NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
---
I just finished this and I'm giving it a 9/10 but I might just be riding the high after binge watching. I can see myself bumping it down in the future, but for now it's a 9/10
One of the big reasons I love this and why it stands out from among the shonen shows is that it draws you in making you believe
...
it's going to be one of your run of the mill shonen before pulling the rug out from under you in one fell swoop (or long arc) and leaving you in a place where you have no idea what's going to happen next.
JJK starts with a typical shonen setup: MC is a righteous young guy going to a school / doing training because he has special powers and this is where other people with said power learn to refine their skills (naruto, bnha, kimetsu no yaiba, yu yu hakusho, etc). Hell, itadori and crew even match naruto's mold: OP teacher (gojo even kind of looks like kakashi), goofy MC with a immensely strong entity sealed within them that they sometimes can't control, edgy male best friend, and brutish female best friend. Together, the crew go on missions together and grow stronger; typical shonen stuff. They even do a small competition arc with a rival school and have a random baseball episode. But that changes quickly with season 2.
Now I was fully expecting JJK to continue the formula of friendship wins and the crew will continue to go on more missions and get stronger with each season. But then kugisaki dies. right. in. front. of. itadori. He couldn't save her. That's the character that I thought was so integral to the shonen genre and the arc that I thought she had plot armor. Even during her flashback sequence where her life flashes before her eyes, I was still thinking "she's going to survive". Which just made it hit harder when she doesn't. And what's more, I then 100% expected itadori to go all out and get revenge and kill mahito. And while he gets close, he doesn't actually. Geto does (or at least the dude inhabiting geto does). And just when the rest of the crew shows up to support itadori to take down geto followed by another surprise appearance by "what kind of woman is your type" lady, I thought "ok. this is a deus ex machina and now it's going to be a big fight to defeat final boss geto"... except they don't. There's a small skirmish, but almost immediately they all get frozen and geto gets what he wants. The team loses. And they lost bad. Gojo is sealed away, several allies are dead, no vengeance has been had, and the bad guy has done the cursed spirit version of chernobyl, making a large part of japan basically uninhabitable. To top it off, itadori has been branded an enemy and to be killed on sight. Our hero is left all alone, being hunted by the community he relied on. So much more friendship wins and friends going on adventures right? And that's what I LOVE about jjk. They took all my expectations and flipped them on their heads. I was constantly being surprised and left on the edge of my seat. I am so excited to see how the story progresses.
I also really love the moral grayness of the whole show. There's the typical "good guys good and bad guys bad" mentality, but sometimes the lines get a little blurred. Killing the transmogrified humans is a moral quandary for our hero. They're not exactly humans, but they're also not exactly spirits either. So how do you tackle that? And one question at jjk's core is "is it worth it to kill one life if it means saving many more?" With these transmogrified humans, they're often putting other people's lives at danger and while itadori does what he has to, he doesn't like it. And a big part of why he doesn't is because he's biased. Everyone else is asking that exact same question about him. He's basically a ticking timebomb. With sukuna inside him, it's only a matter of time until itadori loses control and sukuna is allowed to wreak havoc. So is it worth it to kill itadori if it means saving countless other lives? So of course itadori doesn't like killing the transmogrified humans; because then he'd be a hypocrite. But itadori begins to doubt his conviction after he's unable to save nanami or kugisaki and sukuna basically killed an entire city. And I also like that there's so many layers to this question that's presented to us in the show. For one, most of the sorcerers believe that it is worth it. A lot of them see death as just a part of the job and collateral. They place so little importance on the lives of non-sorcerers. Sure they want to save them if possible, but if they die, no big deal. And jjk shows us what happens when you go too far with that notion which also happens to be the opposite side of the question with geto: "is it worth it to kill many lives if it means saving a few?" he does so when culling the city and saving the twin girls and this furthermore becomes his manifesto: cull the non-sorcerers to save sorcerer lives. Both of these questions are ones that both itadori and us have to come to terms with.
JJK also brings up the question of "what's it really mean to be human?" along with "who are the real monsters?" They don't hit these quite as hard, but it does address them. Jogo, the fire spirit, is constantly saying that they (spirits) are the real humans. I don't yet know if that's like a real in lore thing or if it's simply a metaphor, but we constantly see that spirits aren't just dumb beasts but can be intelligent and highly empathetic. Jogo, Hanami, and Dagon all form a really strong bond to the point where they seek vengeance for their fallen friends and speak of them solemnly. And from the spirit's point of view, humans look like the real monsters. Humans are hell-bent on murdering all of spirit kind which sounds pretty evil. But to drive it home, the sorcerers are made to look scary and merciless in their work. Look no further than gojo who bears a downright terrifying, hellish grin while fucking crushing hanami to death. Even when jogo threatens to kill more humans as a way to draw gojo's attention and save hanami, gojo doesn't budge. He doesn't give a fuck. He'll willingly sacrifice other human's lives just to kill jogo's friend in one of the more gruesome ways imaginable. Oh yeah. This after he essentially tortured the two by ripping parts of their bodies off. Gojo looks like a fucking scary villain. Even during the flash back at the beginning of s2, gojo sounds like he's going crazy, a trait synonymous with the villain and he even asks if he should kill people before being stopped by geto. So while the spirits viciously murder humans, so too do humans viciously murder spirits. The two are different sides of the same coin. So who's in the "right" here? Mahito even brings this up directly. He tells yuji that they're the same. Just as mahito kills without a second thought, itadori saves without a second thought, and those mean exactly the same thing. In order to save, itadori must kill spirits. By killing, mahito saves spirits. It's yet another moral gray area. No one is right and no one is wrong, it's a matter of perspective.
Before I go too far away from this topic, I would like to say that I wish JJK made itadori ponder his actions a little more. Specifically after fighting the two blood brothers (womb brothers?). Itadori and kusigaki work together to defeat who they believe to be 2 spirits. but it's later revealed that they weren't spirits at all. And while itadori does feel bad ("tears were shed for the lives i ended tonight"), i wish he pondered if what he was doing was right. Would it have been right if they were spirits? This could've been a sort of wake up call for him. Something that calls into question all his exorcisms so far and making him doubt all his excorcisms to come. Is exorcising really the "right" thing to do?
Getting back to it, I love the direction or cinematography (can you call it that?) in jjk. So many shots are done deliberately and done so well. Whoever is framing these shots definitely knows that sometimes what you don't show is more powerful than what you don't. There's one shot in particular that sticks in my mind. Mechamaru is more or less confessing to love, miwa, and while he talks, the camera just slowly zooms in on the empty chair next to miwa. And it's so simple yet so powerful. It's the seat where he would be if he wasn't dead. The lack of a person further exemplifies his absence. And there were scenes like this scattered all throughout jjk. While nothing else is coming to mind, I do remember thinking that quite often. Just noticing how a scene is constructed and loving it. Maybe I'll go back and get a supercut going and put it on youtube.
And there's so many little things I loved too. The dualities of both mahito and itadori, but also gojo and geto. Tojo Zeni'in asking his son what his name is and saying he's glad it's not zen'in. The art difference for the blue sorcerer energy. There is just so much to love here.
Now for the bad. And there's only a couple gripes I have. For one, fight scenes aren't the best of quality. They're good enough to convey what's happening, but objectively, the animation is not great. Still frames show low quality of the art itself, but also the movement can get hard to follow with how rough it looks. There's also plenty of times when the background and foreground aren't quite synced or the ground becomes and amorphous blob and it takes you out of the experience. Characters look like they're floating or sliding on the ground and it just doesn't look right. I basically gave up with trying to understand what was happening with the sukuna vs fushigoro summon fight. Low art quality + low animation quality + fast movements + lots of jump cuts made it basically unreadable to me at some points.
The only other thing I don't like too much is jjk suffers from flashback bonanza. We only get information when we need it really. Like "mechamaru is dying so we need a reason for the viewer to care. flashback his life", repeat for everyone who dies. Or like fushigoro is going to summon this crazy monster that is even going to give sukuna a tough fight, so let's have a flash back right before he does it to explain that it's really powerful. Or "we need to introduce new enemies so let's use a flashback to quickly introduce them". It gets a little tedious at some point.
I have to say. I am so pleasantly surprised with how this switched up on me. Not only does this flip the shonen genre (or what i expect from a shonen) on its head, it also has some solid themes and questions that often have mulitple layers to them. the story is well thought out and written.
Jan 25, 2024
Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season
(Anime)
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NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
--- I just finished this and I'm giving it a 9/10 but I might just be riding the high after binge watching. I can see myself bumping it down in the future, but for now it's a 9/10 One of the big reasons I love this and why it stands out from among the shonen shows is that it draws you in making you believe ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 25, 2024 Recommended
NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
--- I started this show just as something mindless and entertaining but was pleasantly surprised in the end. I went into this for slapstick comedy and it definitely delivered. Genuinely one of the funnier anime I've seen. And to be honest, I thought it would just stick with it to the end and it'd just be one big joke the whole time, and I ... would've been content with that. But as the show reaches its end, it takes a more serious note and does a good job pulling an emotional story out of this slapstick comedy. Normally I'd go into detail about what this did right and wrong, but honestly nothing is coming to mind. It doesn't do things so superbly amazing, but also doesn't fail on anything. It's just solid all the way through.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 25, 2024
Chainsaw Man
(Anime)
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NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
--- In all honesty. This show sucked. Maybe it was overhyped for me, but this show didn't leave me wanting more. The main thing that puts me is the main character. I just didn't care about him in the slightest. It starts off well with denji pulling at your heartstrings a little, but as soon as he fuses with pochita, it loses me. He's ... an EXTREMELY shallow character whose only motivation is to touch some tits. He doesn't have any reason for doing anything unless it involves getting his dick wet somewhere down the line. Which is so contradictory to why pochita gave his life to save him. Pochita's last words were something along the lines of "show me your dreams" and denji just says "fuck that. i'm going to get some pussy". Instead of, idk, achieving a stable life like he always wanted. He also makes a big deal of wanting to eat bread with jams, but when he gets it, it's not even an important part of the story or the character. He just goes like "oh wow tasty. now how do i get in makima's pants???" which just undermines his whole backstory. He also just has 0 empathy and doesn't give a fuck about his friends whatsoever. I have absolutely no reason to like this guy or relate to him or cheer him on. The fights also aren't really that amazing either. I mean they're not bad, but the fights often devolve to 3d animation and i just don't have an appreciation for that. I will admit that the show does a good job with keeping you interested with its mystery. Makima constantly being this big question mark is such a big draw. It's basically the only reason I finished watching it. They show just enough and hide just enough to make you want more and it's done quite well. It also does a decently good job with world building and establishing this whole network of devil hunters and making pacts with devils for power. It really feels pretty well thought out and fleshed out. Except for one thing. It breaks my immersion a little when they state that a devil's power is directly tied to how scared people are of that thing, but when you start comparing power levels between devils, it just doesn't make add up. Like the bat devil was pretty strong and that's fair, people are scared of bats. But the fox fucking annihilates it with one bite which implies that the fox is waaaaaaay stronger than the bat which implies that people are waaaaaay more scared of foxes than bats and I just don't think so. I would think bats are more feared, but even if I'm wrong, I don't think there's that much disparity. Or like himeno's ghost should've been fucking OP. Ghosts are universally known by so many different cultures, religions, races, etc. And they all fear ghosts. So that should be pretty strong. And it is kind of, but it gets one shot by a snake.... And they say that the gun devil is like the strongest one because there was so much gun violence and everyone was scared. Which make sense. But shouldn't death be THE STRONGEST devil of them all? Everyone. Fucking everyone is scared of death. I'd bet my life that over 95% of the population is scared of death. So that shit should be the devil hunter's #1 priority right? Maybe I just put too much emphasis on this one line, but it bothers me. I just don't see the hype with the show. It's mildly entertaining, but I'm not watching season 2 and I slightly regret watching this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 1, 2021 Recommended
NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
~~~ odd taxi is definitely one of the more odd animes i've seen in a while. and not because it's super out there like ping pong the animation or because it gets super ridiculous like the latter half of darling in the franxx. instead this feels weird because it's built like a western tv drama series but in anime form. it almost doesn't follow ... any of the tropes or feel of other animes i've watched. and that's partly why i enjoyed it so much as it felt like something fresh, but i mainly enjoy how it's able to tell it's story so well. odd taxi is able to tell a story with so many side stories, sub plots, and characters and make them all connect in the end. it brings up so many mysteries and questions and it masterfully drops hints here and there to keep you guessing. and then in the last episode, it reveals everything one by one and you finally go "ooohhhh". the whole time you're juggling different things like "who is odakawa hiding in his clsoet?", "how is the crazed gunman going to appear in the end?", "just what is mystery kiss hiding?". and it keeps you guessing and on your toes the whole time until it answers EVERY single question in the last episode. it's done so well and is so unbelievably satisfying to see seemingly unrelated things tie together and how all these pieces interweave. the best part about these questions and mysteries is that the show gives you enough for you to figure it out on your own. it doesn't just pull the rug out from under you and make a cheap reveal that would literally be impossible to guess. as stated, those methods are cheap, lazy, and make the watcher feel annoyed that they were being purposefully deceived. to this point (and not to brag), i was able to correctly guess odokawa's ailment from episode 1. odd taxi showed me enough pieces that i was able to connect the dots and conclude that the world is normal and that odokawa has some psychosis that causes him to see people as animals and that we are viewing things through his perspective. and as the show went on, i kept finding more and more evidence to my hypothesis which is a hallmark of good storytelling. but a lot of the reveals, like the nerima girl's real killer, i was not able to guess, but was delightfully surprised to see the reveal and think to myself "wow! i can't believe i didn't think of that" which is also a hallmark of good storytelling: to be able to show me everything i need to know while still keeping me from concluding it myself. the one reveal that didn't get this treatment, however, is the person that odokawa was keeping in his closet. and while there are hints in the opening (which i unfortunately skipped all of the time), it still feels pretty dumb to make such a big deal out of it only for the reveal to be so unimportant. it's a red herring and it doesn't feel good to have that revealed. now that i've talked about what i liked so much about odd taxi (and i'm sure i didn't do a good enough job emphasizing or explaining why it was so good), i want to talk about my main gripe with the show. odd taxi's plot is held up entirely by people being stupid and making some of the worst decisions. for example, the main driving mystery of the plot, the thing that gets odakawa involved in all these spaghetti storylines, is how he's connected to the disappearance of the nerima girl. and the only reason it's become such a big problem is because nikaido (the head girl in mystery kiss) and the manager of mystery kiss both turn to the yakuza to dispose of the nerima girl's body instead of going to the police DESPITE both of them being 100% innocent in her death. there is no world where that's the right choice. with this one decision, they've indebted themselves to the yakuza, committed a heinous crime, and destroyed any chance of mystery kiss succeeding and turning a profit. it's pretty stupid. other than this, kakihana goes into crippling debt for what is obviously a catfish, dobu buries his gun in a public park instead of keeping it in his possession, and yano decides to rob a billion yen to buy odakawa's dash cam footage instead of just robbing odakawa, among others that i can't remember off the top of my head. so how the story comes together is AMAZING, but it's all built off of the stupidest decisions that breaks my immersion from time to time. it's like watching a bad horror movie. it's for that reason why i rate the show an 8/10 instead of a higher 9/10 or 10/10. in the end, odd taxi's merits all lie in its climax that it builds up to (that is to say the whole show rides on the climax) and it does that exceedingly well. but in order to achieve that, odd taxi sacrifices the audience's suspension of disbelief by having the story built up on bad decisions made by characters in the story. ~~~ after my review, i want to just kind of spitball here. the show show seems to have a lot to say about fame, social media, and money, but i just can't reach the conclusion it draws. for example, taichi's whole character is built on him trying to go viral. he has this hunger to become famous on social media, but doesn't really know why he does. and after he does become famous, we see it destroy him. he doesn't feel fulfilled after achieving his dream and fills the void with meaningless sex with his fans. he gets bombarded and criticized on social media and that pushes him to do reckless things. we eventually learn that he does it because he hates himself and thought that getting approval from others would magically make things better, but learns that it didn't in the slightest. after some sage advice from dobu, he vows to go straight, return to school, and find a job. but at the end we see that he's once again enticed to become famous. after seeing odakawa's car soar through the sky, he gets excited that this might go viral. so while it seems like he learned his lesson, he actually doesn't. and perhaps this is some commentary on how social media has this control over us. that it plays us like a marionette and forces us to do things that are ultimately meaningless as it only gives an empty, fleeting sense of satisfaction. and even after realizing the scam and giving it up, it somehow pulls us straight back in, showing just how much power it has over us. other than that, we see that most characters are looking for fame. nikaido, the nerima replacement girl, taichi (as explained above), and the comedian duo. and for most of them, we don't see them succeed. taichi and the donkey comedian are the only ones who find any real fame. taichi gets worse for it, but the donkey comedian is the only one who seems alright. although it drives him apart from his comedian partner, he seems overall satisfied with his life. and it is important to note that he's the only one who is comfortable and confident with himself. he doesn't yearn to reach the top and instead lives humbly and happily and is rewarded for it. he isn't destroyed by an obsession to be #1 because he's thankful for what he's got. this shows that obsession is a killer. it can drive you to insanity and forcing you to do extreme things (like in the nerima replacement girl's case). being too obsessed with something means that you'll never be satisfied with "good enough" and is unhealthy. just like we see with that crazed gunman guy, he becomes obsessed with his mobile game and never becomes satisfied, even when he's got a pretty good job and a comfy life. it's also really interesting to note that money plays a big part in the story, but only a the bad guys care about getting it. odokawa shows that he doesn't care about being wealthy but just wants to be able to pay back the people who helped him out. taichi throws away his wealth (although it wasn't consensual, he didn't really seem like he cared too much about losing it), the mystery kiss superfan wants to use his 1 billion yen from the lottery to support mystery kiss instead of keep it greedily and futhermore gives odokawa a huge lump sum of it without batting an eye. the donkey comedian gets fame and wealth but he's shown not caring about the money. and the mystery kiss manager doesn't care about his idol group making large profits, he only cares about them becoming famous and achieving his dream. the only people who really care about making money are big brother daimon, dobu, and yano who are the bad guys in this story. the only exception is kakihana who goes into debt for his catfish. idk. maybe i'm reading into this too much. maybe there's nothing really here. maybe these are all things that exist solely to drive the plot. i'm not really sure.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 23, 2021 Recommended
NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
~~~ i just got out of the theater and i'm super tired so this is going to be short. i'll just go over the things that stick out really. i might edit this in the morning and be more detailed. ~~~ first off, let me just say that this movie was amazing. absolutely amazing. but as i think about it, i realize just how weird ... this movie is. mugen train forgoed all the things i disliked about the main series, but then also forgot to include the things i loved about it. in that sense, this movie felt like such a weird departure from the series even though it's cannon. in my review of the main series, the thing that bothered me a lot were the deus ex machinas, usually delivered in flashback form. my example of that is when tanjiro suddenly becomes an expert in his dad's fire dance despite never performing it himself. but this movie does such a good job at avoiding this. parts where i feel like "oh, there's definitely going to be a last minute save here" just didn't. like at the end, i kept thinking "oh another hashira is definitely going to come" or "the sunlight is going to appear right now", but neither of those things happened. it kept true to its guts. the thing that i praised the main series for in my review is how it humanizes the demons. every demon that tanjiro fights gets a backstory and you start to actually like them and feel bad for them. and then tanjiro usually has some heartwarming scene where he forgives them or something. i like that the bad guys aren't just evil for the sake of it and you get to sympathize with them a little bit. but in this movie, there's none of that. the bad guys in this movie are basically just evil to be evil. the sleep demon wants to kill people to become stronger and the martial artist wants to kill the weak. the other things that i can't stop thinking about is how i'll never get tired of the art style. the water and fire animations as they swing their swords always get me. it's just so good. while i'm on the topic of animation, it's also not exactly 100% clean. there are a few scenes where it's kind of obvious that the background was created separately from the characters which makes the characters feel out of place. like when the head demon slayer guy is walking in the graveyard at the beginning. the cgi used to animate the red goo (the train guy) also feels a bit jarring and out of place. it's forgiveable, especially since the fight animations are so good and clean. the artsts/director know how to prioritize their budget. they know that they can cut the budget in some areas a bit if it means they can make the fights spectacular and it really pays off.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 7, 2020
Deadman Wonderland
(Anime)
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THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future. ~~~ this review is going to be a short one because my reasoning for giving it a 6/10 is pretty straightforward. there's not much here for me to dissect. in short, i rated this so lowly not because i didn't enjoy it, but because it's unfinished. this is one of those shows that feels like it's just advertisement for the manga ... series since it doesn't resolve any of the story elements and didn't get any follow up seasons. the anime shrouds itself in mystery and does a good job teasing you onward and keeping you invested. it brings up questions you desperately wants answers and then gives you small glimpses at the overall picture without spoiling the truth. but it just feels so disappointing when the anime ends and literally nothing has been answered, saying "just read the manga!". and while i could read it and get invested in the series further, i don't really have that strong urge to pick it up. i'm sure it's great, but i just can't be bothered. other than that, the other thing that really annoys me about deadman wonderland is how it feels like the writer doesn't know what direction he wants to take the story or the overall feel of it. in the beginning, after the main character, ganta, arrives in prison, the show makes a big deal about cast points and the inner economy of the prison. without it you wouldn't be able to buy food, but more importantly, you wouldn't be able to buy the medicine to keep you alive. and the show shows us that the solution to this is to join events, like the dog race, which will reward winners with money. so this really builds it up like this is going to be the focus of the show: ganta is going to have to participate in these gruesome events which will slowly build his character and power and along the way he'll learn more about the red man. but then events like these are never mentioned again. so i guess it doesn't matter. and right after the dog race, ganta gets himself into this underground fighting ring that pits deadmen against deadmen. this is the real purpose of deadman wonderland and he's told that the winnings are are even greater than in events like the dog race. and he's even told that if he wins enough, he might be able to get his chance to face the red man. so now i think the series is going to focus on these 1 on 1 battles and ganta will win these slowly by the skin of his teeth. he'll become stronger and eventually this will lead him to the climax to fight the red man. but after two of these battles, it's never mentioned again. so i guess the show isn't that either. then the show becomes about a group of rebellion of deadmen trying to gain their freedom (mind you, that this is already more than halfway through the 12 episodes), so now i start to think the focus of the show is going to be ganta and this group's plan to break out which will result in them finding out about the wretched egg and will end with the battle against the red man. but then the rebellion arc ends and the show says something to the effect of "ganta and yoh are now back to their regular inmate lives", basically saying that the series is no longer going to focus on the secret underground deadman facility thing. so it constantly feels like the writers want to go in one direction, but then quickly switch it up and you get this really incohesive feeling. i know i wrote a lot about two reasons i didn't like deadman wonderland, but that doesn't mean i disliked it. i thought it was actually a pretty enjoyable watch. the conspiracy of the deadman wonderland's purpose and shiro and ganta's mysterious past are really interesting to watch unravel. it's just not enough to get me invested in continuing with the manga, but if there were a season 2, i wouldn't hesitate with starting it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 18, 2020
Tenki no Ko
(Anime)
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NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
~~~ to put it bluntly, this movie was a letdown. it's not that i thought this was a bad movie, but that it just wasn't good enough. it was decent overall: not good nor bad. and i think my main reason for this is because my expectations were too high. i've come to absolutely LOVE makoto shinkai's films and so while things like having ... absolutely gorgeous art or an amazing soundtrack would normally be very impressive, it's just become par for the course for a shinkai film. my biggest problem with this movie, however, is that it really does feel like kimi no na wa again, just not done as well. ~~~ i'll start with the things i enjoyed about the movie and gradually move down toward the things i actively disliked. to start with, the art as usual is astounding. it really is eye candy. i adored garden of words for making rain look beautiful, and this movie does it all again. the food being cooked, the water droplets making ripples, even the b roll of the city were all marvelous. you could take a screenshot of any part of this movie and it would make for a killer wallpaper. i also really love these characters. every character feels fully fleshed out. even the small characters like the detectives felt unique. i don't think i've ever seen an old guy and a "punk" be paired as detectives before. they both feel distinct from each other, down to the way they move and interact with their environment. and the main characters all get some love too. there's even little things like how mr. suda's niece (whose name escapes me right now) is job hunting. that never matters to the story at all, but it makes us feel like she's a real person. but my favorite character by far is mr. suda. our first impressions of him is that he's a scumbag who's willing to "take" money from a young boy. but we soon learn that he's really nice and caring and we're slowly revealed these things about his wife and daughter. you can tell that he truly does love his daughter and she can only be outside and play when the weather is clear. but for that to happen, he knows hina must sacrifice herself and even says that he's willing to sacrifice one person for good weather. and when he's fighting for custody of his daughter, we seem him kick out hodaka so he doesn't face any issues with the police. but at the same time, he really does care for the boy and sees himself in hodoka. we see mr. suda grapple with all of these things simultaneously. he wants to protect hodoka because he cares about him, but wants to go home to his daughter. he wants hodoka to save hina because that's what he wished he could save his wife, but wants his daughter to play and be happy. in the end, mr. suda tries to toe the line to do as much as he can on both ends, but eventually throws it all away for hodoka although he does get to have dates with his daughter at the end of the movie. makoto shinkai has really mastered the montage. both in kimi no na wa and again in tenki no ko, the montages helped express the characters. we get to see how they interact with things in small bites that help us get a feeling for the character as a whole. we get to see how their relationships with other characters grow and is a good way for us to get attached to each of them in a short amount of time, because that sort of thing takes a while. i found the soundtrack to be whatever. there was only one part of one song that i actually enjoyed (grand escape at around 2:30 onward). i didn't dislike the rest of the soundtrack, but nothing else really stood out to me. i didn't find myself bopping to anything else like i was with kimi no na wa. with the smaller things out of the way, i'd like to talk at length about the story. tenki no ko felt very standard. akin to how a modern day animated disney film might be good, but still feel like you've basically seen this exact same thing a few times before. the films basic story structure boils down to: main character by chance meets the love interest and saves her from abusive individuals by grabbing her and running away, then we find out that the girl is special in some way proceeded by a montage of the two living happily together just to have some big bombshell dropped on us usually concerning the girl having a devastating fate. the main character and the love interest try running away, but the girl ends up becoming the victim of said fate leaving the main character realize his yet to be requited love for the love interest. then there's some big music swing as he gets some unexpected help from friends who give him a pep talk which leads into a scene where he runs and screams about he's going to save the love interest or how he loves her which of course does happen in the end. and then everything ends up being all hunky-dory. that same basic structure is something i've seen in countless other anime to some degree (re:zero, your lie in april, castle in the sky, mahoutsukai no yome, and of course kimi no na wa). the one thing about the story i do applaud about the story is that there isn't a clean cut fairy tale ending. the world in the end isn't magically fixed and everyone lives happily ever after. by the end, tokyo is devastated by endless rain and half the city is underwater all because of hodoka's actions. it's refreshing to see an ending that isn't afraid to have a morally ambiguous ending. some things that really irked me about the story is the constant conveniency and the demanding of suspension of disbelief. things like how hodoka finds a gun in the trash and then proceeds to carry it around everywhere with him like a fucking idiot. i know he says it's his good luck charm and that he thought it was a toy, but you very well could've checked how real it was in the years you've been carrying it around with you. or how hina's ring just happens to fall right in front of hodoka and furthermore doesn't suffer any amount of damage. or how hodoka was just able to run out of a police station without anyone stopping him. or how both mr. suda and hina's little brother just happen to know exactly where hodoka is going despite both never even knowing about this place and its existence (to our knowledge). or how this JUST SO HAPPENS to be the same building that hodoka ditched the gun in in the first act. and a really small suspension of disbelief moment: how the gun fired despite suffering from years of water damage. ignoring any rust that physically might have stopped the gun from firing, if the powder or the primer soaks up too much water, the bullet becomes inert which is something that can happen if bullets are left in a humid environment for years. but this is just a tiny gripe from me because i don't really expect most people to know this stuff. if i were really nitpicking, i'd call to attention how the officers and detectives had poor trigger and muzzle discipline, but again, i don't really expect people to understand this. a big problem with tenki no ko is the lack of a heart dropping moment which this kind of movie sorely needed. this movie really needed to tug at your heart strings or make you gasp or make your stomach sink or make you release a breath you didn't now you were holding. maybe it was just me, but i saw most of the story coming from a mile away. so the parts that were supposed to achieve this feeling (ie. when hina dies) didn't really hit me as hard because i knew it was coming. and her death wasn't that sad to me because i knew she was going to get saved in the end. there was not a shred of doubt in my mind that they were not going to end up happily ever after. unlike in kimi no na wa where mitsuha's death just happens and you never in a million years would have guessed that she would just die in a flash like that. and then taki goes on this huge journey to find mitsuha and it's obvious he has no idea where she really lives and that section lasts so long that you start doubting yourself whether or not he's actually going to find her or not. and then the end of the movie has you guessing on whether or not they're going to be able to meet at the end, really playing with your emotions. especially because i've seen 5cm/s (also by makoto shinkai), i started to think it was going to have the same ending where both parties just split and that's it. only to have that last final scene where they recognize each other. without moments like this, tenki no ko falls flat and ends up feeling like a very samey or safe movie with no real tension. ~~~ lastly, i'd like to talk about how tenki no ko fails where kimi no na wa succeeds. one such example is exposition. the part where the old man is explaining the weather girl feels less like any kind of world building and more like shinkai just wanted to tell us that hina is going to die. there's no mystery to it; no sense of wonder; no supernatural feel. it's sort of just flatly told to us. contrast that with kimi no na wa's cryptic discussion about musubi or mitsuha's teacher's explanation of katawaredoki. these felt like they were explaining a part of a bigger world instead of just straight exposition meant to just feed us one piece of information. tenki no ko also had a lack of urgency during its climax. where kimi no na wa had a great momentum that it kept pushing further and further with taki running up the mountain, mitsuha telling off her dad, and the side characters each trying their best to evacuate the town. it flowed really well and each moment had you inching close and closer to your seat. but tenki no ko didn't really have me in suspense. picking it apart, it has all the elements of it: hodoka sprinting to the shrine but facing adversity at every step, all of hodoka's friends coming through to help out, and then finally falling through the sky, desperately trying to cling onto hina. but for some reason, i wasn't excited. i can't point to anything at all. on paper, i should've loved it, but i just didn't. maybe this is because i was expecting more, comparing it to kimi no na wa, or something else, but it all just fell flat on me. speaking of hodoka's friends coming through, tenki no ko's relationships felt a bit forced. in kimi no na wa, you get a good sense for each character's relationships with each other and get that human aspect of them. taki's friends, miki and tsukasa, both have their apprehensions about taki running off on a wild goose chase to find some girl he's never met in person. they each think he's crazy and shouldn't do this, but they both deeply care about taki and accompany him to keep him safe and see this through. mitsuha's friends, katsuhiko and sayaka, both also doubt the prediction of the meteor striking their hometown. they both think mitsuha is crazy and it takes a lot of convincing to get them on board. and even while they're doing their best to help out and evacuate the town, they're still saying to themselves that this is crazy and that they're going to get so much trouble out of it. but it's their friendship that keeps them going. but what depth does tenki no ko's side characters bring? with the exception of mr. suda, all the side characters just blindly support and follow hodoka. natsumi helps hodoka escape and evade the police without even a shred of doubt or hesitation. likewise, nagi also jumps in head first (literally and figuratively), willing to tackle the police without apprehension. it feels less like the friends are coming together to help the main characters with their goal and more like the plot just needed people to help the main character get from point a to point b. it feels more artificial and less organic than kimi no na wa.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 7, 2019
Kimetsu no Yaiba
(Anime)
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Recommended
NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
~~~ i'm pretty conflicted for my rating on this show. while i do enjoy shounen shows, i find that they're all pretty cookie cutter. the main characters in more recent shows always start as a "normal" person who isn't all that powerful but acquires their power through dedication and constant training. the MC always cries. they'll face certain hardships or experience some trauma that ... makes them cry and it's remembering this event that will give them strength later on. the main conflict is always good vs. evil and there's usually no gray area. people are either portrayed as pure good or pure evil. antagonists are usually evil for the sake of being evil and nothing more. i applaud kimetsu no yaiba for breaking some of these tropes and giving me a more interesting story, but it disappoints me to see them succumb to more tired cliches. ~~~ i'll start with what i like about kimetsu no yaiba. and when i say like, i really mean love. because there is a lot to love here. the thing i loved the most were the antagonists. most of the enemies that tanjiro defeats gets a backstory. you learn a little about who they are and you start to think that these demons aren't so bad. the show makes them seem like they're pure evil and i immediately thought this was going to be like every other shonen where they're evil just to because the story needs it. but i found myself sympathizing with the demons a lot. even though they've lost their humanity, deep down, these demons were once people too who had families, hopes, and dreams. there was one scene in particular where a demon sees tanjiro coming in for the killing blow, and at first, she tries thinking of a way out of it, but eventually decides to let him kill her to free herself of pain and suffering. demons aren't just mindless creatures who serve only to kill, they have feelings too and i can't help but relate to them sometimes. this was such a refreshing aspect to see in a shounen show and i can't commend kimetsu no yaiba enough for it. it reminded me of parasyte, which i absolutely loved. i also adored kimetsu no yaiba's art. the scenes with tanjiro using his water style swordsmanship are absolutely beautiful. the way the water stands out so much to the rest of the art (i think it's CG?) just makes it pop and really draws your eye. the fidelity of the art differs from scene to scene would normally be jarring and annoying, but kimetsu no yaiba uses that to their advantage. when tanjiro goes in for a killing move and you see a close up of his face and it's more detailed than normal, it really emphasizes this big climax and it makes me so hyped. the other part that REALLY stood out to me was muzan's base thing. this big mansion house thing that looks like it's straight out of an MC escher painting was absolutely beautiful. that whole sequence was just unbelievable and i couldn't get enough of it. if i were to really nitpick on this show though, the parts where the characters are CG instead of hand-drawn(?) are a bit jarring. it's something i could spot instantly, but it's not something to knock down kimetsu no yaiba for. they use it wisely, only using it in "boring" scenes when the characters are just walking, so it didn't really bother me much. one thing i found myself doing a lot was getting HYPED. this show knew how to get me to pop off. that first scene with zenitsu was crazy and i had to rewatch that a couple times. or that one scene when tanjiro mixes in his father's fire-breathing technique was POGGERS. this isn't really something i can describe in words well, but if a show can make me that excited, it's really worth mentioning. ~~~ now let me talk about what i dislike about kimetsu no yaiba. and when i say dislike, i really mean hate. because the things i dislike about this show really irks me. firstly, kimetsu no yaiba can't seem to follow it's own rules. or at the very least, kimetsu no yaiba is constanly amending previously established rules like a little kid who changes the rules of a game they made up while they're playing it. in the first episode, giyu, an EXPERIENCED demon slayer, tells tanjiro that his sister, nezuko, had "her wounds exposed to demon blood [so] she turned into a demon" (i quote this because that's what he says). so it's implied that you become a demon when exposed to any demon's blood. and it's coming from a reputable source too. but later it's revealed that only muzan, the original demon, can turn people into demons, so i guess giyu was too ambiguous OR the writer just changes the rules on us :thinking:. and even later we learn that tamayo (the demon doctor) was able to turn yushiro into a demon?? the show just can't decide how people become demons and it's pretty frustrating to follow. we're also told that a demon can only die by having their head chopped off by a special sword or by sunlight. but shinobu the butterfly girl also kills them with poison. so i guess they can die to that too?? while not explicitly stated, it's heavily implied that when a demon dies, everything connected to them disappears. for instance, the drum that the drum demon lost (and is being used by a child) disappears when killed by tanjiro. but the mom in the demon spider family's spiders don't disappear when she's killed and they actively effected the fight against the spider dad. and the spider brother's venom doesn't stop, nor do his spider abominations. why don't they?? other than changing it's own rules, kimetsu no yaiba seems to just forget things too. the show also establishes that a demon slayer's sword changes color depending on who's wielding it and that tanjiro's black sword is extremely rare to see. but when all those other low-level demon slayers are on the spider mountain, they all have black swords. it's like kimetsu no yaiba just forgot that swords are supposed to have different colors, so they just made them black by default. and the butterfly lady very clearly had a black sword too, so it's not as rare as it's made out to seem. tanjiro also gets a fox mask from his master urokodaki that has a protection spell on it, but it just straight up disappears at some point, never to be seen again. rewatching episode 5, we see the mask at the very beginning where the demon in final selection says he can tell that tanjiro is urokodaki's student because of the mask. and LITERALLY IN THE NEXT SCENE it disappears from tanjiro's head and never comes back. it also didn't protect him against shit. also, kimetsu no yaiba's characters just don't use common sense sometimes. like the mother in the demon spider family's ability is to use webs from her spiders to control people like a marionette. but wouldn't it be WAY more effective to just use those threads to kill people instead of having to take control of someone's body and slash other people? for the majority of those low-level demon slayers, she could've just snapped their necks (which is something she's able to do). and even for those clever enough to figure out what her ability is, you don't need the whole body to attack, you just need the sword. so just control the swords, not the bodies, there's no point to controlling the bodies. or when the pillars are deciding what to do with tanjiro and nezuko, urokodaki sends a letter to the master telling him that nezuko's harmless. but he REALLY should've at least mentioned that he put a spell on her so that she won't hurt them. that might've helped convincing them. i feel like there are a few more instances of this, but i can't really think of more. kimetsu no yaiba also follows a strict shounen formula. they present the big bad guy, but in order to get to him, you gotta face these 12 other big bad guys first. it's not that big a deal, but it irked me a little to see this trope which i've seen over and over again. don't give me such a structured plot, give me something that feels more organic. it also has very clear "power up" sequences where tanjiro goes out and trains for a while and then now he's stronger. it feels kind of cheap when you just throw in a montage of him training and then declare him a lot stronger. and the most annoying of them all, kimetsu no yaiba frequently uses flash backs and plot conveniences. "i'm under water. what am i going to do now? the enemy has the advantage! oh wait. i know this one move that's super powerful under water. i totally forgot about that." or "i've been injured this whole time, but haven't mentioned it once in the past three episodes so i'm only going to reveal this now during a flashback because the plot calls for a tougher fight" or "this guy's totally beating me. how am i going to be able to beat him?!? oh wait. i remembered my training in a flashback that has nothing to do with the fight so i guess i'm going to be able to beat him now" or "i need to beat this spider guy and save my sister, but i'm super fatigued. let me just have a flashback of my father who has never shown up in the show before this and reveal that he had a breathing technique that let him ignore fatigue and even though i didn't learn it myself, this flashback is enough to matrix-style teach me how" which is followed by "i once saw my dad do this weird fire dance that was never once mentioned before this episode and even though i never learned it, i somehow know how to combine that with my water style swordsmanship to make a fire blade". this all feels extremely cheap and annoying. it's like tanjiro only remembers things when the plot wants him to. they don't take the time to set up anything up beforehand. everything is shown to the audience moments before it becomes important. ~~~ i know it sounded like i hated on the show a lot, and that's partly true, but the unique art-style, refreshing view on antagonists, and it's hype moments were enough for me to ignore some the hate. i think without some of those better elements, this show would've been closer to a 6.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 19, 2018
Darling in the FranXX
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
~~~ oh my. what a fucking ride this has been. this show had so much promise, but ended in such an awful and terrible way. i want to rate it highly because the beginning was so expertly done, but the end was just so garbage that i think i have to peg down the rating all the way down. like always, i guess i’ll ... just vomit on the page with all my thoughts in no particular rhyme or reason ~~~ i’ll start off with all the little things i liked about the show. for one, i absolutely LOVED the use of negative space. it made the show feel unique and gave it a pretty stylized feel to it. it was pretty jarring, but in a good way. it sort of made you wake up and really pay attention to what was happening. a lot of times it was more than just to emphasize a scene. sometimes it augmented a scene, like transition from widescreen to fullscreen to mimic an eye opening as hiro confronts some sort of realization. sometimes it’s used to play with perspective. like in this scene [https://i.imgur.com/D45tV0J.gifv], negative space is used to switch up the placement of kokoro and mitsuru showing that they are looking passed each other, further emphasizing their disconnect. this use of negative space is by far my most favorite thing of the show darling in the franxx also constructed some scenes extremely well, paying very close attention to how they wanted it structured. for instance, this scene [https://i.imgur.com/G4G0w8O.png] shows hiro’s side very cluttered with naomi’s side more open. those two big pillars on the left symbolize how hiro is trapped by his failure to become a franxx pilot. naomi is positioned on the right facing backward showing that she’s at the end of the line (even though it’s later revealed that she doesn’t die), while hiro is the exact opposite. darlifra had a ton of other scenes like this and it’s blatantly obvious. but these kind of shots die down as the show continued. speaking of symbolism, darling in the franxx had a bajillion. everywhere you looked there was some sort of symbolism or metaphor or parallel. it’s unbelievable how much they were able to fit. and they really beat you over the head with some of them. like the male vs. female symbolism. all the guys’ uniforms had an upside down Y on them representing the Y chromosome while also making it look like a penis and balls. the girls had an X on them, also representing their chromosome. made more apparent toward the end, the red and blue color schemes each represented the characters sex (like how hiro had blue horns, but 02 had red ones). the show also beat you over the head with its sex metaphors. a lot of scenes of the cockpit of the franxx bots were framed to make it look like the guys were banging the girls doggy style. the male pilots were also called stamens (the male sex organs of plants) while the female pilots were called pistils (the female sex organs of plants) and the stamens “mounted” the pistils. darling in the franxx also had a lot of really small symbols and metaphors that were harder to catch. a majority of it either went over my head or i just got too lazy to research them. this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6GPp3CzZVo] goes into great detail about a lot of them. i respect the show for putting so much effort into all these literary devices (are they still literary if it’s a film?) and really shows how much thought and care they put into the show (at least the first half). i think it adds more to the show and only serves to deepen the experience and it by no means ever detriments the show. ~~~ i guess i’ll talk about some of the bigger stuff now like world building. i think this world was masterfully crafted (up until a certain point). but i’m a bit biased because i’m a sucker for the whole dystopian future, especially when people just “disappear” but no one really pays too close attention to it. i love the unfolding of this mystery. who are these kids? why do they live in seclusion? why are they forced to be the warriors? etc etc. and i think they way they tell us a lot of the information of the world is the best way to do it. it’s oversaid, but they “show not tell”. we don’t get the background and history of the world shoved down our throats via dialogue. instead, we’re thrown into this world and shown everything we need to know. things like how the world is just one big desert implies the world is dead and the plantations are the only human inhabitable places. the clothing designs (especially the adults’ clothes) imply wealth and power. etc. the best part of it all, is that it feels real. i’ve said this before, but it feels like it lives and breathes instead of existing solely for the purpose of the story. this is hard for me to explain but when world-building elements are only used or appear solely because it’s related to the story, the world starts to feel less real and more artificial. for instance, i think re:zero’s world feels very artificial. all the parts that make the world what it is are only shown to us when it affects the main character or the story. the crazy cult only exists because the story needed a villain. the marketplace was only there because the main character needed people to interact with. the city has powerful knights guarding it because the main character needs powerful friends. everything else feels pretty normal. the buildings, clothing, and scenery all look bland and familiar. nothing is put there with the sole purpose of creating depth to the world. compare this to made in abyss (i don't think it had the best world-building, but it has a good example). something as simple and familiar as a classroom is changed. the chairs are arranged vertically along the wall instead of horizontally on the floor. this didn’t serve any real purpose, but to reflect the abyss’ vertical nature and create a more interesting world. that classroom doesn’t even show up ever again. it’s only in one scene, but they still took the effort to make it unique which makes the world feel real. to tie this back into darling in the franxx, a lot of small details are added just to deepen the world. i’ve already talked about the clothing a bit, but they could’ve just given all the adults nice looking clothes that we’re familiar with, but instead they give them these ornate white uniforms. and they don’t even fit into the traditional shirt + pants combo. they’re jumpsuits with a cape, headdress, and a heart attachment. the architecture of the city also added to my immersion. the gold and orange hues covering the city with huge buildings all leading to a huge pillar in the center was breathtaking. again when they could’ve used traditional buildings, they used these ornate buildings instead to accentuate the wealth of the plantations inhabitants. moving on to the characters, i thought they were all pretty bland. each of the main cast really falls into the generic group of highschool friends tropes. you’ve got the main character whose character design is always just a blank canvas so that the audience can project themselves onto the character. he’s always got black hair that isn’t too expressive and visually doesn’t have a lot of defining features. you’ve got your childhood best friend who loves the main character, but the main character will never love them. she’s usually kinder and ends up supporting the main character in the end having come to terms with her unrequited love. you’ve got the main love interest who shows up out of nowhere and steals the main character’s heart. she usually acts unconventionally, often being aggressive, and ends up with a super unique design. you’ve got your best guy friend who gets the second most screentime amongst the guys and ends up being a pillar whom the main character can rely on. and then you’ve got your comic relief guy who acts really childish and always reminds me of young naruto. franxx introduce a few more characters into the mix, but they don’t have a lot going on for them. none of them are overly interesting. each character (not miku) gets their own mini-arcs that makes them a little bit less one-dimensional, but they don’t expand on or even mention each character’s internal struggles after they’ve been brought up with the exception of kokoro and mitsuru. i just think when i can describe most of the main cast with two words, then you know your characters aren’t very well fleshed out. and some characters straight up don’t have any character. miku never once shows us anything that worries or motivates her. nothing defines her character. ikuno’s whole thing is that she’s gay, but she’s given such little screentime, i often forget she even exists. even the most main character doesn’t have a lot going on under surface. he’s got a bit more than the rest, but hiro’s only ever motivated by one thing and doesn’t do anything outside of this. at first he strives just to become a franxx pilot and later strives to just be there with zero two. but he doesn’t do anything else other than work toward either goal. he seems almost alien when interacting with his team. if he’s not interacting with zero two, he’s basically a robot. he doesn’t show too much emotion or devotion to his squad. he doesn’t seem to care about anything other than his dino girlfriend. he only becomes emotional and passionate when zero two’s with him which makes his character feel very awkward. zero two is probably the best written character in the whole series. she’s a mystery for a while and has multiple things that drive her. she’s in a constant battle with her inhumanity, has strong desire to kill klaxosaurs, and ultimately wants to meet her darling (who is later revealed to be hiro). we see her balancing these things all the time and sometimes it even bursts out, becoming too much for her to bare. ~~~ with all that out of the way, i want to talk about the show chronologically because it actually matters. i thought the start of the show was fantastic. the first episode had basically everything i look for in a show’s start. it implies there’s deeper levels to the show, starts it off nice and slow, and gives us a taste for what’s to come. the use of negative space and scene construction as stated above also took me by surprise and pleasantly so. the stunning visuals along with the aformentioned worldbuilding tools really signaled to me that this was going to be a show worth watching. and franxx carries this momentum for a good long time. we’re slowly told things about the universe, unraveling little bits of the mystery. and we get to learn a lot about the main cast and their relationships and situation. we get to see the whole group grow together and become stronger. and while all this is going on, the show slowly gives us all the information we need about the world and the mechanics of this universe. there were a couple parts that irked me, however. the beach episode followed by the gender dispute (where the house gets split into boys and girls sections) left a bad taste in my mouth. it felt really out of place with it’s sudden change in tone and pacing and made the show feel more like a slice of life comedy with minor fanservice. but at the very least these episode are not without purpose. the beach episode shows us some history about the world and serves as the beginning of kokoro’s desire to give birth. and although i think it’s done in a lackluster manner, the gender dispute episode served to strengthen the bonds between the team, especially between kokoro and mitsuru. the episodes that followed also weren’t the best. there’s one dedicated to furthering goro’s character, introducing his unrequited love for ichigo. the next one is about zorome’s character whose problem gets solved by the end of the episode and has no effect on the rest of the series. that episode also does a lot for the world building and history, but feels out of place. this marked the fourth episode in which the plot hasn’t moved at all, so it feels like the show came to a standstill and really started to lose my interest. the show really picks up the pace after that though, showing us more lore, important character interactions (kokoro choosing misturu over futoshi), and zero two’s character development, while all leading up to the cour finale (episode 15) which was absolutely amazing. at this point i think the show is a solid 9/10 with the possibility to become a 10/10. but that all changed (when the fire nation attacked) right after the cour finale. right after episode 15, the kids learn to live on their own in their destroyed plantation. this goes on for three episodes culminating in the marriage between misturu and kokoro (pregnant). Papa interrupts this marriage because it’s illegal and has their memories wiped. i don’t have too much problem with these episodes. but i do think it destroys the pacing of the show (slowing it to a halt), drastically changing the tone, and really killing the sense of urgency the last episode had. the transition between the cour finale and this mini-arc felt way too abrupt. and these episodes really got me worried that this would be the scond cour’s beach episode+ again. but it’s not that bad. it’s forgiveable and doesn’t change my 9/10. but then we’re given a flashback episode that explains about the history of the world and it starts go downhill. first off, i don’t like whole episodes being devoted to giving us background, but this alone isn’t enough to knock my score down. but what this episode does is progress a plot that completely ruins the show. also as a side note, i think the klaxosaur queen was a stupid idea, but again, if they played their cards right, it wouldn’t affect my score. let’s take a look at episode 20, when shit really starts to hit the fan. the whole goal is to have an all out attack against the klaxosaurs so that strelizia can pilot a klaxosaur superweapon. this sounds like a big cop out on its own. and it makes me wonder why the klaxosaurs don’t already have possession of said superweapon and why they haven’t thought about using it. the klaxo queen knows everything about it. but she just let the humans create a huge tunnel leading to the weapon. she even gave them enough time to build equipment and a bigass elevator down there. but then strelizia can’t get in the door, which begs the question, why didn’t the humans test this before hand? they staged this all out attack and now they can’t even use their trump card. like what?? could’ve spent 10 minutes to figure out if this was even possible. anyway, the klaxo queen shows up, smashes zero two, and takes hiro and strelizia hostage. she enters and pilots the superweapon called apus which looks like a giant centaur with a horn. the design looks stupid. but then, OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE, a new enemy shows up. apparently the klaxosaurs existed long before humanity and had a fight with some aliens called the virm. they held off the virm using franxx ships (which may or may not be living) but knew they would return again. so the klaxosaurs hid underground, built apus as a defense weapon, and waited for the virm to return. and for some fucking reason, some klaxosaurs became magma. like what?? hello?? so the klaxos got mad that humanity was mining magma for use as energy. and now that the klaxo queen has apus, she’s going to use it to destroy the virm who are just in space for some reason. and then these purple fucks come out of nowhere and attack everything. so klaxo queen uses apus and finds out it has a virus implanted by the virm and we find out in a twist that the heads of APE are the virm. LIKE WHAT THE FUCK? ALL OF THIS SHIT COMES OUT OF LEFT FIELD? and then just like that the klaxos and humans become friends to fight off aliens from space. SERIOUSLY? WHAT IS GOING ON? IT’S WAY TOO LATE TO BE JUST NOW BE INTRODUCING THIS. nowhere at all during this show has it EVER hinted at any of this. this honestly sounds like a 14 year old kid lost his dad’s script and had to make up the ending himself and this is what we got. and then they continue this shit into episode 21. some shit happens, but zero two gets to hero in strelizia who is now dead. there’s some heartwarming stuff about how she loves him and that brings him back to life (which is bullshit). zero two pilots apus which then becomes STRELIZIA APUS and gets a makeover which is dumb. she resists the virus implanted by the virm and together with her love for hiro, they blast the fuck outta the virm. this scene was honestly so good. the swell of the music and the yelling really gets me. it gave me chills, teared up my eyes a little bit, and really felt like it wrapped up the show. if this was the ending (which it should’ve been), i probably would’ve given the show an 8/10, maybe a 9/10 if i was feeling generous. BUT THEN THE SHOW JUST KEEPS GOING. HAHA. FUCKING KILL ME. the episode ends with zero two in a decrepit state. i thought she was dead, but she’s not. from here on out, it gets EVEN FUCKING WORSE. episode 22 shows the kids trying to live in this harsh new environment. because for some reason all the fights have stopped. they don’t properly explain it, but literally all the klaxos are being launched into space so the humans have no one to fight i guess. and they just stopped giving a shit about the virm i guess? i don’t really know. it doesn’t make any sense at all. zero two is shown to be in a coma and myseteriously gets cuts all over her body. hiro is kind of dead. without zero two he has nothing. kokoro is really pregnant now. there’s some stuff about nina or whatever their caretaker’s name was. but honestly the transition between the last episode and this was so horrible. just abrupt like. everyone was fighting in mechs and then immediately everyone’s just trying to live a normal life. there wasn’t even a title card that read (a few days later) or anything. anyway, it’s revealed that zero two’s consciousness is actually inside of strelizia apus and so hiro decides he has to go to space to meet her. LIKE WHAT? WHY? HOW DID THAT EVEN FUCKING HAPPEN? going into episode 23, we’re given so many fucking coincidences and stupid shit. fuck me. first off, they have go get to space. and just coincidentally there happens to be a “klaxosaur ship, but for some strange reason, [they can] access its internal systems” LIKE WHAT? WHAT A FUCKING COINCIDENCE. ITS OKAY SHOW. DON’T EXPLAIN IT. THAT’S FINE. and i quoted that because it comes straight from the show btw. and then while aboard said ship in space, they said the controls were similar to what they’re used to. LIKE WHY? fuck. also the franxx ships get space upgrades. for no reason. they look different and now adorn all black with alien weapons. and they just explain it with one sentence, “new space equipment for the franxx”. LIKE WHAT THE FUCK. WHERE DID THIS SHIT EVEN COME FROM? AND WHY?? this is just classic trigger. they ALWAYS have to have some costume change at the end and it always has to end with friendship wins in space. and it honestly doesn’t fit. also we know that the nines can be used as stamens or pistils regardless of gender. but do we ever find out why? no. even though it’s explicitly stated that two of the same gender can’t pilot a franxx and the genders actually matter. but fuck it. this rule doesn’t apply to the nines because we said so. it doesn’t need to make sense. hiro makes it inside strelizia apus and there’s some thing about how zero two doesn’t want him there, but he loves her and love prevails. and then strelizia apus becomes STRELIZIA TRUE APUS because the hero needs an ultimate final form. and the worst part? this gigantic, mountain tall robot SOMEHOW FOR NO EXPLAINABLE REASON HAS ITS BODY CHANGED TO LOOK LIKE ZERO TWO? [https://i.imgur.com/UYffbYY.jpg] LIKE WHAT? HOW IS THIS MACHINE CAPABLE OF CHANGING THE WAY IT LOOKS??????? ALSO. ZERO TWO’S BODY ON EARTH TURNS TO STONE. TO FUCKING STONE. WHY? IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER. NONE OF THIS DOES. WHAT THE FUCK?????? we then learn that there are some asteroids near mars that are actually satellites that create a wormhole and the plan is for strelizia apus to take a bomb (the klaxo ship that they’ve been piloting) to the virm and blow them up. this is a one way trip. LIKE WHAT? IF THE KLAXO’S PLANNED THIS FROM THE START (which they’d have to). WHY’D THEY MAKE THE WORMHOLE SO FUCKING FAR AWAY??? WHY NOT JUST BUILD IT NEXT TO EARTH??? anyway, time for the finale: episode 24. this is basically an epilogue episode. we see the kids on earth grow up and foster a new generation. they get married, have kids (a ton of fucking kids) and create a new society. meanwhile, hiro and zero two have been traveling in space for YEARS. like why doesn’t the wormhole lead straight to where they’re going? even after going through that wormhole, they still gotta travel for like 3 years. and then they finally get to the virm homeworld or whatever and start their space battle. and when things start getting tough, FOR SOME FUCKING REASON, THE CREW ON EARTH ARE LIKE. I THINK THEY’RE IN TROUBLE. SO THEY ALL HOLD HANDS NEXT TO THE PETRIFIED ZERO TWO BODY AND START SAYING SHIT LIKE WE BELIEVE IN YOU. AND THEN HIRO HEARS THEM???? and then strelizia apus gets a hold of an enemy weapon and THEN THAT WEAPON GETS A MAKEOVER TOO FOR NO REASON. the moment they get a hold of it, it turns from purple to red and white to match strelizia’s color pattern. they take it and ram forward toward the virm homeworld and then let go of it for no reason. like it served no purpose. they didn’t fucking need the thing at all. and then they pick up the bomb to blow up the virm. BUT FOR SOME REASON, STRELIZIA APUS DISINTEGRATES, LEAVING ONLY SMALL STRELIZIA EXCEPT IT’S ALL GOLD NOW FOR SOME REASON. BECAUSE THEY WANTED ANOTHER ULTIMATE FINAL FORM. then the bomb explodes, but the virm aren’t completely destroyed and vow to come back. so i guess there wasn’t a purpose to hiro and zero two’s sacrifice?? and then their souls drift off into space i guess. BUT THEN BACK ON EARTH, ALL THE PEOPLE KNOW THE FIGHT IS DONE. LIKE HOW?????? WHAT THE FUCK? THEY’RE FUCKING MILLIONS OF LIGHTYEARS AWAY, BUT YET YOU ALL KNOW SOMEHOW THAT THEY JUST FINISHED THEIR BATTLE. AND THEN ZERO TWO’S PETRIFIED BODY FUCKING DISAPPEARS AND BECOMES DUST. AND THEN A FUCKING TREE GROWS WHERE THE BODY WAS. LIKE WHAT THE FUCK? IT DOESN’T MAKE AN OUNCE OF SENSE. FUUUUUUUCK. and then in the distant future where mankind is thriving, two kids meet under the tree that grew where zero two’s body became dust who obviously look like hiro and zero two, but younger. AND IT HAS THE GALL TO END THE SHOW WITH A WHITE TITLECARD THAT READS “AND A NEW STORY BEGINS”. fuck those endings. i hate them. ~~~ this ending has got to be the worst ending i’ve ever seen in anything. it somehow took the most promising show i’ve seen in a long time and fucking trashed it. at least if a bad show ended poorly, you kind of already know it’s going to happen. but darling in the franxx started off so well and then took the biggest, moistest, steaming pile of shit right on the screen. like fuck man. this is the biggest fucking letdown ever. i think i’ve decided on a 4/10. but honestly, i could see myself rating it lower in the future. i feel like i had to give it some merit for doing so many things so well, but i can’t get over how fucking horrible the end is. i don’t know. this show is definitely lower than a 6/10, but deserves more than 2/10. i don’t really know what to give it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 14, 2018
Made in Abyss
(Anime)
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NOTE: this review is for my own personal use only. i've noticed after a while, i forget why i rated a show highly or poorly, so i'm going to write reviews after completing each series so i can reference them in the future.
FUUUUUUUUCK. I'M SO FUCKING MAD RIGHT NOW. I SPENT AN HOUR FORMULATING MY THOUGHTS AND WRITING IT ALL DOWN HERE JUST TO CTRL+W THE WRONG TAB AND DELETE EVERYTHING. FUUUUUCK. so I’m going to attempt to rewrite everything from memory. I had it all laid out and everything. this is going to be worse than what I wrote earlier (because I just don’t have ... the drive anymore) and I’m invariably going to forget some things, so bare with me future me. I had high expectations coming into made in abyss (it is #20 on MAL afterall) and for the first 3/4s of the show, it felt really underwhelming. it felt like your typical light-hearted adventure shounen, and I thought to myself, “if this is all this show has to offer, then it’s a 7 at best”. but as the first major thing happened at episode 10 of 13, I began to realize why it was so highly rated. but even so, the show had many glaring faults that I almost rated this an 8. but this show does some things exceedingly well that I think it just barely deserves a 9. ~~~ but before I get in to all of that, let me first talk about all the little things. for starters, the world-building was fantastic. the world felt imaginative and wonderful and wholly unique – something we just don’t see nowadays. I honestly felt like I was watching lord of the rings for the first time again. but the world didn’t really feel real to me. I know that sounds weird but, it just doesn’t feel lived in. I don’t know how to explain this too well, but I’ll try my best. the things in this world feel like they exist just for the story and nothing else. it lacks the details that are there solely to expand the world. for example, the desks in the classroom of the orphanage are arranged vertically against the wall. the creators could’ve set it up traditionally (like in our world) and no one would’ve batted an eye. but instead they chose to do it in this unique way for seemingly no reason. it just adds a bit more depth to the world (and as a bonus, reflects the verticality of the abyss). but we don’t see this happen again. a lot of the creatures have purpose in the story whether it be attacking the main characters or helping them out. none of them exist just to expand the world. the creators even miss some great opportunities to shove more depth creating choices in. like when nanachi fishes, she uses a regular fishing rod we’re accustomed to seeing. they could’ve replaced that with an artifact or some home-made tool created from scavenged parts. that would’ve made it feel more real, but instead they chose to use a regular ol’ fishing rod. I really disliked the amnesia cliché. it’s not that I hated the use of it, but more like I hate how they used it. it’s something I’ve seen a dozen times and this show doesn’t attempt to stand out at all. it’s the same old thing. have your character forget everything that happened before x event, then every once in a while drop a whisper that seemingly comes from nowhere or a flashback in the middle of a conversation or an illusion that appears at a crucial moment and have your character respond with “what was that?” or “this feels familiar” or “I remember something”. this is really lazy writing. it means the author can just slow or excel the plot just by having the character experience a flashback. they can also just introduce whatever information they need or have their character gain life-saving knowledge out of nowhere just by writing in an amnesia episode. to be fair though, it did draw me in and get me to wonder exactly what the relationship is with regu and riko’s mother, but it’s a cheap way of getting your audience interested. the show also delivered all of its information through exposition which felt a bit tired. every time something needed to be explained, it had to be one character explaining it to another. like when nanachi was explaining how the curses work. I would’ve been fine with “it gets weaker the farther you are from the center”, but instead they felt the need to overly explain this topic and present it to us in exposition. these moments also feel really out of place. it just feels so abrupt like, “hey kids, are you ready? cause it’s explaining time!”. it just doesn’t flow at all. honestly, leaving the mechanics of this world a mystery gives it its charm. speaking of mechanics, I hate how it only works when it’s convenient to the plot. the one rule the world sets up is “if you ascend, then you’ll suffer the curse of your level”. but it’s really vague about it. for instance riko walks up a pretty mild incline (it’s honestly not any worse than a ramp for wheelchairs) and suffers from nausea and delusions. but when regu grabs riko and jumps, an act that requires you to gain height, riko is seemingly unaffected. or when riko goes from lying down to standing up, shouldn’t she feel the effects? because that small hill couldn’t have been any taller than 5 feet. also, when she reaches the top of that hill, she recovers from her symptons nearly instantly. but when she’s being pulled upward by regu after retreating from the spike monster, she doesn’t feel anything during the ascension (like earlier), but instead feels it only AFTER they’ve stopped ascending. it really doesn’t make any sense to me. regu also later gets worried that riko will feel the affects when they come across what looks to be such a tiny incline that I can’t be any bigger than 2 feet. it’s very confusing. I know this is just a minor quip, but it really breaks my immersion. I’m also very annoyed at the show’s sexual tendencies. I really don’t want to think about this little boy popping a boner and I definitely don’t want to constantly be shown this 12 year old girl’s naked body. and I could really do without regu constantly blushing over riko’s nakedness. it doesn’t really add anything to our story or the relationships between our characters. it feels really awkward. also what’s with this show’s obsession with pee? riko pisses herself like 5 times for no reason. ~~~ with that out of the way, I want to move on to the bigger portions of the show. let’s start with the main characters. I appreciate that the two really compliment each other. with riko having great mental fortitude (her drive to always strive forward toward her mother), but being physically weak while regu has great power, but is mentally inadequate. and for the most part, the characters are alright. they don’t really change all that much though, but that’s forgiveable since it’s not a complete story yet. the one thing that bugged me was when regu broke character. regu was set up as a character who didn’t have the guts to do what needed to be done and instead chose to cry. he couldn’t steel himself to amputate riko and without her, he’s really quite hopeless. but when he was ordered to kill mitty, he did it almost without hesitation. yes, it did take a while to warm up to the idea, but I feel like it would’ve been more in-line with his character if he just couldn’t muster up the strength to actually do it. if he had aimed his arm, gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and then… just couldn’t do it. and then if nanachi had to come up and yell at him and push him before he finally did it. that would’ve fit his character more. the thing that really sells this show, though, is its atmosphere and how it uses it. it looks and feels like your run of the mill light-hearted adventure shounen. it shows you the end goal right at the start, it shows you a bunch of “bosses” in the form of white whistles, and even has the OP power with severe drawback. but this upbeat tone hides a really melancholy tale. the story follows an orphan living in a world where it’s normal to be an orphan. she decides at the age of 12 to essentially commit suicide to find her mother. she embarks on a journey from which she knows she can never return, because doing so could mean a fate worse than death. and the farther and farther she goes, the worse and worse it gets. and yet, it still manages to keep that happy atmosphere. and it brilliantly uses that to contrast those gruesome moments to further accentuate the pain. I’m of course talking about riko’s near amputation and mitty’s mercy-killing. when riko was lifted up by regu to escape the porcupine beast, I began to lose it. having to watch this kid bleed relentlessly was hard to stomach. and then regu had to break her arm and try to cut off her hand. god. that slow, gnawing, dull motion of the knife shook me to my core. it wasn’t just a clean chop with a cut to black. no. it was one slice after another. it really made me feel like I was going to throw up. I couldn’t even watch it properly. I ended up watching through my fingers like a little kid watching a scary movie. but mitty’s death was different. it didn’t hit us instantly like with riko, we were given time to mull it over ourselves. we’re pretty much told she’s going to die and then spends a healthy amount of time getting us to become attached to her. then when it became time, I couldn’t help but shed tears. but it wasn’t her death that really hit me. it was her transformation. the distorting of the body and her pleas to die. god those pleas. that will haunt me. even after that, mitty’s suspended state of living was just so sorrowful. I mean she responds to her name and acts of her own volition, but they’re merely reflex. it’s not actually her. and yet, you know she’s trapped in there somewhere. god. can you imagine the pain of having your most dear treasure, but not actually having it? the pain I felt from this was dull compared to riko’s near amputation. if I had to compare them, I’d say riko’s event was akin to a blade, it was fast and hurt physically. but mitty’s was like cancer: it’s slow and you know it’s coming, but it hurts you spiritually. these two moments alone are what made me think this show just barely deserves a 9. I haven’t seen such good contrast between light-hearted and dark despair since madoka magica. it hits you like a bus and they left such a strong impression on me. I’m sure I won’t forget this for as long as I watch anime. to switch gears here, I’m disappointed that the show didn’t have the guts to permanently damage their characters. I would’ve loved to see riko get her arm amputated. not because I’m a sick fuck like that, but because it could serve as a character defining point. it would strengthen her resolve and determination, showing that she’s willing to make the big sacrifices to reach her goal. now I know you’d say “but she has a scar, that’s permanent damage”, but it just doesn’t leave as strong an impact and they didn’t really play with it. it didn’t do anything for her character. and now the writers have more laziness they’ve worked in. I can guarantee that whether or not this hand will work or when it hurts is going to be purely up to plot convenience. do we need riko to hold on to something and create suspense? have her hand lose strength because she’s not fully healed. and when it becomes too bothersome to work with a gimped arm, all they have to do is write in a small time skip and have her say “my arm’s feeling a lot better now”. it bothers me that I see this. ~~~ honestly, I’m still debating whether this show deserves an 8 or 9. it does what it does very well, but it has some very glaring flaws. and the unfinished story doesn’t help either. I can’t really judge the story because of it. but if I’m going to be honest, I don’t think this show is going to get better, in fact, I think it’s going to get worse. if the show relies on its shock factor, it’s going to get really old really quick. soon I’ll just roll my eyes as another tragedy unfolds. and the current adventure style story they’ve set up doesn’t seem all that special either. it’s just so cookie-cutter. and I’m willing to bet the ending of the story hasn’t yet been thought up so the writer will end up rushing it at the end and we’ll be left with an unsatisfying conclusion. who knows.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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