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- BirthdayAug 6, 1994
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Jun 23, 2024
It starts off as a really pleasant romp and has some neat themes regarding freedom and community. However, it throws all of its goodwill out the window when it starts going off about *how* the Adventurers should organize themselves and come to accept that this is real life for them going forward. That is, it just becomes full-on propaganda about how states run by capitalists are efficient and benevolent for several episodes and the rest of the series lives in the fallout of that. There's one point where they literally bemoan that people don't need much money to live comfortably and offer the need to
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purchase jewels as a solution. And then there's the subplot about teaching a princess about what freedom means and she... remains a princess.
It's not a bad show necessarily, but it reflects a very systems-centric, theoretical view of the world that is directly at odds with mutual cooperation. Big Protagonist Bias all over it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 12, 2024
I don't think I've seen quite all of them, but this is easily Miyazaki's ugliest movie, despite the welcome return of hand-drawn animation. Especially at the beginning, there were WEIRDLY detailed objects like bags and corridors that looked like they were rotoscoped for no reason. The water's fluidity and the curtain to the birthing chamber looked like early 2000s CGI, which isn't a dig on the incredible craftsmanship. I'm just saying it clashed very, very badly with the overall animation design. Just because it is hard to accomplish, that does not mean it is better.
Also, the plot was just kind of all over the place.
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It was more of a tone poem or improv on inscrutible themes than one story. And I know he starts from storyboards and that's perfectly fine, but you simply can't compare this movie's lack of a throughline to his other movies that started the same way.
A lot of people are saying Miyazaki is "past his prime," but I think that's bullshit. He's had decades and decades of building his non-physical directing talent. Lots of people are still doing well in their 80s. My theory, if I might be allowed one, is just that he didn't allow enough editorial commentary from his staff. Sometimes the Sole Artiste aesthetic works out (as his other works have shown. But sometimes it doesn't, and I simply can't accept the idea that nobody around him brought this up before they had spent like 6 years drawing the movie.
And why the fuck is the English title "The Boy and the Heron" as opposed to "How Do We Live?"??? I just want to talk.
Also, my mom just died, so don't tell me I don't understand the grief theme. I just didn't relate. And the idea that I should take over the rickety process from (essentially) my parents is fucking abhorrent to me, so I didn't find the choice at the end profound at all. Neither did I feel like it reached a climax by using those emotional concepts as fuel. It just kind of ended for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 15, 2023
Ultimately, I suppose it's not surprising and somewhat appropriate that the last episodes of the Ash Ketchum Pokémon series are a string of inconsequential monster-of-the-week adventures. However, (even though I was always going to watch them eventually) I decided to prioritize them because I read a summary that said the show would be about Ash reflecting on what it means to be a Pokémon Master after all this time... and the fact that that never really happened (and was just a reference to a thread in the final episode) just kind of makes me want to live in the world where a miniseries finale to
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the Pokémon anime as my generation understands it was a bit more ambitious. Because the original series through the Orange Islands and Johto WAS ambitious. Those episodes weren't just about showing off Pokémon, they were solid in their own right and told a larger narrative (at the time, before the Endless Summer became law) somewhat about growing up.
So, yeah, I was happy to see the nostalgia stuff and all the Pokémon I recognized and the characters to each get a spotlight. Misty's episode was a return to form for the bitchy friend who was always my favorite. If Brock had died in his episode where he got trapped in a mystical loop of acceptance and rejection by beautiful women, it would have been the perfect send-off for his character. Team Rocket had some nice moments as a team. The episode where they rescue the Wailmer through a massive display of human/Pokémon and friend/enemy cooperation only to realize they could have caught and released it was a wonderfully whimsical standalone.
But I wanted more. The problem with the series was always that, whenever Ash grew as a person, he was reset and all the lessons he learned were subsumed in 1000 episodes of random adventuring. Doing something permanent here would have been so cool. I'm definitely not saying he should have stopped adventuring, but maybe he could have had some kind of commitment? Maybe we could have seen him aged up? Something. (Pokeshipping? Just one scene of blushies when she doesn't want to admit that she wants to travel together again.... okay......)
When Misty permanently left the main cast, there was a beautiful episode where he finally replaced her bike and they had an emotional farewell. Here, they just say goodbye. Certainly, they'll remain great friends and see each other again, and they could never hope to top that original goodbye, but the final episode of the show starts with a ho-hum farewell to one of the most beloved characters in the show and then they spend a while resolving a forced thread about TEAM ROCKET splitting up that came from nowhere in the penultimate one.
There is a perspective from which this is the perfect encapsulation of the show because it is exactly what the show was like after it stopped being about telling weird stories in the Pokémon world and started being kind of JUST a commercial. (And that quality waxed and waned throughout the series, don't get me wrong.) But, from another, it ends a 25-year-old show with no real resolution or capstone. Just more adventures. I'm not sure they have any thoughts about what Pokémon could be aside from a playground for amorphous adventures that must constantly be moving forward and changing and adding new content or else the sky will fall, and that is a little sad to me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 17, 2023
Idk, I thought "Your Name" was OK. I also thought it was OK the second time I saw it. These are not timeless tropes. They're stale for me right now.
And idk, I'm sure Shinkai doesn't compare himself to Miyazaki, but his commercial success invites the comparison, and... No. Shinkai's semi-annuals about het couples with a quirky scenario aren't that substantial. And they don't look as good. That fucking penis worm twirling up in the sky had nothing to do with anything and the CGI did nothing for me artistically.
I liked the throwback songs during the road trip. Pity they Felt The Need to include modern
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songs to sell CDs, because those clashed something fierce.
Another ephebephilia movie on Japan's list. I mean. We stopped counting a long time ago, but it's the principle of the thing. That aside, it's not even a good romance. They're complete blank slates.
What was this even about...? To be fair, I am tired as shit and dozed off a little after he became a chair, and my friend poked me when she tried to kiss the chair. So I saw most of it. Don't tell me "The 2011 earthquakes" because I know. Earthquakes come from the curly dick worm in the sky?? Further idk, maybe this movie simply didn't belong in the form of a summer romcom. I can imagine someone really digging into the 3/11 themes without even mentioning this because it was so tacked on for marketing.
He restrained himself to one door slide shot and I didn't notice *too much* Foot Content, so maybe Shinkai was taking it easy this time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Dec 14, 2022
Extremely predictable and just not funny, despite bringing back a joke villain to tell more jokes. Rather than try to leverage Foxy and the Davy Back Fight concept into something interesting, this special gets rid of that almost immediately in favor of another one of One Piece's "split the party" plots that goes absolutely nowhere. The best joke in this is that the villain is fucking Zhuge Liang but a dumbass.
I got bored, so I listened to the second half dubbed into English, which mostly made me think...why was this dubbed into English under capitalism? What was the plan to profit off of this? Are
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they selling English Blu-Rays of this? Has it been shown pay-per-view? I am morbidly curious.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 30, 2022
I clocked this as For Me so fast and it delivered far more than I could have imagined. This show is beautiful and trailblazes a vibrant visual language in which to explore its themes. As it transitions from pure comedy to a coming of age, we see every single character authentically mature so subtley that the requisite flashbacks to the first few episodes hit like a truck. There's never anything wrong with any of them. They each struggle with connection and understanding what people—including themselves—want. They each see each other as just a pretty face and systematically de-objectify each other. When they blossom, so do
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we.
My one negative critique is that the constant refrain of Anzu losing her three favorite things in the world wore a bit thin early on. The show pokes fun at a culture of prioritizing personal pursuits over love, but love comes from seeing other people as themselves. The impetus for Anzu's wonderful transformation (Is it a transformation? We see she was always like this underneath, honestly, and that people always loved her the way she was) is... imperfect.
This absolutely deserves to be a hit.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 29, 2022
I just finished the second season of this show. I do not like it. It is just extremely easy to watch because it's so stupid and, when the characters are allowed to be characters, they are fairly endearing.
The best character is Fire Emblem, who is a Black trans icon of mythic proportions and trapped in this mediocre show. The best parts of the second movie are the sequences that explore their history visually; those are incredible. I also really like Dragon Kid, who is 1000% a baby transboy.
Neither of them got a lot of spotlight in Season 2, but one of the conceits of
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Season 2 is that all the superheros pair off into "buddy" teams of two. All but one of these is same-sex and they are ALL Extremely gay. They made a team of new characters who literally have Yaoi Chins and the black/white hair thing going on. They gave Dragon Kid a loli lesbian girlfriend and they moved in together. Fire Emblem paired off with Sky High, the superhero show's requisite Captain America expy, and they fuckin, yo. There's an entire episode about Fire Emblem feeling like Sky High is too perfect to be real. There is a point at which this is no longer subtext. It is Text with a gun pointed to your head and demanding acknowledgement. Acknowledge it I must.
But, like the first season, Tiger & Bunny 2 is content to spin its wheels and make you wait episode after episode for nothing to happen, with the main plot only coming to a head at the end of an arc. It is truly boring and devoid of good qualities for most of its runtime.
Unlike Season 1, the message Season 2 was building up to was worth hearing, though. At least, the second cour of Season 2. The first part was faff. The second half is only mostly faff.
At the end of the second half, Tiger & Bunny 2 takes a hard left into ACAB territory. There are NEXT concentration camps in response to an AIDS-scare-style metaphor, the superheroes have been relinquished of their duties in favor of the cops, when they try to catch criminals anyway the police are more concerned with stopping them than the criminals because they want the public to depend on them. The entire case is designated rogue heroes because they engaged to save the city during its darkest hour. The Final Boss is a guy name Audun who was not allowed to be an official hero during Mr. Legend's era because his father was a criminal. Audun saved people anyway, so society labeled him a rogue hero and Mr. Legend did everything he could--coordinating with the police--to lock Audun up in a supermax prison because Audun was so much more powerful and effective than himself. And the media has spent decades instructing the populace to idolize Mr. Legend's corporation-backed, for-profit heroism, which all of the hero characters chafe against because it constantly hobbles them in the field and personally, while demonizing Audun's heroism for its own sake.
The Big Bad (a completely different character) is absolutely right and she should say it:
"After [an incredibly Useful NEXT emerged], people started treating the NEXT nicer, but only as long as their powers were Useful like hers. This is all her fault!"
"So that's what this is about? You just resent Aurora for no good reason??"
"SHUT UP. You heroes are just as guilty! Your very existence made people think NEXTs have to be useful to them to exist!"
"I see your point. BUT IT'S NEVER OK TO KILL PEOPLE."
This is the cry of someone read for the fucking filth that they are, someone who has absolutely nothing to say for their own position.
Again, this show is not good, but it recognizes the true villains of real life. Moreover, it is authentically inclusive of the variety of human experience in a way that blows most other shows out of the water. It at least took the first step towards modern, Krakoan X-Men comics' Correct position that queer people have a right to exist and be respected regardless of their usefulness to """"normal"""" people, who are their oppressors.
I do not like this show, but I absolutely respect that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 28, 2022
Absolutely a filler episode stretched to film length, but quite enjoyable. The padding felt so natural that I couldn't tell you exactly what was in the original.
Also quite funny as a piece of fan service. They do flashbacks to famous moments from the early parts of the series. Char even gets one line, lmao.
It fits Gundam thematically very well. At its heart, it's an anti-war movie that depicts a family struggling to live in an inhospitable environment caused by that conflict. There is a bit too much children crying for my taste, but it felt good.
Beautiful score.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 24, 2022
"Reminisces" is a stretch. We do get to see Yuu as an adult, but they didn't do anything interesting to her character design. They just drew her with adult proportions instead of as an anime mascot. They didn't even show Shingo or the other characters. I feel like the fact that she's an adult in a few shots is a pointless tease, really.
It looks like one of those early 2000s anime where they were experimenting with digital coloring and there isn't much going on visual-wise or story-wise. The OPs and EDs of the original show had a lot more panache than this.
I don't dislike it.
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Rather, I see it and I feel nothing. Which is not Creamy Mami feels.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 4, 2022
This one was remarkably well-plotted for a shonen anime tie-in movie. Lots of moving pieces. Every new character was there for a reason beyond simply being the bad guy of the week, and the preexisting cast outside of the Straw Hats were well-integrated. And who doesn't like a heist movie?
That said, its message is at once something I deeply agree with and something I despair over it needing to be said at all. In our global economic system, money equals power and ownership of other people. Employment is indistinguishable from slavery, only instead of whips they psychologically torment us with the threat of homelessness. There
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are countless other pieces of media that say exactly the same thing (which is fine) and the social programming that says that this situation is OK is so thick that there are probably people out there who enjoy this and came away believing they would make a "good rich person" if they were given the chance. Which would make them indistinguishable from the villain, who achieved his dream of wealth and then proceeded to be this sort of person. Which, yes, is part of the message, but it just sickens me that that could be lost on anyone to any extent.
Why does this need to be said? Money is the root of all evil (well, the authority that comes with it). Money is a fake thing that people decided should exist several thousand years ago. It has widely, empirically proven itself to be a grand disaster of humanitarian proportions. And yet we still need to spend money to buy fucking food. To buy fucking housing from people whose "job" is owning places others are forced at (the police's) gunpoint to pay rent to remain in. There is no satisfactory explanation for this situation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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