While I normally review in the same boring style based on the categories of story, art, sound, character, enjoyment, and overall as per MAL recommendation, Shikioriori/flavors of youth (FoY; sorry but I will be abbreviating it to this for simplicity) follows 3 different stories, each about as long as a normal 25 minute episode. It will be tough, but try to follow my thoughts because I will be trying to review all 3 stories at the same time to make it easier to discuss each part.
Story:
Split into 3 parts, each has a different message about different parts of life. While it’s not a big issue, it didn’t seem as though there was any sort of connection between any of the 3 stories other than that they all were dealing with their own problems and drama.
The 1st story (6/10)
is about a kid who has very strong ties to his grandmother and to eating some kind of noodles or beef udon or something if I remember correctly. Either way, it had to deal with eating food and how he establishes connections and meaning in his life through eating this food throughout life as he grows up. By no means is this story bad, but it is incredibly boring. It seems kind of like it was going for a Sweetness and Lightning or Isekai Shokudou, attempting the homey vibe of food, but it didn’t have the same emotional buildup that resonated with me during those shows (particularly the former). It also felt iyashikei style, but as a full movie and only 1 part, it doesn’t work particularly well the way I can imagine Non Non biyori’s movie working, supplemented by cute and already acquainted characters and good comedy. Overall, it’s not bad for completion if you plan to watch it through, but not particularly amazing or interesting.
The Second Story (4/10)
Is about 2 sisters who I guess used to be pretty close, but have drifted apart over time by the look of the show. The older sister is a model and supports the younger one after some kind of family circumstances occur, while the younger sister falls into the cliche “I just want to support my sister” role. The model is getting older and outshined by younger stars, causing the dramatic internal struggle. What made this part so hard to watch was that the drama wasn’t all that great or emotionally investing and the characters weren’t likable enough to care about their drama. The whole story felt contrived. Somehow, the worst part about it is that it’s hard to skip because it’s right in the middle, but honestly it’s not worth watching.
The Third Story (9/10)
If you stayed this long through the boring and hard to watch stories, CoMix Wave treats you to a brilliant story that makes you wonder if they could all be this good if Shinkai took over all of them. As it stands, this studio is batting a .333 right now, failing with the first 2 but stunning with this one. Of course, people who endlessly complain about too much school anime won’t ever understand, but this part is about a man who is moving into a new apartment. When he is unpacking, certain things remind him of the past and we are shown flashbacks. It follows a group of 3 kids, he and his 2 best friends, when they were little. One friend is a rambunctious boy while the other is a clearly “embodiment of perfection” girl. With the gimmick of he and the girl exchanging cassette tapes, this is pretty straight as a teen school romance, but it is really well directed by contrast to the other 2 parts. For the first time, there is actual character growth, but more than that is that i managed to feel deeply emotionally connected to the characters and cared about their relationship. I know I didn’t explain it very well, but I highly recommend this specific part.
Art: 9/10
A universal strong point is always the art. Animated by Studio CoMix Wave (Normally the Shinkai studio) the art is consistently great, even based on my hazy memory and with poor seating at Anime Expo. Expect every part to have beautiful backgrounds with strong visuals. In particular:
The first story had extremely detailed food. Which is an important aspect of a story about food. It didn’t mean that the story was any deeper, but they made it look tastier but just as realistic as my instant noodles.
The second story still had strong visuals; it meant nothing but outfits and characters looked good I guess.
The third story somehow made me wonder who on their staff still owned a cassette tape to model, but somehow it was very realistic. This part had particularly good backgrounds which contributed greatly to immersion into the story’s town and giving me an idea of the kind of people of the town.
Sound: (8/10)
It was fine. Nothing seemed wrong, and if it was I probably blamed the poor sound quality of Anime Expo and the downside of not having speakers for all people in the room. I know I can’t say anything bad about it at least.
Character: (6/10)
It should not be surprising that my assessment of the characters line up with my assessment of the story. As a very straight dramatic film, the characters are far and away the most important aspect to creating the atmosphere of the story. All my sentiments line up exactly the same, with the first story’s MC being boring, the second story’s being almost unbearable to watch, and the third’s being super strong and making me care about their struggles, and end up rooting for them.
Enjoyment: (7/10)
I found myself well entertained and if watching the first 2 parts ranged from bad to boring, i still wouldn’t be upset watching them if it meant getting to something as good as the 3rd part.
Overall: (7/10)
All 3 had the universally important art and sound done well, and I felt as if the good part was multiple times better than the bad parts sucked, but not enough to overlook the fact that 2/3 of the anime was either boring or bad.
Take the time to develop your own opinions about these characters; I just wrote to release pent up frustration with MAL for not allowing me to mark as watched for a full month.
