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Still extremely unnecessary, and until the latter half, doesn’t really add much to the lore and character depth of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but it’s still great to spend more time with these characters and see even a little more of the series’ fabulous worldbuilding. The main appeal is definitely the focus on the Rosen Ritter regiment, of which it does a lot to explain the purpose and evolution. If there’s any weaknesses, it’s that the first three arcs are largely uninteresting and serve mainly to demonstrate Reinhard’s ascension through the ranks, but eventually this prequel finds its feet, and though I’m still adjusting ... to Yang’s new voice actor, it’s great to see him back!

Extremely hard to talk about a series like this. It’s rough around the edges, with plot lines that often don’t feel like they fit into the whole, and relationships that are left far too open-ended, but then—in a series so interested in the natural course of life—it feels reductive to hold these issues against it. People grow apart, love both blossoms and fades, personalities change, but the memories will always remain. Nothing that happens is meaningless; in times like these, I always find myself coming back to that quote from Tamako Love Story…

“To be young is to rush. Anything can happen before a spoonful of ... sugar melts. The bitterness of regret is proof you tried. It all adds up, building character”

Such a personal, evocative story from start to finish. It’s funny, heartbreaking, and wonderfully unique, and of course, the insert songs are fantastic!

Still, Hagu is such a terrible character both in terms of moral implications and depth. She plays a very essential role in the story, but I feel that could have easily been filled by someone without the looks and personality of an 8 year old.

Where do I even start with a series like this? It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think about how far I’d come as a person and how much more I had to learn, and it even made me pump my fist into the air with excitement. It’s slow, ponderous and heartwarming until it becomes exhilarating and jaw-dropping in scale. It has some of the most gorgeous fantasy art I’ve seen in my life, some of the most loveable characters I’ve ever spent my time with, and some of the most dynamic action sequences in all of anime.

Evan Call knocks it ... out of the park once again with one of the best soundtracks since Violet Evergarden, but the part of the series that impresses me the most is the use of Himmel and the party of heroes: a lesser story would have structured the main narrative around Himmel’s quest, but instead, Frieren understands that a moment in our lives is the most powerful and the most bittersweet once it has become a memory. That Frieren has the ability to just randomly cut away to some sweet little joke or speech from Himmel, and needs only that to warm my heart or make me bawl, is something that is enough to make this breach my anime top ten for the first time since 2022.

No film series is more guilty of the recent *press pause at some point in the plot and then release the next entry a few years later* phenomenon than this, but when watching it you can see why they can only afford to release chunks of it at a time. There is so much love and detail put into this: for what is essentially a glorified comedy girls’ sports anime, the action set pieces far outstrip the likes of most modern battle shounen in terms of visual direction and just general excitement. There’s a specific action sequence involving an avalanche chase which had me in ... utter disbelief at the extreme tension and the intricate animation/editing.

There are way too many characters to remember at this point, but it’s still very easy to enjoy their whimsical idiosyncrasies and imaginative designs. The Girls und Panzer franchise now has one series, one standard length film and four shorter film entries (alongside a ridiculous number of specials), and every single one of them is packed with more fun and interest than you could ever imagine from reading the premise. This is the best Das Final entry so far, and I hope they keep making them forever!

Simultaneously among the worst things Watanabe has ever directed, while still being a boundlessly heartwarming and optimistic parable about the timeless power of music. With every passing year Watanabe’s notion about the value of the human element in the creation of art becomes more relevant, with the ominous possibility of Carole and Tuesday’s dystopian AI-dominated music industry becoming more and more plausible. I do think it’s a little ironic that in spite of this messaging, about 70% of the series’s song catalogue feels like it was written by an algorithm, but perhaps that was intentional, as the music of the main duo does generally serve ... as an exception.

Still, I’m glad that the main conceit of the first half of the series is soon abandoned in favour of one more interesting; here Watanabe details how the advent of populist xenophobic ultranationalism always leads to fascistic governance (the series even has its own equivalent of the Reichtag fire). The growth of the main leads and their ability to reconcile with their heritage is interwoven seamlessly with ideas about artistic freedom and censorship, refugee crises and authoritarian border control. Having witnessed the implementation of the Nationality and Borders Bill in the UK just over a year ago, Watanabe’s vision about opportunistic politicians using foreign citizens as convenient scapegoats feels almost prophetic.

Also, the last episode is absolutely fantastic. it elevated the series enormously for me.

Now this is a truly NEW Shinkai work. I’m an adamant hater of the exceptionally stupid critique that Shinkai is “only capable of remaking the same film”, but I can’t deny that after the success of 2016’s brilliant Your Name, his follow up film Weathering With You did at times feel like a shallow imitation of his masterpiece, although I still have a special place in my heart for anything Shinkai touches.

In Suzume however, for the first time I think Shinkai has finally achieved the perfect compromise; it’s almost completely narratively/tonally distinct from his other works, while also clearly retaining its identity as a ... Shinkai film, also providing a tight, consistent narrative. Whereas Children Who Chase Lost Voices largely failed as Shinkai’s first significant departure from his traditional style, here we have a film which contains enough idiosyncrasies to satisfy most diehard Shinkai fans like myself, but also has a more widespread appeal that’s even inclusive of those who may not like Shinkai’s filmography.

What else can I say? The film is consistently fun and hits its emotional beats fairly well. Its reflection on 3/11 is poignant and eternally relevant. Taking aside its status as a Shinkai film, it’s also a very solid fantasy adventure story, and it’s always fun catching the staggering number of explicit Miyazaki references. I don’t think it’s quite up there with my absolute favourite of his works, but I didn’t come away with any feelings of disappointment. I’ll shamelessly love anything Shinkai creates, and Suzume is certainly no exception.

Grows on me more and more with each and every viewing. It’s criminal that Shinichiro Watanabe never made another feature length movie; he really is in many ways the best to ever do it. I love how Vincent is the perfect counterpart to Spike: another man lost in the horror of the world, trying desperately to understand and escape the dream.
Spike isn’t quite ready to face his demons—to definitively find out if he’s really alive (although that goal underpins his general actions in life), but Vincent is in his endgame, and has a plan to find the door that will lead him out of purgatory. I ... think in facing Vincent, Spike gets one step closer to his catharsis (and ultimately, his death) in the series finale. I can’t believe Watanabe was able to make a spin off that not only rivalled, but elevated the original. One of the best anime films ever.

Wolf Children is the only Hosoda film which never once loses itself in its wondrous fantasy elements; I do love the glorious self-indulgence of something like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, but ultimately I think that Hosoda has a tendency to distract from his endlessly endearing characters and touching central narratives with whatever dazzling fictional realm he’s conjured up—the best example of which is probably Summer Wars, which I think loses a lot of its unique family dramedy charm as a result of the mind-numbingly boring video game battles.

Wolf Children however is the biggest exception to this rule. Here you’ll find Hosoda at ... his most restrained: its low fantasy elements are used sparingly if not at all, and only exist to lightly emphasise the coming of age themes and ideas about motherhood. It’s a moving story from start to finish, and showcases the very best of Hosoda, although it is unusually light on the visual comedy which would usually be one of his biggest strengths.

Okada’s work is always so difficult to talk about. She blends surrealism with melodrama and conventional narrative tropes in a way that completely absorbs you in the beauty of her worlds, without sacrificing mainstream accessibility or emotional edge. Often it can come across as underdeveloped or lacking in cohesion (or even just generic), but generally I’ve always managed to find a personal connection somewhere within her stories, although I understand that they don’t work for everybody.

Maboroshi, like the rest of her work, really struggles to hold itself together sometimes, but at its best moments it’s absolutely brimming with passion. Its contemplative reflection on the ... human condition, on the nature of love and ultimately on motherhood is just so Okada. Her direction has gotten much stronger since Maquia, and my god the art style and world building are just stunning; like virtually all of my Okada experiences (excluding Toradora), it’s so hard not to love.

On a side note, anime fans do this thing that I really hate where they attribute all of a film or series’s best features to the studio that produces it. Maboroshi is not great because it is MAPPA, nor does it look good because it is MAPPA. It’s great because Okada’s usual team poured their talent into it for 5 long years; I suppose film fans do this too with stuff like A24, but the point is that it’s a misleading form of praise that neglects the artists involved.

Completely pointless, insipid series. Credit where credit is due: the new voice cast does an impressive job of following on from the iconic voices of the original series, and honestly it has a pretty decent start, but there’s a complete lack of gravity and flavour here. The art style is SO bland; I can imagine not minding it if you’d never seen anything better, but looking back at how dynamic and rich the aesthetics of the 90s were, it’s enough to make one lament about the state of modern mainstream Shounen. The music—another major highlight of the original—is completely generic and lacks any presence in ... this show, and coupled with the lack of filler to let the characters breath, it makes the whole thing completely emotionally inert. The action is fine, but also feels a little weightless; I knew it would be naive to wish for anything as good as Trust & Betrayal—but seriously… how is an obscure 1999 ova doing better action than a show from 2023? This is just a directionless, dull mess. I’d have been more forgiving if they just went straight to adapting the Jinchuu arc instead of spending so much time treading ground that had already been covered, but alas it will be years before we see any exciting new material.