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Apr 20, 2015
*SPOILER WARNING*
For something with a pretty basic romantic storyline, Hotarubi no Mori e pulled it off pretty well.
It's easy to follow; a young girl gets lost in an enchanted forest, she meets a spirit, they become friends, they grow up together every summer, they fall in love, and then their love ends. Pretty basic, huh? That's what I loved about it. It was a comfortable watch, you didn't have to think about it too much, but all the emotion is still there.
The script is well written, interspersed with the right amount of humour, with natural conversation flowing between the two main characters.
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It seems like a typical shoujo anime, heck it probably is your typical shoujo anime, but in the 45 minute runtime, you really see a relationship develop, with no unnecessary drama, following the two mains as they grow together and fall in love together.
Really, I think that's what makes it so damn sad at the end.
You watch it, accustomed with Hotaru and Gin being by each other's sides for most of the screentime. For the times when Hotaru is back at home for school, her longing for the summer and of Gin is heart-wrenching and a reminder of the feeling of falling in love slowly, with someone you've known your entire life. The development behind the characters themselves, Gin slowly becoming more open in the face of a human, when before he was guarded and distrusting of them, and Hotaru, maturing from a hyperactive young girl into a young woman who continues on without the being that she loved, is incredible, and again, one of the best parts of this film is watching the characters grow.
However, the film does not forget its subtle, but noticeable baseline that this good thing will end. From the beginning, you know that it will end in tragedy, with Gin's condition of being 'alive' as such dependent on a lack of physical human contact. This condition hangs like the sword of Damocles throughout the entire film, but when it finally falls, you don't expect it, and it's a real stab to the heart.
Again, the script remains triumphant through all of this. Romantic lines between Hotaru and Gin don't feel forced, nor do their actions and interactions. Hotaru's small monologue at the end was beautifully written, and the voice acting was brilliant; Ayane Sakura captures Hotaru's grief, but also her strength in knowing that she was loved, and she is forced to move on.
The animation is spot on, with the forest coming alive in vibrant greens and golds from the sunlight streaming through the leaves. When watching this, appreciate the background, because despite the beautiful character designs, the forest setting comes to life and draws you into the film and away from reality. The festival itself at the end is beautiful and vibrant, full of life and detail, whilst not overpowering what is the main focus of its scene; Hotaru and Gin's romance.
I loved it. I cried a lot. It was sort of bittersweet, and even though it was a simple story, a basic romance story, it was still hard-hitting at the end. The best thing about this film is its ability to connect you with the characters, and to experience what they are feeling as well.
Give this a watch, you won't regret it. But make sure you have a box of tissues at the ready, it's a real tearjerker.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 19, 2015
For a ten minute long short, this really packs a punch. Right to the gut. By punch I mean a stab and by gut I mean your heart. Really. It still hurts when I think about this.
It starts off simply enough. Two abandoned robot boys and a surly professor who has taken them in. 'What is love?' Haru asks. Immediately the phrase 'baby don't hurt me...don't hurt me...no more' pops into your head.
Goodness how you wish that came true and that this OVA did not totally destroy you in the most painful way possible.
It's a common enough premise for a story, an AI who wants
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to feel love and be a human (see: Pinocchio). But usually, it's as Haru says; robots who want to feel love and happiness. But what about Natsu? Yamamoto tackles the negative emotions that accompany the loneliness and futility of human emotions by having Natsu. Natsu does not ask what love is. Instead he is held down by negative emotions. It's a stark realisation; would robots in these stories want to become human because of all of these negative emotions?
It's at the end that we receive our answer, and at that point would also be nice to receive a bucket of ice cream and a kitten to soothe the pain.
It's at the end that Haru realises what love is. It's then when Natsu realises that not all emotions are bad, and that Haru and Masa are worth the pain that he has suffered both emotionally and physically.
Haru's childlike naivety grated on me until the climax of the animation. That's the only thing I would mark down on, really. There was no real character development/heavy insight into their pasts, and Masa still remains a mystery, but seeing as it's a ten minute short, I'm willing to overlook this. However, Haru's naivety was what got me the most. His realisation at the end of the film of what love is to him; simple, comfortable, happiness, and the way that he simply states it caused something to well up in my from the inside and spill out of my eyes in the form of tears and from my mouth in the form of a sound more akin to a dying whale.
The art was beautiful, as usual from Soubi Yamamoto. As one of her earlier works, her proportions are still a bit skewed, and angles too sharp, but she retains her charming style of art and quirky animation through the captions littered across the short and patterns and real life photography contrasting with the exaggerated cartoon motion.
When I speak about the track played at the end of the short, I have to speak about that scene. All of that scene.
The music played is a quiet and slow piano piece, a simple arrangement of chords which lets the dialogue between Haru and Natsu shine through. The piece maintains its quiet melancholy even through the violent event that rips through the climax of the short, and maintains it still through choked out sobs and a simple realisation of what love is. When it started playing, it really did sound like a finality. Haru and Natsu, lit by the sun, walking hand-in-hand and that track emphasises their comfortable happiness that they share in that moment. Haru grieving, that track just emphasises his loss and his emotion. And finally, with the appearance of Masa, the notion of a 'home' and the realisation of love; a bittersweet relief that their search for the meaning of love had ended.
At the end, I did not cry from grief. I cried from happiness that finally, two cruelly abandoned robots had a loving home. From the happiness that at last, they knew the despair and joy of human emotion.
Perhaps you watch it, fully invested in this fictional world, but it will hit you. Seeing what were two empty shells filled up with human emotions when they were not programmed to do so did something to me.
You finish watching and you ask yourself; 'what is love?'
The entire short was a reminder of being human. Of feeling. And that's what I love about Yamamoto's scriptwriting. Her take on the human condition and the philosophies adopted by her characters is thought provoking and touching, and you'll find yourself thinking about that question long after you have watched this short.
'What is love?' you think.
Thinking about it makes you cry more, so you quickly abandon the thought in favour of a family sized bucket of ice-cream and a blanket in an attempt to stop your tears.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 19, 2015
Mawaru Penguindrum; also entitled 'I Have a Lot of Feelings'
I won't lie. This was amazing. Absolutely beautiful. Stunning script, clean art, a unique plot line and music that wrenches at your gut in the most despairing moments of the series, whilst enhancing the humour and light-heartedness that this series needed as a preventative measure for hearts breaking and tears overflowing everywhere.
Where should I even start?
The story itself was...definitely unique. I heard the title of Penguindrum and passed it off as a simple family orientated fantasy adventure, but when I saw that it was categorised as 'psychological', my curiosity was piqued and I began to watch
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it. Boy, was I in for a journey. In typical Ikuhara-esque manner, the themes dealt with in this anime are at times questionable, offensive, immoral, philosophical; an all encompassing myriad of emotion and thought at the same time. I've actually had a friend I recommended this to, who refused to watch past the first episode as she found some of the themes unpalatable. Only a few directors are able to pull off such a jumble of themes as artfully as Ikuhara while retaining an appeal to a wider audience. Complicated, but watchable. I especially loved how all of the characters intertwined with each other, reminding the watcher of the underlying theme of 'fate'. Every character in this series is fated to meet in some way, to make an impact on another's life whether for better or for worse, and the sheer curiosity and interest behind the slow reveals and the twists in personalities are a joy to experience. Originally, I was going to drop the series as it started off so slowly. It was bizarre and it moved at a snail's pace, and the main characters did not seem to be going anywhere but in circles. It all changed around the halfway mark of the series, when the characters began to show their dark sides, their hidden personalities, their motives, the appearance of ghosts and the disappearance of logic and morals. Of course, the pace is uneven every here and there, but the variance in almost pointless humour and fast paced drama is a welcome contrast; it keeps you hooked and on edge, wondering what will happen next.
This isn't a story about just familial love. This is a story of revenge, passion, the futility and cruelty of humankind, of fate and of salvation.
The characters portrayed all of this beautifully. One of the most masterfully written scripts in terms of character development, characters whom you initially expected to be stereotypes found in anime (the playboy, the 'motherly' character, the girl with the crush, the beauty, the teacher, the Innocent) are all turned on their heads when the series comes to its climax and tapers to an end. Characters whom you initially thought unimportant are really the most important of all, and they are all linked so intricately together in a web that Ikuhara has spun to pull the story together, coupled with flashbacks of their pasts which explain their motives and their philosophies, creates such rich personalities. None of these characters are shallow. For example, when I first encountered Ringo Oginome I found her irritating and obsessive for what seemed like a schoolgirl's mere crush, but with her past tragedies being revealed as the story went on, as well as her understanding of her self and of others developing, I grew attached to her; I cried for her and I cried for her conflicting circumstances. The initial set up of all of these characters is for you to either hate them, then grow attached, or to love them and sympathise with them, then when the series hits its climax and their darker sides are revealed, it's hard to hate them, knowing what they've been through. Even the main villain, Sanetoshi, is charming and elegant, first shown as a miracle worker and slowly evolving into a darker entity, but even then I didn't hate him. Sure, I was angry at him, I was angry with what he had put our heroes through, but the initial charm still lingered and I couldn't bring myself to outright hate him (also because damn, smooth talking while attempting to break humanity? Let me have some of that).
The art as well. Oh, god the art. I've always been a fan of Lily Hoshino, so when I found she was doing the character designs I was immediately interested. The animation is smooth and fluid, with a clean style and bold colours. However, there are discrepancies within the animation at times, with one episode (the episode at the hospital where Natsume makes her debut) being horrendously animated in comparison to the rest of the series, but I can forgive this for the outstanding beauty that the rest of the series brings. It's not just the clean, pretty style that makes the animation stand out; its the symbolism. During the series, the backgrounds are often a plain colour, interspersed with small symbols such as penguin logos, apples or train signs. It's not until the end of the series when you recognise their significance that you fully appreciate the bizarre symbols. What you thought was artistic bloodshed, you realise to be a symbol of love and fate. What you thought was a strange, alien ritual, you realise to be a portrayal of sexual intimacy. You realise things, the second, the third, the fourth time around. You don't stop realising things even when you know the script off by heart. The art is so rich and intricate, that even small symbols and inconspicuous posters have a meaning to them That's part of the beauty that Mawaru Penguindrum has so carefully placed and has me rewatching to find all of these subtle nuances.
But really, what has me coming back to this series time and time again, to rewatch and analyse and have sudden epiphanies is the thematics that Ikuhara plays upon. The anime starts off with Shouma Takakura stating that he 'hates the word fate'. 'Okay,' you say to yourself. 'An anime about fate. Interesting. Goes along nicely with the family love theme.'
It's at the end of the series where you realise that you were so very wrong.
So very, very wrong.
You kind of wish that someone, a reviewer, a kind, hopefully non sadistic friend or a big caution sign had warned you of the emotional journey that you were about to embark on.
You see, this anime isn't just about fate. Okay, well maybe a large proportion of it is, but that's just the running theme. Fate is the cause; fate caused grief, passion, murder, revenge and sacrifice; in turn these caused each character's own unique motive. The futility that all of the characters feel in the face of their destinies is heart-rending, and their efforts to change their fates, and the fates of their loved ones is valiant and littered with tragedy.
When I finished watching this series, I cried. There is a sort of melancholy beauty that accompanies a bittersweet ending and this was no different. Some would call it a happy ending, some would not, but in each case the emotion behind the climax and the finale of the series was so utterly raw that you cannot help but grieve and rejoice at the same time.
Because when you finish watching, you realise that this wasn't an anime about the futility of the human race in the face of their destinies. This was about the hope, the courage, the unwavering love for another human, or the love for the entirety of humankind to FACE their destinies head on and sacrifice their being for someone to have a better fate.
This was a story about salvation through sacrifice.
You finish watching, and you think about the themes and subplots. You think about YOUR fate. You think about the sacrifices you would make, the extremes that you would go to to protect what you love. That's what makes this such a though provoking series, because really, as hard as it may be to imagine, all of these characters are like us (but hopefully without the tragic backstory). They just want normal lives, normal families, normal relationships and an unconditional love (unlike Sanetoshi, who was probably there to hate everything). I cried during the series out of laughter, but I also cried watching the gradual loss of innocence and hope that each character suffers. I cried because I grieved at the end, but I also cried because I sympathised with our heroes' final decision and I cried because I was overwhelmed by the lengths that they would go to to protect what they loved. In this series, you realise; sacrifice is the ultimate act of love.
Enjoy the music while you watch the series for the first time, because believe me, at the end of it, just one track will have you blubbering on the train during rush hour. The mood is set beautifully by each track, be it humorous, tense, sad or pensive, and enhances the emotion during these scenes. I can't listen to either 'Ash-Grey Wednesday' or 'I Love You, Sons of Destiny' without getting a lump in my throat anymore.
If you're wavering about this anime, don't be put off by the weirdness. Don't be put off by the somewhat bizarre relationships that each character has with each other, and don't be put off by the erratic pace and initial characterisation. It's a beautiful series, it really is. Art-wise, music-wise and story-wise, its a masterpiece in all fields. Watch a story unfold before your eyes and watch as secrets are revealed to you.
Most of all, don't be surprised when you finish, face damp with tears, that you begin to wonder about humanity, fate and salvation.
And I assure you, five months down the line, you'll watch it again for the fourth time and catch all of the symbols and hints that you missed the last three runs, and your newly gained knowledge won't soften the grief any more.
I applaud you Ikuhara. I applaud everyone on the production team. It truly was a work of art.
It truly was...'fabulous max'.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 19, 2015
LONG REVIEW I'M SORRY
I will have to start by saying that I was not impressed by the latest of Soubi Yamamoto's works. Having been a big fan of her previous animations (Kono Danshi Uchuujin to Tatakaemasu, Kono Danshi Ningyo Hiroimashita and Robotica*Robotics) I was super excited to watch Kono Danshi Sekika ni Nayandemasu.
I found that once the OVA had actually began, it was littered with clichés and thematics that belong to corny BL anime/manga, and often the 'romantic' lines felt rushed and forced. The exchanges between the two main characters, although endearing at times, quickly became irritating due to the corniness to the scriptwriting. However,
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lines spoken either to other characters, or to the main character (Tamari) to himself were well written and generally enjoyable; sometimes humorous and sometimes providing an insight and a development into inter-character relationships.
The plot itself felt rushed; I accept that this was only a half hour long animation, but compared to the others of Yamamoto's works, it was too fast paced and the main characters did not seem to develop much during the OVA, but suddenly all at once it seemed like ALL their problems were resolved. I enjoyed Yamamoto's earlier works due to the feeling and emotion behind them and the slow burn that she artfully places into her films, but this one was without the raw feeling that made the others stand out to me. However, one aspect I did enjoy about the plot was the way that she dealt with social anxiety and the troubles of youth, as well as the lingering feelings and a 'stone heart' built from betrayal and loss. I would have liked to see these elements played up on more, especially in relation to the latter, as the theme about betrayal was only really revealed as a motive for Oni-Sensei towards then end, and his character development would have been so much more satisfying if it was touched upon more, instead of having it resolved in the last minute of the OVA.
The biggest issue I had with this was that Yamamoto's previous works were so philosophical and full of emotion and an insight into the human condition, but this felt overtly cheesy, and whilst I can see fragments of her old ideas coming through, they were overshadowed by a rushed romance and a forced script. Her scriptwriting has seemed to have gotten worse; the first KonoDan film was beautifully written; touching upon loneliness and the meaning of one's existence, grief and a love for humanity, all with a subtle underlying romance running through it. The second, whilst more overtly romantic, did not feel particularly forced nor did it completely lay aside the raw emotion that I have come to love from Yamamoto's characters and script. Especially with Robotica*Robotics (which I watched immediately before KonoDan, Sekika; bad idea, got my hopes up too high) the music and the script flowed so well with a shimmer of romance and love, but never disregarding what the short was about. Sekika however, basically ignored what made me fall in love with Yamamoto's scriptwriting in favour of an exaggerated, cheesy romance.
What was good was the art though. Absolutely beautiful, and the patterns and colours that Yamamoto excels at are drawn forth from the beauty in the crystals and the skies that she draws. Her style of drawing human characters has too improved. Softer and more proportioned in comparison to her previous style, whilst still retaining the ever present, very charming manner of animation littered with patterns and sometimes odd, but unique motion.
Music was okay, was never a fan of the ending songs since the previous KonoDan. Perhaps this comes with the more romantic elements that Yamamoto has woven into her script, but the ending songs never seem to properly reinforce the emotion at the end of her films, unlike with the first KonoDan and Robotica*Robotics, where hope and grief were enhanced by the music choices respectively.
Overall, I was disappointed. I jumped into this expecting a tearjerking, heart-rending beauty of an OVA, but what I got was a beautifully drawn, but shallow and corny romance.
Step it up Yamamoto, I'm going to rewatch Kono Danshi, Uchuujin to Tatakaemasu now to make up for that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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