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Jan 26, 2025
As a straight male in my mid 30s with no interest whatsoever in fashion design or modeling or anything to do with that world, I really doubt I'm the target audience this show was aiming for. And yet, despite this pretty clear mismatch, I enjoyed Paradise Kiss. I can see why others in my demographic might not, however.
As a whole the show oozes style. It's not quite at gold standard Cowboy Bebop level, but it definitely has flair. Characters have unique hair colors and overall looks, the color palette on display really pops despite the show being two decades old as of the time of
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this writing and the opening and ending themes are both super catchy bops. I never once skipped through the intro sequence, which is something I almost ALWAYS do when watching other programs.
I enjoyed this show's approach to drama. It felt more mature and grounded in reality than most other anime featuring a high school aged main character and its conflicts felt more believable and less contrived. The interpersonal relationships between the main character and the rest of the cast, the ups and downs that inevitably come with this period of life and the intricacy and nuance of romantic relationships are what drives everything forward. As a tradeoff, because the drama is more subtle and grounded in reality, there are fewer true highlight moments, if any at all, and certainly the ending of this anime, while easily believable and acceptable, is not memorable and does not hit you with an emotional gut punch. I'm not sure if ANY part of this anime is memorable three months after the fact, which one could argue is a strike against it, but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable in the moment all the same.
COMPLETELY devoid of action or combat or any kind of mind-blowing twist, I can see how certain anime watchers might find this boring. I don't know that it's ever RIVETING, but I found there was enough meat on the bone, even if there aren't leftovers afterwards, to keep me engaged.
Ultimately, would I RECOMMEND Paradise Kiss? To the anime audience at large, no. To those who already know they enjoy drama and romance anime and aren't turned off by the lack of action, yes. With that, use your discretion.
OBJECTIVE RATING- 7-7.5
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 14, 2025
Pulling no punches, Blue Lock underwhelmed me from start to finish. Its base concept on which the entire show revolves around and within which it takes itself extremely seriously, youth soccer, simply isn't all that intense or all that dramatic. The setting wildly underwhelms as it is an entirely true, non-hyperbolic statement when I tell you that literally every single episode, 24 out of 24, takes place within the Blue Lock facility and after reaching said facility in the first episode, the characters literally never leave. The writing and manufactured drama have a very juvenile, blatantly aimed at teenagers kind of tone and never has
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any meaningful stakes beyond simply winning or losing at soccer. Expect eye-roll-inducing lines such as an antagonistic rival player telling the main character "You're just an NPC!" that SCREAM "We're trying really hard to make 14 year old boys think our show is cool". Its run of the mill modern graphics and equally run of the mill modern voice acting, while not detrimental to the show, never do anything to distinguish themselves from its contemporaries, nor does the soundtrack.
Ultimately unless you really, really love soccer or if as far as you're concerned any shonen is automatically good, there's just no reason to watch Blue Lock. It isn't particularly good at ANYTHING. A score of 8+ here on MAL is WILD to me. That MUST be a very young crowd with low standards and/or recency bias, but this show is super overrated.
OBJECTIVE RATING- 6-7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 6.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 19, 2024
Starting out with my old anime disclaimer, this movie is nearly 38 years old at the time of this writing and the only fair and proper way to rate anything is in its own time. Nevertheless, I'll give it my best shot from a damn near 2025 lens.
Unlike other old anime I've reviewed, in this case the age of the program really isn't much of a factor in my overall takeaway. 38 year old graphics obviously couldn't pass for something that came out yesterday, but they actually hold up very well all things considered, and this must have looked AMAZING at the time. For 1987,
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the visuals are nothing short of fantastic.
Likewise, one of the common complaints about this anime from my skimming of other reviews is its graphic violence, gore and graphically sexual content. Not only do I not share those complaints- I am actively drawn to those things and they're what made me want to watch this in the first place- but also because it's as old as it is and the graphics are what they are, any depictions of gore or violence, while still possibly disturbing to some in a body horror sort of way, are in my opinion not nearly as bad as some reviews make them out to be. An easy answer here is to watch the first five minutes or so of the movie, which gives a nice preview of things to come as far as sexualized content and body horror weirdness, and decide based on that as to whether or not this is something you can handle. Keep in mind that in many works of fiction demons and devils are characterized as being hypersexual, amazing lovers, insatiable, etc- the point here is to emphasize that characteristic of their kind, NOT as some misogynistic torture p*rn the way some other reviews will describe it.
My biggest issue with the anime instead lies in the substance in that the core plot is deeply flawed. The romantic storyline is forced and incredibly sudden. We are expected to believe, among other massive stretches which I'll avoid detailing for spoiler purposes, that you can reliably plan for two individuals to fall truly and properly in love and be absolutely ready to have a child together after ONE NIGHT, and the stakes are incredibly high and there's dire consequences if it works out any other way. Does anyone else see any problems with that? This anime is trying hard to give you a twist ending, but rather than the "Wow this changes everything and makes me want to go back and watch it again from a whole new perspective" reaction they were going for, it simply felt cheap and stupid and made me roll my eyes. I don't hate what they were trying to do, but the execution was seriously lacking. This film may have benefited from a longer runtime to flesh out a few key aspects of this plot to make it slightly more believable.
In addition to the bigger picture narrative leaving much to be desired, character development suffers across the board. Our main male lead has more than zero development by the loosest and most forgiving terms, but barely, our female lead has damn near zero and any characters beyond that have no development whatsoever. Moment to moment writing is passable in establishing the setting and the narrative and nothing more. It lacks any soul or personality, all characters are largely written the same way and there's no memorable or quotable lines or moments in the entire film. The characters as a whole aren't worth remembering either and I'm confident in three weeks I wouldn't be able to tell you the name of the lead, let alone anyone else.
At the end of the day I was not upset and offended by Wicked City as some other reviewers seemed to be. Rather, it simply isn't very good. It isn't horrible either, and with its relatively short runtime I don't regret giving it a watch, but if you haven't watched it yet it's certainly very skippable unless you absolutely love this kind of anime. All that said, I can't imagine any reason I'd come back to this in the future either. Use your best discretion and decide what's best for you.
1987 RATING- Impossible in 2024/2025
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 6.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 9, 2024
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers is often designated "Among Us, the anime", which I have mixed feelings about. It's not necessarily an incorrect description in that the first volume of the light novel, which the anime adapts, sets up the world and characters and then largely focuses on finding the imposter among the group. The core mystery drives the show, has many ups and downs and its biggest twist is not obvious or as easy to predict as many anime "surprises" tend to be. However, there's a core action-focused element of the show as well, and a bigger picture objective (enter the land of
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demons, destroy the demon god) that has absolutely nothing to do with there being an imposter or any Among Us esque mystery. Ultimately the biggest shortcoming of this anime is that it's clearly unfinished; the anime came out nearly a decade ago with no announcement of a second season as of the time of this writing and likewise, its light novel source material hasn't been touched since 2015. It hasn't been "officially" cancelled, but when something lays dormant for nearly ten years with complete radio silence, one can only assume it's highly unlikely to ever be completed.
IF you can look beyond the fact that the anime is unfinished and was clearly planning on a future season that never came to fruition, and likely never will, it's quite possible to still enjoy what's on offer here as I did. The visuals are awesome for being a decade old and honestly this could come out tomorrow and not look out of place. Likewise the voice acting in the English dub is strong, largely featuring a cast of industry veterans, with a quick asterisk for the intentionally weird and annoying voices of Chamo and Hans respectively. I thought the overall pacing was strong as well, though the argument that too much time is spent suspecting a singular person and that too much of the anime is spent in a singular location and it begins to drag a bit in those regards is valid. The final episode, which contains "the big reveal", did feel a bit rushed and definitely had a medium sized information dump. Likewise, our main character being smarter and more deductive than everyone else, big logic leaps and the classic "What if Character X simply did something else instead?" are all applicable here if you overanalyze the mystery.
Through all of that, I was largely hooked enough by the core mystery to enjoy most of my viewing experience, particularly mid to late episodes where the tension really ramped up. There's generally enough combat in the show to keep things fresh as it would certainly start to drag a bit if it were purely dialogue dump after dialogue dump as the characters attempt to deduce the imposter. I'd also feel confident in saying if you were to take a poll of all viewers, even up to the second to last episode, and had them vote for who they think the imposter is, the vast majority would get it wrong. Granted, the explanation as to how this individual pulled things off gets a bit convenient, and one could also argue that their reaction to finally being exposed isn't necessarily the most believable, but there's enough to enjoy leading up to the ending to overlook the bumpiness as it tries to stick the landing.
Character development throughout the series is definitely uneven. Some of the braves feel a lot more important and a lot more fleshed out than others, but again, this is simply a consequence of having a short runtime (12 episodes) with the intention to continue and then never getting the opportunity to do so. The base of some appealing and unexpected interpersonal dynamics is definitely here. As an experienced anime watcher, I could probably speculate as to where they were going with a lot of this, but it's lame we'll never get to actually see it.
Ultimately, I genuinely enjoyed the show for what it was, enjoyed the tension and pacing and would have been wrong about the biggest twist had I been made to guess. I would have been happy and eager to watch a future season, which should speak to my overall takeaway from the program, but alas I will never get to do so. If you're unbothered by the near-certainty that this will never receive a proper conclusion and can enjoy it as an unfinished self-contained story, absolutely give it a watch. There's enough action and mystery here to enjoy the ride, even if we'll never know whether or not the demon lord would have come out on top!
OBJECTIVE RATING- 7.5-8
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 8
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 14, 2024
I need to start this review with not one but two disclaimers- 1. As I write any time I review very old anime, the only fair and proper way to review anything is in its own time and me reviewing it now, nearly 28 years later, is imperfect 2. I am well aware of how unbelievably influential this manga series, anime and IP as a whole would go on to become and that the entire Souls series, the iconic Buster Sword from FF7 and many, many other acclaimed pieces of fiction are heavily inspired by Berserk. Nevertheless, I'm here to discuss only this anime and
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judge it on its own merits, NOT the entirety of everything that falls under the umbrella of the Berserk IP. I have not read the manga and how good it is, and I understand that it is exceptional, is irrelevant for purposes of this review. With those key points out of the way, let's get into it!
As with anything from this time period (1997), some parts of Berserk have aged better than others. The overall, bigger picture narrative is still superb and more than holds up to this day. Some of the moment to moment writing, however, particularly in the English dub, would not meet modern standards. Throwaway villains in particular have serious cases of "bad guy voice" and have terrible lines straight out of Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series along the lines of "Hahaha... Now I'm going to crush you... WITH MY AX!!!!!!!!" in the deepest, slowest, most stereotypical villain voice imaginable. Additionally, characters lips moving are frequently imperfectly aligned with what is actually being said, which is something companies are a lot more on top of today.
Graphically, while this doesn't look like garbage, it obviously shows its age and couldn't come close to passing for a modern anime. It wasn't painful to watch just a month out from 2025, but even for its own time I don't know that its presentation was ever where it distinguished itself. It looks similar as far as graphics quality is concerned to many of its contemporaries. Thematically, Berserk was willing to go a lot darker than many anime of its time, and darker than many anime today, and what we saw in this anime was after significant REDUCTIONS to dark and violent scenes were made, with the approval of the creator. It certainly stood out in this regard as it was simply willing to go where many another anime will not.
Guts is a mixed bag of a main character. He is extremely powerful and badass, likeable and he's absolutely layered and evolves as the series progresses. On the other hand, he also absolutely falls into a number of tropes and stereotypes and he has Wolverine-esque recovery from countless, often extremely serious wounds suffered on the battlefield and Bryan Mills levels of general imperviousness to anything and everything his opposition does. To their credit, they at least show his scars and physical wounds and have a number of episodes where he is wrapped up in bandages or actively in the process of recovering, but nevertheless, the level to which this man is unaffected by crippling or lethal levels of damage, and the speed with which he bounces back as if these things never happened, are not realistic even within this universe and they are conveniently applicable to Guts alone because he is the main character and the plot needs it to be that way. He is stabbed very badly and very deeply in the shoulder and is bleeding like a faucet from the wound, but less than one minute later he's calmly making love to the person who stabbed him. That's an oversimplification of course, and I understand what scenes like this were going for, but they were among the more egregious examples of the "invincible main character" trope that this anime blatantly falls into.
The lack of a proper, ongoing villain plagues the entirety of the series. Generally speaking our protagonists are simply fighting against opposing military forces or something akin to "The Empire", but there's never one true big baddie, even on a temporary basis, that drives the plot forward. Once you get to the very, very end of the anime, and if you know what happens after that point, you can understand WHY this decision was made, but if you were to watch only this anime and not dig further for outside information the criticism that there simply isn't a proper, longstanding villain at any point during this entire 25 episode runtime is very valid. The plot at its core is about Guts and Griffith, their interpersonal and complex relationship and their relationship to other members of The Band of the Falcon (or Band of the Hawk if you watched the English dub, which is an obnoxious inconsistency) more so than a good versus evil or hero versus villain kind of setup. The other members of The Band of the Falcon/Hawk are a mixed bag. They generally fall into tropes and archetypes and don't ever meaningfully develop beyond the secondary, largely one-dimensional role the plot wants them to play, but they at least have adequate lines and screen time and are consistently present, even if clearly and ubiquitously less important than the main protagonists, in all the major plot events. There's only a handful of these characters though, as for an army supposedly comprised of hundreds or thousands of men at any given time, we really only ever get to know perhaps half a dozen of them. I would have liked to have seen more development of these core secondary members and I would have liked tertiary members and beyond to be less comprised of nameless throwaways. Ultimately it often feels like The Band of the Falcon/Hawk are a group of four or five people who matter and then a bunch of disposable, nameless throwaway nobodies who follow them. Also, other than one specific character, Corkus, who is set up as an unlikeable, antagonistic towards Guts jerk from the very beginning, there's a distinct lack of conflict and betrayal within the group, which is very unrealistic given its size, makeup and high turnover rate. Speaking of which, how exactly does this army keep replenishing the soldiers it loses in any given battle and how do we know the new recruits are skilled in battle or any amount of loyal to Griffith when it really comes down to it? Unsurprisingly, this is never addressed.
Pacing wise Berserk is largely in line with anime of its time period in that it's slower, more drawn out and more focused on telling a bigger picture story than it is on moment to moment entertainment. There's frequent combat and blood throughout the entire show, though a lot of that combat feels very samey, to break up slower sections. There were a handful of smaller stretches where I started to get a little bored, but it was never egregious in this regard, and there certainly doesn't seem to be any filler or any episodes without clear purpose. In 25 episodes of anime they adapted over 12 full volumes of the manga, which is a lot of meat on the bone, but that brings me to perhaps the biggest elephant in the room of all...
So the ending... IF you know where it's going/what comes after and IF you opt to do outside looking into beyond what the anime shows you, this is a fine and logical stopping point as it is a major, major plot event that sets up the entire rest of the series. If you DIDN'T look up more information, however, I can absolutely see how this ending would seem completely out of nowhere and nonsensical and be highly unsatisfying. If you were to go into this truly blind with absolutely no idea of what's to come, this would be one of the biggest WTF endings of all time. It happens very, very quickly and there's no way to anticipate it. CLEARLY this wasn't intended to be the end but rather a stopping point that they were going to continue in a future season, but we all know how that turned out, and therefore, if we're judging the anime solely on its own merits and assuming that any given viewer does not have prior knowledge of the series, this ending is very questionable. With all that said, they say the best endings are the most memorable ones, and this is CERTAINLY that...
At the end of the day I largely liked Berserk and I can certainly fully understand, with the benefit of hindsight, why this went on to become so ridiculously popular and influential. I come from a unique perspective in that I've never read the manga and I watched the anime for the first time one month before 2025, which is way, way after the fact. In its own time, this show was something special. Today, it has aged only decently, and has clear room for modernization. The setting, scope, bigger picture narrative and willingness to go dark and heavy are absolutely awesome. The moment to moment writing, voice acting (especially for villains), lip-synching and out of nowhere, unexplained, unresolved ending are all a bit more questionable. I tried to be as objective and neutral as possible with this review if we are looking at the anime and the anime alone and taking all other factors out of it. Where does that leave us? If you like dark fantasy, hit the damn like button for this review and go watch Berserk. :)
1997 RATING- 9+
2024 RATING- 7-8
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7.5-8
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 25, 2024
Grave of the Fireflies is a timeless Ghibli classic that largely still holds up as we near 2025, more than 35 years after the movie was created and released, which is a true testament to its quality. The disclaimer I'm obligated to provide when reviewing any old anime is certainly applicable here- the only fair and proper way to review anything is in its own time and watching it now for the first time 35 years after the fact is not the same and never can be. Nevertheless, here are my as objective as possible thoughts after watching the film for the first time last
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night.
The elephant in the room for me, and by far the biggest strike against the film, is that it has a major spoiler problem. Reading the description here on MAL or elsewhere makes statements like "the main characters have lost their mother and father and are now on their own", but these are events that occur IN THE MOVIE, not beforehand, and in the case of their father the main characters do not find out about his death until much, much later in the film. I don't understand why a write-up would immediately reveal that information. Even worse, however, is that the film spoils ITSELF right out of the gate. The very, very first scene and first dialogue of the movie shows our older main character as a ghost and explicitly states that he and his younger sister, who he was tasked with taking care of, starved to death/died young in the extremely harsh World War 2 era Japan setting. When those events do in fact come to pass it still isn't fun to watch by any means- this is not in any way intended to be a feel-good movie- but A TON of potential emotional impact is lost and the blow is significantly softened when you spend the entire film knowing that this outcome is an eventuality. I would have been far more affected had I not been explicitly told beforehand what was going to happen and therefore able to watch the film with hope, however unlikely, that at least one of our two leads could find a way to make it through. Cheering on two very likeable, largely innocent characters simply trying to survive horrific circumstances with the vaguest hope that maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel after all the hardships and loss they both endured and then having that unexpectedly and suddenly pulled out from under me would have surely been more powerful and memorable for me. As it stands, while this movie is certainly a downer, the emotional impact of this movie and it being "the saddest film ever" and other statements along those lines that I've read many, many times is simply overstated. Maquia: When The Promised Flower Blooms, for example, I would strongly argue is a far sadder and more emotionally impactful film.
If you can get beyond the fact that the movie shoots itself in the foot immediately by ruining its climax, the rest of it genuinely holds up. It looks incredible for how old it is and must have truly looked stunning when it released for the first time in 1988. The original Japanese voice cast, as well as the subtitled translation on the North American blu-ray that I watched, were both spotless. It does a great job at staying focused on the story it wants to tell and not wasting time with side characters and subplots that aren't directly relevant to the leads. Likewise, it never feels like a film created on a storyboard or in a production meeting. Rather, it feels like an authentic human experience, harsh world that is completely neutral to your existence and all. I'm glad they opted NOT to include elements like a narrator, on-screen aids saying things like "two years later..." or any other element that would have detracted from this. Other than the initial mega-spoiler, it does a great job of taking a show, don't tell approach to its storytelling. Subtle details, like watching the leads get thinner, dirtier and progressively more hopeless as the film continues on, elevate what is already a deeply personal experience. Save the ghosts/spirits that our leads eventually become- and this type of thing is a major part of Japanese culture and something that many Japanese people even now, but especially back then, genuinely believed in- this story has no magical elements and is something that could have, and tragically probably DID happen, to real people in the real world. While I did not personally take this as the overarching point of the movie, if one wanted to interpret that this is, at its core, an anti-war film, I would accept that. At very least it shows the horrors of what war time was actually like for the innocent, helpless ordinary people on the ground and provides food for thought that is still applicable to the modern day.
Ultimately Grave of the Fireflies is among the very best of the Ghibli catalog, a stark departure from their usual tone and target audience, and it holds up remarkably well for its age. It is still well worth a watch in 2025 and beyond. The movie, while still genuinely very good, IS overrated and its emotional impact is overstated. Had they NOT spoiled it immediately at the beginning and let the rest of the film play out exactly the same, I think I'd easily get there on at least a 9, but it loses significant points with me with the way it chose to do things. That grievance aside, I'd have no hesitation recommending this film, and that's from someone who by and large feels that Studio Ghibli is overrated and most of their movies are too long and too samey.
1988 OBJECTIVE RATING- 9-9.5
2025 OBJECTIVE RATING- IMPOSSIBLE
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 8-8.25
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 14, 2024
Memories is tricky to review for two reasons- 1. Rather than being a movie in and of itself it is actually a collection of three entirely different movies, which are completely unrelated to each other and from different directors, and 2. At the time of this writing it is nearly THIRTY YEARS OLD, and while you can certainly look back at something and review it from a modern perspective or discuss how well or how poorly something has aged, the only proper and fair way to review a piece of art is in its own time. With those important items out of the way, let's
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get into it!
The three movies, while all generically sci-fi to varying degrees, are not particularly similar or of the same subgenres. The first movie, Magnetic Rose, has a space theme and setting, could be aptly categorized as adventure and mystery and dips lightly into horror, though I think simply calling it creepy or spooky might be more applicable. The second film, Stink Bomb, is more or less just a comedy or perhaps to some extent a parody. The final film, Cannon Fodder, is steampunk with a military subtheme and one could argue it is also a social commentary.
It would be fair to say that all three films are artistic, original, experimental, prime examples of "anime as an art form" and a far more pure form of the medium than what we see today. They put a creative type at the helm and gave him the green light to create whatever he wants rather than the overwhelming majority of modern anime that feel very corporate and have to go through a cost/benefit analysis before they can be created. These films also look INCREDIBLE for 1995. Obviously thirty year old graphics won't blow anyone away today, but wow were they a visual marvel for the time! The amount of detail and very obvious thoroughness and care put into these pieces absolutely oozes off the screen and only magnifies one's appreciation for how dedicated these artists were to their work.
As far as the individual films, while I genuinely enjoyed all of them to varying degrees, the clear winner for me was the first film, Magnetic Rose, which felt a notch or two above its successors. It felt fleshed out, very well-paced, atmospheric, creepy, original and genuinely engaging from start to finish. This was by far the closest of the three to an actual MOVIE with an actual STORY rather than simply feeling like a setting and a concept. I have very few criticisms about this film and would confidently give it an 8.5 or even a 9, and if the entire anthology were as good as this opening film, Memories would be a timeless masterpiece.
Stink Bomb was perhaps more amusing than actually funny, and it continued to be more and more over the top as the film continued on, but unless you really appreciate its one and only joke and are way into the base concept, I don't see how one wouldn't feel like this film drags on a little too long, wears out its welcome and simply doesn't have enough meat on the bone to justify its runtime. There's zero character development here and its simplistic plot revolves around one thing and one thing only. To love this film you have to find its base concept hilarious to begin with and then you have to still find it hilarious 40 minutes later. I definitely got to a place around the midway point where the joke just wasn't funny anymore and it was like "Okay, I get it. Is there more to this?" and the answer is no, there is not. For me, this film is perhaps a weak 7. It looks nice, it's mildly amusing but there really isn't anything to it beyond that.
The third film, Cannon Fodder, is probably going to be the most hit or miss for most viewers. It's simplistic, lacks character development or meaningful plot points and is closer to a fleshed out setting and concept rather than a proper "story". My wife liked this film the least of the three and found it outright boring, which I can see others agreeing with, but for those a bit more appreciative of art, social commentary, bigger picture messages and concepts to think about after the credits roll, perhaps this is for you. Thematically, and as far as its allegorical message is concerned, this is the strongest piece. It's also the shortest piece, so I feel like this should be inoffensive and pretty enough to look at for most people even if you don't find its content riveting. This is likely the most difficult film to give a rating to because first and foremost it's trying to give you something to think about, and depending on how well that resonates with you and how much you care about its message, your personal score for this may vary wildly. I feel comfortable giving it a 7.
Ultimately I am going to give this collection a 7.5. Generally speaking I click "Mixed Feelings" rather than "Recommended" for anything below an 8, but in this case I'm going to make an exception and go ahead and recommend it because if nothing else it's an excellent representative example of anime as an art form and it's very original and has a notably distinctive feel compared to the overwhelming majority of modern anime. It's worth experiencing for how unique it is, even if it doesn't end up being your cup of tea. This anthology is probably best enjoyed a smaller, more specific audience, who I think will really love it, rather than "for the masses", and I think it's very important that those kind of anime continue to live on and not everything is about marketability and profit.
OBJECTIVE RATING- 7.5-8
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 8, 2024
The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes is not nearly as well known as the works of Studio Ghibli or Makoto Shinkai, but I don't think it would be all that difficult to convince the average anime watcher that this is a product of the latter. This is both a positive and a negative comparison. On one hand, the strongest individual element of this film is, by far, its visual presentation. It could easily be mistaken for a Shinkai film visually and with his works being the absolute gold standard as far as visual presentation, that's very much a compliment. On the other hand,
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while it never oversteps into outright ripoff territory, the plot largely lacks originality and feels entirely familiar from start to finish for those who have seen works such as Suzume, Your Name, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Voices of a Distant Star and perhaps even The Girl Who Leapt Through Time or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas as non-Shinkai examples. It's easy for me mentally to label this as "another one of THOSE" and call it good enough as it lacks that X factor to truly distinguish itself from the numerous peers it is somewhat similar to.
Clocking in under an hour and a half, the movie is generally engaging and well-paced and it does not overstay its welcome or artificially pad itself with irrelevant fluff. There are very few characters in the entire film as a whole and even fewer who actually matter. Our male lead, Kaoru, does indeed have a plausible motivation for wanting to explore the tunnel and utilize its rumored powers, but that backstory isn't overly fleshed out and feels largely formulaic and cookie-cutter. I would have liked to have seen more flashbacks of his memories with his sister or simply more building of her character as a whole, but as it stands she spends the entire film feeling more like a concept than a character and it's hard to become emotionally invested in our main character's plight. On the flipside, more time and fleshing out IS spent on the motivations of our female lead, Anzu, and while the film gives its best effort to really sell her motivation as believable, it's hard for me to imagine risking one's lifespan in exchange for what she wants to achieve.
Having only watched the English dub I cannot provide an educated opinion as to how it stacks up against the original Japanese, and while the overall performance is certainly acceptable, I can't entirely get there on either of the leads. Gabriel Regojo as Kaoru sometimes comes off as flat and unable to convey emotion in his delivery and with his performance in particular it is quite clear at times that these lines were recorded alone as standalone products rather than in a live back and forth with his counterpart, industry veteran Patricia Duran as Anzu. Patricia Duran provides the superior performance of the two leads, and comes off as the superior voice talent, but for me she wasn't entirely believable as a high school aged student, with the voice of a proper adult woman, rather than a teenager, being fairly noticeable at various times. She was indeed in her 50s at the time she would have recorded the lines for this film and while she sounds fantastic for her age, she does not sound like a high school student.
A nitpick regarding the tunnel itself- it really isn't particularly well hidden or off the beaten path. It's located down a hill from a well-traversed area and then a short distance forward in the woods. It is not obscured or visually hidden either. In fact, its gaping entrance sticks out like a sore thumb. No key or password is required for entry. Anyone who finds this enormous cave opening can just walk right in. With all of that in mind, I find it extremely difficult to believe that others wouldn't have found this location and that it has somehow not become extremely well known locally at very least and probably worldwide if it does indeed have some form of supernatural powers. No explanation as to why only our two leads can see/use/find it is ever provided; we are simply to believe they are somehow the only ones who have stumbled upon this place.
There are also plenty of anime tropes and cliches on display here, such as BOTH leads having absent parents, which further adds to the aforementioned familiarity/lack of originality problem that plagues the entire film. There really isn't anything here, besides perhaps the tunnel itself which is just the equivalent of various other mediums in other films that function the same way, that hasn't been seen or done numerous times before. Even though I just watched it for the very first time, I very much felt like I'd seen this film before.
The intro and outro music, my personal preference being the former, were enjoyable, but once again they're by and large just generic pieces of anime music that you'd see in any other similar film and aren't memorable enough to be anything other than good enough to keep the film afloat. If there was any background music outside of the intro and outro, I already forget about it and I just finished watching this film less than 12 hours ago.
Ultimately, while I'm aware I spent a good portion of this review on negatives and nitpicks, the films The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes is trying to emulate are very GOOD films, so while it certainly lacks originality and isn't breaking any new ground, it's still a great-looking, well-paced and engaging ride that plays it very safe and doesn't deviate far at all from a formula that has repeatedly been proven to work. I genuinely enjoyed watching it, would absolutely watch it again and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone who enjoyed any of the other films I cited as examples throughout this review.
OBJECTIVE RATING- 8-8.5
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 8-8.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 8, 2024
In/Spectre wasn't what I was expecting and was largely a disappointment. While I could certainly finger-point to forgettable characters, multiple filler episodes in a twelve episode anime and an inorganic romance that barely hangs on by a shoe string, for me the most egregious flaw of the program is that it's insanely dialogue heavy and most episodes boil down to two characters sitting near each other and having a seemingly never-ending conversation. There is little to no action, only one actual mystery to solve throughout the entire show and nothing to break up the monotony and repetition of talking, talking and more talking.
Having come out
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in 2020, it looks and sounds fine. My wife liked the intro/outro music, which is fine and well, but that doesn't make the actual show any better. I am certain I won't remember the name of a single character in this program two weeks from today. One of them is missing an eye and a leg and one of them isn't fully human, so I guess on paper they have vaguely interesting characteristics that make them memorable, but for me they just aren't. None of the main cast felt remotely developed or fleshed out. This anime does not bother to take the time or effort to have character-building interpersonal moments. Instead, the overwhelming majority of the program is just a giant monologue from the female lead over-explaining every possible angle of the one and only mystery in the show.
This wasn't the worst anime I've ever seen, and it didn't actively repulse me to watch, but I cannot find any reason whatsoever to recommend this. It's just so mediocre and skippable. If you like any of the genres this advertises itself to be- mystery, romance, paranormal- there are countless higher quality options available. There's simply no reason to choose THIS over the other options. At the end of the day, In/Spectre is my mother-in-law- lots and lots of talking, lots and lots of saying the same thing multiple times, never says anything important and by and large pretty darn boring. :)
OBJECTIVE RATING- 6-7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 6-6.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 10, 2024
This review is for the entirety of what is currently available on blu ray in North America as of the time of this review (March 2024), which is all of seasons 1 and 2, through episode 48. In mentioning the blu ray, I'd like to start this review by quoting, word for word, the back of the blu ray case for the very beginning of the series- "Ordinary 37-year-old Satoru Mikami dies and is reincarnated as the most unremarkable creature imaginable- a slime. Initially things are pretty grim. He's blind, deaf and weak". There's a bit more, but it's these opening remarks I'd like to
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discuss. In short, they're very misleading.
Perhaps they use the word "initially" very, very loosely, but what ACTUALLY happens is our main character is completely, utterly, laughably overpowered within just the first episode or two and only gets more ludicrously powerful from there. This show is falsely advertised as starting out weak and from the bottom and slowly, with great struggle and sacrifice, beginning to gain power. In reality, Rimuru Tempest is Kirito levels of overpowered from very early on and the entire show revolves around everyone around him bowing down to his untouchable strength and swearing fealty without much of a fight. It's another generic isekai where the main character is conveniently among the most powerful beings in the entire world and the fate of races, countries and perhaps the entire world around him rests on his shoulders.
As a whole, while I wouldn't cite it as my FAVORITE genre, isekai has consistently been the SAFEST genre of anime for my wife and I in that we almost always enjoy them, even the unremarkable ones, and it's very rare for us to find one we legitimately dislike. We've seen a ton of them, as you can see by checking out my list, and I mention all of this as a prelude to my opinion that there isn't anything about this anime in particular, highly regarded as it is, that stands out as being special or memorable amongst an ever-crowded field of genre contemporaries. It cannot measure up to the gorgeous visuals of Grimgar, the world-building of Log Horizon, the combat or emotional punch of Sword Art Online, the comedic moments of Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon or the darker more mature tone of Goblin Slayer. You're left with a program that, while not a blatant failure at anything, simply isn't amazing at anything either and fails to distinguish itself.
Something I personally didn't care for, and perhaps it's just a classic viewer versus target audience mismatch, is what felt to me like a blatantly more juvenile tone as a whole, and definitely far too much "Bro, what?" and "Bestie for restie" and similar clearly aimed at teenagers ways of speaking throughout the entire program. The target audience for this is clearly younger than I am, and that's fine, but in that same breath I'd tell you this is perhaps not the correct isekai for the mature adult viewer. The second season does have a somewhat darker tone than the first, which I appreciated, but at no point is this truly a dark anime, nor does the obnoxious "cool if you're 15 or younger" manner of speaking ever let up.
While unwaveringly portrayed as the protagonist who we're supposed to be rooting for, I'm not all that convinced that Rimuru Tempest is all that great of a person. In the second season he commits cold-blooded, merciless genocide and this is not questioned or pushed back on by any of his numerous underlings. He had a reason for doing it, and he told us it's right and it's okay, and therefore it is and we support him. Since his humor and manner of speaking fell really flat for me, combining that with what came off to me as very self-righteous, power-hungry decisions throughout the entirety of the show, I found this main character difficult to connect with or be enchanted by. He never seems to think twice about his right or his worthiness to command so many and to hold the fate of so many in his hands. He simply moves forward, growing stronger all the time, and is always 100% self-assured in everything he does. He never truly feels threatened by any enemy and there's never a fight he's not absolutely certain he will win, which simply harkens back to my point about him being overpowered- he is and he knows it, and he exploits it to the max throughout the show and never hits so much as a speed bump. The show also grants him countless ridiculously convenient benefits, such as introducing an underling out of nowhere, himself super overpowered, who immediately swears his loyalty to Rimuru Tempest and does his bidding without second thought.
This review probably made it sound like I really disliked this show, and that isn't the case. Judging by its score here on MAL it's definitely overrated, but that's not the same as me disliking it. It does have most of the bread and butter of what makes isekai so appealing in the first place- an enormous cast of characters, many different races, skills/leveling/progression, fantasy elements, etc- but for me there simply wasn't anything about this program that pushed it over the top of the numerous others that I've watched and enjoyed, and as a whole I found it just a bit too immature and aimed at too young of an audience for my personal taste. I thought it was OKAY, and I'll watch the third season whenever it's available to me, but if a friend asked me to give them a list of five isekai I think they should consider watching, this definitely wouldn't be on it. Meh...
OBJECTIVE RATING- 7~
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7 and not a fraction of a point more
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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