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To me, Grave of the Fireflies is a movie for a different time and a different audience. I'm a well-off American guy who's never experienced anything close to the level of misery portrayed in the film, and same goes for nearly everyone that I know. When this was released in Japan, I'm sure everyone knew someone who could relate very intimately with the story. And since these events are still mourned today, the themes and tone are baked into the culture. But not mine.

So in my view, the film is overall too sad and melancholy. It's less that it is overdramatic, but more that it ... is prolonged. It feels sad and hopeless for nearly the whole runtime... and we know it is hopeless because the ending is spoiled in the introduction. It does try to balance out sadness with sprinkles of playful, and while there are some nice moments, it doesn't succeed well enough. Also, since it is sad very immediately, we don't get to see the characters experiencing their normalcy, and doesn't give us much to anchor to. To more effectively feel how the circumstances have effected the characters happiness and well-being, it would have made more sense to see their happiness and well-being first hand, though I’m not sure the movie would have been any better for it. It's easy to compare to Miyazaki's work and say that maybe this could have been more enjoyable if the characters and plot were less realistic. But at the same time, this movie is shooting for something completely different... I'll have to see if Takahata can fully deliver on something like this later down the line.

While this film isn't as 'enjoyable' as I would like, I do think it's a pretty compelling anti-war film. And I guess it's chosen level of realism lends to that. It shows how terrible people can be when resources are scarce, and uniquely manages to do it without going over the top. Many of the background characters care for the main duo, but self-preservation is simply more important and, as far as they can reason, they simply can't afford to help. I think the aunt is legitimately my #1 anime villain of all time, she's a stone cold bitch.

Story: 5
Character: 5
Art: 7
Music: 7
Enjoyment/Overall: 6
Anti-war film: 8

Angel's Egg is kind of cool, but Angel's Egg is very boring. Does it have value? I mean I guess -- visually, it is truly one-of-a-kind. This dystopian, hyper-gothic horror atmosphere is definitely unique to this movie, and definitely a bit creepy. If that is what you want from your movies, or you are interested in learning new aesthetics, this film is certainly worth watching. But if you're judging the whole package, you'd be hard-pressed not to say that Angel's Egg moves unbearably slow and there's not much for the audience to invest themselves in. Like seriously there's maybe 3 moments in the whole movie ... where anything actually happens that were even a little interesting. It is one of the VERY few movies that I nearly fell asleep to.

[Rating]
Story: 3
Art: 9
Sound: 5
Character: 2
Enjoyment/Overall: 3

Totoro is a film that shoots for fun and warmth, with a touch of melancholy... and it delivers. Man... for its audience, this movie is pretty much perfect. Which is to say that this movie isn't for everyone, but what movie is? If you have fond memories of running around, laughing, and playing with your imagination in your youth, or really if you just like kids, this will hit all the right notes. And of course, it’s a visually beauty to boot.

What strikes me as the most effective part of Totoro is the cast. Between Satsuki, Mei, their father, Kanta, and Totoro... each character ... is super fun, but still has a richness to them that makes them believable. Sure, Satsuki may be a little precocious (in the best way possible) and Mr. Kusakabe might be too easy-going to be realistic... but the film is better off for it. Speaking of Satsuki, she's the best Miyazaki girl yet (chronologically), though I'm expecting Kiki to take the prize soon. I think the richness of character comes from all the little moments that Miyazaki has sprinkled throughout the work. There are so many things that happen that just have no real "meaning", that don't do anything except give sentimentality to the characters, but are pulled off effortlessly without bloating the movie. A lot of Mei's behaviors fall into this category. And, in life, there is very rarely a real through-line without diversions. Miyazaki knows this, and uses this fact to make his cartoon world just that much more vivid.

[Rating]
Story: 7
Art: 9
Sound: 9
Character: 9
Enjoyment/Overall: 9

Starting a review like this is hard. It depend on your goal as a reviewer. If you want to inform your audience of a specific aspect of the show, then it's easy. But on a platform like this, I feel like you have the obligation to discuss all the thoughts that you can muster on a show, not just one. Structuring all that shit out in the intro is hard work. It makes for a good writer, but I don't really want to be a good writer -- at least not this second. I just want to crystallize my thoughts on this show. That is ... enough for me. So here goes.

[Rating]
Story: 7
Art: 7
Sound: 7
Character: 9
Enjoyment/Overall: Strong 8, pushing 9


[My Biases]
Man, I have biases in spades on this show. I never watched it when I was younger, but I definitely knew who Kenshin was and thought he was the coolest fucking guy ever. I thought the scar was badass and even to this day his dynamic gentle-serious personality is something of an aspiration for me as a man. I've read the manga and watched Trust & Betrayal like 4 years back, and I can't really remember if I liked them... But I say I did. Those feelings didn't really surface when I decided to dig into the main series, but they quickly managed to. And this is without mentioning how quickly I latched onto the themes. So keep in mind, a review is always personal, and while I really enjoyed this show, I can't say I would recommend it to everyone, or really ANYONE, without having deep knowledge of their tastes.


[On the Structure]
Kenshin's structure is pretty interesting. The first season is mostly episodic, or a few episodes batched together. The tone is classic Kenshin -- goofy, but serious when the time comes. I will say that this dynamic could be balanced much better. For instance, Kaoru and Yahiko's "ur ugly" back and forth at the start of each episode gets pretty tiring. But this first season is certainly not without merit. I generally don't prefer long stretches of episodic content, but there were many episodes that resonated with me greatly, and this portion really has a lot of heart, but that is kind of slow to start. I would say around episode 7 is when the series starts to hit on its core themes, so if you're giving the show a shot you should try to get that far.

When season 2 starts, we're immediately launched into the incredibly serious Kyoto Arc. It's no more Mr. Nice Guy for Sir Ken. In this arc, there are still many great emotional moments, but some of at time is traded for agency and intensity. And hey, there's no fillers! This is really the meat and potatoes of the series. From the manga, the things I remembered most were the final two fights from this arc, which I think led me to enjoy them less than I otherwise would have (really bumped it down to an 8 for me, could easily be a 9 with a completely clean slate). From this point on, though mostly in the early episodes of the season, the directing changes pretty drastically. And it's for the better!

Season 3 I didn't bother to watch -- it's all filler. I had watched some filler throughout, and didn't deem it good enough to continue watching. But it wouldn't surprise me if there were some good arcs in there.


[On the Visuals]
The visuals are generally good. Nice background art, nice color palettes, nice character designs for the main ensemble. Nothing crazy noteworthy. However, it hits many of the pitfalls that longrunning anime of this period tend to. The actual animation can be pretty limited. As an action show, this is pretty apparent. A lot of what would work best as cool action is replaced by trippy visuals and special effects. And often the characters are off model, Really, I don't understand how this happens so often, but whatever. The show would benefit a lot if it could also look like one of those early season 2 episodes. But in all, the show has a unique look, has solid imagery, and looks good when it needs to.


[On the Sound]
Kenshin has a voice acting problem. In the japanese version, Kenshin sounds TOO gentle. Like a straight up woman. I think the English voice acting for Kenshin is superb, well localized, and fits the character perfectly. For a few other characters, its great too. But a lot of the characters outside the main ensemble suffer a bit, though even this has some charm to it. I would definitely recommend the dub but it takes some getting used to. The score is great! Many fantastic songs. And the OP and EDs have some bangers too. When it comes to effects or general design, I can't think of anything too noteworthy.


[On the Themes]
There are many small themes that get touched on in the show, but it boils down to this -- try very hard, bear every burden, so that you can better yourself, so that you can better the lives of everyone around you. And of course, don't give up. What more can you ask for?


[On the Characters]
The characters are solid! I really can't think of anything to fault them for. I will admit that, on their own, they don't really stand out so much. But a main device for the show is character foils, and it works brilliantly. You'll have a character about to break down due to their own problems only for them to be confronted by another character, one who has the similar problems, maybe worse, but can manage to deal with them in a healthier way. These moments are really well orchestrated and the results are extraordinary -- this is where a large part of the show's personal resonance comes from. Fantastic.


Well I think that's everything I can think of right now. Bye byeeee.

I'm just gonna pump this out without the dressing. Kaichou wa Maid-sama. An episodic rom-com that looks older than it actually is. Normally I would say a Shoujo romance show doesn't fit into my tastes (see Ouran Host Club), but this show manages just fine. I think that the themes of a successful and driven woman struggling with her sexuality grow increasingly more common as time moves on, and as I've aged to an old geezer (pushing 25 over here) I come to understand it better. So no problems there. I have no problem with the art of the sound either. There's a ton of ... energy in the presentation. I don't even have an issue with the writing of each episode. Kaichou wa Maid-sama's big issue is that, in the big picture, there's just nothing happening.

There is never anything to look forward to, never any real change in the relationship of Misa and Usui. I can't even say that this makes the show bad, more than that it just turns the show in a pretty everyday comedy with not much special going for it. But despite this, the series succeeds.

Pros & Cons
[++] The score, while limited, is quite nice. The OP and EDs, the triumphant music, the dangerous music, even the standard music.
[+] The art definitely looks aged, but it brings a lot to the table. Tons of personality and solid animation/direction.
[+] The comedic timing is solid. Though the jokes are pretty basic and often predictable.
[+] The characters have nice archetypes. A boss woman who has to contend with her natural womanly desires is a character I like seeing done well. And honestly Usui has stirred around my impression of what a man should be, as he manages to solve problems of his woman reliably without question, even if he has to take sacrifices, and doesn't let it phase him.
[-] The characters don't make any meaningful strides in growth. It's in fact intentional that Usui's backstory is completely underdeveloped besides the fucking ED (??? whats up with that ???). Misa slowly comes to reach her feelings about Usui, and slow is fine, but her way of getting to this point is very predictable. He does something heroic, he does something sexy, and she has to ask herself why she feels the way she feels.
[--] Yikes the MACRO pacing of this show is all off.

[More on the Macro]
There is no thread to trace. It took my THREE MONTHS to finish this show, and not because I didn't like it. Just because I would watch one episode, and feel totally uncompelled to see what would happen in the next. Even when the show TRIES to do this, it totally fails. Look at the Hinata arc. As soon as he arrives, it is a completely forgone conclusion that he will not be romantically involved with Misa. Yet they devote many of the end chapters to him. Hell, you sort of expect the something more dramatic at the end, and while I think Usui and Misa's moment at the end was handled nicely, there's just something missing. You can call it subversive in some ways, but its just not good television.

[Rating]
Story: 4
Art: 7
Sound: 8
Character: 5
Enjoyment/Overall: 6

Night is Short is, in short, a treat to watch. It is very fun, and it is very fast. It can be difficult to expect what is next.

This movie is presented as a parallel-universe follow up to one of director Masaaki Yuasa's previous work, The Tatami Galaxy. That series rendered me helper - it seemed that the inner contents of my entire being were spilled on screen in a Watashi-shaped puddle, as my pitiful and embarassing lifestyle was mercilessly portrayed on film for the entire world to see. Given that, when Night is Short had a small American screening (thanks GKIDS) I jumped at ... the chance. And I certainly don't regret it.

Compared to its predecessor, Night is Short is like yarn to string. Looser, wackier, and not worse off for it. I will say that there are certainly something that bothered me about the film and some scenes that failed to land properly, but more often than not, I was grinning ear to ear.

[++] The absurd content and visuals lead to some truly great comedic moments!
[+] Masaaki Yuasa does some cool and expressive visuals, as usual.
[+] The story is super all over the place but thats a-ok with me. Each individual arc has strong, defined high points.
[+] Sound design is generally on-pont. And the singing... the singing!
[+] Like its predecessor, the character archetypes are very distinct and unique in the world of anime, and art in general.
[=] A couple moments fail to stick, but this might be intentional. I sort of attribute this to the necessity for downtime and low-interest moments in film, but I still think it could have been handled more gracefully.
[-] I will say that I could see this film being a little harder to digest if not familiar with Tatami Galaxy
[-] Something about the ending and how Otome and Senpai settle out is just very sour to me.

[On the Ending] (Spoilers)
I do have a serious complaint about the ending. To me the fact that Otome and Senpai end up on a date is just... a little disgusting. Maybe I don't know enough about Otome's character archetype - that which will take on and accept whatever is in front of her - but it feels like using her character traits as an excuse to hitch her with Senpai is just misplaced. Throughout the movie, Senpai was just creepy. I would think even girls like Otome would recognize this. Having the relationship resolve in this way just feels like fan-service to for the male demographic. I, as someone who slots in perfectly with Senpai's obsessive, observational habits, wanted to bleed at the hands of this film. Shatter my shitty habits, don't inspire hope in them.

Story: 7
Art: 8
Sound: 8
Character: 7
Enjoyment/Overall: 8

Well I was going pretty strong on reviews for a while, but the whole MAL thing got in the way and I never got back on the wagon. It's time to change that. Writing is fun! I was watching this while it was running but I think I managed to crystallize my thoughts since then pretty well. Let's get into it.

Darling in the Franxx was never that good.

Sure, it ended worse off than the rest of its runtime, but this show never deserved any better than a 7 at any point. While it starts strong, its got several arcs that just completely misfire, a bland ... ass main character, uninteresting visual motifs, and really, really shitty action scenes throughout the whole run.

[++] The character designs are actually fantastic. The designs alone carry a lot of the casts' dead weight.
[+] Generally, the visuals look good.
[=] Actually can't remember what I felt about the sound design, so safe to say it wasn't too noticeable in either direction. That ED1 was fucking bomb tho.
[=] 02 is a fine character but she doesn't carry the show like some fanboy might seem to suggest.
[-] Hiro is a boring MC. You never really get anything out of him other than the fact that he gave the crew names and that he wants to ride 02 into the sunset.
[-] A couple character arc that just make zero fucking sense to me and are extremely offputting. 02 and Hiro remembering their connected past is just so unrelatable and cheesy. Mitsuru and Kokoro getting married without understanding it is just used to communicate some mushy feeling to the audience... and that is SO OBVIOUS that it totally backfires.
[---] 90% of these action scenes BLOOOOOOOOOOW. The Klaxosaurs can't seem to stay on model, and in this case that's a bad thing. It feels like there was no model planning. The action isn't punchy enough unless the turn up the budgetometer. Most of the fights don't carry the emotional weight they're meant to. The sort of come out of nowhere but they're not interesting at all. It can work having random fight, but they need to be unique and interesting! Look at Evangelion! Each Angel feels totally distinct and they have sick action scenes to back it up. In this show they fucking fight a block... Then the fight a bigger block. AND THEN A HUGE ASS BLOCK. ITS BORING. It sacrifices a bunch of runtime for no payoff.


I'm most upset about the fact that this series had potential. The designs were strong. The themes COULD have been strong. Sure it'd have to be a little more R-rated, but there's room for a lot of interesting dynamics when you have 2 horny teens piloting a mech together. I don't mean to make it hentai, but its a really solid device that doesn't get properly executed on. I'm also upset that this thing totally failed to live up to Neon Genesis Evangelion's legacy, even though it tried to mirror it so much. I can see why it tried, but don't baby the content and themes.


Story: 5
Art: 6
Sound: 5
Character: 4
Enjoyment/Overall: 5

I’ve never seen a series as hyped up as Violet Evergarden was before the start of its run. What feels like years before its eventual release, it was scored as a top 10 anime with no more than three episodes debuted to a limited audience. Well, it was clear that this judgment was a little hasty and probably too good to be true. But there was no real reason to disagree with the idea that this show could indeed be one of the next anime greats. It is, strictly speaking, the closest TV anime has ever come to reaching the level of craft found in ... the more densely budgeted movies (of a more ‘standard’ style, at the very least). If there is one truth to Violet Evergarden, it’s that the visuals are painstakingly crafted and are truly the biggest selling point of the title as a whole. And so, with high expectations, Violet Evergarden began its run. What happened? Shit hit the fan.

Following the most over-hyped anime release of all time was the “Top Anime Betrayal” (ha memes) of all time. Brutus, Judas, scooch over. What the anime-watching community did to Violet Evergarden was like crowning the king for dinner and pinning him to the cross for dessert. The amount of “I dropped it after episode 4” or “They forgot to make Violet a real character” I’ve seen is just staggering. Sure, there are some diehard fans, but the popular sentiment of the anime community after 5 episodes was that Violet Evergarden is in fact just a pretty picture show, with little meaningful content. It is a harsh critique that is certainly an overcorrection from the shows great expectations, but it isn’t without reason. Violet Evergarden represents a big change in the anime industry, and many people feel like it didn’t quite deliver. In an industry that has grown to a rather bloated size in terms of quantity, and shows no signs of slowing down, it’s refreshing to see outside licensors with big capital and viewerbases like Netflix or Amazon step in and create some ambitiously budgeted work. But if it can’t meet the level of success that it is projected to, the run will only put a damper on investing in these types of projects in the future. And Violet Evergarden certainly doesn’t do everything right, especially right off the bat. But people that are quick to turn themselves off to the show should probably take some time to reassess their biases in viewing media, because there really isn’t any reason.

At the end of the day, Violet Evergarden, while certainly a series of great craft, has some elements that will stop users from getting completely invested. Violet, while she does get more interesting, never completely comes into her own. The plot structure is a more so a series of vignettes -- character studies that loop back into Violet’s growth. I can understand if you don’t like this structure, but to call it ‘bad’ is just a little shortsighted. The one-off characters that these vignettes feature are really some of the best I’ve seen. The have several memorable setups and are varied enough to speak to the audience, and Violet, in different ways. The series doesn’t always deliver, but most of the episodes leave me teary-eyed. Hell, some of them send me to Babytown. In my mind, both calling Violet Evergarden a 10 after watching the promo material and calling it a 4 after the first few episodes is just a little too eager.



[Pros & Cons]
[+++] General visual detail and polish.
[+] One-off characters are some of the best around.
[+] Delicately deals with some pretty complex themes surrounding war, rehabilitation, the inability to escape the past, and finding purpose in life.
[+] Sound design is pretty good, but the voices can get a little too tense and the tracks can get a little repetitive.
[+] Visual style, while ultimately working in its favor due to the level of execution, is a little dark and muddled. Hair is insanely well done
[+] Can get in a couple good, tender moments per episode, with some noteworthy bawlers sprinkled in.
[=] Show runs more as a series of vignettes, developing Violet through the characters that she is ghostwriting for. While this alone is neither good nor bad, it is worth noting as a potential turnoff for some viewers.
[-] None of the recurring characters are worthy of creating an attachment to, Violet included.



[When to Drop a Series]
It seems like so many people have dropped this series, and I can understand why. But I would like to bring attention to when I think it is a good idea to drop a series. Of course, this all depends on your priorities while watching, but I’ll give you my stance. I’ve continued several series that I wasn’t really enjoying, and I’ve dropped a series or two that I thought were actually pretty good. So when do I drop a series? I drop a series when I lose hope that it will be able to provide me with anything new or meaningful. Note that this has nothing to do with quality of the show. I dropped Shokugeki no Souma, I show I enjoyed the entire watch, because I realized that its pacing is too slow and that we would never get to any real high-stakes (main character expulsion) face-offs, and that it would only be more of the same. I continued to watch things like Haruhi 2009 and Shinsekai Yori under the hopes that the conclusion could be worth the wait, even though I didn’t enjoy them for most of their run. I stand by these types of decisions, even if they don’t always pan out. Of course, there are things that shows could do that would make me lose hope in them, it happens all the time. But I think for anyone to watch the first few episodes of Violet Evergarden and say “this has no room for growth” are just missing it.



[There are Different Kinds of Plot]
Violet Evergarden doesn’t weave a strong narrative, but it doesn’t try to. To say that the series is bad for a reason this shallow is to also say that more beloved series such as Cowboy Bebop and Mushishi are also just bad. Like, come on. While it can be part of a larger issue and structure certainly matters, it is just so reductive to say that since the narrative isn’t strongly defined, the series can’t do anything. Moreover, sometimes the narrative can take more than a few episodes to be fully defined. Anyone who dropped after three episodes may not even understand that the series is really meant to be a series of character studies, with some Violet thrown in. I can understand this not meeting someones expectations, but maybe that is more a problem with having expectations than it is with the series itself.



[A Word on Visuals]
Craftsmanship is one thing. Direction and the emotive content of the visuals is another. I consider the detail and polish of Violet Evergarden to be way beyond the standard for TV anime, and that is great to see. But there are so many other shows that don’t have this level of polish but make up for it with a more inventive style and active directing, stuff which is sorely missed in this title. Because of this, I would feel a little strange giving Violet Evergarden a 9 in the art category. Not that it really matters, it looks how it looks and I don’t use my overall score as an aggregate of all the others. But just because this is about as much as I could as an execution of this given style, it doesn’t mean that I couldn’t hope for the style to be more active and suited to my tastes.




[Rating]
Story: 6
Art: 9
Sound: 7
Character: 5
Enjoyment/Overall: 7

Shinsekai Yori, a series widely adored and praised for its twists and turns and the strength of its psychological thrills. I had been looking forward to this series for a while, and I must say that after finally finishing it, I am rather conflicted. I had been warned that this series would be a slow burner and it would ramp up in time. These things are true. But in the end, I just didn’t enjoy this series too much.

At its worst, Shinsekai Yori is dreadfully boring and confounding, and at its best, it is tense and even chilling. It engages with some pretty serious ... political and moral themes and handles them quite nicely. However, I consider the act of judging anime on these themes alone to be one of anime watcher’s most misplaced biases. A show needs to do more than just put themes in writing to make them come alive to the audience. And a show cannot sacrifice too much just to get these themes realized in a certain way. This is where Shinsekai Yori falters. What does this show do to engage the viewers before the final act? It certainly tries, but to me, it certainly falls short.

My personal bias on this show, and shows like these, is that I just don’t love dystopian psychological thrillers. I think they pose a lot of interesting questions and scenarios for the audience to unpack, but so does a book (more concisely and explicitly at that). Whether the topic at hand is best set as a story or as a study is entirely debatable, but I tend to think that there is so much potential content (and biases that must come with any satisfying plot resolution) that it is best to just have it in writing. Though, to be fair, Shinsekai Yori fleshes out its content well and addresses its biases perfectly.



[Pros and Cons]
[+] One of the better ‘villains’ in recent memory.
[+] A strong final act that definitely keeps the audience guessing. Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?
[+] Neat use of time skips. Regardless of the quality of the plot in each interval, the skips themselves are at least functional and effective.
[+] Diverse art style, which can lead to some very inventive presentation.
[+] Sound design is good. Sound tracks initially leave a huge impression, though they begin to get a little repetitive and lose their impact.
[=] When art is ‘standard’, which is most of the time, the presentation is only average.
[-] Voice acting, while maybe more realistic, should definitely be livelier.
[---] Sacrifices far too much enjoyment in the first two acts.
[---] Characters are boring and completely lack distinct personalities.
[---] Character design has so many problems.



[Character Design Matters]

Shinsekai Yori has a problem with its characters, from every angle. But I want to talk about the problems that the characters have from a design perspective. I think that the character design is in fact so poor that it, on its own, makes the characters worse than they ought to be.

Firstly, all the characters look the same. They have the same facial structure, they have the same pale complexion, they have the same style of mouth and eyes, they have the same outfits, they have similar voice acting. Sure, this is maybe more realistic, but that isn’t really the point of anime. One of anime’s greatest strengths as a genre is that it is allowed to do things that normal live-action film cannot – it can more freely design its visual attributes to better fit the challenges that these visual attributes must face. Characters are simply better if they have more distinguishing features. It allows audience members to attach their thoughts to each characters visual presentation. Or they allow our characters to communicate their unique attributes visually, rather than verbally. When the characters are so similar, what can the audience anchor themselves to?

Secondly, the specific design attributes chosen limit the expression that these characters can evoke. Small mouth, small eyes, and neatly contained hair make it difficult for the characters to communicate their ideas visually. This is important. Anime isn’t all about writing, and making the most of anime means putting thought into each channel of communication that it offers. In this series, the range of emotion that the characters can visually evoke is very small. This gives the characters themselves fewer tools to work with, and ultimately gives them less ‘oomph’. We want oomph!

I think it is very telling that my favorite characters of the show, Kiroumaru and Squeera, aren’t human at all. They have unique presentations. Kiroumaru specifically does work with his mouth alone to visually communicate his thoughts. And again, even among the human characters, my favorite is Shisei, who wears a mask.



[A Big Finish, but a Small Ramp]

How much is too much? Shinsekai Yori sacrifices so much just to have a solid ending. The first act is just… so boring. It is very difficult to keep track of where the characters are, why they continue to do what they are doing, and what the point of it all is. Oh, and it just isn’t fun to watch. These episodes are necessary, to some degree, but it would be nice if they weren’t just a whirlwind of locations and poor ‘action’ scenes. The second act is focused more on the characters, which could be good… if the characters were any good. I don’t really care for any of them. At this point, it feels like all the characters are going to have similar fates, and we are just waiting for Saki’s turn. This never comes to fruition, and the audience is left hanging again.

I think that, for the sake of the plot feeling thrilling the final act, it makes sense for the first two acts to be pretty empty. There needs to be enough information and loose ends so that when the pieces are put together, the result is actually unexpected. However, while this period must have some sort of setup involved, it doesn’t mean that it has to be boring. For instance, good humor or action can be applied in these areas to make them much less burdensome yet still low in plot content. Hell, even just having a more engaging, tentative plot line could hold interest too. But I think that sacrificing like 16 episodes of content just to get a strong finish is a pretty poor choice. I guess maybe if the ending were, like, the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then it would be OK. But it isn't. So it's not.


[Rating]
Story: 5
Art: 6
Sound: 7
Character: 2
Enjoyment/Overall: 5

Winter 2018 started off with a clash of titans. In the red corner, the impossibly hyped-up Violet Evergarden. In the blue corner, that snazzy Studio Trigger mecha show. Everyone was taking wagers on who would be the next heavyweight champ. But as the rounds went on, whispers fluttered through the audience. Did either of these really deserve the title?

Eh, maybe. For the record, 10 episodes in I find Violet Evergarden to be exceptional. Darling in the Franxx has yet to conclusively prove itself, but it has a ton of potential and a long way to go. But I definitely think that A Place Further than ... the Universe (henceforth Sora Yori) deserves its share of time in the spotlight. While this is my first ‘cute girls’ anime, there are elements shared across all genres that Sora Yori executes really well on. The series primarily works around wholesome comedy and drama elements, and consistently sells it. The story manages to generate interest without holding a looming endpoint and effortlessly swings in the direction of some serious thematic drama when the time comes.

Most notably, Sora Yori just has great main characters. They are all hilarious, seamlessly pull off being close friends, and provide interesting dramatic interplay with each other to give the plot some shape. While comedy tops the list of reason I enjoyed the show, the opportunities each character can give the others to shine really cannot be understated. This is backed up by the strength of the shows presentation, which, while not stylistically inventive, is clean and consistent. Only rarely does the art feel like it needs a quality check, and the stylistic choice of highlighting hair in this series is actually notable and a great effect. Additionally, the sound design really has no weak points. The voice acting is absolutely godlike across the board. Several good tracks that are always used properly. Hell, the series can even sell a horror scene.

No series is perfect, and while Sora Yori really has no glaring weak points, it could still be improved in a few ways. (1) The big drama moments are pulling like a .700 batting average for me. Certainly good, but the worst thing about dramas is when the big moments don’t stick the landing. (2) Having a new point of drama every episode is a little exhausting, especially since it feels like the show is at its best when indexing into comedy. (3) The side characters are tough to keep track of and uninteresting, which is fine. I don’t even know if the series is worse off for that fact, since this is sort of how side characters are in real life. To me, the complaints don’t really mean a whole lot. The series just doesn’t need these attributes to be wildly successful, and as a result, I think Sora Yori makes a great contender for anime of the season.



[Pros & Cons]
[+++] The girls are great!
[+++] Voice acting is superb, especially on main characters.
[++] Comedy execution and writing hits the mark again and again.
[+] Standard but solid sound design.
[+] Strong visuals that rarely flub. Minor stylistic choices that pay off and create a unique presentation.
[+] Story does a great job highlighting the personality and background differences between the main characters.
[=] Side characters generally hard to balance and uninteresting.



[Rating]
Story: 8
Art: 8
Sound: 9
Character: 10
Enjoyment/Overall: 9