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Jan 24, 2025
It is fairly common in Korean Webtoons and Manhwas to have the story set in a Victorian-inspired fantasy setting were the characters dress, act, and look very European. But instead of having Manhwas that simply imitate European history through fictitious stories, are there any Manhwas that actually depict European history?
The answer is that there is. "The Queen's Realm" is a somewhat obscure Manhwa that came out in 2022, that I started reading in 2023, that I finished in 2024, and for some reason that I am now writting a review for in 2025. The series depicts a part historical part fictitious account of the relationship
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between Sir Francis Drake and Queen Elizabeht of England during the time of the Spanish armada. I think this series has several strengths and weaknesses, and in this review I will go over two of each so that the reader can determine if this series is for them.
To start off something I appreciated was the historical setting. Although there is a disclaimer at the start of every chapter clarifying that the story is fictitious, it is still very evident that the creators did their research when writing "The Queen's Realm." There is a great deal of care that was put into the character designs and personalities. What's more at the end of every chapter there's a historical fun fact that briefly states what how things actually played out, and how the chapter both follows and deviated from the historical events. The first 40 chapters focus on Sir. Francis and Queen Elizabeth, and the last 10 backtrack slightly and examine Queen Mary whose rule preceded Elizabeth. Despite being a history nerd, I feel that even I learned a couple things reading this series, especially in the last ten chapters.
Another things I appreciated about "The Queen's Realm" was the art style. Although Manhwas are very heterogenous and diverse, they do tend to have artistic similarities, most often in how the character's faces are drawn and using CGI to do the background art. Somethings which I liked in this series is how the whole thing is compiled in the fashion that makes it appear that it is hand-drawn. I'm not sure if this series was actually hand drawn, but in a medium where is becoming more and more computer reliant and digital art is being constantly overused, I enjoyed this more rustic artistic aspect. I also liked the varied color pallet, not just in the colorful drawings but also the themes of colors among certain characters.
Something which bugged me about this series were the characters. Sir Francis Drake in particular was petulant, irresponsible, and annoying. His main characteristics seemed that he enjoyed irritating and annoying people, including his own allies, and that he is hopelessly infatuated with Queen Elizabeth. The queen herself was rather stubborn and mean-spirited, and neither her nor Sir Francis really undergo any character development.
Another issue I had was the inconsistent tone. Several times throughout the art style would shift to this goofy chibi style even when the mood was supposed to be serious. This happens quite a bit in manga and manhwas, but for some reason it felt particularly tone-deaf here. There's this one scene where someone gets executed right in front of Sir Francis and we have reason to believe that Sir Francis may be in danger, only for the characters to randomly become chibi babies and start cracking jokes.
Finally, I know I've harped a lot of how "The Queen's Realm" depicts actual historical events, but if you take that aspect away it's really just another generic Manhwa that deals with royal drama, with all the usual stereotypes and clichés. I still think it's a decent series, more for the subject matter than the actual story, and would tentatively recommend it. At 50 chapters it's comparatively short, and although it took me a year to complete it you could probably read the whole thing in one or two sittings.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 16, 2024
It’s no secret that anime, and media in general, tend to struggle with originality with most new entries coming out seeming to be a rehashing of the same old tropes. “Hulla Fulla Dance” stood out to me because it tells the story of a girl who’s passionate about hula dancing and it also deals with the aftereffects of the 2011 earthquake, a premise I have literally never seen before in anime or any storytelling genre for that matter. The plot of the film follows Hiwa, a recent high school graduate, who taking after the inspiration of her late sister aspires to be a professional hula
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dancer at a Hawaiian-themed resort. The issue is Hiwa, who is overly ditzy and clumsy, and seems so error prone, doesn’t have the confidence or skill to pull off hula dancing. Can Hiwa and the fellow novice hula dancers learn their craft and inspire the audience?
I think the movie does well in certain aspects; the films performances show I believe that the creators did their research on the hula dance tradition, from the dance movements to the Hawaiian music and language that accompanies it. I also appreciated the character designs, the artists did a good job of giving the characters distinct designs, even minor supporting ones. It is also noteworthy that Hiwa and the other characters often appear in different attire and clothes from scene to scene, which is significantly harder to animate from a production standpoint. The creators should be applauded for never falling back on cheap fanservice during its runtime, something which probably would have been all too easy to do in a film that’s essentially about Polynesian belly dancing. I also think that the anime has strong themes about overcoming adversity and doing what you love, and I also must give the creators credit with taking the risk of making an anime about hula dancing, something that wasn’t done before.
However, my criticisms of the film will be significantly longer. The animation is okay for the most part, but it’s obvious that the producers were relying on CGI and rotoscoping for the dance sequences. It starts off okay-ish but only becomes more and more apparent later in the movie, especially for the final two dances where the characters’ normal hand drawn designs and their CGI designs look rather different.
Something else that I wish was done better in “Hulla Fulla Dance” were the characters. For anyone whose seen idol and/or CGDCT anime, you’ll instantly recognize how cliché most of them are, you have the clumsy protagonist Hiwa, the plumb and cheerful Ranko, the foreign girl with noticeably bigger chest Ohana, the overly serious obvious Kanna, and the shy Shion. To their credit they all develop a little bit during the movie’s runtime, but they're mostly stagnant. There are several scenes that were supposed to be emotional with the characters being sad but it was rendered unintentionally funny due to the melodrama. Also, I must say that the voice of Ohana was utterly unbearable, even the characters in the movie found it annoying.
Lastly, and by far the biggest problem “Hulla Fulla Dance” has, is its pacing. Various elements and characters are brought in only to be dropped, then in the finale of the movie those same things are shoehorned back in. At the beginning of the film Hiwa thinks her plush toy is talking to her, this is then brought up against around the half-hour mark and then left completely forgotten until it’s randomly brought up in this giant plot twist in the finale. There’s one scene where Ohana stops being her cheerful self and starts crying that she misses her family, but after the subsequent scene it's never brought up again. There’s this one relationship Hiwa has with a male co-worker that seems to be building towards something only for him to say “I actually knew your sister, and I’m leaving the company” witch it largely left to that.
Several times in the anime it builds up to a performance that Hiwa and her friends are dancing in, only for the film to skip forward and then we see characters talking and having flash backs to the very event we skipped over. About halfway through Hiwa and her old high school friends go to this concert, where they then sit through a full 3-minute j-pop song of this fake idol group preforming. In the grand performance at the hula competition near the end of the anime, led by Kanna & Hiwa the characters put on a hula dance set to the exact same song, which we then have to hear in full for another 3 minutes. It doesn’t help that the overly autotuned j-pop and hula dancing mix like oil & water, especially since throughout the rest of the film they only dance the hula to traditional Hawaiian music.
In conclusion, while “Hulla Fulla Dance” has a unique premise and several standout features, it is dragged down by the aforementioned issues, especially the pacing. At the time of this writing (December 2024) this anime has an abysmal MAL score of 6.30, and while I think it’s a bit harsh there’s no denying that this isn’t an all-time classic. Despite its unique premise, this is in essence an idol/CGDCT anime, and while the cast of characters have their moments, overall they’re not very unique or endearing. It’s overall a decent but not great film, would rate somewhere between a 5 to 6 out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 22, 2024
A while ago, an anime YouTuber I highly respected said that “Solo Leveling is the best story to ever come out”. More recently, a good friend of mine who knows his anime & manga told me that “solo leveling was the best self-insert fantasy I’ve read”. Lastly a not-so-bright person on some online forums wrote that he thought that “solo leveling was better Dostoevsky”.
Well I’m sorry to spoil the party, but after having recently completed reading Solo Leveling I think those above sentiments are misguided and wrong. Very wrong. Sure, Solo Leveling is by far the most successful Korean webtoon to come out, but
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(in my humble opinion) it is storywise incredibly generic and unoriginal, and I see little reason (aside from the artwork) that it deserves the praise and attention it’s been receiving. Let me explain:
Starting with the plot, Solo Leveling takes place in the not-too-distant future where gates have appeared across the world that have magical beasts, monsters, and items inside of them. Humans with innate magical abilities, called “hunters” get together in guilds and adventure into the gates where they slay beasts and collect magical items to sell. As mentioned above, Hunters have inherent abilities, and are ranked from the lowest (E) to the highest (S). The main character Sung Jin-Woo starts off as an E-ranked as is nicknamed the “World’s weakest hunter”, but because of plot developments he gains the ability to level up, gradually becoming stronger and stronger, to the point in the latter chapters where he is completely invincible.
While that sounds cool, anyone who is even remotely acquainted with anime and/or manga will also realize how generic and overdone this storyline is. Solo Leveling’s storyline is nearly a straight copy of other well-known power fantasies such as “Sword Art Online” and “Danmachi”. Jin-Woo himself is nearly indistinguishable from Tatsuya from “The Irregular at Magic High School” franchise in that they are illogically overpowered, have the same boring expressionless deadpan face, and that they mostly care only about being powerful and protecting their family (especially their sister). And just like in the aforementioned franchises, Solo Leveling is also like them in that there is a steady stream of incompetent guys and large-breasted girls that the protagonist has to rescue.
Most hilariously however is the Jeju Island arc, coming about half way in Solo Leveling, which I shit you not, is utterly, completely, plagiarized from the Chimera ants arc in “Hunter x Hunter”. I mean literally, you have an isolated island full of rapidly evolving giant ants that like to eat humans, with one of them being specifically bred to be the strongest ant of all time, with a team of the world’s strongest hunters being sent out to stop them.
The writing and world-building in Solo Leveling is largely a mixed bag. While there are some nice moments of foreshadowing and a few interesting twists, by and large Solo Leveling is rather predictable, especially in the latter chapters as the protagonist Jin-Woo becomes so overpowered that there is hardly any suspense or tension as you the reader know that he will win anyways. While it was nice to see how the whole concept and economics of hunters and their guilds is expanded not just to Korea but other counties as well, the world building in Solo Leveling is rather weak. There are some notable plot holes, for example why does the world in Solo Leveling resemble the 21st-century world in so many ways, such as for example having hospitals and high schools, when there are humans that through no effort of their own have magical healing powers and can fix fatal wounds with a mere spell. Wouldn’t you think that the healer Hunters would be hired to work at said hospitals instead of aimlessly wandering around gates in search of magical items?
The characters in Solo Leveling are a mixed bag, but as mentioned above are mostly generic. Sung Jin-Woo is very much your typical self-insert protagonist in your power fantasy. The males in Solo Leveling are all arrogant and generally incompetent, the women all have unrealistically large busts. Overall the Chairman was my favorite character. The character designs were also inconsistent, the Japanese Hunters that appear right before the Jeju Island are had some cool designs but some of the others were illogical and generic. There was this one time in the story that Jin-Woo joins this group to raid a gate and I almost burst out laughing, as the Hunters from this guild all looked like they came out of the most generic possible fantasy anime cosplay party. Something annoying the writer keep doing in the story is that they keep introducing new female characters that I guess are supposed to be romantically attracted to Jin-Woo, only for them to disappear after a couple chapters and never to be brought up again. To put it blulntly, aside from Cha Hae-In all the female characters in Solo Leveling are irrelevant. At the very least Solo Leveling does not de-evolve into a harem as most other power fantasies do.
Obviously the most positive aspect of Solo Leveling is the art. It starts off okay, but it gets steadily better after the first 30 chapters. The fight scenes were the best drawn, especially latter in the series, and the panel lay out was competently done. My favorite scenes artistically wise had to be Jin-Woo’s battles with the orcs, with the more varied complex character designs and color pallets.
While Solo Leveling does have a few positive aspects, overall it is far, far too generic to recommend, and the popularity. Not that Manhwas are particularly known for their originality, but with so many aspects of Solo Leveling being identical to other stories, I see little reason why it has achieved such outstanding popularity and critical acclaim. At the very least the popularity of Solo Leveling may have brought the world of Korean webtoons to a wider audience, but even then there are manhwas out there that I feel are better written and have better art than Solo Leveling, but that’s my opinion.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 4, 2024
The show Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (here after to be referred to as "The 8th MS Team") has received critical and fan praise and is oftentimes referred to as one of the better if not the best of the Gundam series. At the time of writing this series has a average score on MAL of 8.01 and is bested only by Gundam 00 and Iron-Blooded-Orphans among the Gundam series. But does the 8th MS Team deserve such praise?
Taking place during the universal century timeline, like most other Gundam shows this deals with the conflict between the Earth Federation and their Mobile Suits
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against the Principality of Zeon and their mechs. A key difference from most other Gundam series which tend to be space based is that excluding the first episode, this series takes place exclusively on earth, offering a more grounded (pun intended) take on the beloved mecha series. Another factor is that the 8th MS Team places a higher emphasis on romance than most other mecha anime, with a key part of the plot being the relationship between the Gundam pilot Shiro and the Zeon noble Aina.
Starting with the positives, despite the fact that it was released in 1996 the animation and sound of the 8th MS Team has aged fantastically well. The animation, especially the fights between the mecha, is more the most part fluid and well done, especially the latter episodes. Something I enjoyed was the attention to detail, for example all three of the mobile suit mechs in the 8th MS Team have slight differences reflecting the personalities of their pilots. For example in one episode Karen's mobile suit gets damaged, and for the rest of the series her mech has a slightly different head piece than the rest. The music, including the opening and ending songs, was very good, although perhaps a little too upbeat for a series focusing on the sobering effects of war.
The 8th MS Team also boasts a great and endearing caste of characters. On the Feds/Mobile Suit side we have Shiro, the typical idealist protagonist, Michel the naive mechanic, Terry Sanders, a veteran soldier who feels the guilt of seeing too many of his comrades die, Karen the no-nonsense female member of the crew, Kiki, a villager who often helps them out, and Eledore, the soldier who would rather be a singer. The opposing Zeon side also had some good characters, such as Aina the love interest of Shiro who is also a bit of an idealist, Ginas her mad-scientist brother, and Norris their honorable guardian. I liked how even the more badass characters like Shiro, Terry, and Karen still had moments of weakness when they had to be rescued, and other more wimpy characters such as Michel still had their moments of strength. Compared to a lot of other mecha anime this one was much more character based and driven, and no matter what personality you have you're sure to find a character you can relate to.
Now for the negatives, something I feel the 8th MS Team really struggled with was pacing. Despite being only 12 episodes long, relatively short for a Gundam series, many of the episodes felt like filler because they would always end with the same status quo with which they started. It really only felt that towards the latter part of the series that there was any serious development plot wise. Also, Shiro and Aina's romantic relationship does make much sense; they're literally trying to kill each other and then they make eye contact for a couple seconds and Shiro acts nice towards Aina which results in both of them falling madly in love with one another.
Another issue I had with the show was the constant immature humor and fan-service in the show. For a series that tries to portray the brutality of war it really killed the mood when stupid anime trope of a guy innocently walks into a girl bathing and gets called a pervert, as happens in episode when for a good minuet Kiki gets naked to swim in the water fall as an excuse for her to shove her assets all in the viewer's and Shiro's face. That's the worst example, but their plenty of others, such as Eldore grouping Karen's breast or how despite being in the tundra they still managed to fit in a hot spring episode of Aina and Shiro bathing naked together.
Being a tad pedantic now, but I also felt the fights in the 8th MS Team were a bit inconsistent. There are times in the show when their mechs would take multiple shots from point-blank range and the protagonists would only have a few scratches and bruises, while there were other times just one hit would make the mechs blow up. In one particularly notable example two of the main characters fight for what seems like a long time, with both their mobile suits being severely damaged, but soon after another mech just shots a laser beam at a massive ship for a couple seconds and that's all it takes to make said ship completely explode.
Lastly the worst part of this series is the final episode. Episodes 10 & 11 are very much the climax and conclusion of the show, episode 12 begins with a pointless time-skip and introduction to meaningless side characters and consist of Kiki and Michel going around acting like idiots only to discover at the end what had already been established at the end of episode 11. The whole episode is incredibly boring and disposable in an otherwise action-packed show. This episode was one of the main reasons I dropped my rating for the 8th MS Team from what would've been a 9 or 8/10 to a solid 7/10.
In conclusion I think the 8th MS Team is a good show and a worthy addition to the Gundam franchise, but at the same time I feel the praise it gets is a bit overblown. Viewers of the anime will be treated to great animation and good character development, but personally I was bothered by the less stellar parts of the show, and if you are planning on watching this I highly recommend you skip the twelfth episode.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 25, 2023
Puparia is an anime that is difficult to explain because not a lot happens during its 3 minute runtime. Despite having some of the most beautifully detailed and intriguing art you'll ever see, there is no dialogue or story, no real message or plot. It is in a sense just a 3 minute short of nicely drawn art. However, looking deeper, there is a more profound meaning to this short film.
The meaning of Puparia cannot be separated from story of its creator Shingo Tamagawa. In a brief documentary on YouTube Tamagawa explained that after slaving away for a number of years as an animator, he
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felt that he had lost his artistic passion and was fed up with all the bureaucracy and nonsense in the anime industry. Tamagawa ended up taking a lengthy break from working in anime, and it was then that he decided to make his own anime all by himself, something that he could call truly his. He drew, painted, and animated for three years straight (with minimal technology or outside help) until he was satisfied with what he had.
If anyone has seen even a brief clip of Puparia, it will soon become obvious that Puparia has some of the most wonderfully detailed and unique art style and animation among any anime out there. Every second of this short beams with color and character, pretty much any scene of this anime could serve as a wallpaper or background photo. The short film is divided into four sections, each with their own style and characters, but with no real linear or uniting theme or story. The animation is the real selling point of Puparia, and because the art is so amazing yet the story is up to interpretation you will find a plethora of videos and articles online claiming to decipher what the actual message of Puparia is.
While I cannot claim to do anything other than adding another pointless observation of this anime to the already hundreds others, my own personal interpretation of this anime is this: Puparia is at its purest a love letter to creativity and expression. I've had this desire, and I'm sure others have too, of after watching/reading countless anime & manga and a lot of it starting to feel all generic, of wanting to create my own anime/manga and telling the stories I want to be told. I'm probably never going to actually ever make my own anime or manga, but Tamagawa did just that, and the thing most beautiful thing about Puparia I find is not the intricate art but rather the creative desire that it represents.
Puparia is far from the only self-driven avant-garde passion project out there, in anime you have Hiroshi Harada's "Midori", Mamoru Oshii's "Angel Egg", and even to some extent Hideaki Anno's "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "End of Evangelion". While it is now easier than ever to create your own art with the rapid increase in AI generated images, and I know a fair number of individuals who really enjoy making it, I can't shake off the feeling that it is nothing more than a composite image of other images on the web and not something that really belong to me. While it may be nothing other than a three minute short created by a depressed animator, with no story, plot, or dialogue, Puparia is at it's core a creative and imaginary masterpiece unique to Tamagawa, and that that can never be replicated. Puparia is easy to find online, I highly recommend you see it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 14, 2023
Ergo Proxy is a weird anime to talk about, not just in the strange and cryptic context of the show itself, but also how it is talked about in the anime community. It is both weirdly under and overrated, under because it is a show with a unique style and take on philosophy, over because it seems to be praised by the few who do watch it for those unique traits while ignoring all the flaws that are so blatant in this anime.
Well to start out with the positives, it’s fair to say that Ergo Proxy is definitely a very philosophical and dense anime, and
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certainly one for a viewer who can disseminate symbolism and isn’t afraid to think for themselves. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic world, it follows Re-l Mayer, a female detective, Vincent Law, an immigrant to the city with a mysterious past, and Pino, an AutoReiv or humanoid robot whose been infected causing her to have feelings & emotions. Ergo Proxy deals with a lot of philosophical themes, such as that of Gnosticism (attaining knowledge as a means of personal salvation), Postmodernism (the rejection of universal meanings or truth), the humanity & ethics of sentient beings, as well as xenophobia and how the government uses ideology to subjugate the population.
Sounds pretty great so far, right? Well my issue with Ergo Proxy is not so much the themes, but how the story is paced to handle them. Ergo Proxy begins as a thriller/mystery with Rei-l investigating strange occurrences across the city. I’m not going to lie, at the beginning I was completely hooked. After the first 3 episodes however Ergo Proxy pivots slightly and turns into an adventure show, with the mystery of who the proxy is already made clear if you were paying attention. At this point I was still somewhat invested in the plot, but after a few more episodes the show loses any semblance of a cohesive story and just becomes a bunch of random episodic stories with little semblance.
Don’t get me wrong some of these episodes are pretty good, but there is also some bizarre and dumb stuff, like the out of nowhere gameshow episode 15 where parts of the plot are literally told to the viewer through exposition of the characters playing their version of Jeopardy, and the strange episode 19 where for whatever reason Pino finds herself in looney tune land. My personal favorite is episode 16, where the ship thingy their riding on stops working, and Rei-L starts going insane because she’s too bored, which means that even in the context of the show the characters were getting bored with the story.
Even in terms of the animation, Ergo Proxy is pretty inconsistent. Rei-l has a really unique and beautiful character design, but her animation shifts from incredibly detailed in some scenes to inconsistent and poorly drawn in others, to the point that the shape of her face and eyes seemed to be constantly changing. Also worth mentioning is that often the animation was so dark that it was hard to make out what was happening. I’ve head Ergo Proxy get praise for its music and sound, but while the background noise did do a good job in building up suspense in the show itself, the opening sounded like a bootlegged version of a bad Linkin Park song.
I hope I’m not sounding too negative, in fact there were a lot of concepts and ideas in Ergo Proxy I liked. In fact I wished the show spent more time on the themes of the AutoReivs gaining the ability to feel emotion, which started out as the prominent theme of the show it slowly ignored more and more as the anime went on. Even if you’re not into philosophy or deep thinking, Ergo Proxy does have a few cool fight scenes and boast good character development, not just among the main caste but the supporting characters as well.
Yet the show is too haphazard to fully do its ideas justice. There are a few other dark philosophical animes I’ve seen such as Angel’s Egg, Texhnolyze, Monster, and Serial Experiments Lain, and while I have mixed opinions on some of them, at least they all had a consistent tone and message, something that Ergo Proxy simply does not have. Yes it is very philosophical and deep show, but I also feel that it is grossly over-analyzed by some fans out there, to the point I’m pretty sure that if they made an episode of just Rei-l taking a shit there would still be fans who would write their whole doctoral thesis about it.
In conclusion, for the philosophical and intellectually inclined Ergo Proxy can be a rewarding show, and perhaps I owe it a rewatch, but if that stuff is for you I would personally recommend something else such as Texhnolyze which do similar themes and ideas but better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 9, 2023
“Natsu e no Tunnel, Sayonara no Deguchi” or the English translation “The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes” was a film I was looking forward to ever since the trailer dropped roughly last year. Having just seen it yesterday, I personally think the wait was worth it, despite some imperfections it still manages to tell a compelling story and have some great emotional moments.
The story involves a mythical tunnel that can grant you any wish if you travel far enough in it, the catch being that every 10 seconds or so inside the tunnel is equal to more than an hour of time passing
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outside. Kaoru Touno is the protagonist who inadvertently caused his sister’s death (similar to Jintan & Menma in “Anohana”) and is seeking to make amends, while he meets a quite & aloof girl named Anzu Hanashiro who is also interested in venturing in the tunnel.
Some things I thought were well done in the film included the animation, which for the most part was fantastic. The tunnel itself was vibrant and well designed, but even the characters and their facial expressions (especially the eyes) were nicely drawn in my opinion. The music, while a little generic, fit the tone perfectly, and I especially enjoyed the songs that played at the climax and the end. Finally I thought the voice acting was expertly done, while the characters did speak a bit monotone there were certain scenes where they were running, yelling, or crying that I think the actors did a great job.
Something I really appreciated about the film was how many small details at the beginning of “Natsu e no Tunnel” that are called back by the midpoint or end of the story. This makes the viewing experience a lot more rewarding for the attentive, and there were certain things like the pair’s interaction at the train stop, or the manga Anzu likes to read, or the umbrella, that proved to be important later. None of that is really a spoiler as they don’t affect the overall plot that much, just that it’s good to pay extra attention to the details of the film.
A few minor flaws I thought existed in the film included the pacing. “Natsu e no Tunnel” seems to be unaware of its short runtime of an hour twenty minutes, and it takes its time fleshing out the environment, but then in the last twenty minutes or so they press the accelerator and speed through the climax. Another common complaint I read online was that apparently the filmmakers cut out a fair amount of content from the source material, sort of similar to what happened in “Koe no Katachi”, leading to some confusing interactions and scenes, especially in the second half. Several of Kaoru’s actions & decisions in the climax seemed completely out-of-character to his personality beforehand, and maybe the film could have benefited from fitting more content from the source material. The characters and plot could also be a bit cliché at times, you’ve got the socially reclusive male protagonist, the aloof but compassionate tsundere which is the female protagonist, the backdrop of a rural Japanese town by the sea, the high school setting etc.
Despite the fact that the story structure could have used some polishing and it’s not the most original, “Natsu e no Tunnel” is still a very good anime in my opinion that boast great animation, music, and voice acting. Even with its inconsistencies the ending did hit me in the feel, I did get a bit emotional at the finale. These relatively lesser-known films by less traditional studios can be hit or miss, but this one was a home run. I know that its release outside of Japan has been a bit slow, but if you can get your hands on it in my opinion “Natsu e no Tunnel” is a worthwhile watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 24, 2023
There are often times you hear the phrase “This show isn’t for everybody”. I don’t think that statement is inaccurate when discussing Texhnolyze, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think that this anime is for me either. Most things which I enjoy in anime, such as nice animation, good characters, uplifting story, is absent here. That said Texhnolyze is still an intriguing show and may still be well worth your time.
Texhnolyze takes place in a underground cyberpunk dystopia, where multiple factions are vying for control in the crumbling city of Lux. People in the city have augmented their bodies with cybernetics, known as being
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"texhnolyzed", as the title would suggest. There are the Organo, a mafia-like organization whose members are all texhnolyzed, the Salvation Union, a rebel group which is against any type of human augmentation, and the Racan, a bunch of misfit causing youths. Add into the mix Ran, a girl who can foretell the future, a troublemaking outsider from above ground, and the perpetually unlucky protagonist Ichise, and you have the recipe for chaos in which the show takes place. There is another, much more sinister group, that enters the scene at the halfway point, but to give anything away would be to spoil the show.
A prominent feature of Texhnolyze is how little actual dialogue there is, in fact no one speaks for the entire first half of the pilot episode. While I did not keep count, I would be surprised if the main character, Ichise, utters more than 20 lines of dialogue throughout the series. The story and visuals are very dark and dreary, and the show is saturated with this sense of hopelessness and despair, with an overall very bleak atmosphere.
One thing I will give Texhnolyze credit for is its integration of philosophical themes, namely nihilism and the ideas of Nietzsche. Even though I do not personally agree with these philosophies, I thought that they were well integrated and presented in the show. No matter how much each group or individual tries to exert control or meaning on their society, it only serves to create more unrest. Nietzsche’s idea of the Übermensch was also well done, as there is this ideal of humanity that people are striving towards in the show by becoming texhnolyzed, and this concept if transhumanism is meant to enhance our humanity or surpass it was explored in unique ways. There are plenty of other themes and concepts touched upon by Texhnolyze, far too many to mention here, but I think it’s safe to say that the show does get you to think.
Something which pleasantly surprised me about the show was the music, I think it fit the atmosphere really well. The opening is chaotic and energetic, while the ending theme is much more somber and slow, but I think they both fit perfectly. There was also integration of other musical styles in the show itself, there was some jazz and even some Italian-language music at one point. Despite being made way back in 2003, the animation and art still hold up decently well.
There are issues I have with Texhnolyze. As I mentioned before the show is very dark, not only thematically but also visually, but it is so dark at times that it is hard to make out what is happening. So much of the scenes take place in either pitch black or in blinding light, and it is difficult to decipher what is going on. Added to the lack of dialogue, and a lot of times I kept having to go to the wiki page or scroll down the comment section to understand just what had happened that episode. The show is also so bleak that it gets a bit hard to care about what’s going on after a while.
A huge issue I have with Texhnolyze is not with the show itself, but with the fandom. There is one character (not going to mention the name, as their wicked intentions come out as a surprise) who is a purely evil psychopath. This character has nothing redeemable about themselves, and who brutally murders whoever they meet, yet I have seen post after post online defending this character, with many people saying that this guy this their favorite character of the show. While no one in this show is purely good or bad, with most being morally gray, the character in question is downright evil and I’m a bit disgusted that so many are attracted to him.
Lately there are a lot of issues & concepts in Texhnolyze that are never explained or resolved. Just an example but the character Sakimura who lives in the underground city of Lux is actually from above ground, but this is only vaguely hinted at in the show (it becomes important to the plot at the end). There is a lot of other stuff that is never clarified either, like why Ran and Ichise care so much for each other despite the fact that they have maybe 5 lines of dialogue between themselves. Also, the pacing is really, really, slow, and there were a couple times my finger was inching for the fast-forward button.
Despite my qualms about it, I still think Texhnolyze is an anime worth watching. While it may not be a show I necessarily enjoyed personally, I think this is an anime you appreciate more than you enjoy. And despite the depressing atmosphere of the series, I was still very much emotionally struck by the ending. Yes it is not for everyone, but for the people who don’t mind the slower pace and bleak atmosphere, watching Texhnolyze can be a rewarding experience
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 18, 2023
The year was 2021 and I was in the early stages of getting back into anime. One of the things I really enjoyed doing at the start was watching AMVs, usually of Shinkai films like “Your Name” or “Weathering with You” with the theme song playing. During this time I came across this awesome song & music video by DAOKO and Kenshi Yonezu titled “Fireworks”. It was an instant favorite of mine and I’ve listened to it again and again over the years. I knew the AMV was about a movie, but it seemed that the general consensus online was that the film was disappointing
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so I held off on seeing it. Well yesterday (17 April 2023) curiosity killed the cat and I finally watched the full film. Is it worth it?
Short answer no. Hell no. “Fireworks” also known as “Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?” is not only one of the most disappointing anime films I’ve seen, it’s also one that’s downright bad. There very few if any redeemable features of the film, and it fails in far too many aspects of cinema.
The plot for the film goes something along the lines of a school romance with a fantasy element. The girl, Nazuna, is told by her family that they are going to be moving soon from their small town home, and she is extremely upset by this. The protagonist of the film and her highschool classmate, Norimichi, uses this orb-thingy he found (a la "The Girl who leapt through time") to try to go back in time to reverse this change, so that he and Nazuna can run away together.
There are several issues with the story, for example why does Nazuna want to runaway if she’s so upset by her family moving away in the first place? It’s said that she’s distraught she’s leaving her friends and boyfriend, but never once in the film is she ever shown socializing with anyone, and the few interactions with Norimichi are all brief and awkward, its implied that they don’t even know each other that well in the beginning, she doesn’t even acknowledge him the first time she walks into school. Also how did Norimichi know how to travel back in time? What do they hope to accomplish by running away? There’s one especially stupid scene where Nazuna out of the blue tells Norimichi while waiting for the train that she’ll give up on her dreams of being a singer and instead will work as a bar tender or prostitute in Tokyo. Why exactly? Isn’t the whole purpose of them running away so that they can be free?
Even for the generic summer anime romances, the characters of “Fireworks” are extremely bland and dislikable. Norimichi, the supposed protagonist, spends most of his time whining and moaning. His only defining characteristic is that he likes Nazuna. Nazuna is equally boring, a sassy tsundere who’s never given a reason for being anti-social and whom all the guys at the school like, despite ironically having the smallest assets out of all the female cast. Also her character design is a pretty clear rip-off of Senjougahara from “Bakemonogatari”. The supporting characters are even worse, Norimichi’s school friends spend their onscreen time doing two things 1.) gawking and commenting on the breasts of the female caste, especially of their teacher 2.) debating over the pedantic argument of whether fireworks are flat & round or spherical, from which the film gets its full title. None of the characters ever really develop, and there is never any reason why we should care about them.
The pacing of the film is all over the place, especially in the beginning it just jumps from one scene to the next with very little purpose or transition, giving the whole thing a very disjointed feel. The animation and music are decent I guess, I’ll just say the most visually impressive scenes are in the music video, and the theme song by DAOKO, while great, is only played during the end credits. The camera angles, head tilts, and character designs were similar to some of the other anime by Shaft (the studio) like Bakemonogatari. Overall the production for the film is decent but nothing overly noteworthy.
I won’t comment too much on the ending for the sake of spoilers, I’ll just say it’s disappointing and kind of dumb. I get why the story ends in this open-ended and vague manner, but it’s just as bland as what preceded it. If you were expecting something emotional cap off, like how films of this genre usually end such as in “Your Name” or “A Silent Voice”, well prepare to be even more frustrated that you already were.
In conclusion “Fireworks” is a disjointed, bad, and mediocre film that is not worth your time at all. The few good scenes and song are already in the music video, so stick to that. If you’re a fan of the whole high school kid’s romance time travel thing, “The Girl who leapt through time” is basically the same story which at least was done somewhat competently. “Fireworks” as a film is just a poorly mixed bag of tropes and clichés, there are significant amount of people out there who praise it for its “What if” story structure, and power to them for enjoying this, but personally I’d strongly recommend you skip it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 13, 2023
There are some anime that really puzzle me by how they got so popular, "Irregular at Magic High School" is one of them. On one hand I get why this has such a popular appeal, but on the other it's so bland and generic it seems like a miracle anyone likes it.
If I had to guess why "Irregular at Magic High School" has such a large following, I would attribute it to the large cast of characters, and while their personalities are all pretty cliché all the girls have attractive and unique character designs, and while the male cast is much smaller they are
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also drawn in a conventionally attractive way, so no matter what gender you are you'll probably find a character here you think looks good. The show's production was also well done, the animation was clean and crisp, and the music fit the mood. While nothing overly memorable, the two op and ed were competently done.
The story follows the two Shiba siblings, Tatsuya and Miyuki, and here where the anime's flaws first arise. Tatsuya is so irrationally overpowered that nothing ever phases him, he is practically superman. Every time someone says something is impossible Tatsuya is there to effortlessly do it in the same deadpan expression. Aside from being a student, he is a secret government agent, the world's greatest magician, an ace computer programmer, someone who literally invented flying, and a super solider. He's so great that there isn't a girl in the show that can't resist his charm (including his sister, more on that later) despite the fact that he is in a bored mood 99% of the time. The problem with "Irregular at Magic High School" is that Tatsuya is so great and overpowered there is absolutely no tension in the show, because as soon as some conflict or situation arises Tatsuya is there to nonchalantly save the day. Not to be outdone, his sister Miyuki is such a perfect and pure student that all the guys can't help but gawk at her on the dancefloor and all the girl are compelled to question their sexuality when they see her in the hot tub.
As mentioned above, Tatsuya is so illogically good at everything, but with the exception that for some reason he failed the magic test so that at the Magic High School he has to enroll with the dumb 2nd class who are subpar at magic despite his godly talent. Here is where the anime completely loses it, the show completely botches the theme of discrimination. For the first three episodes it is constantly shown how the 2nd class are abused and treated as second-class citizens by the 1st class, but when a group of 2nd class students decide to do something about it, they are the ones portrayed as the bad guys. Despite being treated as nothing but shit by the 1st class, Tatsuya gladly defends them against the revolting 2nd class, and berates the ones who want equal rights as foolish and illogical. It's not necessarily a bad thing to have the discriminated be the villains (like Scar in FMA) but it is handled extremely poorly in "Irregular at Magic Highschool" smililar to how it was also botched in the original RWBY and the Legend of Korra.
Another issue with this anime is that it is just really dry and boring. A large portion of the dialogue is just pointless technobabble as the cast of characters try to explain the nonsensical magic that exists in this world. Halfway through there is a tournament arc, which should be exiting, but instead just an excuse to have the female cast dress up in outfits and once again showcase how awesome Tatsuya is. The objective or purpose of the tournament games is never really addressed, which result in the events lacking tension and feeling overall pointless. By the way this goes on for 11 episodes, and it's not helped by Tatsuya's dull expression.
Lastly there is the infamous incest subplot. For some reason Miyuki is completely infatuated with Tatsuya, to the point where she gets all jealous when he so much makes eye contact with another girl. With the constant blushing whenever she talks to him, the fact that she wants Tatsuya to see her in revealing cloths, and that every other word that comes out of her mouth is "Oni-sama!" (Japanese for "big brother"), Miyuki's constant simping for her brother gets really cringy and uncomfortable, even if they were not related. Most of the time in anime incest is either played off as a joke or they pull off the "we're not actually related bs", "Irregular at Magic Highschool" does neither and plays this off as a serious romantic relationship, oblivious to how irritating and repulsive this incest crap is.
I hope I am not overly negative, I actually enjoyed the first couple episodes, and it seemed that the studio, Madhouse, had really tried their best with this anime given the above-average production. Yet despite that the show's flaws are too obvious to ignore, and at the end of the day it's just a substandard generic power fantasy. There are better anime out there that have similar premises, and I don't personally think this show is worth the time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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