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- BirthdayFeb 25, 2002
- LocationHong Kong, London
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Dec 3, 2023
The ending was just pure disappointment. Other than obvious reasons that plenty of others have stated, such as Violet's regression in character's development, the ending as a whole is just purely illogical and this is not how a normal, healthy romantic relationship works like.
Gilbert's writing in the movie was just so poor.
Why Gilbert decided to disappear after the war? Several scenes explained that he was guilty of bringing Violet to war. That made sense, until the moment he changed in the movie and decided to finally meet her. If he really was that guilty of facing Violet, it would not make sense for
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him to suddenly decide to stay with Violet if that emotion stopped him from reaching for her for that many years. His reasoning behind this become very questionable.
Subjectively saying, do you think it is a good relationship for Violet to end up with a guy who disappears for so many years without telling her why, but needing Violet to be actively reaching out for him after figuring out where he hid, only for him to be this unwelcoming for her and hurting Violet mentally for literally the whole movie until those final 10 minutes? Do you genuinely think that after marrying Violet, he would be treating her well if he is this kind of person?
Not only the ending, but the story of the boy with serious illness was also not relating to the supposed to be main story arc of "Violet and Gilbert reunification". The movie feels like two separate arcs being told instead of one complete story. Some might think this is not problematic, and generally speaking the secondary arc of this movie was an emotional one. But the purpose of that part of the story telling feels very unnecessarily from the general perspective of this movie being the final closure for Violet and Gilbert. If you take this arc out from the movie and leaving with only the Gilbert arc in it, you would not feel like that there is something missing or incoherent in the story telling. It would be a much better story if the illness boy was perhaps related to Gilbert, and using the boy's story to reveal unknown character's writing about Gilbert. But of course, that was not the case for the movie, and this arc feels as if serving the only purpose of ensuring the movie is long enough to be a 2 hours movie.
Perhaps what was written was very unpopular, maybe I was too harsh on the movie. But when some of the points I have mentioned above were also mentioned in numerous other reviews, I guess what I have said did hold some credibility then.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Nov 9, 2023
I am very surprised that this manga is not being read by a lot of people.
The story is your typical medieval times revenge tale, with a princess who became a prostitute after her small kingdom was invaded and genocide took place. She aimed to revenge for her kingdom whilst living through the unbearable life inside the brothel.
Similar kind of story can be seen in some of the Hollywood titles or perhaps other manga. But I think it is a quite interesting take to approach this from the perspective of a prostitute. Being one of the most despised occupation throughout human history, it brings
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complicated feelings to many. I personally look down on it, but I also feel really bad for those who became one for factors out of their controls, including human trafficking.
This is what happened to the main character, Evita. One aspect this manga has done excellent on, is how the author utilize the portrayal of Evita's miserable life via the beautifully looking manga art and the story plot( of course, those sex scenes aren't any good at all context wise). The emphasis on the complete dominance of male in the brothel, zero human rights for the girls, and the exaggeration of the situations with extremely lustful expressions from the men or the soul-less eyes of the prostitutes, all these made me feel sad.
Contrast is something the author uses well to make some of their points strong. For example, the difference between the male customers and the prostitutes. The social status and the human rights associated with it creates a even more powerful impression of " these girls' have the shittest life ever". I am stunned at one point of the manga, that I felt good for Evita when she was fucked by a customer who actually did it the way she enjoyed. Stockholm syndrome is potentially the explanation for this. When you are continuously exposed to super bad events, even good event will feel like a happy one now. The contrast between the treatment she received from this guy, and all the others, even emphasize on the fact that the rights to be treated how we want to be, is not something that comes naturally at all. Something that we all think should be enjoyed by everyone, is indeed not the case at all. Realizing this whilst reading the manga is why it was quite emotional for me.
Making me feel bad for the girls even enhance the tension while reading later part of the story, while they attempted to escape from the brothel region of the city. I did not want anything to go wrong for their escape plan, because they are the last person on earth to deserve this failure after going through all those shitty life as a prostitutes. It is a trap that the author of this manga has played me into, but I gladly accept it. This kind of writing is seen in so many types of story, by making you feel shit about the character's miserable life to then you are on the edge of the seat throughout because you do not want anything bad to happen to them anymore. You just want them to finally be able to enjoy their life instead of taking their last hope away. It is cliche story writing, but it always works for me. The escaping arc was so enjoyable and tensing for me at the same time, and I simply can not wait anymore longer for the new chapter to be released until I book a flight to japan and force the author to release all remaining chapters at once. it is that addicting for me now to read this manga that I finished all the released chapters in one go under 30 minutes.
Anyway, this review is not a professional one nor an enjoyable one I suppose. If it makes you interested in reading this manga, I am happy about it. If it does not interest you at all, I am also accepting this. This whole bunch of writing is just for me to release my inner emotions about the manga anyway. Do not take any of my words too seriously. Just read it is all I have to say.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 18, 2023
Tl;dr: enjoyable movie, but flawed in many ways
Introduction:
Not gonna lie, I actually enjoyed Suzume more than Shinkai's other titles. Maybe it was because I was watching it in the cinema while not for the others. But to sum it up, I think it has plenty of potential to be up there as one of the best anime movies ever, but it was not able to.
Strong start to the movie and enjoyable first half of the movie
The story lore, like other Shinkai films, is about supernatural events that can be detrimental and the main characters need to prevent them from happening. Beside the fact that it
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is just another supernatural adventure type of Shinkai movie, I loved the lore. The idea of having mysterious doors around Japan that will cause disaster if not closed is intriguing. Suzume also has a very strong start, with breathtaking moments the first time the worm breaks out of the door for the first time. I am completely drawn into the movie by that time because the actions as well as the visual and sound of the first action scene already suggest the potential of how good the upcoming plots can be.
For the next hour or so, it is about Suzume travelling around Japan to close the doors, and those funny moments of her and the people she met in the journey were relaxing and lively, giving the characters some very good moments to develop and show off their charisma. I love the jokes in between these scenes because they actually got me, cracked some good laughs out of me as well as some others in the cinema. Up to the Tokyo door part, I could have rated this movie 8.5 or even higher because it executed the story excellently, with good amounts of breathtaking actions ( like the Kobe theme park) as well as lighthearted moments between the characters blending in between.
Good change of focus of the story
One main distinct feature of Suzume compared to previous works of Shinkai, is that he is shifting the main focus of romance story to now, focusing the most on the adventure aspect of the story. It is not a bad attempt, and I actually prefer this to Your Name style of writing because YN is a Jack of all Trade. It has romance, adventure, actions etc, but doing average for all of those. For Suzume, since it is concentrated a lot more on one aspect of the story now, the whole 2 hours duration can be used much more on just the action and adventure writing and makes it great, instead of simultaneously focusing on too many aspects of the story and trying to make all of them in depth and good, and at the end failing to make any of it being impressive.
I actually don’t mind the lack of romance substance in Suzume, because for this kind of story plot it is impossible to write a decent romance plot anyway in just a 2 hours long movie, so why not just have a minimal amount of it and make it just a subtext of the story. Because in my opinion, I enjoyed Suzume much more than Your Name because of the much more enjoyable adventure story. The romance in YN is definitely better, but still not very good. Suzume has poor romance, but a very enjoyable adventure plot while YN has okay adventure plot, and below average romance, i rather have Suzume which is exceptionally good in one aspect but not the other, rather than not doing good for all of them like YN.
Suzume as a character is generic, but still is lovable
Suzume, in my opinion, despite being generic in terms of her personality and writing, still is a great character in my eyes because of how funny she was for some moments, such as stepping onto chair Souta for awhile only to realise that the chair is Souta but not an actual chair, and then asked him “ Can I step on you Souta?” after she did it, which was funny. She showed a lot of scenes that made her a lively character, such as secretly kissing chair Souta to show her affection towards him, being so passionate and helpful in assisting Souta, being a smart ass while around the kids when they see chair Souta moving around. Her cheerful, sunny personality is possibly quite similar to the other Shinkai main girl with slight differences, but I still loved this character.
Where it goes downhill: in between the final fight and Souta becoming a keystone was boring ( except the aunt part)
Starting from when Souta became a keystone, it was where the movie went downhill. The story starts to feel as if the director is trying to fill up the gap with whatever plots just to make sure the movie is 1 hours 50 minutes long. Because there is not much meaningful thing happening when they are travelling to the last door. Repeat the same tricks of those character interaction scenes we saw when Suzume travelled with Souta, but only now with two side characters who had minimal importance in this anime as if the movie is trying to atleast make the two side characters to be more meaningful than they already were with minimal effort. Between the final fight and after the Souta turning into key stone part feels so dragging and could be shortened by half at least.
The lacking writing of the story main underlying theme about Suzume’s struggle
The inserting of exploration into Suzume's family issues feels very forced and sudden, because for the first hour of the movie this has been touched upon minimally that I completely have forgotten about this, despite the very first scene of the movie suggesting that the main underlying message of the movie. They could have included more content about Suzume’s struggle in living without her mom, because as an audience myself, the only time I realised that Suzume actually had big mental issues with her aunt was when they argued in the gas station. That really was the only point the movie has explored into this core theme of realising you are never alone and lack in love.
There were some quotes before mentioning about Suzume’s mental situations, but it was only to inform us the audience that: yeah she is feeling that, instead of making us understand why she feels like that and makes us feel connected to her. At Least for me, the movie has failed to make Suzume’s struggle with her family feel connected and emotional at all. It feels just like a subtheme under the main lore, instead of the main core theme that could have made the movie a lot more coherents in terms of the meaning behind some quotes and concepts.
Subpar antagonist with illogical/ inconsistent behaviours
Other than the lacklustre writing into Suzume’s mental issues, the antagonists were also a problem. To be fair, I am not even 1 % sure whether I should call the cat Daijin an antagonist or not. At the start of the movie that cat was 100% portrayed as the big bad guy, and its behaviour suggested that as well. But then suddenly in the second half of the movie, he becomes a good guy out of nowhere as if Shinkai is trying to create some sort of plot twist for sure, and not caring about how valid the plot twist itself is.
It is as if saying that Stalin is a fucking bad dictator who killed millions of Russians, but only at the end there is a plot twist saying that he is actually doing that for the sake of humanity because those Russians can cause the Earth to erupt, so he is actually a good guy. The antagonist of the Suzume feels like this. If Daijin is a good guy it could have explained to Suzume right at the start what it was trying to do, instead of running away like a scary thief. What these cats said and did were very inconsistent with the final conclusion of it being a good guy.
Souta
The thing about Souta is that there is nothing special about this guy other than his handsome look. He feels like another one of those princes in Disney princess animation, with a flawless personality that all feels the same as one another. I have no attachment to this character and if it wasn’t for Suzume’s funny interactions with him, I barely figured out any use of this character at all besides being a Closer of the doors. That is one thing Suzume has done quite poorly when compared to Shinkai's other movies such as Your Name, when both the boy and girl feel like a lively character with some highlights for them. I struggled to find anything particularly noteworthy to talk about for Souta.
Conclusion
The first half was great, the second half was average or below average, overall I will say Suzume is a fun watch. It is not a masterpiece, but it was nonetheless enjoyable for many aspects of it. The thing about Shinkai is that: you know that it is never one of those top tier writing anime movies like I Want To Eat Your Pancreas or Silent Voice, but it still has its appeal as an enjoyable movie that will get you through a dull day. Do not recommend Suzume to those who want flawless, in depth writing for story plot and characters, but do recommend to those who wouldn’t mind some lacklustre aspects in the character writing, but just want some visually stunning and entertaining fantasy adventure story. I won't regret watching it in the cinema because of the stunning visuals and soundtrack.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 19, 2023
Summary: A pretty bizzare, mystifying and complex mystery title about supernatural phenomena that is happening due to the characters' mental obstacles, if you enjoy an anime that is full of complex character writing, interesting story setting and lore, as well as the overall really creative presentation of the anime, you will love Bakemonogatari and Monogatari as a whole.
Pros:
- A good adaptation of the novel by Nisio Ishin, without cutting out too many necessary plots
- Excellent introduction to the characters
- Superb story writing with moments that can surprise you a lot
- Very good uses of a sudden change in story tone that can
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catch you off guard ( enjoyable for watchers who loves surprises)
- Nice plot twists and writing for Mayoi and Kanbaru arc ( aka the second arc and third arc in Bakemonogatari)
- A very good blend and connection of concepts from urban legends to psychological obstacles of the characters
- Very in-depth and detailed character writing that makes them feel alive
- Plenty of satire and comedic conversations between the characters that can make you laugh
- A very unique art style that excels in maximising the strange stories being told in it
- Full of messages that actually are inspirational
- The characters' each unique opening songs are all legendary ( Bet you all heard of Renai Circulation)
Cons:
- Can be very hard to grasp the idea of what the story is talking about for some watchers
- The presentation can be too overwhelming for some, with a lot of words flashing in and out all the time
- For watchers who hate those ecchi loli jokes or moments, this is not for you
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 19, 2023
Summary: 5 Toubun is just another typical harem. Maybe something new is that the girls are quintuplets, but other aspects of the anime are pretty much similar to many other harem. If you like harem, you will enjoy this. Vice versa.
Pros:
- The girls are really cute and all have very charismatic personalities
- Some moments that can actually make you blush very hard
- Interesting lore of the main character's background story, to make it harder to guess which of the girls in the harem will end up with him at the end.
- Miku and Nino are just perfect
- Fan services are not flooding this show,
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with a bit of it and it is good
- A positive note added to the development of the characters, emphasizing how precious your family members are
- The interactions between the guy and the girls are fun to watch
- Nice visuals and music, openings and endings are just gorgeous
Cons:
- Feels like another typical harem other than the five cool girls
- Each of their relationship with Fuutarou feels shallow at times since you are dividing the whole series into five for each girl
- Sometimes pretty illogical plots that can make you go " How tf this happen" do occur
The cons seems like some typical harem flaws but that's why I say if you like harem, you will like this title without worrying about the cons.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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