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Just back from the cinema, I feel a bit disoriented. As a fan of Studio Ghibli, on one hand I perceived all the great experience of Hayao Miyazaki, with some truly emotional and artistically memorable scenes for which it was already worth the ticket price (such as the very first scenes, truly impressive). On the other hand, as the minutes passed, it appeared to me the plot momentum attempted to escalate more and more, but without never really let me as watcher truly understanding what was really going on. The general feeling for most of the time has been like I lost some previous scenes ... so that I couldn't get the meaning of the next ones. Things of course changed in the very last part with the appearance of one additional character which finally did let me get what (possibly) the movie was all about.

I therefore realized (like others said already) that everything could have been connected to the history and future of Studio Ghibli itself and even to the "not so easy" relationship between Miyazaki and his son Goro. However, for how much I appreciated that, such approach for my opinion made this movie not so easy to recommend especially to those not really in good knowledge of the Studio Ghibli.

In this regard, I also honestly think that at promotional level, some more effort could have been made in order to better clarify the real nature and spirit of the film, since being enticed by the promising trailers (which perhaps painted it a little too much like a Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke fantasy style movie), many people and Studio Ghibli newbies could have ended up in being a bit disoriented and even disappointed. As a last note, I also felt like in general the characters were not really iconic like those of other Studio Ghibli classics.

In conclusion, a movie which I feel to recommend more to Studio Ghibli fans willing to enjoy and gradually uncover all the hidden (and somewhat melancholic) messages and feelings that Miyazaki wished to transmit to his affectioned public through this (and perhaps last) autobiographical work, by making use once again and in best shape of his favourite tool ever, his beloved pencil. Thanks for reading!

Liz and the Blue Bird is an anime by Kyoto Animation set in the classrooms of a typical Japanese school which focuses on the teenage life of two female students, who have to deal with some important choices for the upcoming future as well as their friendship.

Liz and the Blue Bird is characterized by a remarkable artistic and poetical component, starting from a pleasant graphic style, nice use of lights, convincing animations, a minimalist and nostalgic representation of the various places, along with the use of a particular palette of colours which I really appreciated more than usual.

When it comes to the narrative ... style, Liz and the Blue Bird is pleasantly on the sentimental and slow-pace side, without any particular surprising or high-paced moments, an approach that while I believe for the most has been nicely handled, sometimes instead looked to me like the anime was not taking any specific direction, which is the only minor point of remark I have to make.

That’s why I believe, ultimately, Liz and the Blue Bird is a nice anime which managed to convince me, with its simple but genuine connotations of profound sentimentality, just on condition to be available to embrace its persistent slow-pace rhythm. Thanks for reading!

As a fan of Makoto Shinkai, I was glad to watch Weathering with You since I was able to find again that special vibe of his previous works. In short, this new Makoto anime is mostly focused on a boy and girl dealing with weather phenomenons and some special powers which will influence both the plot progression as well as their relationship. Everything will happen within a beautifully depicted Tokyo, including some very popular locations in the same way of Your Name, such as the Tokyo Rainbow Bridge or the popular Shinjuku Kabukichō district, all depicted with that typical emotional vibe, including a great use ... of light and rain effects. All in all, I found this anime nicely balanced in all aspects, with the narration presenting a good pace and rhythm, the plot being romantic, pleasant and less complex or confusing than Your Name, while at the same time still offering a very nice poetry throughout the various scenes. All in all, Weathering with You is certainly an anime which I truly appreciated and which I can easily recommend. Cheers and thanks for reading me!

As a long-time fan of GTO and Onizuka, I was pleased to watch this show since I was able to find again that special hilarious tone. Gran Blue in short, is a cool slice of life which talks about the daily adventures of a group of mates interested in scuba-diving activities, taking place in Japan among some beautiful coastal scenarios (including Okinawa) and the scuba-diving school itself which works as their main HQ. I found the general tone very hilarious and funny, with the plot, scenes and dialogues being very relaxed, mostly focused on creating many hilarious situations, supported by a pleasant use of weird ... and funny facial expressions, as well as a right dose of vulgarity which I didn't dislike. All in all, Gran Blue managed to entertain me with 12 episodes of soft, weird and funny moments as well as a relaxed and hilarious story set in some gorgeous locations, perfect to watch during summer, which is exactly what I did. Cheers and thanks for reading!

I found the series of Violet Evergarden itself was already heart-touching and so well executed, but this movie really provided that special emotional momentum I was hoping for, nicely depicting the long-awaited finale in a way which allowed me to enjoy this movie from the beginning until its final scenes.

In addition, I also believe Kyoto Animation did the best to make the story progression interesting and engaging by letting me hold the breath until the very end, while also feeling some tears more than once, thanks to the right pace with which events were narrated as well as some further emotional secondary events which ... managed to provide an extra layer of depth to the whole narration.

Pointless to say, the visual style, dialogues, music, everything is provided at top-notch level, with a constant feeling of watching something destined to become a great milestone and classic of Japanese animation. Obviously, it’s a romanticism focused story, but I also feel to say it’s not a discounted one, being still very original and unique in its concept and premise. That’s the reason for which, contrary to other romantic stories, I believe Violet Evergarden in general is a work which is worth to watch regardless of one’s favourite genre, already for the importance of what it represents in the world of Japanese animation.

That’s why I briefly end by simply recommending Violet Evergarden, both the series and this grand finale movie, to anyone interested to dig deeper into the world of Japanese animation masterpieces. Cheers and thanks for reading!

I found Death Parade to be a very intriguing anime, with great narration, a good and quite iconic representation of the main characters (in particular Decim) as well as an interesting and original art direction. The plot of this anime pushes the watcher to reflect on how much people effectively behave with empathy and compassion when facing harsh situations and difficulties compared to normal life routine, especially when anger, resentment or sorrow may unexpectedly prevail on one’s feeling.

The episodes aren't necessarily interconnected, with the narration presenting short sub-stories with a pace and narrative that makes the watcher desiring to go all the way through ... them in order to discover the epilogue. My only discomfort was the occasional use of some visual elements which looked a little bit too bizarre for my taste. Nonetheless, Death Parade remains an anime which pleasantly entertained me from the beginning to the very end, with a well dosed amount of 12 episodes, avoiding unnecessary lengthening as often happens in other anime.

Concluding, I surely recommend it and I certainly count on making a re-watch in the near future. Cheers and thanks for reading!

I found Blue Period a pleasant anime in both its good narration and visual style. In its simplicity, the story itself looked interesting to me not only for the plot itself, but also for the way the main character developed his personal maturity and skills. Blue Period tells about the story of a young boy willing to become a painter after discovering all of a sudden his passion for painting arts.

The comparison with the other anime called “Arte” might come spontaneous, and surely there’s a sort of correlation since both of them were realized by the same studio (Seven Arcs). However, I found the ... approach different, with Arte being set in a more ancient time and the main character already showing some innate desire or passion for art since the very beginning, while in Blue Period the main protagonist discovers this side of his life in a more gradual manner, by also slowly realizing how much this is going to change the way he communicate his emotions with other people.

In doing so, there are a couple of things which I found very positive by giving this anime an extra-gear. The first one being the main protagonist facing many difficulties, with a constant perceivable sense of potential failure, rather than taking too much for granted that he will eventually succeed. The other positive thing I found is the way the world of art is depicted in general, by clearly and remarkably denoting that sense of disorientation when considering artworks, with institutions and academies from one side trying to dictate some potential standard parameters of evaluation, while people on the other side asking themselves if in the end it’s not just a question of taste based on genuine personal feeling. In this regard, this anime doesn’t miss this point and rather, it makes the main protagonist facing this long-time debated side of art, in the hope to find his way in order to develop a personal style and ultimately convince people around him, especially his mates, teachers and examiners, that he got the right vein to become an artist.

All in all, I believe Blue Period it’s a quite short, soft and simple anime in its concept, but at the same time a very nicely executed one, capable of leaving me with a good and pleasant aftertaste. That’s why I feel confident to recommend it. Cheers and thanks for reading!

I found Komi Can’t Communicate a pleasant anime in which cheerfulness, funny soft humour and tenderness dominate the mood and the scene for most of the time. Following its plot and title, the comparison with A Silent Voice could come spontaneously, but I didn’t find the two anime really comparable, since the drama element in Komi is almost absent, focusing more on a cheerful tone which sometimes instead, I found it might even get too much persistent (if asking, in terms of slice of life, I found it more comparable to Tora Dora).

The peculiarity of this anime is mainly represented by the use of ... a nice artistic style halfway between a real anime and a manga, with even constant use of on-screen comic balloons in order to emphasize certain moments or the expressivity itself. I found the artistic direction in general good and pleasant, except for the representation of the characters eyes, which in various occasions (especially in scenes of Komi with more enlarged pupils) appeared perhaps too much bland and dull for my taste.

When it comes to narration, Komi presents various interconnected sub-stories which I found pleasant and relaxing from one side, while on the other side I felt like they missed an extra-gear, due to what I personally perceived like a safe-zone approach, with the episodes mostly following a quite similar pattern and the cheerful tone being somewhat constant and linear, by adding some extra sense of repetitiveness and never leaving enough space to any concrete change of mood, sense of surprise or deeper emotion, except for few limited cases during the last part. Nonetheless, I believe Komi is still a pleasant anime which can surely entertain and which I personally appreciated, on condition to feel at ease with its narration and mood style.

One last word goes to the great ending theme, which recalled me some works from Radwimps in its style (Makoto Shinkai anime songs), accompanied in the background by a delicious and nostalgic scene showing the Komi classroom slowly getting empty with a quite remarkable artistic style and animation quality, which I don’t suggest to skip and rather, to enjoy in its entirety at least once. Cheers and thanks for reading!

It didn’t happen often to myself to feel such a great amount of contrasted emotions and feeling in just one shot, but this is exactly where this anime really stands out. Made in Abyss tells about an only apparent delightful adventure tale with great landscapes and cute protagonists, which at the beginning, seems to suggest everything will be fine, soft and relaxed and that the only thing to care about will be enjoying the landscape and discover new places. Of course, nothing could be more wrong than such idea and this is exactly where the magic starts to happen.

Made in Abyss in my opinion ... successfully delivers a story where human being is brutally faced with the two sides of the coin of reality just in one big shot. From one side the human ambition to cross the horizon in order to feed the joy of discovering new things, with mind constantly filled with dreams, sense of surprise and positive feeling, while on the other side, the cruelty of reality which after the initial moment of enthusiasm, will leave space to unexpected negative events, delusion, dangers, pain and many more negative things which will drastically downsize the initial expectations. Made in Abyss perfectly stick together these two elements exactly like it would happen in real life, contrary to many other soft adventure anime where normally events are depicted in a more idyllic way.

As a result, I felt like this anime was really capable of generating a very high sense of empathy in the watcher, which is probably one the most difficult aspect to face when developing a new anime in order to convince, especially more adult public, that what moving on screen is a real leaving being, not just a pencil stroke. All in all, an impressive work which really captured me and also a great milestone of the genre, nicely representing the right way a colourful adventure should be developed when targeting adult public. Cheers and thanks for reading!

I love this work by Makoto Shinkai, which I consider a spiritual prequel of the most popular 5 Centimeters per Second. In the same way of the latter, it's particularly emotional, heart-touching and more oriented in exploring the relationship of the main protagonists, by making use of poetic visual art, great use of warm light throughout the scenes, fascinating soundtrack and soft background voice narration.

I found the plot to be on the dystopian sci-fi side and quite interesting on its own, although it never seems to come under reflectors more than the necessary, to ensure somewhat the main emphasis remains on the main protagonists ... feelings, as well as their emotions and relationships.

Compared to Your Name, it might appear as more slow paced and somewhat boring. However, I found this to be just a different approach, which simply tries to put in evidence the pure and genuine poetry of Japanese animation by gently inviting the watcher to sit down, relax and enjoy each single frame of its stunning visual art. In this sense, to me, it works very well, and still today is one of my favourite anime movies ever. Thanks for reading me!