IR0K's Profile - Reviews - MyAnimeList.net

Last OnlineJul 10, 9:02 AM
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BirthdayJul 31, 2003
JoinedOct 13, 2021

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Dec 28, 2021

Umibe no Étranger (Anime) add

Mixed Feelings

Both the Manga and the related Anime had an interesting premise for me: Two main characters fleeing or pushed out of their regular lifes living on an island. Both characters somewhat struggling with their feelings, also regarding the issues in their personal lifes. Also the job of the protagonist as a young novelist has great potential for the story. Apart from this, the art style hooked me the first time I saw the Manga and the Trailer of the Anime was also amazing in terms of art. To conclude: I had quite high expectations for this movie... So the disappointment got even worse.

Even with all ... these interesting premises from Setting, Characters and Art the whole movie lacks something important: Development and coherence. Both of the characters barely get any introduction whatsoever. After the poor introduction you get to see them in a "kind-of" relationship in a blink of an eye. Within the first minutes there are a great number of random cuts which makes it even more incomplete. Then after only 12 minutes (!) of this chaotic mix of random scenes, small time gaps and their relationship lacking any development, you get confronted with the deuteragonist Mio leaving the island. You may at least expect a deeper explanation not being "I want to grow up" but you get nothing.

After a three year time gap the two main characters get back together. And you may ask yourself what happened in between, especially regarding Mio. But you don't get any flashbacks or at least explanations whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, a time gap doesn't need to be filled out completely, there are great examples of Anime where a time gap made the story even greater. It can leave great space for our imagination and may safe us from unnecessary story elements. However this can't work when you barely know the main characters, let alone their background and development. It just feels out of place and their actions following that get even more unreasonable. The ellipsis in narrative we experienced before the time skip just continuous so we are still left with two characters we don't really get to care about.

Then instead of at least indirectly filling the countless gaps new characters join. And we again ask ourselves why? Why should we care about the new flat character when we aren't even familiar with the main characters? It just doesn't make sense. The producers of the movies might have thought the same so they at least made a try to get more depths in the story by adding childhood memories from the relationship between Mio and his Mother we don't got to see in the Manga (at least as I remember). However the whole essence of these multiple time gaps is that Mio a) had a great relationship with his mother and b) was quite poor in his childhood. But instead of at least processing one of those elements in the current time in the story the only actual connection we get is c) Mio likes cooking / curry.

To the end of the story we finally get to see both characters in a longer coherent scene together and I got my hopes back up: Maybe the characters finally get some depth and we maybe even care or relate to them. But with this small glance of an actual storytelling and development the movie just end... Well, what did I just watch? Another review here explained the feeling I had very fitting: "The movie still feels like a very long trailer than an actual movie."

To conclude it isn't fair to rate this movie any more than average even though the art is impeccable throughout the movie. As we see quite often here on MAL, the rating got carried unreasonably high by fans of their respective genres. And I can't fully exclude myself from that either with a mean score of 8/10 but you have to admit that this problem is particularly bad in Boys Love as a genre. It seems like everything that is not straight up some sort of full depency relationship or even rape gets rated like a godlike show just for not being horrible. It is a shame that movies like this get almost the same rating as exceptionally great Anime in the same genre such as "Given" just for being BL. With these ratings you make it hard to distinguish between good and bad shows and in the end destroy the genre for any newcomers.

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Dec 5, 2021

Enen no Shouboutai (Anime) add

Recommended

Short Review: Before I watched this series I almost made the mistake to cancel it because of the reviews and honestly I still thought about dropping it within the first few episodes. It's true that the story is quiet flat and it's also true that the series is full of unnecessary / annoying fanservice. On the other hand the enjoyment got bigger with every episode. How the characters perform, combined with the entertaining sound and animation just made fun. It's by no means a masterpiece, especially when it comes to story and character depth but with the enjoyment I had, especially to the end, ...

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Dec 3, 2021

Hitorijime My Hero (Anime) add

Mixed Feelings

Short Review: Torn back and forth with this Anime. It opened a new perspective compared to other BL Anime / Manga I saw yet. Its interesting to think about the problems with emotional dependencies and burdens presented in the Anime. Still the problems connected with this aren't addressed enough. And I don't mean the consequences (aka "What's if we get caught") but the actual problem with a definitely dependent relationship as well as the age gape. That doesn't only affect the main relationship but also the side-story relationship with Kensou. He doesn't appear mature enough to evaluate his feelings and is on purpose (?!) portraied ...

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Oct 27, 2021

No.6 Beyond (Manga) add

Recommended

-- Might contain spoilers, if you didn't read the full No.6 Series --

I usually don't write reviews but as there are no reviews at all on the final sequel of this spectacular novel series, I will try it anyway. To keep it short: I think the No.6 Series draws an impressive dystopian perspective on how greed and power but also ideals and hatred can manipulate a person's mind. On the other hand it also doesn't hide the positive sides of each character. It is no black/white dystopia where one side is entirely evil and the other godlike, which I really enjoyed. But more to that ... later. And that story bound with a non-cliche romance that is not based on dependencies, adds the last bit needed for an almost perfect novel.

Story: I will not include a full sum-up of the series and will just jump to No.6 Beyond. I rated the story a 10. Almost any missing pieces I searched after finishing Vol. 9 were cleared up in this spin-off. How the "Reunion" is being executed with all it barriers (such as Yoming), how the society within and out of the wall proceeds to live after its removal, how the relationship between Shion and Nezumi continues (even if the end is still open) etc. Sure, there are still open questions but this time it feels like an open-ending which is made with consideration and purpose - Not like the ending of Vol.9 which felt to abrubt and rather "out of pages" than open-ended.

Character: I also rated this category a 10/10. As mentioned in the introduction the author has a great talent in displaying different facades of every character. Especially by dedicating whole blocks of the story including past and present to particular characters is a good solution for this ending. It is no black and white novel - Even the greedy alcoholic can have its ideals and a thoughtful side and even the most bright and honest person can get manipulative if it's beliefs are being challenged. This also includes not too important figures such as Karan and Rikiga-San without getting superficial or artificial. Sometimes this character traits are also frustrating but at all times you have to admit that it fully matches up with the story throughout the story. Especially regarding the main protagonists: Yes, I would also have enjoyed a happy-end considering the relationship between Nezumi and Shion. But this "like from a picture book"-ending would not match the character traits built up in the first 9 Volumes, neither does a brutal split up. In my perspective the solution presented in this spin-off matches the characters perfect. Same thing can also be said about the "side-characters" as described before.

Enjoyment: I've been torn regarding this part of the review but I decided to give it a 8/10. It definitely was emotionally involving and captivating after reading the full series. The story lines and characters lining up so perfectly also felt great. On the other hand, as it is a spin off it can't compete with the excitement in previous volumes and the outcome of the relationship in particular might be dissatisfying for some even though it is fitting. So it won't be fair to rate the enjoyment as outstanding, neither does a bad rating feel right as "it can't be helped" (as it would be said in No.6).

Overall: Even though it wasn't as captivating as the previous series, it is only right to also rate it a 10/10. No.6 Beyond fulfils it's purpose perfectly and fixed the rushed ending of the previous volume. It connected the story strings perfectly and is dedicating enough time to particular characters without wasting time for unnecessary "side-facts". In my perspective this is a dignified ending for one of the best dystopian series (and my favourite novel series overall).

That was it, my first try on a review. It might be mixed up to some part but maybe you can still get some idea of what I appreciate so much about this novel. I tried it with a similar structure as seen in other reviews. There might be some grammatical errors as English is not my native language, I hope you can forgive that :)

- IR0K.

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