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I don't know the source material, but I do know it's short. No matter its quality, this seems like a poor adaptation. I'm not exactly sure how Umibe no Étranger came into being in the first place, but whoever steered the wheel on its production course either had a limited budget, or conceived this as a series of shorts initially, because the story feels chopped into rather disjointed parts that have clumsily been put together. The plot itself is nothing to write home about, so when you further ruin a pretty simple, straightforward love story by ruining its pace, omitting its conclusion, and rushing through ... its time skip, everything else, no matter how beautiful the movie looks, ends up suffering because of it. The most satisfying part of this movie is without a doubt how it looks and how its animated, but when I turn out to be more interested in seeing more shots of cats cuddling than I am in seeing the romantic plot pan out, you know you're doing something wrong.

To add an absolute insult to injury, considering this anime deals with openly gay people, the conversation close to the end between our main characters shoves in some dialogue that feels truly insulting to anyone gay: the exchange implies that being gay is not alright because "gay sex is disgusting" (which is presented as a hurdle that true love conquers over, I guess??), and that it's ok to love a man as long as it's emotional only, while you are in fact attracted to women. Take from that what you will, but it left ME feeling disgusted, and not because "gay sex bad".

All in all, an unforgettable experience for all the wrong reasons. At least it's pretty and has a lot of cute cuddly cats, which is why you should watch it precisely once, if at all.

So close, yet so so far.

This movie starts off surprisingly well, one of the few anime that distances itself from the anime tropes and makes characters well defined and closer to realistic. Everything from characters to aesthetic was so sweetly spot on, and though the plot is nothing to write home about, it is a very comfortable ride thanks to how non-anime it seemed and how chill it is: a true proper slice-of-life experience with a supernatural twist, and some nice, romantic drama.

Alas, what was supposed to be a nice, comfortable movie about growth, maturity and following your dreams, was that for about two ... thirds of the movie before it turned into some quite unnecessary, forced drama about rescuing a "damsel in distress", and turned to rather strange and inexplicable supernatural occurrences. For aesthetics' sake I think it's worth a watch, but this is not the sort of anime I would gladly go back to re-watching, because once it gets into the third act, everything unapologetically loudly falls apart, and you're left standing in the rubble of the story, scratching your hand and wondering: how could this have happened? I would like to know too, because the subtlety with which the story is told until then suddenly turn into exposition so poorly told, and an ending so poorly delivered that it literally made me yell 'that's it?' at the screen.

There is a 'cheat-epilogue,' which is to say: the main story beats that were supposed to be THE finale of the movie are presented in still shots that appear as the credits scroll. Have I mentioned that a good deal of this movie was about music, and that there is a massive music festival being announced throughout it? And all we get out of that is a STILL SHOT IN THE CREDITS?

All in all, worth one watch for the sake of being able to say you've seen it, and maybe enjoy the really well animated and acted portions of it, but largely a disappointing experience as far as the story - and the promised but never delivered music - goes.

For the love of god, please watch this fucking masterpiece.

Peak animation, peak over-the-topness, peak comedy. Everything you ever wanted to get out of a mecha anime, parodied to hell and back and packed into twelve extremely easy to watch episodes that will leave you craving more. All that being said, god-forbid you try to take anything too seriously or question the plot too much - it's entirely not what the anime wants from you. Sit back and enjoy how much this title seems to indulge the goofiness of itself and anime as a genre. There is little I can say the other reviews haven't pointed ... out in the terms of content, so I'll wrap it up with a single sentence - Top gun meets mecha while subtle homoerotic tones shift into full on gay tension, and boy oh boy is every second of it a treat for every one of your senses.

At the time of writing this, it only just wrapped up, but God I hope this one becomes a cult classic. It's like nothing I've ever seen in anime, and chances are something like this will never be made again. Much like its title implies, the creators decided to gather their courage, and man did they wrap this up with a bang. Even if it turns out not to be your cup of tea, you'll be able to appreciate it all, from story and characters to sound and animation, because it shows: everything in here was made with love.

Saw this at a recent animation festival. Was not disappointed.

I will mention right of the bat that this movie isn't perfect. The occasional use of 3D character models compared to the traditional medium that is mostly used makes some scenes stick out like a sore thumb. For what it was, it perhaps could have been briefer too, and voice acting, though not a lot of it, is sometimes over the top in the wrong places. As a prime example of this, all the character breathe and gasp really loudly and much too often. It's more of a personal gripe, but I do think it detracted ... from scenes of horror that would have benefited from shocked silence.

All that being said, this is some good shit.

I should also point out that if you're here for a very straightforward narration technique, you might not - in fact, definitely will not get what you want, but considering this movie is very quick to turn from what seems a typical ghost story into a fairly trippy horror escapade, I think the vagueness of everything that took place in it is really makes the whole thing that much more interesting. Not everything needs to be unveiled and clear from the star or by the end, for that matter. That very ignorance gives some otherworldly charm that mystery genre in general could benefit from, because by the end it'll make you both (sort of) understand AND question what the hell just happened. I don't want to spill too much, because I truly believe it's good to see it without any expectations, so you can enter the experience with an empty mind. The story of it, depending on your interpretation, could be as straightforward as you like, or a mere glimpse into something beyond human comprehension. And isn't a personal interpretation just the best way to approach any mystery?

The visuals are pretty consistent in being spook-inducing, and sometimes downright unsettling even when nothing of immediate terror is taking place. I think the beauty of the scares in this movie is about the implications of it rather than the events, and the visuals will serve as a very good point to tell you what I mean.

Last but not least, the movie even managed to squeeze in a bit of personality into the characters, just enough to make you feel for them when you see them struggle.

All in all, a very solid short movie that took me by surprise.

I've held a semi-deep interest in space, science fiction, robots, and mecha for many years, but have never quite dived into any mecha titles. With how popular this title has been lately, I figured I might as well give it a chance. Words alone can hardly describe the 'everything' of things this show gave me, whereas I expected - or rather, merely hoped, I would get a few cool robot battles out of it. I humbly and happily admit I was proved wrong, and all my initial thoughts about what this show might be like had quickly been pummeled into the ground.

The wonderful thing that ... makes the Witch of Mercury feel so special to me - as an anime - is that it doesn't behave like one all the time but so clearly is one, wants to be one and embraces being one. It set up plethora of characters and tropes, styles and topics so commonly seen in anime titles, and then completely obliterates them... yet at the same time, thrives on the best of the best of anime tropes. To name just a few examples:

- It sets up characters whom you think you understand, whom you can practically recognize from other series, only to let them grow and change into their unique selves. As colourful in personality as they are in design, I found myself getting ridiculously emphatic to not only characters I didn't initially like but to characters I initially didn't deem important. But in the Witch from Mercury, everybody is important, which perhaps makes it one of the most interesting character-driven plots to watch. No voice is unheard, and no voice is ignored.
-Furthermore, the Witch from Mercury starts off with a tired concept of a school setting which instantly made me think this was not going to be as good as I wanted it to be... a concept that ends up being so far removed from itself, yet its still vital for the plot. It effortlessly turns the concept of an academic hangout spot into a playground for something far, far bigger. School is, for all intents and purposes, just a word for something else all these wonderful characters are trying to do.
-MELODRAMA. Do it well, or don't do it at all. I feel like the majority of media in general fails to portray drama of any kind well, and melodrama has all but been ridiculed to hell and back. So to find myself getting invested not only with interest but with emotion, was an absolute experience.

I could write pages and pages about this anime but it wouldn't do it justice. I wondered how could this melodramatic title about politics, space, robots and highschoolers possibly be a masterpiece - surely I missed something, surely I can't give it a blatant 10, but the reality is - I literally don't have a single complaint about any of it. Coming from me, who has been feeling quite bitter about many, many anime titles, I think it counts as proper praise when I say this anime is what revitalized my hopes and interest in further titles in general, if only any of them had half the talent and effort the Witch from Mercury has put into it.

EDIT: Finished the manga, and my thoughts are pretty much exactly the same.

Ok, look, hear me out.

I don't really usually review stuff like this but as I read, I really couldn't help thinking just how different this thing is from all the others of this type I've tried to read. It's supposedly a 'boys' love' genre but frankly it goes just enough beyond that, that I'm hesitant to put in in that category; firstly because it involves no typical 'boys' one would encounter in manga like this, and additionally, why not simply call it a romance, since it fits that category so much better? ... But I'm getting subjective, so let's move on.

To put it simply and without spoilers, Monster and the Beast is about an actual monstrous creature with a heart of gold, and a charming man who is very openly not the best kind of person, traveling together, and growing romantically involved with each other. It's a cute setting with contrast of 'looks VS personality' sort of theme that doesn't magically go away, and is slowly explored throughout the story.

Funny thing is that I expected the plot and characters to get poorly executed and explored in favor of fanservice and the typical kind of bullshit I find in most romantic, shoujo-ish, boys/girls love schlock but lucky for us all, someone here knew how to write this thing well - so we got both the plot and the cute/hot stuff!
The human is an openly lecherous asshole, and it is an actual pleasure to see his initially rather cold demeanor that dangerously verges on crossing the 'red flag' territory, cross into a warmer disposition, influenced by the presence of the kindness of the monster's character; whereas the monster is a shy, cute bean, and it's just as nice to see him profess his love, as it is him getting increasingly open and brave about exploration of the physical relationship which, let's be frank, we're all partially here for. Wrap that up in an increasingly wholesome romance, and you got yourself a real good soup.

Now to be level with you perfectly: in the 17 chapters I've read, you will probably not find a masterpiece of storytelling nor painstakingly created visuals - though both of these hold up well on their own, the real charm lies in the romantic / smutty aspect of this very digestible read; and if you're in fact into these types of romantic scenarios, you will likely not be able to stop reading until you're through.

In conclusion, if you're into man-on-man love, and love to spice it up with actual monsters dating humans, it is likely this will be the read you can come back to again and again, knowing that it's actually a fun, memorable, kind of sexy, and wholesome experience, and not just another disappointing romp in the sheets.

Animation seems to be somewhat of a complex topic for fans of animated media, either that of Western or Eastern origin. Some would argue that the point of animation is to look prettier than real life, some to do what real life can't. Some I've even heard say they can't appreciate animation if any and every frame of it doesn't look like a wallpaper, which just so happens to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard someone say about an animated piece of art.
I would argue that none of these statement are entirely, or at all, correct. In my humble opinion, animation is about ... bringing things to life.

That being said, Redline brought much to life through animation alone, and it's both a plus and a detriment.

The quality of this movie is apparent from the very first frame. You don't have to be well versed in the history nor the know-how of the animation to see instantly what it is that caught the attention of so many people, because there is truly little, if anything bad, you can say about Redline's fast-paced, faithful, immersive, chaotic and bold approach to the illusion of life, going hand-in-hand with nearly manic, over-the-top approach to storytelling and character interaction.

Of course, being a movie, animation is not all there is to Redline but its animation is most certainly and definitely, the best there is of it. Past its masterful execution of its style, Redline is a fairly simple movie with a relatively simple, if even lackluster story, effectively packed in so much stylish chaos that's it's occasionally easy to get lost. And it is so for the best, because the action on the screen becomes, at some point, unforgiving. Your eyes might occasionally struggle to catch up with what they are seeing, and by the end, breathing rooms become fewer and further in between but this is more of a subjective note.

All that being said though, Redline is not about the story, though it does have a solid one. It is not about its characters, though it managed to make us connect to them enough for us to care. It is not about any themes, because one might argue that past the sci-fi racing in the midst of a space war, there is no theme to this movie... one might argue so, and if they were right, you wouldn't miss a single thing about what makes this movie so special, because Redline is about animating for the sake of animating, bringing things to life in the most breathtaking way possible, and man did it take my breath away... more than a decade after its release.

Not all of life's stories are spectacular - in fact, a vast majority of them are not. Redline, however, makes it seem like every story can be not only spectacular but meaningful because at its core, it's exactly what Redline is like - there might not be a story for the ages in Redline but Redline itself became a cult classic many will watch and talk about for years to come.

Bubble is a mess of a movie that tries to portray the chaotic magic of its brief music video in a movie-long format any boy, does it show.

There is plenty going on in Bubble and all of it is, most importantly of all apparently, an absolute eye candy. A world sunken into an odd, bubble induced apocalypse makes for unique and colorful scenes, the parkour subplot turns the impressive feats of athleticism into an absolutely stunning feats of animation, and the character design is creative, unique and colorful - some might even say, 'bubbly'. (Ha.)

But there is also that part where the whole story ... is loosely based on the Little Mermaid for no real reason... and the part where a woman gets kidnapped over money, I think? ... Then there is literally no explanation for what in the world bubbles even are, oh and the 10+ characters who were present in the movie had no impact on the plot whatsoever, including the MCs, and the MC has hearing sensitivity issues that get magically resolved, and is this girl an alien, a bubble, a figment or all three of those, and- well, you get the gist but in the case you don't, this movie is all over the place.

There are plenty really lovely and interesting ideas but ultimately none of them stick well together, primarily because they are so superficially explored that you end up not really knowing what was it you just watched. A symbolic representation of a character's struggles within himself? A post-apocalyptical romance? An eldritch-ish story of an alien who ran away from home? (I am not joking.) Just an anime about pretty stuff and impressive animation? Any and all of these would be okay if the movie could just decide on not more than two of these but the movie focuses on all of them and then some.

In the end, Bubble is as superficial as they come, worth only as much as it's pretty to look at; if you've seen it once, you've seen it all. But it is really beautiful to look at, so should you really want to look at it again and again, you might prefer watching the music video to save some time. Story wise, neither the movie nor the music video are anything to look forward to.

P.S This anime implies some very questionable things about cognitive disorders / neurodiversity, so make of that fact what you will.

Season Three is disappointing, which is more than I can say for season two - an almost insultingly boring experience - but still, disappointing.

Mind you, Season Three had a pretty good thing going because al it had to do was reveal everything to us, and as such, it had a lot of genuinely interesting plot points to solve. And for the most part, it did great!

... And then the plot simply ends.

... That's quite literally it. It ends! The very last episode doesn't really explains as much as it glosses over where our characters might go. Doesn't ask deeper question about what might be, ... or how anyone really feels about the many things that happened, merely glancing over these issues so as to 'resolve' them. Doesn't delve on the fact we have 10+ characters the futures of which we want to see, and the hearts of which we want to peer into now that, finally, everything has been resolved.

The romance itself, which I believe was for many the point they wanted to see adequately resolves and touched upon, is so lazily done that I felt like I must've missed an episode where there was something, SOMETHING interesting about it.

... Alas. With how popular it is, Fruits Basket made me feel like a rice ball in the sea of fans. Even though I am, to an extent, a fan myself.

But aren't the fans always the harshest critics?

In the end, very interesting but an incredibly, incredibly inadequate ending for a lovely plot. So long, Fruits Basket. Though I am clearly a rice ball, it was nice knowing what it's like to be among the fruits.

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PS. On a less important note... this series had a disappointingly small amount of Zodiac transformations.

Fruits Basket Season Two can brag itself to be one of the worst anime I have ever seen, which is not a small thing. In direct comparison, the first season, which I thought comfortably average, seems almost like a masterpiece - there is an actual plot, and actual characters, and actual investment you get from watching the first season play out.

Alas; Season Two decided to take a step away from all that ‘actual plot that makes me want to watch more’ and instead takes us on a metaphorical twenty-something-episode school trip through absolutely unnecessary points of… of something I can’t quite call plot, because it ... ultimately added so little to the overall Fruits Basket experience, that I couldn't help feeling tricked.

Mind you, I watched every episode of it, and I, generally speaking, remember it all. But you know how anime have those episodes where a class goes to a trip? Or the protagonists go to the beach, and it’s an entire 'thing'? I’m not kidding when I tell you nearly the entire season had felt like that. The constant, *constant* melodrama, the both pessimistic and optimistic musing of main characters, the countless inner monologues, narration after narration after narration of one’s feelings and memories and very insubstantial flashbacks - it sounds like a good way to delve into a character… but not so much when that's literally all there is. Like I said, I wouldn’t find this so bad if there was some, some payoff by the end of the episodes or at least the season. But there is quite literally none, and you know why?

Because inner monologues always stay inner monologues. No matter what inner revelations, fears, concerns or breakthroughs develop in the hearts and minds of the character the episode is focused on, hardly any of it matters because the characters refuse, for the drama’s sake, to trust each other with more than a bare minimum of their true being. I know this vulnerability is part of the plot but everything has its limits, and so does my patience. Again, ultimately, it feels as if quite literally nothing had happened.

If I'm looking for a single word to describe it, it’s boring. It is simply boring.

… The saving grace of this painful experience is that the season decided to pick up the actual plot about four episodes before it ends, and it is, almost literally, the only part worth watching, and the only reason why this isn’t rated with a ‘1’. The last few episodes reveal a lot of interesting information and propels the plot into motion - and it makes the entire experience incredibly frustrating, because if I knew that’s how it was going to be, I would simply skip the entirety of the rest of the season easily.

Which would bring is to season three and its, uh… humble way it ended things.