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I became an anime fan fall of my sophomore year in high school. I was sitting with 2 of my friends during lunch and they were talking about downloading anime in particular, The Vision of Escaflowne. Then I mentioned that it'll probably take 16 hours on a download and asked if it was any good (since one is willing to spend so long to download)? They looked at me with a dumbfounded look and one of them told me they would bring the first volume (VHS) tomorrow. After I watched all of Escaflowne, she then loaned me her entire collection, which includes, Lain, Cowboy Bebob, Outlaw Star, etc. After she graduated I went through a dark ages so to speak. My main source of anime was gone and the only available anime was the local Hollywood Video. Needless to say I watched quite a bit of crap. I had a revival so to speak in spring 2003 when I got a summer job so I can actually buy good anime as well as discovering fansubs.
In general, I prefer more serious and dramatic anime however, above all else I like good anime. So I'll pretty much watch anything as long as its good. Well that is minus yaoi, shounen-ai, and shoujo-ai. Wait, why not shoujo-ai you ask? well I need a male avatar damn it! :P
One day I realized that my writing sucks and I need to do something about it. I guess all those years of writing technical reports and labs does that to you. So what better way to improve than to write about something I love, anime. If you read one of my reviews and found one of them "not helpful" or "helpful" please PM or comment telling me why. Also, I better not hear anything like "your opinion sucks" its "helpful" or "not helpful."
I am not, nor have ever claimed to be objective when it comes to reviewing. That is impossible with any review, or anything really. So take my reviews with a grain of salt and take them as nothing more than my opinion. Therefore, when I claim something is bad or good, what I really mean is “In my opinion I like/dislike this aspect.” However, saying such things would be awkward and the current standard of reviewing is to simply leave out the IMO part as its implied.
Real life/misc crap:
I work as an engineer working on various small R&D projects. Besides anime, there's the huge backlog of visual novels, manga, video games (mainly jrpgs surprise surprise), and other geeky hobbies I have. However, the biggest hobby I have after anime is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, where I have an obsession that nearly rivals that I have for anime.
Favorite Artist (in no particular order)
Naru Nanano
Hiro Suzuhira
Misato Mitsumi
Akane Ikegami
Mikeou
Kei Toume
Tony Taka
Takashi Takeuchi
Mutsumi Sasaki
Takashi Hashimoto
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All Comments (87) Comments
"If we take out the imagery out of the equation, what do we have left?" this is preposterous, asserting that a concept with a foundation built upon dreams, take the surreal imagery out of it. heck yea there would be nothing left.
"Characters are also pretty weak. The villain was pitifully boring and one-dimensional" I disagree. You've very much based your review on taking surreal "imagery out of the equation" No wonder you see characters as cardboards. The imagery is supposed to give them depth by representing their subconscious. The dream parade represents the villain's dream of power, control and at the same time, his nightmare of progress which is justified through his objection of DC mini, and through the recurring elements of tradition and modernization in that imagery making him far from one-dimensional as it adds up to a theme of the narrative.
There are constant comparisons between aspirational dreams: things one wants to do in the future, dreams in the literal form, and reality which are obvious in doctor konakawa's subplot thus it is interesting for you but the rest of the movie remains subtle and depends on the viewer to figure out the same comparisons, on their own. Through that, the movie conveys its themes.
Maybe it can be said that the main point of the film is to teach this lesson. It does so directly showing all the things Chihiro has to go through and her progress as she learns, and the viewer should be able to experience her emotions by empathy.
Then, I don't think you're outside target audience, in the sense that all audiences should be able to appreciate and enjoy the work, since it has more than one level of reading.
With your review you showed you were not even able to understand what the film was talking about. Good job!