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Imagine you are walking up a staircase of your memories and on top of those stairs lies the exit to real life. There are many memories that you wish you forgot, there are those that are bittersweet, funny, ridiculous; an amalgam of emotions and thoughts. You are going on a journey of enlightenment with patience and endurance for whatever comes in the way. Suddenly, the staircase ends and you are not even close to the surface. You start pondering whether your quest of reaching the top was fruitful or completely for naught. You consider waiting for the rest of the staircase to appear and keep ... on the manner with which you started. However, you realize that no matter how much you wait, you will never escape. That is my impression of Children of the Whales in a nutshell.

It is rare that I find anime that I was genuinely disappointed with. Usually, my disappointment is attributed to anime that seemed from the beginning that they were not planning to go anywhere and even in that case, I was still expecting it. Unfortunately, there are some that have the potential to make a difference and stand out from the norm in their own way, such as shows as Shinsekai Yori which came out at the worst time possible. But, it managed to leave a mark in the industry and surpass the mediocre and its concurrently airing mainstream anime. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case for Children of the Whales, which although started with a lot of promise on its original concept and lore and development on certain characters, ended on the worst point possible in a story.

I was surprised by the implementation of greek in the names of people outside of the island and how much effort was put into building up the lore surrounding the Mud Whale and the rest of the Unknown World. But, the moment Rochalito introduced himself, I stopped taking the use of greek seriously due to how ridiculous it is to give a character the name "Snore" and how the mangaka ran out of animals to name people. Otherwise, Children of the Whales was building up to be a war drama and then it changed tangent to an adventure anime with soap opera drama. And that is the first issue with the story: tonal shifts. The show did not know how to handle emotionally heavy moments and blend them well with calmer and comedic ones. It is not as bad as the tonal whiplash was in Akame ga Kill! but it was still really jarring at some moments. Also, that had an effect on the pacing of the show, which started going a lot faster from episode 4 onwards and after episode 9 it became slower than molasses. The ending itself was a representation of what the whole show was: a hot, messy Sloppy Jo sandwich; tasty, but still messy. This is also a qualm I have before watching 12 episode anime series: they are usually too short and towards the end, they get even messier than they started.

Frankly, the lore behind the actual plot of Children of the Whales is innately rich. It explores how people could use Thymia and why it has specific effects, the truth behind the hearts of the lands called "Nous". In the anime, all of these concepts are explained and revealed in a rather subtle manner instead of being bombarded to the audience with symbolism and/or in a preachy manner.
But, even the lore, in the end, is incomplete, because the show is cut short and everything feels just like a small introduction. If the lore had not been so interesting, I may have quitted the show before it ended. Yet, it still feels like wasted potential.

To make a long diatribe on the characters of the show short, most of them are archetypical or underdeveloped or uninteresting with the worst being Chakuro, the main protagonist of the show. He is your typical Xerox Kaneki protagonist who does nothing useful and he does not change at all as a character. He remains the crybaby he was despite having to go through horrible events at such a tender age of 14 years old. I swear that if Lykos was not a character in the show, the characters would mean nothing to me. Thankfully, she is easily the best character of the show, since she starts as your typical apathetic killing machine and she evolves to a caring and emotional person who is mindful of the people she wants to protect. But, Suou, Ouni and the rest are just not interesting and too underdeveloped for me to sympathize with or remotely care about them.

The only areas that the show stands out without a lot of stuff to talk about are the art and the soundtrack. The show is breaming with style and the directing is spot on as expected from the director of other anime series, such as Occultic;Nine. The CG sand and thymia fit the show mostly seamlessly but there are a few moments where the characters feel like cardboard placed on top of the screen than actual 2D figures. There were many risks taken with the art style and animation of the show and luckily it mostly paid off. There were a few moments in the show and in the OP where I was impressed with how beautiful it looked. Overall, it is shown how J.C. STAFF with the right directors and animators can pull off high-tier productions better than other studios, such as A1 Pictures.

From the soundtrack, only the song found in the preview stood out the most, but it is just a decent track. The OP and ED songs attached to the show are beautiful and easily one of my favorites for the Fall season. They remind me of what the show could have been; emotional, dramatic, suspensful and meaningful as a journey.

In its entirety, Children of the Whales is just a decent sci-fi that screams potential with its rich lore and good production values, but decides to end as another short adverisement for the manga with more questions than it could handle. I am still glad that I watched it, but the journey made it sure unworhtwile to reach the end which was unsatisfying and aggravating.

"You know y Danganronpa the Animation was not good? It did not transcend the troll levels. Let's troll the world."
-Kodaka, 2016

The art of trolling or what I like to refer as shock factor and pretentioussness galore is a rather modern art that has become so mainstream that anyone will try to do it and the one who does it the best gets recognized, while the rest become casual fodder or the elephants in "The Room" (I question my life with every breath I take. Please do not mind my antarctic cold humour). If recent memory serves me well, Arrival did the biggest fu troll in ... the 21st century since the final episode from Lost and Heroes Reborn. I mean shit hit the fan so fast the last few minutes that the whole experience turned from a decent sci fi to a pretentious one-time novelty. The worst of all was Knowing which trolled with you from the beginning in favor to babyfeed you preachy material. Well, Danganronpa 3 Future Arc is just average. It had a few trolls and the last episode made me feel the whole arc was pointless.

So what did this arc from the new season improve on? Well, the only department that it did improve on was sound. It was actually good. OP was decent and ED was great by TRUSTICK. OST was decent to good. It paid good hommage to the games.

The animation and art are slightly better but the monochromicity in this show is just baffling. It made everything look soulless. Otherwise, it was a zoozed-up edition of the original.

And now where the show caught horse shit. The story was a troll. It began promising you gore, mystery and lots of action. It gave that but as it went through you could feel the presence of the troll laughing at your ass for thinking it will end on a good note. Kodaka did his ass-pulling again and made every fan of the series scream with rage in the end, because let's face it...money makes the world go round. It is unfortunately true and Future Arc shows exactly that. Look where Michael Bay is at.

Characters are as unitneresting as looking at a white canvas, except the mains. Naegi is still the same Hope-filled twat as he was. Kirigiri is still best waifu and everyone's favorite low EQ girl and
Asahina is donut girl (insert Tenshi no Drop jokes). To be honest they tried to make us give a fuck but failed to a laughable level with a few characters.

Overall, I did not think this would suck more than the original but Kodaka and his masterful trolls managed to prove us wrong...again.

Overall: 5.50/10

Alternative Recommendation:

-Despair Arc: Actually, worth your time.
-Mirai Nikki: If you loved this series, you are going to love this trashy guilty pleasure of mine.

Remember my review for Baysona 4 the Cash-grab animation where I mentioned that many adaptations are very rushed and characters seem bland due to skipping major character development? Well, Danganronpa The Animation falls into that category of video game adaptations. The difference? It actually has an interesting, original concept and it is ambitious. Nonetheless, it falters a lot on all possible levels.

Michael Bay-sama would use an interesting concept and find as many ways as possible to milk everyone's money untill it runs dry and then move on to other concepts. To be honest, the producers tried to avoid this technique and seemed to care about ... the source material since various mechanics from the original game are present. But, having to squeeze hours of content into a 1 cour series is a Herculean task and usually, despite the ambition behind a project, things go downhill as fast as Hollywood producing shitty cliched romances, low-brow, unfunny comedies that people will overpraise more than they deserve and schlock action films.

When the show starts, it is a classical "Whodunnit", Cluedo mime where everyone has to find the person who was murdered. But the interesting part starts when the classic Cluedo ends up being a battle royal of high schoolers organized by an anthropomorphic teddy bear whose merchandise you already have, but you will never admit it. And if this is not enough, the characters are all trapped in a high school for talented students where each one has their own unique talent/skill and the only way out is by killing each other. This already makes it stand out from your typical caliber of psychological, mystery anime and you have a promising start. So what went wrong?

Well, after a person is murdered, a trial is held after a specific time given for the students to search for clues where the students have to decide who is the murderer. The first ones were a delight to watch but later on they became very repetitive and the main protagonist is the only one who can figure everything out because everyone else is denser than Ichika in reasoning. To their credit, they kept trying to make each trial unique but this is how each one went: People suspect an innocent, Sherlock-kun (Naegi) thinks about it, the rest talk about bullshit, then Sherlock-kun guesses everything correctly and murderer gets executed in horrific ways. I am not joking. This is the formula that is repeated every time and the executions were good but later on they lacked the same punch they had as in the first few because characters are not developed properly ending up giving no shit about them.

Speaking of characters, we all have to acknowledge the elephant in the room. The main protagonist, Sherlock-kun, is a scaredy character-less Macguffin who is the only one with actual brain cells in the whole show just because the plot demands it. White hair emotionless waifu (Kirigiri) is also smart but she is mostly useless and does nothing in the show to help. The rest range from ok to cringey. But, I really liked that they each represented a specific stereotype of a person and their appearance helped us understand more or less their main trait. I.e. Hifumi is an eroge-crazed otaku, Junko is your typical, spoiled, diva-esque model, Togami is your typical rich preppy brat that you want to kick his balls etc.
Although the characters are not terrible per se, they are very poorly used in the story and you feel absolutely nothing about most of the cast because the show does not give enough time to connect with them.

The visual department is ok. The only thing I have to say is that the characters look weird and the producers pay great hommage to the game by adding mechanics present in the game and the executions look really creepy and horrific in a good way.

As for the auditory department, it was average. OST and ED were decent but the OP is terrible and irritating.

In conclusion you have an average anime that could have been better if handled with more care and it lasted longer. It is exactly like the first dish you cook in your life. It is not that bad but you could have done it better if you avoided some beginner traps and mistakes.

Overall: 5.58/10

Alternative recommendations:
-Mirai Nikki: Same mistakes but with less good visuals and better music.
-Death Parade: Instead of a battle royale, it has games where you risk your life and whoever loses will "die". Fate of the losers and winners is decided by a third person known as an arbiter. Great audiovisual experience although it falters a bit in the story and characters aspect in a similar manner as Danganronpa did.

I recently got more familiar with the music genre in anime and there are usually three paths the series follow: 1. It becomes one of the best in the medium excelling in other issues and themes the show deals with (e.g. Nana), 2. It is not great but it is decent and there seems to be some effort from the production team to make it work although they fall flat in some areas (e.g. Fukumenkei Noise) and 3. Cringe-worthy, despicable and irritating cash-grabs that have no merit at all and everything modest about the show is completely tossed out of the window. Unfortunately, Fuuka is ... an advocate of the last category. It is exactly on par in terriblness with BanG Dream. Only difference is that BanG Dream is just loli-shit and nothing more. I mean Fuuka tried so hard to be something else it made even the most try-hard of shows look modest, in comparison.

Let's keep this rant short and sweet and make myself clear for the reasons why SAO, Guilty Crown and Kabaneri are much more modest in comparison than this monstrosity. First, the characters are unreal. They are exactly like walking Sims with no personality traits and their aspirations are as hollow as their heads. Fuuka is annoying as hell. She is needy, selfish and she gets what she wants in the end without any hardship to redeem herself. She is like Umaru-chan but worse, since she is portrayed as a realistic "human being". And Haruna is just the typical beta male that changes character when the melodrama demands it. Koyuki is a self-centered cunt who is way too thirsty for Haruna. The rest are not important. Their goals in life, their character development, their importance to the plot are non-existent. The characterization and development of characters is done only when the plot demands it and none is at least likeable or sympathetic. Not even one character is like Captain Boomerang from Suicide Squad who was the only villain who did not make me question the purpose of my life and cringe the hell out of me.

Well, at least the story is fair right? Hell, no! It is a cheap dramafest wirtten by people incompetent at daily life issues like love, friendship, etc. I never thought it would be good because I knew that the show could not be anything more than average when it aired and I hoped that the show would keep me entertained with its music and art.

Hah! What a joke! It even failed at doing right the one thing that anime are good for: pretty colors, good direction and music. The animation was basic as fuck. It had some nice touches here and there but it was so damn generic. It was rather inconsistent towards the end and I found the blue border lines of the characters very distracting and derpy.

And the music...the songs are decent but once you finish this show you will be sick of the OP song and you will have forgotten everything. And the ED is ok but forgettable nonetheless.

I still cannot understand which brilliant mastermind thought Fuuk-ya was a great idea. It is a perfect example of how to not do an anime series or a series in general. Btw, I regret ever considering this amusing.

Overall: 2.68/10

Alternative Recommendations:

-Nana
-Fukumenkei Noise
-Your Lie in April

Anime is a medium in our society that deals with many sensitive topics such as incest, rape and terrorism and there have been cases where the topics are treated with care and understanding and other ones were it is just in there without any proper thought given on the topic. For example, Koe no Katachi handles the theme of bullying with a lot of care by showing what happens from the victim's and the bully's point of view. But, that sometimes works against it, because the victim who is deaf is treated as a person to feel sympathy and no other emotion. This example shows ... exactly how even serious topics like this can be unintentionally sensationalizing the events around them and create problems with the story and the characters. Thus, treating such issues as a main topic in a show can work for and mostly against it if not treated properly.

In Zankyou no Terror's case, terrorism is the issue in discussion. From the outside, the show exudes extreme amount of potential since it is directed by Shinichirou Watanabe and the music is by Yoko Kanno, who is undoubtedly the best music composer in anime. Tackling with such a current matter, especially in Europe and Western Asia, can be trully brilliant. Also, the fact that the story is told from the terrorists' side is even more intriguing, since we get a view from what happens from the other side of the spectrum and why. The motive could be something noble or something appalling but it could give further insight in what led them to believe in such extreme ways to make their opinion clear to the people.

Initially, the show starts pretty good. The first three episodes introduce the main cast and the surface of the reason why the terrorists act in a way that there is no casualty. Nonetheless, after 5 comes into the mix and the logic of the show is thrown out of the window, it becomes like a monstrocity created from a failed exepriment. It is exactly like Dorian Grey. He starts being pretty and young as his portrait but towards the end, the portrait turns even more monstruous and ugly. Similarly, ZnT starts strongly with a great first episode and as it reaches its closure, it becomes worse and more nonsensical and hollow.

The story is the reason why I was initially intrigued by the anime, since it is rare to see anime dealing with this kind of heavy issues. But, the story is like a tablecloth and as time passes, it becomes dirtier and filled with holes that cannot be sown back. A lot of backstory is left untouched and anything about 5, 9 and 12's past is said by infodumping a la Hitchcock but in a more vague and incomplete way. Personally, the last episode was one of the most racist, illogical and terrible final episodes I have seen the past few years.

The worst thing about the whole show was actually the characters who are damn straight horrendous. The story is partially at fault here because we do not get time to actually care about them or even like some of them. Lisa is the worst above all since she is your typical damsel in distress with the depth of a Michael Bay character and a personality of a rice cake. 5 is 1D psycho bitch. 9 is drier than Atacama Desert and colder than the Arctic. 12 is the most unstable character in existence. He changes character whenever the plot wishes for it.

Fortunately, in this soulless piece of an anime, the animation and the sound are excellent and where the reason I watched this self-destructing piece of art crumble to its demise. The animation was handled by studio MAPPA, which was a newfound at the time company by the original founder of Madhouse and for their second anime, they passed the test with flying colours. The character designs are really well-done and the atmosphere and setting is also fluid and beautiful. Thanks to Watanabe's expertise in directing, every frame of the show was close to perfection. Especially the OP and ED of the show were both really beautiful and I never skipped them after watching them for the first time. As for the soundtrack, it was done by Yoko Kanno who is truly a genius. This woman has amazed me a lot of times. All tracks from the ost are great and there is a wide variety, but my personal favorites are lolol, birden, is and nc17. The ED is sung by Aimer whom I hold very dearly in my heart since her songs always gives you ear-orgasms, recently ninelie. As for the OP, it is sung by the singer of Galileo Galilei and his voice fits perfectly since there is a slight sadness, eeriness and despair in his voice which fits the anime.

In conclusion, Zankyou no Terror is like a blank canvas decorated with majestic borders that flaunts its concepts in the shallowest and hollowest manner. It is like having a pharmacy shelf in a museum. It may be considered beautiful and highly acclaimed, but it cannot hide its hollow nature.

Overall: 5.72/10

Alternative Recommendations:
-Ghost in the Shell (1995) & SAC: Yoko Kanno does music in SAC and both versions are deep and handle terrorism in a more detailed-oriented manner.
-Psycho Pass S1: Does not reach the level of goodness of GitS but it is still pretty good and the ost kicks ass, especially its endings.

Music as a genre in anime is usually a mixbag for many viewers since most of the times either the music is not to the viewer's taste or the series deserves to be thrown in a trash can and beaten a thousand times with a baseball bat. However, the anime gods have blessed us in the past with decent and even great shows, like Nana and Beck to name a few. Even getting a music series with a decent plot and not a rushed and shit conclusion is a miracle. Fukumenkei Noise is not at all from the best of its caliber, but *angelic voices ... awing in absolute harmony* it is decent to good.

I had lost faith in this type of anime since the cow manure that Fuuka was. I thought that all anime concerning music will just keep on playing the op song constantly in every episode and have 1 or two original songs. Fukumenkei noise does the exact opposite. It plays the op song only during the first and last episode. Personally, the sound of the show was the best department. I am a fan of this kind of music and I believe that the songs are well-written and fit in well with the show since some of them were written by the mangaka. My personal favorite is Noise since it describes Nino's emotions about Yuzu and indirectly, Momo. The OP is one of my favorites of the season and the ED is even better. The voice actors did good but my least favorite was that of Miou's and Haruyoshi's whom I found extremely annoying.

The story is pretty decent for a shoujo but still flawed. It has many weakpoints in its narrative such as Nino's crazy infatuation about Momo and her complete lack of perception of Yuzu's love. Also, let's say the lalalas were the most annoying part of the whole show and the love triangle is doomed since its character has his own problems. Momo suffers from psychological domestic abuse by his good-for-nothing parents, Yuzu's mom is too overprotective of him and Nino has a crush on Momo who keeps on rejecting her. So the whole situation is a mess but they only find themselves when playing/singing music. It is the only time when they are honest about their feelings and they try to reach the ones they care about. Otherwise, the story is victim of plotholes, such as Yuzu's dad, Miou's character development and the list goes on. However, it holds up nicely till the end and the series ends on a sad but hopeful tone, although it leaves room for a season 2 which will probably never happen, since it is a Brains Base anime.

Talking about Brain's Base, the animation was a little bit above average in the show, which relied heavily on 3D which made the flow of the hands on the guitar more organic but otherwise it has to be one of the least pretty anime I have seen from Brain's Base.

Lastly, the characters is the weakest point of the show who mostly are underdeveloped except from the three mains and the drummer of In No Hurry who is devoid of any personality. I was disappointed with how many were left on the sidelines such as Yuzu's parents and Momo's mother who just served as a creepy reminder that Momo is still under their control and greed. Even though Momo is not treating others nicely at all and can be kind of a pain sometimes, he is actually a good person. However, his way of living have made him lose his childhood and his own path, since he is not free and music does not offer much of a liberation on him due to his abusive mother. If only the show had more episodes explaining important holes in characters, I would have given a better grade overall.

But as it stands, it is by far one of the better anime of the spring season that was sadly unnoticed alongside Uchouten Kazoku 2. It is far better than many on its genre, like BanG Dream and Fuuka, but it is far from great. It is an anime with potential that manages to use around 60% of it. A second season will be greatly appreciated if it ever gets the chance to exist.

Overall: 6.98/10

Alternative Recommendations:

-Nana: Shoujo and music series done right.
-Your Lie in April: I have similar feelings about this anime. Only difference is that in terms of melodrama it wins by a long shot.

Remember in my Psycho Pass Movie review about the movement of Michaelbayanism? Well, in a few words, Persona 4 the Golden Animation belongs in that movement. You could literally rename it to Persona 4 the Cashgrab Animation or Baysona 4 the Michael Bay Animation. In short, it is not good and a disgrace.

When I saw how Golden in comparison to the Original, its score was almost 1 mark lower than the former. I did not think it will be bad until I watched it and...yeah it was poorly done. Despite that fact, there were very few moments when I had fun one being the ... final episode, the second half. The rest is cliched disjointed and a clusterfuck of nonsense.

There was close to zero saving graces for this masterpiece of a series, and the only thing I found good was actually the sound. But that was also poorly used during the series. The op is ok but it grew on me. The ed is the only track I actually liked and the animation in the ending was good. Shoji Meguro is one of my favorite music composers and his passion is shown in the song. It just feels wasted on this Michaelbayan ingenuity of an adaptation.

Who knew that when you see the label A-1 Pictures in a show you should already know what to expect most oftenly: animation and art becomes gradually worse later on, the soundtrack is standard to good and story and characters are not given a shit.

My biggest complaint with this adaptation is that instead of making it a complete series, they just took the opening episode of the original and after that they just put the scenes from P4G. The end result is a mess of a story that has little to no continuity and A-1 shines again with its notorious use of timeskips *cough* SAO S1 *cough*. Characters are bland and a paper-thin imitation of the original. Marie who is the only new character is annoying and typical as hell and the fact that half the series is about her made me rage. She is your typical, annoying, tsundere, amnesiac girl who has a secret that will cause a plot-twist to occur. She is even more annoying than Teddie in this anime who is innately annoying.

This is exactly how not to do a game adaptation and how to do a Michaelbayan chef-d'oeuvre (more like poop-d'oeuvre). A-1 Pictures can do so much better if they handle the story and characters better like in Shinsekai Yori. But clearly, most of the time, their shows end up following the Cashgrab formula.

Video game adaptations are very tricky to do well. You have to make sure you please both the people who are accustomed with the game and those who are not. The story must have a sensible flow of progression and the cast of characters must be faithful and if possible, better than the game. Nonetheless, there are so many cases where the adaptations are schlock for the sake of schlock, recently Assassin's Creed. But most of the time the best level the adaptations can reach are usually up to the level of guilty pleasure and badassery, which at least makes them enjoyable as a popcorn ... flick. But, animated adaptations are a whole other beast to tackle with. The people working in the adaptation do not have physical limits and games that would require years of production for a live-action film can be adapted with greater ease.

I have never played a Persona or Shin Megami Tenshei game in my life and before watching Persona 4 the animation, I had close to zero expectations. The only thing I knew is that it was a cool series. I started watching it and it was decent. But oh boy when I finished it, was I depressed. I really enjoyed this series more than I expected. The comedy was mostly hit with the exception of the bear puns... Teddie is the worst thing to be created after Yukiko, for whom I will talk later.

Let's start with the biggest plus in the series. The art and animation and the sound. The character design was very good in my opinion and Inaba looked like a very vibrant place. The TV world design was very cool since it changed depending on the person trapped in there, i.e. a hot spring, a laboratory and even a strip club. The fighting scenes kicked ass so much. And the animation definitely reinforced the comedy in the show. As for the sound, Shoji Meguro did his thing again. I got addicted to his Persona 5 ost and to be honest, I liked the ost for Persona 4 too. Except the second ending and very few standard tracks, the rest was kick-ass and nice to listen.

The characters mostly are very good. Even Yu felt more natural as the show went on since some time was given for him to get a character, instead of being the (insert personality here) character. Btw Naoto is best girl and your waifu sucks! The only complaints I have for the characters are for Yukiko and Teddie. Yukiko is your class president but without any sort of personality except from the one shown in her episode. Also, who can forget her cringe-worthy bursts of laughter that always happened out of the blue and are very unfunny. If you replaced her with a cupboard it would not make a difference. And now the bane of my existence...Teddie and his dumb, I-want-somebody-to-kill-me-now bear puns or if you watched the sub, his ear-bleeding "Kuma" in every sentence. How un-bear-able! He is an annoying, perverted thing that should close his mouth every once in a while and just not be there for a few episodes, but nope...his un-bear-ableness cannot do that!

Finally, the story which is the weakest part in the show. Although it has its faults such as the two last episodes who took the speed of the first three and multiplied it by 5 and the TV world thingy that does not make a lot of sense in its own way, it is a pretty fun story and even the slice-of-life parts were extremely enjoyable and good for character development. Plus, the way Yu became stronger did not look like an ass-pull but instead his bonds with his friends are what made his Personas stronger. The killer was actually predictable in the end if you have read or seen lots of mysteries.

Overall, Persona 4 The Animation is an underrated hidden gem that not many appreciate and it has a lower average than SAO, because..."it did not adapt fully the game". Definitely worth watching.

I will make just a small review since I have reviewed the first movie and my impressions for both movies are similar. However, Kizumono II made more distinct its air of pretentiousness through its dialogue. It is weird and the topics are also, but that is what makes this series fun and pretentious at the same time. The animation got a bit messier on this film in comparison to the first one but it still looks gorgeous. soundtrack was more pronounced in this film and more memorable and it paid off. The story finally got more speed and started to evolve. Same opinion for characters ... as I had in the last film. Overall, a fun movie and I hope the third installment answers some questions I have about it.

This review is dedicated to all the people who have been there for me through my worst times and my family.

Discrimination is a global phenomenon that happens in all levels and areas of society. By definition, it is the negative distinction of a part from the whole by either victimization of the ones who belong to the part or creation of scapegoats to whom society throws away its problems. In one way, discrimination is a major cause for bullying and especially in elementary school, where kids have not fully grasped an idea of flexibility on their believes. Therefore, whatever seems different or standing out more ... than others, they will deem it as weird or disgusting.

There have been movies dwelling with such issues as bullying and most of the times, the spectators of bullying will not act at all or in the worst case reinforce the bullying. I do not remember in which movie the quote I heard was from, but when I heard what a father told to his son who is a victim of bullying, it boiled my blood. What he mainly told him is that at his age he was a bully and he used to bully a classmate of his and later in the future, the victim thanked him for bullying him, because he gave him a great example of real life and the father even deemed the victim's success as a result from his bullying. In movies, bullying can be seen, but rarely is it thought out in such a way that it has a role more important than just being an aspect of the movie, such as Heathers and Mean Girls. Even hanging out with such people as bullies can turn you into the thing you resent the most unconsciously.

Thankfully, Koe no Katachi is one of those movies which takes the issue very seriously and instead of having it as another element of the main story, it becomes the main story which helps us dive into the psyche of the characters from all aspects of this phenomenon. The story of Koe no Katachi is about Shouya Ishida (Sho) a former bully who now has become an outcast in his school and a reserved person who has no friends, and Shouko Nishimiya (Shouko), a deaf girl who was the victim of Sho's bullying during elementary school because of her condition. It is a tale of finding retribution for the past and of sensitizing the audience against bullying and about the results of such an act to both sides, the bully and the victim. The story is mainly seen from Sho's perspective but we get few glimpses from the perspectives of Shouko and her little sister, Yuzuru about some key events in the story. The story in some moments gets very heavy and heart-wrenching for the viewer who may consider it melodramatic. It is true there are many scenes in the movie that I can pinpoint as eh.. However, from my experience, these events are actually happening in the world and I have been in a way part of these. But, there is always the person that would be there for you directly or indirectly reminding you to forgive yourself and not to put the blame on yourself. It is from people like these that you finally get how beautiful things are that you cannot perceive and if you let go of the past, will you be able to live in the present, as mentioned in the chapter, "On Redemption", in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzsche. Nonetheless there were some moments in the story that felt weird, but they did not have a significant impact in the story which is decent, according to my biased opinion. One thing in the story that I personally disliked is how Shoya's depression and bullying is handled with such care while the deafness of Shouko is treated as a means to pity her and that is all. I did not notice that the first time around and I would like to give my thanks to ZephSilver, since we were discussing about it yesterday and I saw some flaws that were masked by Shoya's part of the story to which I connect a lot.

For a movie with a story that is decent and explored with themes that concern our society, the characters were the weakest aspect of it. The main characters such as Shoya and Yuzuru get enough screentime to be developed especially Sho who is more present in the story than Shouko is. Nonetheless, Shouko is not a good character because she is done in a way that the only emotions I can feel for her is pity due to her condition and her past. Overdramatizing events of the past affected to a great extent my perception of Shouko, because deaf people should be treated in an equal manner as we treat others without any condition or disease. Again, discrimination is a theme that is handled well, but for Shouko most of her character is made up from discrimination, which is a shame. The rest of the cast are a mixbag ranging from very generic and typical, such as Sahara and Miki, to characters that are genuinely interesting but did not get enough screentime to be developed, such as Shouko's mother, Sho's mother and Ueno. It is a Herculean task to adapt seven volumes of content into a two hour film and put everything in it. It felt sometimes that there were some parts that were either rushed or skipped that unfortunately cost the development of some characters that were barely in the film such as Sho's elementary school friends, except Miki and Ueno. Therefore, I cannot give a score more than average for the characters because the only ones that I feel where good where Shoya and Yuzuru, who had the most personality out of all.

In terms of artstyle, this movie has to be KyoAni at its finest. The character designs were not something inconceivable but they felt natural and welcome, except mushroom head (Nagatsuka). The moe factor was also present but to a satisfying level that it did not overimpose itself as in other series, like Kyoukai no Kanata. However, the thing that would make me give a perfect score for the art is the brilliant directing by Naoko Yamada, who did not stop herself at the fluid movements of the characters but also used symbols in the movie as a method to peer into the soul of the character and his/her emotions. For instance, the X on people's faces was used to signify that all those people are one and the same and to show the feeling of exclusion and being trapped in a cage of Sho.
The music was well done for the most part. I really like the opening song by the Who and the ending theme was alright and the weakest song in the movie. As for the ost, it was very suitable for the movie and it stood out at the important parts. In addition, the voice acting was great for most of the characters but the ones that stood out for me where those of Miyu Irino and Saori Hayami. Miyu Irino gave a great performance for a character that is way more down-to-earth and reserved than other characters he has given his voice to, like Yu Hyakuya from Seraph of the End. But Saori Hayami was the best from all voice actors since she had to bring out the most difficult voice of all and she did a great job in it. She has done a pretty good job in other roles but this one has to be her best role so far in her career.

I will not lie that I watched the whole movie from start to finish and I was touched by it in so many ways. But there were some small parts in the movie that inhibited me from completely enjoying it.

Overall, this movie is a stepping stone for KyoAni to try more ambitious projects. It is a movie whose voice echoes within my soul and I feel connected in more than one way with it. With its great animation, heavy, realistic, but melodramatic at some points, story and its good theme exploration, it is a film I can recommend to anyone. And the answer to the biggest question everyone asks: Yes, it is overrated and it does not deserve fourth place on MAL as much as Kimi no na Wa does not desrve the first place.

Overall Score: 7.52/10