- Last OnlineOct 7, 2024 10:13 PM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayNov 8, 2001
- LocationHidamari Sou
- JoinedApr 23, 2017
Also Available at
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Oct 11, 2021
Temper your expectations, because this isn't exactly the grandiose send-off that it could have been.
Labeled as "Episode 0", this is effectively a special prelude to Part 6 to commemorate the retirement of OG Jigen voice actor Kiyoshi Kobayashi. With the weight of a 50 year history with the character on its shoulders, you'd certainly hope for this production to provide something truly special. Its important to recognize however, that that's simply not what this is. At best, this is a perfectly "okay" Lupin episode that operates as a loose tribute mostly from behind the scenes. There's not necessarily a whole lot wrong with it,
...
but I personally feel as if its severely lacking in ambitiousness. I was really hoping that they would go all out for something like this, and aim for something uniquely gripping and sentimental, but its really just a pretty standard character episode with a couple of small nods relating to its underlying meta. The narrative effectively has Jigen considering retiring in-universe, followed by a series of dialogues between him and each main character, reflecting on their dynamics and relationships. It's a cute setup, and there are some fun moments and standout lines that do somewhat cement that sense of history and nostalgic sentimentality, but the fairly basic nature of the episode overall personally left much to be desired. Its also worth noting that the presentation is not especially that strong. This is a pretty massive downgrade compared to Parts 4 and 5 in the visual department, and is a lot more in line with what you'd expect from the generic mediocrity of the TV specials. The designs this time around feel perhaps a bit uninspired, leaning in this weird middle ground between the classic Part 1 designs and their modern counterparts, and the animation and art in particular are pretty wildly inconsistent, typically ranging from average/decent to outright bad. It does have its moments though, with occasional instances of moody lighting/compositing as well as some surprisingly interesting directing and editing moments. If nothing else, at the very least it demonstrates that it has some aesthetic potential, which I can only hope will be amplified in Part 6 proper. The music is about what you'd expect, Yuji Ohno is still pumping out absolute bangers.
Ultimately, it's a perfectly serviceable send-off, but just not much beyond that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
May 20, 2018
- - - [Land of the Lustrous : Review] - - -
- [Intro] -
Every so often there comes an anime that reminds me why I love this medium so much. The creative potential of animation is absolutely astounding. The types of stories you can tell are practically limitless, and I love seeing works that take full advantage of the medium that they're in to create something that couldn't work as well anywhere else. In a period when I was starting to feel fatigued by the same old formulaic series, Land of the Lustrous came along to wake me up.
- [Story] -
First of all, the storytelling
...
in this show is really something else. It admittedly starts out a bit slowly, but that's to be expected from a Fantasy series, seeing as they need to take their time to lull you into this unfamiliar world and how it works. Being only 12 episodes it does a fantastic job at giving you a feel for the circumstances of this universe and the characters that inhabit it, and provides just enough information for you to understand whats going on yet still be yearning to know more. The pacing is quite excellent, as plot points appear very often, and by the time they are resolved a new one has already arisen to keep you engaged. Of course, this is not a complete story, so the Season ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but there is a certain level of closure, per say. From the beginning, there's a clear underlying emphasis on the relationship between Phos and Cinnabar, and the promise that Phos makes very early on. (I cite the visuals of the ED as evidence) This comes full circle by the final episode, giving us at least some sense of "completion" while still leaving the big mysteries for a future season.
- [Art / Animation] -
Yes, this is a CGI animated show. Yes, many people have claimed that the CG is really good. Sorry for not being a contrarian, but I have to concur. If you have any hangups about CGI in anime, please put them aside, because the usage of it here is absolutely spectacular. It may be very jarring at first, and it definitely was for me, but when you get accustomed to it I think the style works really well, and they manage to accomplish feats that are simply not possible in traditional cel animation. To put it into perspective, what 2D animation generally aims to achieve is fluidity. The quality of animation is generally gauged by how smooth and detailed it is, with the artstyle obviously having an impact as well. In the case of 3D animation, however, making everything move smoothly is quite easy, considering that they are working with pre-built models that do not need to be drawn in every single frame. What it rather attempts to excel at is making it look "natural." The biggest reason most CG anime look so bad is because many of the movements don't look natural, and you feel like you're watching a bunch of robots waltz around on the screen as opposed to actual people. In this case, the characters aren't actual people, yet ironically they move and act as if they were. The blend of 2D and 3D animation is really something else. I have yet to even touch on the action scenes. They take advantage of the CG environments to pull of some seriously breathtaking fight scenes. The way the characters bound across the screen with the camera moving in an impossibly dynamic fashion sounds like it would be confusing and hard to follow, however it is executed in this case with extreme elegance. The action is always clear-cut and beautiful, just like the rest of this show.
- [Sound] -
The soundtrack is really something else. The tracks give off such a sense of surrealism and otherworldlyness. The originality and beauty of some of these tracks really enhance the more climatic and emotional moments. That's not even mentioning the fantastic OP and ED which are phenomenal both visually and musically. The voice acting is also just as excellent, with Phos being a particular standout. The way her VA is able to perfectly convey every single intricacy of her character's emotion with nothing more than her tone of voice is actually pretty amazing. The amount of personality in even just the small little noises she makes has resulted in compilations of "Phos Noises" videos. Overall, the sound in this series is, in every department, amazing.
- [Character] -
Regarding the characters, there's quite a large cast, though Phos easily takes the biggest focus as the main character. The level of growth and progression she recieves in just a 12 episode runtime, not to mention while simultaneously balancing the involvement of story elements and other characters appearing is pretty insane. You truly feel that she has come a long way from the wide-eyed, playful character she was at the start. This is true to such a degree that her character is almost unrecognizable, and it doesn't feel forced at all. I've seen 26 episode series miserably fail to achieve this with their main characters, so it's impressive to see it done so well here. Regarding the rest of the cast, they're all pretty great in their own right. Only a few other characters get much in the way of depth, but the little that is spread around is delivered pretty well, and the entire supporting cast is always a delight to watch, as every character is very distinct and entertaining in their own way.
- [Conclusion] -
Overall, I absolutely loved this series. It's such a breath of fresh air compared to much of what has been coming out recently. It's just so refreshing to see something with this much originality and care put into it. Everything from the interesting worldbuilding, the lovable characters, the exciting story, the beautiful music, and the dynamic animation add up to make Land of the Lustrous one of my favorite series in recent memory.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Aug 20, 2017
I recently binged the entirety of the Haruhi series, including this movie. The show itself I very much enjoyed, and found myself quite invested in the world and the characters that inhabited it. My enjoyment of the original series and the praise the movie had gotten may have somewhat influenced my opinion of it, however I can't help but feel that disregarding these biases, my review score would have remained stagnant.
Just as a note before getting into the details, watching both seasons of the original 'Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya' is ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED before watching this movie. I cannot accentuate enough how lacking and confusing this
...
movie would be to anyone unfortunate enough to view it unknowing of the original series.
First of all, I'd like to commend the level of detail present throughout this movie. It really does feel like this movie is the amalgom of all the events leading up to it from the show, with tons of events from it being directly referenced and important to the plot, with many nods and callbacks to minor details. KyoAni is known for their smooth and conistent animation, however when given the freedom to work with a movie, they turned that up to 11. The art and animation are absolutely stunning, with some great direction and cinematography to boot.
A gripe that some had with the show was the inconsistency of the characters, for lack of a better phrase. In particular, Haruhi being extremely unlikable and annoying at times. I personally didn't feel this way, but understand where others would make those claims. Fortunately, this film shows these characters at their best, with a particular focus on Nagato and Haruhi, while also doing a very good job of representing the rest of the main cast without anyone feeling majorly excluded, nor making it feel like a character has overstayed their welcome. Touching back on Haruhi's personality in this film, her abrasiveness from the show is pretty dormant here, being mostly replaced by the charming, endearing character she's always had the potential to be, with some especially heartfelt moments here and there.
To talk about the plot itself, I really enjoyed it. It does an amazing job at accentuating the lingering character dynamics and events that didn't really get touched upon in the TV show, most notably the infamous Endless Eight arc, which in retrospect I can greatly appreciate for it's artistic merit to really deliver the impact that this movie brings. There are also some very unforeseen plot twists along the way keeping things exciting, with certain events from the show becoming directly related to the movie's plot, making it extremely gratifying, feeling like a love letter to the original series.
I've heard people say that the movie is a bit slow at times, but I didn't feel that at all. The whole way through I was enamaored by the intracacies of the plot, directorial decisions, characters, and animation. If you've seen The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and even mildly enjoyed it, I'd consider this a must watch. If you disliked it, I'd still highly reccomend this. Honestly, even if you've never seen the original show, I might just reccomend you watch it solely for the sake of this movie. I don't typically rate the anime I watch. I honestly hate doing so, as giving an abstract numerical value to something just feels contrived. However, in this case, I felt the need to go out of my way to review this movie and give it a rating that I think should only be given to something that succeeds at everything it tries to do, and appeals to me strongly on a personal level. I feel like I'm overselling this, and I'd hate to do that, but in my opinion, this movie, coupled with the TV series, of course, is that for me. That is why I believe this movie to be something truly special. 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Apr 23, 2017
This show seems to get a fair amount of flak, that I personally find a bit unjustified. Yes, the fanservice is admittedly gratuitous and very prevalent, and yes, the characters and story aren't exactly deep, but that's not really what the show strives to be. When it comes to many shows like this, you usually always know that the main character/s will come out of whatever battle or confrontation they're in as the victor, however they will struggle a bit in order to add elements of tension. This show's main protagonists, in a show like this, are going to win regardless, so why hide it?
...
That's essentially the way the show is laid out. What makes this show worth watching is seeing how these characters and their stupidly high intellect will go about winning these games. If you're looking for something deep, you won't find it here. If you do, however, look at this show for just pure entertainment value, you may end up having a good time with it. This show revels in it's ridiculous, over the top nature, mixed with a batch of interesting games with varying crazy and amusing rulesets that provide much spectacle, with a particularly beautiful artsyle to boot.
If you want to get the most out of a show like this, I'd take it for what it is. Entertainment; which it delivers in spades.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
