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Feb 19, 2023
Note: Please be advised that because the light novels go into material concerning major plot and character elements of the Tenchi Muyo OVA series, there is the likelihood that I will dabble into spoilers concerning these throughout this review. Unless you have seen at least the first three Tenchi Muyo OVAs, I’d advise against reading this review at the risk of spoiling your experience watching the series.
The True Tenchi Muyo light novel series is supplementary material for the classic OVA series that explores elements of the series lore never dabbled into for the anime and is written by series creator Masaki Kajishima. It helps to
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bridge the gap between the second and third sets of OVAs within the OVA continuity for the Tenchi franchise.
The set comes in three volumes: Jurai, Yosho, and Washu. Jurai explores how Azusa, the father of Yosho, Ayeka, and Sasami, would travel to Earth during Japan’s feudal era to meet and bring his first wife, Funaho, to Jurai. Yosho explores the hardships that the prince faced being raised on Jurai due to his half-Earth, half-Jurai bloodline and his times at the Imperial Science Academy, where he’d meet his future wife Airi. Washu explores the times of our “greatest scientific genius” at the Imperial Science Academy after being raised at an orphanage, with focus mainly on the bond she establishes with close friend Naja Akara and the relationship she has with student Mikamo Kuramitsu, whom OVA fans will know as Washu’s former husband brought up from episode 8 of the OVA series.
The True Tenchi Muyo light novels have their place in the lore of the Tenchi OVA continuity, as they go into a good deal of detail on major elements of the series timeline that the anime doesn’t dabble too heavily into. Major elements of the series such as the formation of the Juraian Empire and the Imperial Science Academy gaining independence from Jurai rule are mentioned and explored at points during the novels. But the central focus of each novel is the exploration of each individual character’s pasts and their contribution to events that would shape things for later within the OVA timeline with Tenchi and the girls. Like the Tenchi anime, the novels strike a decent balance of both humor and serious moments as it explores the pasts of Azusa, Yosho, and Washu in each novel. The story developments explored with each character add more dimension to elements of their backstory and other characters who are affected by them in some capacity. Each novel also has a prologue featuring Tenchi and the girls within the present relating to an event connected to the character story that would be explored in each novel.
There is one thing that may be a big issue to Western fans with the novel series. While the Jurai and Yosho stories largely resolve themselves by their end, the Washu novel covering parts of Washu’s backstory doesn’t cover everything about her origins. As Washu’s character backstory is a rather complicated one compared to many characters within the Tenchi OVA continuity, parts of her origins are covered in a number of other doujin and interviews by Masaki Kajishima that have largely never left Japan, limiting the amount of known information that those outside the country can get to know about Washu that include her time as a Choushin before turning human and her creation of Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki. The lack of access to other supplementary material outside Japan for the Tenchi franchise has been an issue for recent anime installments of the OVA continuity, and it seems this issue also extends to further exploring other elements of Washu’s past beyond the True Tenchi Muyo novels.
While the limited access of supplementary materials for Tenchi OVA Western fans is a major issue, I suppose you could consider it a surprising miracle that one of the materials finally received a Western release with the True Tenchi Muyo light novels. They offer a solid look into the pasts of important characters within the Jurai Royal Family and some parts of Washu’s past, offering the OVA’s engaging balance of humor and serious developments throughout each novel. But it’s still a shame many Western fans won’t get easy access to additional materials that dabble more into Washu’s past, as well as stuff that dabbles into later events of the OVA continuity for Western fans that have stuck to the Tenchi Muyo franchise over the past couple decades. The True Tenchi Muyo novels are a definite recommendation for those that dabble into the Tenchi franchise. Just be warned that it doesn’t dabble into everything regarding the origins of some major characters within the OVA continuity.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 22, 2023
Set in a mysterious mansion, Shadows House focuses on the denizens of the titular household each having their own Living Doll that regularly clean up the soot emitted from the bodies of their Shadow masters or mistresses. The series mainly focuses on the young Shadow, Kate, and her Living Doll, Emilico, slowly developing a bond together. But as the two spend more time within the mansion with other Shadow and Living Doll pairs, they come to realize some rather dark secrets involving its denizens.
Shadows House is a series where first appearances can be deceiving. While seemingly starting off as a sort of slice-of-life series involving
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the everyday happenings within the mansion, the series gradually dabbles into elements of mystery and drama as episodes progress. Delving into elements of said mystery would be major spoilers for what the series as a whole potentially offers up in later episodes and beyond. But what is explored about the true nature of the Shadows House and its denizens offers some engaging plot developments, themes, and world-building that help further flesh out the series. The only setback with this mystery is that its story continues beyond what this first season offers up and while a second TV season aired last year that continues the story of Shadows House, its manga source material is still ongoing as of the time I write this review. To my understanding, the final three episodes of the series have a story arc exclusive to the anime that may or may not sit well with fans of the manga series.
The major element of the series that serves as its highlight are the bonds between the Shadows and their Living Dolls. The Living Dolls are expected to serve as a sort of personal tool for the Shadows they serve and mimicing their actions while communicating with others due to the Shadow's lack of a face. The five pairs of young Shadows and Living Dolls focused on, alongside Kate and Emilico, are shown to have varying degrees of personality and chemistry between one another, each Shadow having different perceptions of how they view their Living Doll and having varying degrees of development as they undergo the trials of the nobles throughout the middle part of the series. Our main pair of characters, in particular, undergo a good deal of development throughout Shadows House with Kate becoming less reserved and growing trusting of Emilico as their bond develops.
Visually, Shadows House employs a gothic and regal aesthetic to go along with the mysterious, classy environment that the denizens of the titular mansion strive for. The settings and attire of the series appear inspired from Western Victorian Era attire that look accurate to the setting of the time period that Shadows House is seemingly emulating. The highlight of the show's animation comes from the unique nature and abilities of the Shadows. Their bodies emit soot depending on their emotional state and each one demonstrates unique abilities utilized during later episodes of the series. The series does a great job animating these elements to the Shadows while still retaining the anime's overall animation quality.
Overall, Shadows House makes for an engaging mystery-drama exploring the developing bond between Kate and Emilico, as well as the true nature of the titular mansion and its inhabitants. Being based on an ongoing manga series, the series does suffer from the typical shortcomings of being an adaptation with lacking a proper conclusion and not having all its story elements fully fleshed out. But the mentioned second TV season does continue the story, which I hope to have the opportunity to dabble into at some point.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 30, 2022
Chainsaw Man is a series I’ll admit isn’t my typical cup of tea considering my murky interest nowadays with many shounen titles. Well known for its gory violence and dark humor, the series is set in a world where devils are capable of gaining power depending on the amount of fear humans have toward specific objects or concepts.
Living in debt to the yakuza, a young man named Denji works as a Devil Hunter to pay off said debt using his chainsaw devil companion, Pochita, as his weapon. However when the yakuza attempt to make him into a sacrifice as part of a contract with
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a devil, Denji makes his own contract with Pochita to become a human-devil hybrid known as Chainsaw Man to slay them. Approached by a government-ran devil hunting agency called the Public Safety Division, their leader Makima persuades him to join their ranks and combat devil threats.
On the surface, I’ll admit the premise of Chainsaw Man had me assuming it was aiming to be a dark and gritty action series relishing in its gory violence and the merciless actions of the various devils affecting the populace. Instead, the series is shown to have a bit more meat to its story with how its tone and setting are established. With humans and devils having a parasitic-like relationship between humans relying on contracts with them for some sort of purpose and devils feeding on the fear humans give off of their existence to become more powerful, this is reflected in how bleak and hopeless humanity’s existence in this world is through the members of the Public Safety Division. Each have different perceptions of their roles within the agency between those unaccustomed to fighting devils becoming a nervous mess breaking from the pressure and the more seasoned agents being so emotionally exhausted from losing those close to them that they become emotionally hardened or focus on some sort of quest of revenge as a means to continue mentally functioning within their line of work.
These elements also carry over to how they shape Denji’s character throughout Chainsaw Man in a more believable way with the “idiot hero” character type used in a decent number of shounen titles. Being orphaned, stuck in debt, little social experience, and lacking a formal education due to his circumstances, the boy’s brash and simple character is more a result of these rough circumstances instead of just sticking the character type onto the lead character. These subversive elements also carry over into Denji’s desire for sexual gratification through his thoughts of Makima and finding out things are not as he would perceive when getting what he desires.
On the visual side, Chainsaw Man is easily one of the more visually impressive titles I’ve seen for this year. Character designs have a good amount of visual detail and are on the more believable side as far as how they are drawn, something that appears to be deliberate from the show’s creators to give the series a realistic feel. The action scenes make for the visual highlight of the series with devil-on-devil or human-on-devil combat as they offer fluid movement and retain the manga’s intense and gory violence. The series highlight for me as far as action goes would probably be Denji’s final battle with the Katana Man in the final episode of the series. The only low point I have with the visuals is that a number of the devil designs are a bit on the generic side with their grotesque appearances.
If there’s a major issue with Chainsaw Man, it largely comes from the fact that the series is adapted from ongoing source material. The series drops hints regarding a few characters having more going on with them beneath the surface, particularly with Makima’s actions and behavior. But these developments get further explored beyond the first five volumes of the manga series that the Chainsaw Man anime adapts and at least as of the time I write this review, news of a second anime season has yet to be announced.
In short, I can see where the hype for Chainsaw Man comes in with depicting the conflict between humans and devils, as well as subverting some of the typical cliches of the shounen “idiot hero” with Denji’s character. This kind of series isn’t my cup of tea as far as what it offers up for humor and storytelling. But still as far as dark and violent action titles go, I’d at least recommend sampling the series if you like dabbling into those sorts of anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 24, 2022
The second season of Classroom of the Elite continues exploring the students of Class D overcoming the different challenges assigned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing School to test their cohesion and individual capabilities under the school’s merit-based system, with things intensifying with the class’ rivalry with Class C led by the feared Kakeru Ryuuen.
The second season retains focus on the competition for students in each class to overcome different challenges through working out the rules and mechanics of the challenges and working within or exploiting loopholes with said rules to have things swing in their favor. This element still makes for one of the
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more engaging elements of the series with characters learning to work with one another or conspire against one another to gain whatever advantage they can get. This makes up the majority of Season 2’s story arcs, though is focused on as equally as the issues that stir up between Class C and Class D throughout the season that builds up in intensity as Class C becomes more suspicious of Class D’s “leader” sabotaging their chances at victory.
One major strength of this season to Classroom of the Elite is that it devotes time to further fleshing out and developing its characters. In particular, Kiyotaka’s character gets more fleshed out in regards to his past and motives, while also undergoing some development as he comes to gradually view a few of his classmates to be more than just valuable pawns to take advantage of. Increased focus is also shown on Kei Karuizawa, a seemingly minor character from Classroom of the Elite’s first season who becomes a major character to aid in Kiyotaka’s plans throughout much of the second season. Suzune’s character is also shown to undergo some major developments to get over her abrasive personality affecting her ability to befriend others and becoming less dependent on Kiyotaka to overcome any of the school challenges.
These praises aside, Classroom of the Elite II still carries similar weaknesses as its first season in that audiences may not like like many of the characters within the series due to the title’s jaded stance on school life reflected with its premise. Kikyo and Ryuuen, in particular despite their strategical capabilities, are pretty shallow as far as their personality and what their main motives are. Plus, it’s rather rough at points for me to think if I should root for Kiyotaka or not considering his manipulations and regarding his classmates as pawns to utilize for his plans, even with the gradual character development he undergoes in this season. In addition, the series still ends inconclusively as there are ongoing developments with the series’ plot that remain unresolved due to its light novel source material still ongoing as of this review. However, a third season of the series is currently in the works and slated to air sometime next year.
In short, I admit my reception to Classroom of the Elite II is just as mixed as my viewing of its first season. While the challenges faced by the classes are still engaging and this season actually features some fleshing out and development of some major characters, others are still rather shallow and Kiyotaka’s character is still rather questionable in whether or not I can connect with him due to how he perceives his classmates, alongside the title’s trademark cynical approach to exploring high school life. If you enjoyed the show’s first season, you’ll likely get similar enjoyment out of this latest installment of Classroom of the Elite if you’re still watching the series up to this point.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 20, 2022
Set in a fantasy-like setting and focused on the young prince Bojji, Ranking of Kings explores the prince dealing with overcoming being ostracized by others due to his small size in spite of being the son of the giant king, Bosse, and being born deaf with the inability to talk.
Ranking of Kings is another anime where first appearances can be deceiving, both with its aesthetics and storytelling premise. While seemingly aimed for a younger audience with the storybook like visuals and fairy tale setting, the series is shown to have a more mature and serious focus to its storytelling with its tone and themes.
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The series isn’t afraid to show how cruel and merciless conflict and hostilities between others can be, particularly with the violent consequences that can result with them as Ranking of Kings can get quite brutal and bloody in showing such events off.
The series also puts emphasis on the idea that initial appearances can be deceiving when judging its characters. This is best showcased with our main character, Bojji. Being deaf and not inheriting any of his father’s superhuman strength as a giant, many perceive him as being helpless and incapable of being independent. Episodes of the series show that the boy has potential to be more than what others perceive of him with his quick speed and being more aware of happenings around him, with characters gradually coming around to giving him the confidence and abilities necessary to fully make use of his strengths. In addition, the series does a pretty solid job of depicting subtle elements of Bojji’s deafness as other characters can communicate with him using sign language, he picks up on the ability to understand others through following lip movements, and his inability to properly verbally communicate with others.
The recurring theme of characters having more to them beneath initial appearances also carries over to many of the characters seen throughout the series. Seemingly villainous or sinister characters are shown to have more to their personalities and motives as Ranking of Kings takes the time to flesh out many of them, the series also doing this at points to misdirect the audience in perceiving the motives of some major characters to keep its plot developments from getting too predictable. For the most part, the series does a pretty solid job dabbling into this theme as it introduces and fleshes out members of its fairly large cast.
The series does have a bit of an issue in how it handles developments involving one of its characters serving as a major antagonist. Limiting spoilers, I’ll just say that the misdeeds committed by this character make it hard to sympathize with them in spite of what gets fleshed out about their backstory and what led them to commit to their actions. Plus on the subject of said backstory, it sadly goes against the themes that Ranking of Kings established with most of its other characters, as it has its irredeemable villains and is also somewhat controversial as elements of it mirror some real life historical events involving tensions between Japan and Korea.
This major blemish does put somewhat of a damper a bit on my reception to Ranking of Kings, as I otherwise mostly found the storytelling and characters to be mostly solid with not judging things at surface value and deconstructing some of the typical tropes of fairy tales. Others haven’t let these problematic elements effect their enjoyment of the series and consider it a potential favorite of the year for 2022 for its high points. But I’d at least say your mileage may vary with what is fleshed out with the title’s antagonist.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 6, 2022
Set in the near future, Time of Eve explores the interactions between humans and androids as the latter have come into common use for humanity’s conveniences. High school student Rikuo Sakisaka owns a home android named Sammy and realizes she has been behaving unusually independent as of late. Investigating Sammy’s activity, Rikuo and his close friend, Masakazu Masaki, encounter an unusual cafe called the Time of Eve where humans and androids are allowed to interact with one another normally without fear of prejudice.
Over a decade ago, my first exposure to Time of Eve was through its ONA adaptation released online. I will admit it was
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one of the very first titles of the ONA format that I developed a strong liking to between its visuals and the amount of storytelling and character exploration it was able to flesh out over its six episodes. This film version of the series includes a few new scenes that don’t necessarily add much new to Time of Eve. Still, this version retains every little scene from the ONA without anything cut from it, which is a plus over most compilation films I see based off any TV anime. I guess I can consider watching the movie as a refresher to explore what I think of Time of Eve after last seeing it over 12 years ago.
Time of Eve’s greatest strength comes from how much of its world it’s able to explore with human and android interactions in around 100 minutes of runtime for both its ONA and film formats. Rikuo and Masakazu’s time within the Time of Eve cafe makes both come to gradually realize how humans can take their androids for granted, as many people in their time tend to regard them no different from electrical appliances that serve a purpose until they break down, get replaced for the latest thing, and disposed of. Most episodes of the series explore Rikuo and Masakazu interacting with one of the frequent androids who visit the cafe and come to learn of their varying experiences interacting with humans. Each character focused on explores a different element of android and human interactions, and there is enough explored with them to build a connection to them in spite of Time of Eve’s tight runtime.
Outside of events playing out within its titular cafe, Time of Eve also offers some rather subtle details it explores regarding some major elements to its world. Limiting spoilers, the series is pretty subtle with dropping hints throughout its run that further flesh things out with a number of major elements involving the world and some major characters of the series that may require a few rewatches of the series if not spotted upon initial viewing. This adds a bit of rewatchability to Time of Eve for those interested in wanting to learn more about the series outside of its main focus on Rikuo, Masakazu, and the other cafe patrons.
Visually, Time of Eve is quite a great-looking production to see in action with believable looking character designs sporting a wide range of facial expressions, gorgeous and highly-detailed scenery shots, and a great deal of effort put into its animation with its believable character movements and depicting some unique robotic designs and actions animated at points throughout the film. The only low point I really have with the visuals is the camera’s occasional habit of focusing on up-close shots of characters during some tense moments in Time of Eve. It looked like this was an effort to try conveying the drama of some particular key moments in the film, though this use of the camera did look a bit awkward in execution.
Still for how large and complex its story is, Time of Eve is able to tell a tight and compelling story regarding human and android relationships within its limited runtime having complicated themes about these relations dabbled into and the characters being well fleshed out to explore how current societal views on human-robot relations affect them. If you’re looking for a sci-fi anime which does more to dabble into humanity’s treatment of robots besides using the latter as window dressing, Time of Eve is a title I’d highly recommend looking into.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 20, 2022
While a bit on the simple side, Oruorane the Cat Player works as a light slice-of-life drama focused on a young man developing a bond with an old man who trained his cats to sing following his loss of an orchestra job. The OVA appears to want to express the hardships that come with adult life, shown with the cold, wintry city setting and the struggles faced by those attempting to get by with their lives, particularly the young man's situation. However said challenges don't necessarily mean it's wrong to seek a temporary escape from it as the young man is granted the opportunity to
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learn how to use the old man's cats to learn how to harness their abilities for himself. The simple storytelling fits reasonably within the OVA's 30-minute runtime and will admit the antics of the cats had their amusing moments for me. Only major shortcoming I'd say this could have is its rather simplistic visuals, though I'd say the art style does work to fit the anime's intended tone. While I'm not sure if I may think much of Oruorane down the line given the OVA's obscurity, I don't regret the time I put into watching it given the simple slice-of-life story it tells about a down-on-his luck young man getting a temporary escape from his problems and I'd at least recommend watching it once.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 8, 2022
Talentless Nana focuses on a school full of superpowered teens called Talented who are being trained to use and control their powers to combat "enemies of humanity" and seemingly focuses on a young man named Nanao Nakajima seemingly being a Talentless, one without any superpowered abilities. However like Deca-Dence, this series deceives its audience by revealing that the main character of focus is actually Nana Hiiragi, a girl who claims to have mind-reading abilities yet is actually a Talentless contracted by the government to kill all the Talented on the island school they are at.
One of the effective elements of Talentless Nana is its titular
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character's planning and deceptive capabilities to try having things swing her way against the Talented. Knowing she can't confront them directly due to lacking any special abilities, Nana instead has to fall back on strategy, deception, and manipulation to attempt creating openings that will allow her any opportunity to exploit a vulnerability with whomever she targets. The Talented, in spite of their abilities, still have conditions that restrict and limit the extent to which they can utilize them which Nana attempts to learn through attempting to own said Talented's trust or observing their actions and physical condition. Nana's skills also come into play when attempting to deflect any suspicion that others may have of her being responsible for the murders she commits as another student, Kyoya Onodera, is suspicious of her connections to each of the cases and rivals her in reasoning capabilities thus requiring Nana to have to set up situations to secure an alibi.
Another effective direction to Nana's situation is the gradual development she undergoes as she spends more time with the Talented. While starting off hardened in her resolve to kill the Talented, Nana's commitment to her mission shows signs of wavering as she develops genuine attachment to some of the Talented, notably her bond with Michiru. More of Nana's backstory is also fleshed out in later episodes to explore what led her to be motivated in wanting to kill off the Talented, having its tragic elements and also exploring more about the government forces at hand driving Nana to complete her mission. However, further details on said forces in question are not fully explored due to the anime's manga source material still being ongoing as of this review I am writing.
As far as the Talented in question are concerned, focus on them is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the major characters like Kyouya and Michiru get a reasonable amount of depth shown from their actions and/or having their personalities and backstories fleshed out. Others are largely relegated to simple character types with barely any focus and/or serve as irredeemable villains as a source of conflict for Nana to overcome. A case could be made that for the latter, as stated by one Talented character, that having no parents around to keep their impulses in check allowed for the Talented as teens to foolishly abuse their powers for personal gain. But for a premise that is seemingly pushing for a morally gray narrative with Nana's complicated thoughts and actions on her mission, having the villainous Talented without any irredeemable traits does take away a fair bit from this dimension to Nana's mission against the Talented.
In short, Talentless Nana is largely engaging through exploring Nana's character with the planning and manipulation she undergoes in her efforts to kill the Talented, as well as her character gradually being fleshed out and developed to explore what led to her developing the motivation to kill the Talented and start gradually having reservations about her mission. Other elements of the series are hit and miss with fleshing them out as many of the Talented felt underdeveloped compared to others and the story ends inconclusively during a major point in its development. Still if you are looking for something of a psychological thriller to dabble into where focus is more devoted to brains over brawn, Talented Nana may be just the anime for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 30, 2022
Summertime Render focuses on teenage Shinpei Ajiro returning to his island home of Hitogashima from Tokyo after learning about the death of his childhood friend, Ushio Kofune. However, he comes to discover some suspicious circumstances surrounding Ushio's death and comes to discover some supernatural causes surrounding the case that involve him undergoing time loops to repeat any events he underwent and dealing with mysterious shadow-like beings.
Summertime Render offers a mix of mystery and suspense in exploring Shinpei's attempts to dabble into the mysterious events effecting his island home. The first half of the series explores Shinpei going through a series of time loops covering the
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past several days he spends on Hitogashima as he attempts to learn more about the shadowy beings affecting things on the island. As the series progresses, which leads him to seek and gain allies among his close friends to combat them and even some unexpected ones that play out, as well as learning more about the abilities and objectives of the shadows. With things still largely unknown about the shadows early on, this adds an element of horror to start the series off since Shinpei has no idea what he is up against and he's trying to sort out whom he can trust. For our male lead, Shinpei is an intelligent and capable young man who comes to become a capable tactician for his allies as he learns more about the abilities and weaknesses of the shadows. The series also isn't afraid at showcasing some rather intensely violent confrontations between both factions throughout Summertime Render's 25-episode run.
The second half escalates the conflict as the shadows catch on to how Shinpei's time looping ability works and try to permanently kill him off. This leads the conflict between them and Shinpei's group to turn into a sort of cat-and-mouse game where each side tries to get an advantage over one another and more twists come into play regarding the capabilities, history, and motivations of the stronger and influential shadows, Shide and Haine. This stage of the conflict has more elaborate action coming into play with both groups attempting to get an edge over one another with their strategies and and having its moments of engaging fights, a highlight being Hizuru and Shide's tightly contested fight.
Outside exploring the main conflict between the factions and Shinpei, Summertime Render also does a great job with fleshing out its major characters. Each of them have some sort of connection to the shadows through tragedy or failed cooperation with the shadows, which drag each character into the conflict that the series takes time to flesh out. Overtime, the cohesion between those members of Shinpei's group to strengthen as they gain each other's trust and utilize their combined abilities to combat the shadows.
Having a strong foundation for its story direction, mood, and fleshing out of characters, Summertime Render is easily one of the top anime I've seen for 2022 thus far with what it has to offer up with its elements of mystery, adventure, suspense, and supernatural activity; which I admit is quite surprising considering how hard it is for me to be impressed with many titles aimed for the shounen demographic nowadays. Still if you are looking for an engaging supernatural mystery/ suspense anime to dabble into, I'd at least say this series is a strong recommendation to check out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 11, 2022
Set within "Nyallywood", Pompo the Cinephile focuses on the titular producer who is the granddaughter of a famous producer yet finds herself enjoying the development of creating trashy B-movies. Wanting to develop an ambitious drama for her next film, Pompo develops a screenplay for it and has her young assistant, Gene Fini, become the director of it. Being an diehard movie buff determined to make a masterpiece out of the film, Gene commits himself to working on the film, coming to learn of the creative and financial challenges involved in it as the film's development presses on.
Pompo the Cinephile largely does a solid job exploring
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the development of Gene's work to attempt making a successful film out of Pompo's screenplay. Within its 90-plus minute runtime, the film has a reasonable amount of time to flesh out Gene and a few other characters either making their debuts for working in film or being established talent within the realm. Pompo dabbles into some of the processes and challenges that go into the development of film that include directing, editing, meeting timelines, and securing funding for development. Gene is depicted is someone with a lot of creativity and enthusiasm to go into his work for the film, but finds himself creatively challenged by trying to edit together a work that he would be satisfied with albeit within the time constraints of the movie format. An effective narrative element with showing off this challenge is having the events play out at the same time as scenes from his film, Meister, play out onscreen as the creative struggles of the orchestra conductor in the film mirror that of what Gene is experiencing.
All this said though, Pompo the Cinephile presents a more idealistic slant of film development and doesn't realistically depict it. This is shown through Pompo's rather young-looking appearance in spite of her fame, Gene not getting into any interpersonal conflicts over problems plaguing film development, and the rather convenient developments that come along to push things with the development of Gene's movie. Those looking for a more believable story to tell with exploring film development may be disappointed with this sort of take on the film industry. But anyone going into this not minding this spin will likely enjoy the energy and enthusiasm of the characters as they help work on Pompo or Gene's films, the former getting rather entertaining at the start of the film with Pompo's filming a campy monster movie with camera shots focusing on the boobs and butt of an actress in a bikini while she gets attacked by said monster.
In short, Pompo the Cinephile may not be everyone's cup of tea for its idealist spin on film development with exploring Gene's creative developments of Pompo's latest screenplay. Still, it does have fun showing off the joys and challenges of creatively developing a film project shown through Gene's experiences filming and editing it. If you're just looking to be entertained, Pompo should make for a solid time killer with what it has to offer.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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