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Mar 6, 2024
Perhaps it's because I haven't seen many CGDCT anime, but I find myself really enjoying Pon no Michi. Is it a masterpiece? Not at all. Is it enjoyable, cute, and fun for mahjong fans? I'd say so. I recommend this anime, but that comes with a caveat - for those mahjong fans looking for a serious story, this isn't the right show for that. For those Slice of Life fans looking to just sit back and enjoy without thinking, this is a little better but still not quite there. It would be enjoyable without knowledge of mahjong, but it's filled with lots of references to
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the game that enhance your enjoyment - you may find yourself getting lost trying to keep track of everything when the gameplay is happening (although the games aren't important individually; at least up through episode 9, the most I've needed to know in the middle of a game being played on screen is that the hands they're playing are rare).
As a mahjong fan, I do find myself being a little frustrated with the subs I've been watching (though your experience may vary) - the sub group is translating various terms that usually do not get translated in gameplay such as Tenpai and Yakuman. It's a little jarring seeing that and having to catch myself jumping to make sure that the translation they've chosen is in fact a mahjong term and not something else. However, this is not an issue with the show, merely the subs I'm watching. Keep an eye out for that, mahjong fans!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 7, 2021
Porco Rosso was an interesting film. It's comedic in parts and serious in others, and the tone of the film just seemed to bounce all over. There would be very silly scenes followed by incredibly serious ones with no rhyme or reason to them, and the emotional whiplash just continued throughout the whole film. An incredibly silly resolution to a seemingly very serious moment for the main characters is followed by an incredibly somber flashback, before jumping right back into ludicrous hijinks in the finale. It was a little jarring, but ultimately the characters and comedy made this film quite enjoyable.
Story: 8/10. The writing in
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the movie is very good, though it does suffer from some outdated sentiments regarding women's autonomy. A lot of comments are uncomfortable, though considering the setting these moments are mostly excusable, though the feeling still remains. Fio's blossoming feelings for Porco Rosso may feel romantic to some, but the age difference and one off-hand comment he made previously just make it feel a little gross for me. To their credit, the writers had him not make any advances towards her at all (aside from the one comment), which I appreciated. This sort of thing, combined with outdated concepts spoken by Fio's grandfather really date the movie. However, these are mostly just nitpicking - the overall story was fairly enjoyable. The writing was very silly sometimes in a good way and I was laughing quite consistently for most of the movie.
Art: 7/10. The art in this movie is a little bit lacking compared to some of Ghibli's other movies, but the designs of the airplanes are an absolute delight - and I mean that in both the way they look, and the literal blueprints shown in the movie. The detailing was wonderful. Ultimately though, this movie just didn't look as good as some of Ghibli's other masterpieces. It was really pretty, but without a ton of substance.
Sound: 8/10. The music was lovely, with a fantastic song by the wonderful Gina at the beginning of the movie. The soundtrack was very setting-appropriate, with a very 30s feel to it all. The sound design and voice acting were great, with commendable performances by Moriyama Shuichiro and Okamura Akemi as Porco Rosso and Fio. They sold their characters and were delightful.
Character: 7/10. The characters in this movie were pretty well-written, though the aforementioned outdated concepts do put a little bit of a sour taste on some of them. Gina was lovely in appearance and writing, and her wistfulness for love past was very well done. Porco Rosso was a fantastic weathered veteran. Fio was spunky and adventurous, though falling for an older, grizzled, literal pig made things uncomfortable to watch. The rest of the characters were decent, with few having a bunch of screen time to make note of.
Overall: 7/10. An enjoyable movie that I might watch again if it was in front of me, but I doubt I would seek it out on its own. The issues present with the movie's tone and dated concepts bring it down a little, but I wouldn't say no if someone asked to watch it with me. I'd recommend this movie to someone who's looking for a historical fiction anime with a little bit of a silly side to it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 7, 2021
Arriety was a delightful film with cute characters, incredible attention to detail, and an amazing amount of creativity. The world of a tiny family getting by through the stealing of minuscule items was absolutely fascinating, with even the most useless items in our lives being of utmost importance to the Borrowers' lives. It was a very pretty movie with realistic character motivations and beautiful art pieces.
Story: 7/10. The story is the movie's weakest point, and that's saying a lot as the story was pretty good. The stakes were small just like the characters, with the climax of the film involving the rescue and escape of
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the tiny family. Plot points were added with purpose and the melancholic ending made sense.
Art: 9/10. The attention to detail in this movie was incredible. One thing of note that I pointed out to my partner while watching was the depiction of surface tension in the liquids the small family used in their everyday lives. The pouring of tea involved coaxing a couple of drops of liquid into a small cup - at that size water wouldn't pour as it does at our size, and the reflection of that was just one small part of all the different ways the studio showed the size differences gracefully. The scenery was gorgeous and the animation was top tier as always.
Sound: 8/10. The music in this movie was delightful, and the sound design and voice acting were really good as well. I can't say any songs stuck in my head as it's been a few days since my viewing, but I definitely enjoyed the more understated soundtrack. Ghibli almost never disappoints in this field, and this movie is no different.
Character: 8/10. The few characters in this movie were very charming (aside from the despicable villain of the movie, of course). Their actions made sense and nothing felt out of character. Arriety wants to explore the humans' world, while her family is skittish and wants to survive in a world where their species is dying out. The boy is fascinated by the little people and wants to help since he's struggling in his own way, and even the housekeeper has motivations, although hers are much less pure. The designs of the characters are lovely, though the boy's design is fairly typical and bland.
Overall: 8/10. A very lovely movie that I would watch again. The charm, attention to detail, and gorgeous detailing of the world of the Borrowers definitely warrant a watch. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to relax and enjoy a lovely movie filled with gorgeous detail and very little stakes to get invested in. Just be careful if you're scared of bugs!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 23, 2021
Ponyo was a delightful movie with a very simple story and stunning visuals. It's like a walk through an aquarium where you get to gasp in awe at the fish and the beauty of it all without really feeling the danger of the predatory animals you're looking at. It's a gentle film with very low tension despite the apparently high stakes of it all, so that you can just enjoy the view.
Story: 7/10. The story here is nice! It's nothing too incredible, just a simple little story of a girl who wants to be human and a boy who protects his fish friend, and a
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bunch of incredible stuff happening around them. The stakes are world-ending without truly feeling that way. We're told of the danger of the power's locked away in Fujimoto's home early on, and Ponyo immediately uses those powers dangerously, causing an incredible typhoon and flooding 90% of the town, and yet the stakes aren't really felt as Sousuke and Ponyo are more interested in just finding his mom. Only at the end do we truly see what she's done, by messing with gravitational forces and pulling the moon too close to the earth. Not much is explained besides that, and so I can't rate the story any higher, but truly the story isn't the focus of this movie, the visuals are meant to be the highlight. The story culminates in a bit of a strange way, with an expectation that a 5-year-old boy will express love for someone he met the previous day. I'm sure it's a bit of an issue with the translation, but it did feel a little off.
Art: 10/10. This film is gorgeous. The water is beautiful, the sea life and the visuals of the flooded town, I found myself just smiling while watching ancient fish swimming above the streets of a hilly coastal town. The characters are animated wonderfully, the colors are gorgeous, I cannot think of a single bad thing to say about the art. Masterpiece.
Sound: 9/10. The soundtrack was amazing as well. I couldn't hum any themes from the soundtrack as they don't stick to my mind, but the atmosphere they provided was tangible. So much wonder could be felt while watching scenes such as the toy boat floating through the town, and the soundtrack emphasized this feeling beautifully. Wonderful job.
Character: 8/10. The characters in this movie are decent, with the stars absolutely being Sousuke and Ponyo. I was stunned to learn that the Japanese voices were provided by actual children and not professional voice actors like you'd expect. Their acting was stellar and I even commented on how well done a laugh was early on. The writing for the child characters is fairly simple, the adults in the film fairly absent aside from a few, and for the sea-faring couple, very mysterious (in a good way). The only character I truly didn't like was Sousuke's mom (step-mom?) Lisa, who endangered herself, her son, and everyone around her multiple times with her recklessness. But she was in the film for such a short time that she didn't really affect my opinion overall.
Overall: 8/10. This movie was a visual delight and very easy to digest. I couldn't call it a masterpiece of storytelling by any means, but it was certainly a pretty one. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who wants a simple visual spectacle with stunning colors and very little to worry about.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 22, 2021
From Up on Poppy Hill was a very good movie, with modern Ghibli style and typical attention to detail. The characters were fairly charming, the music and art were lovely, and the story was enjoyable. There was very little of the whimsical side of Ghibli works that I like to see, but that didn't really take away from my enjoyment. As my partner and I move up through the movies, we're starting to see much more expressiveness in the character animations, which makes me very excited to continue watching the Ghibli filmography even more. If this movie is in the studio's lowest-rated third, that speaks
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immeasurable volumes about how phenomenal Ghibli is overall.
Story: 6/10. The story is fairly uninteresting, to be honest. It's a romance that follows the heroine and her love interest through a little self-discovery, with an attempt to save a school club building in the background. There isn't anything particularly novel to the story, other than the lead characters' continued interest in each other after they find out something that really should be putting them off, of course. It all ends up okay in the end, though, so whatever. The cleaning scenes were really nice but short-lived. There just wasn't really anything in the story that caught my attention, although my partner and I were incredibly worried about how little the school staff cared about what the students did on school property haha
Art: 9/10. With gorgeous backgrounds and expressive animation, this movie is a delight for the eyes. The character designs were simple but clean, and the whole visual side of the movie was just lovely.
Sound: 9/10. The sound is also wonderful, with lovely music throughout. The voice acting was really good and the foley work was impeccable. I was never jarred out of the movie at any point by the sound and I commented multiple times through the viewing on the lovely soundtrack.
Character: 7/10. The characters were nice, with some really tragic stories. However, That's all they really were, nice. They didn't stand out, really, and I can't say I'll be pointing to any of them as being among my favorite Ghibli characters. They weren't unlikeable but they never truly made me *love* them. The biggest compliment I ever gave the cast was that the main character was very hard-working (and pretty).
Overall: 8/10. An enjoyable film well worth the time investment, if only for the audio/visual spectacle. I can't speak for the romance as I'm not really into most romance in anime, but everything else came together quite well. I would recommend this movie to those who want a nice story with some complex situations, beautiful art, and a very enjoyable soundtrack.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 21, 2021
I have not seen Whisper of the Heart yet (soon!), but I've seen multiple people say that this is a spin-off of that movie. That may give me a different perspective of this film than many viewers as I don't have the context that film provides.
The Cat Returns was a delightful movie, full of charm and whimsy. For the sadly short 74 minutes, I don't think I was having a bad time at any moment. This movie didn't try to be some deep introspective piece or a giant action-fest, and that was just fine for me! After having watched some disappointing Ghibli movies up
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to this point (I'm watching in order of MAL ratings), this was the first movie that truly gave me the sense of Ghibli charm that I've grown to love. It's a fantastical experience from start to finish with some truly interesting animation, enjoyable characters, and just overall plain old fun.
Story: 8/10. This movie doesn't try to be what it's not. The story is fairly predictable but its whimsical nature is a breath of fresh air after so many dramas and character-based stories. It follows a girl as she's drawn into a fantastic world and encounters very strange events and people. The writing isn't anything new or exciting but it's just so charming and fun that you don't really care and just enjoy the ride.
Art: 8/10. There are some very interesting designs in this movie, with how the cats walk and present themselves. The characters were all super cute and the backgrounds were typical Ghibli quality, full of wonder. The animation was very clean and never looked out of place.
Sound: 7/10. Nothing really stood out sound-wise, for good or bad. The voice acting was lovely and the characters were all believable, and the foley work was nice. Nothing else of note.
Characters: 9/10. This is the meat of the movie. The characters are very charming and every single one was delightful in some way or another, even the freaky, crazy king. The Baron is cool and collected, Muta is funny and sweet (when not gorging himself), Toto is unfortunately underused but was lovely while in the film, and the heroine Haru is just a typical kind, if unfortunate, girl thrown into circumstances beyond her imagination. She's charming though, and that's what this movie is all about. Charm and whimsy.
Overall: 9/10. I loved this movie. Its worst quality is that there wasn't enough of it. 74 minutes for a movie this delightful is criminal, and I wish it had been given more time to develop the world a little more and give the characters more time to interact. But when your biggest complaint about a movie is that there isn't enough of it, I think that speaks to how lovely it truly is. This is a movie that you should see if you're down to not have to think about deeper meanings behind characters' actions and thoughts and just want to whisk away to a fun, charming adventure for a short time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 19, 2021
This was a strange one. It has plenty of charming little moments where things seem okay, and then it flashes back to awful people bullying their family member for not being good at math. Picking flowers one minute and having a father hit his daughter the next. The composition of the movie was sound but the individual parts just made it unenjoyable for me.
Story: 7/10. My partner and I watched it together and she commented that it seemed like every flashback was based on some traumatic event in the main character's life, and I had to agree. Her memories were filled with painful moments and
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the way she talked about some of them seemed like she was bitter about them happening but trying to put on a smiling face for herself and those around her. Unfortunately, while this isn't necessarily bad story-wise, there was a lot of focus on moments that were uncomfortable to watch. For example, one section portrays the main character's discomfort with periods and how the boys in her class would bully the girls for them, and the focus lingered on that idea for far longer than necessary. It was uncomfortable for her and by proxy the viewers and it just made you dislike everyone involved. This is how pretty much all of the flashbacks went. Meanwhile in the present, she's reflecting on these events while trying to escape from the city for a small time, and in the end she's embarrassed by an old lady in much the same way as she was traumatized by others in the past. It's deeply uncomfortable and then a romance happens in the end out of nowhere?
Art: 7/10. The art is decent. You can tell that it's an older movie, as this movie is outshined by many of the later Ghibli works in background art and animation. Some stylistic choices make the art simpler, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but then the backgrounds are better later on. There are many moments where characters are just stiffly sitting still while the focus is off of them and it feels a little unnatural at points.
Sound: 6/10. The sound was okay, for the most part. Nothing really stood out aside from the song during the credits.
Character: 7/10. Every character in the flashbacks besides the main character seems awful. The father is abusive, the mother and sisters talk about their daughter/sibling behind her back, her friends and classmates tease her and make her feel embarrassed, it just ends up being straight up unfun to watch. In the present, most characters are okay, but at the end there's a moment that is deeply uncomfortable and honestly made me just want to stop watching right there and then, that's how much I disliked the character on screen.
Overall: 6/10. Honestly, I just didn't really enjoy this one. Other people may get more out of it than me, but I was mostly just forcing myself to sit through the depictions of traumatic memories. I didn't understand where the romance in this one came from and it was not nearly enough to make up for a very mediocre movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 19, 2021
This movie was very interesting. I'm certainly no expert on Japanese culture nor was I raised in it, so a lot of the stuff involving the tanuki was a little bit uncomfortable. However, luckily I've heard a little about the mythology behind tanuki so I wasn't completely blindsided by the. eh, anatomically correct portrayals of the characters in this movie. To anyone who isn't familiar, portrayals of tanuki in Japan very often involve them bouncing on their testicles... This movie portrays that and has tanuki testicles visible throughout 95% of the movie. If that's not something you can get past, this movie isn't for you.
Story:
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6/10. The story is a pretty simple environmentalist tale following the tanuki who are trying to save their home. It's very creative with the different ways the tanuki use their transformation abilities to attempt to halt the humans' encroachment into the forest, from terrifying the construction crews by turning into themselves, to forming a massive parade of spirits and other creatures in an effort to convince the humans that they're making the gods angry. There were, unfortunately, a lot of moments where things didn't quite connect well. Events moved along without much to connect them at times, making it hard to follow what was happening, and towards the end there were three different things going on at once and I got completely lost. Still, the writing was enjoyable and fairly charming.
Art: 8/10. The art was probably where the movie is at its best. The transformations of the tanuki are incredible, and the aforementioned parade scene is a visual spectacle and an absolute treat. There are some questionable choices, however, particularly with the character design (Did they HAVE to go the Disney route of giving the girl tanuki boobs to differentiate them?) Ultimately the art was still very good.
Sound: 6/10. Honestly not the best. The music never caught my attention and the direction of the voice acting was mediocre. Just passable.
Character: 5/10. None of the tanuki here are particularly likable. They play around a lot and don't focus and they can't ever seem to agree on a plan of action, and the indecision leads to a lot of inner conflict. This may just be some of the mythical qualities of the tanuki coming out, but it didn't make for good cinema.
Overall: 7/10. I think the charm of the movie outdid some of the lesser Ghibli films, but it's nowhere near the level of some of their masterpieces. I'd recommend this movie if you're in for a more whimsical time, and okay with some of the more... uncomfortable usage of tanuki anatomy as portrayed in folklore.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 16, 2021
My review will be a little bit biased, as I don't typically enjoy this type of slice-of-life. I did not particularly enjoy this film, but I recognize that a lot of that is because I just don't like the genre in general.
Tonari no Yamada-kun was a mish-mash of random small storylines presenting a family environment some might enjoy, but that I found rather annoying. The humor may have worked better in the context of the time it was made, but nowadays it just feels like "Boomer Humor", the same tired types of jokes that you often see in Facebook posts your parents like.
Story:
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6/10. There is no real story to speak of, as this is a 4-koma-style Slice of Life. The individual small stories that are presented are mildly amusing at best and downright frustrating to watch the rest of the time. Several stories presented take far longer than they deserve and feel like a waste of time, and other stories are mildly interesting but not developed at all.
Art: 7/10. The art was very simplistic, which is the style they decided to go with. That's not a negative - it suits the format and was a very informed choice. There are small moments where the art style changes to be more fluid and dramatic, and those small moments absolutely shine. At one point a small portion of a baseball game is shown, and I commented aloud to my partner that the animation looked really good there. The art does not drag this movie down, simple though it is most of the time.
Sound: 5/10. The sound was mediocre, nothing really stood out to me. There was a song at the end that I didn't really enjoy, and the background music was unintrusive. Other than that, I can't really say much. It was just competent.
Characters: 2/10. This is where the movie falls completely flat for me. The entire movie is meant to focus on this family, and yet most of the time I just thought the family was full of awful people. The husband and wife constantly fight and find each other irritating and incompetent, but the movie ends with some "It's worth it for the kids!" type of message that just doesn't hit. The grandmother has some good moments and some bad moments, but mostly just feels antagonistic for the sake of being antagonistic. The son is rude and a bit of a loser, and the daughter is barely in the film, so her moments were few and far between. At one moment the parents lose their daughter in a mall and don't even realize she's not with them until they're well on their way down the highway away from the building. They have enough time to get completely stuck in traffic on their way back, so they were very far away and never noticed their daughter wasn't with them. To me, this just makes them bad parents. The women in the family were incredibly nosy and bothersome to the son, not believing that he could have a girlfriend, which was very mean-spirited. The father was angry and grumpy most of the time, and it just seemed like he was only there because that's what he was supposed to do and didn't enjoy being around the family members at all. None of the people in the family were enjoyable and there were very few characters besides.
Overall: 5/10. I just did not enjoy this movie at all. I'm giving it a five because it has some saving graces and because I know that someone who is more into this genre may enjoy it, but family dynamic slice of life stories just do not do it for me and I was miserable most of the time watching this, just waiting for it to be over.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 14, 2021
A nice movie for the first two acts that petered out into a bit of a mess in the third act and didn't resolve many of the plot points it presented.
Story: 7/10. The story is presented competently, with plot points flowing well from one point to the next. However, there were lots of plot points that were introduced that were never resolved. At the start of the movie, the king is receiving reports of issues throughout the land and dragons fighting. These are basically never brought up again. I understand this movie involves part of the story from a series of books, so my
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assumption is that those plot points must be resolved later in the series past where this movie covers. Later in the film light and darkness are brought up and the story begins to lose some of its meaning. It culminates in a battle between the main character, Arren, and an evil wizard, with an ending that is a little unsatisfying
Art: 9/10. Absolutely fantastic. Gorgeous scenery and wonderful character design, especially for the outfits present in the movie.
Sound: 8/10. Also very good, great music and very good foley work. Quite nice.
Characters: 7/10. The motivations of certain characters are a mystery, as it feels like they don't quite know what they want themselves. It isn't really an issue until the end when some motivations are revealed, but that seem a little lacking. Other characters seemingly have no motivations and are quite cartoonish overall. Not the best, but not the worst either.
Overall: 6/10. A fairly enjoyable movie with a disappointing conclusion. I would have liked to see a different final confrontation with the villain, as the one presented was just a big chase scene and then it was over. Still, decently enjoyable. I would recommend you watch if you're interested in worldbuilding and okay with unresolved plot points.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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