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Apr 22, 2023
Something of a mix between doing everything in one's power to find some semblance of joy within a hopeless situation, and being struck with a sense of naivety that stops you from fully grasping just how bad things are, with each attempt at grasping positivity being increasingly fleeting and reckless. The way it all mixes together with this malignant sense of pride is nothing short of tragic, with the contrast between Seita's own perception of how well he's treating Setsuko vs the harsh reality of the situation becoming increasingly clear as it all goes on. It's this the feeling of inevitability that comes from these ...
Mar 8, 2023
The constant connections and bonds formed through totally aimless wandering and happenstance within such a short amount of time make for a movie really rich in an atmosphere that simultaneously feels so comfortable and surreal. Masaaki Yuasa has shown time and time again that he's got a real knack for adding a sense of exaggerated wonder to the most mundane of things and revealing the magic beneath it in a very unique and engaging way, but I think that this is his best work in that regard. The pacing and the way the writing felt like ADHD incarnate also helped a lot of this atmosphere ...
Jan 11, 2023
The best of the Sailor Moon movies to me, but also the one that feels the most reliant on having actually watched the series up to this point, since a lot of the things I found especially striking more stemmed from the nuances in the character writing here rather than the plot in itself. A ton of little themes continued on from the associated season, especially in regards to what it truly means to "grow up", all tied together with this clash between one's dreams for what an ideal existence is and the reality of those compromises that come with life. That dream sequence near ...
Aug 27, 2022
Ghibli films often have this sense of magic in they way they're able to craft a unique and expansive world and distinctly feel as if the viewer is only able to see a very small aspect of it rather than feel as if they've functionally experienced it all, and I feel like Castle in the Sky does this very strongly. There are so many characters here that appear for 5 minutes at most and yet end up feeling so significant in their own ways, as if they're clearly interacting with things far outside what the viewer is directly informed of, all feeling like the lifeblood ...
Aug 24, 2022
Nausicaa is a pretty interesting experience for the way it so clearly feels like an incredibly early Ghibli film while still immediately bringing a very strong artistic voice to the forefront, with a lot of elements present here being ones that would go on to form the backbone of even stronger movies later down the line. I think that one especially interesting aspect of this is the way that the setting feels considerably less lush and whimsical than the vast majority of the studio's output feels, there's no sense of beauty in a lot of the small aspects as much as this looming sense of ...
Aug 21, 2022
A very stylish, playful film that is just a whole lot of fun more than anything else. It's a heist movie that never feels fully comfortable with taking things in a wholly conventional direction, there's always this sense of needing to just do that bit extra to ensure that every scene is its own memorable, spectacular setpiece, and it leads to an adventure that never really has any moments that feel like a lull at all. Fantastically paced as more of this expansive castle with so many funny, cartoonish quirks and traps scattered about everywhere is revealed, whether it's statues that open up huge trapdoors, ...
Apr 9, 2022
Pure comedy anime is a bit of a tough one from my perspective, like, how do you make a show be constantly full of jokes that's focused primarily on making the audience laugh not hit a point where it feels repetitive or tiresome? Well the answer a lot of shows seem to have had is just, "you don't", and to an extent, Saiki K also falls into a sense of repetition, but it ultimately doesn't matter too much when the show is both so goddamn funny and also really touching and charming in a lot of ways. I feel a big reason this works so ...
Apr 3, 2022
Baccano! (Anime) add
Some shows just radiate this powerful air of being insanely cool, and Baccano, with its interweaving mafia storylines tied to urban legends, wacky thieves and the secret of immortality, is definitely one such series that I got this vibe from. It's all of course helped along by the groovy, jazzy soundtrack making even the most brutal of scenes have a more freewheeling, lighthearted vibe to it all without completely negating its more serious elements. It's a careful balancing act for sure, but one that is executed fantastically to set a consistently idiosyncratic and engaging tone that makes it far easier to connect with the sizeable ...
Apr 2, 2022
Sonny Boy (Anime) add
Mixed Feelings
Sonny Boy is certainly an interesting show to look at for many reasons. It seems to fall into this weird middle ground where it's entirely turned away large groups of people thanks to its intentionally obscure presentation that heavily draws from a sense of wandering, somewhat aimless surrealism, and yet a lot of what it says is conveyed in such a way that comes across as a tad overt and simplistic towards those who have taken the time to really try and understand what it's getting at. The anti-escapist nature of the show is another interesting point in how it feels almost like a lost ...
Mar 30, 2022
As time's gone on, I've increasingly realised just how much interest I find in art that explores the creative process and experience in one form or another, and in this sense, I'd argue that Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken ends up being one of the strongest examples of how such a story can be told right. What truly sets it apart for me is the way in which it delves into the whole concept of naive optimism clashing with harsher elements of reality without ever feeling as if the stakes of the situation are raised to any particularly high levels. This not only allows the ...


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