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So The Boy and the Heron is… okay. Beautiful and winningly surreal, and the animation has the kinds of flourishes you both would and wouldn’t expect from a Miyazaki film. The backgrounds have this quality to them clearly influenced by the modern and surreal art periods that I certainly vibed with; the heron himself is a delight.

But the story doesn’t quite come together in that particularly human way he often excelled at, mirroring reality and expressing its truths through the most fanciful, inspired of “lies”. It reads more as a vague, stubbornly continued message for children to face life’s struggles and the inevitably of loss, ... which… makes sense, seeing as he explicitly made this one for his grandson and I imagine for himself in his twilight years.

Ah well, it’s not like I expect a director’s best work in his eighties. And again, it was pretty.

6/10

I remember. God, do I remember: Not knowing what the hell you’re doing. Being lost in the emotions, the dreams, the coldly shattered preconceptions. Uncovering connection and a sort of camaraderie in the unlikeliest, even loneliest of places. Being struck by this one person; magnetic, bold, talented; more broken than you could know. Creating your own dumb fun. Drowning in stupid, lustful, beautiful love and risking everything for your dream.

Laughing, drinking, being without a care with the coolest people you’re sure you’ll ever meet. Enraptured by freedom, expression, possibility. Licking your wounds when you fall, and picking yourself back up because you know no ... one else will, nor should they. Seizing the goddamn day.

I remember my twenties. God, do I. Ai Yazawa’s sprawling, gritty shojo manga, Nana, grew with me, really. With the series on indefinite hiatus, I’m tempted to say a part of me is… frozen. We may never learn the characters’ fates, the resolution of this saga of young adult trials and dreams.

But that’s life, man. You don’t get all the answers, you don’t get to know how everyone turned out.

Still, I like to think Nana O. is okay. Girl’s got grit. If I can figure out my shit—and I believe I am—maybe she can too, with a little help from her friends. And maybe with a little dash of dreams.

I had mixed feelings about s1, but after seeing promise in its developing plot—and maintaining an attachment to one of Japan’s most fascinating fictional worlds—I had to give s2 a look.

This half was… better I suppose. Some fairly interesting ideas, cool action, gripping tension and (somewhat) more compelling drama. I did like the final episode, with some reservations about its lack of detail and explanation. I now buy that this series was written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama; the man who gave us the classic Laughing Man and Individual Eleven arcs, as well as a disarmingly affective backstory for one of anime’s most enigmatic ... protagonists. Additionally, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and the rest of the English cast continued to do their damnedest with this material.

But… it’s a Netflix show, through and through. Everything happens so fast, and ultimately so little really ends up being of consequence. So much more could have been done with this story, especially following the events of Solid State Society… Some antagonistic players are more cartoons than ever. And perhaps, at last, Ghost in the Shell the property has become such a meme as a concept that its echoes of itself (and for that matter, of venerable sf works) have ceased to be cute and clever.

I can’t say I’d recommend it to longtime fans, or that I’d be down for a 4th/5th “gig”. Hell, I might be done with reboots period now, with the rarest of exceptions.

I really wish Gilbert hadn’t survived. Violet’s clinging to him was—or should have been—what still kept her tethered to the past, preventing her from more properly developing into an individual, mature human being. A better writer would have had her come to terms with what cannot be changed, so both the pain and positive formative memories could swirl into something better. Someone better.

Hell, I would have accepted the Major pushing her away and her leaving as healthy and realistic enough. But them discovering each other and falling in love like this? Too contrived, too feel-good and soapy. Even for an obvious dude-soap like VEG. ... And frankly, adoptive parent-child dynamics like this still creep me out. It’s like Gilbert did, in the end, raise her to be… useful to him. Yuck.

I’m honestly going to pretend this one doesn’t exist; it’s only indisputable achievement is as yet another impressive piece of animation and atmosphere from KyoAni. Really disappointed in whoever came up with this totally incongruous indulgence. 5/10

Hunter X Hunter is.. Yoshihiro Togashi’s capricious playground, an escape from the ever-stressing Hell of weekly publication typically expected of a star Jump artist. No arc is like another, though there is certainly a rhythm to the structure’s varied madness.

Hunter X Hunter is.. A fake-out, a series of endless and endlessly shrewd mind games by characters and creator alike to deceive another into believing what is most beneficial or, simply, fun to them.

Hunter X Hunter is.. A top-class demonstration in how an animation studio should breathe proper, soulful life into a beloved Shonen property, in part kickstarting the long overdue trend of lauded, beautiful adaptations ... like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and My Hero Academia. Visuals here are expertly crafted to fit mood, character, importance to plot, all of it. Combat is its own treat, the animation flowing with the passionate movements of a smorgasbord of personality types and skill sets, many of whom you will wish to see win—or at least not suffer unduly. Aesthetically, this one impressively surpasses its source material.

Musically, Hunter X Hunter really exceeds expectations. Sweeping orchestral pieces accompany Gon and Killua’s budding sense of adventure and friendship. The exotic and intimidating and eery and otherworldly is felt quite viscerally through the employment of a suitably eclectic collection of styles. The Phantom Troupe’s grimly solemn themes will haunt you beyond the Yorknew arc’s surprisingly breezy run.

Hunter X Hunter is.. An inspired, nuanced and poignant examination of all that makes us human: Our tenacity, cleverness, warmth, the heights of awe-inspiring talent; and perhaps most frequently, the staggering variety this single species is capable of producing in its members, even merely in how we choose to have fun!

But also under the microscope are our cruelty, Machiavellianism, cynicism and brutality and destructive obsession and callous carelessness. There is real power in Togashi’s meditations on evil, abuse and abnormal psychology. The viewer will often find the lines blur and then come into focus, only to blur again; as is appropriate the more difficult the subject matter.

Like man himself, Hunter X Hunter wears many faces. You may not like them all. The whiplash felt at the start of a new arc can admittedly take some adjustment. But in the end, like me, you just might genuinely find yourself admiring how all the pieces dissonantly and harmoniously click, in their calculated chaos.

(Additionally, Madhouse’s glossy remake not only includes one monstrous arc excluded from 1999’s adaptation, but was also fortunate to conclude at a point which narratively and thematically makes a good deal of sense. Currently, I would recommend this one over either existing alternative.)

I discovered this series in the bleakest darkness. Like a sort of wakeful dying. No path seemed illuminated, even by faintest candlelight. I felt myself becoming an old, weak, resentful, rotten young man for reasons beyond counting. It was legitimately the lowest point of my life.

Then, I witnessed this man. A man who did not exist, but who nonetheless just about could have. He went through Hell, repeatedly. Betrayal, horrific abuse, soul-tearing loss, the absolute death of one’s ideals and the identity that is built around them; all of it. He was even quite literally marked for unspeakable pain, alienation and demise.

But he kept persevering. ... He struggled. Fought. Slaughtered. Stubbornly closed himself off to a world he considered beyond hope, too unsafe in a sense. Twice, as did I.

Then he met a single kind, persistent person in a bleeding sea of abject misery. He found more. He started to heal, to redeem. To foster the same process in others. He began to attempt the molding of an old toxic motivation into something more necessary and, yes, powerful. As before, he finally allowed himself to feel amongst human beings, walking with purpose and more measured ferocity.

Never again would he be the same, for better and worse.

Berserk is my modern myth. Its “perfection” or completion is irrelevant. Today the world has lost an absurdly ambitious draftsman, as well as a shamanic speaker of what is to the human experience all too true.

Do read it.

Ghost in the Shell 2045 is.. weird. It’s clearly written by the same staff (especially Kamiyama) and seems to be building up to something more substantial (it certainly deserves props for the timely commentary on mob justice), but.. often it’s like watching a long string of juvenile, unconvincing cutscenes. Stand Alone Complex had its silly moments—it’s a Japanese cartoon about a hot cyborg chick with purple hair crushing and humiliating people—but those were accompanied by skilled tension, painful beauty and eerie prescience.

Whatever this is, it’s.. sort of Stand Alone Complex, sort of trying too hard to appeal to a broad streaming audience (and moe otaku ... too?). The second arc is showing a lot of promise; season 2’s payoff as well as a few more “stand alone” pieces might genuinely be worth the drudgery. Possibly.

Still; it’s additionally missing Yoko Kanno’s crazy good eclectic score, which for some reason is replaced with a lot of circa 2010 BWOMMMs and generic guitar riffs. Aesthetically, this one is a failure. And no, a decent OP and ED do not do enough to mitigate that. Good on Netflix for getting the excellent dub cast back though.

Story
After what I would consider a fairly disturbing opening scene, I expected this series to be fairly interesting. We have a young woman who has just escaped from a high security government facility, where she was apparently held against her will. And it is quite obvious from the brutal massacre that ensues that she is a very troubled individual with plenty of hate for the human race, and perhaps deservedly so. Then after she is essentially shot off of a cliff by a sniper under the direction the director of the facility, she ends up on the shore of the beach where she runs into ... Kohta and Yuka. Still naked. And this is where the story starts to disappoint me. The writers of this show then decided, after creating such an interesting character, they needed to turn her, through the ever-so-convenient plot device of memory loss, into some sort of mentally challenged child with the body of a young adult who can only utter the phrase "Nyu." And she has horns that suspiciously look like cat ears. Soon after, more girls come to join Kohta's new "family," and yes, you get to see most of them naked.
Besides what's going on in front of the viewer's eyes, there is an ongoing plot in the background about the Diclonius race. I actually found this plot pretty intriguing as well, but it unfortunately takes a back seat to the character drama, which was... somewhat lacking. But I'll get into that later.
The main reason why I rated the story so low is because it's so contrived. Nearly everything feels like it's essentially forced to happen, and even in the rare instance that the story doesn't feel really forced, I still find it hard to take a show that still holds onto the harem and fanservice cliches seriously.

Art/Animation
I had no problem with the visuals. They were competently done. Although the only noteworthy artwork, in my opinion, is the opening, which is just beautiful.

Sound
I actually thought the music was really good. Lillium, in its various incarnations, is quite the haunting tune. It worked especially well as background music to help set the mood during the show's somewhat frequent depictions of human cruelty. My main problem, though, is that this is one of only a few tracks used throughout the whole show. So you can imagine that it would get a bit repetitive.

Character
This is where I had my biggest bone to pick with this series. Most of the characters came off as either unrealistic caricatures of who they were meant to represent, weren't fully realized or came off as pathetic excuses for fanservice. For more specific examples, read on.
Kohta is pretty much your typical harem anime protagonist, a total pushover whose shoes any pervert can fit into. However, I actually blame this more on the original manga creator than on anyone else. He does offer some depth, but he is also very unrealistic. I don't expect fictional characters to act completely like real people, but they need to have a certain amount of believability. Any sane, real human being would gladly turn in a lost, naked girl to the police and give a homeless girl pants if she is obviously lacking some. A normal person would definitely not want to turn their home into some bizarre sort of orphanage. And anybody with a brain would definitely be able to notice that their cousin wanted them, especially when she was making such obvious advances on you.
Yuka is... well, Yuka is the kind of cousin who wants you. Really badly. Where most girls her age have most likely outgrown any crushes they once had on relatives, she is content with longing for her wimpy, pushover of a cousin. I'm sorry, but why was this needed in the story, especially when there was already a love interest for Kohta?
Nyu is pretty much worthless. As a split personality, her only purpose was to limit the carnage caused by Lucy and serve as a rather pathetic excuse for fanservice.
Mayu and her back story were fairly interesting ideas, but it just seemed as if it was for shock value and an excuse to get her to walk around without pants. The writers of the show could have done a lot more with her, but they just chose not to.
Nana and Kurama were also good characters, and they brought up some interesting questions. But did we really need to see her naked?
Lucy, on the other hand, was the meat of the story and, at least in my eyes, was much more of a main character than Kohta could ever be. I thought the flashback to her past was really well done and I admit I did feel sorry for her, even if half the time she was a sadistic murderer and the other half what amounted to a naked child.
So to summarize the character section, Lucy is what boosts character up to a five. The other people involved in her story is what keeps it a five.

Enjoyment
Now, did I enjoy this series? On occasion. But it was very hard to watch, and I only kept watching because everyone else seemed to think this was some sort of masterpiece. I will admit, I did enjoy the blood and gore, as well as Lucy's back story. But I couldn't help noticing all of the flaws that this show had. And the fanservice was so over-the-top that it was gross. I really don't need to see naked fourteen-year-olds, and even when the fanservice involved older characters, it wasn't very tastefully done and was way too .

Overall
Elfen Lied could have been a good horror series, with plenty of violence and nudity. But instead it tried to be something more, and fell flat on its face.