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May 20, 2021
So truthfully I wrote this last year when the series ended but never posted it because I don’t know. But yeah, God of Highschool one of the most disappointing anime I saw last year and an example of shounen done bad.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not the worst shounen there is but it presents some of the worsts aspects of the genre. There was a lot of hype for God of Highschool when it was announced as a Crunchyroll original done by the highly acclaimed Studio Mappa (Yuri on Ice, Dororo). In the end though; it’s been completely forgotten. No one’s talking about it only
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a year later. And there’s a good reason why.
The ‘Plot’
Do you like tournament arcs? This is just a giant tournament arc; there’s a tournament and people fight in it. A huge tournament in South Korea called the God of Highschool. Here, High Scholars as you can imagine fight in various styles of the honor of being the champion or the hokage or something like that. At first, it’s kinda fun as you watch the main characters take on different martial artists with different fighting styles based seemingly on real-world martial arts. However this is going on and on and eventually, those real-world martial arts get replaced with magic. It’s losing even that.
The show has pretty much nothing else to offer. Also bullshit happens. There’s a conspiracy theory about the tournament being used by a cult to someone a demon but the show rushes through exposition so quickly, I honestly couldn’t tell you the details.
The pacing and plot of the anime are terrible. The first few episodes are completely taken up by the fighting, with no character, and pretty much no plot. It’s just fighting, after fight, after fight with the occasional exposition dump to abruptly inject some plot into the show.
Shounen Done Bad
You could argue that fighting is the point, it is a shounen after all. The thing is though good shounen like My Hero Academia, Hunter X Hunter, or Rurouni Kenshin realized is that you need to take some time off the fighting and better define the characters and world. Those are the things to make people invested, so they care about the people doing the fighting.
When Deku and Bakugo fight in MHA, the tension doesn’t just come from two different dudes in silly costumes slamming fists against each other. It comes from watching a kid who’s been bullied all his life finally stand up to his bully and prove his worth and whether or not he’ll be able to do so. That internal conflict makes the fight seem real. Without it, the fights would be empty and nonengaging.
The ‘Characters’
God of Highschool’s cast is more or less catchphrase spewing sock puppets they’re such nothing characters. On our main character, we have Jin; the hot-headed lead. Han, the more reserved responsible member of the group, and Mira, the girl. They really aren’t anything more than that.
Even when it tries to slow down and give the cast more development, it feels rushed and shallow. You have so little time to get to know the cast that you’ll barely remember their names. This means when they start getting up on their soapbox about their feelings and dreams in typical shounen fashion, you can’t help but yawn. Yeah we know they can punch good but we know little of their personality. Just popping their backstory in doesn’t give us a reason to care because we know so little about them as people.
Our main dude is as stock as it gets. He wants to get stronger and loves his friends, you’ve seen the song and dance a thousand times if you’ve watched any previous shounen and nothing is done to make it feel unique or enduring.
The Ending
If that’s not enough by the end of the series, the plot starts really shifts gear to the mystical bullshit. There’s this great conspiracy behind the tournament about people trying to summon a god and the characters have stand powers or something and a couple of them might be demons, idk, it kinda just happens. So now that one good thing it had of well-animated realistic martial arts (even if it started getting stale) is gone as well.
The main characters are themselves are too busy with the fights to notice this stuff until the last episode. You’d think something this batshit would be exciting after all the repetitive tournament fights, but it comes right out of nowhere. It feels less “holy shit this is awesome” and more “really, this is what we’re going for”. The plot starts non-existent and ends stupidly.
The main character turns out to a reincarnation of a famous literary character without any prior build-up (at least non that I can remember). It happens. It just happens.
A lot of shounen try to have complicated lore and ideas but most of them spread it out over like 50 eps. This tried to cram them into 13.
The Animation (Ok I’ll admit, it’s good)
With all this being said, this show might have some of the best action scenes this year. The choreography for the martial arts combined with extreme dynamic shots makes it is a feast to behold. It even helps the characters feel more unique as you began to recognize their different fighting styles just through the fighting itself. Even the final episode which reaches new levels of the dumb plot reveals has an amazing fighting scene that takes advantage of the protagonist’s newfound power up.
It really is a shame there was nothing else to flesh out these fight scenes. By the end, there’s also less of them than before with the focus going more on the supernatural powers.
Final Thoughts
I’ve heard that the original manwha is better. That Crunchyroll and Mappa heavily rushed through the first arc which is what caused the pacing problem. This however doesn’t change the fact that The God of Highschool anime is bad.
Even if they’re the highlight, you can do a shounen with nothing but fights. There’s need to be substance underneath; proper characters, world-building, and just overall personality. And they need to be done without being so rushed and sloppy. As it is God of Highschool just feels empty.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 26, 2021
You may have heard of Studio Gainax. They’re the guys that made Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, FLCL, Panty and Stocking among many others. What is most interesting about them however is their connection to Otaku and one particular project of their’s: the original video animation (OVA) Otaku No Video.
Gainax and Otaku:
Before we get into Otaku No Video, let’s go over some context.
Now what is an Otaku? For most people in the western world, it just means ‘anime fan’ however in Japan is has more negative connotations. It’s supposed to refer to someone who’s not only a fan but has seemingly devoted their entire lifestyle
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to a certain obsession or hobby, usually pop culture.
Gainax was founded by Otaku. These guys in university with their sketchy grades and little to no experience in animation decided to lock themselves in a small Osaka apartment and attempt to make anime (among other things). With makeshift tools and animation cels they, got their start making animated shorts for the convention Daikon III.
It was one the first times a Studio came about from a sort of indie grassroots origins and it’s something Gainax seemed to have kept with them through their life. Shows like Evangelion, Gurren Lagann and even their spiritual successor Studio Trigger’s shows like Kill la Kill and SSSS.Gridman show the classic joys of otaku fandom like giant tokusatsu mechs, over the top explosions and lots of fanservice.
They’ve even tackled more cynical aspects of the lifestyle. Particularly with Gainax co-founder Hideki Anno and his later works like End of Evangelion and MEMEME which featured direct criticisms of the otaku lifestyle inspired by Anno’s disillusionment with Otaku and how he had fell into depression during the making of Evangelion as a result.
I bring this up because Otaku No Video directed by Takeshi Mori is one of their earliest projects and is explicitly about the studio’s otaku roots. It’s a spoof all about being an otaku and the culture that created Gainax.
The Otaku’s Journey:
Otaku No Video is split into two sections more or less. The animated section revolves around Kubo, your average university student, on the tennis club, has a cute girlfriend but also kind of board, until one day he discovers the otaku circle of the University. Cosplaying in the fairs, selling doujinshi, recording all and all shows on VHS, he is slowly enveloped into their ranks.
Keep in mind this was made in the late 80s to early 90s where there was no internet, big franchises like Naruto, One Piece and Pokémon didn’t exist and shows about specifically catering to and staring the otaku demographic weren’t common. The otaku fandom was even smaller and more underground than it is today when nerd culture (especially in the west) is far more accepted in the mainstream. This creates a feel of these guys being a niche group that really only have each other.
The otaku Group at least at first does almost feel like a goofy cult with how they induct Kubo into their ranks but at the same time, they’re shown to be very warm and welcoming, and their comradery feels real. That’s what nice about this OVA, it truly feels like it presents both the best and the worst of otaku. We see Kubo’s life take quite a downturn since becoming an otaku. He gains weight, he’s not grooming himself very well and eventually his girlfriend dumps him, but he finds more excitement in the world of anime and tokusatsu than he did before and it’s hard not to feel a but happy with just how passionate these nerds are about their hobbies. As someone who has led an anime society at Uni and found some life-long friends through it, it’s hard not to feel a little warm and nostalgic watching these weebs.
I also like the plot point where Kubo is even able to find success making model figures only for a larger corporation to swoop in and take over his company and demote him from power, basically gutting his business from the inside, a sadly common practice in a lot of media industries. Thankfully he’s able to start again but it makes a solid point. On one hand otaku are weirdos stuck in their own little world that in can be easy to take advantage of but they’re also mostly good people looking for likeminded individuals to share their hobby with and having success and despair along the way.
The Otaku’s Portrait:
The other section is called ‘Portrait of an Otaku’ which has live action interviews with real Otaku and some facts about them. What interesting about this section is a westerner it can be surprising to learn just how much nuance there is to otaku lifestyles.
The video does show a few of a more typical idea of an otaku; NEETs with no friends who spend all day watching anime but also less typical like a tape collector that spends his time recording anything he finds cool on TV and trading them with others. There’s also a military Otaku who likes to collect air-soft guns and role play in the forest but upon being asked if he would ever want to shoot someone with a real gun looked dumbfounded, saying he never considered it and just thinks they look cool. There’s even a weaboo. A westerner that speaks little Japanese yet decided to sell all his things, move to Japan and devote his life to collecting Japanese pop culture memorabilia (oh how some things haven’t changed).
The one I found the strangest though was an otaku who made a living infiltrating anime studio and stealing animation cels to sell on a kind of otaku black market. Apparently, the security at these studios was so low, the turnover rate so high that you could just walk in, pretend to be an employee and go off with them. Hopefully, security has improved in the 30 years since this was made.
Final Thesis about Otaku No Video:
Otaku no Video is an odd little thesis. I never realised just how many ways there were to being an otaku. It’s easy to see geek culture as just sad men in their mother’s basements both what I think both the animated and live action sections show otaku in a darkly humorous but respectful manner. It shows otaku for who they are; weird and some of them have pretty obvious mental health problems, but others are happy with their lives and just enjoying their hobbies, regardless of what the mainstream think of them. It’s a fascinating insight into the old school Otaku lifestyle from the eyes of people that were part of it.
I’d say it’s worth a watch for all anime weebs at least once. Think of it as learning more about your origins, the good and the bad of it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 16, 2021
Well, I never thought there would be a day that I thought a Ghibli movie was not just bad but possible one of the worst films I’ve seen this year.
Earwig and The Witch is the latest film by acclaimed Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli but their first film to be done completely in CGI. It was directed by Goro Miyazaki, son of the legendary and infamously hard to please Hayao Miyazaki who’s track record has been sketchy at best. He previously directed ‘Tales of Earth sea’ which used to be considered Ghibli’s worst movie, but he also did ‘From Up on Poppy Hill’ which was
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good overall. Unfortunately, this film does Goro’s reputation no favours.
The Plot:
Earwig and The Witch is about a young girl named Earwig, living in an orphanage where she gets states she can get everyone to do what she wants and doesn’t want to leave. Then a Witch and a demon named the Mandrake come to adopt her, and they do. Despite saying she doesn’t want to be adopted, Earwig is totally cool with being kidnapped by these two monsters who outright state they want to use her as child labour because she might be able to learn magic and take control of the house like she did in the orphanage.
For the next hour and ten minutes, that’s pretty much it. Earwig is given tasks to do by The Witch, she attempts pull a prank or get the upper hand on her captor, fails, briefly feels homesick and goes to bed. This cycle repeats around four times in the movie to the point that me and my friends joked that The Witch’s barking demands seemed like an NPC straight out of an RPG with how repetitive her dialogue was.
[MINOR SPOILERS]. This all finally changes when Earwig finally uncovers a secret about the Witch and Mandrake’s past. They were in a rock band. After that, the film flashes forward a few months Earwig is now master of the house, the other two are now her slaves and the film end. It just as out of nowhere as it sounds as if the whole third act was cut from the film. It’s confusing and destroys the few morsels of build up or progression the film had. I’ve heard the reason for this was that the original book by Diana Wynne Jones (same author as Howl’s Moving Castle) was unfinished and also had an abrupt ending but then maybe they shouldn’t have picked this one for a movie adaptation.
The Characters:
I get the writers probably wanted Earwig to be a sassy, mischievous problem child but with a good heart, fighting back against mean adults however she honestly comes off as bratty and almost unintentionally sociopathic. She contently talks about how she got everyone in the orphanage do things the way she wants and how she plans to manipulate the witch and Mandrake into doing the same. This isn’t helped by how quickly she changes character beats. For all her whining about not wanting to be adopted the minute she is, she’s happy with it because she might be able to learn magic and use it to boss people around. Occasionally she mentions missing her old home but for the most part getting one up on The Witch is her driving motive and by the end of the film she basically gets exactly what she wants without learning anything from it.
Speaking of the witch, there not much to her. Just an asshole adult figure for Earwig to feud against, repeating the same asshole adult figure statements like a broken record. The Mandrake isn’t much better but at least he has a cool design and sparkles.
The Animation:
Finally let’s talk about the infamous CGI. I don’t think the models look that bad. They’re a decent attempt at capturing Ghibli’s usual style in 3D but the major problem is that they lack the greater expression of Ghibli’s 2D work. The actual animation feels a little stiff in movement and lacking in expression although the few times that it does try to attempt wider more cartoony reactions, the results are greatly uncanny.
In terms of setting, I hope you like the small cramp house The Witch lives in because pretty much the entire movie takes place in it, a far cry the sweeping grandeur of the bath house of Spirited Away or the oceans of Ponyo.
I should also mention apparently to promote the film Goro was planning a puppet show at the Ghibli Museum. Yeah apparently Goro is an talented puppeteer and the director of the museum. The puppets look pretty cool, they’re still a little creepy but it feels like a more intentional Coraline kind of creepy. I dig it and kind of wish they went with puppets for the actually film.
Overall:
I guess every studio has at least one serious flop and that’s true of Ghibli as well. From the sloppy narrative to unlikable characters to mediocre animation, nothing seemed to work in the film on a fundamental level and it’s hard to see how such an acclaimed studio could have let it pass.
I’m not blaming Goro Miyazaki though, chances are this was given a tiny budget and resources and thankfully Ghibli has confirmed that the movie was more of a one-off experiment with CGI as opposed to the new norm. I’m sure Miyazaki Senior is lurking the background, chuckling at his son’s recent flop; ready to skydive on to the silver screen and the melt audiences tits off with all the might of his glorious hand-drawn animation. A grim reminder that all anime was a mistake (expect his of course).
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 26, 2020
If there’s any show that can really get me with those childhood feels, its Digimon. I started watching the series when I was four from VCDs. The Filipino English dub I watched was kinda bad, but the action was great, musical was memorable, and the story was fantastic. It was one of the first kids cartoons I watched that took mature topics seriously, handling things like death, adoption, family drama and growing up in a blunt and accessible way for younger children.
The first Digimon series: Digimon Adventure however after three seasons (the last of questionable quality) is apparently ending with this final instalment of the
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franchise. There are some flaws but overall, as a lifelong fan, if this is truly the end I’m satisfied. It’s a good send off to some of my favourite characters.
Our heroes, the Digi-destined are now in college. They’re figuring out future plans and following their dreams, with the exception of our two MCs Tai and Matt who are have no idea of what they’ll do after graduation but there’s always one thing that doesn’t change, battling Digimon with their Digimon partners… until it does. It is revealed that children lose their Digimon as they start to grow up. The clock is soon to reach 12 and digivolving makes it go faster. While this is happening, several digi-destined are also falling into a coma. It’s up to our heroes to deal with this new threat while also dealing with the impending loss of their lifelong friends.
The plot is simple, but this means it takes little time to explain and can move at a good pace. It steadily flows between mystery, drama and action in the way that feels natural. It was especially fun to watch the 02 characters investigating with their Digimon and when the heavier scenes came on, you can definitely feel it.
It should also be noted that Kizuna is very much the Tai and Matt show, which is definitely disappointing for those that are fans of the other digi-destined who are very much side characters. There’re moments were you really feel that more screen time should be dedicated to them especially since the conflict is one that they’ll all have to face. Sora in particular is hinted to be undergoing an interesting arc but she ends up having the least amount of screen time of all of them. Even the 02 characters, who were heavily advertised after not appearing in Digimon Adventure Tri, while having great moments are ultimately there to serve to main narrative of Matt and Tai.
With that being said though, I think this was for the best. Digimon Adventure counting 02, has 12 kids and 12 Digimon: 24 main characters plus any additional friends and foes. The series had two seasons, 50+ episodes each to develop them all, this movie has less than two hours. It makes sense to focus on just the leader and the lancer and honestly, this is some of the best development Tai and Matt have had.
When I was a kid, I looked up to Tai and Matt. I was a nerdy kid, so I always saw myself as more like Izzy or Joe, with Tai and Matt being the cool big leaders. With this movie though, I could relate to them more than ever. I recently graduated from university and that feeling of having no clue what to do while everyone else around you seems to be making leaps of progress is one I know all too well.
The two have grown a lot since the old days. A problem I had with Tri was that it tried to bring back the old Tai/Matt rivalry but over inane and contrived reasoning that made both characters seem inept. Here, they act much like how friends their age would, they banter, they jab, Tai’s more easy going, Matt still got his chilled bad boy streak but it’s more down to earth and that’s cool to see. They’ve matured a lot since the days of fighting in the snow. Also, seeing them drink beer and looking at porn is just fun. More importantly: when Tai and Matt face the despair of losing their digimon, it hurts. It’s not just that they’re losing their friends; an entire part of their lives is being ripped away and the movie makes sure you every second of feel it.
Much like us, the chosen children have grown up their entire lives with Digimon and going into an already unknown future without them creates a palpable sense of desperation and sorrow with even comedic scenes having at least of slight sense of unease. Despite a usually fast pace a lot of time is dedicated to Tai, Matt, their digimon and others just digesting the news of disappearing digimon and how it affects them: from denial, to despair to eventually accepting it so that they can do what’s right and save their friends.
The dynamic between Tai and Matt and their digimon is what makes this. In the original show most of the Digimon didn’t really have proper character development. They were cool pets that liked to eat and play while occasionally gave some sound advice to their kid, but they mostly served to help said kid’s development more than getting their own. This isn’t bad as ultimately the kids are the central players in the series but it’s particularly interesting here. Kizuna makes a point that the Digimon don’t really change as their partners get older. They’re ultimately the same lovable monsters through and through. This however does not make them stupid or one-dimensional; they’re simple but also wise in their simplicity. Agumon and Gabumon despite knowing what might happen simply decide to keep being with their partners; eating, playing, just generally hanging out like nothing has changed. They accept what might happen to them and understand that their kids are ready to go on without them. They’ve loved their time together and watching them grow into the people they’ve become. It’s melancholy but warm at the same time.
Can’t really talk about the next few bits with spoiling the film, so here’s your warning:
The main villain Menoa Bellucci has been accused of being a rip off of Tri’s villain, Maki. While it’s true that their motivations are very similar, she’s also a lot better written than Maki. Tri in general was bogged down by trying to balance out over complicated lore and teen drama. Here it’s more direct, Menoa was a child genius that lost her Digimon partner because she grew up too fast, now she wants to adduct other digi-destined and place them in a dreamlike digital dimension, so they don’t lose theirs. It understandable and sympathetic for both the characters and the audience without requiring extensive background information. She’s not a super in-depth Shakespearean villain but she serves the plot well and drives the main theme of loss and moving on.
The final scene of Agumon and Gabumon disappearing is quiet and unexpected. They’re having a casual chat with their partners and then gone. Some may say its underwhelming but that’s kinda how change is, you don’t realise it happened until after it does. The reactions afterwards however do sell it, they knew it was coming but it was still heart-breaking. I really love how the conversation starts with Agumon commenting on how big Tai’s gotten. They were almost the same height back in the adventure and now Agumon barely gets to his waist. Tai’s a man now, he’s a gotta look forward even if it means he gotta endure the pain of losing his best friend.
Finally, let’s talk about that theme. A lot of people really don’t like that the film says you just have to accept giving up the Digimon, particularly if it’s seen as a metaphor for giving up childhood which for many, Digimon is a huge part of. I don’t really see it that way though. Right before Menoa is defeated she sees her partner Digimon, who states she was always with her. I don’t think the Digimon truly leave but rather they still exist inside their human, continuing to be with them albeit in another form. I don’t think it’s saying that you need to give up on childhood past times like Digimon but rather that it is inevitable that when we grow up, these series end and how we perceive them changes. That doesn’t mean we have to give them up or that they no longer exist to us but rather they do in different ways like memories, nostalgia and of course newer entries into the franchise. Digimon changed a lot since I was young, I can’t enjoy the franchise with exactly the same wonder I did back then, but the lessons it taught me and the characters I’ve come to love, I still carry with me to this day.
Spoilers end:
Digimon adventure recently got rebooted with a new series. It’s really fun even if it’s a bit different and I’m glad the series can continue to entertain new kids. If this is really the last we get of the OG cast (which very well may not be the case if there’s enough money to be made) then I’m satisfied. There have been ups and downs on this adventure but I loved it all the same and, in my opinion, it ended on a high note.
Till we meet again, Digital Monsters.
PS – didn’t know where to put this in but Agumon and Gabumon’s new evolutions look kinda dumb. I really don’t like the humanoid designs wearing the traditional dragon/wolf armour, it looks way too unnatural from the previous evolutions. They’re not on screen long enough for it to be a big deal but yeah, it looked dumb.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 14, 2020
Mary and The Witch’s Flower is a Japanese Animated Movie and the debut feature of Animation Studio Ponoc, produced by Yoshiaki Nishimura and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, both former employees of the highly acclaimed Studio Ghibli.
The most obvious aspect of the movie is how much it wears its' Ghibli Influence on its sleeve. The style of the animation is very clearly trying to replicate classic Ghibli productions like ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ and ‘Castle in The Sky’ as well as other fantasy series, most notably Harry Potter, with concepts like a magical school a child protagonist and environmental themes. For those that are familiar with Ghibli’s
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past filmography the film’s similarities may come as redundant however while it may not be ground-breaking, Mary and The Witch’s Flower is still a well-executed, charming adventure that’s worth a watch if you’re a fan of Ghibli, animation or fantasy in general.
The movie follows Mary Smith, a young girl with red hair living with her Great Aunt in the English Countryside. While she’s sulking about her apparent talentless and boredom, she ends up discovering a strange flower in the forest that allows her to use magic. This eventually leading her to Endor College, a secret school for witches. While she is initially hailed as prodigy, she eventually realises the Headmistress and her head scientist who run the college may have more sinister intentions for her and the flower.
The plot starts off a bit slow but picks up the pace as the plot begins to unfold. Visually the film is very strong, starting with the drab and washed out (yet still very well detailed) landscapes of the English country side to the vibrant colour palette of the Witch College. This is further emphasised with the animation itself, which managed to handle several fast-paced action scenes while still maintaining an expressive amount detail. The different characters and creatures while somewhat generic in terms of designs are well drawn and work well with the scenes that they’re in and it is exciting to see them in the eventual climax. The voice acting for the English dub was also very good, and the fact that they had actors with different regional British accents help adds to the authenticity of the setting.
Mary as a character is an enjoyable protagonist. For the most part she feels like an actual young girl with a lot of energy and curiosity to keep her very likeable and easy to route for. I will say however, that she can come as a bit too over dramatic. She is shown to have self-esteem issues, believing herself to be talentless and is bored of her life in the countryside. I actually thought these were good traits since as previously stated, they seem like actual insecurities that a young child would have, making her feel more realistic. This however gets a little too angsty with her continuous monologues about how much she dislikes her red hair and how bad it makes her look. While I can see a young child being a bit self-conscious about something life that, the amount of times that Mary sulks about it makes it feel a little too contrived, especially as the other characters don’t really bring it up beyond a little teasing.
This leads to probably the biggest issue with the film. It has a bad habit, especially earlier in the film, of telling parts of the plot as opposed to showing it. This mainly comes in the form of Mary simply talking to herself, explaining what she is doing in certain parts of the plot. This doesn’t ruin the movie however it does feel very unnecessary and does take you out of the film to an extent. It’s especially a shame considering how good the visuals themselves are and could have been used to display the narrative more naturally.
With that being said, I really felt the character development of Mary was good and how it tied into the overall theme of the movie: change and transformation. An interesting concept that the film develops is the idea that magic and science are quite similar as opposed to other fantasy stories where the two are portrayed in conflict with one and other. This works as magic in the film is more or less an allegory for the dangers of scientific progress and specifically about unnaturally tampering with the natural world. This is explicitly seen when the Professor is shown experimenting on animals with magic, a clear allegory for scientific animal experimentation.
Environmentalism is a common theme in Ghibli films, so I was nice surprise to see a more different take on the topic. I also like that the film is far less black and white about the topic than the majority of Ghibli’s films. Even though they are ultimately in the wrong, the main two villains of the film are not shown to be truly evil. They genuinely believe that their actions will benefit the College and are more misguided than malevolent. The moral greyness is a welcomed addition and gives the film more depth and meaning to its topic.
This of course, ties back into Mary’s development. That despite the insecurities she has, she does not need to use magic to change herself in order to be talented or unique. By the end of the film it is her courage and determination that saves the day more than any actual spell. It’s a simple and well executed message that I feel is good for children to here.
Despite a few rough patches, Mary and The Witch’s Flower is an enchanting and well animated film that will please those looking for a good fantasy movie. It isn’t up to par with some of Ghibli’s masterpieces, however it is still a charming adventure with a well-developed protagonist and interesting themes. It bodes well for Studio Ponoc and I’ll be interested to see more from them in the future.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 14, 2020
Masayuki Yuasa’s been a busy boy. He’s directed four anime projects within the last two years as well as running his animation studio Science Saru. It’s no wonder that he’s announced he’s stepping as president. The thing is though, when someone gets super busy with multiple projects, it’s not uncommon for the quality to slip with a least one of them. Japan Sinks 2020 is unfortunately that slip. In a time of disaster like 2020 has turned out, an anime about a family going through an actual disaster seems like it would make for good relatable drama, but it was really just a mess. It
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has its moments but ultimately a mess.
The show starts of great, each of the Mutou family (father, mother, daughter, son) going about their business only for a high magnitude earthquake to drop. Within a few seconds, their lives have been destroyed. The first two episodes set up the dire tone that the series seems to want to go for. It presents a clear domino effect of how the earthquake leads to even harsher disasters like toppling buildings that then crash into other structures and planes falling out of the sky. We see the ground littered with bodies, the media is giving no helpful solutions and survivors racked with fear over their loved ones. The family meet and with a few allies, they’re on their way to find salvation across the desolate country.
The family are likeable even if they feel a bit generic and I like that their persistent strives for optimism surrounding as the despair of the situation. With disaster media, it’s common to see everyone descend into anarchy but dotting in light-hearted moments with the family helps give the narrative some brevity and a chance to get to know each member and their relationships better. It also makes the potential later dark scenes even more depressing; such is the case when characters eventually start to die. While I didn’t feel too bad for the individual victims, I loved the tension this created. Death is a constant presence in these episodes, it truly feels like any could be die, giving greater pressure to each new obstacle. As characters die, new one’s are introduced, changing the group dynamic and how the remaining survivors respond which in turn keeps the remaining characters and the audience on their toes. They weren’t the most complex bunch, but it was a great start and would make for an exciting yet tragic series if it continued this way.
Warning: minor spoilers
All this potential dies when the anime gets to the ‘cult arc’. Around episode 5-6, the group stays with a religious cult that allows them to live in their commune for free with all resources provided. The shows basically become a quirky slice of life here. We get a fairly annoying new comic relief character; Daniel and the central characters don’t really develop. The writers probably wanted some down time to show the characters reflecting on their recent trauma but they just kinda goof off without really putting in deeper introspection beyond a quick crying scene.
The cult themselves also don’t do anything interesting. When we first see them, they’re pretty suspicious, what with growing weed, putting it in everyone’s food and proclaiming a creepy stoic boy to be their messiah. You’d think that they’re being set up to have sinister ulterior motives, but the payoffs lead to nothing meaningful. There’s even a couple of fight scenes near the end that feel like they came straight out of a cheap Hollywood action comedy (that wheelchair scene). The entire arc feels clashes with the previously established temperament of the first few episodes. Bleak and realistic gets replaced with silly and over the top and it does more damage to the show then any earthquake could.
The second half of the series attempts to return to the more serious tone (making the cult arc seem even more out of place) and for the most part it does get better but not enough to save it. The relationship between the mother and her children are a spark of hope, but the plot just meanders around without much to keep the viewer invested. The last episode, which is an extra 5 minutes long in particular felt dragged out. It supposed to be a kind of ‘what happened after’ epilogue, but I feel it could have been heavily condensed. As it is, it just came of as overly sappy fluff.
For the characters, the family and their bonds are at the heart of this sinking ship. They may be a little stock, but they feel like a reasonably realistic family and you can relate to both the pain and joy they share with each other. Some of the best scenes here are just watching two of them talk about their hobbies. I especially enjoyed the mother and her attempts to be kind yet stern as necessary for the harsh road ahead. The daughter: Ayumu is also fine as the audience surrogate, being the emotional weight of team and most effected by the constant tragedy surrounding them. She has a simple yet effective arc of learning to become stronger and face adversity. In terms of the non-family characters; they’re hit or miss. A lot of them simply aren’t around long enough to be that interesting.
I’ve left the son, Go for last because he ties in with one the attempted central themes of the anime. The show has a very pro multiculturalism and inclusivity theme. The family is bi-racial and Go in particular has a passion for other countries including dreaming of moving to Estonia where his gaming buddy lives. He constantly states that he hates Japan because of how horrible the people are and its’ vulnerability to natural destruction. He goes on and on about this and each time you just want to roll your eyes harder. By the end he is taught that Japan has good and bad aspects like anywhere else and that he should work towards making Japan better, which is true, but the message is obnoxiously ham-fisted.
I get what the series is going for: Japan as a nation is metaphorically and figuratively fragile. It can easily be destroyed so clinging to rigid nationalist ideas of heritage and cultural purity will likewise be fragile so we should embrace new people from different cultures to build a better revived nation. A lot of internet peeps are calling the show “SJW propaganda” but this feel exaugurated. It’s a fine message that can be told well and will probably resonate more in a country like Japan where the debate between tradition and globalisation has been a hot topic for decades. But it’s just not done well here. It doesn’t really add anything to the overarching plot. As previously mentioned, the family is bi-racial and there’s one time the team meets some racist nationalists but those character just end up dying a few minutes later. These differing views are not really challenged or explored in a meaningful way, making them feel contrived, which in turn just makes the anime feel more padded as well as annoyingly preachy.
The art is kinda jarring. Yuasa’s known for his highly imaginative colourful characters designs splashed with artistic style however Japan Sinks doesn’t have the same quality that say, Devilman or Tatami Galaxy did. The animation feels far cheaper, lacking the fluidity and sense of expression of his previous works. The character’s also frequently go off model during the more distressing scenes. This may well be intentional, yet it just looks awkward in addition to taking the emotion out of the scene. The character looks less like they’re grieving over their lost companions and more like they have constipation problems.
Overall, I love Yuasa’s work, but this lacks to imagination and cohesiveness required to pull off a morbidly realistic disaster story. It has heart and it shows in certain moments with the love of the family but as the series continues that emotion gets lost in tonally confused subplots and badly exposited themes. It’s not terrible but it could have been far better if it just ironed out some of the issues, which arguably makes it even more of a mediocre disaster.
PS: Apparently because Go is such as big westaboo, he speaks loads of annoying gratuitous English in the Japanese version, which sounds grating. I watched the dub, so I didn’t have this issue, but it does make me wonder; will this end up known the anime that’s better dubbed just because the sub’s characters are too annoying. Unlikely, but hilarious if it did.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 14, 2020
Man, this movie reminds of how cringey I could be as a teenager. Complaining about my parents, falling out with friends, saying I wouldn’t care if the world ended (an actual line in this movie) all because I really didn’t how to actually talk to people my troubles. A Whisker Away captures a lot these issues and insecurities that I and many others probably felt when going through middle school into high school and manages to bring them to the screen in a funny yet respectable way. It also has a lot of cute cats.
A Whisker Away is a fantasy coming of age story
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about a 15-year-old girl, Muge, that has the ability to turn into a cat after buying a mask from a magic cat salesman. Unhappy, due to her parents’ divorce and living with her subsequent stepmother, she uses her newfound powers to secretly spend time with her crush Hinode, a young boy pressured to get into a prestigious high school, when he really wants to follow in his grandfather’s steps and work on pottery.
Let’s start this review but talking about the most divisive aspect of the film: the main character. The best way I can describe Muge is; damn she thirsty. She wants this boy and she wants him now. She puts all her energy into what I can only refer as irritating him into submission. She’s full of energy and is extremely driven to the point of jumping of buildings. With that being said, the film makes it fairly apparent that this is all at least in part an act to hide her own insecurities regarding her family. She secretly has trouble dealing with her family life, telling her father, mother and stepmother what she really feels and likewise telling her crush what she feels outside for her feline other self. Like most people her age, this often comes out in her acting kinda passive aggressive or overly bombastic depending on who she’s with and then getting pretty sulky when she’s alone.
Chances are you’re either going to find her funny and enduring or annoying and whiny. That’s really up to you as a person and how much you can tolerate adolescent energy I suppose. I personally found her pretty charming in all her quirks. The scenes with her as a cat we’re funny and seeing her interact with Hinode in this form was cute, but perhaps that because I have a soft spot for cats. She never goes too far to become frustrating and the film is able to convey her thoughts in a flawed but understandable in way that took me back to the times I had similar outburst of silliness or angst when I was in my early teens.
I similarly found her love interest, the quiet Hinode to be a fairly fun character. He starts of as the fairly typical stoic guy to contrast the hyper girl that inhabits these kinds of romanic comedies, but he has some decent development. The central theme of the movie is the two leads not being able to state their feelings not only to each other but the people around them. For Hinode this is the inability to declare his wishes to his overbearing mother. I feel this is handled quite well. As a child its quite hard to talk to parents if you fear you’ll be scolded for disobeying them and feel obligated to do what they want. By the end, Hinode has learnt to find the confidence in himself to follow through on his decisions, which in turn allows him to confess his true feelings to Muge. Overall, I thought the relation between our two leads was sweet but also had a surprising amount of nuance.
The side characters don’t get quite as much to do but I want to give special props to Muge’s stepmother; Kaoru. I feel the film gives a good representation of her difficulties in being a stepparent; feeling she want to support this child that has come into her life child while also not trying to overstep your boundaries since she’s technically not their parent. We see Kaoru attempting to make a serious effort with Muge only to be blown off. It’s a hard-balancing act and Kaoru’s development shows these hardships in a more realistic fashion albeit still keeping within the film’s lightheaded nature.
The art style of anime is vibrant and colour full which helps with the films bright tone and adds to the feeling of magical realism, especially later in the movie when the magical part becomes far more prominent. If you’re a fan of urban fantasy settings of Ghibli films like Totoro or The Cat Returns, this will probably speak to you as well. It has that kind of playful enchantment that draws you into its world and makes you want to explore more.
As for the music, it carries the weight of the scene well with more relaxed melodies for the playful scenes of cat Muge bouncing around the roof tops and more ambient tones for the serious scenes. In particular, there are several scenes where the characters are about to speak seriously to each other and the build-up in music for these confessions very much adds to the intensity of the dialogue.
A whisker Away is a fun fantasy romance with some surprisingly insightful introspection about coming of age. It handles it two leads and their issues a charming way that balances the funnier slapstick gags and world of talking’s cats alongside slower scenes that do an admirable job at getting into the head of a couple of teenagers still trying to work out things within their lives and with each other. If you’re looking for fluffy cats with a side of teenage drama, this is a good one for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 5, 2020
Suda51, founder of developer Grasshopper Manufacture is one of my favourite figures in gaming. His punk sense of style and strange mixture of philosophy and dick jokes gives him a unique flavour even among Japan’s most quirky of creators. Unfortunately, not everyone of his projects has turned out the best. In the late 2000s Suda was working with a lot of western companies that definitely wanted to market his wacky Asian game maker status and not much else. One such work, ‘Shadows of the Damned’ was a fun third person shooter but lacked Suda51 more charming writing that went behind all the funny visuals. According
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to Grasshopper Manufacture’s official art-book, a lot of this was due to the publisher EA’s (of course), heavy tampering with project, including insisting it had to be a shooter. Suda would however eventually get to tell his vision of Shadows of the Dammed in the form of a twisted surreal manga called ‘Kurayami Dance’.
In his original interviews Suda says that his idea of Kurayami (later to become Shadows) was that of the protagonist exploring a castle town coveted in darkness, heavily inspired by Franz Kafka’s novel ‘The Castle’. This overview is more or less the gist of Kurayami’s plot. Young undertaker Wataru Kaido (later known as Wataru Kamikaze) is in a “hurry to live”. He attempts to drive a motorcycle passed 300 mph to experience life at its peak. The inevitable crash from this stunt leaves him in a three-year coma. When he wakes up, he finds the city, Houdou City, completely deserted as everyone now works in Castle City, a brand-new high-end walled off city town complete with a giant cylinder like castle in the middle. The next day his boss asks him to perform a funeral right at the top of the castle for the royalty, so he gets going. From here he meets a cast of strange characters as he ascends through the city.
The first thing to note about the manga’s is its great use of artistic ambience. The world has a surreal visual style reminiscent of German expressionism. Buildings are curved and distorted, and characters are framed at strange angle and occasionally drawn out of proportion to make them seem larger and more daunting. This creates an effect of making the world more imposing. In Houdou city, it further adds to the feeling of emptiness and isolation with no one inhabiting such large structures. On the other hand, the chapters in Castle City are packed with a large variety of people, shops, service stands, signs, etc. Characters are presented from closer shots confined in visible walls, creating a more claustrophobic atmosphere. If Kurayami was supposed to be a game about darkness, that certainly followed into the manga as well. The series occasionally will rely on darkened panels, similar to dark deco styles where white characters will be drawn on black background paper. It creates a dynamic contrast and adds to the sinister dreamlike nature of the Castle.
The plot has a very Alice in Wonderland like structure with our main character Wataru making his way up the tower and meeting a cast of eccentric personalities along the way. The writing is filled with Suda’s usual quirks. Characters weave in and out of deep philosophical thoughts, to modern pop culture references to low brow sex jokes within pages in each other but there’s still a steady flow between the dialogue. The manga knows how to make characters eccentric enough to spark the reader’s attention, but it’s executed in a more casual chilled out manner making it easier to digest the bizarre nature of conversations.
With that being said, some sections can come off as a bit too strange for their own good. Suda like’s his abstract, interpretive storytelling and it shows. The manga can jump between dreams and reality and strange imagery or character twists can seemingly pop out of nowhere. If you’ve played Killer 7 or watched something like Serial Experiments Lain, you’ll be more used to it but it’s not a style for everyone.
I will say though that underneath all the surreal imagery is an aspect of realism. The character still talks and act in ways that real people would (at least most of the time) and their relationships and character development feel genuine. An example of this is when a woman rescues Wataru, has lunch with him at a cafe and then demands he marry her on the spot. It seems crazy, but the manga gives time for both characters to explain their motivations and in a strange way, I could kind of see where they're coming from and even start to get behind it.
Looking at broader topics, the manga combines Kafka’s themes of vague yet draconic bureaucracy and the crushing effect that it has on people’s psyche with recurring themes of Suda’s work like death, individuality and society. The people in the Castle City take death very lightly. They are willing to kill themselves over the most minuscule of misconduct and those that do die can be easily replaced with another ‘Tanaka’. When combined with the closed in feeling of the castle, it’s a pretty obvious but effective metaphor for the machine-like nature of the Japanese work force and disposability of those deemed inefficient. The manga outright says that the people working in the castle feel like they’re already died and that their current life is more like a ‘bonus’ check.
All of this clash with the views of our main character Wataru Kamikaze who is defined by his need to feel alive. As an undertaker, he deals with death daily and feels that he has to live life “in a hurry” meaning to experience everything he possible can. His hobby of high-speed motorcycle racing only further fuels his need to push himself to feel as alive as possible, since of course: when do you feel more alive than when you're closest to death. As the story continues this idea is tested by those living within the tower, leading Wataru to rethink his ideals and come to new conclusions about the relationship between life and death. He's also just a fun, witty straight man. Watching his snarky dialogue with luchador doctors and killer mascot assassins is entertaining to watch and presented in a comic but accessible fashion, once you look passed the madness of the context.
It is important to note that Suda himself worked as an undertaker before moving into game design. As such, the subject of death and playing with death without thinking of the consequences are seen throughout a lot of his games but Kurayami Death is probably where he’s gone the most in depth about it. It’s a strange little story filled with strange visuals and characters but like all of Suda’s best work it has meaningful writing and heart underneath. The characters are quirky but still down to earth enough to be likeable and the themes are well delivered even if a bit on the nose. Not all of it will make sense but I think that’s part of the fun with artsy farsty surrealist manga. If you’d think you’d like to go on a dark dream like trip, this is a good one to check out.
Ps: Also, if you like Suda’s other work, there’s a ton of Easter eggs from his games in this one. Even a certain assassin shows up, it’s really cool.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 31, 2015
Tsukihime is a manga based on the visual novel, written by Koniko Nasu of Type Moon, the same guy who wrote Kara No Kyoukai and Fate/Stay Night. The series also takes place in the same multiverse of those other series. The visual novel came out in 2001 and and both the manga and the anime came out around the same time in 2003, and while the anime was a complete failure (to the point that the fan base made a meme of denying that it exists), the manga was brilliant both as an adaptation and as a good manga in its own right.
The plot is
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that after an accident that almost took his life, Shiki Tohno was left with the ability to use 'mystic eyes of death perception' that allow him to see black lines across all things and tracing across these lines will cause death. Due to the accident, he was exiled from his family but is now allowed to return eight years later by his sister, now that their father has passed away. On the way home from school, Shiki encounters a blond girl and in a sudden fir of insanity murders her. the next day he finds the girl alive again. She introduces herself as a vampire named Arcueid Brunestud and recruits Shiki to help stop the series of murders that are occurring in his city.
So basically our protagonist Shiki Tohno must team up with the vampire girl he murdered (I guess people don’t die if they’re killed) and discover out the mysteries of his family, find out more about his strange eyes and stop the large amount of vampire-like murders happening throughout his town.
The plot combines the horror and romance scenes very naturally. The mystery is interesting with some good plot twists. The lore revolving around the vampires also feels fresh and creative but still respectful of the traditional legends. The manga does get more complicated as the plot unveils however it does a good job of presenting new themes and concepts, in fact out of all the Type Moon works, this is the series that’s probably the most normie friendly. It doesn’t incorporate some of the more overally complicated themes of the multiverse (like the exact way that magic works in this universe, and who can harness it, and why they can harness, and why normal magic is different from true magic and etc etc) but still has enough depth to keep people looking for more drama and world building happy.
The art is good. In the beginning it can be a bit average but it gets better as the manga goes on. I have to commend how versatile it is, being able to portray the characters as cute when needed in the more slice of life parts, while still capturing a lot of detail for the more gory fight scenes. At this point it should also be noted that the visual did have some (badly written) h scenes and there is a bit of explicit content in the manga as well as a lot of gore, so if your sensitive to that kind of stuff then this isn’t the manga for you.
The best part of the manga though, are the characters. Even with his generic as shit design, Shiki is a great protagonist with a surprising amount of depth beyond his ‘average high school guy’ persona. Due to his near death experience, he has a great appreciation for life. This may sound like a kind of stupid shounen “I can save everyone if I just believe in my self” attitude however with Shiki it works because he isn’t that kind of over-hyper idiot. He knows that terrible things happen and that his limited strength won’t be able to stop them but still believes that we should try to embrace living and push on despite the pain and his optimism becomes quite enduring as the story goes on. There is more to him than this though. He can be serious during the battles and even a bit snarky during some of the more comedic scenes, not to mention having a much darker and psychotic side that gets worse as he interacts more with the supernatural.
What’s even better though is our main girl, Arcueid Brunestud, the titular Tsukihime who pretty much steals the show in a cast of already great characters. She is a great main heroine with a cute design and a great personality. When in battle, she plays the part of the traditional badass, elegant vampire but outside of it, because of her little experience with the outside world, she’s often bouncy, and energetic making her incredibly entertaining to watch. As her character develops, it also shows a more tragic and dangerous side to her character. This gives a large sense of urgency to the manga and really gets the reader to sympathize with her struggles between her bright personality and her vampiric nature. Her interactions and eventual romance with Shiki are especially good, ranging from funny to genuinely heartfelt.
The other characters are also good although they get less screen time. These mostly consist of Shiki’s sister Akiha and his senpai Ciel (heroines in other routes of the vn) who play important roles later on and are quite likeable and well developed. The main villain is also very unique and has a personal relationship with both main characters which helps to add to the mystery and tension. Also Shiki’s standard protagonist pervy best friend is a total bro, even if he’s basically non-existent for the second half of the manga.
Overall, even if your not interested in Type Moon, I still highly recommend this manga. It has great characters and an interesting plot filled with a good mix of action, horror and romance. While the visual novel does expand more on some of the characters, this is still one of the best adaptations of a visual novel I’ve seen in manga and anime alike and can be enjoyed by both fans and newcomers. It's personally one of my favourite manga and hopefully you might enjoy it as well. 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 25, 2015
Please note: This will be a review of only the first season of Yami Shibai.
Horror is something that seems hard to truly do in anime. That’s not to say that there aren’t any good horror anime out there however I find that there are few horror anime that seem to be legitimately scary. When I say this, I mean anime that can successfully keep the viewer on edge when watching them through sound and atmosphere, instead of just dumping lots of gore and yanderes into the show and having the characters give psychotic smiles every now and then (looking at you Elfen Lied and Future
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Dairy). Yami Shibai: Japanese Ghost Stories is one of the few anime I’ve seen that gets the Horror atmosphere right and while not perfect is a unique group of shorts that give some good creepy tales.
Yami Shibai is a series of 13 episodes all of which are three minutes long. The episodes consist of one-shot ghost stories that take place in modern Japan based on ghosts from Japanese folklore. The anime is based on a form of Japanese storytelling called Kamishibai. These were moral based stories stories drawn on paper scrolls that Monks would tell to a mostly illiterate audience. In modern times, Kamishibai is still conducted to tell stories to young children. The opening of each episode actually starts with a Kamishibai storyteller calling children over to him to tell them the story of the episode.
Each short focuses on a different short story with different characters and settings. These can range from a story about a haunted videotape to a man being trapped on an unknown floor of a shopping mall; my favourite though was the short about a ghost haunting a school printer (only because it proves that those things are evil). If these scenarios sound familiar, it’s because they are, all of them are heavily based on old urban legends and if you watch a lot of anime or read a lot of creepy pastas, they’re going to seem familiar. That being said, that seems to be the point of the anime, the stories are meant to seem like ones you’d tell to a group of friends around a campfire, which makes sense as the anime puts the stories in the context of being, well, stories being told to children. Most importantly though, the anime does a really good job at making these familiar stories still seem creepy. It was one of the few anime were I really did feel a bit tense as the episodes went on, even when I could predict what was coming next. It does a really good job building dark and eerie atmosphere that can really get under your skin and while there were a couple of dud episodes that weren’t that scary, the majority succeeded. Some people might complain about the extremely short length but in my opinion it was the perfect length for these kinds of short stories, it’s enough time to set up a scene but not so long as to let it start dragging on.
The animation is also quite interesting. Being based on the Kamishibai paper scroll artwork, the anime tries to emulate this using stylised cut outs for the characters. While I can see some being turned of by the lack of fluidity, I personally really liked this; it’s unique from other anime and adds authenticity of the anime further giving it the feel of being a story. My only real complaint is that some of the ghost's designs look a bit too similar, like be prepared to see ghosts that look like the girls from The Ring/The Grudge in at least 4-5 episodes.
Sound wise, there aren’t any real standout tracks but the music does help to set the atmosphere for the show and lets the audience know when all the really bad shit's about to happen. The opening has no song but strangely enough the ending is a dubstep song featuring Hatsune Miku. The song itself is kind of mediocre and sounds a bit out of place but I guess it’s meant to calm the audience’s nerves down a bit after the episode.
Yami Shibai is isn’t a masterpiece of anime nor is it truly innovative but the episodes are good little shorts with some familiar tales and a unique art style that can easily satisfy you if you’re in the mood for a spook, especially with Halloween coming up. There only three minutes long so it’s not like your wasting much time either.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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