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Feb 24, 2019
It is, for the most part, your typical high school rom-com spliced with a gimmick to make it stand out a bit. And it works really well for the majority of the series.
The monster/youkai girls are all like-able and even funny at times. They don't fall squarely into the stereotypes that are currently being abused by manga authors, ex: tsundere, yandere, delinquent, gyaru, though I have seen people describe them as having tom-boyish qualities, which I can kind of see. Personally, that's a bonus for me. Their tom-boyishness means that they're not quite as oblivious and sensitive as some other manga characters and call
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each other out on some bullshit, like when Ichijou calls both Kanoi and Itsuki out on their blatant feelings for each other. However, this doesn't mean that they are completely un-oblivious. Kanoi is probably the most oblivious and hesistant about pursuing her relationship with Itsuki. On the other hand, Itsuki, though also oblivious, can be surprisingly forward with his affection for Kanoi, which is incredibly refreshing for a manga of this type.
Kanoi and Itsuki have a good dynamic when they're in scenes together. Unlike other romance manga where two characters are supposed to be "childhood friends" but feel and act like incompatible strangers, the MCs in this story joke around with each other easily and can have comfortable conversations. The mangaka also doesn't shove the "childhood friend dynamic" in your face every five seconds. I've read so many manga where the only reason you even know that two characters are childhood friends is because one or both of them constantly remind the reader, "Oh yeah this is exactly like what happened ten years ago! You know because we're totally CHILDHOOD FRIENDS!!!" every chapter. In this manga, backstory shit like that is limited to flashbacks, which is a good thing in my book.
There will be SPOILERS from here on out, so skip to the conclusion if you don't want to see them.
So everything sounds good right, even if it's a bit boilerplate? It was good, and could've been really good, if the ending didn't fuck things up. Maybe the manga was unexpectedly cancelled, or maybe the mangaka wanted to move onto another project; I don't know, and I don't really care enough to look into it. All I know is that things were progressing at a great pace, until the last few chapters brought in the unnecessary drama of Itsuki's mom coming to drag him off to another city. In the midst of this drama, the mangaka teases a confession, only to have the manga end on a cliffhanger that resolves nothing and doesn't tell the reader shit about what will happen to any of the characters in the future. I'm inclined to believe that the manga was cancelled as that's the only reason I could think of an ending being this rushed and sloppy. It really fucks up what could have been an incredibly satisfying moment of reconciliation between Itsuki and Kanoi.
CONCLUSION: Entertaining characters, a few funny moments, good relationship between female and male MC, doesn't get too hung up on its gimmick. Unfortunately, all of this good stuff is damaged by an ending that is completely unsatisfying. Still, the first 75 percent of this manga stands far above most of the rom-com manga that I've read recently, which have been such absolute shit that I won't even bothered logging them in my MAL account. Give it a try if you don't mind a story that ends in the middle of an arc and leaves you with no closure.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 4, 2018
Jesus. I thought the general consensus that this was one of Ghibli's worst features would be an exaggeration, but that description is spot on. Usually I only do reviews of anime when I care enough to do a full analysis, but that isn't the case here. I'm just disappointed enough to write a quick summary, especially after seeing a flurry of reviews claiming that this movie isn't as bad as other people seem to think.
Even though I respect your opinion if you think that this movie is "good" or maybe even "great", having that thought after watching this movie is something that I find unfathomable.
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I think that Ocean Waves rightfully deserves the reputation it has and is one of the most aggravating film experiences that I've had to sit through in a while.
ART:
Nothing to critique here; typical early Ghibli style and charm.
SOUND:
The score is forgettable at best and off-putting at worst. Some scenes were coupled with undeserved orchestral swells that made moments feel even more artificial or exasperating than they already were. Voice acting was good for main characters but occasionally spotty for the supporting cast.
CHARACTER and STORY:
Here we go. If you don't already know this movie's reputation, viewers tend to hate the female lead, Rikako. I had seen this trend before watching the movie and was fully prepared to disagree with or at least criticize that line of thinking. "She can't be that bad," I thought. "Surely some people just don't understand her motivations or are blowing her personality out of proportion. Right?"
Boy was I wrong. Not only do I completely agree with this sentiment, but as of now, she is one of the most unlikable characters I have ever been forced to watch. I've seen non-villains and villains alike in movies, people who are antagonistic scumbags that have committed atrocities and all kinds of abominable actions, yet they all seem more human than the self-centered, deceitful, underdeveloped Rikako. As the movie goes on, she only continues to grow more inhuman, irritating and repugnant.
"But that's the point. This is a story of a girl tearing two best friends apart and the struggles of youth. That's why it's a drama."
Is that really the point though? Cause I don't think so, and it doesn't seem like the writers thought that either.
Romance is also listed in the tags, and that seems to be what the story is shooting for, especially with how the movie ends...except that no one in their right mind would find this movie romantic, nor is the romance given proper development or a conclusion. In fact, the romance doesn't even really begin, it's just implied within the last minutes of the film. If you tried to tell me that this was a romance movie before I looked at its Wikipedia and MAL pages, I would've laughed in your face.
The story and "romance" in this movie consists of Rikako being a selfish, manipulative, uncaring asshole and two guys falling in love with her anyway. Her motivations for being an asshole are cliche (you could probably guess them without watching the movie) and never justified. We are given some superficial dialogue about why she turned out this way and then the movie expects us to somehow forgive her for being such a terrible character, even when none of the reasons for her actions are resolved or acknowledged in a meaningful manner.
The two male leads are flat and one-dimensional. Not only do they have seemingly no reason to love her (besides the fact that she is attractive) but the movie doesn't even attempt for either of them to get close to her in any significant way. She uses Taku and then abandons him just as quickly. Yutaka tries to befriend her and fails miserably. This is somehow enough to make the friendship between Taku and Yutaka fall apart.
The movie's third act is short and pointless. Taking a walk together is enough to fix Taku and Yutaka's friendship. A reunion at a bar suddenly makes all the character's reveal how they've "grown" over their time in college, when really the only character that has developed in any way is an irrelevant girl that was barely in the movie. The rest of the them haven't changed at all. What's even more laughable is that after all the pain she's caused them, Taku realizes at the reunion that he still loves Rikako...for some reason (this is especially hilarious when the only memories that he can recall are of her being an asshole to him). What you're looking at is a movie where almost nothing happens, and what does happen is not justified or impactful in any stretch of the imagination. The melodrama is neither entertaining nor well-executed, and you will leave the movie wondering what the hell you're supposed to take away from this experience.
CONCLUSION:
A movie hasn't made me this upset in a long time. This is not a feel-good slice of life and it's also not a romance. It's a drama, and it handles that label with extreme laziness and ineptitude. Unlikable characters with nonexistent development. Meandering dialogue. No sense of direction. A rushed ending. I'm not sure if this movie has any positive aspects. What I am sure of is that this movie barely scrapes over the hour mark and it almost feels like two.
The premise is not inherently terrible. Watching a friendship deteriorate due to a manipulative person is a classic plot that could've been handled well, but it doesn't even feel like the focus of this movie; it's just something that happens out of the blue toward the end of the second act. But the romance doesn't feel like the focus of this movie either. So what the hell is the focus of this movie anyway? Rikako being an asshole? Yeah, pretty much.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 7, 2018
(This is gonna be a long and wordy review so skip to the conclusion if you don’t care about the justification for my score)
I’m honestly not sure where to start. I never expect anything directed by Masaaki Yuasa to be normal, nor do I expect them to be lackluster, especially with shows like The Tatami Galaxy, Kaiba, and Ping Pong under his belt. These previously mentioned shows are some of the best examples that come to mind when I think of anime that is wildly eccentric and experimental, and I find it incredible that they could embody such words without alienating the viewer or
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quickly losing their charm. From THAT Masaaki Yuasa comes an anime that is horribly uneven and unsatisfying
ART:
I was genuinely surprised that this series’ art could be so disappointing. Yuasa’s bread and butter is his crisp animation. Each of his series has a radically different art style, but most have a level of polish and absurdity that keep them incredibly distinct. Devilman Crybaby has those things too...occasionally. The first episode already had me convinced that Yuasa had “done it again” with the fantastic introduction of Akira and Ryou and the vivid colors of the Sabbath party. It wasn’t until sometime during the third episode when I realized that the quality of the art is terribly inconsistent.
At that point, I wasn’t even trying to critique the series, nor was I specifically watching for the animation quality to falter; it was bad enough for me to notice even when I wasn’t looking for it. I’m not that picky when it comes to the art style for most shows, and a lot of times drops in quality will fly right past without me noticing. What I do care about is Akira looking like an elongated extraterrestrial in one shot and Johnny Bravo in the next (and no, he hadn’t transformed). Once I noticed, I saw it everywhere. Changes in character designs, extreme lack of detail in certain shots, and choppy movements started coming to my attention quite frequently. The only scenes that were mostly exempt from these quality drops were the fights and close-up conversations. The rest constantly moved between passable and poor.
Even ignoring the inconsistency, there is nothing surprising about Devilman’s art outside of the grotesque monsters and gore. Fight scenes and demon designs are the only time that Yuasa takes any risks in the animation of the series, so it’s unsurprising that these things turned out very well (though the fight scenes have a lot of jump cuts and weird camera angles that sometimes obscure the action). However, this series also has its fair share of narrative, and any scene that didn’t involve violence or transformations was accompanied by shockingly dull art, save for a few beautiful backdrops of the city. Anything outside of the realm of demons and Sabbath parties was bland and forgettable, which is probably the most painful thing I have to say in this review.
I was only impressed with last four episodes, as there was some astounding art to go with the dark turn that the series takes. I just wish the art had retained this level of quality throughout.
SOUND:
Inconsistency hit this anime pretty hard in more than one spot. I often negate sound in my reviews because it’s one of those things that I forget to pay attention to, but as with the quality drops in the art, the sound effects were sometimes abysmal enough for even me to notice. And again, this was not a constant phenomena, but it also wasn’t a rare occurrence. Blood splats, movement noises and “impact/collision” sounds (not sure of the proper terminology) would jump between perfectly fine and low quality. If you want a specific scene as some kind of “proof” of my complaints, look no further than the bus scene from episode 4. The poor sound effects in this scene were enough to completely erase any sense of drama that it was supposed to create. I actually found myself sighing in disbelief.
I don’t have much to say about the music and voice acting. None of it, besides the mangled english, stood out as lackluster, so I guess that’s a plus.
CHARACTERS:
The characters are the one strong point that I have to acknowledge. Though they are often undermined by the pacing and tone (which I elaborate on in the story section) the main cast is quite likable and some characters, such as Miko, even receive a good bit of development. That being said, side characters are given little focus, which doesn’t fit well when Devilman tries to force us to mourn or sympathize with them.
The only weak point I can think of is how Akira was treated in the beginning. The series starts out by forcing Akira to go through a huge character change (his transformation into Devilman) before the viewer has a strong understanding of what type of person he is. We spend the rest of the series hearing about how much Akira has changed and having characters give their opinion on his development, but we have such limited knowledge of who he was before that we can’t make our own judgements.
STORY:
(WARNING: I am going to spoil the story. I have major complaints that can’t be explained without including spoilers, so skip to the conclusion if you care)
Okay, so the animation and sound effects are inconsistent. But a good story can still carry an anime. That’s all that really matters, right???...
Though I can understand this sentiment, Devilman’s story is a far cry from being its saving grace.
The tone is the main crutch of the series. It tries to create too many different moods, and never finds one to settle on. The first few episodes present a brutal, if somewhat tedious, action anime. This is followed by bouts of drama that never seem to fit with the absurd violence that permeates each episode. Finally, we have the execution of all of these elements, which tries to be sporadically comedic, tragic and surreal. This wouldn’t be a problem if they found a way to mesh all of these tones properly. Instead, the show leaps from one to another with reckless abandon and ends with its last four episodes feeling like an entirely different show. This is also a product of the pacing, which goes from meandering to fast paced at a moments notice and leaves important details in the dust.
It’s too dark to be taken lightly and too cheesy to be taken seriously. The result is some questionable scenes where I genuinely couldn’t tell if the dark comedy was intentional, and dramatic scenes that had little to no impact. “Akira’s parents are gonna die! Don’t you care??? Oh wait, all we’ve done is imply their relationship in previous episodes, so let’s just hamfist some sad dialogue and flashbacks to make you care about them.” Unlike Yuasa’s previous projects, which always seemed to have a heartfelt core, any attempt made by Devilman Crybaby to be heartfelt feels insincere and unnatural.
Devilman’s final quarter is a bleak and tiring affair. We are suddenly supposed to care that human lives are being exterminated, but since the very first episode, human death has been given no significance. You see dozens of humans get slaughtered within the first fight and zero portrayed consequences. Now we are shown a snippet of a funeral and Akira is complaining about innocent humans being killed in the crossfire, as if such events can even phase the viewer at that point. The death of background characters only seems to matter when the show wants it to, and at any other time they are simply fodder to decorate the quickly resolved action sequences.
Then comes the scenes that are meant to be the emotional climax of the series, however, it is too late for them to shock or sadden the viewer. Those last four episodes are filled to the brim with the deaths of so many important and unimportant characters that their suffering ceases to have any effect. The cast starts dropping like flies so quickly that their deaths feel utterly insignificant. It’s just gratuitous despair in the misguided attempt to dig some grief from the viewers, even though the bulk of the series has already passed at this point.
Failed attempts at emotional resonance and a tone that seems to be all over the place leaves this series feeling like a mess, and is dissatisfying no matter what angle you look at it from. If all you’re looking for is action, you will be let down by the short fights and an intrusive narrative. If you want a drama or something meaningful, you’ll find yourself distracted by Devilman’s inability to maintain a coherent approach.
The very last episode is a beautiful and otherworldly experience, one that I hoped the entire series would be like. However, a single episode isn’t enough to carry an entire show, especially one that feels like a monster hunter anime for six episodes, a dystopian movie for three, and ends with a monolithic bout that it did not properly build up to.
CONCLUSION (4/10):
This show was a huge disappointment for me and I’m perplexed by the overall reception that it seems to currently have. I tried my hardest to find things to compliment about it, and even then I couldn’t think of much. What I see is a series with major inconsistencies in quality and narrative execution. It almost finds its footing towards the middle, and then proceeds to miss the mark by a mile. The best thing that I can say about Devilman Crybaby is that it could have been worse, but as of now, it’s already a subpar outing no matter what genre you try to fit it in.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 20, 2017
Ping Pong: The Animation appears (on its surface) to be like any other sports anime, apart from it's beautifully weird art style. I don't watch sports anime at all really, and did not expect to like this show as much as I did. I now consider it one of all time favorites, and a near perfect exploration of character development.
I'll be honest, the intricacies of the sport are not the shining stars here, but rather how and why the characters wish to master them (as it should be, in my opinion). What makes this show so heartfelt and resonant is how heavily it expands upon
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its sympathetic cast, making their struggles feel like actual hardships that goes beyond petty rivalry.
Instead of one inhuman maniac playing against another inhuman maniac and the winner being the person that screams the loudest, each match in Ping Pong is carried by the tension between the characters' motivations. One problem that commonly arises in this and other action-y genres is the feeling that the story must constantly keep upping the ante. The techniques have to get crazier, the special moves have to get longer names, and the energy has to keep rising until it inevitably peaks and the story has nowhere else to go. While Ping Pong is occasionally susceptible to this, it avoids the bulk of this cliche by focusing on the characters' desires and backstories rather than the game itself.
Instead of having every shot centered on where the ball is going next, it is centered on the faces and movements of the players. The observers and sometimes characters who aren't even present for the match contribute just as much to the rhythm as the players. Along with this, imagery that relates to each character's thoughts or motivation commonly enters the shot and evolves as the match progresses. Then, once the match begins to reach its climax, we learn more about the character's backstory or something that adds to their personality. It's a great way to keep the matches, which take up a lot of this series, from feeling one-note and repetitive.
Ultimately though, Ping Pong is its most touching through the way it depicts defeat. The character's don't swear on their mother's grave that they'll come back twice as strong or anything pathetic like that. They are forced to face harsh realities that sometimes hit too close to home: thoughts of inferiority, debates about talent vs. experience, confusion about what exactly they're playing for, and even speculation that the sport has consumed them and made them lose sight of their own happiness. One side character gives up Ping Pong entirely and travels the world, yet even that fails to reinvigorate him. Only when he sees a very special match at the end of the series does he realize that there is beauty to the sport beyond self-satisfaction and discipline.
Ping Pong manages to be incredibly upbeat and feel-good while also juggling a few melancholy truths of existence. Even antagonists like Kazama are given understandable reasons to crave victory, some that have tragic roots in the past, yet they are presented in such a way that they feel realistic and natural. Anyone that seems flat and unlikable eventually grows to be a complex and amiable figure. Every game played is a stepping stone for the characters to develop and find out more about themselves, leading to some of the most moving and bittersweet moments that I've seen in anime. Ping Pong believes that everyone can "fly" in their own way, and that's a sentiment that rarely ever gets handled this well.
Seriously, watch it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 13, 2017
When you go into a movie holding unreasonably high expectations, it is rare for those expectations to be met. Even though I tried not to, I held unreasonably high expectations for this movie, and though it did not meet them, I'm glad to say that it is still a solid movie in its own right that stands above many other feature length anime films that I've seen.
Could anyone really blame me for holding such high expectations? The Night is Short, Walk on Girl is a film from Masaaki Yuasa, one of the anime industry's most creative and prolific figures, based on a novel by
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the author of the Tatami Galaxy, which was adapted into one of the best anime series ever made (by Yuasa himself, mind you). I don't think that you should decide a film's merits by comparing it to other works, but the comparison here is undeniable, considering that this movie shares the same setting and even some of the same characters as Tatami Galaxy. I feel compelled to mention that it never really comes close to the dazzling heights of Tatami Galaxy, or even some of Yuasa's other projects.
But that's okay. This is not a sequel to Tatami Galaxy, nor does it claim to be a spiritual successor (though it technically is when you consider all of the similarities). What it is is an entertaining, surrealist adventure, one that manages to have both brevity and compassion. It is not as poignant as Tatami Galaxy, nor is it as fun as Ping Pong: The Animation; instead, Walk on Girl hits a spot that is somewhere in between those two fantastic works.
ART
There's not much to talk about here, and that's a good thing. If you're familiar with Tatami Galaxy or Yuasa in general, then this movie's art style will be of no surprise. And if you've never watched Yuasa's work before, get ready for one of the most extraordinary art styles you've ever seen. It is highly inventive, like always, and serves the surreal nature of the story incredibly well. While comical at times, the art is, for the most part, absolutely beautiful.
STORY
Here is where the movie suffers the most, I feel. The summary makes it all sound very bare-bones, but it's actually quite the opposite. While the story at its most basic is about a college guy desperately trying to gain the affection of his junior, this plot is drowned in elements of magical realism, some metaphorical and some that we just aren't meant to question. It keeps the world unique and bizarre, and these elements are ultimately the main reason why the movie is more than just a typical rom-com or slice of life slog. However, unlike in Tatami Galaxy, the magical realism here seems to heavily distract from the basic premise of the movie for the majority of its run time, rather than build onto it.
While the antics that the characters get into are humorous and engaging, some of them feel more like aimless distractions than necessary conflicts in the story. Walk on Girl definitely has some philosophical statements about existence hidden under its carefree appearance (such as how we perceive the passage of time as we grow older or the value of memories that we only notice in retrospect) but it barely scratches the surface with how well those themes could have been handled.
CHARACTERS
Very few of the characters actually grow or develop, other than our two protagonists, and maybe Haku. That's not to say that they aren't interesting characters, but rather that they are already introduced as offbeat people within their first few seconds on screen. If a character starts out as outlandish and peculiar, where are they supposed to go for the rest of the movie? They can only become less interesting as we become desensitized to their quirks. The only way to combat this from happening would be to develop other aspects of their personality, which, as I've stated, doesn't happen as much as it should've. They are all, for the most part, likable, charming, and memorable in their own ways, but the lack of progression they experience doesn't allow them to meet their full potential. It's also a bit too obvious that some characters are thrown in simply to tie up the many side plots (ex: the "God of the Used Books Market"). Still, it's hard to find a cast of characters as eccentric as this.
OVERALL
Ultimately, despite its flaws, it is still a great coming-of-age/comedy movie that I would recommend to almost anyone willing to give outlandish films a chance. It goes without saying that it's a must-see for Yuasa fans. As much as I've complained about how it doesn't stand up to his other works, or that the story's lack of focus creates some "flab", or even that the underlying messages seem obscured by its comical musings, it remains a good film. In a way, it would've been pretty hard for someone to mess up a movie that had so much promise from the get-go. Though it failed to meet my expectations, which I've already admitted were unfairly high, it is easy for any viewer to see that this film was a work of passion, one with intoxicating warmth and spirit that is hard to find in the genre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 7, 2017
This really is a fantastic romantic comedy anime. I usually don't enjoy romantic comedies because of how overused some of the cliches are, but the first season of Oregairu gave me a whole new perspective on the genre. Don't get me wrong, Oregairu is still filled with rom-com cliches, but watching how these characters grow and develop into people that have actual complexity and motivations makes up for it.
The first season kept me watching because of the great dynamic between Yukino and Hachiman. Hachiman's personality is a strange mix of self-deprecation and narcissism, and it plays really well off of Yukino's scathing insults and self-righteousness.
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The first season was more comedy based, and while it had its moments, everyone besides Yukino, Hachiman, and maybe Haruno felt like a cardboard cutout.
In this season, even if the comedy is a lot more scarce, every character begins to become way more complex as the viewer learns more about their relationships. New conflicts force characters like Hayama and Ebina to show a side of themselves that they were originally determined to hide. Overall, the second season is focused on taking the characters established in season one and confronting them with harsh truths that none of them want to face.
What makes some people love this season and other people despise it is the astonishing amount of subtlety that cloaks the actual "romance". I know right, a rom-com anime that's subtle? Why?
While I admit that sometimes the character's emotions are a little bit too ambiguous, this series quickly became one of my all time favorites because of the effort that the viewer has to put into fully understanding why the characters do the things that they do.
If you watched the last episode and have no idea what's going on, or you still don't understand why Yukino was mad at Hachiman for nearly this entire season, then you should be frustrated with the show's subtlety, not the show itself.
But before you declare that this show is terrible or something along those lines, you should be aware that you are NOT required to read one of those online analysis essays to understand what's going on. You can if you want to, but the keys to deciphering the character's feelings and true emotions are already there in the episodes, right in plain sight.
That's what I personally love about it. I've seen few other anime that communicate so much through body language, vague dialogue, and foreshadowing. Once you go back and take note of all of these small details, you gain an entirely new understanding of what this show's really about. Its not just a rom-com; its a coming of age story about high school students discovering the frailty of human relationships and trying their best to overcome it.
Sorry if that all sounds a bit pretentious, but I guarantee that I'm not extrapolating it out of nothing. I really hope that others can see these messages too and appreciate Hachiman's journey into adulthood, as well as his attempt to find something "genuine".
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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