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Eva 3.0 + 1.0 is insane... and not in a complimentary way...

Eva 3.0 + 1.0 is the culmination of every mistake the rebuilds and original series have made except cranking each error to a new absurd height with the final instalment in the series. Its current MAL score is a complete joke and at this point it’s fair to say that Anno could have taken a terrible fan parody written by a fourteen year old, given it a 2 and a half hour run time and slapped a multi-million pound budget on top and it would still have received high praise from the community - ... and that's pretty much what has happened here...

Here's a question that I think is important to ask about Evangelion: "Does the story actually have explanations for its events and is it ambiguous on purpose, or is this a cover up for the writer not actually wanting to come up with any real explanations" - To answer this I want to look at a particular scene that represents this movie, the scene in question begins with Gendou Ikari piecing his brain back together to reveal that he has arisen to some power akin to 'a god' - and the explanation as to how he isn't a lifeless stain on the floor after getting half his skull removed is that he has used (and I quote) "the key of Nebuchadnezzar" to abandon his humanity. Misato and Ritsuko gasp at the horror, yet as the viewer I am just left to say... Huh?. In true Evangelion style not even a remote explanation is given as to what this key is or to the extent of its power, yet it has magically turned Gendou into a semi omnipotent being. No further explanation will be given for this, you as the viewer must just accept it - Don't ask any questions, don't think about how out of nowhere and convenient this is, just go with it... In the original series and with some elements of the previous rebuilds I could justify the lack of detail or explanation for being 'interpretive' and that they are just poorly explained not that there isn't actually an explanation. But with 3.0 + 1.0 even being as much in favour of Anno as I can be, this just isn't the case. This is just lazy... So here it goes:

Eva 3.0 + 1.0 has the most fragile story I have seen in any anime. Don't get me wrong even the original series had terrible exposition and aspects that were just never explained yet 3.0 + 1.0 throws such a sheer volume of nonsense at the viewer in the second half that you have to question whether or not it’s intentional. There's a saying that fits this perfectly and it’s known as the triple B's, "Bullsh*t Baffles Brains". I think urban dictionary puts this best with an explanation of "To talk or write absolute nonsense but do so with such conviction everyone comes to believe it unquestioningly." Fundamentally to me this is Anno's writing style. - Anno will go to any length possible to not have to give an explanation for the events in his story, to say he is reliant on symbolism is an understatement. Eva 3.0 + 1.0 pushes this to new heights with a second half that is bad even for Eva's standards. With sentences like "By incorporating vessels of the Adams, it's in an extra four-in-one state" or ideas such as 'forming a new spear out of a battleship and a spinal cord'. It's just insane to me that Anno thinks that by putting a religious word in a sentence or by using a vague one-liner that he is in any way justifying the events that are occurring in his stories. This is almost anti-writing. Put angel in-front of something or use some scientific mumbo jumbo to try and baffle the viewer so much that they don't even question what on earth is going on. Genuinely there's no way of both taking this film seriously and enjoying it, you either treat it as a joke and don't question anything and have a good time, or you give it the slightest glimmer of respect and come away scratching your head after each scene. I could keep rambling about this for hours but ill end this segment here, actually I should explain this segment how Anno explains Evangelion; story Ramshiel/10, characters LCL/10, art black moon/10 sound instrumentality/5 and so on...

Moving onto Anno’s next amusing writing quirk, any character in Eva will instantly change whenever the story demands it. 2.0 had this problem in Asuka suddenly becoming caring and charming because the story wanted you to feel bad when she dies even though this is the complete opposite of her character in the first film and the original series. Shinji has had this problem from minute one in that he will jump from being an inconsolable wreck to full on invested battle mode within a second; and now with 3.0 + 1.0 we have Rei who has gone from being a complete emotionless drone to being an inquisitive toddler in the final rebuild. The show itself even calls this out, comparing Rei reading books in the latest film to Rei being completely disinterested in the second. Suddenly because the show wants you to care about her she now has to be intrigued and cute yet when shinji offered her the same proposition in 3.0 he might as well have had a door slammed in his face. Also the film has the comic revelation of stating that 'Rei was designed to always be drawn towards Shinji' Yet she was completely cold towards him in the third film and showed no signs of wanting to read yet now this has all but changed because off... well... nothing really Anno just likes to write characters in whatever way is convenient at the time regardless of continuity.

Speaking of characters let’s take a special moment to talk about Mari Makinami, and just by stating her name we have now explored her in this review just as much as her character was explored in the film. Still we know basically nothing about this character yet Anno has such an affection towards this charming mirage that he decided the ending to Evangelion should not be with Asuka or Rei and instead end with her and Shinji, incredible. Thank you for not exploring this character even remotely yet deciding out of all the important female characters in the series that this is the one you want to end the film with, brilliant. What a way to pay homage to the original series with a character that wasn't even in it and that we know just as much about as we know about the key of Nebuchadnezzar (we know that both exist and that they both have names...).

One of the more pretentious antics of the film was its use of 'fourth wall' braking moments, using another classic BBF concept of 'anti universe' to try and justify its use of studio sets in film and raw keyframes in an attempt to be clever like the end of Evangelion (film) was. What Anno doesn't realize however is that a fourth wall break actually has to be earned in order to be effective and unfortunately as with everything else in this film the reasoning behind Eva 3.0 + 1.0's was shallow at best. Just completely superfluous and screams of a writer who has no idea what made his use of this in the past effective in the first place. Of all the rebuild films to try and break the fourth wall on you picked the most trite and meaningless out of the lot good job. I suppose this was the finale though and with all other Eva instalments it seems that Anno thinks he has to cram some fourth wall nonsense in at the end else his stories messages won’t be clever enough, the irony.

Also in true Anno style kaji's sacrifice isn't even shown and is just mentioned briefly in the film. This event was so crucial that it literally stopped the third impact and killed off one of the series best characters, yet instead of actually showing something crucial like that, the film instead likes to use up run time on another shinji self-loathing arc because Evangelion loves to spend the majority of its time on its most dull and repetitive character. - Misato and kaji were by far the best characters in the original series and Anno doesn't even want to explore his sacrifice, brilliant use of characters, a real sign of a classy writer.

The best segment of the film despite its flaws is definitely the farming segment in the beginning third. Even with Shinji repeating the same miserable self loathing arc that we have seen about a hundred times already and with Rei completely changing her characterization from 3.0 this segment is still a joy to watch. Just a simple story that has decent pacing with no crazy events or wild exposition tangents, I wonder why it is that people enjoy this half of the film more than the latter; it’s almost like your story doesn't need new ideas thrown at the viewer every second like it does past halfway, who would have thought...

Moving on from the farming segment, the initial fight between Misatos renegade and Nerv was a pretty great spectacle. Watching Asuka and Makinami plunge through the pink Floyd cover whilst hailing copper on top of creepy Runescape Evas was great to watch. Unit 13 pulling out the Uno reverse card on Asuka was also a nifty scene. At this point in the film I was actually warming to it a lot and was really hopeful to see where the extra hour of runtime would take it. And sure this was mostly just a flex of animation budget but it was still really entertaining, can’t say the same for the following hour of the film however.

The saving grace of this film is of course the phenomenal art and sound direction, infact it does such a good job that it has fooled the community collectively into giving this film above a 6 on MAL who would have thought. That's really all I'm going to say about that, at the end of the day this is a story, great art and sound are only useful if the story itself is up to par and by this point I think I have been quite vocal in my unending disappointment.

Another interesting note I want to make is to point out the hypocrisy of most of the people reviewing this film. How users can give Eva 3.0 a low score for not having any explanation and being a mess yet somehow giving 3.0 + 1.0 a high score when it arguably makes the same mistakes but to an even greater extent is beyond me. Just as with 2.0 it seems that most of the people who rate Eva highly don't even understand why they are rating it highly in the first place; supposedly the original series is good because it focuses more on its characters and has more depth than other mecha anime, yet 2.0 which reduces all of its characters to a one dimensional state and has much more of a focus on just being a cool spectacle instead of having a deep story is somehow good; yet Eva 3.0 is bad because its poorly explained even though nothing in Evangelion has ever been well explained, and now having 3.0 + 1.0 that combines both the flaws of 2.0 and 3.0 yet is somehow more highly rated than either of them? It’s just nonsensical.

In my original NGE review the final paragraph ended on a somewhat upbeat note, here however I'm really struggling to think of positives. Take the budget away from this film and the core writing that you are left with is a complete mess. This was Eva’s last farewell and this is what is left. This just makes the original series seem like a fluke and less like a stroke of genius. Anno does not learn from his mistakes he just hides behind his key animators to fool the fan base into thinking that they are watching something worthwhile, and with most of the community’s reaction to this film it seems they have succeeded. If you enjoyed Eva 3.0 + 1.0 all the power to you, but for me this really wasn't it. Infact I would say that each Eva rebuild has been worse than the last, what a disappointing way to finish the series.

The main issue with season 2 is that this arc just doesn’t work well as an animated series. It’s really a string of sub arcs that the series doesn’t have the time to explore properly apart from the main arc as a result of being confined to 12 episodes - consequently this series comes across as a writer who is struggling to know how to advance the story forward, setting up lots of smaller conflicts that don’t really mesh well with one another and ultimately forgetting about them whenever its convenient - by the same token character actions and motivations change on a dime whenever ... the story requires it so that it can jump from one idea to the next - lots of smart sounding explanations are used in an attempt to cover up for the obvious flaws such as: Why isn’t Legoshi contacting the police? ; How come Legoshi will eat bugs and not meat? ; Why is a lion mafia based around pride and respect for their leader eagerly willing to accept a child herbivore as their new leader when he killed their previous boss in cold blood? – again the story will attempt to provide answers to these but if you actually look into any of the explanations beyond surface level they just completely fall apart under contradiction

The most frustrating mini conflict that the series introduces is the idea that the next Beastar successor will be whoever can solve the murder case, obviously this is a very confusing idea but narratively at the time I understood why it was introduced as it could bring a lot of new characters and dilemmas to the series - unfortunately however this idea is never explored past its initial set up, I was waiting the whole time for the revelation that Pina only joined the drama club in order to solve the mystery so that he could become the next beastar, or maybe that the snake guard in the beginning set Legoshi on this task just to steal credit afterwards or something to that extent - neither of these ideas are the case however and it just feels like this mini conflict was added purely so that it can be used as a throwback and justification for events in season 3 when that is inevitably produced

The other pointless mini conflict introduced is the idea that the school will be separated into carnivores and herbivores, no mixing - Again as a premise this is interesting and could be used in lots of ways throughout the plot, maybe exploring the pressures of forbidden love across the two groups, or to raise tension between the two sides, however this is not the case. I’m guessing the manga actually did something with this idea which is probably why it was added as a set up to the series but again they just don’t have the run time to explore this idea at all and it ultimately feels completely redundant in the show

A special note must be added for Louise dialogue this season - Louise was always a bit of a mouthpiece to shout philosophy and edgy lines in season 1 but they really take it to the next level in season 2, at least season 1 balances his character so that there are down to earth moments amongst the chaos but season 2 holds no punches and almost every line from the character is used to preach ideals in a way that comes across like a 2015 emo Tumblr post - I unironically had to pause episodes a few times just to take a minute to compose myself at what is obviously supposed to be an emotional scene - if there was a perfect way to sum up Louise dialogue this season It would be the classic ‘I am 14 and this is deep’. Seeing as this is the Mangakas first full series this is to be expected and will probably improve with experience; I also don’t think it detracts much from the overall story but I still think it’s something that is worth mentioning as its quite funny.

Also a special note to the Snake character who is introduced and… introduced. I was annoyed around the mid mark of the series as to how little of a role he plays past his introduction but I think what really maxed this idea was ending the series without a single scene in which Legoshi goes back to tell the snake who he thinks the culprit is or anything along those lines – in fact this character was so important to the series that I couldn’t even find a character listing for them on MAL so great job on making use of this character…

Exploring another one of the new additions, The stripper character is seen in 2 episodes and just about with everything else in this series, they come across as entirely redundant – they are introduced, they have one conversation with louise, another later in a bar, and that’s it. Again it feels as though this character was added to the series purely because its an ‘interesting’ scene in the manga and not because it has any overall relevance to the series – I mean you could have at least made the case that this character was added for a fan service moment but it’s all blurred and out of frame anyway so you can’t even justify the character in that regard

To further a previous idea, Louise as part of the mafia is rather underexplored in general – The show dedicates an entire half of an episode exploring an admittedly charming sidestory between the drama clubs cheetah characters and their lama friend, yet fails to set time to expand on its most interesting aspect which is exploring the fraught mental conflict going on inside louise mind about whether his actions are justified as being the head of the lion mob – Aside from 1 scene where a reptile is being sold for meat and the initial task of louise being required to eat meat to enter the mob - there’s no other moral conflicts that are caused as a result of Louise new found position which just feels like completely wasted potential – This could be forgiven if we knew that louise was going to have more conflict in season 3 as a result of being the mafia head but the season ends with louise completely cutting ties with the mob so this concept ends up underutilized in my opinion – actually knowing beastars writing this will probably turn out to be the case and he will do a 180 to turn back to the mob anyway as the show seems to take joy In completely flipping or forgetting character motivation on a whim

Ultimately it feels like this arc was adapted out of necessity for future installments rather than because it’s a worthwhile sequel to make, perhaps a double length series would have allowed for the other narrative conflicts to be explored past their introductions, or to add depth to Louise new found position. Either way I was hoping for a true sequel in s2 that brings new ideas and expands upon season 1 in an interesting and unique way – ultimately however season 2 just comes across as a muddled and washy setup for s3 in my opinion…

The trouble with Evangelion is that due to its ‘dark’ and philosophical nature, the show leads itself very well for over-analysis. Consequently, those who are fascinated by the shows unique take on the genre can spend hours theory crafting and writing essays on the genius of its content, whilst ignoring the actual problems of the show.

‘The idea of Evangelion is greater than the sum of its parts’ – This statement acts as both a summary of my thoughts and also a demonstration as to why this show has become so divisive amongst viewers. Many will read the statement above and find that it makes ... a poignant analysis of the show, whilst also being just vague enough to be open to interpretation. Others will read the statement and find it pointless, a collection of noise that sounds smart at face value but under analysis of what its actually saying, reveals itself to be effectively meaningless – Both outlooks are true, and both outlooks are false. You could make a solid case for either side of the argument and both would sound somewhat intelligent either way… This is Evangelion in a nutshell.

Now as to which side I align with, I would say that I fall under the latter. I think that Evangelion is a brilliant concept that could have been the masterpiece that it’s made out to be; however upon close scrutiny of the shows story and message, I believe it falls under its own weight due to poor execution.

Story:
To put it bluntly Evangelions story is a mess. So many crucial details are left poorly explained and underdeveloped that in my opinion the show goes past the point of ‘ambiguous and interpretive’ and into the collection of noise side of things. Does the show want to tell you a story, or does it want to tell you the idea of a story. I believe that a lot of fans relish in the vague nature of Eva’s storytelling, spending hours piecing all the symbolism and scraps of information together to form a somewhat logical idea as to its narrative. This is a fine approach to take as Eva provides just enough detail for a narrative to be derived if you desire it enough. However personally I can’t help but see the vague details and reliance on symbolism as a cover up for how weak the underlying story actually is. Why do pilots have to be 14? Why is the spear so important? What is the motivation behind Seeles objective? Why does Shinjis father choose the human instrumentality project specifically out of all the available ideals? What on earth are the black and white moon? Etc… Even looking at parts of the story that were attempted to be explained, the reasoning given occurs so quickly and is so vague in nature that it doesn’t help to solve the problem. If you asked me what Adam is or what the angels motivations are, I’m sure I could give some symbolic answer, but do I really know… not a clue. I’m sure if I paused frame by frame and spent 30 minutes analysing the ten seconds of dialogue spouted by Kaworu before his demise I could create a somewhat conclusive idea but at that point I have to question the motivation of the show. My point is that Evangelion doesn’t really know what its story is. It attempts to cover up for this by having a vague approach to storytelling and relying heavily on symbolism as explanation for its events, leaving the specific details to be derived by the fans. Whether this approach is lazy or genius will come down to the viewer.

As a side note I would also like to take a moment to mention the shows pacing. In the first half its somehow too slow and too fast at the same time. Way too many episodes are spent wasted on Shinji doing nothing but feeling sorry for himself whilst avoiding all the characters that desperately need development like Rei for example. Yet the show manages to also feel too quick due to how under explained and vague most of the important details are as mentioned above. Between Post Asuka introduction and Pre Kaworu introduction I will say that the pacing is actually fine for the most part, this is also where the show gets into a steady groove and flow between episodes and where the quality rises for a while but of course this work is undone by the laughable ending sequence. Now some sympathy does need to be given for the ending as its clear the budget was at 0 by that point but regardless this is a critical review and it should be no surprise that I find the ending to be a painful rushed mess that does a terrible // non-existent job of tying up loose strings.

Overall Evangelions story sits in a weird place: It’s too poorly explained to actually make any sense by just watching the show alone, yet its also not ambiguous enough to be a true interpretive experience akin to works like ‘Angels Egg’ for example. Either spend the time to actually explain important details to the viewer or go all the way and be fully ambiguous symbolism. The strange mid ground that the story exists in its current state doesn’t commit to either and ends up feeling lost between the two.

Characters:
I’ll start by saying that Misato and Kaji are by far the best characters in the show. Misato is the only character that has complex psychological issues that actually don’t feel like they were added just to hammer home trite philosophical garbage like a lot of others in the show. Her problems feel very real and her character is probably the most tangible, Misato feels like a real person and not just a conduit for the authors views. Now as for Kaji, I initially disliked him. I assumed he would just be a surprise roadblock villain by the end and boy was I wrong. His relationship with Misato is incredibly nuanced and the episode in which they both return from drinking and Misato opens up to him about her father was incredible. He also has the best line in the show which is the answer phone after his disappearance with the words ‘if I see you again ill put into words what I couldn’t 8 years ago’. Im paraphrasing but I think this moment deserves a lot of praise and it’s a good example as to why I find the show so frustrating. It has clear moments of brilliance and nuance, yet the majority of time is just spent wasted, spouting the same psychological nonsense over and over again with zero subtlety.

Going from the best developed characters to the worst, next is Rei. Rei is so criminally underdeveloped in the show its borderline insulting. I think I read somewhere that Rei is supposed to be a joke about how vapid most waifus are and I really wouldn’t be surprised if this was the authors intent. Which is why I can’t even fathom how Eva is renowned for having this huge waifu war when both characters are so laughably lacking in meaningful development its astonishing. Literally all we get from Rei is a few blushes here and there to show that she’s not completely a robot and a weak psychological element that’s stapled on at the end in an attempt to cover up how redundant her character is. That’s it. Maybe its just the hindsight of time but characters such as Violet Evergarden or 2B from Nier have shown how effective emotionless characters can be in an emotional story and going back to characters like Rei just shows how shallow and underdeveloped she is in Evangelion.

Next up is Asuka and I will say that at least some care is spent making her character not completely awful but certainly by the end of the show she has diminished into a mouthpiece to spout edgy psychological nonsense from the author. Just because a character has deep emotions, that does not mean that they therefore are a deep character. Asuka is written to be completely binary in that she’s either hating herself and everyone around her or she’s being cocky and arrogant. There is no in-between and consequently she comes across very forced as she lacks the nuance and subtlety of characters like Misato for example. She does have one brilliant scene in the show which is when she reaches out to Kaji as he’s leaving the apartment and suddenly the upbeat façade breaks and we see the lonely girl trapped inside. This level of subtlety is not demonstrated at all past this point however and again it is a failure of execution on behalf of Evangelion.

Shinji is a strange character. He kind of just exists… Its not that I dislike the character itself its more that I dislike how much attention and focus he gets in the show. I think its pretty undeniable that shinji is by far the least compelling character in Evangelion, yet for some reason the show insists on giving him the most spotlight and run time. The first half of the show is definitely the most painful for me and that’s because its just shinjis repeated psychological battle over and over. At least towards the end the situations shinji gets himself in actually advance the plot or add to the worldbuilding of eva’s and the like, but in the first half this just isn’t the case and it drags on for so long. Another point I would like to make is that Shinji isn’t even that likeable as a character. He clearly does want to help people to some extent and the show does a somewhat decent job of asking whether this comes from a place of empathy or just self-ratification, but the issue is that whenever Shinji is in trouble or seemingly might die, as the viewer I just didn’t really care any where near as much as the show wanted me too. - Although I have been seemingly very critical of his character so far I would like to say that I do forgive Shinji somewhat as its clear that he is meant to be a self-insert for the viewer. These types of characters are often difficult to make compelling when you have a plethora of other intriguing characters. Finding the balance between individuality and relatability is very challenging but even so the execution in evangelion leaves much to be desired.

Shinji’s father on the other hand is atrocious as a character. I was constantly waiting for the reveal that would explain why he disregards Shinji to the extent that is shown and unfortunately this answer never came. The problem with this is that it creates a giant plot hole as there is no reason this manipulative intelligent figure would just be an asshole to his own son who he relies on to pilot 01. It makes no sense from Shinji’s fathers’ perspective that he wouldn’t try to wrap Shinji under his thumb and ensure that he is mentally sound to pilot the Eva’s but no. Even after finishing the series I’m not sure I could do a good job explaining why he favours Rei so much over Shinji, this like many other aspects of the show is left underdeveloped. I’m not even going to touch on the ‘human instrumentality project’ as I think pointing out that this was rushed and poorly explained would be way too obvious – If I need to read a damn Wikipedia article to even have a chance at understanding key lore of the show then that’s a failure as far as I’m concerned and unfortunately this is the case for the vast majority of ideas in the show.

Akagi and her mother are… okay? They are written to a fine standard for the most part with some insightful scenes, I particularly liked the idea of the magi being based around the three aspects of her mother’s personality, that was a smart touch. Both love plots leave a lot to be desired however, we don’t see what lead either of them to fall for Gendo and the show doesn’t utilise this to expand upon Shinjis father’s personality either which I think is a missed opportunity to show the manipulative side of him. Also why was Akagi made to strip in front of Seele, is this another moment I need to add to the list of Wikipedia searches?

Lastly, we get to Shinji’s friends / classmates and this is probably the most baffling aspect to me. For a show with such an intriguing world and complex ideas it spends such a lot of time on the mundane relationships with his classmates who are ultimately redundant. The class president is well realised and her love plot with Toji felt believable, however any impact is taken from this due to Toji surviving the evangelion attack. It’s not like he has any meaning in the series after this point as he isn’t seen again so I see no reason as to why he wasn’t killed off in the attack. Not only would this have made the class presidents love plot much more emotional it would also have solidified Shinji’s fathers ‘ends justify the means’ type ideals. Shinji’s tantrum afterwards would also have felt much more deserved as it would have been clear that he was unhinged after the loss of his close friend whereas what we are left with in the actual show feels much more forced. Speaking of Toji, the show does nothing with his internal conflict of choosing whether or not he wants to pilot the Eva, sure don’t expand on his clearly fraught internal dilemma and instead just show some shots of him playing basketball and frowning. Also no one tells Shinji Toji is the fourth child because… Plot. Camera guy also just disappears after the first half and has no relevance to the story past his introduction, maybe he appears in the movies or something but as for this series here I feel like this was a big mistake as once again so much time was spent in the beginning fleshing out his character with Shinji. With a world as confusing and dense as Evangelion either have characters that are relevant or don’t include them at all and instead use that time to explain the shows ideas more clearly.

Music:
I do not really have anything to say about the music, its fine for the most part. The op and ed will always be infamous and rightly so as they are both great. The one comment I will make is that if I have to listen to another scene with the same loud bird chirping sound effect droning on in the background, I might lose my mind.

Concept / Conclusion:
Normally I wouldn’t have a section for concept, but I believe it is worth mentioning as it’s a big reason as to why I have rated the score as high as a 5 (mediocre) given the shows many flaws. At the end of the day Evangelions execution is poor, there’s no two ways about it. So many aspects are left underdeveloped that I just can’t ignore the issues and go with the opinion of the crowd in saying that Eva is a 10/10. Now if this were released in 2020 it would be getting a 3 make no mistake, but considering the show was released in 1995 and considering how much of an impact it has had on anime as a whole, Eva can’t just be dismissed as an entirely bad show. I truly believe that if this show was produced nowadays with a high budget by the same team it could even be the 10/10 that everyone keeps saying it is; This is because the underlying concept of Evangelion is actually really good, its just the execution that fails. Focus less on Shinji, expand all the other characters, explain key plot details carefully and this show could really be something. I believe this is why so many people overlook the problems with the show and instead focus on the idea of Evangelion rather than the show that we are ultimately left with, because the concept hidden underneath all the rubble Is pretty great especially for its time.

I will end this review in the same way I started it: ‘The idea of Evangelion is greater than the sum of its parts’. This statement is true and its also false. This show has meaning and it’s also just a collection of noise. Thankfully, opinions are allowed, and we can all have a constructive debate over the internet as to which side is correct isn’t that right guys… right? Thank you v_v

I'm going to get a migraine if i try to write a properly worded review for this film so instead here’s the notes I wrote on my phone after re-watching:

- The majority of scenes are completely unnatural and forced, especially in the beginning when Haruki is being a disinterested and rude asshole, yet Sakura continually pursues a friendship with him. My favorite was the scene where they first meet and Haruki is just completely dismissive and Sakura tells everything about herself to this essentially random dude who picked up her diary. This is why people parody anime characters and how the have a fascination with ... telling random strangers their tragic backstories

- Sakura is a caricature of a person, all of her interactions with Haruki feel forced and unrealistic as no human acts like she does and her ‘quirky’ personality of making oddly sexual or romantic quips all the time is unnecessary and detracts from creating a believable relationship between the two of them.

- Their entire relationship in the beginning is written to pander to the audience, anyone with basic social skills or human interaction experience (not anime fans) can see how unrealistic this is that this pretty girl is trying to be really good friends with this guy who isn’t even nice to her, nor acts like he even wants to be friends. It’s so forced and unnatural and is a clear attempt to appeal to lonely weebs, pretending like one day some really cute kind girl is just going to start trying to be good friends with you for no reason, also broken up with the cute boy in class recently for being ‘too persistent’ of course as the viewer has to know that shes single, paramount for character development. If the show wanted to make a statement about friendship and opening up to others around you then the fact that she is single shouldn’t even be brought up as its completely irrelevant to the core message and only serves the purpose of creating an awkward romantic subplot that detracts from the film in alot of ways

- Her best friend gets angry for perfectly valid reasons, Haruki doesn’t even say hello to her he just continues eating, what an asshole and Kyouko is made out to be the one who’s in the wrong, this is the level of competence in the writing that we are dealing with

- Also imagine not telling your literal best friend that you are dying, what’s worse than someone you know dying, someone you know dying unexpectedly and being left with feelings of emptiness as you know you could have spent more time with them and cherished them if you would have known. So great go on a mission to improve this random guys life for no reason but your best friend who has been by your side since primary school nahhhhh fuck them they don’t even need to know.

- Her reasoning for not telling Kyouko is also unbelievably stupid, how can she spend the entire film trying to get Haruki to open up to others, giving him a whole spiel about people actually liking him and that his thoughts of 'they don’t care as hes boring' are just in his head when she won’t even tell her best friend she’s dying as she believes she will act... ‘distant’

- Also small gripe but why make the film silent and pretend like Haruki saying his first name as the train goes through the tunnel is a big deal, their names correlate to one another this isn’t inception level twists we are talking about here, this was such a fake important scene.

- Classic moment when Sakura asks Haruki how pretty she is compared to the other girls and he gives a straight forward answer but then Sakura says she didn’t expect him to answer it... literally hasn’t made a joke the entire film is always serious and Sakura is the one making him play truth or dare and is the one asking the questions ok. Once again this film would be so much better if it didn’t focus on the forced romantic aspect and instead just focused properly on developing a believable relationship between the two of them. It’s a shame as there are quality moments between the two where their relationship shines but these are hidden under the mountain of uncanny valley interactions that make up the majority of the film

- The bedroom scene is atrocious, Sakura provokes and sexually assaults Haruki then he goes full bill cosby and she starts crying. Why initiate a sexual advance then get annoyed when it goes the other way. Both were in the wrong in the scene and it does nothing to develop either character or advance the plot, all it does is make the viewer feel uncomfortable, this scene should have been cut from the script, it only serves to start a pointless conflict that is immediately resolved.

- Talking of pointless conflicts that are never brought up again, Sakura's ex boyfriend appears, punches Haruki and that’s about it, literally his only contribution to the film 10/10

- Hospital scene was well written, effective insight into the girls views on life, more of that and less awkward sexual moments please, fireworks scene was also solid

- The person I feel sorry for most in the film is Kyouko honestly

- If Sakura's death was intended to be sudden and jarring which is the excuse people give as to why she is killed randomly by a murderer off screen then why not have her die just after or during the firework scene. They missed a golden opportunity with the theme song playing in the background and the happy pleasant tone of the scene to not kill her off then, imagine if she just collapses as the fireworks are going off and you could see the shock from Haruki's realization that she's going to die before he can properly say goodbye, that would have been a much more effective way of inducing the same emotion in the viewer so i don't want to hear any nonsense about attempting to justify her death off screen thank you very much. Nothing of note even happens in the film between the fireworks scene and her death aside from foreshadowing which just lessens the shock anyway as it becomes painfully obvious that she is going to die after Haruki starts rambling about how changed and happy he is

- I understand that the gum guy is present to show the change in Haruki as he goes throughout the film as he finally opens up to people represented by him accepting gum off the dude towards the end but does this really warrant an entire character in the film, perhaps they could have showed him and Kyouko having more of a relationship or made him more meaningful as he only ends up serving that single purpose and feels like a pointless side character aside from that.

- I know I alluded to it already but the stabbing was so ridiculous and utterly baffling from a writing perspective. It’s honestly shocking that people don’t see how ridiculous this is, you guys can try and justify it to convince yourselves that this is good writing but seriously this was an appalling decision in every way possible. It does nothing but annoy the viewer, they could have done so much more with her death or even just leave it as she collapses and dies on the way to the coffee shop but to get stabbed is such a pointless shift from the tone and message of the film I can’t even comprehend how this got past the storyboard stage. This moment literally destroyed any enjoyment I had for the film on my first watch as i was so confused at this illogical writing decision.

- Also I have to say that the film doesn’t even do anything with the romantic undertones / subplot anyway, so why even bother with this theme to begin with; all it does is hamper the development between the two characters. Think of how much insight we could have gained into Sakura's weaker side (or Haruki's for that matter) if run time wasn’t wasted in writing cringey pandering sexual scenes so that the ADHD monkey brains don’t lose interest

- Last but not least the worst part of the film is that Sakura eats offal, don’t be eating that nasty stuff 0/10 film ruined - In seriousness though if you ignore the ridiculousness of her death and don’t focus on the robotic interactions and forced romantic moments this films not awful, but as someone who can’t stand bad writing, especially when it could have been easily avoided this film is really a disappointment for me. This is quite surprising as these types of films are like my bread and butter, emotional films with tragic endings and fancy art are the shows I normally get pretentious and start preaching about so to mess it up this badly to the point where even I don’t like it is quite a feat. What surprises me or should I say doesn’t surprise me the most is how highly rated this film is on MAL, I guess this film panders to the lonely weeb and the writing issues aren’t going to be a problem if you don’t focus on them but even so there’s large anitubers and reviewers that are also convinced that this film is good and that’s quite scary. In my opinion this film is a litmus test to see how much you value emotion over good writing...

I don't write full form reviews normally but after re-watching Katanagatari i am left with no choice as my conflicted feelings towards the show cannot be compressed down enough to fit into the tag section for my list...

As a teenager katanagatari was a fantastic watch: cool fight scenes, great art style, unique premise, flashy and adorable characters. It felt as though i had stumbled upon a proper anime that didn't hold my hand, with a difficult ending that it pulled off very well. At the time i didn't quite understand the morals or overall message of the show but i put this down to the ... show being 'deep' and 'smart' and having a meaning that is set for the user to interpret themselves...

Now, starting with the first problem that i found with my rewatch of the show: Maniwani suck. Maniwani even right from the first episode are one of the most ridiculous over the top chunnibyou villains i have seen in anime. Every maniwani is either A) meant to be intimidating but with execution that falls so flat that you cant take them seriously not just as an obstacle but as a character due to how 1 dimensional and cringey they are or B) set to die and given the absolute bare minimal time to induce an emotional response in the viewer as if they are supposed to care. Now i will give some credit to a few moments: Ho-oh dude chopping off his arm, turtle dude pretending to not care and then going for the surprise attack, duck woman with the whip getting straight up shot with a gat and penguin bloke with his magical speedy yo yo elastic ball or whatever that was supposed to be. These are legitimately the only non cringey or awful moments i can remember featuring maniwani, suffice to say for a 12 episode series with double length episodes this is absolutely pitiful.

Moving on to the shows next issue, when you have a character that always wins, you need to make each victory feel justified and earned, not contrived and forced. Countless times throughout the show Shichika will seemingly have no way of winning, yet out of nowhere will magically do some super contrived punch that ends the fight in the best way possible: whether this is defeating the speed of light samurai man in episode 2 with a tactic of jumping above him as 'he can't draw upwards' or 'aiming just for the tattoos' so that Konayuki can be magicaly saved etc. The worst offender of this is definitely Shichikas fight with his sister, who is essentially better than him in every single way, mastering loads of various ninpous, saying at the beginning of the episode that she could have killed him 200 and something times before he even hit the floor. yet Shichika is magically able to beat her just by entering a dark room as all these ninpous are apparently useless in the dark or something according to the show who even knows honestly that was utterly ridiculous. This problem is also multiplied as the ending of the show attempts to have a gotcha moment in which Shichika is easily able to defeat all the blades climbing the castle as he wasn't allowed to brake them before, but the problem is each battle Shichika faced before was essentially just as easy to win, he only gets injured one or two times throughout the entire blade collecting journey up to the ending and one of those is a fluke, his victories aren't hard fought battles, he just wins because the show demands it so this attempted subversion at the end ends up feeling very under developed as it could have been so much more effective if Shichika actually had difficult battles that required unorthodox tactics due to the rule of not being able to brake the blade but this is never the case; for a show with a literal strategian as a main character the solutions to the majority of the fights in the show are really generic

As we have started to talk about Manami we might aswell continue, she is probably the most underutilized and poorly developed character in the show which is a shame as her premise was by far the most intriguing. Shes set up to be a morally questionable character yet her motives and beliefs are never explored in any meaningful way, her only thought is simply that 'shes okay with dying' and this is the extent of the meaning that is explored behind her character. Even her conflicted feelings towards her parents are downplayed and brushed off, she ends up as an almost stoic character who's just awaiting death and sees herself as nothing more than a weapon and this is such an under utilization of her initial set up its insulting.

My next point is that the show fails to explore Shichikas morals and reasoning in any meaningful way. It raises the question as to why shichika thinks its alright killing all these people and both times its squashed with the silly rhetoric that its for Togame. How about we explore Togames conflicted feelings towards killing anyone who gets in the way of her goals or whether or not its right to kill people even though Shichika is doing it for Togame; sadly this topic is never explored past the surface and that's such a shame for a show that goes out of its way to basically kill all of its characters. Even at the end Shichika goes and kills hundreds of guards climbing the tower and literally for what, these are just people doing there jobs why is this okay to kill all of them. Even then the show goes past this and states that killing the shogunate was pointless as the next in line took his place anyway, so why was Shichika killing all these people if none if mattered and why is this never explored as an issue. A lot of people like to spout nonsense about Shichika stopping the cycle and breaking free from the legacy and all that and that's why hes alive at the end, but this is just a cover up for poor writing. If the show really wanted to make a statement about breaking legacy then shichika should have just moved on after Togame gets killed, but no he has to go on a giant murderous rampage and attempt to overthrow the shogunate and all that jazz. My point is the show fails to explore potentially its most interesting aspect which is questioning whether or not its right for Shichika to be doing what hes doing past surface level.

This leads me nicely onto my largest gripe with the show which is its failed attempt at subversion. As a teenager watching Togame get shot and seeing Shichika go on a rampage was genius but looking past the spectacle that it creates the underlying writing is incredibly poor. Its not the fact that they attempted to go for a subversive ending, it's that the execution in doing so was incredibly lackluster and lacked the required set up for it to feel justified. You can take Togame's last words in 2 ways: a) she was actually
still going to kill Shichika after collecting the blades and falls victim to her own legacy as she cant let go of her own ambition or b) shes lying and no longer wants to kill Shichika as she loves him but is saying all these things in an attempt to save face and act like this was all part of her plan. The problem with these options however is that the show doesn't decide which one it wants to go with and ends up with a strange jumble of the two. The issue with option A is that this is never hinted at prior to the ending, at no point does Togame hint that Shichika is going to die at the end or that she's going to cross him. You literally have an episode of her getting madly jealous as she thinks hes falling for another girl and a scene just before the last episode in which Togame states that she wants to stay with Shichika after they find the blades to write a map which is her way of saying that she wants him to be her partener as she loves him. So this completely contradicts option A which is why it feels so jarring when Togame does a 180 in episdoe 12 saying that she was still going to kill him as there was no set up for this anywhere else in the season. Next with option B) if this is the case which it should be then why on earth does Shichika not kill the princess when she literally ordered the death of Togame. Killing the shogunate shouldn't matter at all, why would Shichika care about that when Hitei has literally murdered the love of his life. She doesn't just completely get away with this, but actually gets to follow Shichika after he kills the shogunate, I'm shocked that as a teenager i thought this was a cool twist ending and that i didn't realize how stupid and illogical this is. So the only reason you can draw for Shichika not killing the princess is if option A is actually correct as then Togame would be a victim of her own ambition and hence Shichika would decide to break the cycle by not killing Hitei, but as said previously this doesn't work as there's no setup to option A prior to it happening so there's a natural contradiction in the writing. Not only that but the strange mix of options A and B that the show decides to go with completely takes any meaning out of the story. By choosing to have Shichika kill the shogunate yet spare Hitei and at the same time have Togame die yet decide not to kill Shichika as she loves him and also have the shogunates lineage take over so that Shikizakis plan fails there's literally no point to the show. Of course the argument draw here is that its not about the destination but about the journey, yet the problem with this is that the journey itself was warped right from the start, look at all the people who have died along the way and for what? nothing is accomplished in the end apart from the destruction of the blades, but even that surely can't be warranted due to the lives that were lost along the way. Look no further than the shrine in episode 3 and all the victims that lost their curing blades and literally for what. Why is Shichika given a happy ending when he kills numerous people, all these lives have been lost in vein.

Those were my main issues but i also have a gripe with Shikizaki. The whole part about seeing the future was so forced and unnecessary, if killing the shogunate was ultimately pointless then why even include Shikizakis future seeing ability, its better to leave some things unknown and i think it would have been better if that aspect was left out as it felt super out of place in the show, especially the battle with Shichika. You have a blade smith who knows mystical forging techniques from the future he used to craft the deviant blades, yet he doesn't know any fighting techniques to last even for a few minutes in a fight against a weapon he created. Perhaps I'm being excessive here but watching Shichika just punch the legendary blade smith and win was incredibly underwhelming, like you brought such a silly premise into a fight and do absolutely nothing with it, very disappointing.

Oh yes and of course a minus mark for not showing the battle against Japans greatest samurai for the needle, the show literally had him appear in the episodes before, yet he dies off screen what a waste of a set up, instead they gave us 45 minutes of pandering emotional garbage from the maniwani squad

overall i have to ask myself one question, what was the point. If the destination was meaningless as the shogunate just reforms after Togames death, then was the journey the focus? If so how is Shichika given a happy ending after mindlessly killing loads of people when this accomplished nothing. I believe these are questions that a lot of people have thought hard about in an attempt to come up with some smart hidden meaning to justify their enjoyment of the show but the reality is that the writing especially at the end is pretty poor.

Edit: I wrote this review at like 5am and I think I did a poor job of explaining my thoughts in places so I have a few things to add here but I also want to leave what I originally wrote intact to highlight how confusing the ending is to watch

If it truly was Togames plan from the start then why is this never shown in the show, this 180 twist is jarring because there’s no set up before it happens. Constantly we are told how cunning and ruthless Togame is yet all we see in the show is a soft girl who falls in love with shichika with none of the above mentioned signs. If this is the case then it’s poor writing for not giving that outcome the setup it deserved as everything we have seen on screen up to this point would contradict with Togames final words. I think people become too distracted and emotional upon seeing Togames death and fail to realize how poorly developed the twist is, I know I did the first time I watched the show.

Secondly stating that Shichika is ok with not killing Hitei as it shows him breaking the cycle and moving on with his life, then what was the point in killing the shogunate if it accomplishes nothing. Once again this is an idea proposed by the fans to try and explain and cover up for the plot holes in the show. Killing all the guards and all the people along the way was that shichika moving on with his life, I don’t think so. Shichika is a cold killer, for him to kill the shogunate yet spare Hitei is completely out of character and let’s be honest it only happens so that the show can attempt to set up a happy ending with the strings it has left.

If the point of the story is the journey not the destination then why have shichika survive. What reasoning is there to keep schichika alive after killing the shogunate, the answer is there isn’t any. How about having shichika who is already full of bullet holes by the time he reaches the top of the castle die after killing the shogunate and Hitei, that would bring a resolution to all the remaining characters whilst providing a satisfying end to shichika. Shichika is not a hero and you could make a solid case for shichika being a villain, so for him to die once reaching the top of the castle would have been much more satisfying. He is a blade of shikizaki after all, why destroy all of the deviant blades but not destroy himself, he doesn’t bring an end to the legacy that way. A Spike Spiegel bebop ending would have been much more satisfying here, not the attempted contrived fake and illogical end that the show actually decides to go with.

It should be obvious but why not cement the idea that Shichika has decided to end the cycle and to demonstrate his growth as a person by having him storm the castle and brake the deviant blades without killing anyone. This would give a stark contrast to his character at the beginning of the show who was a mindless weapon to the actual human he becomes towards the end of the show; bring an end to the legacy by destroying every blade without killing the shogunate or Hitei as neither would have any effect as we know the next in line of the shogunate just takes over in his place. This would have been the smart ending. Demonstrate Shichikas growth as a person and make a point to show that Shichika survives because he chooses to end the legacy, but no this is not what we get. Instead we get a murderous psychopath who butchers hundreds of people on a rampage only to arrive at the person who ordered the death of his only love and decide meh no biggy, I'm changed, ill spare you to demonstrate how cool and grown up i am (as he walks away through the mountain of dead bodies of innocent people that were cast aside without any thought along the way). Having Shichika choose to not kill anyone whilst storming the castle and braking the blades would have been unarguably a much more satisfying ending, providing a tangible arc to Shichikas character whilst also providing a somewhat cohesive message about legacy and goals. Instead we get a contrived and meaningless ending that lots of brainlets decide to over analyse in an attempt to find some hidden meaning and justify through nonsense like 'its the journey not the end' and 'he spares Hitei as hes a changed man' or whatever other pseudo intellectual garbage is spouted over the internet to attempt to defend the fundamentally flawed and poorly written conclusion that we are left with.