I'm begging you! Give this show a chance! This might be my favourite anime of the season thus far. (This is the only anime in this season I've watched)
Make Heroine ga Oosugiru is an anime all about the "secondary love interests" that are found in most romance anime. These girls are the "other women" as pop culture would put it, having been friend zoned by their respective love interests. Each of these girls meets Kazuhiko, our protagonist and stand-in for the audience. Kazuhiko is boring, yes, but he's not a bad protagonist. If anything, his mundane nature balances well with the eccentric or over-the-top personalities
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May 27, 2024 Mixed Feelings
This is going to be short and quick one
When it comes to anime, the horror genre is a tricky one. A fatal flaw arises right from the beginning, as each person has their own definition of horror depending on how imaginative they might be. While some may immediately think of a bunch of gruesome killings, others may think of more eerie supernatural events, and the list goes on, but because of this, the genre has a high chance of failure depending on each person's perception of horror. Unfortunately, Another just happens to fall way outside my definition of horror, and seems to fit very nicely within ... comedy. But hold on a second, this anime isn't just a horror, it's also supposed to be a mystery as well. Every year we're usually greeted with at least one mystery anime per season that I only consider mystery simply because that's what they are labeled. This is because, more often than not, anime that are supposed to be predominantly mystery, surprise, have no mystery to speak of in them, and Another is no different. Alright, well, saying there is absolutely no mystery might be a bit of an exaggeration, but can you really consider Another a mystery? When you get down to it, it was ultimately about finding out who the "Another" was so that they may be able to stop the curse that has been running rampant for 26 years. The problem with this is that for the first four episodes, it was all about Kouichi figuring out who Mei was, seeing as she had the same name as the girl who died 26 years ago, which is what people believe started the curse in the first place. So when we figure out that she is just a normal girl, everything up until this point felt like nothing more than another useless time sink. Here is where it gets into episodes that are completely wasted in favor of cheap shock value to try and keep the viewer hooked. Until episode 10, what did they actually learn about the Another? Nothing of any value. Where's the mystery in that? I don't find random deaths to be mysterious or horrifying in any way, and this is what the series focused on the entire time. One could argue that this narrowed down the possible suspects, but the characters did nothing with this. Even though they might have not been able to do anything to stop the curse, they could've at least devoted more time to actually trying to figure out who the Another is rather than waste time with other daily activities. Throughout the entire series, there were only two episodes that truly served any purpose, one of which was the beach episode. Now, where would any anime be without a beach episode? It's practically mandatory these days, however, it wouldn't be Another without a token death scene in almost every episode now would it? The only good thing this episode did was provide us with one of the bigger clues, which made it very easy to figure out who the Another might be, as it proved that deaths could happen outside of Yomiyama. Meaning that the Another had to be on the trip. The only problem is that the explanation they gave in the next episode made any speculation as to who the Another was entirely useless. It was said that the person who died actually had gotten a brain injury while still in Yomiyama, and would've died later that day regardless of him being run over and torn to shreds by a boat on the beach. With this, it was practically back to square one since you wouldn't know whether or not the information given could be trusted or not. Although, any good mystery relies on misdirection, and this is one thing I can credit Another for at times, as it did try to send you down a wrong path or two as the series progressed, but this small aspect alone doesn't make up for how horribly executed everything else was. The only other episode that had any purpose was episode 9, and regardless of it being the most frustrating one, it did provide some crucial information. As the events played out, Kouichi and his band of half-wits found a tape telling them how to stop the curse from continuing. Now, here comes the frustrating part, one of the geniuses amongst the group had the brilliant idea of ripping the tape out of the tape player to stop it from playing, instead of simply pressing the pause or stop button. You seriously have to invent an entirely new level of imbecile to describe something so moronic. Considering the current standards for incompetence in modern society have set the bar so ludicrously low, this newly discovered form of stupidity deserves some kind of fucking award. The author clearly was looking for an easy out so that they could extend the series just a bit longer, which resulted in the wonder that is the final two episodes. However, there was one thing that was the ultimate "Fuck you" to all of the viewers. More so than the whole tape fiasco in episode nine, and that's Misaki Mei. Not only did they try to make her seem far more important than she was for the first half of the series, but, in one of the worst reveals I've ever had the displeasure of witnessing, they confirm that she was able to tell who the Another was from the very beginning. So with this, anything of relevance that happened in all of the previous episodes was for naught, and that's just absurd. She could have at least tried to speak out and tell the other students that she knew who the Another was, and before you say they wouldn't believe her, take a second to think about this. All of these morons in Class 3 believed in a completely nonsensical curse that was nothing more than superstition until it was proven to be true in the final episode. Yes, nothing could've been done regardless if she told someone or not, but due to the fact that she actually knew the entire time, the mystery was already technically solved since the beginning. It was only a matter of figuring out how to get rid of the Another, which took seven episodes of cheap deaths, one episode to figure out how to stop the curse, one episode of half the class dying and/or killing each other, and half of the final episode to reveal and kill the Another. Am I the only one who sees a problem here? There was no actual deducting or piecing together of the puzzle. All Mei had to do was convince Kouichi that his aunt was the Another (which went over far too easily by the way), and it was over. I'm not saying that all the deaths could've been avoided, but I'll be damned if Mei isn't partially to blame for sitting around doing all of nothing for the previous eleven episodes. This is in no way a mystery. The beginning of the series could be considered an infinitely better mystery than the latter half, as you really have no idea who or what Mei is and what role she actually plays in the story until half way through the fifth episode. Not only was the "mystery" handled very haphazardly throughout, but the horror and supernatural aspects were as well. Even now, this series isn't listed under supernatural, most likely because horror usually blends with supernatural in some way, but knowing that this series has supernatural elements only makes everything far worse. From the beginning, we're introduced to the central plot point: the curse that started 26 years ago that still takes the lives of people today. The problem with this is that throughout the series, the curse felt like nothing more than superstition. Almost every single death throughout the bulk of the series, and especially the ones in episode eleven could be logically explained in some way rather than only explainable by taking supernatural elements into consideration. There was only one death that truly felt so farfetched that it could only seem like the work of the supernatural hand , and that was the elevator death in episode four. However, no matter how small the chance of it happening is, it was still within the realm of possibility. I understand that hospital elevator cables snapping may seem ridiculous, and it really is, but you can't rule out this having happened at least once in documented history. As for the rest of the deaths, they're all easily explained. The umbrella death in episode three? Dying by falling down a flight stairs is entirely possible on its own, but regardless of this being in the original source or something P.A. Works changed, Dead Girl #1 falling on the umbrella was purely done for trying to hook the audience, and there is no easier way of doing that than making some over-the-top death scene which all the mindless little sheep will endlessly ejaculate over. Episode five? Heart attack. If I honestly have to explain this one, I'll probably lose what little hope I have left in humanity. Episode seven? Simple suicide. The real question here is why did the teacher who commited suicide have to make such a spectacle of his death? Here's a hint: shock value. And they aren't don't yet, oh no. Not only were most of the deaths earlier on in the series blown way out of proportion, P.A. Works felt the need to try and make episode eleven able to rival the entirety of a series like Higurashi in terms of deaths and overblown character reactions. So here we have a bunch of teenagers scared for their life each and every day, wondering if they'll be the next ones to die, and through the magic that is the adolescent mind, one of the previously mentioned half-wits lets two unstable girls listen to the tape so that they may also learn the marvelous way of how to stop the curse. Queue a ridiculous amount of jumping around between scenes that would make even Shinbo jealous of their artistic direction. To say this episode was shizophrenic would be quite the compliment. Even though there may seem to be a lot going on in this episode, there is absolutely nothing to it in the end. It's just a meaningless massacre where everyone is dying from a series of random events like having a pillar falling on top of them, being incinerated by flames or simply being killed by one other in some twisted way due to mass hysteria, paranoia and/or plain idiocy. This all goes right back to Mei, as this entire thing could've been avoided if she had spoken up sooner about who the Another is, instead of letting the entirety of Class 3 believe it was her. Even once she revealed to Kouichi that she in fact knew who the Another was (we heard this twice), Kouichi never bothered to ask her who it was the entire time before or after they were being hunted by everyone else in the mansion and Mei never brought it up again. Not only was there no real mystery to begin with, withholding the information that could've easily solved this "mystery" a couple episodes ago puts her at fault for just about everything. Not the Another. Either way, no matter how you look at it, every single death in this series was very highly dramatized to the point of absurdity for the simple sake of selling Blu-Rays. People like nonsensical violence, that's just how it is. Many series have success through using shock value (Madoka, for example), so I can't necessarily blame P.A. Works for this, as they were just trying to make money like everyone else in the world, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it was all completely superficial with no deeper meaning other than people dying for the sake of dying. If I wanted to see that, I would just turn on the news. So, what exactly was Kouichi's role in all of this? Being the protagonist of the series, one would imagine that he would be the one solving the mystery by piecing together the puzzle; yet he's just as useless as the rest of the cast. His purpose was finished once he figured out the story of Mei and why she was being ignored by their class in the first place. After this, he, just like everyone else, was tagging along for the ride until the conclusion finally came around. Did he piece together evidence based on everything he's heard and encountered to come to the conclusion that the Another was his aunt? No, that was Mei. The only purpose he served in the end was providing us with irrefutable proof that his aunt was the Another by recalling memories that even he forgot until Mei spoke with him about it during the final episode. While this wasn't necessarily bad, as he does get points for not being a beta protagonist like you would imagine him to be, it certainly wasn't good. Now, assuming you're not counting the death fodders that people like to call characters, by simple process of elimination, Mei is the only character left to go over, and she is by far the worst character in this series. Random Dead Kid #92 was more memorable and even had better characterization and development than she ever had. There was no real depth to her character, and unlike Kouichi, she served no purpose other than actually causing more problems for everyone around her, making her more of an antagonizing force than the Another was. Add in the fact that if she didn't have something unique to her design, she's completely indicernable among the myriads of Ayanami Rei clones out there. So what, she has a sad past, but who hasn't gone through something like losing a loved one nowadays? It could've been much worse, and I actually expected it to be seeing as just about everything else was expanded upon so ridiculously in this series. The only ounce of development that actually she received was during the mid-point of the series, which is arguably the only decent portion of it, and that's just because you finally learn about her as more than "The bitch that no ones gives two fucks about." However, among the countless death fodders and pitiful excuses for characters, there is one who stands among the rest, simply for being one of the ones I hate to see the most in any given work: and that's the catalyst for an overdramatized event. In the case of Another, it would be the woman who owned the mansion that Class 3 went to on their trip. She had all of maybe 3 lines the entire time she was on screen, and was viewed as a side character of no importance, yet, out of nowhere, she decided to go on a random killing spree. This came on suddenly and was completely unwarranted, which just detracted from the main focus of the finale. During the final episode, they did decide to leave us with one terrible justification for her actions: she was said to be emotionally unstable due to the death of her grandson, but this should in no way trigger her actions seeing as his death happened earlier in the series, and by the fact that she went on the murdering spree BEFORE the news was leaked about Mei presumably being the Another. She merely served as a catalyst to help drive home the paranoia in the already unstable kids staying at the mansion, thus triggering a few of them going batshit insane after they found out that Mei was believed to be the Another. I don't even consider the old woman to be a character, but a horribly written plot device that was bad enough to actually be addressed. One of the biggest problems with this series is, of course, the ending. Stating the obvious, they need to kill the Another so that the curse will be stopped. The only problem with this is that, while the curse is stopped for this year, each person whose life was taken by the curse has a chance to be brought back to life the next year. So, in the end, killing the Another does nothing for anyone in the future, only for the present year. Not only is the curse absolutely ridiculous, it adds on yet another layer of absurdity to everything by giving a nonsensical reason for how it started and why it continues today. Said given explanation is that 26 years ago, the people of Class 3 decided to believe that their classmate who had recently died, wasn't actually dead. Due to this, the curse continued to run rampant each year simply because it could, and it can never be stopped. In the end, the supernatural aspect is nothing more than a terrible excuse to shovel garbage down the throats of the people who eat up pointless deaths. And that is not how horror should work. If there is any credit I can truly give to Another, it's the simple attention to detail that's present in things like the background, exemplary of almost every P.A. works anime. Sadly, this is quite easily the strongest point of this series. The atmosphere was great at times, yet seemingly over done at others. The main problem with this is that an anime can't be successful with only a few parts out of the many that make it up, especially not something like the atmosphere which requires other aspects of the series to be good in such a manner that it enhances the experience. More often than not, the atmosphere was ruined not because it was actually overdone, but because the scene taking place was horribly executed. In turn this made everything that took place work against any positive aspect the atmosphere might have provided. In combination with the overbearing OST that sounded like an angsty teenager turning their stereo up to over 9000 in some apparent misguided sense of rebellion against society; it more than kills any good mood that a scene might have been giving off in record time. At this point, I think it might be P.A. Works who is cursed. Every anime they've produced has had a strong beginning, a core that gets progressively weaker and ultimately yields a poor conclusion. This trend hasn't changed through any of their work, and Another is no different. It had the potential to be a good mystery, but started to focus on all the wrong aspects as it progressed, and became nothing more than another twelve weeks of my life wasted.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 21, 2024
Re:Monster
(Anime)
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Not Recommended Preliminary
(6/12 eps)
Re:duce, Re:use, ecyce.
This is a Re:view for Re:monster (get it cuz it's like how they title each episode, so it's like parodying how the anime titles each episode so it has a comedic effect) So, I have to be completely honest...I don't know how this has a rating of 6.8 right now. Maybe most of these review scores were after the first 2 episodes or something when the self-narration seemed appropriate and was tolerable. Now on episode #6, Rou is still just giving us a daily play-by-play of who he killed, what gear he found, which powers he absorbed, how many women he drugged and raped ... and which of them are now in love with him. To be clear, I have a huge problem with SA in real life, but don't really have any issue with it being in anime as long as there's a need for it in the story. Case in point, I feel the SA that happened in episode 1 of Goblin Slayer was 100% necessary to portray just how vile goblins are and just how broken Goblin Slayer is in his head. Even Redo of Healer was understandable seeing as he's undergoing and eye for an eye revenge arc. However, the rape in Re:Monster is just...appalling. He drugs and rapes women of other species and they immediately fall in love with him. This last one actually begged him not to take her virginity. This is not to even mention the fact that he's around 8-10 feet tall at this point and one can only assume he either has an 18" dick or is horribly disproportionate. So, are all these women massive sluts that like horse dick? Or was one of the powers he absorbed Luffys ability to control the length of body parts at will? If this was a hentai, all of this would be completely par for the course. But, it's not. The worst part about the rape is that it's completely contradictory to the way he handled the initial batch of female prisoners brought in by the older generation of goblins. He absolutely forbid anyone from defiling them only to turn around and immediately start raping all new prisoners. It just makes no sense. It could have made sense in a "I'm losing the battle with the monster in me" type of way, but every female in the cave loves him before and after being raped..so that's definitely not what the mangaka was going for. Long story short, this anime is trash and since it's an accurate retelling of the manga...the manga is trash as well. Im a huge proponent of "just because you don't like something, it doesn't mean other people dont"l," but I honestly don't see how anyone can like this garbage. Even without the rape the way the story is told through daily updates is horribly trite and boring.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Dec 14, 2023
Steins;Gate
(Anime)
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In the beninging, In the, in the benin… In the beninging. Yah, In the, in, in In the (listen properly) In, in the beninging, yeah
Steins;Gate is a twenty four episode series adapted from visual novel game by White Fox studio in 2011. It tells a story of eighteen years old self-proclaimed mad scientist Okabe Rintarou who by accident created a time traveling technology. We will follow the story and see what impact it will have on his life. Series consists of mature themes such as social anxiety, self-sacrifice, abandonment, violence including murder, abuse of power, guilt complex. References to otaku culture are plenty and are part of most of the ... running gags in the show. Character cast is fairly big and diverse. Main character of the story is Okabe Rintarou. He is socially inept teenager who creates different personalites to overcome his social anxiety. Most commonly he tells people to call him by his true name Kyouma Hououin who is mad scientist. He likes to pretend to work against "Organization" that is always coming after him. He behaves in a way to give an impression of being delusional and paranoid by doing things like talking to himself on the phone or laughing like a maniac thinking it makes him look cool. He rarely calls people by name and gives them various nicknames instead like assistant or mainstream girl. Despite his claims to be evil scientist he cares deeply about his friends and will go to great lenghts to help them. He is naive and gets deceived easily despite his high intelligence. On occasion he is seen calm and very rational without his usual theatrics. He is deeply trusted by his friends and they usually follow his lead. Makise Kurisu is second most important character of a show. Highly accomplished genius who graduated from university at the age of seventeen. She developed strong personality due to working with people significantly older than her who were jealous of the attention she receives. Scientist at heart she will fight tooth and nail with anybody claiming something unscientific and try to change their mind. She is capable to change her opininon if presented with solid evidence. Her abilities allow them to develop time machine technology. She hates being called by nicknames and is usually fighting with Okabe over this. Third major character in the story is Itaru Hashida. Best friend of Okabe and computer specialist. Short and overweight man who is always making inappropriate remarks. He is the person who gets the information needed on everything related to time machine technology and can build things pretty well too. Review by Hunt1234. Side characters consist of Okabe childhood friend Mayuri Shiina, Rumiho Akiha who works at maid cafe they frequent, Mayuri classmate Ruka Urushibara, part-time worker at the CRT store below lab Suzuha Amane and part-time editor Moeka Kiryuu. Show does very good job with character interactions and development. Every character has a role in the story and receives a proper conclusion. Pace of the show is slow at the start and sharply increases after few episodes and stays that way till the end. It is good in keeping audience glued to the screen and wanting to watch another episode. Show switches between comedic slice of life theme to thriller and action a lot. Music is very strong point of the series especially sad piano songs which emphasize struggle and helplesness of the main hero. Voice acting is also top notch with Okabe standing out the most. Moments of sadness and helplessness are depicted perfectly and we notice gravity of the situation just from his voice. I would definitely recommend this show as it has everything you look for. Good drama with elements of romance, suspense, psychological and thriller with small sci-fi elements, likable and diverse cast of characters, high quality audio and art. Not many shows consist so many different elements that are done so well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 11, 2023
Fire Punch
(Manga)
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I love how insane this manga is, and before i new it... I found myself with a clenched fist...
Fire punch is a very complicated series, yet at the same time it is a very simple series. The story initially follows Agni, our fire boy himself, and his quest for revenge for his permeant curse of always being burned alive along with avenging his sister in the brutal frozen wasteland he lives in but soon transforms into an in depth analysis of nihilism, what what it means to live, and why to continue living. The first chapter which I think is one of the most well ... written hooks to a story presents the reader with the most vile and tragic, yet over the top, backstory. In fact "over the top" is the perfect way to describe this series, characters get absolutely butchered in fights, blood and flames flying around, some characters motivations are literally to rape children, or force people to have sex with dogs, which I can see would turn people off from the series, but fits well with the environment this story takes place in, and if you're a sick fuck like me, is honestly pretty funny, but I can also see why that would turn people off so if you can't deal with that then this manga ain't for you. While I could go on about how great this manga is I feel talking about its "problems" would be a lot easier to digest. One critique I see a lot in this series is the author being "lazy" with the way he writes the characters, plot, and even some fights. I do not find it lazy and more just unique in the way it breaks almost every Shonen trope and takes the reader far outside what their used to. I will break all these elements down one by one to be efficient. Characters: While the characters are written well, many supporting characters introduced are quite literally killed off after one chapter. Some characters even have goofy motivations as mentioned previously, but this story doesn't need to focus on the side characters as it is the story about Agni. While there are other "main" characters, Agni is the only one that truly matters, the protagonist. This manga is about his journey to find purpose, the other characters around him are there to guide him, or in most cases force him farther into the pit of despair. It is so clear that he is the main character to the point that in the manga characters quite literally call him the protagonist or even God. Again the side characters are still SUPER well written, goofy, cool, and some of the most funny I've ever seen, but that does not mean they matter. This author loves to put some of the most bad ass characters in front of you just to show you how little they really matter in the plot and immediately kill them off as they are not the protag, therefore why do they matter? Fights: This one is can be explained pretty fast. The problem some people have are not that the fights are bad, but that the author sometimes just decides to show the before and after of a fight and not the fight itself, which I think is funny, the author is quite literally spitting in the face of the viewer who is accustom to seeing every fight play out in front of them. I think that is another great part about this manga, it brings the reader out of their comfort zone, doing completely crazy and unexpected things just for shits and giggles, literally a troll, but even with it being a troll its hilarious and not to mention the fights you do see (which is the majority, very few fights are skipped) are some of the most bat shit INSANE fights I've ever seen. Story: Here we are at the most shit on part of this manga the story. I'm just going to be blunt this story is all over the place, the best word I can think of to describe it is RAW. Even through its many plot twists, insane motivations, and constantly spinning plot, as I said at the beginning its core story is simple. its weird because I can't think of a series that does the same that Fire Punch does in that on the surface it is this complicated mess, but the deeper you dive you begin to understand how simple the story really is. I won't spoil anything, but I will tell you if you begin questioning the plot at all, STOP, just keep reading and watch the Fire Punch beat the shit out of some people, watch as his character changes, watch the story of a man who has experienced true pain and what that pain ended up birthing. This review was primarily focused on Agni as that is what the manga is primarily focused on, but there are other amazing characters in this story. I say the plot is simple at its core, BUT that does not mean that this manga has nothing to offer plot wise as we see differing world views, lots of symbolism and references to other works, dope ass developments in the plot, but just remember in the end this is the story of what it means to live, which is a question that is not simply awnswered, but I think fire punch did it super well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 28, 2023 Recommended
Well, that took a while !!!
After Naruto, Bleach, and attempting One Piece and getting about 70 episodes in and having had about 1 hour worth of actual content, anything else this long was looking ropey. But then I watched MSG 79 and Zeta, 100 episodes worth with very little filler, restoring faith in the longer form series. So what's good about this? EVERYTHING. Imagine if Broadchurch or early GoT quality of writing, but even better . This is my new standard for ALL media - it can be done... Respect must be paid to Masayuki Kojima, the director. Instead of "adapting" or rather "screwing it all up by inserting ... their ego that they're better than the original writers that made the thing in the first place" (anything the current crop of exceptionally low quality US writers get involved in > Netflix's exceptionally bad Cowboy Bebop), he's done a direct adaption and it's all the better for it. Similar to what he more recently did with Made in Abyss. Art - No CGI! Yes, it's getting there with things like Demon Slayer. The art has been adapted directly from the manga, and all the better for it. Story - Genuine wow: Naoki Urasawa IS clever. He has done his research on psychology and on Europe. The amount of effort he put in pays off for all of us. Everything hinges together > it's both character driven and story driven > and is perfect. Going back to my opening, 74 episodes whiz by because every episode counts, unravelling the masterfully setup mysteries one by one, all paying off satisfactory as they're not abysmal Damon Lindelhof "mystery box with no actual answer". Music - Another highlight - from opening and general OST by Kuniaki Haishima to the ED by David Sylvian... perfect. Anything wrong? That second EP music - really doesn't fit. So bad, the community took it on itself to run through all of it and put the David Sylvian ED on ALL the episodes. Whomever did this deserves a medal.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 17, 2023
Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World
(Anime)
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Recommended
“WOW, Nooo way !!!”
That sentence was always the one thing that endured in my mind as soon as the screen had faded away. As the ED played on in the background, this was all that dared be present in my head. It’s a powerful feeling, a morbid mix of shock, awe, and melancholy that leaves behind a particularly special kind of impression. I felt like I just reached the end of an entire show after finishing a single episode. Kino’s Journey leaves behind great impact. It’s something only a show like The Twilight Zone can ever really match. When you compare them, there’s nothing but striking ... similarity. There’s always something off. Sometimes, it’s clear as day. Things are moving when they’re not supposed to. Places are deserted. The sky isn’t blue. Other times, you just can’t put your finger on it. That hasty man you just passed by seemed to be hiding something, but maybe he’s just late for work. People look at you with dirty suspicion even if nothing you’re doing is wrong. You feel as if your shadow had got up and left, but when you look down, it’s still right there underneath your feet. Maybe everything starts completely normal, a completely average day, but something happens along the way that violently puts everything into the realm of abnormality. Whatever it is, it is clear that you are not in Kansas anymore. You’ve just entered the Twilight Zone. *Twilight Zone music plays* Within this realm of ambient menace, things start to build up. The air starts to move. Feelings turn into choices. Actions beget reactions. Things escalate. Then… climax. The climax is central to everything in the two shows. Ranging from simplistically brilliant as that of Time Enough to Last (S1E08 of Twilight Zone) to brutally tragic as that of A Kind Land (E13 of Kino’s Journey), climaxes are these two shows’ forté. Whether it is a plot twist that so perfectly brings a new light to all pre-established context or a five-second tragedy that burns its message into memory, these two shows have shattering climactic impact and indulge in it. There is, however, another work out there that is also worth comparison. Ever read The Little Prince? Life is a journey, and the wisest men are those who have traveled it the most. Some travel it with a destination, and others without. Some who travel it have a home to come back to like the little prince’s small comet and his perfect but ephemeral rose. Others do not, finding solace in the journey, like Kino the traveler who refuses to be anything but a traveler. Some are hesitant because of what they had to leave behind, those unmaintained volcanoes and that neglected lamb, while others feel nothing but desire to journey, looking up at the birds and desiring to follow them. These two works are about travelers. As they journey, they meet new people, people whose eyes see different sights and whose minds think different thoughts. And from them, they learn. Whether or not those people they meet are wise beyond their years such as the fox that must be tamed or foolish in their ways such as the lands wrought by misinterpretation, good travelers learn from them nonetheless because, no matter what, the views of the people they meet will expand their own. And that is the essence of these two shows. These two works are centered around showcasing concepts and ideas you would have never even considered if you were holed up at home. These two works are philosophical, asking questions you wouldn’t have pondered on if you never went out to look for them. These works’ impact now extends beyond emotional as with the Twilight Zone. They leave philosophical impact, the type that changes how you think of and see the world. Now that I’ve touched upon the subject of philosophy, I must give you a warning regarding this and how Kino’s Journey has handled it that may dissatisfy viewers. You may see this as a criticism of the show, but you may also see this as a defense of this show from others’ criticism. Kino’s Journey doesn’t go in-depth with the themes it presents. The show doesn’t dig further to all but a few of the logical conclusions the subject matter implies. It leaves these subjects open-ended, with few comments, both stated and implied, being all there is to further deepen them. Unlike the Little Prince whose protagonist has much to say on its ideas and whose narration has much to say on its protagonist, Kino’s Journey saves on its commentary, just like its protagonist. Because of this presentation choice, the viewer is free to wonder about the philosophical concepts as deep as he chooses. Kino’s Journey doesn’t explain its ideas so much as invite the viewer into thinking about them, a process the show has mastered with its impeccable tone-crafting. This means that the viewer wouldn’t be forced into complicated reasoning when he doesn’t want to and that the viewer wouldn’t find himself disagreeing with what the show is trying to say. However, this also means a bounty of discussion-worthy material is neglected. Some questions stem from previous answers, and neglecting to provide these answers, however subjective, also means neglecting to ask these following questions. There’s a whole threshold of enlightening topics that could’ve been reached if the show took more advantage out of the biased viewpoint of its protagonist like The Little Prince. This would disappoint and lessen the show’s impact on some. Yet, when Kino’s Journey does attempt a deeper commentary on its ideas, its results polarize. Kino’s Journey is at its worse when it is directed in a way that dictates to you what you should think. You’re obligated to agree. If you disagree, that’s it. Your willing suspension of disbelief is destroyed, and the impact this show is so good at crafting is ruined. You are now limited in the ways you can think about the subject matter. If you agree with what the show is saying at these moments, then great. No problem. However, if you don’t, you won’t like some episodes. The episodes that are like I described (from the top of my head so be wary of what I say) are episodes one, three (kinda), the latter half of five, and nine. That’s already more than a fifth of the entire series, but I assure you that all the rest is worth it. The show is at its best when Kino herself does the commentary. When she comments on each presented idea, it doesn’t feel like the show is forcing any specific viewpoint on you. Instead, it feels like you’re talking to someone who sees the world in a specific light. You’re not obligated to agree with Kino. Instead, Kino presents an alternate perspective which builds upon the ideas yet allows the viewer to break away from. This has the added effect of adding nuance to Kino’s character, allowing us to form a personal connection with her. There is a lot that constitutes character nuance, but worldview is a large part of it, and slowly etching out what exactly this worldview is also means slowly etching out her character. Now, once we accept Kino as an actually interesting and nuanced character, we’re willing to accept what Kino says, even if we don’t necessarily agree. I want to point out that Kino also manages to do implicit commentary. She says many things on the matter at hand indirectly through her humanly emotional reactions to them, such as through her expressions or actions. Sometimes, even without making any clear body or facial expression, we still are able to at least get the gist of her emotional reaction through the way the scene is directed. It is through these emotional reactions that we can understand the ideas in a way other than logic and reasoning. We are able to understand them in a personal way through Kino. Now that I’m talking about her, I want to talk a bit more about Kino. She is a protagonist who is fleshed out and interesting to watch… but only sometimes. Sometimes, she is a well-characterized character whose worldview, motivations, and emotions are subtly apparent to the viewer through her choices, has a wide range of expressions, and who’s not some wise know-it-all which most protagonists from this genre often end up being. Yet other times, she’s utterly lifeless, merely a distant passive watcher. This happens when the narrative situation and its themes don’t directly involve her. One could argue that at these points, there is no need for Kino to be more than a caricature. She’s not important at these times. I challenge this notion. But, at some of the best points of the show such as episodes one and ten, a fleshed-out and expressive Kino brings a whole new level of quality and enjoyment despite the themes of the episodes not being necessarily associated with her own worldview. In episode one, Kino’s kind action at the end of the episode showed us that the themes presented, although seemingly distant from normal life, do indeed apply to all of us, including Kino. And the show does so with Kino doing something that is SO her which ends the episode with impactful closure. In episode ten, Kino is far more expressive than usual, smiling more and participating in more banter with Hermes. Nothing drastic was done to her. They just added a small touch to her personality. Because of this, the downtime before the climax, during the exposition and rising action, is far more enjoyable to watch. It’s not as if the climax or its impact was changed in any way, but the overall enjoyment of the episode was improved. Because of these two examples, I am inclined to believe that Kino’s Journey would improve significantly if Kino was consistently expressive, fully characterized, and present in the narrative situation of each episode despite not being a direct actor within it at all times instead of being used as a mere far away observer. Another thing of note is Kino’s backstory in episode four and the first “movie”. It’s nothing too significant, but I’m glad that despite Kino’s worldview clearly being shaped by her past, she is not defined by it. It just adds to Kino’s overall maturity. Nonetheless, I didn’t like Kino’s sudden change in the “movie”. It was grating and seemed completely unrealistic to me. I’d expect at least some gradualness but the show goes straight from old Kino to new Kino. Ending my discussion on the protagonist, I also want to point out Kino’s character debut. The first we see of her is a desperate side of her, stripped of the basic human need of water. This immediately adds depth to the usual quiet traveler we see by showing another more human and primitive aspect of her right from the start. We are also introduced to the way Kino and Hermes banter which is half-comedic, half-intellectual. No jokes are cracked, but the feeling of their repartee and the relationship between them is solidly established. I also want to make not of the oversaturated black-and-white they used to represent the scorching heat of the desert they were in. I feel like it hammers the feeling of hot desert far better than other methods of cinematography in hot environments. At this point, I feel like I’ve said the crux of what I wanted to say about this show, but, before I conclude, let me just discuss some aesthetic and miscellaneous points. I understand most people would mostly be neutral towards the show’s overall artstyle. It’s fairly storybook which helps with the already storybook premise of going on a journey to strange lands, but it’s obvious this show is from the early-2000s, containing almost all of the facets of that time period’s art. The animation is unmemorable as well, nothing standing out. It’s clear that a lot of frame-saving methods were used. Sometimes, it can even be grating, with the bad 2D-3D composition in the second “movie” created by SHAFT where they used some ugly CGI. I usually love SHAFT, but man. That “movie” needed to calm down with the CGI backgrounds. I feel like the OP had enough character that those who watched the show would be able to immediately associate the OP with the show just by listening to the first few seconds. Other than the ethnic woodwind that plays during contemplative moments, the rest of the soundtrack and sound design is mostly unmemorable. One last unmemorable aspect of the show is the cinematography and directing. Other than the oversaturated black-and-white directing choice in the show’s opening scene, I hold to memory no other moment from the show with noteworthy cinematography. The background art should be significant because this contributes a lot to the feeling of going to new places, but the color palette completely destroys any positive effect the backgrounds may have. Each new country has a different background art which supposedly should give each country its own personality, adding a lot to the feeling of traveling, but the constant color palette of browns and dirty greens makes all these places feel the same. It’s a big shame. Hermes feels a bit too much like one of those “quirky” sidekicks, those ones that make sarcastic quips whenever something happens that may or may not be funny. He eventually grew on me though. The banter between him and Kino brightens up the mood sometimes, and he is a good companion which is always good to have on a journey. I don’t think he’s symbolic of anything like everyone says he is though. Lastly, Kino is canonically around fifteen to sixteen years old. HOW THE HELL IS SHE FIFTEEN-SIXTEEN YEARS OLD!? This does not make any sense. I know many fifteen and sixteen-year-olds. Those people do not at all have the emotional maturity as she does, but I guess that’s what traveling for a living does to you. In conclusion, Kino’s Journey manages to be impactful in the same way The Twilight Zone and The Little Prince are. It stands out from its artistic medium in the same way those two other works do from their own. There are quite a lot of issues with its philosophical content and the way it’s presented and with Kino herself and the way she’s characterized, however, the show is still very much worth watching for the impact it’s so good at crafting. If anything else, it does make you feel like you’re traveling without making you suffer the horrible hell that is economy class airplane seating. Overall, I rate this show an 8.5/10. + great impact + great tone-crafting + replicates in the viewer's mind the philosophical thought processes one has when travelling + fleshed-out protagonist (but not all the time) + a tonal and structural mix of The Twilight Zone and The Little Prince + interesting philosophical topics brought up + protagonist has nuanced commentary on these philosophical topics + protagonist's character debut is masterful + protagonist is not defined by her backstory = inoffensive artstyle = inoffensive animation = inoffensive music and sound design = inoffensive cinematography and directing -- doesn't explore its topics to satisfactory depth -- sometimes is structured to force you to agree with it or then your willing suspension of belief is broken -- protagonist can be boring and one-dimensional at points -- protagonist's backstory in the first "movie" is grating -- composition of 2D objects over 3D backgrounds in the second "movie" is not that great -- potential for the background art to add towards the feeling of journeying is ruined by repetitive color palette *If you can, please try to read the review itself instead of these outline points. A lot of the points I make in the review are hard to simplify down to simple clauses.*
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 17, 2023 Recommended
Very similar to monster. It's like monster but in another world.
Pluto is a mature adaption of one of the most iconic arcs of Astro Boy. The manga, by the same name, is widely considered a masterpiece and is a deep passion project for the writer. I want to keep this mostly spoiler-free. I would highly recommend going into this blind, and if you love Seinen anime/manga, you will have an absolute blast here. Pluto comprises some of the most well-written and heartfelt characters whose story reaches a perfect end. Every single character from the original arc in Astro Boy has been given justice in this remake. ... Atom (Astro Boy Himself) and Gesicht are the main leads of this show and both of them never fail to keep me engaged. The suspense is all very well done and the conclusion to it all is personally among my favorite endings in fiction. Pluto, isn’t just any story focusing on humans and robots, it is THE story focusing on humans and robots. Going into Pluto I knew we would get a brilliant adaption because the project was led by Masao Maruyama. He founded Madhouse and MAPPA, who specifically founded this new studio to adapt extremely well-deserving and overlooked mangas akin to Pluto. The animation is stellar for the most part, but at times some special effects don’t go too well and make the scene look weirdly blurry. Overall, they have done justice to the source material and it is as good of an adaption as any fan could’ve asked for, 10/10. Moreover, some of the other masterpieces he produced are Monster, Perfect Blue, Death Note, Hunter x Hunter (2011), Nana, Trigun, Hellsing Ultimate, Paprika, Kids on the Slope, and Tokyo Godfathers, among many others, the guy has been the driving force for masterpieces left and right. Also, the music composition is being done by Yuugo Kanno, who is well known for his extremely popular JoJo opening themes. The Mangaka Naoki Urasawa is well known for his genius in developing murder mysteries or suspenseful tales that get increasingly interesting as you read. He has genuinely created some of the most masterful stuff in modern entertainment, and to finally see this manga by him get such a phenomenal and passionate adaption feels so good; I waited for so long to get one. I hope that Pluto is successful enough that we get an adaption of 20th Century Boys, which is another manga by Urasawa.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 2, 2023 Recommended
Puparia is a stunningly beautiful short that's well worth your time, all three minutes of it. 🤣
The biggest selling point here is the visuals. The art is absolutely God-tier, each frame could be a painting. It has a level of detail and vibrancy that you rarely see in anime. What I appreciated most was that as detailed as it was, it was aiming for something different than hyper-realism - it was very creatively stylised and illustrative. I just loved looking at it, evidenced by the fact that I've seen this short four times already. However, I can see that perhaps some people wouldn't like it ... since it's different to the typical anime style. 🤣 In terms of story, I can't particularly comment a lot - it's a very short anime, it clocks in at around 3 minutes and it has no dialogue. There are several scenes shown in this anime, but it's not made clear whether there is any through line or connection between them. There's a certain pensiveness in all the scenes and a sense of fantasy or supernatural in almost all of them but I'm not going to try to discern any deeper meaning or symbolism to try and avoid sounding pretentious. I was completely transfixed as I watched Puparia. It has a hypnotic quality to it, largely due to the intricacy of the animation and the style of music used. I don't have much to say on the music except that it's fantastic and perfectly fitting for the visuals. Animation doesn't always have to be about complex plots or well-developed characters, that's not what Puparia is trying to do. What it does achieve is beautiful aesthetics, a great atmosphere, and a mysterious vibe. The rest of it is up to you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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