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Apr 8, 2018
In the slushy sea of content aimed at an audience of elementary schoolers, it can be difficult to fish up something that is actually genuinely enjoyable. There's a lot of fluff titles, a lot of preachy titles, and a lot of titles that are just dorky action. Nothing is actually wrong with being any of those things but such traits don't mark a show as noticeable in a sea of content. Especially with the competitive nature of appealing to such a young age group with a low attention span. Among this lot, Yo-Kai Watch has become another one of those successful accounts that has grabbed
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the attention of kids and adults alike.
Yo-Kai Watch (NOT 'Youkai' Watch, I'm not sure why its listed as that here) has similar origins to Pokemon in that respect: a video game about catching creatures that became a hit and started producing more games and ultimately a popular anime. One could argue that this is less because of the quality of the show and more due to the popularity of the games boosting success. And while it is likely that the games helped in the success of the show, I do think its more than just that. After all, being an adaptation can only help so much: at some point these shows must stand on their own two feet and prove they can perform. So....can Yo-Kai Watch?
The short answer is yes, it can. I actually saw the anime before I even knew there was a game so I can assure you that it can. This anime has a lot of things going in its favor. While it has a fairly boring setting fueled by something of a gimmick (yokai exist and cause trouble with their unique powers), it is held up by multiple factors. Probably the strongest among these is the characters. The personalities present in this show are very one note, but the show is also very aware that the personalities are one note and often use that to their advantage. It knows when to expand on them and when to keep them as they are. Even one of the running gags is that the protagonist is an archetype of a protagonist and therefore inherently a 'boring guy', which he protests.
Speaking of, there are three characters who appear in almost every episode (up until Inaho is introduced as an alternative): Nate (Keita), Jibanyan, and Whisper (Whissu). They're set up in a 'boke and tsukkomi' type of comedy rountine: Nate is typically our straight man with Jibanyan and Whisper being our wise guys, though the roles do get shuffled about occasionally. They're over the top, likable, funny, and even sympathetic at times. Later introduced is the erratic and more over the top Inaho, matched up with the more straight man character USApyon, to completely flip the formula. Both sides work really well.
As far as art goes, for a show geared at kids, the animation in Yo-Kai Watch is typically surprisingly high quality. At a later point the show would go on to make its first movie and the quality of the animation did not even really have to be bumped up that much, because the show as a whole already had really good animation. The designs are all from the game and they're all represented really well, and move really smoothly. The style is a SLIGHTLY modified version of the game art, with the eyes occasionally being a little bigger than the original game style and the faces being a little rounder as well. They're both cute styles to look at.
Art and characters aside...this show, unlike its predecessors in the popular 'kids with pets' genre of the past, focuses less on action and waaaay more on comedy. It's hard to judge the plot because functionally speaking there really isn't one. It's more of an monster of the day gig with each episode focusing on a unique yokai and the trouble they cause. Nate and his friends, being responsible for the Yo-Kai Watch, are inadvertently tasked with solving the yokai's problem so they'll stop causing trouble for people. The yokai typically have abilities that cause inconveniences to people like making people unable to stop crying, desperate to go to the bathroom, or unjustly aggressive and 'punklike'. Some of the humor can go into the realm of toilet humor, so be warned. As a whole, though, it tends to have plenty of pretty snappy character based comedy in that mix as well.
A final note to contemplate here is the music and dub quality. When I say quality, I do mean it. Yo-Kai Watch's dub was done by Dentsu Entertainment USA in cooperation with the Disney Channel, and they put a lot of effort into making the dub sound pretty damn good. They went ahead and also made an English dub for the opening as well, which is contagiously catchy to the point that I'm not really sure why they changed it later on. The regular music is a mix of pieces ripped seemingly directly from the game, though there were some odd musical pieces that I could swear were from Phoenix Wright.
Overall its well made, likable, and if you want to indulge your inner child then its definitely the show for you. Obviously a good amount of the show is meant to sell merchandise and increase game sales, but effort was clearly put into it despite that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 13, 2017
Well, here we are, folks. The bottom of the barrel. When I saw that this show had a 1.95 out of 10, of all things, I had to watch it. It would've been an offense to my senses to overlook such a score. Sometimes its the smell of roses that drags a viewer in, and sometimes they just follow the trail of a scent of shit to find out where its coming from. And boy did I find out exactly where it came from in the most extraordinary way possible.
So let me say it straight:
This show is a piece of shit.
A MASTERPIECE
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of shit.
It's like a published fanime. Give the chick who did Nyan Neko Sugar Girls a halfassed budget and a small team of intern animators and I can guarantee this show is what you'll get. I can't say that it does everything wrong because Skelter Heaven doesn't really DO anything. It's a nineteen minute OVA that doesn't bother to establish setting, characters, or conflict--it just launches you into a CGI space squid attacking an apparently evacuated Tokyo and some girls have to pilot mechs to kill it. Although it doesn't really do anything. It mostly just floats around Tokyo and doesn't attack anything until its attacked. Seems like they should've called space pest control instead of sending out a bunch of Ripoff Reis to float around it menacingly.
The only thing I can give them credit for is actually explaining where all these girls came from (again: Ripoff Reis). Not that any of them are going to leave any impact on you. I'd be surprised if anyone left this show and remembered a single character's name (some of them aren't even GIVEN a name). But hey. At least they explained where they came from. It was unnecessary but they did it. Other than that the story is just a cluster of god knows what and ANY viewer is going to be left laughing at not only the car wreck they're watching, but also at how seriously its trying to take itself.
The art is a joke. The majority of the shots are either the girls strapped into a robot without moving at all, headshots with two frames of mouth animation, and some of the most hilarious CGI integration I have ever seen in my life. They could've green-screened a guy on a budget of five bucks and still gotten a better result. Along with that, the designs are boringly generic and constantly shifting. I'd really like an answer for why Lin keeps shrinking and growing when she stands next to Shinji Wright. Nevermind how her body looks like it's been broken at the hip in the shower scene.
I can't say much about the sound because there is about three total background music pieces in the show and I'm almost sure they're stock music. The opening and closing are by no means terrible, both are actually kind of nice sounding, but they're also pretty generic. As far as the voice acting goes...its annoying. Lots of shrill shrieking, underacting, and jamming a buttload of dialogue into poorly shot scenes with no lip flap coordination. There's no dub for this, thank god, because if there was then I'm sure Garzey's Wing would have finally met its match.
Overall this may be the worst thing I have ever seen in anime. But does that mean its UNWATCHABLE? No. I mentioned Nyan Neko Sugar Girls earlier in this review for a good reason: because like Nyan Neko Sugar Girls, the badness of this show makes it compulsively watchable. For the first time in a LONG time I was genuinely laughing so hard that I was tearing up. Skelter Heaven is hilarious. Is it intentionally hilarious? Well, based on the kind of quality Idea Factory churns out, I'd say no. But that doesn't change that it is absolutely worth a watch if you want to see what it looks like for an anime to fail in pretty much every way possible.
So please. Watch Skelter Heaven. Its the worst thing you'll ever see. But its also the funniest thing you'll ever see. I can't even fully put into words how bad it is, its that hilariously bad. It's only 19 minutes long so it won't even take too much time out of your day. But by god will it brighten it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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May 17, 2017
Hoo boy. How does one review Senyuu?
Well, I suppose its best to start with its origins. You see, Senyuu has some rather unusual origins. Most of the anime you see will fall into one of three categories: based on a light novel, based on a manga, or (usually the most rare) original properties from the studio in question. Senyuu is none of these--its based on a webcomic, though its likely not what you think when you see the word 'webcomic'. I guess the best way to define it would be to call it the Japanese Homestuck. This may be a strike for or against it
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depending on your outlook, but keep in mind that this comparison is 100% only to the sequential format of the original comic and not to the storytelling or comedic style.
So yeah. Not something you'd expect to have an anime adaptation. But the Senyuu webcomic exploded so much in popularity in Japan that Liden Films & Ordet joined forces to profit off that popularity (in association with Nico Nico, I can only assume thanks to the various Nico Nico plugs). What we got was something that was definitely BETTER than the original webcomic, technically speaking, but is still very strictly a 'your mileage may vary' kind of show. Basically put it just isn't a show for everyone.
The first thing that might irritate people is the format. Your average Senyuu episode is about...three to five minutes once you shave off the opening, ending, and narrative explanation of the previous episode. This is a format that can work well in a lot of stories that are episodic jokes, but Senyuu runs into the issue that it is ultimately not an episodic story. Instead of small chunks of jokes, we're basically seeing small chunks of a full show here. There's a narrative being cut apart, that being the narrative of the hero Alba's journey and the ultimate goal of defeating Dezember, Juli, and Rchimedes. And while the show is still funny as can be, clever, and peppered with great characters...this format can get annoying.
Which leads me to the story itself! Senyuu is a tried and true parody of the RPG fantasy genre, even going as far as to include classic game screens into some of the episodes. There is even the classic storyline: the Hero is recruited by a royal to go and defeat the Big Bad. It pokes fun at many of the aspects we've become accustom to -- the descendant of the hero (except wouldn't he have lots of descendants?), the Demon Lord whom all fear (except he's really not worth fearing), and ultimately the role of how use(less) a destined hero can be. Make no mistake, this show is an onslaught of jokes both at the expense of RPG fantasy and at the expense of the world that they've created. And its funny. Its a good deconstruction of its genre while managing to make plenty of jokes outside that scope at the same time. There's a few groan worthy jokes (I still can't make myself laugh at the 12 Demons named after months) but for the most part the show presents great humor at the expense of themselves.
And this brings us to the true strength in Senyuu: the characters. When describing characters like these, the words 'idiots' and 'jerks' come to mind pretty often. But for once, that's actually kind of a good thing. This is because the main character, Alba Fruhling, is pretty much a straight man character that the world loves to beat up on for realizing how insane all of these tropes are. He's accompanied by a sadist soldier with a secret and...uh, the Demon Lord who all fear. Or at least the Demon Lord's 10 year old granddaughter, ripe with cuteness. Follow this with two Heroes who are money hungry and halfway to crazytown, a princess in an Fullmetal Alchemist suit, a demon who didn't even want to be here and is feeling so attacked right now, a masochistic cat, a school delinquent immune from the laws of realities whenever his friends are in danger...oh jeez, the list goes on. It could be argued that maybe Senyuu has too many characters but honestly, when each and every one contributes so well to the jokes while being so contagiously likeable, its hard to say that this is a problem. They're all just so brutally fun.
There isn't much to say about the sound. The voice acting is REALLY good (though this specific show lacks a dub) with each character's execution of their lines adding a whole new dimension to already funny jokes that were in the webcomic. Unfortunately, besides the good voice acting, the sound is just kind of there. The background music isn't memorable in the least and, well, if you like the opening/ending songs then more power to you but they come off as more boring than anything else. At least, that's my two cents on it. Good voice acting, pretty mediocre everything else.
Overall, I honestly loved this show. It's a 9/10 for me. But I have to recognize that the show has its deep, deep flaws and that not everyone is going to be into this kind of format. It's the kind of show you'll either love or you'll hate. It doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest to the point where it will even mock itself if it DOES start to get serious, and the way the story is strung together through short episodes is a good idea in theory but just is annoying in practice. If you have an open mind about unique formats and like parody, then this show is probably for you. If not, it still might be because the characters are so delightfully brutal and the jokes aren't always about parody. It's an easy show to dislike, but its also an easy show to absolutely love. Which is probably how a webcomic became a television show to begin with.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 7, 2017
If you want to see Slayers at its worst then Slayers Premium is for you. With two films, five OVAs, three seasons of its original run and two of the newest run, this specific....OVA? stands out like a sore thumb. And its a bad sore thumb. Like a sore thumb that someone slammed on with a hammer. Calling it an OVA is honestly a little too generous--while the majority of Slayers OVAs clock in around about an hour and a half at least, Premium can barely labor its way to the 30 minute mark. Its a single episode that can barely carry its own
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weight.
Okay, so what's the story? Well, the story is about octopus. Lina and Gourry want to eat octopus. Amelia and Zelgadis waltz in somewhere along the line because they want to eat octopus too. But the octopus is cursed and makes them speak octopus. And while our one time filler character bumbles around in the background trying to find the cure, everyone is getting cursed and also a bunch of octopus are waging war on the town. And...that's about it, really.
Now, to clear things up, I'm aware that the Slayers franchise is perchance to silly. There's a giant squishy golem in Slayers Great that looks like Lina. In Book of Spells they made an army of Naga the Serpant clones. Hell, all of the Motion Picture is put into motion because Lina wants bigger titties from a magical spring. But there's a line of believability, and boy does Premium absolutely take that line and rip it apart. This OVA is like a really bad filler episode that you would usually skip in a show--except here, its the main attraction for some reason. Did they just have some discarded episode that they wrote out and REALLY wanted to make?
The art is actually quite good. Before Slayers Revolution, this was the first time that we ever saw the main cast of the series in a more polished animation style since all other OVAs focused on Lina and Naga. It's pretty smooth with nice lines and nice colors. There's no real complaint here, I suppose--it's just a step up from what we're used to seeing and that's nice to see. Gourry's design here looks a little odd, though, since they cutified his face and make it more standard to the style. Which looks a little weird if you're used to Gourry having a longer face.
But aside from that, there's really nothing to bother with when it comes to Premium. It's a 30 minute waste of your time that really had no place existing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 12, 2016
The best word for Chii's Sweet Home is 'cute'. This show is pure, unmitigated cute. And I'll admit that isn't normally my thing because its rarely done right. That is to say that there's nothing wrong with cute, rather that cute in anime is very often interpreted as extremely dumb anime girls with fifty shades of glitter in their eyes.
Chii avoids this, being that the main focus is on a kitten. The anime is basically the adventures of a cute kitten doing cute things in her cute new home. Again, like I said, this show is CUTE. There's nothing really magical or supernatural about
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it. More, its the slice of life of being a curious young kitten interacting with her new family and an unfamiliar world. Anyone who has had a kitten can account for both their massive bravery and massive cowardice that go humorously hand and hand, and this is well on display in Chii's Sweet Home.
The art is okay, mostly just servicable to the cute somewhat mascot-like design they've created for the titular character. The rest of the characters are done with very simple designs and the backgrounds are mostly just nice but not particularly memorable pastels. It works for the context of the format, especially since it adds to the whole theme of cute that you're experiencing. It fits the simple but insanely enjoyable characters anyhow, from the exuburant Papa to the titular Chii herself.
It's easy to enjoy Chii's Sweet House. If you like cute, and you like cats, you'll probably like this anime. Since I personally love cats, I loved this. It's enjoyable and genuine in its cuteness, and my day always brightens when I see a little Chii.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 8, 2016
--SOME MINOR SPOILERS--
I don't think any anime in the last ten years has hit the scene with quite as big a punch as Kill la Kill. Being the figurehead launching point of TRIGGER, a studio complied mostly by Gainax alumni, there was without a doubt a lot of pressure on this series. Would these animators and writers be able to work that magic without the support of Gainax? Or would they crash and burn in their first attempt? No one knew what to expect. It was a new studio with no prior record of success or failure made up of creators originating from a studio
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known for its somewhat controversial work. What was one TO expect?
Thankfully for TRIGGER, this one went well.
Kill la Kill in many ways gives the viewer a full spectrum of genres in a mere twenty four episodes. We get action, of course, in the VERY active and well choreographed fight scenes. We get drama, in the protagonist's own emotional journey regarding her relationship with others as well as herself. We get mystery, in the form of the question of Ryuko's father's death that she is trying to discover the truth about. We get comedy, in the form of just how clearly self-mocking many aspects of the premise and its execution are--this is a very self aware ecchi anime, have no doubt, and there's little doubt of a mocking finger being pointed at the viewer with the commentary on the Kamui design and the overall way its treated. There's even a little sci-fi once the show gets deeper into the plot, and one could argue even a little tragedy at some points. Simply put, Kill la Kill offers a LOT in a little package.
So why am I only giving it an 8/10 on story?
Well, no matter how well complied it is, no matter how well the story is told, no matter how clever the comedy is executed, nothing can detract from the overall plot twist that is the Life Fibers. Don't get me wrong, it works exceptionally well in the story for how silly it is, but that doesn't change that it IS silly. And make no mistake, Kill la Kill knows this, and it is always somewhat tongue in cheek about it. But it simply is too silly to consider a real 9/10 or 10/10. It works, and its fun, and it rides out in a fantastic way but...yeah. It's silly at points.
This is accompanied by some pretty silly characters--but this time in a good way! These are some clear exaggerations of characters, but they exist outside of their archetypes as well. Ryuko is, to me, one of the most interesting female protagonists in anime and maybe in animation as a whole. She's a violent delinquent type, but she has good morals, but she doesn't really have self-control or a very precisely focused conscious, and she's very uncomfortable with her body, and she goes with her instinct. Why does this work, though? Because it does. It does work.
And it works because Ryuko is a teenager. This is a very precise representation of the teenage internal conflict without having to harp on it. You are very aware of her consistent GROWTH through those teenage conflicts, but the show never has to precisely bring attention to it. You can just feel it in her behavior and her character as a whole. This makes watching her very fun because you get to watch her grow up. And she's not the only one, either. We get to see the realizations and changes in the solemn but powerful Satsuki Kiryuun, the four student council members (Gamagoori in particular has a neat subtle growth), and even the dumb but energetic Mako has her moments of growth. She's certainly funny enough.
I personally love the art in this. Something about it is so simple yet has such a presence. Looking at the still art, this isn't actually too easy to see--the style doesn't seem like anything special, although it does look fairly good. But Kill la Kill is really at its best in motion. It has a neat balance between minimal animation and fast paced non-stop animation. The show is a good example of animation that takes advantage of a lower budget to experiment, using the points of minimal animation to typically run as a comedy point. That said, you can see some clear mistakes in the art (need we look any further than the infamous still shot of Ryuko and Satsuki fighting in their Kamui with toothpick waists), and its understandable how that could turn someone off to the show.
The music and sound, on the other hand...
The songs are fitting to the show. I didn't really like either at first, but they grew on me eventually. I LOVED the music sting at the end of the episodes in season 1. The music sting at the end in season 2 isn't as impacting, but it definitely still works very well. Ironically, I actually like the second opening more, but both have great flow to them once you accustom yourself to the sound that isn't quite what one is used to in anime. As for the rest of the soundtrack? Fantastic. Blumenkrantz? Echoing, disturbing, unnerving. Each theme of the student council? Undeniably suiting. Nui's theme? Jesus, just take me now. DON'T LOOOOSE YOUR WAAAAAAY? Its presence almost kinda reminded me of the use of a lyrical song in the battle scene in Persona 4, a fine comparison to be made.
Voices are pretty your mileage may vary. And I don't mean that either the dub or original or bad, I mean that they're both pretty goddamn good but some characters are done better in each version. Satsuki's Japanese voice has an INTENSE presence that the dub simply didn't capture; on the flip side, the rough and coarse tone they went with for Ryuko in the dub felt far more individual and suiting to her character. Each character is pretty much up to you on which version is better, but ultimately, they're both great. It's one of the few times I would actually suggest watching both versions, because the delivery in each gives you something completely different in terms of quality.
As a whole? I love this show. This is a great show. Its incredibly clever in its role as a parody, while still having a sturdy story and characters that exist outside of those jokes. You can feel a lot of love put into the production, design, characters, and story. Kill la Kill hit the scene with a punch for a reason and even now, long after it has finished, people still are talking about it and celebrating it. And I'm not surprised at all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 8, 2016
How do you make an anime with minimal effort, yet will bring attention and praise from everyone?
It's actually quite simple: just reverse the traditional roles in a genre. Really, that seems to be all that it takes. Funny jokes aren't really a necessity, good art really isn't a necessity, good character really isn't a necessity, it isn't even really a necessity for your parody to be a good parody of its genre. And that's exactly what Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! is. I'll be honest, this show was SO strikingly unfunny and poorly executed that I actually never finished it, and I don't really plan
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to waste my time with any more of it. It was something I never could've expected from this permise: it was actually just boring.
The idea of making a 'magical boys' series is one that has...MERIT but the problem is that the show basically intends to coast off that and that alone, without adding anything else of value to the story. The story is that a pink wombat with a heart on it (because subtlety is for plebs) comes to these five guys with no real discernible personalities and gives them this love armor to fight the monsters of the day that pop up randomly and are typically based around concepts that you'd expect to see in an anime for an elementary schooler. There's some big bad in there, I guess. And that's it. That's the story. Nothing different, nothing unique, just generic magical girls...except its boys now so I guess its revolutionary.
And as I mentioned, the boys are pretty much the antithesis of quality character writing. They are defined by their 'love' of specific things and...pretty much nothing else. The main character is about as investing as plain oatmeal--you can tell that the whole joke with him is this tongue in cheek joke about how magical girl protagonists are KINDA BLAND and just generally characterized as being generally just nice and good. The problem is, the show doesn't bother to ADD anything to the cliches that it makes these characters. In something like Yokai Watch, we have jokes about how generally normal the protagonist is, as a stab at how the characters of games are often designed to be all encompassing so that the player/viewer can imagine themselves in their place. But Keita/Nate has a personality of his own outside of this joke. None of the boys have the luxury of being anything but their cliche.
And what better way to express generic characters in a generic story than by using a generic artstyle? Yeah, like a lot of this show, the artstyle does approximately nothing for me. It's kinda shiny, but other than that, its as by the books an artstyle as it goes. There is one face structure and one face structure alone, with the characters defined by their hair color/theme color more than anything else. I suppose this is a shot at this similar idea being used in magical girl anime, but the problem is that instead of making any sort of clever statement, it falls into the exact pitfall that it intends to mock. Just pointing out that you have done something does not charge that you, well, did it.
The sound is okay. Not as bad as the characters or story, but nothing special. The voices are pretty by the books, executed pretty much with standard expectations. The music is, you guessed it, nothing special. I can't really think of anything specific that caught my ear and the opening is pretty much just generic Jpop. It's not bad but again...nothing makes it particularly stand out.
This is because as a whole, it seems that Binan Kokou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! does not want to stand out. If it does then it failed monumentally. It is at its core an ATTEMPT at parody, and I do very sincerely mean it is just an ATTEMPT. Right from the getgo it falls into the most basic of traps regarding parody: it believes that if it points out that it DID the thing then it is inherently funny and that it is no longer accountable for doing the same exact thing. But nothing special is said, nothing special is done, and nothing new or unique has been pointed out. All it did was slap some boys in the place of girls and called it a day. And ultimately, that doesn't compensate for a poorly written attempt at comedy colored by only the most generic of characters.
I wouldn't watch it again. Overall this is a very abysmal 3/10, possibly the lowest score I've yet to give on this site.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Nov 17, 2015
Based on the Korean children's book entitled The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, Leafie: A Hen Into the Wild is a shimmering example of the capabilities of Korean animation. It's a marvelous and moving movie based on a marvelous and moving book, full of heartwarming characters and devastating tragedies. What's that, you say? That BISHONEN DUCKS movie is ripe with engaging drama and heart-breaking tragedy? Well, yes. Yes it is.
Story: 10
The movie pretty much follows the book to a T, so there's nothing in the story that could even be remotely negative. It's a bittersweet, touching tale of motherhood and nature told
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from the perspective of a factory farm hen named Leafie who dreams only of leaving her imprisonment and raising her eggs to adulthood. Instead, after befriending a duck, she ends up taking care of the egg he leaves behind after death and the bond she shares with the subsequent baby duck Greenie. It is a tale of the circle of life, and how devastating that reality can be...as well as the shining sweetness that lies underneath the difficulties of life. It is both the highs and lows of motherhood, freedom, and life itself.
And in that, it is heartbreaking and heart-touching.
Art: 8
While I personally find the art well done and well animated, it's hard to argue that the artstyle is probably the most offputting part of the entire movie. There's a reason dozens of gifsets have been made to poke fun at, well, the slightly odd decision of giving bishonen sparkles and wind to ducks. It could unfortunately end up sending a chuckle through you once or twice due to how silly it can look to watch a DUCK toss his bishie 'hair' around.
Still...the art, in its many natural hues, still manages to look absolutely beautiful in its presentation. The designs are actually pretty good despite the aforementioned bishie syndrome, and the colors are warm and welcoming (except when the situation calls for otherwise). Its pretty, and the big eyed innocence in the main character's design does lend to some automatic pity being lent to her--when it isn't being lent to her because of the situations she's in, of course.
Sound: 9
I've only seen the Korean version of this so I can't say much of the dub--all I know is that they cut some scenes, and changed some names. One thing is for certain, though. The music in this film is absolutely serene and calming, fitting almost perfectly to just about every scene. There's little to say about the sound OTHER than that. It's just very nice. All the voices seem to fit fine enough too, so all in all the sound is executed very well.
Character: 10
This is where the movie shines. The characters in Leafie: A Hen in the Wild are one of a kind and represent an aspect of emotional connection that is not typically explored in film. Leafie is one of the most sympathetic, well-intentioned, sweet heroines I've ever had the luxury to encounter in any form of film. She is a hero through her sacrifices, and a hero through her dedication to a child that is not only not hers but is also not even her species. Its hard to not love her innocent sweetness and her upright determination to help raise the child she adopts. But she's no perfect mother--she makes mistakes, and they are understandable mistakes, especially since she more than makes up for it in just how dedicated she is proven to be in her role as a mother.
The other characters are just as lovable--Greenie, lost in his place in the world and struck with the conflict of choosing between his mother and his species. Wanderer, in his solemn dignity and brave sacrifices. Even the One-Eyed Badger, in the role that she is revealed to truly have, is a fantastic character. They all have their place in this circle of life so brutally portrayed and come full circle to be some of the most inspiration characters, especially the titular character Leafie.
Enjoyment: 10
I love this film. This is an amazing film and an amazing story. It deserves nothing short of praise and awards, both in this animated format and in its original written format. The characters are bold, the themes are unique, and the animation is meticulous if not slightly jarring at times. The pain the characters feel is an intense pain and the viewer will easily be able to share in both the ups and downs of the life of this little chicken, with her simple goals and admirable desires. I recommend it to anyone. Just keep in mind that these bishonen fowl...may bring a tear to your eye in the process.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 17, 2015
"Things are a mess for Yusojusunku, time and space are objective things. Fact is, time is simply a creation of your human consciousness. Now, what if there ain't no human beings anywhere in the world? Wouldn't clocks and calendars be a waste? Maybe there ain't no such thing as time that flows in one direction..."
Ah, the Urusei Yatsura series--one of the flagstones of the 'Rumik' empire, and probably Takahashi's very first legitimate hit series. The last thing someone would expect to go well with Rumiko Takahashi's slapstick wild style of character writing and gag jokes would be Mamoru Oshii, the man best known for directing
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Ghost in the Shell. But here, in the second Urusei Yatsura movie, it was decided that the film should be helmed by Oshii himself. It results in a fun, wild, surreal journey of the mind that never fails to enchant.
Story: 8
This is a very simple storyline under a very complex guise. You ever see the movie Groundhog Day? That's the basic idea of how the movie starts out--the same day seems to be repeating itself over and over again, that is, the last day of preparation before the school festival. But as the days repeat, the world itself seems to see some impact of this 'Groundhog Day' as the people around them start to disappear and the world itself seems to crumble into decay. That is, aside from specific places needed to cater to the needs and desires of those trapped within.
All in all there are technically a lot of unneeded scenes that are just there for the surreality factor but in all honesty it all comes out looking pretty good story-wise. The viewer does understand by the end exactly what is going on in this strange situation. The only part that I personally didn't get is why Ataru seems to be getting blamed for it, when it seems more like the creation of this world is the fault of Lum. But this was the 70s, I suppose, and blaming pretty girls wasn't in vogue at the time.
Art: 7
This is a difficult one because, well, to be fair...the animation has a lot of fun stylistic choices and tends towards being very inventively surreal. But I won't lie: this isn't exactly high budget animation. It seems like a lot of money was cut out of the character animation to make absolute sure that the more trippy scenes hit harder, resulting in some pretty inconsistent character faces and movements. It's worth watching for those surreal scenes (I'm particularly fond of their flyover of the Tomobiki turtle), but the rest of the animation is mostly just serviceable at best.
This is Takahashi in her earliest days so the actual style itself is still kinda goofy. It isn't yet the more refined style of Inuyasha, nor the goofy-but-consistent style of Ranma 1/2 in its earlier runs. If that isn't your thing, especially in combination with surreality, then this may not be your kind of movie. To me I feel that the stylistic choices mix together surprisingly well.
Sound: 6
Let's start out with the music--it's a combination of atmospheric creepy tones and 80s synth. And lemme tell you, the 80s synth gets really hilarious really quickly. Its hard to contain your chuckles when the movie goes from a serious moment of contemplating the situation...to what looks like an 80s music video for a resort. It mostly all balances out, and I suppose the 80s synth fits the scenes in their own chuckle-worthy way, but it can still get a bit intrusive. It probably seemed less so when the movie was actually released.
Now on to the dub. The voice work here is fairly over-the-top to match the exaggerated personalities of the characters, and for the most part I feel like a lot of the voices DO fit in their own ridiculous way. But it is hard to call this a 'good' dub as it falls into almost every classic pitfall of a bad dub job: mispronouncing names (Mendo as MenDOW, Sakura as the classic SaKOOra), switching character genders (an overall issue of the Urusei Yatsura dub is that Ten, Lum's little brother, is referred to as female for some reason), and flapping lips that don't quite line up with what's being said (though to be fair, this may just be the animation).
Most laughable of all is the voice actor for Mujaki--this guy cannot act. He has an opening appearance with a lot of promise in its foreboding tone but it immediately gets shot to hell the second he reappears. None of his lines seem to match up with his lip movements or even the emotion he's trying to display. I personally feel nostalgic value for the dub, but otherwise, I'm not sure if it would sit well with your average viewer.
Character: 9
Rumiko Takahashi wackiness at its best. Ataru the thoughtless lecher (probably one of the few anime perverts who DOES deserve what's coming to him), the serious Miss Sakura, the naive and childish (but aggressive) Lum, the uptight and 'sophisticated' (read: up his own ass) Mendo, and the four off-beat but somehow charming friends of Ataru....all of them are inherently flawed as people because its just funnier that way, and it tends towards making most of them likeable.
Even Lum, who fills a character slot I don't usually like, is charming in her naivety and childish views on the world. In a situation where she would normally seem selfish and vain for what is going on, she instead comes off as more of a well intentioned but misguided individual. Even the person acting on her whims, Mujeki, again comes off as simply well intentioned but misguided. They're all pleasant to watch for the most part, because while they're overexaggerations of personality traits there is a certain realness to how they react. Accompanied by silly Takahashi facial expressions, of course.
Enjoyment: 10
Now I may have talked down to a few elements of this story, but the fact is that a whole group of simply okay aspects can come together to make a solid and enjoyable movie. Beautiful Dreamer does just that. The characters never keep you in a state of being uninvested, and the story has a certain weight to it that truly lends itself to some of the heavier dialogue. Despite some obvious cutting corners in the animation, a good amount of it actually does keep the viewer attention with some of the more elaborate and surreal scenes.
I personally enjoy this film every time I sit down and watch it, flawed or not. So my personal enjoyment for this just happens to be very high. Your buck may vary, I suppose, but I would have to say that it is something of a visual classic that is definitely worth a watch if you have the time.
Overall: 9/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 4, 2015
Ohh...how do you begin to define something like Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi? To me, this show is a perfect example of a good idea that was poorly executed. The idea of trying to get home via world jumping from genre to genre in a parody attempt--that's some fun shit! But this show tries way too hard to have it both ways. It wants to have both its genre parody, AND its 'shocking' and serious drama. So, as you can imagine, SPOILERS AHOY!
I'm gonna start with the ART, because it's the most positive aspect about the show imho.
ART: 9
For what it is, that being
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a 13 episode sort-of parody show, the animation in this is pretty great. It's not necessarily perfect, and in some shots its flat out lazy, but it works for the character design and the fast-paced manner that most of the jokes are given in. We get to see a wide range of expressions, designs, and even different styles at some points. None of the designs stick out as being badly done, unless they were purposely made to look bad or ridiculous.
This show is also one of the instances in which Gainax actually managed to spread the budget properly across episodes so the show consistently looks good, aside from maybe the opening which is made almost entirely of shots lifted from the first episode of the show.
STORY: 5
This is probably the biggest downfall of the entire show so I'm going to be discussing it at length. It's a good idea, and for a little while, it's executed decently--albeit with some fairly lowbrow humor. It's fun, it's fast paced, and tends to consistently be interesting despite the idea of just jumping from genre Abenobashi District to genre Abenobashi District becoming repetitive. Even with the flaws of the first few episodes it still knows what it is and successfully sets out in doing that.
But...then about halfway through it takes a sharp turn into trying to be a drama. It reveals a bunch of information about the history of Sasshi's and Arumi's families, the history of some doomed romance that involved a bunch of suicide and attempted resurrections, and that SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Sasshi doesn't want to go back to the real world not because his friend is moving away but because Arumi's grandfather actually died in an incident prior to them moving dimensions to the first time--and she doesn't know about it.
Now, I want to be clear, this is a LOT of shit to pack even into a thirteen episode run but it doesn't really start getting introduced until halfway through. So there's even less time to cover all this familial bullshit and drama that is packed kind of oddly against a backdrop of over the top parody comedy. I'm not saying that the two genres cannot mesh--they've done so successfully before--I'm saying that they don't mesh here. The comedy is simply too bonkers to really work with this backdrop of relationship drama and death. But more insultingly than that, possibly the most insulting of all, is that the ending pretty much renders all of that drama to be completely meaningless when SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Sasshi essentially resets the world so that the death doesn't have to be dealt with and the relationship drama was somehow resolved off-screen. Even Arumi moving away to Hokkaido is reset by him.
SOUND: 7
I like the opening. I really do. Treats and Goblins is one of those poppy tunes that you hear a lot in anime, but the tune itself is recognizable and catchy. With both a mixture of Japanese and Engrish, it comes out sounding very 'hip' like the show itself sort of is intended to come off as at the beginning. The ending doesn't fair so well, being one of those generic nostalgic sounding songs you hear at the ending of...well, a lot of cheap anime soundtracks. It's forgettable as soon as it is heard.
Then there's the rest of the soundtrack. I'm not sure what to say about it. The best term is 'eclectic'. The bgm is either absolutely unmemorable, or clearly composed to be reminiscent of a famous movie (examples being Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and many others that I'm sure I just am not recognizing). Some of the tracks sound SO much like the original track from the movie being referenced that one ends up wondering if they just flat out lifted the original track (and who knows, maybe they did).
CHARACTERS: 7
Arumi would be pretty atypical of the slap-happy anime girl, but she's mostly portrayed as the more logical of the two kids. In this, they mostly succeed at making her a likeable character. The closest thing the show has to a 'straight man' character, as it were. That said, she does kind of fall to typical anime girl pitfalls such as being concerned about her breast size and being angry about women flirting with the protagonist. Still, with her catchphrase "Havin' your health, bein' human, that's what matters" she comes off as pretty appealing.
MuneMune and Eutus are probably the second most tolerable characters--she's batshit insane and wild while Eutus is more calm and flippant. MuneMune is wild, rapid, and always there for rapid-fire and silly jokes. Even when she goes to her more calm and controlled state she's likeable because despite how annoying the drama is, Mune's sorrow IS sympathetic. Eutus' approach to things is more distant and unapologetic, which would come off as annoying if he wasn't dealing with the protagonist Sasshi. In that he's much more amusing, since Sasshi's childish antics and approach throw him off his cool to a degree.
And this comes to the protagonist, Sasshi. This characters starts off as amusing, goes briefly into sympathetic, and then comes out as flat out deplorable. This is a kid who is selfish and childish and despite everyone making it clear that he needs to grow up and face reality, the show pretty much gives him all the freedom to do the exact opposite. We are shown Sasshi being admonished for his selfish behavior only to pretty much get his way in the end. He is asked repeatedly by the show and the characters surrounding him to stop being so immature but he simply will not, and thusly is rewarded for it. Character flaws that were once funny, his obsession with the constant and his fanboyism, go to shit when he is essentially rewarded for it.
OVERALL: 5
I liked this show at first, and I wanted to like it all the way through. But it feels like it was being written by two different people at the same time who both had very different ideas of what they wanted to write. One wanted to write a crazy comedy, one wanted to write a serious drama, and then some third guy butted in and tore apart the built up message about facing reality as it is. I mentioned earlier that Gainax actually spread its animation budget across all thirteen episodes in this show--it's just too bad they couldn't spread the writing budget in a similar manner because this could've been a lot better show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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