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Dec 23, 2024
I find it difficult to write reviews for a lot of shows. Especially good shows like Chainsaw Man. This is because a lot of the time I simply have trouble articulating what it is about the show that makes it good, or there was nothing of note that stood out to me to talk about, or there's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. I have rewatched this show 3 times since it came out and I have never written a review about it because my praises seemed very cookie-cutter and would make for a boring review, both to read and write. Other
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than some wonky pacing, the characters are interesting, the world is solid, the animation is great, the action is great, it's creative, the mystery is enticing, the silent moments of just getting ready in the morning make for great characterization etc. But it wasn't until this recent viewing that I finally found what really stood out to me about this show: The themes of degeneracy. Now anime especially is no stranger to using sex as selling points for their shows. I mean just look at the unnaturally large breasts on every one of their characters. Or the entire ecchi genre. Having eroticism be a part of your anime has become the norm for the most part (for better or worse). But the degeneracy in Chainsaw Man is fundamentally different from almost all other anime. The way eroticism is used is something that I haven't seen much of anywhere else, anime or live-action.
Lust makes you do some really stupid things. This is something I think we can all agree on. We date the wrong people, we rely on the wrong sites, we look at people the wrong way. Lust can be a source of ego, of desperateness, of depravity. If honed in a healthy and loving relationship it can be beautiful, or it can so easily spin out of control. Chainsaw Man is a show that is interested in exploring these Themes of lust and eroticism. It's depraved nature isn't just so they can sell their content and make waifus, it is a genuine interest in the topic, and it is explored phenomenally. Denji is a horny boy, just like we all were (or are), and everyone around him uses this to take advantage of him. Denji's devotion to his lust is a bit cartoonish, but isn't unrealistic for a 16 year old boy. At that age, sex is just as, if not more important, than every other aspect in your life at that time. It's around this time where many kids are finally able to indulge their curiosity and make mistakes. Denji who now has his ordinary life wants the forbidden fruit. It's that kinship to the main character, when I remember the time I thought along those lines as well, that makes his stupidity that much more retrospective. Denji's motivations may seem silly and funny, but thematically, they make perfect sense and are the reason for his web of manipulation and eventual downfall (I'm assuming, I haven't read the manga).
This perpetual horniness is of course what makes all the women in his life take advantage of him, which is another side of eroticism we don't see much of. Denji is a serious victim and I'm only assuming it gets worse and worse throughout the manga (certainly seems that way based on the Reze trailer). Of course there's the obvious seduction tactics that Makima uses to place Denji under his control, but Power and Himeno take advantage of him just as much. In case you forgot, Power literally tries to kill Denji using her tits as a lure. That scene where Himeno almost drunkenly rapes Denji is genuinely uncomfortable and made me have extremely mixed feelings on her for the rest of the show. I just couldn't get myself to like her after that scene. The way Denji pledges himself to all these different women who take advantage of his lust is extremely disturbing to think about, and were this show not from Denji's perspective where all of this is awesome, we would look at these characters extremely differently. Especially after taking into account that he's underage and they are adults.
The reason I really wanted to bring up this topic is because it is a subject matter that I wanted to focus on in a future project. Maybe not the sexual manipulation portion, but the lustful curiosity of teenagers, the stupidity that comes with it, and porn addiction. These are all very sensitive and uncomfortable topics, especially in America. But it's because these discussions are so rare that teenagers in America are so poorly equipped to deal with these feelings, leading to bad decisions that will follow them the rest of their lives. This is always a difficult topic to focus on in the media because then you have to somehow show lust and sexual desire with teenagers without being pedo-bait. That's why Chainsaw Man is so impressive to me. It handled a lot of these taboo themes perfectly and I can't wait to watch the rest of it. Or read the rest of it, whichever comes first.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 28, 2024
A review coming from someone who has never seen the original series and doesn't even like basketball. This is a masterclass in filmmaking. Starting with the animation. Of course, I'm sure you've already heard how stylistic, smooth and phenomenal the animation is; it is one of the best looking clashes of 2d and 3d animation styles I've seen, so much so it was hard to tell at times what was cgi and what was traditional animation. But what really stood out to me about the animation, was how it uses the merits of animation to pull off camera movements that are simply not feasible in
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Live-action. The way the camera weaves, ducks, dives, pans, tilts and zooms all in smooth drawn out sequences to really put us in the middle of the action with the characters was simply breathtaking. Those sequences, as complex and as close to the characters as they are, is only possible with animation, a camera cannot capture those movements that well. Maybe one shot like that, but it takes tons of planning, rigging, blocking and money and is simply not feasible to make a movie where most shots are this complex. But with animation, the limitations of the camera are shattered. It's a breath of fresh air to see an animated movie, especially an animated movie that has no fantastical elements, use the merits of being animated to this extent.
The sound design was also incredible, showing a surprising level of restraint in what needed sound and what didn't. By blocking out certain sounds in certain moments to emphasis the importance of certain actions, it creates a very focused narrative and adds to the hype. And I'm not just talking about moments where they mute the sound or choose not to have music, but choosing when you hear the crowd or how loud they are, or how heavy the breathing is; instead of having all of these elements play all at once, they masterfully choose the right moments and volume to create a narrative with the audio.
The writing and editing go hand in hand for this movie. Now, I know the anime, and by extent the manga, did most of the heavy lifting for this movie, but the way the editing process stitched the story together is simply stunning. While I'm sure the manga gives ample time with each character, having never read or seen that, this story was still able to give me the nuance of every character with just their facial animations, very restrained flashbacks, almost all of which connect to the main character and progress his story, and it was enough for me to get invested in every one of them and see their growth. Unlike most anime, where every backstory and motivation has to be explained to us like we're fucking toddlers, this movie gives us just enough to piece together these characters and allows us to experience their nuance and make out own assumptions, without interrupting the pacing with pointless exposition.
All of this is the power of editing. I have never seen the show, but I know they changed the main character, so I don't have much so say on that, but I think his story and his framing device for the other characters was genius. But of course the most difficult part of this movie was always going to be balancing the emotional core of Ryouta's backstory with the action of the game. Unlike most sport movies, all of this movie takes place over a single game, intertwined with flashbacks to the characters stories. Balancing these two aspects, making it seem like neither one interrupts the other abruptly, or making it so we are just waiting for the scene to be over to get back to the action, or the drama, is an incredibly difficult feat. But this script is so tight and the editing is so well paced, that I hardly even noticed the transitions between scenes. It all just flows so damn well culminating in of of the most hype inducing, surprisingly subtle, emotional and pure spectacle of a film that I am just left in awe.
Shit made me want to watch basketball and I hate basketball. Maybe I should watch more sport animes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 22, 2024
(Updated review because MAL doesn't let you make new ones for some reason.)
Original Review:
You know, I don’t really mind when a show divulges (or better yet evolves) from its premise, even if it was character based. Of course as the character grows, motivations change and the circumstance changes with it. Like in Love is War, the whole premise is trying to get the other to confess, but when they get together, that premise is gone, but still because of how the characters were developed, there was still a lot more story to tell. The premise evolved and changed. That is a good series. But I’m
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sorry, you cannot just forget your premise of, oh yeah, your main character planning the murders of his classmates! Like seriously, this kid is actually fucking deranged, carrying around a box cutter waiting for the perfect moment to kill people. That is the actual premise of the show. A loner who plans to murder people falls in love. And the show just glosses over it. He’s just added onto the pile of loners who get with the popular girl but like… This kid was going to kill people, you can’t just pretend that didn’t happen! This show makes him seem like just another loner character, but other loner characters are just sad and unconfident, not psychotic. Basically you’re just supposed to forgive him and feel sympathy for him because now he’s in love. Even though there was literally a moment where he was about to stab her before chickening out. What the actual fuck? And the girl isn't even all that. She has 3 character traits: she’s ditzy, she likes snacks, and she has big boobs. Her big boobs are one of her 3 personality traits. Did I forget to mention she’s in middle school? The more I think about this show the worse it gets. I mean if you want to make the argument saying it’s a statement on how tragedies including loners who snapped could be avoided, then I’ll say, do you really think this show is smart enough for that? Be real. I don’t think anyone has ever actually made that argument, but now that I think about it, that’s the only way this premise could work. But that takes smart social commentary, a focus on his murderous intentions and the reasoning behind them, and a full character evaluation on both the protagonist and the love interest. This show is not smart enough for that.
Updated Points:
This is a review I wrote casually and I wasn't expecting it to get the attention that it has, and because of how nonchalantly and somewhat jokingly I wrote it, I have gotten a lot of angry comments complaining about my review. So I thought I might press my point and address theirs.
The main argument my somewhat angry fans pointed out to me was his murderous intentions were never meant to be a focus and were never meant to be taken seriously. What I'm assuming they meant was his thoughts of killing people were meant to highlight his isolation and loneliness, therefore emphasizing the impact the heroine has on his life. Following that line of thinking, my point of them abandoning his delusions early on is nonsensical because from the moment she enters his life, his loneliness diminishes and so does his desire to kill. It's a progression of the story and his character and not an oversight or lack of competence by the writer.
My response to that is, what kind of deranged or dethatched people think that murderous fantasies of people you know is a normal response to being a loner? Maybe I'm wrong because I was never what you would consider a loner, I always had at least one friend. However, lets look at what his fantasies are supposed to represent. Our main character feels like he doesn't belong. No one has reached out to him and because of that he has grown increasingly jealous of people around him. With this, a person can go two ways. Either blame it on themselves and have extreme low self esteem or blame it on others and grow spiteful. Our MC is the latter. So now he's spiteful of his classmates for having friends and a 'normal' life and is enraged at seeing their happiness. I understand this.
However, in no time during this did his classmates ever act malicious towards him. They might have pointed out that he was a loner, but as far as we know from this season, the MC hasn't been bullied or threatened, or even excluded on purpose (maybe, it's been a while since I've seen it ngl). My point is his murderous intentions aren't out of response to some severe stimuli, where he feels murder is his only option, it is a result of nothing but jealousy.
And the argument that it wasn't meant to be taken seriously doesn't work either. We, as an audience, know that he, deep down, doesn't have the guts to do what his delusions are telling him to do. We know that he's not gonna kill. But the protagonist has convinced himself he is. And he's prepared. And he carries a weapon with the intent to use it. I mentioned how he planned on killing the heroine at one point. We know he's not going to, but he thinks he's ready to do it, only chickening out due to a lack of guts, or willpower, or maybe some part of goodness in him. But the fact remains that he believed himself capable of killing her. And she had done nothing wrong to him. In fact, she had been nothing but kind to him up till that point. That takes a deeper level of hatred then just jealousy in order to get to that point, and if it's not that, then something else is going on mentally to get him to that point.
The writer never addresses this, never explains how he got to that point and never intended to use his murderous intentions as part of his story. Notice I said murderous intentions instead of fantasies, because the moment he brought the knife, it became an intention. My point was, that his 'bloodthirstiness' was nothing but clickbait to get peoples attention and a mark to differentiate his character from the other thousands of loner characters. The writer never wanted to write a character with deep rooted problems, or show his character in deep distress, because he just wanted to write a romcom. Perhaps he was too afraid of his Protagonist being too unlikable, but buddy, that's the point of writing stories. Those fantasies are real and dangerous, and to use it as clickbait for your story is both lazy and disrespectful.
I stand by my original opinion. Also the other complaint I got was I called the heroine bland but like, dude, I'm not gonna argue over your fucking middle school waifu. I didn't care for her, I thought it was kinda funny so I added it to the review. My bad.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Oct 14, 2024
This is like an Anti-Totoro. Where that movie had me smiling the entire runtime, this movie had me crying the entire runtime. It is the greatest Tearjerker of all time. But that's also my biggest flaw with the movie.
Grave of the Fireflies is a 'Tearjerker', a movie that is designed to make you cry. And while it is very successful and made me cry like a little bitch, it's also the only Ghibli movie to actually feel like it's making an active attempt to make me cry. Now, I've cried at almost half the Ghibli movies I've seen, but in those instances I was simply
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overwhelmed by the film. This movie feels like it's almost cheating into making me cry. Like I'm obligated to. Like this is some of the most depressing events in a movie, what am I gonna do? Not cry?
This is why I have a distaste for tearjerkers in general. Most of them (not all) are very lazy in their emotional manipulation. Like, and I hesitate to even bring this up because it feels like I'm disrespecting this movie, but like Marley in Me. The only reason that movie is considered sad is because (spoilers ig) the Dog dies. But people cry every time a dog dies, that movie did absolutely nothing to deserve those tears and it is one of the most lazy fucking movie I've seen. A sad thing happens and so you are forced to be sad. This barely ever works and people are too quick to say a movie is amazing because it made them cry. Like no, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is not good stop fucking saying that.
To be clear, I am not calling Grave of the Fireflies lazy. In fact, I think this is still an amazing movie. This is still a compelling, nuanced and thematically rich piece of art that deserves every tear I shed. It is leagues above any other tearjerker movie and most movies in general. What I'm saying is that throughout the entire movie, I could just feel the intention breathing down my neck and it felt like the only reason for this movie existing was to make me sad, which made the movie feel one-note and slightly bland.
Now this is a nitpick, I still love this movie, I am complaining in Ghibli Standards which is far above any other standard I have for any other studio. It's still a 9/10. I used this more of an excuse to complain about Tearjerkers and emotionally manipulative movies (fuck you Boy and the Striped Pajamas).
Also, Goddamn, that last shot alone almost made me give this movie a 10/10, not gonna lie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 9, 2024
Why does it seem like anime studios don't put in any effort into their shows? This is actually an anime that I've read the manga for first and really enjoyed. I loved the characters and they actually have great chemistry for once. I don't know why but for some reason in anime romcoms, the writers are so hellbent on focusing on how to force circumstances onto their characters to progress their love, that they forget to make them actually have an interesting relationship. Like these two characters are a really fun duo. You believe their romance because you see their friendship first. They play off
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of each other well and have a trusting relationship that is fun to watch, and it's because we see how much fun they have together that we root for their romance. It may just be my ideals from the American culture in which I grew up, but I prefer relationships built on enjoying the others presence more than emotional residence. Anyways, I love the characters and I really loved the premise of acting out a harem. It's cute, charming wholesome and just a good time.
So, why the 3/10? You see, I was talking about the manga. Now, what I'm about to talk about is not one of those "the manga was better" spiels (even though it was). The biggest issue I have with the anime is the fact that the 10-page chapters that the manga had, where it was just focused on one sort of gag a chapter (kind of akin to American comics like Calvin and Hobbes) does not translate well to the cinematic format. These are not episodes of a show. They are five unrelated circumstances that have the same characters, mushed together jarringly into 20 minutes. It is a series of gags, not a story. This worked for the manga because of how manga is formatted. Where it takes like 2 minutes maybe to read a chapter in the manga, it takes 5 for it to play out in the anime. It does not work for anime. Why is Japan so insistent on just copying the manga verbatim?
Now that kind of series of gag show can work. Nichijou is amazing and it does the same thing. So does Saiki K. But those work because their gags are short and there is enough variety that it remains interesting. This show only has two actual characters and each segment of the episode is 5-6 minutes. As much as I love these characters, these unrelated string of 'things that happen' is not engaging enough for a 20 minute episode.
Why can't they make an original story, with the same characters, the same premise, the same humor? Just add a story. That's all you need to do to make this show great. Deviate from the manga and make a story that fits into the 12 episode run-time. The whole manga is based around the Drama Club, right? Why not make a story about them going through a troubled production, or just give us a sense of time progressing like Horimiya? Add new characters, add emotional depth, as long as you keep what made the manga so great (the chemistry and the humor), we won't complain. I am asking as a fan of the manga, to not just copy and paste, but do something with the source material so it can fit the anime medium. But they would never do that. Because making an original story takes effort and risk.
Also, the score sucks ass. What's with this goofy ass music. The score should enhance the experience not distract from it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 20, 2024
This is a show that I feel bad for not liking that much, because the biggest issue I have with it, really isn’t this show’s fault. And that is the animation. Now I’m not going to bash a show for a poor budget, nor am I going to praise a show just because the animation is good. But with this show in particular, the jokes just fall completely flat due to the lack of energy the animation has. All of the jokes are told so simply and directly that, even though they are hilarious and the cast of characters are amazing, they just are presented
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in a way that feels like they didn’t care about the jokes. Which I know isn’t the truth. The jokes lack energy. The build-ups aren’t built up enough and the reveals and payoff aren’t shocking enough. Just take a look at their jokes and imagine if it was told with the same animation of something like Mob Psycho or Nichijou. Kineshi’s enthusiasm and pumped-up fiery spirit would be so much more dramatic and pronounced, making his failings be that much more impactful when the punchlines come in. Saiki’s crazy powers would finally feel overpowered and amazing, which would clash wonderfully with his actors deadpan deliveries. As it is, it feels like a powerpoint presentation of a bunch of jokes the writer thought of. It is funny, but not nearly as funny as it could have been if it were given the proper budget. Presentation is just as important as the content itself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 1, 2024
Why is it that almost every show I tried to watch this season had the most abysmal pacing I've ever seen. Absolutely nothing happened in this season and the final episode was nowhere near earned. Each season seemed like it was increasing in threat, building tension and ramping up the stakes with a (somewhat) consistent momentum. Then this season happens and that momentum comes to a complete halt just so they can show off all the Hashira that they didn't have time to actually use I guess. Then after you've had an episode with everyone lets just skip to the finale. I once described this
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show as an impossible endless gauntlet where every threat feels impossible to beat, but then they get even more powerful. That's why I loved the show, despite its (very apparent) flaws. Last season took a notable step back in how threatening the demons were, but now this season, which had no actual battles and seemed more like a shitty comedy, all tension and investment I had in the series is gone. There was no build-up to the finale, they just said 'ok I don't want to write this anymore, lets just cut to the end'. If they don't want to write it then why should I want to watch it. Also by the look on his face in the last episode, it seems Zenitsu is over his problems or whatever which is complete bullshit and also unearned but maybe I'm wrong (I hope to God I am).
But to give credit where it's due, the animation is absolutely stellar and the mansion blowing up was fucking cool as hell. Last episode still sucked though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 13, 2024
Delicious in Dungeon really does just feel like a good game of Dnd. Not only in the wildly creative world and unique ways of fighting enemies, but in brilliant way that the show shifts between its widely different tones. On one hand, you have the advertised fun comedy of a ragtag group of colorful individuals bickering as they face off goofy adversaries and cook weird meals that we can only dream of. This is exactly what you’d expect. The monsters aren’t anything unique, there just the classic fantasy monsters straight out of Volo’s guide. However, the way they are portrayed and thought of as realistic
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creatures part of an ecosystem, it both fleshes out the Dungeon and the world they inhabit, as well as creates unique fights where they way to defeat them is more creative thinking than overpowering them, just like any good game of dnd would be like. I know I keep mentioning Dnd, but that’s what this show reminds me of. It’s the same kind of fun. Just rolling dice to beat the enemies is boring, so players will try to come up with fun ways to fight enemies or target weaknesses on enemies more powerful than themselves. This show is engaging because every episode is like that. A creature appears and they have to come up with a unique way to figure out its weakness and get the better of it, then come up with a equally unique recipe to match the creature, which is something I can see players just talking about for fun while the Dm just sits back and laughs with them. This just feels like a campaign with a really good Dm and it makes me want to get back into the game. And therein lies this shows greatest strength. Because they’ve developed that kind of routine, these kinds of fun characters that we actually learn to care about and a world fleshed out enough that we care about the mission and the outcome, when this show takes a dark turn and takes itself seriously, it doesn’t feel like emotional whiplash or two identities fighting over the same show (like Re:Zero), it feels like a natural progression of the story. Like you’ve had your fun, but now we’re in the actual mission. But even in those moments, the characters, while emotionally distressed and invested, they never lose their charm and still fight in unique ways, making it so the show can seamlessly transition between serious and goofy scenes without risking losing that investment and sense of urgency. Just like a good game of Dnd. Some sessions are funny but when shit goes down, good players will take it seriously, but still have fun with it. Just like the showrunners are doing. The drama and characters are strong, the world is fleshed out, it's fun it's investing, it's a great show and I can't wait to watch more. It's a lot better than I thought it would be.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 12, 2024
Fable is the first anime I’ve seen where I have read the manga first (though not to completion) and couldn’t help but think to myself ‘people should just read the manga instead.’ And of course, I was appropriately disgusted in myself for thinking such a thing. But then it got me thinking about the nature of adaptations and the difference between western and Japanese approaches to adaptations of previously existing works. I’ve expressed my frustration about the predominant use of manga adaptations over original works that have taken over the medium before, but my frustrations have only grown in the handling of the adaptations. Japan
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(from what I’ve gathered) seems to hold the idea that adaptations should be a one-to-one exact replica of the original and fans get angry when this rule is not followed. However, I believe that adaptations should not strive to be a one-to-one match with the source material.
Manga and anime are two very distinct genres and should be treated as such. The first and very prevalent example of this is pacing. I recently started watching Fate/stay night (2006) and it was incredibly difficult to get into because it was obvious that the first two episodes could have been easily condensed into one. I was just waiting for the story to start as I watched scenes that could have easily been cut without changing anything. Keeping all of the same character intros, all the same world building and character building; with slight tweaks to events (that don’t matter at all for the Ordinary World) and tighter writing, you could have easily cut that down to 20 minutes and it would have been so much more engaging. And that is just minor adjustments. You can do that at a large scale in the story as well. What people fail to realize is, although giving plot and characters time to grow is important, which is what manga excels at, a tighter script will ultimately help investment in those characters. If someone has a huge character moment but then it takes 6 episodes for their character to have another character moment, then by that time, I have already lost investment in that character. With manga, you don’t have to worry about this. Each chapter is created as its own thing so they can be dedicated to certain characters or story beats. With a cinematic medium however, where lines between chapters are blurred, all aspects of the story have to be moving at the same pace.
To give an example to what I mean, I believe Horimiya (2021) is the greatest manga adaptation when it comes to pacing. Although I’m glad it did happen, I really don’t believe Horimiya Piece was necessary at all. This is coming from someone who loves the manga to death and enjoys every chapter. I am so glad they decided to tell the whole story in one season, because with that time limit in mind, they could narrow the story down and cause a greater emotional impact. By picking and choosing which chapters were important: what they could cut and what needed to stay, they controlled the pacing. And it’s not like they only chose chapters that had emotional moments. There was plenty of filler in the show, but that filler was also especially chosen. By opting to choose filler chapters, they gave the characters time to breathe, and for us to both enjoy their shenanigans and let us see the fruits of their efforts. What’s the point of Miyamura growing closer with people if we don’t get to see their dynamics? It helps with pacing, with the themes of high school and with the overall emotion that is set later. By seeing their friendships, when Miyamura reflects on his life, we have seen first hand that he is in a better place and we get that emotional resonance.
Now Horimiya’s chapters are more episodic than most but you can take that principle and use it on more long narrative shows. By choosing which scenes are important, which can be condensed, which can be rearranged to match with other scenes and what can be dropped entirely, you create a more balanced, well paced, tighter and overall a lot more engaging story. You don’t need to match the manga one-to-one. You can add scenes, you can combine scenes, you can take out scenes entirely to make it more cinematic, and enhance the anime experience. That is what anime can offer that manga cannot. Manga can be planned out, but it is written chapter by chapter. Anime can be written with the whole picture in mind, and the whole story laid out for them. I don’t mind rewrites as long as they serve to enhance the story. The whole last episode of Horimiya, with the “what would life be like if that one coincidence didn’t happen”, was an anime original. And it was one of the best scenes in the show.
I’m not asking to ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ it and change the story entirely, I’m just saying that you can change the story to better fit the medium. A good example of this is fight scenes. You can’t show action that well in manga so when you have a medium that can, use it. Let me see better choreography instead of the still frames in manga. You can do that. That’s why I’m loving Wind Breaker (which is coming out by the time of writing this review). Because the fight scenes are shown to us. That was one of my biggest issues with Demon Slayer; we just didn’t get to see the fights all that much. What we saw were still frames of peoples faces and them explaining the fights instead of just showing us. I don’t need characters to tell me the enemy is too fast when you can just animate that and show me. I understand it’s necessary in manga, but you don’t need that shit in the adaptation. If you’re just going to tell not show, then why make it into an anime at all?
That is a good question: why are anime adaptations made at all? Pretending that it’s not because anime is run by talentless hacks who don’t have the balls to fund an original story, anime is the stories of manga with voice acting, movement, color and music. With these additions however, and the severe lack of proper funding, a lot of the detail that made manga so captivating is lost. I understand why people say the manga for One-Punch Man or Death Note was better. Because when you read the manga you see how much effort was put into every panel. The details of the drawings are incredible and by reading it, you have time to appreciate it, instead of with anime where those shots are gone in a flash. There are pros and cons to each medium. So a good adaptation will have a reason to be adapted. A reason where adding movement and music and voice acting will outweigh the loss of detail and make up for the difference in pacing. The adaptation has to add to the source material.
Two great examples of this is Love is War and Food Wars. Starting with Love is War, not including the dramatic music and superb voice acting, the amount of original visual gags that they added enhances the comedy so much that it improves the jokes of the manga. Like the cowboy standoff in the 20 questions game. The reason for making it into an anime was because by making it a more visual experience, you can add to the jokes. It’s not watered down, it’s enhanced. With Food Wars, I will admit, I have not read the manga. But I cannot imagine it working in any other way than cinematically. Food Wars works because it embraces how batshit insane it is. The operatic music, the over the top voice acting, the visual flares all create an experience so surreal that I cannot imagine just reading it. It would not have the same impact. To add to that, the presentation of food is very important to its taste. So to try to show off these insane meals without color just doesn’t work. Food Wars needed to be an anime because, although it might miss some detail on the food, the need to enhance the dramatic presentation is so much more important to the story and the aesthetic.
Not all manga needs an anime adaptation. Going back to Fable (yeah this is still a Fable review) the anime is just a watered down version of the manga. Sure the voice acting is good, but the details of the faces and the environment that made the manga feel so grounded is lost in the anime. And the voice acting just doesn’t make up for it. The music is forgettable, the fight scenes don’t play a huge role in the story and they weren’t even animated that well (due to budgeting). The addition of color doesn’t add much because it’s not important and there are animation errors. The movement is stilted and the lines of the face are so obviously drawn that we lose the realism of human interaction. There was no reason at all to make this adaptation. You have to look at the merits of the source material and decide what can be improved by adapting it. The merit of The Fable magna is how grounded it is. The characters are drawn realistically instead of stylistically. Nothing is fantastical and it is drawn and written in such a way to make you think this could happen in the real world (to an extent, it is pretty goofy at times). So if you were to adapt it, how would you do it? Well, I would drop some plot lines, choose to focus on certain characters, tweak the story and make a Live-Action movie. With a movie the themes and narrative have to be extremely focused. You lose the realism in the anime, but it would be enhanced through Live-Action. I don’t think it’s necessary, but that’s the only way an adaptation of Fable could work. What we got, and I see now that is what many manga fans have been getting, is a watered down version of the source material. I understand now what those people mean when they say ‘you should just read the manga.’ All because of the philosophy that adaptations should be one-to-one copies.
Though those people who say that shit could stop being petty assholes about it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 29, 2024
Not including the filler episodes, there is like 3 hours of good story, stretched into 85 hours. It’s like a fucking Monopoly game that just will not end. There is so much wrong with this series that I honestly have no idea how it got popular in the first place. Maybe it was something like Psych where it only works with one episode a week and cannot be binged, but the difference is that Naruto is a narrative show with a linear plot, so any sympathy I had goes out the window. This easily has the worst pacing of any show ever. Half of every
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episode is just flashbacks. Whenever a character reminisces for motivation or a call back, they don’t play a line of dialogue or short exchange, they play the entire scene that the character is remembering, with no cuts. And usually they remember multiple instances so we get to sit through entire scenes that we saw like 2 episodes ago, one after the other. If a character reflects about their relationship with another character, we are about to see every single scene they had together up till that point. It’s like every episode is just a recap with 5 minutes of new (uninteresting) content. The characters talk way too much about nothing, repeating the same things over and over and stopping the fight or whatever they are doing just to verbally say what is happening. They focus on the most random shit that doesn’t have any plot relevance whatsoever and doesn’t lead to anything. There is some major shit going down like halfway though, but they keep cutting back to this dumbass kid who literally doesn’t do anything, but we had at least 30 minutes of just seeing what he was up to in the midpoint climax. In fight scenes you will have 2 minutes of them actually fighting and 20 minutes of them explaining how their moves work, what they are doing and what their plans are. And then the extra 30 minutes of internal dialogue explaining their motivations (not including flashbacks in this). Literally in the secondary climax, the two most powerful figures in the show are in a stalemate for like 5 episodes, not moving a single inch. It is a slog. You could watch the entirety of Attack on Titan twice in the time it takes you to finish this, and so much fucking happens in that show, and even that show has bad pacing. The themes are undercooked, the characters are so fucking bland and uninteresting and the plot is boring.
Naruto annoys the fuck out of me and always starts the fight in the same way and is always surprised when it doesn’t work, when literally the only time it did work was in the first episode. His ability really annoys me. His shadow cloning allows him to take any form and even disguise other objects. That is really fucking interesting and can lead to trippy and cool reveals throughout fights, like in the first fight scene which is easily the best. But he just never does it and every fight scene with him plays out the same. Sasuke really isn’t as interesting as everyone thinks and is just annoying. And don’t even get me started on Sakura. Everyone already shits on her but for good reason. The most useful thing she has done was get punched in the face for an entire episode (that was actually really funny though so I’ll let it slide). Her arc is realizing how useless she is and wanting to grow beyond that. Ok, you can do something with that. But then she just never does. She realizes this in like episode 30 or something but then never actually works towards her goal until the final episode that anything plot relevant actually happens in. The world building fucking sucks. I still don’t know why they call it the Hidden Village if everyone and their mom can send requests there. I’m still trying to figure out how the whole Hokage thing works and I have no idea how modern this world is. The magic system is so loose and stupid that they can literally do anything, and yet they don’t do anything cool or interesting. They have these characters move super fast but then get hit by the slowest moving attacks. The only good characters are Sasuke’s brother and the kid who just doesn’t give a fuck about anything that’s happening. The fake-out deaths are annoying, the character design is stupid, the humor gets on my nerves, everything is just lame. Why do people like this? I was determined to finish the series just so I can say that I have, but I just couldn’t do it. The filler episodes hit and the characters aren’t interesting enough to carry them. I still don’t understand why people like Hinata. I really wanted to like this show but the bad pacing, uninteresting characters, boring plot, unengaging fight scenes, poor world building, undercooked themes and unfocused narrative just made the whole thing feel like a major waste of my time. I should have just taken my friend's advice, quit and watched Better Call Saul instead.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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