thread of destiny. I will never forget the angst and tribulations of Smile, Peco, China, Akuma, and Kazuma. I feel like I've known them my whole life, and that's the best compliment I can give for characterization.
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
When I can say an anime changed my perspective on life, you better know damn well that means I enjoyed it. While being touching and emotional, the anime is also hype as shit and has some truly adrenaline pumping action moments. Who knew ping pong could be so badass? On top of that, the series is laced with some mild subtle humor, but don't let that make you think this is a tongue in cheek comedy. The humor is there to make the series not a complete downer. It is a very serious and grave personal story about the lives on individuals with one of the most satisfying conclusions I've seen.
OVERALL: 10/10
I can't praise Ping Pong more than I have already. Perfect characterization, perfect chemistry, perfect development, perfect OST, and an art style to die for, Ping Pong the Animation transcends beyond its genre constriction as a sports anime. ping Pong is about much more than the titular sport. It is about life. It is about growing up. It is about finding, losing, and regaining your place in the world. It is about attitude, brotherhood, confidence, cooperation, dedication, discipline, respect, courtesy, honor, spirit, focus, integrity, courage, quality. The art style will throw many viewers away, but those willing to get entranced by it will not be disappointed with this ultimate coming of age epic. One of the greatest stories and experiences I've ever had in a storytelling medium.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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