This anime series is notorious. It came out in 2017 & has become quickly regarded as one of the worst series of all time. To be honest, I have to hope or reason to believe that this will be any good. I’m seeing like 20 red flags here that are telling me this is going to be atrocious. I really hope I’ll at least get something out of this & that it isn’t a complete waste of time. There will be spoilers in this review, but really, it won’t matter that much, because I don’t want any of you readers to actually watch the series
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in the first place
Story: 1/10
The story is about the titular game & the class of a random school getting caught up in it. They have to compete with each other to survive the game. But oh god is this story terrible. For starters, how the Kings Game came into existence is never explained in detail. We’re told that it happened at a small village 30 years ago. But how the Kings Game came into existence isn’t explained, or explored. What also never gets brought up is why the Kings Game happens in the first place. We’re told that the Kings Game is a virus near the end of the series, but that doesn’t explain how one catches the Kings Game, how it was created, or how it selects the victims that appear in the Kings Game.
But that’s the least of the problems with this story, how about the narrative structure & story-boarding? The “narrative structure” (if you can even call it that) in Kings Game is held together with glue, popsicle sticks, & scotch tape. The structure doesn’t have any flow to the narrative, events just happen with little fanfare or build up. Once they’re over, that’s it, it’s time to move onto the next scenes. The story-boarding is also atrocious, much like the narrative structure, the story-boarding has no flow, taking a note from Girls & Panzer, Kings Game just flip flops between locations, rarely easing the viewer into where the next shot is going to take place. It just cuts to the location abruptly & expects you to immediately be aware of what’s going on & what’s supposed to be taking place. Speaking of “abrupt”, that word sums up the editing in this series perfectly.
The end of this series is just stupid, So the only way to end the King’s Game is to kill everybody who’s competing in the current King’s Game, that’s fine. But the way this happens is once the characters make it to the abandoned house in the forest in episode 12, a chainsaw is just randomly thrown into the frame, they never explain how it got there, or why it was there in the first place. The series of events that conspire go as such. Riona picks up the chainsaw, slashes Natsuko in the spine, which should paralyze here but it doesn’t. After having a chat with Mamoru Miyano, Natsuko, defying any source of logic, gets back up, & swings the chainsaw into Mamoru Miyano’s neck as if nothing had happened to her. She and Miyano then die simultaneously (killing off the worst & best character respectively). One abrupt, lazy cut later, Riona drags Miyano to a beach where she then proceeds to kiss him, then drag him into the ocean so that she may presumably drown (it cuts to the ED exactly as this happens). If that wasn’t stupid enough, after the ED, we cut to a different guy who has never appeared in the series until now, he gets a message that the Kings Game is on, cut to a splash screen that says “more coming in Season 2”. Which, I hope never happens, I really don’t wanna sit through another 12 episodes of another stupid story. So, the point of the series was trying to stop the Kings Game from happening for future generations. At least I think it was, Mamoru Miyano is constantly trying to get everyone to work together rather than against each other to stop it. When you take that into consideration, this “tease” at a Season 2 that I hope never happens, makes the whole story fucking worthless. 12 episodes & barely, if anything was resolved in this story.
Characters: 1/10
Kings Game’s characters are awful. They don’t have any interesting personality traits or memorability. Aside from 3 of them, Nobuaki because he’s the main character voiced by Mamoru Miyano (more on the voice acting later. Daisuke because he wants to create music when he grows up, & Teruaki because he wants to be a barber when he grows up. But because this anime is horrible, & it’s a death game series, these 2 are killed off before any substantial development could’ve taken place, not that this series had the decency to develop its main character anyway. The rest of the characters are only there because the plot demands it. They have no interesting character bits, personality, or any of that. Nobuaki is the team player, Natsuko is the Psychopath, & Riona is the main girl for the 2nd half of the series. The rest of the characters are completely lacking in personality & only exist because the plot wouldn’t exist without them. Also to have terrible death scenes that lose all their impact, but more on those later. Oh, & before I forget. Kings Game is a series that tries to take itself somewhat seriously, so of course there’s going to be some trite character drama because it wouldn’t be an awful anime series if there wasn’t underwritten characters facing dramatic situations that leave no impact because the characters are underwritten & you couldn’t possibly root for them to come out on top.
Art: 1/10
If forever reason you were thinking “maybe the art will redeem this series” let me lay your hope to rest, this is some of the worst art I’ve seen out of a series from the 2010s. The backgrounds are flat & only comprise of 4 colors for a light scene (case by case), & 1 color for a dark scene. Green, Blue, Gray, & Brown for the light scenes. Pitch black for the dark scenes. There’s no variety to these color palettes at all.
The directing in this series is also really bad. Most of the camera work comprises of nothing but completely static shots with nothing but mouth movements that are so out of synch to the point where it’s even more distracting than usual, or no movement at all. Occasionally you’ll get a camera pan in the same shot, but it’s infrequent & nothing to write home about at all. Combine this directing with the lack of flow in Kings Game’s narrative structure & story-boarding, & you’ve got yourself an all around lazy directing effort.
Something that also needs mentioning is how many no faces you’ll see throughout this anime. Seriously, it’d ridiculous, basically every other frame has a no-face in it. I get that animators in Japan don’t have a fair working environment, but did the QC team seriously not catch any of these?
In case you thought the animation would at least be decent, it’s not. The animation is lazy, often comprising of 2 frame cycles looped to nauseam. The more “action packed scenes” (and that’s being generous) have no sense of fluidity to them at all. They’re just as stiff & jank as the walking & running in this series is. It wouldn’t be a shitty anime if there wasn’t terrible, out of place CGI in it right? Don’t worry, because Kings Game has you covered on that front. The bad CGI character models are one thing, but the vehicles look like they belong in an early 90s CG project, & the landscapes wouldn’t even pass as PS2 quality landscapes. In spite of the awful story & characters, I think the art might be the worst aspect about this series. Even the worst anime have at least something going on visually. Rather it be Dark Cat’s putridness, Sword For Truth’s lazy action sequences, Mad Bull 34 in general. Kings Game has NOTHING to its visuals. It’s just an all around bland effort that looks like “standard bad 2010s anime visuals”.
The death scenes are also stupid. Kings Game tries to take itself somewhat seriously as a story. But the deaths are always portrayed in such an over the top way that you either laugh at how horrible they are, or have their impact stripped from them. There’s one scene where some bitch jumps out of a window because she was nominated as the next victim to get punished by the king. She jumps out the window, goes flying in the air, then falls back down, (just a still image being dragged with no animation on the hair, or cloths) & then becomes completely disfigured after hitting the concrete. I could also mention the numerous amounts of spontaneous combustion where the characters & their limbs just explode for no reason. I could mention a scene in which a characters neck 720’s into the air, goes flying & his head turns into a geyser of black blood. Oh yeah, the blood in this anime is even screwed up, how do you screw up blood? Blood is one color, red. Rather you make it bright red or a darker shade of red, as long as it looks red, you’ve done your job at drawing blood. For some reason, the blood in this anime looks black. It is a shade of red to be fair, but because of the lighting & general color design of the anime, the blood looks black. HOW?
Sound: 1/10
By this point, you shouldn’t be surprised that the sound in Kings Game is awful. The voice acting, dear god what happened here? It’s not like Kings Game has bad voice actors either. Mamoru Miyano (Okabe from Stiens;Gate). Yui Horie (Tsubasa Hanekawa from Monogatari) to name a few. Most of the voice actors are either amatures or don’t have too many roles notable to me, but that’s not an inherently bad thing. Too bad Kings Game is an example of this being a bad thing though. In fairness to the voice actors, I don’t blame them for their performances here. They clearly had a terrible voice director, because these voice actors don’t seem to be remotely trying, any voice director worth their salt would at least try to sprinkle some personality & emotion into the delivery. But then I also have to remember, this is Kings Game, even if the voice actors did a good job, & the voice direction was even halfway decent. It wouldn’t matter anyway due to the awful story, & poorly written characters. So their efforts would’ve gone to waste regardless. I feel sorry for all the voice actors & actresses who had to work on this failed abortion of a series.
Then there’s the sound design. I don’t know who did the sound design but they’re even worse at their job than the voice director was at their job. The sound effects are so quiet & leave such little oomph as to leave 0 impact. Punches, kicks, footsteps, doors, windows shattering, chainsaws, none of it sounds good or leads any level of impact because it connects with such puny force as to make me question if an action even took place or not. But speaking of connection, there’s seemingly a delay to the sound effects. I swear I could see punches connect numerous times, yet the sound didn’t play until a second later. This is just lazy, if the sound effect isn’t timed to react the second something makes contact, or a notable action takes place, than the effort is in vain, & the impact isn’t felt at all. Top that off with the issue of the sound design being quiet & not leaving impact from earlier, it only further adds to King’s Game sound design being bad & failing to leave an impact. As much as I love to shit on Girls & Panzer for all its aspects, it at least got sound design right. I at least felt some impact when the tank would fire, or the impact of a tank getting blasted. If I can real quickly mention the music in this, it’s practically non-existent. I heard some music throughout, but it was usually too quiet, or too atmospheric. I usually wouldn’t mention an OP in my reviews, but I have to bring mention to the OP in King’s Game. This has to be some of the worst mixing I’ve ever heard for an OP. The audio quality is atrocious, & I can barely hear what the singer is saying due to the mixing. Also, OPs are supposed to make the show look better than they actually are in motion. This OP of course, doesn’t. The OP seldom, if ever rises above the animation quality of the TV series.
Overall: 1/10
I can’t say I’m surprised that Kings Game ended up being this atrocious. I kinda figured this show was going to be really bad going into it, & low & behold, here I am informing all of you on how bad it is. The story is a bunch of bullshit, the characters are lacking & suffer from 0-personality syndrome. They also suffer from “We only exist to the serve the plot syndrome”. The art is atrocious, flat, & unimaginative. The lighting is awful. The coloring is terrible. The voice actors aren’t trying, along with the voice director. The sound design is awful & doesn’t leave any impact, & the OP has some of the worst sound mixing I’ve ever heard out of not just an OP. But a song. My final score for Kings Game is, do I even have to say it? A 1/10. Please do yourselves a favor & don’t watch this. If you absolutely HAVE to see any piece of Kings Game. Just look at the death scenes on youtube. You might think they’re so over the top & poorly done as to think they’re funny. For me though, all the death scenes served ws further boredom to the overall experience that was watching King’s Game
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Jul 21, 2020
Ousama Game The Animation
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
This anime series is notorious. It came out in 2017 & has become quickly regarded as one of the worst series of all time. To be honest, I have to hope or reason to believe that this will be any good. I’m seeing like 20 red flags here that are telling me this is going to be atrocious. I really hope I’ll at least get something out of this & that it isn’t a complete waste of time. There will be spoilers in this review, but really, it won’t matter that much, because I don’t want any of you readers to actually watch the series
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Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jul 17, 2020
Youjuu Toshi
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
After lazing about for 9 days, I’m back to write my review on Wicked City & finish this duology. In my last review, I went over how Demon City, although a bad movie, was a movie I rather enjoyed due to its atmosphere & visual design. I’m hoping this will be the same case for Wicked City.
Story: 5/10 The story in Wicked City is just as lackluster as it was in Demon City, however I give the nod to Wicked City because it somewhat tries to do more with its plot, there’s more going on this film, more to digest, more to think about. The plot ... about this movie is that a bodyguard from the human world, & a bodyguard from the demon world have to team up with each other in order to protect this guy from getting killed by a faction of the demon world that doesn’t want this peace treaty to be signed. Unlike Demon City, the plot is actually somewhat thought-out, & it has a potentially engaging narrative at its fingertips. Of course, this doesn’t really amount to too much. This movie just doesn’t explore how the treaty would effect either side, we’re largely confined to the human world, rarely, if ever getting to have a look inside the demon world. The plot is largely underplayed for this one, largely serving more as backdrop/an excuse for the action scenes to happen. Characters: 5/10 The characters in this one are also lacking, like in Demon City, however I think they’yre slightly more charismatic & have just a pinch more of a personality than the characters from Demon City do. That being said, they’re still 1-dimensional ultimately, with the slight exception being Mayart, but him becoming the protector, someone actually competent on some level, from a pervert at the start of the movie is rather sudden, & nothing foreshadows that he’s more than what he may seem. The characters are ok overall, like the plot, they primarily serve to drive the action sequences, but credit where it’s due, they’re more memorable than they were in Demon City. The various Demons that Taki & Makie fight are completely 1-dimensional & uninteresting. They’re only personality trait is “I’ll kill you” & nothing more. Even their powers aren’t much to write about. Art: 9/10 Without a doubt the strongest part of this film is the art. Wicked City is aesthetically gorgeous, it’s character designs are slick, the color design is (pardon the pun) wicked. It’s an all around strong effort. The animation is also fluid & flows very well. The action scenes are staged, choreographed, & directed well, & leave an impact. Some of the storyboarding & shot structure is also pretty cool. I remember a shot about 50 minutes into the movie that served as a transitional segment for an action segment. The minimalistic color design of this shot is what made it so memorable to me. Sound: 7/10 The sound is about on par with Demon City, the mixing can be rather quiet & hard to hear some of the time, the voice acting is a solid effort, & the rest of the sound design, relying sometimes on ambiguity, sometimes on crunch, all sell the tone & atmosphere of the individual scenes about as well as Demon City did, so not too much more to comment on with this one. Overall: 6/10 Wicked City is more-or-less on par with Demon City. Although I slightly prefer Wicked City because the plot & characters are somewhat more engaging in this one than they were in Demon City. Otherwise though they’re equally worth watching. The plot is underutilized, the characters aren’t super interesting, the art, atmosphere, & setting are fantastic, the animation is also fantastic. The sound is solid. It’s an ok movie, enjoyable schlock if you will. I’m giving this one a 6/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 16, 2020 Recommended
Awhile ago, I reviewed the masterpiece series called “Neon Genesis Evangelion”. While I did have a little gripe with an aspect of the plot, that minor flaw wasn’t enough to detract from what was an otherwise masterful experience that I hope to keep thinking about decades after I’ve seen it. I’m now back to tackle The End of Evangelion. Hey, it wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t review this now wouldn’t it? I won’t waste time further other than throwing out the obligatory spoiler warning. Without further ado lets review & get this off my chest. Also, as a clarification. This is a direct continuation
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of my NGE review (no shit) so I apologize if this review comes off as too short or too shallow, as I don’t want to repeat too many of the points that I made in that review here.
Story: 10/10 My oh my, if I could describe the story of End of Evangelion in one word, It’s powerful. From scenes like Shinji jacking off over Asuka’s tits. The storming of Nerv headquarters. Komm Susser Tod. The scene before Komm Susser Tod that mirrors episode 15 of the series. The moment that shows Shinji building a sand castle resembling Nerv headquarters, only to then destroy it out of anger. I can go on but the number of powerful moments throughout the movie, oh who am I kidding? Practically every scene is a powerful moment in this movie. Anyway the plot itself. Well, SEELE has had enough of Gendo’s bullshit so they decide to take matters into their own hands, start the third impact, & finish the human instrumentality project. The places this story goes though, are what takes End of Evangelion and turns it into something special. I already mentioned some of the moments, & I’ll be sure to mention more awesome moments as this review goes along. That’s all I’m going to say, because even though there will be some spoilers, in this review as mentioned earlier, I’d like to contain myself on some level so that you still have a reason to watch this. In my review of NGE, I mentioned how the awesome storyboarding, structure, & flow is a large part of what made that series for me. It’s no different here. Actually, it is different. Because it’s even better in this movie than it was in the original series. The level of seamless flow from scene to scene housed within this movie is simply ridiculous. The structure of the movie is tighter than a quad-drouple knot, & the storyboarding, the storyboarding’s flow & seamless transitions, my god. So yeah, a large part of what made the series so good in the first place is not only housed in this film as well, but its better than it ever was in the TV series. Which I thought was already masterful to begin with, but this takes it a step further beyond. The directing is also improved over the series as well, the staging of fights. Structure of scenes. Structure of dialogue. Shots. Compositional work. It’s all insane how good it is. Characters: 10/10 Because the characters in EoE are the same as they are in NGE, & I already thoroughly discussed the characters in that review as much as I could, I really don’t have a whole lot to say or add about who they are as people, why they're such great characters, etc. So instead, I’ll list off my favorite moments of certain characters for this review. Just as a demonstration that they’re still as well written & impactful as they were in the original series Shinji- My favorite moment from Shinji in this movie is more a sequence of events than a singular moment. But it’s when he’s in the world where human-instrumentality happens & he’s talking to Rei. The realization that Shinji comes to, that human instrumentality isn’t what he wants, & that in spite of everything, the pain he feels, how he can hurt others, & that, in spite of how painful some of those memories were, they were his memories, & a sign that he was both alive, & a person. What follows is him breaking out of giant, naked, white Rei with Eva unit 01 letting out a screech. It’s a powerful series of events & the fact that the sound design in this series of events is largely made up of ambiguity, the background is water against a red sky, oh god I love this scene. It might be my favorite moment in Evangelion, but I really can’t decide. Asuka. Easily when she has to go up against the 9 Eva units & only has 3 minutes & 34 seconds to defeat all 9 of them. What follows in this scene is a beautiful showcase of animation, some of the finest attention to detail, beautiful fight choreography, an excellent display of Hideaki Anno’s directing capabilities, and more of Evangelion’s marvelous structure. This sequence of events houses a lot of End of Evangelion’s strongest aspects & part of why I think End of Evangelion is one of the overall best looking anime films of all time Rei. My favorite Rei moment is when she rejects Gendo once she hears Shinji’s freakout after witnessing Asuka’s death. I love this scene because after everything that happened in the original series, it feels great to see Rei say “fuck you” without even saying it. It’s also a nice payback on Gendo after all the shit he put not only Shinji through, but everybody else at Nerv through just to achieve his selfish desires. You’re an interesting character Gendo, but you’re an asshole all the same & god does it feel satisfying to hear Rei pull a “fuck you”, merge with Adam to become giant white Rei, & go help Shinji realize what it is that he really wants. Misato. My favorite Misato moment is before her death. When she has that talk with Shinji about “I’ve made mistakes too, some I’ve regretted”. The gut punching this scene hits me with is both tense & powerful, top that off with Misato kissing Shinji, ending with the statement ‘That’s an adult kiss”. Ohhh god I’m crying at this scene. End of Evangelion is full of great character moments, too many for me to list off in fact. This of course falls in line with the original series having fantastic character moments. But the sheer impact that these scenes leave, the great animation showcase in the case of Asuka versus the 9 angels, really, this whole movie is a giant moment. I think that describes the film perfectly “one giant moment”. Sound: 10/10 The sound is just as good as it was in the original series, what do you expect? All the voice actors reprise their role & do just as, if not better than they did in the original TV series. The sound design is just as amazing as it was in the original TV series. Sagisu returns to compose the OST for this movie and it’s just as great & well integrated as it was in the original TV series. Of course it’d be wrong not to mention “Komm Susser tod”. A 7:43 song with some of the most powerful imagery not just Evangelion, but film has ever seen. “Interference of Others” & “End of Midsummer” that play when SEELE invades Nerv is some really good shit. “Substitute invasion” that plays in several scenes, but particularly the Shinji, Misato dialogue scene that I mentioned in the characters portion of the review, “Thanatos” that plays over the troll credits at the middle of the film just fits for some reason. Ok, this is Shiro Sagisu’s best composition in my opinion. For as much as I praised his work in the original series, for as much as I adore Kare Kano’s compositions, I genuinely think this is Shiro Sagisu’s peak. All of his pieces are phenomenal, & their use in the film is no less. Art: 10/10 This is most likely going to be the shortest segment of the review because really? What is there to say, it’s an artistic masterpiece. The color design, the character designs, the flow of the animation, the weight of the animation, the sound design that helps to sell the animation, the fluidity of it all? Seriously, it’s one of the best looking anime movies for a reason. The art direction, the art design, the sublime animation, what more do you want me to say without repeating myself? Of course because it’s a movie, the animation quality is obviously superior to the TV series. I shouldn’t have to say that but thanks to the Girls & Panzer movie, I feel inclined to mention rather or not anime films actually rise above TV quality or not. Jabs aside, this really is one of the best looking anime films of all time. Overall: 10/10 It’s End of Evangelion, did you seriously think I wasn’t going to give this a 10/10 after being such a massive fan of the TV seris in the first place? The character moments are amazing, the story is powerful with many a moments of its own. The narrative structure is tight. The visual flow is some of the best anime films have to offer. The directing is one of Hideaki Anno’s best efforts. The music is Shiro Sagisu’s best composition, & the use of the pieces in the film are just as amazing as the music itself is. The way everything is wrapped up (which I purposefully didn’t mention because I didn’t want to spoil it). I think you all get it by now. End of Evangelion is a cinematic masterpiece that went down in history for a reason. If this film isn’t going to be put on an international preservation society of some form, I will go through the effort of starting my own just for the sake of preserving this film so that everyone can see it even after the world comes to an end. I don’t know how to end this review, so uh yeah, End of Evangelion is a masterpiece, end of story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 7, 2020
Makai Toshi Shinjuku
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Demon City Shinjuku is an old school anime film animated by studio Madhouse & Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri of Ninja Scroll & Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust fame. This is actually gonna be a 2 (potentially 3) part review series of Demon City, Wicked City, & if I’m up for it, Ninja Scroll. Aside from Kawajiri directing Wicked & Demon City, along with both of them being novel’s originally, they aren’t related to my knowledge. Lets go
Story: 4/10 The story in Demon City is kinda bad. The plot itself on paper isn’t too bad. It’s merely about this guy trying to save the world from being consumed ... by Rah, who’s power grows from human suffering. Not too bad, but the problems arrive from how bare bones the plot it. This plot is underdeveloped. Rah’s motivations are stated but not elaborated upon. What made him want to become more powerful? For example. Stuff like that isn’t explained or elaborated upon in the movie. The way Kyoya decides to go fight Rah is pretty forced. He meets Sayaka randomly as he’s biking home, & once she runs off to save her dad he just decides ‘damnit..” & goes off to Demon City to help her. The plot barely happens through most of the movie. It’s largely a backdrop just for the setting, which I’ll get to later. Overall, the story in Demon City is bad, but not awful. Characters: 4/10 The characters are uninteresting. They only have 1 personality trait & nothing else. Kyoya is the hero of the story. He starts off refusing to go to Demon City, which might make him a somewhat interesting character, but this is for naught, as he just becomes the hero of the story once he meets Sayaka anyway. Sayaka is the girl, the useless girl that is. To be fair, Sayaka does do 2 things that somewhat progress the plot. One of which stopping a demon child, the other being giving the ring to “Kid” (yes that’s his name) so that her & Kyoya can sleep in a certain room/progress past him. Other than that she’s absolutely useless & is basically dead weight throughout the entire movie. Right on cue, we have Kid, a brat. Nothing more, just a brat. Then we have Rah, evil for evils sake with lackadaisical motivations & a non-existent personality. As I’ve beaten into the ground by now. The characters all suffer from being 1 dimensional & lacking a personality. Art: 9/10 Demon City is beautiful. The setting of Demon City is lush & creepy. The colors & atmosphere really seel the creepy & evil vibe of the city. The animation is fluid & flows seamlessly. Rather they be action scenes or smaller scenes with not as action-packed movement. The action sequences contain this same flow & are really well directed, staged, structured, they’re not as good as the action scenes in something like Wicked City, but they’re still pretty damn good. Character designs are also pretty solid even if Rah looks like a generic evil villain. The designs sell these characters pretty well & they look great against the backdrops. The art is definitely the strongest part about Demon City Shinjuku without a doubt in my mind. Sound: 7/10 The sound in this movie was good. The voice acting is nothing special but it’s pretty solid. Some decent line delivery, good acting, It’s all there. The sound mixing for the voice acting is pretty quiet on the other hand, which is rather unfortunate. The sound design is also pretty solid, the ambience helps to sell the creepy vibe & visuals of the city. Explosions also have that nice crunch to them on top of looking really good to begin with. The music is also pretty kick ass (whenever the odd tune does play anyway). It’s got a nice 80s rock with some elements of metal & disco (albeit minor elements of disco) thrown in there for good measure. Overall: 6/10 Demon City isn’t a good movie. But I liked it for the aesthetics and atmosphere. The story is pretty bad with lackadaisical progression, barely being there in the first place, & underdeveloped in several areas. The characters are also completely uninteresting & lacking in personality. But, the setting & atmosphere of this movie are really good. The visuals & atmosphere are the sole reason I’m giving this one a 6/10. I’ll be honest, I value aesthetics quite a lot of the the anime I watch. I love it when the visuals themselves can sell me on a setting, & I think Demon City does a pretty good job at doing that. The atmosphere & vibe is also really good, as the ambiguity in the sound design helps to sell the creepy nature of a destroyed city overran by demons. All in all, unless you’re an aesthetic nut/want to see some really good visuals, decent action sequences, & here some pretty good music (every once in awhile at least) then I wouldn’t recommend this movie due to the bad plot & lackadaisical characters. As a history lesson It’s okay & worth the watch, for anything else aside from aesthetics, this movie isn’t it, & I would recommend you steer clear from this one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 7, 2020
Mirai no Mirai
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
Mirai no Mirai is the latest output from director Mamoru Hosoda. Who has a pretty decent to good track record as far as I’m aware. Girl Who Leapt through time I enjoyed, Summer Wars was decent, Wolf Children I liked a lot, & Boy & The Beast I thoroughly enjoyed. So I have fairly high expectations for this movie. Lets a go
Story: 2/10 The story of Mirai no Mirai is really cool in concept. A young boy gets brought to the future to get taught life lessons from his older sister the aptly named ‘Mirai” along with various other people in his life. Really interesting concept ... on paper. Too bad the execution blew. The problem with the story is the repetitive structure of the movie. Kun learns something, goes back to being a brat, learns something new, goes back to being a brat, rinse repeat until the final time he goes into the future to learn a new life lesson, credits roll the end. The structure is one thing, but it’s the fact the life lessons are just thrown out the window with little, if any scenes at all that showcase Kun’s growth after the life lessons take place. The movie also doesn’t flow well due to the narrative structure. After the life lesson takes place the movie abruptly cuts to the next sequence of events. It’s really distracting for me & just adds to the botched execution of what was otherwise a good concept that this movie had. Characters: 1/10 The characters in Mirai no Mirai are completely uninteresting. Now look, I don’t expect Kun to be a very developed character at age 4. He’s only beginning his life at this point & barely knows anything. But that does not excuse how aggravating & 1-note he is. Lets take Ponyo & Sosuke from Gake no Uke no Ponyo. While Ponyo & Sosuke are just as one note as Kun is. What makes Ponyo & Sosuke likeable characters is that they don’t act like complete brats throughout a majority of the movie, or forget the life lesson that they just learned from a trip to the future from their older sister. Sosuke & Ponyo are lovable little characters who bring a lot of charm with them & actually do something more than bitch all day. One could make the argument that Sosuke & Ponyo act unrealistic considering that they’re 5 years old in the film. But if Kun is what a “realistic” child is supposed to act like that I’d rather get fingered in the ass by Edward Scissorhands than watch this movie. Because not only is Kun uninteresting as a character, but he’s absolutely aggravating on top of that, which is the worst combination in my mind. The rest of the characters are so unmemorable & devoid of personality that even Mamoru Hosoda himself couldn’t come up with names for the characters (aside from 3 of them). “The Father” is exactly what he sounds like. “The Mother” is exactly what she sounds like. “The Grandfather” & ‘The Grandmother” are exactly what they sound like, I think you get my point. The only other characters who I can remember by name without having to look them up online are the titular character herself, & Yukko, the family dog. The only reason I even remember these two were because they help Kun develop as a character through the time-jumps to the future (except not really because as I already mentioned Kun basically forgets all of his development once the sequence of events are over & the film moves on to the next sequence of events). Much like Kun, these character are completely 1 dimensional & devoid of personality. Mirai is the generic older sister character & Yukko is just a person. Dare I say it, but this movie might actually have less personality in its characters than Girls & Panzer does. Because at least in that Hogwash I have nicknames for certain characters like “Mono-Cunt” & “Winky-Bitch” (really those are the only two).. Art: 8/10 If I can give this movie a genuine piece of credit, it looks beautiful & the animation is top notch. I didn’t notice any discrepancies throughout the film, the character art stayed on model the whole time, & the layout of the house that Kun lives in was really well designed & interesting. I really don’t have much else to say about the art to be honest. It’s the one redeemable aspect of this movie, & a compliment I can give it that doesn’t come off as backhanded Sound: 4/10 The sound design was alright. But the voice acting I didn’t like. Particularly Kun which, I get it, he’s 4 years old. But as I mentioned earlier in the review, Sosuke & Ponyo exists & their voices aren’t anywhere near as grating as Kun’s voice is. The rest of the voice acting is really lacking & flat. The delivery isn’t bad, but the voice actors just sound like they’re phoning it in. Aside from Kun I really struggle to remember much about the voice cast outside of Kun, & I only remember Kun’s performance because I hated it so much. Overall: 2/10. Mirai no Mirai gets a 2/10, this movie sucked hard, & I thoroughly hated it. I hated that the awesome concept was botched down with a terrible, repetitive narrative structure. Kun basically forgets all his life lessons seemingly at the drop of a hat just so this movie has an excuse to be longer than it has any right to be. Oh yeah, this movie was a slog. The Boy & The Beast was about 2 hours in runtime & it felt shorter than this movie. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya felt shorter than this movie, which was 2 hours and 42 minutes yeesh. Top that with uninteresting characters, an annoying MC, & lackadaisical voice acting on top of that. Yeah, fuck this movie. My disappointment is immeasurable & now I’ll always have to think about this whenever Hosoda makes a new movie. It’s one thing to have a misstep, every director has those at some point. It’s another to have such a through & through fuck up on the level that is this movie. Before I inevitably get asked by somebody. No, this doesn’t mean I’m going to forget Boy & The Beast & Wolf Children. I’ll always love those movies & think highly of them. Hosoda is still a good director, but Mirai no Mirai is more than just “a misstep”
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jul 3, 2020
Hunter x Hunter (2011)
(Anime)
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Recommended
Hunter x Hunter is a long running action adventure shonen anime originally created by Yoshihiro Togashi & re-adapted in 2011 by powerhouse studio Madhouse. Hunter x Hunter is rather famous here on MAL, it’s currently the 4th highest rated anime on this sight with an average score of 9.12. Well damn, that’s some really high praise, lets see if it lives up to that praise. Probably gonna be some spoilers, be prepared.
Story:10/10 The story of Hunter x Hunter is a sprawling epic laid out over a series of 7 arcs. We begin with our main protagonist Gon, Gon decides he wants to become a Hunter ... so that he can find his dad, who left him in the hands of Mito, a friend of Gon’s dad. Gon then meets up with Leorio, Kurapika, & later on his soon to be life long partner Killua. These 4 all go and take on the Hunter exams together. Once the hunter exams are all over everyone goes out to embark on their own adventures. What makes HxH’s story work so well is the sheer scale of the world that the main 4 (particularly Gon & Killua) traverse throughout their journey. The locations are all full of variety, & introduce us to some great characters with their own stories to tell. My favorite arcs in the series are Greed Island & Yorknew City, I like Greed Island because of Bisky’s training of both Gon & Killua. Greed Island the game is also an interesting setting with some excellent world design, good/interesting game mechanics, a strong villain, & a cathartic payoff at the end of the arc. Phantom Troupe being my other favorite because of 2 things primarily, Kurapika’s development & resolve, along with the Phantom Troupe themselves. From beginning to end every arc, while not as equally good as one another, offer engaging storylines, sublime character moments/development, good episode structure, & payoff. The final thing I have to bring up in my point about why Hunter x Hunter’s story is so good is the pacing. Hunter x Hunter has some of the best pacing I’ve seen out of a long running shonen adventure series like this. Scenes rarely ever drag, the fights usually stay in one episode & only go on for multiple episodes after a long build-up to a point where the multiple episode battles (particularly the final 25 or so episodes of Chimera Amt when the team storms the castle) feels earned. Characters: 10/10 Hunter x Hunter has excellent characters. Main, supporting, major, minor, the characters of Hunter x Hunter all offer something to the series. The main 4 offer great dynamics between one another. Gon is the innocent somewhat idiotic character, this is a great contrast to the dark & violent world of Hunter x Hunter. Killua serves as the straight man to Gon’s idiot, Killua is the more serious character who keeps Gon in check whenever Gon steps out of line. Killa goes through some great development about learning what friendship means, how to open up himself, & becoming a more sympathetic character as the series goes on. Kurapika was part of a tribe who was later wiped out due to the value of their eyes. It’s later revealed that the phantom troupe (more on them later) were responsible for the massacre of Kurapika’s tribe so he decides to become a Hunter so that he can become stronger, gain more experience both in combat & general world knowledge, to later take on the phantom troupe & seek vengeance for his tribe. I already mentioned it in my story segment, but Kurapika’s character growth & resolve in the Yorknew City arc elevated him to my second favorite character of the series. Our final of the main 4 is Leorio, the fool with a heart of gold. Leorio becomes a Hunter so that he can gain money in order to go to med school & become a doctor & help people because his friend died from a curable disease, yet Leorio couldn’t do anything about it because he didn’t have the medical knowledge to know how to cure his friend. The motivations driving each character, along with the development that everybody gets to go through (even if Leorio’s is unfortunately pretty minimal due to his lack of screentime in the grand scheme of the series). I must also mention side heroes such as the aforementioned Bisky, Knuckle, Wing, Zushi, & many more. Much like our main heroes, these guys contribute majorly to not just the development of Gon & Killua, but the development of the plot as well. They’re fleshed out beings with their own stories to tell. All of the villains in the series are also great, from the Phantom Troupe in Yorknew City, the Chimera Ants, the Bombers in Greed Island, every villain in this series is full of character & all have their own stories to tell & their own challenges to offer to the heroes. The Phantom Troupe are a group of people who do bad things, but they all look out for one another & become genuinely upset & unsettled at the thought of one of their members getting taken out by “The Chain User”. The Chimera ants, even the minor ones offer something. Take Rammot for example, he’s not around for very long in the arc, but his encounter with Gon & Killua made him angry about the fact that he couldn’t beat them, so he gains a desire to become even stronger & defeat his new found foes. It’s simple, but it’s effective because it not only shows the desire for growth, but the fact that the Chimera Ants are a greater threat than we thought, Gon & Killua did struggle to defeat him after all. There’s too many villains in this series for me to name off one by one, but a commonality between all of them is that they're fleshed out & written as characters, not evil villains. Art: 10/10 Hunter x Hunter is without a doubt in my mind, the most consistently high quality long running shonen adventure series in both its sheer visual prowess & animation. The environments in Hunter x Hunter look really good because of the landscapes & the color of the world. The colors make the world pop & the lighting only further adds to this. Hunter X Hunter is never too bright or too dark in each scene respectively. Animation is impressive, while Hunter x Hunter is one of those series in which a lot of the scenes are comprised of static shots where the characters are just sitting around talking with the mouth flaps rarely matched up because that’s just the way animation works unless you’re the Monogatari Series. This really isn’t a flaw, as these more static scenes still bring with them some great shot compositions that don’t make the scenes completely uninteresting to look at. Also helping these scenes are the surrounding environments having things going on in the background, so it’s not like these shots are completely uninteresting, I will admit, there are sometimes shots in Hunter x Hunter that are completely uninteresting, but these are negligible as they never last for very long, & their pretty forgettable in the grand scheme, so it’s not like they hold these shots for a long time or anything. The action directing in Hunter X Hunter is some of the best that TV animation can offer. There are so many great moments in the directing that lead to memorable fights. Take Gon vs Hisoka as Heaven’s Arena for example, at one point Hisoka punches Gon in the face with a hook, & the camera then moves to Gon’s face whilst the background is spinning. It’s a nice shot that demonstrates Gon’s frustrations while keeping the show moving. Another good example of directing would be in the Chiemra Ant arc when the good guys are storming the castle to try & take on the Chimera Ant king. We open with a shot that opens on the Good Guys entering through a portal that Know left by the staircase in an earlier episode. The next shot showcases the villain that our heroes are going to have to fight as they didn’t intend on him being by the staircase, in this case Pouf. The scene then plays out in slow motion for a bit switching between close ups of a good guy, then pouf, & then a good guy again. This sequence of events is excellent because it establishes the beginning of the invasion, the threat that our heroes are going up against, & the determination of the good guys to complete their mission. I can go on all day naming off these moments but that would only serve to pad this review even further, so for now I’ll contain myself & just say “Yeah, Hunter x Hunters action directing is some of the best that TV anime can offer & has so many groundbreaking moments throughout the series”. Sound: 10/10 The voice acting is an all around sublime effort from everybody. Megumi Han as Gon, Miyuki Sawashiro as Kurapika, Ayumi Fujiwara as Pitou, Daisuke Namikawa as Hisoka. Really, everybody brings a great effort & continuously improves their performance as the show goes along. Don’t get me wrong, their performances aren’t bad at the beginning, I’m just saying, it starts strong, and it only gets stronger from there.The sound design is also really good. Punches, comedic sfx, rubble, nen, the sound design does a great job at keeping everything tied together & making sure everything leaves an impact, so I have no further comments to make on Hunter x Hunter having excellent sound design. The music is so damn good. A common criticism I hear about Hunter x Hunter is that the series becomes too expository at points. While I can understand the frustration (I myself hate expository dialogue when it’s used incorrectly). Music from the freaking kick ass OST that is this anime will usually play in the background to distract from the exposition, so it rarely, if ever gets boring to hear these characters talk because the music is well placed & is just used so well. I also have to give a shout-out to ending theme 5 (the 2nd Chimera Ant ending theme). Such a great piece that fits the arc perfectly. It starts off nice & slow replicating the build-up to the invasion, then it builds up to represent the invasion taking place, couldn’t have been placed any better. Overall: 10/10 So that’s Hunter X Hunter. It is absolutely deserving of the spot & reputation its received over the course of 9 years. Its story is a sprawling, globe trotting epic. It takes simple premises & makes complex storylines & characters out of them. The characters are extremely well written & offer their own stories & challenges. The development of both the plot & characters is phenomenal. The structure is on point. The action directing is some of the best that TV anime has ever seen. Every arc is at its minimum an 8/10 or above. The pacing is some of the best I’ve seen out of a long running shonen adventure series like this. It’s a brilliant series Yoshihiro ToGODshi hit it out of the park with this one. With as much praise as I’ve given this one, it’s of course going to receive a 10/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 25, 2020
Maison Ikkoku: Kanketsu-hen
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
I’m going to be real with all of you this isn’t going to be a review, this is going to be a rant. You can already see my score, I disliked this movie greatly, I felt it spat in not only my face, but the masterpiece that is the original series. Before I really get into it, I just want to prestate that Maison Ikkoku is my 2nd favorite anime, at times being my favorite anime. I love everything about it from its characters, its realized setting, its heart-touching love story, the comedy, the drama, I love Maison Ikkoku. The series was such a masterpiece
...
I even wrote a review on it, but that’s besides the point. I’m about to rip this movie to shreds, possibly spoil it rotten, & rage like a bitch boy, you have been warned.
Lets start off simple, fuck this artstyle. The original TV series was gorgeous. It’s beautiful backgrounds, amazing character designs, superb shot composition, the TV show was a visual treat & stayed consistently well made from start to finish. For whatever reason, the people who worked on this movie decided to go with a completely unnecessary art-style change. Yuuji Moriyama is the person I have to blame for taking what once were these absolutely beautiful character designs adapted by both himself (eps 1-26) & then later on Takada Akemi (eps 27-96) and absolutely fuck them up. Moriyama tried taking a more realistic approach to designing the characters in this movie, but what Moriyama failed to realize was that the characters already looked about as real as you could believably make anime characters look in the original series, so I don’t understand why he made the characters so ugly in this movie. Remember earlier that I was praising the excellent backgrounds of the TV series? Yeah, those took a hit too. What once where beautiful, lush, involved backgrounds have now become lifeless, dull, devoid of soul, & largely flat. There’s a couple of good looking backgrounds in this movie every once in awhile, but they’re outweighed by the amount of bland backgrounds that are devoid of effort. I will give this movie some slight credit, the animation quality is actually good. I still like the way the TV show animates better, & quite honestly, the best animated moments of the TV series far surpass the best animated moments of this movie by a long-shot. Now we have the story, oh my fucking god the story. A point of criticism that often comes up from Maison Ikkoku detractors is that the misunderstandings of the show are far too frequent, sometimes farfetched, & can easily be solved by Godai taking action. While I can understand these complaints, they aren’t ones I agree with for the most part. Until I watched this movie, & I then saw the complaints about the misunderstandings first hand. First of all, why? Why does Godai have such a lacking trust in Kyoko in this movie? We were treated to scenes in the series that clearly established these two shared a mutual trust betwixt one-another, & Kyoko never did anything particularly sleezy in the series in the first place, & Mitaka had already become married, why does Godai have any reason to believe Kyoko would be cheating on him? Did this idiot fuck-girl writer called Michiru Shimada go & misunderstand Godai’s character entirely? She shouldn’t have, she wrote 8 episodes of the series, some of them being my personal favorite episodes of the series. Let me be clear on one thing, Godai isn’t the brightest person out there, & he’s indecisive, gullible, & weak willed, but he isn’t completely fucking stupid. Now we have Yagamai & oh my god why? Ibuki Yagami was one of my least favorite characters in the series, but I didn’t completely hate her, because Yagami was still a realized character & contributed to the overall narrative at play. Nearing the end of the series, Yagami gives up on Godai coming to the realization that Godai likes Kyoko instead of her, while this admittedly concludes anti-climatically in the series & sort-of plays out in a way to where it feels anti-climatic, it was nevertheless a good conclusion to Yagami’s arc. SO WHY DID THEY BRING HER BACK? On top of that, why did they allow Yagami to be at her absolute worst that she’s ever been at this point in the series. Once Yagami’s arc concludes in the series she only appears infrequently, & never around anybody from Maison Ikkoku. Yagami had absolutely no reason to be in this movie. Her arc was concluded, she moved on with her life in the series, & that was that. It was a nice bittersweet ending to a character arc in the series, yet in Kanketsu-Hen her she is for absolutely no reason other than to stir up some drama because of course. There’s also a subplot going on this movie about the master from Chachamaru trying to propose to Akemi, while this is a somewhat sweet plot, it’s really not explored & is only used for a few scenes that add nothing but padding to an already short movie (coming in at a runtime of 1 hour 6 minutes), what a waste, & I’m sorry you had to be in this terrible movie master. Another disappointing aspect of this movie is that one of the most important characters to Godai’s development Lioka decides to show up, great, I’d love to see Lioka & Godai have a sort-of mini-reunion & see how far Godai has come ever since he stopped working at the cabaret because sakamoto fucked him over & the tenants of Maison Ikkoku are assholes who keep piling up his tab. But oh wait, he gets trapped in a room with Kyoko’s dad for the whole movie, just for 2, 3, maybe 4 gags that, contain some pretty slick transitions, but are otherwise unfunny gags repeating the joke that Mr. Chigusa doesn’t want his daughter to remarry, especially to someone like Godai, a man he finds unworthy of Kyoko’s heart, what a fuck-up. Now we have an absolutely pointless character that you would only need to make one minor plot-change, & he could be entirely useless & not contribute a damn thing to this movie. Nikaidou only contributes showing the letter to Kyoko that started this whole dumbass misunderstanding in the first place on accident. That’s all, he’s barely used for gags, & he has nothing worth contributing to the story. This guy was actually not in the original TV series, but was present in the manga. I’m guessing he was cut from the TV series because he contributed nothing of value to the narrative of the original source material too. This movie was anime original, why would you include a character from the manga that wasn’t even in the fucking anime in the first place? But I digress. All in all, the story of Kanketsu-Hen is all the worst aspects of Maison Ikkoku, that weren’t even that bad in the original series to begin with, amplified by 20K & then had the shit-switch cranked up on top of that, god I hated this movie. You wanna talk sound? Because I’ll do that too. The voice acting isn’t bad, but it’s nothing impressive or special like the original series was. All the voice actors reprise their roles as their respective characters (Sumi Shimamoto as Kyoko), (Issei Futamata as Godai), (Shigeru Chiba as Yotsuya), so on. But the voice actors here all sound like they’re phoning it in and only doing this for a paycheck, I guess because the realized how terrible this movie was while they were recording their dialogue for it. The music is pathetic, not terrible, but an absolutely pathetic effort coming off of Kenji Kawai’s god-like OST from the original series. The movie didn’t even have the decency to open with either a unique OP, or a reused OP from the TV series, what the fuck gives guys? Maison Ikkoku had some of the best OPs out there, why didn’t you flex those in this movie? The sound design is actually a salvageable part out of this mess though, there’s some great SFX used for some actually funny & well timed moments in the movie, footsteps sound good, beer cans sound good, I’ll give the sound design some honest to god credit here, it was by-far the part that had the most effort put into it. So in spite of all the shit-talking I’ve given to this movie, why did I not rate it a 1/10 like I should’ve? Because there were some honest to god really good character moments in this movie. Like the scene between Yagami & Kyoko in the attic of Maison ikkoku, Yagami asks Kyoko, “So the princess has two lovers, one of which being deceased, & the other being a young man, which one does she choose?” Kyoko thinks for a minute & answers back with “I never thought about comparing Godai to my late husband”. The banter between these two, & the structure both surrounding this scene before & after, & during the dialogue, it’s brilliant, & actually reminded me that I was watching something related to one of my all time favorite things for a little bit. Another scene I loved was close to the end of this movie, when Kyoko actually reads the letter to Godai. She tells a story about how Ikari Godai sent her a photo of Yusaku Godai in his childhood, she accidentally ripped the picture & wanted to apologize to Ikari for it. After Ikari writes back & the contents of the letter were revealed, Godai & Kyoko have some beautiful dialogue between them, again, the way this scene & the dialogue are structured is what makes it so good, & once again reminds me that I’m actually watching something that can be related to Maison Ikkoku twice throughout this god-damn movie. Another point of praise is that some moments of storyboarding in this movie are actually pretty slick & seamless, it’s one of the few good directing moments in this movie, as the directing from the TV series that was so insanely awesome in the first place has been stripped & gutted. I’ll also give credit that in the beginning of this movie I received a few laughs. I didn’t have many laughs throughout this movie, but hey, credit where it’s due I guess, I’m already being too easy on this movie as I am. Maison Ikkoku Kanketsu-Hen is absolutely pathetic. Why did this need to exist? What point did this serve to the overall narrative? What value did this add to the series? How much did the people who work on this get paid? Really, there was no reason for this series to exist. The story would be a plot point that absolutely nobody would’ve cared about seeing as this wasn't in the the TV series or even the manga to begin with. The story sucks, the art sucks, the directing sucks, the music sucks, my favorite characters are a shell of their former selves in this movie & devoid of their personality & comedic moments (except for Yotsuya). This movie is a disgrace to the masterpiece that is Maison Ikkoku. If you have any shred of self-respect & love this series, please. Don’t watch this terrible movie. It will bring nothing but disappointment & anger. Final rating for this one is gonna be a 2/10. This was a shameless cash-grab that was made only to capitalize on Maison’s popularity at the time & is an absolute disgrace to this series and any & everyone who is a fan of this series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jun 22, 2020
3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season
(Anime)
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Recommended Spoiler
I really don’t know how to write about this series. That isn’t to say I don’t know why I like it or anything, but I don’t know how to not hide the bias. 3-gatsu no lion is my favorite anime. I think it’s the best thing this medium has to offer, & it’s by far not only shaft’s but Akiyuki Shinbou’s best project he ever has directed, & ever will direct. That statement may come back to bite me in the ass at some point later on, but I don’t care. I feel it a disgrace to not write about my favorite series. Spoiler alert,
...
you have been warned.
Story: 10/10 Phenomenal. That’s the only word I need. 3-gatsu no lion combines simplicity with complexity. The overall story is simple, it’s about pro-shogi player Rei Kiriyama working to overcome his struggles in life. But what elevates this story is the concepts 3-gatsu tackles, from self-discovery, depression, bullying, understanding others, & many, many more. It takes a story that’s about an ordinary guy overcoming his struggles & turns it into something a bit more grandiose. The places this story takes us too, oh my god. Everyone in this series has their own arc that they go through, their own stories to tell, their own paths they take, every character has something to offer & not one person is wasted space. From learning about Souya’s deafness & how it affected him & his shogi career, Nikaidou & how his match against Kiriyama as a child motivated him to push harder & become a better shogi player, or Hinata’s bullying arc about her friend, Chiho getting bullied out of school, & Hinata standing her ground against the bullies. All of it is great stuff & involved storylines that don’t detract from the overall storyline of the series. The episode structure & storyboarding is also stuff made of legends, creating a great & seamless flow. The flow of the storyboarding also makes the area’s feel jam-packed & full of life. It’s an all around superb effort. Characters: 10/10 I already briefly touched upon the excellency that are the characters of this show in my story segment, but I will say it again, the characters in 3-gatsu are brilliantly written. Rei Kiriyama’s depression doesn’t feel like some cheap tactic to try & make him feel like a relatable character, his depression feels earned because of his circumstances. Shogi is the only thing this poor man has, without it he is nothing. He lives by himself while he’s taking highschool, & he grew up in an abusive upbringing (not from his adoptive father, but his sister & brother either hurting him or ignoring him flat out). But Rei isn’t mopey the whole time, Rei can actually be quite a cheerful individual & when good things happen to him he’s very appreciative of it. Rei Kiriyama is above all else balanced. Speaking of bright sides in Rei’s life, we have the Kawamoto sisters that consist of Akari, Hinata, & Momo. The Kawamoto sisters are perfect, they serve the story purpose brilliantly & contribute a lot of things to the development of not only Rei Kiriyama, but Rei as a whole. The Kawamoto sisters are very cheerful & upbeat citizens who take in & look after Rei as if he was their own. 3-gatsu no lion has tone-shifts, usually involving the Kawamoto sisters, but these aren’t bad as the series builds up to these tone-shifts through both an establishing structure, & shot. Not only that, but the art-style will also change to match the tone of a scene. From momo’s innocence, Akari’s motherly love of both her sisters & Rei, & Hinata in general, the Kawamoto sisters are actually perfect & this series would be worse off without them. That’s just scratching the surface of the well rounded cast in this series. We have Gotou, a shogi player with an ill wife doing all he can to try & help his wife, all the time staying loyal to her. We then have Kyouko, Rei’s adoptive older sister who was hard on Rei because her Father gave more attention to bettering Rei in shogi than he did to his own daughter. Next we have Hayashida, Rei’s homeroom teacher who eats lunch with him & is there to have conversations with Rei & help comfort him. I could go on all day, but the point is that 3-gatsu’s characters are all fleshed out & involved beings who all have something to contribute to the story at hand. Not one character in this series is underutilized & each one of them go through their own arc (big or small) that makes them not only memorable, but believably sympathetic characters as well. This might just be one of the most rounded cast’s of characters that anime has ever seen they’re that well written. Art:10/10 3-gatsu is an artistic masterpiece, but this is Studio-Shaft we’re talking about, even their worst works look good & 3-gatsu no lion is no exception to Shaft anime looking gorgeous. The way the series adapts Chika Umino’s art into animation is excellent, the line work & color choices were excellent & each scene (even dark ones) are well lite & let the colors pop. The design works are good too, from character designs that tell you exactly what you need to know about the characters, said designs representing the characters well, the general design works of the settings is all excellent stuff. If I may be so bold, as gorgeous as the Monogatari series looks & as much as I praised the design works in my review of Bakemonogatari, the design work on display in 3-gatsu is so excellent & the adaptation of Chika Umino’s artstyle into animation here transitions so well that I actually prefer the way 3-gatsu no lion looks over the Monogatari franchise. Animation is of course excellent, the weight, flow, mechanics, etc. All of it is really good stuff. From more intense action moments (such as the shogi battles) & all the little animation details in more relaxed scenes, the animation remains consistently high quality through the (at the time of writing) 44 episodes that this series spans. To put it bluntly, I have no problems with the animation of this series, & the animation itself has no flaws. Sound: 10/10 The sound is just as great as everything else about the series is, what more did you expect? The voice acting in particular is really good (how does Shaft not only know how to hire talented voice actors, but keep them coming back?). Kawanishi Kengo as Rei, Hanazawa Kana as Hinata, Kuno Misaki as Momo, & Sakurai Takahiro as Hayashida, it’s all great stuff from some really talented people. The music is also really good, it creates some great atmosphere but remains humble & a nice easy listen outside of the show itself. I must also bring mention to the first OP of the series, ‘Answer” by “Bump of Chicken” which might just be my favorite anime OP of all time. I listen to it almost everyday & in-fact I’m listening to it now as I write this review. Overall: I’ve got 5 words for you, “10 out of fucking 10!” Finally getting around to write about this series has felt really rewarding. Getting to express my love of my favorite anime, talking about all its great points, its excellent storytelling, it’s phenomenal & well rounded character cast, it’s excellent art & sound. Really, what more can I say here? It’s damn near perfection. Unlike 3 other shows in my top 5, they all have glaring aspects to them that I can pinpoint as flaws, albeit flaws that aren’t high enough to detriment their status as being in my top 5, but still some flaws to them nevertheless. 3-gatsu no lion on the other hand, I have absolutely nothing negative to say about it. It’s in the top 10 on MAL for a reason (though frankly is deserves to be number 1 if you ask me). In conclusion, 3-gatsu no lion #1 anime, Hinata & Rei are the best characters, Answer best OP, Akiyuki Shinbou at his best directing job on this one, & this is what all adaptations should strive to be. Already said it but this one is getting the full 10 out of 10 to nobody’s surprise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 14, 2020
Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä
(Anime)
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Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind is one of those movies. I’m talking a movie so famous & renowned that practically everyone has seen, or at least heard of this movie. I won’t waste time talking about the impact it left, how it basically kick-started Hayao Miyazaki’s career, & all that jazz, I’m just gonna get straight into it.
Story:10/10 The story of Nausicaa follows our titular protagonist on a journey to try & save The valley of the wind. We first meet Nausicaa going to the sea of decay to try & recover an ohm shell. We then are taken to the valley of the ... wind where we’re introduced to the villagers. Hours later a ship comes by carrying with it spores that end up infecting the valley of the wind. The next day some airships operated by the kingdom of Tolmekia comes to the valley of the wind in order to try & recover a fire god creature to use it to burn the sea of decay in order to unite humanity. From there on out it’s about Nausicaa’s journey to try & save the valley of the wind. The story of Nausicaa is excellent. It has a grand scale attached to it & the stakes are high. The villains also aren’t just hate filled & evil for the sake of being evil. The villains of Nausicaa are fleshed out entities with their own personality traits & charism to all of them. They feel burning down the sea of decay will be for the greater good of all humanity & their motivations come off as believable. It’s also a very balanced story, as it has enough complexity to it to be grab people looking for more involved stories, but it’s simple enough to where the average movie goer can follow along just fine. The world of Nausicaa is also a very realized world. From the sea of decay itself, to the underground of the sea of decay, to the valley of the wind, to the destroyed kingdom of pejite, every frame of the movie has a distinct landmark about it. Characters: 10/10 The characters in Nausicaa are excellent. All of them have great characterization, good charisma, motivations that actually make sense & reasons to act the way they do. Nausicaa isn’t just an environmentalist for the sake of one, as a traumatizing event from her childhood (watching a baby ohm taken away from her after she tried to protect it to then be presumably killed off screen) & the sand from beneath the sea of decay being able to be used as a purifier causes her to act this way. On the other end Kushana, ruler of the tolmekian’s believes that destroying the sea of decay will benefit the environment & open up the possibility to not only expand her empire, but create more livable environments for the humans. Most importantly of all, she doesn’t act like an asshole about any of this, in fact she not only lets Obaba speak but she orders her soldiers to stop firing at the villagers from the valley of the wind near the end of the movie after they have a misunderstanding. Safe to say the main villain of this movie isn’t just a “big bad villain” & is actually a well thought out, written character with believable motivations & a good personality to match. Art & Sound: 10/10 It’s studio ghibli, do I really need to say this movie looks excellent? Backgrounds are beautiful, landscapes are lush, colors are vibrant, it’s an all around excellent production. The animation is also really good & still holds up to this day, it has great flow, there’s never really a moment where the animators get lazy, it stays consistently fluid. Character & Mechanical designs are also well made, character art remains on model & mechanical things such as the weapons, tanks, aircraft, all look great & very distinctive. Music is phenomenal & dare I say it, Joe Hisashi’s best score, the pieces have great variety, match the tone, create great atmosphere and emotion, the pieces used match their scenes perfectly, it’s almost as if the movie was built around the music it matches so well. Voice acting is also supherb. Sumi Shimaoto as Nausicaa, Yoshiko Sakakibara as Kushana, Gorou Naya as Yupa, it’s all great stuff. Even the minor characters have great performances. Overall: 10/10 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is one of the all time greatest things ever conceived by mankind. From it’s excellent storytelling, brillant characters, lush world, god-tier OST, phenomenal voice acting, & all the little things that add up into an amalgamation of one of the greatest movies ever made, wow. This was only Hayao Miyazaki’s 2nd full feature length film & he hit it out of the park with this one. This is his masterpiece & a movie that him and his team should feel very proud of. This movie created a juggernaut studio that would bring us over 3 decades of entertainment, really put Hayao Miyazaki on the map, & made anime so, so much better. Unsurprisingly, this movie gets the full 10 out of 10. This is my favorite movie of all time, & I don’t see anything topping it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 13, 2020
Shinseiki Evangelion
(Anime)
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*I might bring up some talking points about end of evangelion & might end up spoiling things on accident
Neon Genesis Evangelion is quite the something in this community. For 2 and a half decades it has inspired many, & created a bunch of hate surrounding the series. I don’t really know what else to say in this introduction that hasn’t already been said about the series prior, so lets go I guess. Story: 9/10 The story of Neon Genesis Evangelion is really good albeit has minor flaws. The story is that 15 years after the second impact, organization SEELE is trying to pass the human instrumentality project, ... assisting in this operation is organization Nerv. In that same 15 years later, beings known as the “Angels” begin to attack again, & Nerv has to stop them. The only minor flaws I can really think of is the purpose of fighting the angels & what exactly they have to do with achieving the human instrumentality project that SEELE wants isn’t the most clear thing in the world, & it really isn’t explored all that much, we’re just told that the angels are preventing SEELE from achieving their goals, they’ll destroy the world if they aren’t stop, so we must stop them. While saving the world is a pretty big deal, the intricacies aren’t explored in depth & they give us just what we need to know. This flaw is easily forgiven with how great the angel battles are. From the staging, the directing, & visual flow of the battles, this minor grievance is made up for. One of the other things that makes Evangelion’s story really good is the great visual directing, & storyboarding on the part of Hideaki Anno & his team. Shots flow into one another pretty seamlessly for the most part. The dynamic camera angels & far out shots of the city & other environments really sell the scope of this world. Compliment that with how well the storyboarding flows & you’ve got yourself some of the most memorable episodes of TV anime I’ve ever seen. Characters: 10/10 Evangelion has some really good characters. The main cast has a lot of things going on for them & offer a ton of great character moments. Shinji for example suffers from abandonment & trust issues, his father abandoned him when he was a kid & Shinji was an orphan until he turned 14 & his father called him to Nerv because he needed him to pilot the Evangelion unit. The thought of hurting others pains him more than the thought of being hurt himself. Shinji is a well built character with flaws, but his flaws aren’t overexaggerated to a point where they become unbelievable. He also isn’t a pussy because he has to pilot a giant mech that connects to his nerves, so whatever pain the Eva feels, Shinji also feels. In contrast to Shinji, we have Asuka Langley Souryuu, brash, outspoken, obsessed with being the best, Asuka is also a great character. Much like Shinji, Asuka also suffers from abandonment issues, as her mother mistook a doll as her own child, neglected Asuka, & committed suicide, leaving Asuka not only a sight, but a traumatizing image that haunts her for the rest of her life. Asuka’s combative & brash personality might come off as annoying to some, but for me, I find the show punishes her enough by putting her into embarrassing situations or having Shinji or Rei do a better job than her on missions, so the show does punish her in some way, & once you learn the backstory, she becomes much more sympathetic. The rest of the characters in Evangelion are all characterized well, & receive some good development & backstory. The side characters come off as underdeveloped, but that’s ok. As the side characters still have their own character traits & enough of a personality to belong in the show. The show also doesn’t give them excessive screen time that detracts from the main story at hand or the development of the main cast, so the side characters are a welcomed edition & help bring some life to the world of Evangelion. Art & Sound: 10/10 Art is one of Evangelion’s strongest points. The colors are bright & vivid, backgrounds are detailed and have a lot going on in them, but aren’t so cluttered as to become to much of a busy mess. The design work is great, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s character designs are excellent & do a good job at selling who the characters are before you even watch the series & learn of their personality. The color choices also help them to stand out from the background & the main 3 of Asuka, Rei, & Shinji look great together in any scenario. Ikuto Yamashita’s mechanical design work is iconic, anything less than that is a disservice, you all recognize the Evangelion units even without watching the series, & his work elsewhere in the series is no less great. Animation is also excellent, it flows well, blends well, moves well, has weight, & is largely consistent. Sequences such as ep 2’s angel battle, dance like you want to win it, & episode 21 in which Eva Unit 01 grows a human arm are all memorable & well staged sequences, & great showcases of Eva’s animation. Eva does falter a bit near the end of the series, with reused animation becoming more & more frequent, along with other corner cutting techniques, but it’s negligible overall & doesn’t take away from the great animation elsewhere (even in the episodes where reused animation becomes frequent). Music in Evangelion is great, Shirou Sagisu brings some excellent compositions, the scenarios each piece is used in are used to great effect & help sell the weight & tone of a scene. There are som pieces that are overused such as “Angel Attack” but it’s nevertheless an outstanding OST with a lot of great material on it. The sound design in Evangelion is also excellent, from the sounds of an Eva’s footsteps, to A.T Fields, explosions, the sound design is used to great effect & much like the music, helps to sell the scene in particular, & add to Evangelion’s world overall. One of my favorite episodes in Eva is ep 4, an episode in which not a single piece of Sagisu’s compositions are used (outside of an announcer thing playing music faintly in the background in one scene). With the tone, story, & purpose of the episode in question, it was a really great choice & helps sell the weight of the episode. The voice acting is also top notch, everyone brings a great performance with them & offers great range in emoting the characters. Overall: 10/10 It’s easy to see why Neon Genesis Evangelion has gone down in history as one of the all time greats, it’s also easy to see why Evangelion has garnered as much hate towards it as it has over the course of 2 and a half decades. But it’s 100% deserving of its reputation & remains a force to be reckoned with. The characters are well written, the story is good, it animates well, the design work is insane. Hideaki Anno’s directing is really inventive & brings with it some of the most memorable shots I’ve seen out of a TV anime. The storyboarding is excellent & brings with it seamless flow & outstanding structure in the episodes. It’s simply an excellent anime. My final rating is gonna be a 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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