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Jun 10, 2022
There seems to be a recent trend on the film side of the anime industry of trying to capitalize upon the success of films like Your Name and A Silent Voice, so we've gotten a lot of medium-weight romantic dramedies about young adults dealing with personal problems. Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi is another of these films. I don't mind the trend, because I enjoy the genre--I just wish this were a better entry.
This time the characters are a bit older (22 and 24, respectively), and the focus of the film, as in A Silent Voice, is on disability--specifically, the titular Josee uses
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a wheelchair, and her potential beau Tsuneo is hired on to be her caretaker.
Josee is a sheltered artist who lives with her grandmother and is bad with people and rarely gets out, and Tsuneo is um... he likes fish? He's studying to be a marine biologist. He works pretty hard, or so we're told (we don't see him doing all that much actual work). That's really just about all there is to the characters, unfortunately.
My main problem with the film is that it's all so obvious. Josee acts like a tsundere right from the beginning for no obvious reason, but only when talking to Tsuneo; she's shy and nervous with everyone else. There's a jealous foil for Josee in the form of Tsuneo's coworker, because of course there is. There's a goofy comic relief best friend who never really manages to be that funny.
It's all very paint-by-numbers, and the big moments are often contrived and sappy. Other major developments simply take place off screen.
The treatment of disability itself is also somewhat of a problem. To its credit, the film does TRY to get away from the idea that Tsuneo is Josee's savior and does try to emphasize the need for her to achieve independence. But the core of the plot is still inescapable; she is, at the beginning of the film, in her own words, "a mess", and his entry into her life puts her onto a healthier path. Not great! Perhaps this could have worked if the script had tried harder to subvert the initial expectation and if the narrative coherently made that its theme, but instead it tries to have it both ways, and the theme ends up a muddled mess which is problematic while trying not to be.
I'm trying to avoid comparing Josee to To Tora to Sakana-tachi with A Silent Voice too much. That's a movie with its own problems, but is nonetheless a much more interesting film. Briefly, though, A Silent Voice works for me because it frequently makes interesting, bold choices. From the brutal prologue to the well-fleshed-out side characters right down to the dopey affect of its protagonist, it is a movie that has a voice (buh-dum-tish) and that has things it wants to dig into and treat with on a serious level. It is interested in at least attempting to veer away from boring or offensive tropes, and even if it doesn't always succeed at what it's doing, by god, it tries.
Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi (and damn is that title a mouthful), by comparison, is just kind of boring. It's a checklist of a film.
It's a shame, too, because it's lovingly crafted. The animation is beautiful, the sound is great, it's everything you'd expect from Bones.
But the script ain't there, and that's too bad.
Watch this one if you absolutely love these kinds of romantic dramedies and must see all of them. Otherwise, go rewatch A Silent Voice again instead.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 22, 2020
Engaging but lightweight, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!! is a highly-stylized anime about anime by luminary Masaaki Yuasa, renowned as one of the most daring anime directors alive today.
The series follows two girls who want to make anime and one who wants to make money. Each girl wears multiple hats in the production process for simplicity; you have your distractable genius director, who is also responsible for writing, concept art, and background art. Then there's the lead animator character, who also does marketing, but is really obsessed with capturing minute human movements in animation. Lastly, there's the hardass producer, who twists arms,
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makes money, and pushes the project forward.
It's all presented in a stylized format clearly influenced by French animation. Despite being a lighthearted comedy about three girls, this is far, far from being a "Cute girls doing cute things" anime; it's not afraid to let the girls have a ton of exaggerated character, and even to be a bit ugly. That's refreshing, especially these days, when most anime series are highly focused on having oodles of appeal at the expense of everything else.
The show also takes place in a wild, fictional city where you can never quite tell just how realistic it's meant to be. This setting inspires the characters in their projects, to take an already pretty wild-looking city even farther and add supernatural or science fiction elements in their projects.
As the girls work on their anime projects, they frequently dive into an imaginary world where everything turns into what looks like animated concept art or storyboarding, as they come up with ideas and plans for what they will animate. These sequences are probably the most entertaining parts of the series, and they don't look quite like anything else I've ever seen in the medium.
The characters themselves are also a strong suit, to a certain degree. They have well-defined traits and interests and are amusing just to spend time with. The producer character, Kanamori, is a particular highlight--anime girl as mob boss as anime producer. Brilliant.
If they art style and characters are a strength, so too is the sound design. There are some crazy sound effects here, highlighted as the characters themselves seek the right sound production for their series. And the voiceover is fantastic, some of the most distinctive voices for a trio of main characters I've yet heard.
The downside of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!! is that it just doesn't have a lot of weight to it. The characters don't evolve, have minimal arcs, and don't have a lot of depth beyond the core traits. The deepest the show ever gets is to, on rare occasions, introspectively examine the creative process itself. The plot is basically just, "let's make anime" and a series of goofy, exaggerated challenges that get in the way. It doesn't feel like it has gone anywhere by the end of its 12-episode run, aside from, "Yup, they made some anime". There's not a lot of meat to sink your teeth into, and while the show is funny and entertaining, it's not riotously hilarious.
This is brief, light, easy-to-watch snack of a show, with tons of style, fun characters, and a little bit of insight into the process of creating anime. If you don't expect much more you won't be disappointed, but if you're looking for the funniest series or the most dramatic series of the deepest, most intellectual series, you won't find it here.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 17, 2019
This review contains mild and vague spoilers, but not specific plot/ending details.
Nope! This is not the shoujo anime you're looking for. Not unless you like over-dramatic, contrived storylines, thin and uninteresting characters, and more sap than a Canadian maple tree.
One day in high school, Naho receives a letter from herself ten years in the future. It accurately describes everything that will happen that day, including the arrival of a new transfer student from Tokyo named Kakeru. (Get ready to hear "Kock-ay-ROO" over and over again. You'll be hearing it a lot.) The letter says that Kakeru is no longer
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with them in the future, and Naho should save him.
The problems begin immediately; despite accepting that the letter is real, Naho ignores its advice the first day, and things go predictably wrong.
And really, Naho is the biggest problem out of the many issues which plague this show. There's no way to sugar-coat this, I'll just say it outright: Naho is a deeply stupid person. She is unobservant, socially awkward, and frequently makes terrible decisions. Most of the tension in the plot stems from her ineptitude, and she's rarely proactive--she either passively does what the letter tells her to do, or passively fails to take action, rarely making her own decisions.
There's an entire friend group in this show, and that's one of the few things I'll praise about it; they feel pretty natural together, and they're one of the more convincing friend-unit depictions I've seen in an anime. With that said, none of them have any real depth either. The most interesting of the bunch is Suwa, the odd man out in Orange's love triangle; he has a bit of pathos and courage, but we don't get to explore him in depth.
The series is mainly about Kakeru. Everything revolves around changing the future by helping him throughout the entire run of the series. But because he's not in on the central conceit--he doesn't know about the time traveling letters--he's a passive player in his own drama. And he's so defined by his own depression and regrets that there isn't room for anything else interesting. It's kind of hard to see why Naho and her friends like him, because he's kind of a quiet, personalty-less bummer most of the time.
So we have a situation where the protagonist is an idiot, her love interest is a passive, depressed bore, and the plot is based on a contrived cliche.
And it never really gets better. There's a lot of drama over banal things, like falling down in a relay race, or obviously contrived and ill-fated love triangles. There are emotional scenes where Kakeru's friends try to get it through his thick head how much he means to them, even though we as viewers never understand why he matters so much to them anyway.
At least it all looks nice. The animation is pretty good, and I like the character designs. The dynamics between some of the side characters are enjoyable, even though they're shallow; Hagita and Azu are amusing and provide some believable brevity to an otherwise glum and overwrought show. The time travel mechanics avoid the paradox problem, even though the answer to how the letters were sent is unsatisfying and goofy. The music and voice acting are fine.
But the writing is just too terrible for the studio to salvage much.
I'm not usually a fan of time travel, but that's not the biggest issue. Here's the bottom line: When you try to make a character-based drama, it's kind of important to make sure the characters don't suck. That's where Orange fails. I don't want to spend any time with these people. They're boring and dumb.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 17, 2019
This review contains mild spoilers for the beginning of the series.
Love, Chuunibyou, and other Delusions is a hot mess. And I enjoyed it anyway.
The series tells the story of Yuuta, a boy who has just recovered from "chunibyou", a condition wherein a teenager clings to childish delusions. He spent his middle school years acting out imaginary storylines and dressing up like a character out of a manga. Now entering high school, he's come back to reality and is humiliated by his past self and wants to do anything he can to forget it.
Unfortunately for him, a new girl has just moved into
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the apartment upstairs and joined his school: Rikka, who still suffers from chunibyou and won't stop pulling him into her own delusions.
What ensues is approximately six episodes of ridiculous farcical comedy, often spoofing other anime, and six episodes of sincere romantic drama.
Chuunibyou draws you in from the beginning. It's endlessly entertaining, and since it's Kyoto Animation, of course it's well-made with the highest production values and their trademark style. The switching between animating Rikka's magical girl-esque delusions and then showing you the goofy, mundane reality is masterful and never fails to elicit a laugh.
And there's promise in the serious side of the story, too. I was concerned at first this would be a harem anime because the cast is heavily dominated by cute female characters. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and there are no love triangles to be found here. There's also fairly minimal fan service for this type of genre, and although Yuuta feels a bit like an audience stand-in, there's not a lot of wish fulfillment going on here.
Even better, the characters don't fit into any of the problematic archetypes. Rikka, and what makes her behave the way she does, are really the subjects of the story. And she's pretty unique, and hard to get a read on at first, personality-wise. She doesn't fit into any particular trope, and that by itself is refreshing. Even her character design is pretty bold, given the genre.
So all of that sounds good, right? Why did I call Chuunibyou a "hot mess", and why do I stick with that description?
My answer is that the story ultimately doesn't do anything interesting with all of the elements it has set up. There are certain emotional beats that it tries to hit, but it never feels like they've been properly set up in the story. Worse, some of the most important moments happen off-screen and are never shown. And lastly, the series never seems to be sure what themes it's trying to portray.
I wanted Chuunibyou to go much deeper than it ever did. Every time there was a big emotional scene, it was wonderfully animated, had great voice acting and music, and the dialogue was never cringe-worthy. The scenes had all the trappings of a good drama--but none of the core. They always felt hollow. I'd feel the emotions because darn it, KyoAni is just that good, but then as soon as the scene was over the bottom would drop out.
I never felt like I saw the real personalities of either of the main characters. You hardly get a chance to ever see beneath Rikka's mask, and Yuuta seems so effortlessly and boringly normal most of the time that you wonder how he was ever supposed to be a dork.
While Rikka does have a backstory you eventually learn, you only see short gllimpses of Yuuta's. And the establishment of Rikka's backstory explains her present behavior, but never reveals who the real girl is behind the act.
The show seems allergic to the hard work of dramatic storytelling. And that's a shame. With a little more effort put into the writing it could've been great. Instead, it's just a highly watchable, but ultimately pretty empty romantic comedy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 11, 2019
This review contains mild spoilers for the beginning of the series.
Our Love Has Always Been 10 Centimeters Apart, which I'll refer to from now on as "10 Centimeters" because ye gods that's a mouthful, is a straight fastball, high heat right down the middle. It knows exactly what its strengths are, and it sticks to them. In that sense it reminds me of Violet Evergarden, another melancholy drama which came out a year later, though the setting and subject matter are much different.
10 Centimeters focuses on two characters in their final year of high school, artist Miou and filmmaker Haruki. It's the old
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trope about opposites attracting. Miou is a shy girl who lacks confidence in herself and her talent. Haruki is cocky and brash. They walk home together every day, and sit on the most memorable anime staircase since Your Name, talking and enjoying each other's company, their hands always--you guessed it--10 Centimeters Apart.
Miou and Haruki each have a pair of friends, other members of their art club and filmmaking club respectively, who I gather are important to other parts of this franchise. (I guess there are two movies; I haven't seen them, and won't discuss them here.)
I think, oddly enough, what I found most notable about this series was what it *didn't* have. There are no annoying love triangles and very little teen angst about their friends. There's no backstabbing of any kind--Miou and Haruki both seem to have chosen really good people to be friends with, and additional drama is unnecessary.
There's no fanservice. In fact, this is a rare show where I really can't tell what demographic it was primarily aimed at, and that's a good thing. The art style is nebulous and could be shounen, shoujo, or somewhere in between. Nobody seems particularly idealized, like a fantasy girl/boy to pine after. Nobody seems particularly blank, like an audience stand-in. They all just seem like regular kids.
There's no ridiculous slapstick or juvenile, prurient comedy. There's no abusive behavior, aside from one dramatic moment, which I'd argue was well-earned and forgiveable. People hurt each other emotionally, but not out of maliciousness--out of misguided good intentions. Sometimes the characters act stupid, but they act stupid in the way that teenagers do, with their crashing self-esteem and raging hormones and poor understanding of the world.
It's all just solid. There's nothing I can really criticize too harshly. The only thing I can really say is that while I appreciate a show which doesn't turn me off to it in one way or another through easily-avoidable mistakes, that lack of risk-taking also veers into predictability. Which brings me back around to Violet Evergarden. Again, a very different show, but one which suffers from the same problem: You never really doubt the outcome of anything that happens. 10 Centimeters is the same way. It has few surprises, and the plot turns are obvious and telegraphed. It's effective and enjoyable, but it will never blow you away.
The art and production are in the same vein. This is a series I rated a solid 8 right down the line. The characters are distinct and identifiable, but somehow a bit generic at the same time. The animation is well-executed, and occasionally very good, but never astonishing. Sound design, music, voices--it's all just very good. Very good--but not great.
The only other mild criticism I have is that I think the translation could use some work (I watched it subtitled on CR). It's not the worst, but it comes across as overly-literal. The way things are phrased is probably the most accurate depiction of the original Japanese, but it sometimes sounds stilted and strange in English; like using the term "lifesaver" for a person who saved someone's life, or using someone's name when talking to them rather than saying "you".
But that's a minor gripe. Overall, if you enjoy high school slice of life or romance series, give this one a shot. It's only six episodes, so it's a small investment, and well, as you can tell by my review--there's nothing wrong with it. It's good. It's *fine*.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 2, 2019
This review contains only mild spoilers for the first episode of the series.
I will say this for Golden Time: I didn't dislike it for the reasons I thought I might upon reading the premise. It's a sloppy, ambitious mess of the show, loaded with more problems than I can list (although I'll do my best), which I kind of love and kind of hate at the same time.
The premise is eye-rollingly familiar: Tada Banri has amnesia, and is starting his first year in college with no memories of his past life. He has an old flame from high school that he's forgotten, a
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new crush (love triangle, baby! Just what I always wanted!), and over the course of the series, a whole clutch of new friends.
Golden Time starts throwing curveballs almost immediately, though. Early on, the show almost doesn't care that Banri has amnesia; instead it focuses on this crazy psycho girl named Kaga Koko, who is obsessively stalking Banri's new friend Yana, who she has decided she must marry. Somehow, in the midst of watching this girl beat the crap out of his new buddy with a bouquet of roses, then follow him around everywhere like a creep every day, our protagonist Banri decides "this is the girl for me!" And we're off on Koko's Bizarre Adventure.
This series has so many meta-problems with normalizing some truly messed-up behavior. One of my only problems with the author's prior work, Toradora, was that it had some problematic undertones, and too much slapstick violence. Both of those things return here in force--especially the disconcerting themes. This is some pretty gross, codependent, borderline abusive stuff at times, and it really turns me off from being able to root for the characters, because some of the most troubling behaviors are never even addressed. There's a point later on in the series where one of the characters does something unforgivable, and it's immediately forgotten forever, and a couple scenes later he's used as comic relief.
But even if you set that aside, this is a romance series where the romance never quite clicked for me. So many of the big character/plot developments just landed with a thud, and left me saying "Huh??" I never really understood what these two characters saw in each other, aside from both being extremely needy people starved for human connection, which is not a sound basis for a relationship.
But it's not all bad. There were times when I said, "Oh, yes, this IS the writer of Toradora". The show builds up a nice little created family, a group of friends who become close and share in experiences throughout the series. Many of the characters change throughout the series, naturally and gradually, without needing a big eureka moment. I like that this is a show where the two characters have a relationship, and work through problems together, and spend lots of time on screen together dealing with things. The romantic relationship isn't just a MacGuffin, a goal for the characters to achieve, it is the meat of the story (or part of it).
The amnesia storyline was also taken in a direction I didn't expect. It was really strange, and it was the sort of thing where you're asking, is that really how amnesia works?? But if you swallow it as a plot device, it doesn't go where most of these stories do, and it's an interesting semi-reversal on the trope. This is where the most interesting themes of the series come up, and it almost works despite the fundamental silliness of the premise. (Seriously, don't use the amnesia trope, guys. Just don't.)
But even when the series settles into a bit of a groove and the characters stop being so abrasive, it still keeps throwing these absurd, clunky plot developments at you. It's not even so much that I dislike some of the turns the story takes, but rather that they're just handled so poorly and feel so artificial. It's kind of painful, because there's some good, ambitious, interesting stuff buried in here, but it's just not working for me even as it's unfolding. You'll get these achingly great moments in one scene and then another scene will just fall totally flat. I don't buy how the characters behave. I could if it were done differently, and set up well, but as things happen, I'm just sitting there with my eyes glazed over, shouting "Okay???" at my screen.
In terms of the production, this is well-animated show. I particularly liked the character design. Each cast member was easily recognizable and conveyed a lot about their character at a glance. The largest amount of time was clearly spent on getting Kaga Koko just right, down to her movements and everything, to convey a woman using her attractiveness and taste to cover for insecurity and vulnerability. It fits, and she looks quite different from any female lead I've seen in a series like this. The supporting cast has some nice design work, too, using varying heights and shape language to convey character. It's not a hyper-produced show with gorgeous backgrounds, but that's okay. What's there is fine.
But the writing is just too all over the place. Far too all over the place to be good. And that's a shame, because this is definitely a show I'm going to be thinking about for awhile, both for its problems and for its ambition and missed opportunities.
Five out of ten.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 29, 2019
As you've probably figured out by now if you're reading this, despite the title, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is not a horror movie about cannibalism, though it does cannibalize many story elements used by other movies, shows, and books. The title's meaning is fairly innocuous, and is explained early in the film, so I won't bother going back over it here.
What's also explained early in the film--the very first scene, in fact--is that the main character's love interest is going to die. I've seen a number of other films and TV series on the topic of terminal illness, but none were
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as blunt and up-front about revealing that ticking time bomb as was this film.
You get the sense that by dropping that bomb right away, the writer is saying "Okay, now that we have that out of the way..." It's actually a way of *disarming* the bomb. You don't have to wonder if there's some way out of it the whole movie. There will be no surprising against-the-odds remission. There will be no experimental miracle treatment. She's going to die. You know that, because the very first scene, before you even meet her, depicts her funeral.
That frees up the script to use the fact of her impending death to explore the themes it's interested in, rather than mining it for tension and drama. In fact, there is surprisingly little drama at all about the terminal illness; much more drama emerges from internal character struggles and external relationship problems than ever comes from dealing with death.
And that's the secret of Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai. This isn't a movie about terminal illness. It isn't even a movie about death, or mortality, really. Terminal illness is used shamelessly as a plot device to get the story where the writer wants it to go.
So what's it about, really? Well, that's still a little obvious and clichéd, because of course, it's about what it means to be alive, and of course the inevitable answer is *other people*. But the way the details are handled makes it work. I felt that each scene was handled with a better-than-average degree of subtlety, and that the characters were just believable and interesting and sympathetic enough to carry the story. Are there elements of the Mary Sue here, of writer insertion? Is it a little predictable, with some common overall character tropes and plot elements? Well, sure.
But execution matters. What you have here is just a really well-handled exploration of some fairly obvious themes and character archetypes, which gets all the details and character interactions pitch-perfect, to where you can't resist enjoying it even as you know that it's a bit obvious and unoriginal. And I'm fine with that.
I will also say that you shouldn't expect a high-end presentation coming into this film. The animation is pretty good, but no better than your typical upper-tier slice of life series. There are montages of still frames. There are no Shinkai-esque scenes of stunning beauty, though there are many attractive frames to enjoy. The music and voice acting are fine--good, even--but not incredible.
But if this review makes the movie sound milquetoast, trust me, that's not the feeling I had after watching it. Let's try this: I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is much, much better than the sum of its cannibalized parts. If you know you like this type of story, watch it without delay.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 8, 2019
Hoo boy, there's a lot to unpack here.
Kaguya-Sama is your classic Pride & Prejudice romance, except it's more like Pride & Pride, and then taken to the most ridiculous extreme imaginable. I'm not sure whether I loved it or thought it was banal beyond belief, I just know I was having too much fun to care.
The titular Kaguya is the scion of one of the wealthiest families in Japan; she serves as Student Council Vice President in one of the country's most prestigious high schools. Her foil is Miyuki, the Student Council President in the same school, who comes from the opposite background--lower
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class and salt of the earth. Both of them think of themselves as geniuses, and have the grades and reputation to back it. And neither of them wants to be the first to admit they're in love with the other.
But knowing the premise only conveys half of what makes this show so unique and refreshing. The idea could've been taken and turned into a typical slice of life dramedy/romance with a mild twist. Instead, each episode is a trilogy of zany 6-8 minute skits, complete with a gameshow-style narrator and a declaration of who "won" or "lost" at the end of each. It's utterly ridiculous, totally hilarious, and endlessly fun. The ideas are often so incredibly asinine, like a contest over who gets to offer to share his/her umbrella, but exploited and pushed to such extremes that they become brilliant exercises in stupidity.
See, the key to this story about "two geniuses" is that they're both actually idiots in a lot of important ways. We know it, and some (well, at least one) of the side characters know it, but Kaguya and Miyuki are so self-absorbed and arrogant that they can't see it. Maybe that would make them too unlikable, except the series is peppered with moments where you see how their arrogance comes from insecurity, and moments where they show much they actually care about each other and their friends.
And that's the other side of Kaguya-Sama: The heartfelt, sappy high school romance hiding under all the absurdity. It hides well, so the moments when it comes out are that much more effective.
This is a hard show to judge, though. For one thing, it seems highly likely to receive a second season, and the story just kind of stops midstream. It's also the kind of series where so much is invested in the humor of absurd situations that there isn't much space left to dig deep (though to its credit, the few moments where it does are efficient and powerful). It's good at what it aims to do, I'm just not sure that its mission is going to keep me up at night pondering its depths.
There are also moments where I'm not comfortable with the way the show portrays power dynamics in relationships. The obvious thing is "Kaguya and Miyuki are hilariously wrong about how love works and the writer knows it", but there are subtler things underpinning certain episodes which bely a somewhat-problematic perspective. It's mostly not a big deal, but it was something I noticed.
Fortunately, the animation is fantastic. The designs are instantly recognizable and fresh, and convey so much character. The settings are interesting and a little bit different from the norm. The sound effects and voice acting go hand-in-hand with conveying Kaguya-Sama's laser-focused purpose. The music is a nice mix of catchy throwbacks and modern parody.
So, what do I think of the show? Jury's out on its deeper merits, pending future episodes, but I enjoyed the hell out of it regardless. I'll definitely watch the next season, should there be one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 5, 2019
Cross Game is the story of two high school kids who play baseball; Kitamura Ko and Tsukishima Aoba, who fight and argue continuously on an inevitable trajectory toward romance or heartbreak. Aoba loves baseball, and Ko has immense raw pitching talent, and they hate each other. Or so they say. *Everyone else* says that Aoba and Ko are exactly alike.
The biggest problem with Cross Game is that there's simply too much of it. There isn't anything seriously wrong with the writing--the characters are fine, and much of the cast has developed and changed in gradual but realistic ways by the ending.
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The story hits all the major beats you'd expect from a sports anime, and although it's never surprising, it has enough satisfying moments to keep you going.
It's just that the series spends 50 episodes telling a story which feels like it could've been told just as well in 25. There are many elements which are repeated over and over again, until you want to scream "I get it already!!" at the screen. There are too many useless characters, some merely brief comic relief, and others (like a certain cousin of a certain character) who are returned to again and again despite the fact that they add absolutely nothing to the story. There are some truly idiotic episodic subplots, such as the four (4)--count 'em--times the characters foil petty criminals by using their baseball skills. There's even a bottle and clip episode which almost entirely consists of replaying scenes from the first episode.
I don't mind a story which moves slowly, if it spends that time fleshing out interesting details to make the world or the characters deeper and more satisfying. That's not how Cross Game spends its time, sadly.
And then we come to the baseball itself. For a series which spends so much time on the sport, Cross Game exhibits a surprisingly shallow understanding of the Grand Old Game. I'm a huge fan of the sport. I've watched many ballgames and spent many hours studying and writing about the sport. Cross Game... ain't it. Definitely do not come into the series expecting detailed depictions of the strategy and craft of playing baseball. It's more of a slice of life about baseball than it is a sports anime with slice of life elements. It oversimplifies the sport, making it too much about a handful of star players doing magical things, and too little about how they learn to do those things, or about the tactical battles which happen within the context of individual at-bats.
Maybe all that would be ameliorated if the animation was a little better. But this is not a well-animated show. Some of the character designs are distinctive, but others are much too same-ish. None of them are particularly appealing, but that may just be my taste. But that's not the biggest problem. Rather, it's how little actual animation there is here. There's so much filler that some of the biggest key moments are simply slideshows of still images. They ran out of money, and it's rarely been as obvious as it is here. Maybe they should've tried making 25 episodes instead of 50.
But despite all of that, I still rated this series a 6 out of 10. Going with my heart, here. I really liked the characters. I liked that their relationships didn't offer easy answers. I was rooting hard for Ko and Aoba to get it together. The beginning and ending of the series were fantastic. There were many scenes when the show grew boring or made me roll my eyes, but it never fully lost me. Good dialogue and solid characterization go a long, long way.
I won't tell you to watch Cross Game only if you really like baseball, or if you really like slice of life, or catty high school romance. There are better depictions of each. But maybe if the combination of all three of those sounds amazing to you, and you don't mind sitting through a lot of filler to get to the good stuff, it just might be worth your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 9, 2019
This review contains only minor spoilers for the beginning of the series.
There are two different ways to drive forward a story: To have things happen to the protagonists, or to have the protagonists MAKE things happen. There's a writer's term for the latter: We call it Agency. It's a powerful thing, maybe the MOST powerful tool in a storyteller's kit. And Sora Yori is overflowing with agency, absolutely brimming with it, like water seeks release from any crack or opening in a vessel.
Sora Yori is girl power done right, better than any superpowers gifted by coincidence or gods or fate, better by
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far than any shepherding by an older male character. It's a story of four girls seizing their dreams, by themselves, and making them a reality. That's real strength, and it's the core of this series; finding courage, finding competence and independence, finding peace in grief, and finding friendship. A coming-of-age story at its very best, and packaged in enough honest charm to sugar-crash a whole damn colony of penguins.
And oh, baby, does Sora Yori have charm. The characters are so distinctive and so likeable, each in their own way, and every bit of the show's humor and drama comes from their personalities and tendencies. This is the kind of show you just sit and watch with a dumb, goofy grin on your face, in between bouts of laughter and tears.
That by itself would be enough, but there are story arcs here, too--especially for Shirase, who at first seems a supporting character, but rapidly emerges as Sora Yori's lead. Each of the four girls is looking for something, and by the end, each has found it, in one way or another. If there's a minor flaw in this near-perfect series, it's that none of the other characters have as powerful or emotional of an arc as Shirase; but then, even most shows featuring just ONE protagonist can't match the strength of her story.
And for all I've gushed about the writing, that's not Sora Yori's only strong suit. The animation is fantastic. There's little filler, and each of the show's several settings is captured perfectly. The character designs are instantly recognizable and appealing. Artistically, Sora Yori more than gets the job done, although it never quite elevates to soaring heights, except perhaps in the OP, one of the most magnetic and charming I've yet seen.
Speaking of which, the music is great, too--just like the art, it's excellent, though perhaps not masterpiece-level spectacular.
But again, you're here for the characters, and for their stories. Grab a cup of hot tea, crank down the thermostat, and enjoy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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