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Jun 8, 2023
Sword Art Online The Movie - Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night is the second Sword Art Online: Progressive film, and it picks up the story a bit less than a month after the end of Aria of a Starless Night. During the time skip, Kirito, Asuna, and the rest of the top players have succeeded in making it all the way to the fourth-floor boss. However, there is a growing problem that threatens to stop their progress—and it's not the dungeon itself.
In the previous film, Kirito united the top players by making himself the bad guy in their eyes. While this worked in the short
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term, the growing domination of two frontline guilds, Dragon Knights Brigade and Aincrad Liberation Squad, has fractured the player base. With different leadership styles and philosophies, the two guilds are constantly butting heads. Yet, neither guild has enough high-level members to raid safely—even with solo players or smaller guilds lending a hand—without the other's help, and they are thus forced to work together.
The overall plot of the film centers around our heroes trying to navigate the situation, which becomes especially dire once they realize the implications of what would happen if either of the two guilds ever gained a notable advantage. At the same time, there's the emergence of PKers who have decided to use the near-hopeless situation as an excuse to live out their darkest desires—namely, murder. And, of course, these PKers would like nothing more than for the Dragon Knights Brigade and Aincrad Liberation Squad to turn on each other in a despair-inducing bloodbath that would almost certainly make further progress through the dungeon impossible.
Through the guild power struggle and PKers, Scherzo of Deep Night shows us the early problems facing the burgeoning society within the video game. It lays the groundwork for the status quo we see in the main story and explains the origins of the various factions that appear throughout. It's solid world-building.
On the other side of things, we have the more personal aspect of the story. Like with Aria of a Starless Night, Scherzo of Deep Night is very much Asuna's story. Not only do we get a large focus on her and Kirito's growing friendship, but we see the continuation of her rocky relationship with Mito—her once “one true friend” from the real world—as well. Moreover, a fair chunk of screentime is spent on Asuna making her first female friend within the game world, Argo. While little more than an occasional side character in the main series, the film does a great job of showing how important Argo is to our heroic pair in these early days. And moreover, through the relationship between the two girls, we see Asuna continue her growth from the withdrawn and damaged loner to the strong warrior we know and love.
Unfortunately, while the overarching dilemma of the film and the character building for Asuna are both relatively solid, Scherzo of Deep Night is far from perfect. It repeats a lot of the same character beats from the Aria of a Starless Night—especially when it comes to Kirito and Mito—which makes things both more predictable and less emotionally powerful. No matter how great the action scenes look, if you can guess every dramatic reveal before it happens, much of the impact is lost.
And make no mistake: this film does look pretty darn good. The background designs are vibrant and colorful, and the animation is smooth and dynamic throughout. The boss battles in the film are an absolute highlight—especially the second one which makes great use of 3DCG in both the battle and boss design. This is bolstered by a soundtrack filled with classic Sword Art Online musical remixes that make things feel both familiar and new at the same time.
All in all, Sword Art Online The Movie - Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night is not a bad film, nor is it particularly great either. It's simply average. Sword Art Online fans will no doubt enjoy seeing these “lost adventures” of their favorite characters, but that's pretty much the extent of what you'll get out of it. There's nothing groundbreaking or game-changing to be found here. It's worth a watch if you're invested in the characters, but if not, there's no need to go out of your way for this one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 7, 2023
Continuing on directly from the final episode of Kaguya-sama: Love is War Ultra Romantic, this film is all about the fallout—namely the complete and total destruction of the status quo. While neither of our main pair has said the words, their feelings are out in the open and it's impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.
Overall, most of this film is a character piece on Kaguya. The Kaguya we've come to know and love is one who has made a core group of friends that she doesn't need to keep at arm's length. While her pride still gets in the way, she knows
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none of them would consciously try and hurt her. However, this wasn't always how things were for her. To deal with the weight of expectations, she learned to bottle up her feelings and push away others who couldn't measure up. Unfortunately, because of the stress of her current situation, she regresses to her previous ice queen self from before she fell for Shirogane.
The result of this is that Kaguya spends the majority of this film being passive aggressive and highly toxic—expecting Shirogane to read her mind and punishing him when he doesn't. It's uncomfortable to say the least, and it paints her in a terrible light. But it also allows us to see the conflict at the core of her very being. What she wants more than anyone is someone who will accept her with all her problems and eccentricities. She also wants to know her partner in the same way—both the good and the bad. The problem is that Shirogane has built himself on becoming a man who is worthy of the unobtainable princess. His whole reason for wanting her to confess to him is to have proof that they are finally on the same level, and it's a misunderstanding of what she really wants.
Here's the thing: while it took an ultra-romantic gesture to break down Kaguya's walls, she doesn't want a high-class relationship filled with unparalleled romance. Rather, she wants what she has always been denied: a normal relationship. She wants to spend her time with a man who she never has to pretend in front of and won't pretend in front of her either. The question of the film is basically if the pair are capable of making themselves vulnerable like that—if they can finally put aside their own egos and defense mechanisms to get the love they so clearly crave.
Because so much of the film is spent on personal drama, there is far less humor than you would expect from the TV anime. Sure, there are a ton of jokes spread throughout, but gone are the one-off shorts about silly things happening in the student council room. That said, the film doesn't solely focus on Kaguya and Shirogane. It also continues the other plotlines setup during the anime's third season. We get more of Ishigami's blossoming love triangle between him, Tsubame and Ino, and lots of little updates with the rest of the supporting cast.
Sadly, the one person who gets largely left out of the film is Chika. While she pops up as comic relief in a few scenes, she doesn't have any sort of arc or story. Since she has no knowledge of what's going on between Kaguya and Shirogane and no interpersonal drama of her own, she's just kind of relegated to the background in a more serious story like this one.
On the visual side of things, this film doesn't feel like one. Rather it looks just like a normal episode of the TV show. The film doesn't go beyond what we've come to expect after three seasons of watching in either animation quality or art style. Of course, in a show as visually creative as Kaguya-sama: Love is War, that doesn't mean that the movie looks bad—and there are more than a few truly inspired shots scattered throughout. It just means that this feels more like a TV special or and OVA than a feature film. And as for the music, while it does its job, nothing really stands out beyond getting a new big band-style Masayuki Suzuki theme song for the opening.
In the end, while it may look and sound like just another episode of the TV show, Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends- is a solid film and an excellent character piece that dives right to the core of why Kaguya and Shirogane are how they are. But more than that, it shows their tentative first attempts to grow beyond that and into a world where it's them against the world instead of them against each other. And given how they progress in this film, I'm excited to see what the new status quo will become—especially with the numerous challenges they have to face if they want to get their happy ending.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 28, 2022
The one certainty with live performance is that nothing ever goes exactly how you planned it. Whether you're a musician, actor, comedian, public speaker, or just some jackass with a megaphone; no matter if you're playing for an audience of 5 for 50,000, the universe is chaos and at some point, something will go wrong. It could be as small as a flubbed line or as catastrophic as the building spontaneously burning down. The anxiety over that has killed many a career before they even started, but those who can face such uncertainty and still get out there under the lights are the ones who
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can really make it.
Ironically, for all her anxieties off the stage, Bocchi has shown an immense talent for handling that pressure. She may run for the hills when tasked to order a coffee at Starbucks, but when the pressure is on and every eye is pointed at Kessoku Band, she's held firmer than anyone else. All that context is what makes the central moment of this finale's concert hit so hard. We know Bocchi can handle her own stress during showtime, but she starts to flounder when she begins fretting about ruining things for her friends, of putting all their hard work to waste because her dad's old guitar finally gave up the ghost. It turns out that when it's not just her playing that's in jeopardy, that familiar old anxiety starts creeping back up.
Which just makes it all the sweeter when this time, it's Kita who improvs to keep things going, not only showing off how much she's improved since their first show, but telling Bocchi without a single word that she's not alone; they're all up there with her, and they have her back. It's the kind of camaraderie that can make a band truly last, no matter their level of popularity, and it's especially heartening to see it here. That it's followed by Bocchi doing one of the coolest goddamn things an anime character has ever done just solidifies the whole sequence as one of the best moments in not only this show, but anime at large. It's a perfect, crystallized microcosm of what makes Bocchi the Rock! such a special show.
And then our heroine gets a mic put in her face, freaks out so hard her brain breaks, and tries to stage dive with a bunch of unsuspecting 16-year-olds as her only safety net.
It's hilarious. It's embarrassing. It's an impulsive move that only a teenager with dreams far beyond the scope of their ken could come up with. But most importantly, it's something the Bocchi of episode one never would have dared to try. And that's the beauty of getting out there and trying – even if you end up (literally) falling flat on your face, you never would have had the chance to soar at all if you didn't jump. Sometimes you're Iggy Pop, standing on the hands of the crowd in one of the most iconic images in rock history. And other times you're a clueless, impulsive kid who breaks their face on the hardwood. Either way, you've got a good story out of it. It's the perfect cap off to this whole culture festival, and made all the more special when Kita calls her “Hitori-chan” to put a nice little bow on it all. I may have hitched my wagon to the far more problematic BoKuri ship, but by god is that an adorable crescendo to Bocchi and Kita's relationship.
From there, the rest of the episode is mostly just a sendoff to the cast, and while it's not anything critical, I do appreciate spending time with these characters one more time before we start waiting for a season two announcement. I liked seeing Ryo act like a total music nerd at the instrument shop. It's adorable that Bocchi's family knew about her youtube career and secretly monetized it for her – Anime Dad of the Year, no contest. And it's very touching to see Bocchi finally have her own guitar, symbolizing that her dream has fully come into its own, rather than something she borrowed from others. I especially love that they closed it all out by covering the characters' namesakes, Asian Kung-Fu Generation. It's altogether a wonderful sendoff to such a touching, unique show.
So that's the album closer for Bocchi right now, and it's a great track to end this fantastic album on. Though I certainly wouldn't be against some bonus tracks or a whole new album if the team that handled this adaptation wants/gets to keep going. Because for as much great material and wonderful music as Bocchi had, what made this show really resonate was the passion behind every second of it. Each episode, song, scene, and cut was imbued with a palpable love that was as infectious as it was technically impressive. For that, I'm infinitely grateful, and here's hoping we'll be hearing from Bocchi and Kessoku Band again real soon.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 28, 2022
Change isn't easy. It's even less so when the subject of that change is an institution that has been in place for centuries. The role of the Raven Consort has been entrenched within the inner palace for at least a thousand years, and it is going to take more than one creepy guy embodying a god of death to undo it. But everything that has happened to Shouxue and Gaojun in this season has been in service of changing the role of the Raven Consort; from his unseemly interest in her (at least as far as others are concerned) to the slow reveal of her
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true purpose, the stage has been set for them to make meaningful changes.
That's what this last episode is largely in service of. We can see the small cracks beginning in the prison that holds the Raven Consort, namely the preconceptions and misconceptions everybody has about who she is and what she is supposed to be. The old priest who was in love with Shouxue's predecessor is perhaps the person with the most reason to resent the rules that seem unable to be broken. He saw being chosen by the goddess Niao Lian as forcing her into a prison, one which precluded her having any relationship with anyone at all. He resents Shouxue for proving that that is not true; she has ladies in waiting, eunuchs, and above all the emperor. Even if she did not set out to form these bonds, they have changed her, and that means that the role of the Raven Consort is not nearly as immutable as he and others before him believed it to be. It's the disconnect between Winter King and Raven Consort, and an example of how these women have had their power curtailed. They were allowed to maintain it, but only at the cost of being human.
Even if she hasn't made a conscious decision to change this, Shouxue is well on her way to disproving the idea that the Raven Consort is Other. She has stopped rebuffing Gaojun and begun to seek out friendships among the other women of the inner palace. It's a slow process, and it won't be an easy one; she has spent too long believing what the former Raven Consort told her. But as the conclusion of the episode seems to imply, the change from Raven Consort to Winter King is within her grasp, waiting for her somewhere beneath the sea.
Whether that is a metaphor for the hidden depths within Shouxue or a more literal statement of where the power of the Winter King took up residence is unclear; perhaps even the sanity of the banished goddess is what is waiting for her to find. It's also clear that the story is far from over – the talon marks that have appeared near the wound Gaojun received from the owl are very worrying, especially since we saw that image of an owl's wing appearing from his arm. There are too many centuries of ill will and sorrow for anything to resolve as quickly as we might like, but I still think that this is more of a hopeful ending than anything we otherwise might have expected. Even if further tragedy awaits, Shouxue now has the tools and the inner strength to move forward, to say nothing of the backing of those she has realized she may rely on. Once again, that is what the swapping of the opening and ending themes for each other shows us: one part of the tale has ended, and a new one is just beginning. While we can hope that we will get to see it unfold on the screen, at least we have the assurance that we can read the novels, which have been licensed for English release by Seven Seas.
The world is undoubtedly mysterious, and full of things we cannot fully understand. But when we start to learn what lies behind what we have always considered truths, we begin to find our own strength to change what others believe is firmly established. Shouxue has begun that journey. I wish her the best of it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 28, 2022
Yeah, so after constant bombshells last week, I am disappointed that this season's finale extensively wraps up nothing. If anything, this episode just reaffirmed the new status quo. I also understand why it was appropriate to end the season this way. If the show tried making any massive steps forward, then the episode would have ended unsatisfyingly no matter what since there was no way that we would've been able to hit another emotional progression point within the span of one episode. The series arguably already blew its load last week regarding dramatic revelations and character development. Still, that doesn't mean that there wasn't anything
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here.
This episode was mainly about Akari and Shiori, even though much was from Jiro's perspective. Everyone is in a different place at the end of the season compared to how they were at the beginning. Shiori is learning to be much more forward and fight a bit more for what she wants. Akari is getting in tune with her desires and chasing after something that is far less guaranteed than she initially thought. Jiro is finally starting to have his feelings waver and is constantly letting his insecurities get in the way of finally crossing that line that keeps presenting itself to him. After watching so many bad romantic comedies this year alone, it's nice that the show has definitive progression markers. While the show skews too much to Akari's side for there to be any actual romantic tension and unpredictability, I like how this episode ends. When the beautiful insert song plays as Shiori and Akari race to the romance shrine, Shiori passes by two kids playing in a park while Akari passes by two people kissing each other goodbye. But then they both run neck and neck past a couple just getting married and various other families at different stages in their life. Both started from different places in their relationship with Jiro, but both are fighting for the same thing, and at least at this point in the story, you could argue that they're on equal ground in Jiro's mind.
The show was about Jiro and Akari getting closer so they could move on with other people they had feelings for. But now things are different, and considering the very last shot of this episode was that goal being realized, it doesn't feel like a victory. The status quo is so irreversibly different that I sit here begging to find out what will happen next. I took up this show as a joke, and my expectations were so deep in the ground you couldn't even see them, but I ended up walking away from this with such a satisfying sense of investment. This is the kind of show that validates you for giving it a chance despite how things look on the surface, and I am desperately hoping that season two comes out soon.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 28, 2022
You bastards were so close. On the one hand, I'm happy that the series ended with some genuinely lovely reflection and development, but on the other hand, I could see the writers on the other side of the screen getting cold feet at the very last minute. It is infuriating to have a romance series with little to no development. Still, it is downright criminal when a show teases or does an excellent job introducing dramatic conflicts and progression, only to back the hell out to maintain some lame status quo. Oh, and if you read ahead in the manga and know what's supposed to
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happen immediately after this finale, this feels like an extra strong kick in the teeth.
So we finally got a payoff to the teaser from the beginning of the season. Of course, it was the standard misunderstanding with Sakurai collapsing on top of Uzaki in a way that made it seem like something intimate was going to happen. I like that they kept it a little vague regarding what he would've done if he didn't pass out. But the fact that Uzaki's dad was just outside the apartment meant that no matter what happened, there wouldn't be any actual progression. The real meat of this episode is from Sakurai's perspective as he straight up admits that he remembers everything that happened the night before, including the realization that Uzaki is in love with him, and it is torturing him inside. He wants nothing more than to pretend it didn't happen because he doesn't want to be direct and confront anything that everybody calls him out on. The funniest part of this episode is when he tells his best friend what he discovered, only for said best friend to turn around and yell at him the way I'm sure every viewer of the show has wanted to yell at Sakurai up until this point.
It was a little bit frustrating that we had so many nice scenes in the last episode regarding Sakurai saying how he wants to do right by Uzaki and that he's going to think really hard about everything, only for him to just kind of dance around everything like he really wants to maintain the status quo. I understand his logic that it's not fair for him to have found out how he did because he has to now consider their relationship with information that Uzaki doesn't. It is a nice juxtaposition compared to how Uzaki has been thinking throughout most of the season when she kept convincing herself that Sakurai was in love with her this whole time, but that's just it; these are all well-written conversations. Still, they are happening 5 to 10 minutes before the final episode finishes.
It is so satisfying when Sakurai monologues about how deep down he's known all along, and he's just been running away from the obvious answer about his feelings towards Uzaki. He loves and cares about her. I know it's not that simple to confess to somebody, but narratively it only satisfies the bare minimum of fulfillment as a viewer. Considering the way this episode ends, it does make me think back to how this whole season has been paced and makes me believe that if we just cut out half an episode of the padding that was obviously placed here, then they definitely could've fleshed this out for more than one episode. This is especially difficult when you consider that we're probably not going to get a season three announcement for a while. Overall, Uzaki-chan Season Two had some of the highest highs of the season, but they ended up being bogged down with fluff that tested my patience instead of making that patience feel rewarded.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 27, 2022
After twelve episodes of doing other things, SPY x FAMILY finally gets back to the actual spy plot. Not that I have any complaints about the way this season has gone; it hasn't been quite as good as the first half of the show, but it's still been a delight right along. And part of the problem with a long-running series is that it can't work through its plot too quickly, or else we'll be left with a whole lot of nothing. That said, it was very smart to end the season on part of the actual Operation Strix, because this episode does a very
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good job of reminding us what the show is all about.
Obviously, espionage is part of what the show is about – Twilight was assigned to this mission to specifically get in contact with Donovan Desmond in order to further his agency and his government's goals of preventing another war. But the family part of the story is equally important, and this episode really brings home those two halves in a solid way. Twilight adopted Anya strictly because he needed her to get close to Desmond; it had little to nothing to do with him actually wanting to be a father. But over the course of the series, he has come, possibly unwittingly, to value that role as much as he does that of spy. He may not understand a single thing his daughter does, but she has become very important to him, and he can recognize that her actions this week are largely in service of allowing him to meet Desmond. and while he may have originally seen Anya as nothing more than a tool, being her father has helped him in ways that even he doesn't yet understand. When he sees how desperate Damian is to interact with his father, Loid launches into a speech about parental understanding and family, something that he may not even realize he has come to believe himself.
He is also unwittingly bringing Damian himself some hope. His goal may not actually have been to make the little boy's day, although he does recognize that the better Damian gets along with his father the better chance he has of interacting with said father, but it's undeniable that he really did. Between encouraging Donovan to pay more attention to his very neglected younger son, he also inadvertently furthers Damian's not-so-little crush on Anya. Loid may think he's just talking Damian up to in his father's presence to further the mission, but he's also giving Damian a twofold sense of hope: that he'll be able to spend more time with his father, and that he has a chance (or at least as much of a chance as any kindergartner has in romance) with Anya.
If there's any one thing that SPY x FAMILY has consistently gotten right, it's the emotional needs of children. Neither Damian nor Anya are twee stereotypes of what adults assume children to be; they're regular people who are coping with the emotional trauma of abandonment as best as they can. When Anya tells Damien this week that she's not sure if her father loves her, that's both incredibly sad and something that resonates with her classmate; both children, as well as Loid in his past, were almost the detritus of war, and whether he knows it or not, Loid is actively working to make sure that neither of them will experience what he had. Even in this less-good second cour of the season, SPY x FAMILY has consistently delivered an excellent blend of heart and humor. On that note, this episode was the nearly perfect place to end... for now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 11, 2022
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 reminds me an awful lot of Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train. Both are hyped follow-up films to extremely popular Weekly Shonen Jump anime adaptations. Neither are anime-original stories, so they give off the impression of "essential viewing" to series fans. And although they don't display significant visual improvements over their TV anime counterparts, they nevertheless shine on the big screen as a testament to the fundamental strengths of their productions.
As a standalone viewing experience, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 has certain advantages and disadvantages due to its status as a prequel. The story was originally written as a
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self-contained tale and was retroactively referred to as a "prequel" when the main Jujutsu Kaisen series started serialization. As a result, it references characters and events that appear in the main series, but it generally has the feeling of a pilot episode. There's a certain haziness around the characters and the setting that makes them come across as incongruent with their more fleshed-out counterparts in the main series, but it's still in-character and the core appeal is still there. It's also accessible to newcomers, even if there may be some confusion over who some of the minor characters are.
Instead of Yuji Itadori, the protagonist this time is the meek and gloomy-looking Yuta Okkotsu. He's voiced by Megumi Ogata, whose performance is one of the absolute highlights of the film. While it does lean heavily into her Shinji Ikari voice, complete with that pitch-perfect portrayal of youthful forlornness, Yuta stands out as a distinct character because he is, after all, a Shonen Jump protagonist: When his friends are threatened, his righteous passion is unbridled. Ogata expertly navigates the two sides of Yuta, delivering a performance that elevates the character well above the unmemorable script.
The other crucial link that makes this story work is Yuta's relationship with his childhood friend Rika, which is portrayed with a unique and morbid sweetness. The film is at its best in its first 20 minutes, when Yuta's psyche is at the forefront. With its dark, atmospheric tone and horror imagery coupled with fleeting gestures of despairing kindness, the film evokes the feeling of the Vs. Mahito arc, which represented the emotional peak of the TV anime. It's interesting how the film flits over the trite sentimentality of the childhood friend romance very quickly in favor of establishing Rika's presence as a Curse. The exact nature of Yuta's feelings is left deliberately vague until the final minutes, which gives an air of unpredictability to the character drama.
Unfortunately, the rest of the film follows a predictable shonen action template, giving off the impression of a story going through the motions. There are cool fights here and there, but it doesn't develop any real stakes until near the end. It doesn't really help that the middle act of the film is about establishing the characteristics of Yuta's teammates in ways that are almost identical to how they're portrayed in the main series, even down to the exact same jokes, so it doesn't offer much interesting insight for established fans. Gojo's character is slightly more interesting in this film because he gets to show a different side of himself, but the story is still significantly less compelling when it focuses on the characters who aren't Yuta and Rika.
Geto's presence provides a welcome conflict and the opportunity for some large-scale battles, but mostly it's a good opportunity for fanservice (of the non-sexual variety). A bunch of minor characters from the main series get cameos here, a few seconds each to show off their coolest-looking abilities. Although the animation and choreography are consistent with the big scenes from the TV anime rather than elevating them, that still amounts to impressive set pieces. Also, the compositing is better tailored to the visuals this time around, resulting in scenes that generally look crisper and easier to follow.
Although this film is accessible to a first-time viewer, I wouldn't earnestly recommend it to anyone but series fans. The plot isn't strong enough to be memorable as a standalone story, and the self-indulgent continuity nods feel like padding in what is ultimately a simple story at heart. From a fan perspective, it might retread familiar ground, but the fun moments should outweigh the tedium of seeing the same character-establishing moments all over again. Yet despite adapting a story from the manga, I wouldn't actually call it essential viewing. It's mainly just a good excuse to see some of Jujutsu Kaisen's coolest fights on the big screen. That's perfectly fine for a franchise film, but just like with Mugen Train, don't let the overwhelming commercial success trick you into assuming that it's somehow way bigger and better than the TV anime it spawned from.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 14, 2022
There really aren't enough romance anime where the characters get to be this open and honest about their love for each other. Anime-only fans of romance are often left in suspense when beloved shows never return for a sequel. What's the point of asking will they/won't they for 12 weeks if you never get an answer? But by starting the series with the two characters already in a relationship, Shikimori can instead dedicate time to portraying the euphoria of being in love.
And that's basically what Episode 12 involves. Twenty minutes of pure joy. In a way, it actually makes this a difficult episode to review.
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If I put it down to words, it's very straightforward: Izumi and Shikimori go to a faux-Disneyland and have a lovely time. When Shikimori asks if they can kiss, he misunderstands. Later, he kisses her on the cheek and she's happy about it.
There's no particular ongoing drama, and there's actually less focus on comedy than usual. Instead, what we get are just a series of heartwarming moments. It's fun watching them be in love with each other, whether that's in a ridiculously long line, in a surprisingly fancy restaurant, or during an intimate boat ride. Shikimori skips the fluff and has them say lines like “You're all I'm ever looking at” and “I'm in love with you, Shikimori. I'll stay with you forever” to each other.
Of course, it is funny that they're so madly in love with each other but still consider the act of kissing each other to be so embarrassing. It's clearly not an issue of not knowing each other's feelings—it's very clear that they both want to kiss. But I guess they have to hold something back from the audience.
This may be a short review for the series finale, but there really isn't much to say. While I've made it clear before that I wasn't too impressed with the early episodes (which I think is why I've seen a lot of people calling the show “mid”), Shikimori found its footing halfway in with some surprisingly strong drama. Izumi being unlucky is only funny for a short while, but the writing flourishes the moment these characters are taken seriously.
I will miss Shikimori. A COVID outbreak at Doga Kobo made for a rockier production than the team would've liked, but they've still put together a visual spectacle. With today's digital landscape, it's difficult to say if the show's been successful enough for them to consider a second season, but I hope they do. Or, at least, I hope there are more romance anime like Shikimori that are prepared to commit to this same kind of euphoria.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 10, 2022
In the most general sense, Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night is a retelling of a story we have already seen before—namely the first and second episodes of 2013's Sword Art Online TV anime. It covers the story from the time just before the launch of the VR game up through the battle against the first-floor boss. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't a ton of new content.
The biggest and most obvious difference between the TV episodes and this film is the change in protagonist from Kirito to Asuna. In fact, other than a few flashes here and there,
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Kirito doesn't even really properly appear until the film's second half. This allows the film to spend a hefty amount of time showing us Asuna as we've never seen her before.
When we are first introduced to Asuna in the TV anime, she is a socially isolated, hooded figure who is single-mindedly focused on clearing the game. The first half of the film is the story of how she gets to this point. Not only do we see her daily life in the real world, but also how she adapts to the death game she finds herself trapped in. Her progression from a pampered, innocent girl to a goal-oriented loner is told well—largely thanks to the inclusion of Misumi. Having a friend teach her the basics makes Asuna's survival up to when she meets Kirito far more believable. Of course, this also brings us to the elephant in the room: the existence of Misumi herself.
Misumi—known as “Mito” inside the death game—is a new character to the Sword Art Online franchise. She is not seen in either the original novels or the anime—she's not even featured in the Progressive novels on which the back half of this film is largely based. And while her inclusion makes sense logically and thematically, the fact remains that the vast majority of viewers of this film will have seen the original Sword Art Online and know that by the time Asuna encounters Kirito, Misumi is no longer in the picture. And this being the story of people trapped in a death game, it's not hard to guess at where Misumi and Asuna's arc is headed.
Luckily, the film seems aware of this fact and plays around with the viewers' expectations. While it's true Asuna has to be alone by the time she encounters Kirito, that doesn't mean that the film takes the easiest or most obvious route to get there. In fact, the story becomes much more interesting and relatable by taking the unexpected path—connecting the two halves of the film into a singular, cohesive whole as it does so.
The second half of the film is largely a retelling of the events of the TV anime's second episode—i.e., detailing the first team-up between Kirito and Asuna. While certain scenes are repeated (though notably now experienced from Asuna's viewpoint), there are a good number of newly-animated scenes taken directly from the Progressive novels as well. It's only in the final action climax where the film directly contradicts the source material and previous adaptations in any major way. And while making such blatant changes is risky in a well-established franchise, doing so makes the film a better stand-alone work.
Visually, the film looks great. From the sweeping vistas of Aincrad's first floor to the chaotic and flashy battle scenes, the animation looks crystal clear. It's easily on par with the previous feature film and the best the various TV anime have to offer. As for the aural side of things, many of the established soundtracks return as expected—most obviously the commonly used action theme. Interestingly, the film tends to use it only in scenes where Kirito is present—leaving Asuna's own distinct action theme to shine through for most of the story.
All in all, while Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night doesn't come close to reaching the heights of the Sword Art Online story, it is nonetheless a solid introduction to Asuna that details her first steps down the path to becoming the charismatic leader and badass swordswoman we know her to be. Likewise, by seeing the story almost exclusively through Asuna's eyes, the relationship between Asuna and Kirito gets put in a new light that adds new context to scenes we've already seen before. But best of all, it sets the stage for future never-before-animated Progressive tales—and more life and death adventure in the floating castle of Aincrad is never a bad thing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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