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THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE.

The concept of having a handicapped one step by step gaining the recognition from others is not something new to anime fan, but hardly all of them are good enough to be watched with pleasure. Even “Koe no katachi”, one of the best amongst the genre, still receives conflicting opinions as it digs real deep into a sensitive and thorny problem that modern societies are witnessing – discrimination and despising ones with impairments.

I’m not going to compare “Koe no katachi” to “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish’, but as it comes to movies about this topic, the former had somewhat set a ... way too high standard, which really blurred several other films coming thereafter.

However, I have to admit that somehow Josee caught my attention from its very first trailer, and this might be the case when it hardly gave us any details about the movie and awakened the intriguing part inside of me. What Josee had to cope with, why did it happen to her, how did Tsuneo become her caretaker, why did real harsh things were said to her,...

Well, not all of them were answered throughout the movie.

Let us discuss its shortcomings first.

Movies about disabled people, and anime to be specific, usually tell a seamless story, from indicating their past of having impairments to how they coped with them in normal day life, then the story might show up some tragedies, displaying their sense of helplessness and ultimately they found the courage to overwhelmed them altogether. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish”, however, followed an unfamiliar pattern, which skipped the very first step and jumped right into the next one by introducing Josee, her disability and the other protagonist – Tsuneo – all at once. “She was born like this”, said by her grandmother, and that’s all what we know about her impairments.

Having said that, there was a real quick scene displaying her condition drawn by her own in her room, but as for my opinion, this indication was hardly noticed by viewers and not something that should be done instead of having a small story on how she grew up with it. Either a quick flashback or a cut of her afternoon dream would be clearer.

Storyline pacing, which should have not been a problem, is yet a huge question mark. The first 40 minutes was perfectly slow and gentle, but then 2 tragic twists came up one by one without any signs, too abrupt that the empathy of viewers for the first tragedy had yet to come when the second one stroke onto Josee. This was a huge trouble as one thing distinguishing this genre is the power to move viewers’ heart and touch their compassion.

These abrupt shifts somewhat created a slight sense of confusion amongst viewers instead of gaining their sympathy, thereby may lead to misleading thoughts or difficulties in perceiving moral lessons displaying throughout the movie.

Aside from above drawbacks, the studio (Bones) and the movie director did not let us down in terms of visuals and BGM. Such detailed every scene was that reminded me of Shinkai Makoto’s products like “Your name” and “Garden of Words”, which made it easier for the storyline, the characters, and the movie as a whole to fulfill viewers’ enjoyment.

The design of characters was not something so odd, but it still somehow stood out from other movies lately, and this might be the case when there were just few of them that required being polished. We got to see Tsuneo’s 2 colleagues, along with their boss at the shop, Josee’s grandmother and a librarian being well-drawn to every single gesture or action. Others, however, did not follow this same pattern when their faces as long as their movements seemed a bit raw; and even if this may look like I am too tough on it, this is the one that should have been better done by the studio due to the fact that those characters listed above had their time on-screen and played their particular role in contributing to the development of our 2 main characters.

The storyline, which I first thought would be complicated and lackluster, was surprisingly slow and simple. It clearly illustrated the movie’s purpose and moral lesson in a real predictable way, but still somehow managed to present a slight sense of confusion. Therefore, it is hard for one to recognize it as good or bad, vivid or dull, worth-watching or not; but from my point of view, how straightforward the story was something we could accept because it was not the real point of the whole movie.

As I proceeded to watch the movie after feeling quite cringy about 2 consecutive tragedies striking, I figured it out that those 2 were just some tragic twists in order to emphasize the moral lessons about the courage to never give up. Predictable? Yes, it was. In addition, there was a whole screen of Josee’s storytelling at nearly the end of the movie which I adored so much, talking about not only giving unlucky people impetus on continuing their dreams but also pinpointing the peak of character development throughout the entire movie.

Another aspect of “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish” distinguishing it from lately anime is the changing of colour tones. You can easily notice how nebulous the movie was at its very first 10-20 minutes, which marginally turned brighter and brighter as the connection between the 2 main characters being developed and hit the highest note at the finale. This was not something new to anime because we witnessed the shift of “music colour” in “Your lie in April” or the voices in “Koe no katachi”, but using colour as a way to depict the development of relationship was quite exceptional and amazingly well-performed by Bones.

The movie itself was not fantastic, but it stepped beyond the mediocre standard of its kind and left behind several authentic marks.

It was enjoyable because of the straightforward and simply predictable storyline.

It was a sweet pie for whom being alone.

It was a picture of modern society’s thorn about how we treat people with less luck than us.

It was meaningful because of hidden lessons and motivation.

And it was a real memorable movie thanks to its ending song along with an adorable after credit.

THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE

As the death-causing waves of COVID-19 continue to encounter all parts of the globe, one may understand how lackluster the world is without theatre movies - one of the most recreational industries of humankind. The fact that no movies were produced, or even recorded, for 5 or 6 months really hits the industry into its core, and casts a big doubt on its survival.

Luckily, the debut of several movies during this crisis has just confirmed that the community has its capability to overcome the difficulties. And to be honest, it was much more outstanding than I've ever imagined.

The latest movie of Demon ... Slayer was a good example, a remarkable debut and a truly wonderful cure for the whole community indeed. Everyone is talking about it, everyone is hoping this will act as a catalyst for more to come out.

I'm not an exception of this, but to be honest my intention was left on something else, something that may truly helps me gain back my fading interest...

Violet Evergarden Movie.

I have just finished it with my warming tears hooking on my face all along at the theater. I didn't even remember where was the last time I cried so much like this...

Where should I start with...

The story was introduced in a quite unfamiliar way, which may distract or confuse viewers a bit thereafter. But from my perspective, it acts as a guide for the whole story to be smoothly displayed and thereby more easily grabs their intention. As the story continues to progress, you'll have the chance to meet both new and appeared characters, each will leave a mark on the story as a whole.

What I love most in this plot is that everything was set and done exquisitely, a proper pace we've all seen in this franchise to a decent amount of time separated for each scene to develop and expand the story, and the position flashback scenes which makes viewers cry so bad. Such great works KyoAni have finished, that every words, every expressions and actions matter.

Several friends of mine told me that the plot was what they did not found difficult to predict, and surprisingly they were right. It was indeed a drawback of this movie where the actions and conversations at the beginning indicated way too many details, which should have better been revealed in the middle or later of the story. Having said that, when the final phase of the movie was displayed and as your delicate heart were already step-by-step melted, it shattered yours and in the meantime pushed the whole story into a breathtaking finale.

The BGM and SFX of this movie is, from my perspective, the most successful and indispensable part of it. Old OSTs were played all along the movie, which really hit me with nostalgia and fill me up with fresh feelings that I've been new to for ages. The sounds of nature, the birds, the river, the waves of the ocean, the sadness in rainy scenes were absolutely incredible. Crucial conversations were remarkably emphasized by wonderful soundtracks at the beginning but then just relied on characters' voice soon after, which makes them more genuine and in a more aesthetic viewpoint. And of course, why should not I mention the appearance of "Michishirube" at the end of the movie, which was somehow sounded way much better than any versions and in any situations in the anime series.

And not to forget the visuals, still as outstanding as usual. The characters were beautifully designed, each of whom possessed a unique look as well as a distinguished way of understanding and acting. And how about the landscapes? They are all delicately polished to the smallest details, which gave them a more real and lively look, as to highlight the meaning of each scene taken spot on them.

The conclusion of the movie is something I adore so much, but the point is that I've never read the novel so it's not objective to say which one is better. To be honest, a happy ending is all I wanted after being shredded in pieces by the story and my own feelings, and I appreciated that they did not disappoint me... However, the changing of the sky color in the final part was something unrealistic. What I mean by that is, the way they changed the sky color in order to emphasized the contents (as it shifted from day to dawn then dust relatively) was quite unusual and not as successful as they expected it to be.

The movie, even though not flawless, is still something real authentic and fresh that may drive our feelings through this crisis. It's not actually the one that marks the return of KyoAni after its 2019 tragedy, but it's believed that Violet Evergarden Movie will set a high standard for any movies coming out after it.

So, if you feel life is boring and want something fresh, or you are desperate for more anime after you hyped up with Demon Slayer movie, then this is the one for you. I won't add any further details that may ruin your feelings or your expectations, I'm just here to firmly tell you that the movie is amazing and you should give it a try.

Take a deep breath, close your eyes, let the music flow in your mind and take you along until the very end of the journey.

"THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE"

Isekai has always been one of the most iconic genres in terms of popularity among anime. However, and unsurprisingly, not many of its shows are actually held at the same regard as those from other genres.

The question for this truth ahead came into existence long ago, but still, yet to be answered. Is it because Isekai shows are always labelled with concepts of “trashy, childish and impractical series”, or are they too familiar to viewers in recent years and therefore are not capable of differenciating themselves from others?

Several shows are introduced every year, each portrays an aspect of the genre in its ... own way, but still retains the similarity of someone being transferred to another imaginary world with several designated purposes. Of course, this notion is not anomalous by now, but when it comes to the year of 2012, not all of us then had already been informed of “What is anime?” to say nothing of the term “Isekai”.

However, little do we know. Since the advent of SAO in that same year, Isekai genre has started a steady development in all aspects, and then somehow soared recently with SAO itself took a partial role of setting the ball rolling for this. Despite being the most popular and beloved anime in 2012, SAO anyhow gradually received one-upping hatred from its own viewers, which has casted plenty of questions with hardly any reasonable answers related to this incredible 180-degree turn.

I have never been such a fan of SAO, but I do not hate it either. This is partly because of the whole novel notions and ideas Reki Kawahara intending to deliver throughout this franchise. An exceptional VR world of Aincrad that blew us away with its magnificent looks and feels, the creative and innovative concept of introducing future technology (which is yet to be a daydream at the present) right in year 2012 as well as the hidden message that, on behalf of game addicts, expressed their inquiry about “What does real world mean?”. Such hilarious and foolish this type of question is. Howbeit, being dedicated enough to scrutinize this from its core in order to figure out the most reasonable answer is not a simple task. Deprivation of dedication is what thwarting us.

So, what brings about this lack among Isekai genre, or to be more specific, among SAO franchise?

One of the biggest problem SAO presented from its own beginning is that, it just followed one same pattern throughout the whole series, when we see an overpowered protagonist having to save the day and defeat an antagonist, who is unsurprisingly stronger than him. Such simply predictable the plot is, from which a sense of boredom may result, and likewise turn a beloved series into a total disaster just in one episode. I’m not saying that SAO 1 didn’t acquire numerous incredible potentials which were just as promising as it should have been when its first trailer was released. Indeed, this franchise was one of the most invested ones among Isekai genre with fascinating characters, spectacular animations, breathtaking scenes and full epic soundtracks. The pacing was somewhat reasonable and matched the plot fairly precise, thereby grabbed the viewers’ attention and made them follow the path of their hyperactive hero until the very end. Having said that, the show hardly introduced any breakthrough twists and turns with lackluster details, which really blurred the presence of some utmost fight scenes that ever existed in anime. These, together with unnecessary fan-service scenes, possibly served as rationales behind the hatred given to this franchise and turned it into a whole series designated for children thereafter.

Unfortunately, SAO 2 followed that same path of failures.

Numerous arguments have been made around this downturn and the most controversial one is “The fall of Isekai genre”. This is partly due to the rapid explosion of Isekai shows, in number not quality, during the next few years, which caused viewers to suffer a blasé sense about anime as well as their desperate need for a fresh alternative mainstream. This was probably one of the darkest ages among the anime history, but it practically left a huge question mark onto Isekai producers, whether they should reform the whole appearance and comply with the changing majority, or follow the same pattern that once succeeded as to gain back their position in everyone’s eyes?

This Gordian Knot has surrounded the genre for nearly a decade and is yet to be untied, with immediate submergences of almost every Isekai shows released after the year of 2013 till this day. Having said that, several ones which did not suffer from this seemingly inevitable obstacle, “RE: Zero” for instance, have actually proposed a solution for which the whole genre has always wanted, and thereby make the grand escape all away from this contradict reality.

Few have successfully managed to handle this, however.

And it may come even more amiss to many of you that amongst these, SAO is the franchise which I believe to have completed the most compelling transformation.

Before we enter the main part of this review, I just want to make out some point. I was first intended to encapsulate this latest season of SAO in a short and concise review, but the further and deeper look I gave onto the story, the more I realised the injustice of criticising it without touching on the whole journey it took to get to this very momment. SAO: War of Underworld (WoU), without a doubt, is one of the best long-lasting Isekai series in the anime world by far and the anticipation given keeps one-upping day by day, which is unexpected for a franchise exposed to that amount of love and hatred. And, believe or not, the time has come for SAO to rise from the ashes, stronger than ever.

The storyline, perharps, is the aspect should be introductorily considered for this. It is quite straightfoward with decent amount of information and frames displayed on each episode, therefore gives viewers a sense of being captivated with the flow of the show and somehow gets them curious about what is coming next. This, however, hardly appeared in any earlier seasons of the franchise. SAO 1 and 2 did have some great storytelling at first but then declined slowly afterwards due to the appearance of some “filler” episodes and fan-service scenes, which had no point to make with the entire story.

Another point worthed noting is that, the show has incredibly expanded from the very beginning, no matter how many new ideas and concepts coming out each season, it still manages to retain its unique “VR world versus real world”. The whole franchise has heavily relied on this premise, with the introduction of future technologies, from the Nerve Gear to The Seed, to its prequel AmuSphere and lastly SoulTranslator, which was the basis for the whole Underworld to operate. The way they are presented plainly matched the storyline, and therefore did not make viewers feel overwhelmed for such a lot of novel concepts to adhere to.

The pacing of this season is what also gain it a plus mark. 12 episodes, when they end, just feel like that same amount, no more no less, but are stil able to convey the whole meaning of the story with scarcely misunderstandable details. Additionally, the season is far less dependent on random and meaningless comedic moments, none in fact, which offers a more fluent and cohesive plot ever than what used to exist in two first seasons.

Animations and visuals are still astonishing as always, breathtaking sceneries of the Underworld together with the absolute contrast of ones belong to Dark Territory somehow stuck into my mind the scenerio of our real world future if we continue to destroy our planet. Aside from these, SAO WoU undoubtedly possesses winsome original soundtracks which are highly memerable and play an immense role on inculcating the series itself into its viewers. What’s more, alluring character designs as well as highly genuine expressions on their faces absolutely got viewers interested further into their development, but we will get to that in a bit.

Let us take a deeper look into the content. The main story is still surrounding our protagoinst Kirito as he entered the Underworld created by RATH in order to seek for an AI named Alice and take her with him to the end point of Underworld then log two of them out. This has contrastly grown however, with Kirito having his Fluctlight damaged and is now incapable of moving or communicating with others. Several altercations have been made around this twist, but mostly emphasizes on the incentive this will give to other characters of the show to take the spotlight, and the studio incredibly make use of this.

We have Alice now having to make a difficult decision of proceeding to protect Underworld and its inhabitants as an Integrity Knight or to take a step down and protect Kirito as a more-than-close friend. The dilemma given to such a special AI like her initially seems to be overwhelmed, but as her own character has been strikingly well-established, she somehow manages to equally contribute to both side of the coin.

Furthermore, we get to see our supportive characters having been exposed to us for a decent amount of time throughout the season, and when it ends, they really leave an impression on us of not ceasing as “supporting” but really being an essential part of the entire story as well as making it lively and captivating. This absolutely reminded me on the second season of AoT where we got to see some important characters later on (Krista, Reiner, Bertold, Ymir) being put to more than enough amount of screen times and secure their spot throughout the story. The improvement in this aspect really shines as a spotlight itself of the whole season, which assures that the show is now independent on the only one protagonist to carry it along, because the rests all can.

Whilst the story plus the character design of this season simply outweighed its former in many facets, one of the biggest issues with it, and surprisingly has not changed since the first one, is the world building. I’m not saying this season’s world building has partly surpassed the prequels, but we need to concentrate deeper on the actual premise of it. What I mean by that is Underwold, unlike orther VR worlds introduced throughout the franchise, is created and operated on the basis of what is inside its designer’s mind. Trees, mountains, fields and rivers all exsist in the same way their creators want them to be, or in other words, they somehow mimic that exact same trees or mountains appeared in the creators’ memory. As for its inhabitants, they depict real world’s people but in another point in history, around the mid 15th, 16th century. The dwellers live the lives of humankind and are obligated to obey the rules given, and consequently pave the way for a whole society to flourish.

However, can this exact same scenerio applied to those come from the Dark Territory? This is one real big issue that SAO so far has not given any clues. The Underwold’s inhabitants must follow the given rules notwithstanding any contexts and in fact are utterly unable to break them. As a result, this raises more questions about the existence of Dark Territory. Who constructed it, why would ones do that and especially how could it be done if RATH had taken control of Underworld since its very first beginning? Another question that should be raised during the season but it has somewhat to do with our real world is that why wouldn’t an AI question the fact that they are the production of human’s hands and are roaming in an imaginary world but just simply accepted it in the same way that Bercouli did? Or, if that’s on the table, why are they being created, what purposes do their creators want them to serve? Or something else to those effects.

Furthermore, the origin of this region was succintly mentioned in the light novel, which should have also been presented in the anime from the very first. This actually cast a doubt onto the reliability of the show’s world building in the eyes of viewers, and even though A-1 Picture actually completed a great job on giving viewers insights into SoulTranslator, the basis technology behind the operation of Underworld, this is just superficial in comparison to the urgency of comprehending what is truly happening at the momment.

Taking everything into consideration, SAO WoU has fully evolved into something entirely new which we have never predicted when we first watched it, and thereby changes its name from a whole childish Isekai show to one that deserves to be celebrated by all walks of anime fans and manages to distinguish itself from other series among the genre. The show is not flawless technically, but as it dares to stand out right in front of the viewers and affirmes its position in the anime world line, we should probably give it another shot. SAO now is no more a long-lasting series that we all want it to end as soon as possible, but the one that worthed our time waiting every week with definite hype, excitement and anticipation, which may be a bit uncommon among Isekai genre. However, because it has somehow been able to not only overcome the challenges given to the entire genre but also keep itself up a notch, this may be the case.

It’s unsurprising by now that SAO is truely worth watching and deserves the wait for an epic finale.