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Apr 16, 2023
A movie which put me right in the feels. A simple story with standard plot beats, cliche story lines and made for a casual audience. But are these exactly bad things. In this day and age simpler movies like Suzume no Tojimari feels like a breath of fresh air. Yes the story is straightforward enough, the characters are genuine good characters with commonplace motivations but it all felt real, such that even a child could relate with the themes. I felt a lot of similarities to how I felt when I watched Tangled. A simple story made for pre-teens which even adults can appreciate. A
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character's journey through the world discovering the real and the fantastical at the same time, forming relationships, maturing. And all the themes, story beats were executed wonderfully, just perfect. At no point in the movie was I bored or felt distracted or thrown off the main plot. Every side thread was connected with the main plot whether it is a helpful person helping Suzume grow as a character or revealing more about the mystery.
The reason I was engrossed for the whole 2 hours was the animation and the music. The plot was the meat and potatoes, but the music, oh mama, was just the perfect flavoring, elevating the movie to levels never reached before. It was just perfectly synced with the mood of the scene and its definitely the best part of the movie experience, especially in the theatre. The animation was world class as expected. If anyone can pull of 3-D animation on the big screen its Comix Wave with their standard high quality animation.
The characterization was really good infact the plot is just a side story. This movie is really a story of the growth of a character discovering worlds, meeting new people and having new experiences and confronting a childhood trauma. However she is the only with a complete character growth. I did feel the characterisation of Souta, her aunt and Daijin to be a bit unfinished, more could have been done with them. But its not bad enough to put me off from enjoying everything about the movie.
Story - 7/10 Really good. Solid stuff, engaging throughout with great pacing, and all the plot beats are well executed. But its nothing new, just fresh and pure.
Characters - 8/10 Could have done more, but very good in general. Best to treat the movie as Suzume's story.
Art - 10/10 As expected.
Music - 10/10 The real deal of the movie.
Enjoyment - 10/10 Highly recommended to watch in the theaters. I can assure the experience is worth it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 27, 2022
Pay no heed to the reviews at the top, honestly the more ridiculous the review the more interactions it will receive, its a flawed system and I donot expect many people to read my review. But we still do what we feel is right and thus we are. Which brings me perfectly to this epic series.
If you really connected with the first 2 lines then boy do I have an anime for you. A flawed school system, which can be taken advantage of, if you know how to play the game. Yet there are hidden layers, which reveal themselves each season. You must understand in
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this series, in the school system, the selfish ones, the manipulative ones, the ones with the power to lead and influence all other 'bystanders' will win or should win normally. And when they win, they win big and others even their own 'kin' lose hard. You will notice the smarter students, the characters who understand the game, the minds behind the game and their own capabilities, will fall in 2 packs : the followers and the leaders. If you are not fit enough to compete, you need to place your bets correctly, thats the way to win. I felt Kakegurui took on similar themes, but bit off more than they can chew, but thats for another story. This series however, is more akin to (I have to say it) Game of Thrones (I said it) albeit at with much lower stakes and action (or is it).
While the first season showed us just how brutal the school system can be and the minimum brainpower threshold that would be required to even stay afloat, it was just that. A foundation for our characters and the viewers. We needed to appreciate the brainpower of the opposition, to know the lengths they would go to, to establish that the our main players had to be serious. Plus there were a lot of character introductions and a small story dedicated to them, to introduce them to us. In the end the first season could feel a bit disjointed and slow paced. Viewers just dont show up expecting a series to be worth their time, and how much knowledge they should retain, how seriously they should think about the characters and the set-pieces, because truckloads of shit have been touted to us as the next big thing but just flattered to deceive. I was hesitant to continue the first season too, what if its a waste of time with none of the payoffs. But I kept my faith and here we are.
I really love it when individual seasons in TV series have their underlying unique themes. Else what is the point of creating a break in episodes. The theme of each season has to be different yet consistent to the overarching plot. And both the seasons have done an incredible job in remaining unique and this is true on multiple fronts. The easiest way to see this are the villains in each season. In the first season, the villain was ... every other class and by extension the school system itself which produced these villains. The big bads knew the game, our precious class D did not and were exploited for it. The theme of the first season was gaining knowledge and proving yourself capable of fighting back. On that note our hero (anti-hero) had to show that he was just a bigger bad. To beat the system, he did it by playing the game better than others. He was more manipulative, more intelligent and more resourceful.
The second season is a bit more personal. The villains are more personal, the special exams are more personal and the emotions our MC felt and had to deal with were more personal. This is the correct way to write a series always. You dont beat a villain in one arc to just have to fight a similar villain in different drapes in the next, no you change it on its head. Ayanokoji has more direct interactions with his villains who are now actual people with their own goals and motivations which clash with his. IT HAD TO BE THIS WAY, he had already gained respect of the system, so the next level had to be the indiviuals competing. Beautifully thus, our hero had to realise that it is not enough to be a manipulative mastermind behind the scenes to win the game. No, the personal villains required more finesse, more action from his part. He had to deal with /master the emotions of his classmates, his teacher, his villain and most importantly his own. The theme of this season is behind the unfeeling cruel deeds, in order to really win, he had to earn the goodwill of his fellow mates, lead them through warmer emotions like care, comfort, generosity and love. He had to be a bit more selfless, a bit more human. You can see that this season, he participates in more group activities, extends more out of his shell than he usually would, because he realised that he needed them. And he keeps on giving the same message to Horikitia, when in reality he was incorporating it himself. Its really art the way the writer tie up everything, its so beautiful.
I really am looking forward to the third season. I know the writers are on the right track, and their message is strong, which many viewers can relate to. If the first season was about manipulating your way in life to win, the second is about caring about others emotions and needs to win yourself, the future seasons will surely be about cultivating your own emotions and realizing that they are also an integral part of winning the game of life. You cannot make the most rational cold-hearted decision everytime to achieve final glory and salvation, because your emotions push you beyond what you are capable of. In the next seasons I am sure Ayanokoji will be put in a spot where he knows the rational way of doing things, but he realizes the real victory is when you do it because you want to. Because it feels right. And him making the emotional decision will push him over the finish line. This season hinted several times to that. Ayanokoji wants to escape the White Room, he wants to feel. With the next big bad already shown to us, it is clear that Ayanokoji will need to go beyond rational thinking, to emotional thinking to win in the future seasons and I just cannot wait. This series is a masterpiece.
Story 10/10 if I wasnt being clear.
Characters 9/10. While the individual characters are very complicated and human, the side characters grow around Ayanokoji but not Ayanokoji himself. He just reveals more of himself, which is great. Would like to see him grow more in the future. Additionally, having to cater to so many interesting characters doesnt allow you to spend a lot of time with individual characters, so you just get arcs which are beautifully done but not enough to get a 10. I really loved what they have done with Horikita and Karuizawa, just *chef's kiss*.
Animation 9/10 : Really improved from last season, with a lot more detail to facial expressions, transitions and conversation framings. Just so good. However I would have like the epic final fight scene to have been animated more smoothly. The impact of blows were not as felt as it could have been.
Sound 8/10 : Really appreciate the mood setting BGMs, sometimes too overbearing, but not distracting you from the scene. OP was trash though, ED was good.
Enjoyment 10/10 : Thoroughly enjoyed, couldnt stop 10/10. Each episode ended at a sequence where you needed to watch the next. Cant say the same about most anime. Super Thrilling.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 31, 2021
Honestly, this is just popular because the fans of the manga will just talk and talk about great the manga is, and this noise will just crowd out the disappointment the anime really is. And the manga just has too many fans. Because the 'story' is made for a manga. It has a colorful main cast who barely have character arcs, they are pretty consistent over the entire story, but the personalities are interesting enough that we can watch them go about their daily life. And thats what a casual feel-good manga usually has. Different situations with new stereotypical characters popping up, and our consistent
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cast has to deal with this new situation or 'problem' in a very coonsistent manner, do some things we expect, and it makes us warm inside. They just let the reader to live through new and beautiful experiences in every chapter. It works for a manga, its a good formula.
BUT IT DOESN'T WORK FOR A TV SERIES.
The good parts of the anime are the art and the sound. The OP is stunning the ED is not bad. Thank God OLM did a great job with the art, else they would have some rabid fans out for their head for messing up their Komi-sama. Art and Music were the reasons I gave it a better score than i should have.
There are barely any stories to tell, any arcs. The only message they have is people are weird and they should be accepted in society and they stopped focussing on the message after episode 3, instead started bringing in more and more "socially unacceptable" characters, and make fun of them as they worship Komi blindly. After episode 3 it was just putting the main cast through cliched situations. Pool scene check. Festival scene check. Cultural Festival scene check. Gaming scene check. Sports day check. Just. Plain. Boring. These are the side stories you go read after watching the real anime, just to see the characters interact again and feel happy. Unfortunately, this is the main plot of the anime.
The characters are just the worst. Komi, Tadano and Yamai have some(?) character development and character arcs, and Tadano is the only character with an interesting personality, someone who makes us care about them. The rest are just boring, unlikeable characters, and i can show it to you objectively. Every character execpt Tadano can be summed up in less than 4 adjectives. These are not real human beings. They just feel inanimate. Plastic. I felt nothing for any of the characters.
As you maybe could tell I did not enjoy the anime at all. I went through the entire thing because of sunken costs and I wish i could take back the time i spent on the anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 4, 2021
The first episode was so good. I was totally into the scenes. I have to admit I love me some NTR, and Saya's performance, voice acting and animation just did it for me. It didnt have the classic mind break scene (where the one getting fucked chooses the "villain", because they are just better at satisfying her), but I dont mind it. The tension was good, the scenes were well made, the animation suited the premise. The plot was a bit rushed, director clearly wanted to focus on the NTR, but no one really cares. Simplistic blackmail story.
The second episiode, though, was released after half
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a year, and oh my. What a let down. It continued where the story had left off in the first ep, and thats the only thing to its credit. The animation was god awful, literally just digitised the manga pages, and put in a motion effect. Everything sucked. It was horrible. There was no character arc, no emotions from the MCs or the villains. No excitement from the main cameraman villain, no sense of frustrations, anger, fear, helplessness or enjoyment from the girls. Just boring raping with shit animation.
I would have given this a 8 or 9 but the second episode is just that bad. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and I am a big hentai enthusiast of almost all genres. Would recommend to watch the first episode and just let it be.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 23, 2020
A surprisingly fun take in the comedy genre. It may sound contradictory but many comedy shows just force tropes over tropes of comedy that did well in some past anime, and it doesnt seem the creators really enjoyed their jokes after filming them and just completed a comedy because they had to. But this anime proved you just need good imagination and have fun while making the anime to produce a good comedy. The result was very lighthearted and genuine.
My professors in scriptwriting class always told me that good film creators can take even the most random and disconnected topics into its premise and create
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interesting plot points, and it shows in "Sleepy Princess in Demon Castle": the title is the entire premise and such wonderful storylines were created from this simple idea of the princess searching for new ways to improve her comfort during sleep.
This is a comedy anime so theres not much story, or consistency or logic, but each individual plot was very well thought out and well directed. Almost all of them were super engaging and we had to wait to find out how she was going to go about her quests in the most destructive way possible. Story 7/10.
The demons were well drawn, the humans were not, but I think that was purposeful, because this is demon land. We were expected to aprreciate the demons because the princess likes the demons. The comedic transitions were top notch. Art 8/10.
The music, the dialogues, the voice acting are the real USP of this anime. Inori Minase being wonderful as she always is, the rest were just fine. The comedic shrieks and noises were not too distracting, and in general well balanced. And no one can forget the banger OP & ED, both being dance worthy. Sound 10/10.
There was surprisingly well done characterization unexpected of a comedy show. The princess is a bit more complicated even though her objectives are pretty simple, she is shown to think and obsess a lot about things she doesnt know about. She is caring but also ruthless, its just great. The demons are shown to be nice and sweet, the humans are shown to be ridiculous, insincere and annoying, and it all makes the princess' latter decisions to cooperate with the demons very understandable. Character 8/10.
In the end, I couldnt stop binging the show, and it never disappointed or bored me. There was always something new, to be excited about, fresh comedy for every quest. Plus there were several tidbits, references and easter eggs from all the famous monster stories and mythologies. I remembering learning that the princess name was actually Syalis Gooderest much later in the show and I was like wow lmaoo. Also the OPs chorus is Non-REM sleep, REM sleep ... Non-REM sleep, REM sleep ... which is just so hilarious and catchy. Clearly the creators had a lot of fun making the show, and its easy for the viewer to feel energized watching it. Enjoyment 10/10.
Overall 9/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 26, 2020
Alright this anime tries to be a comedy, even identifies as a comedy, but there are rarely any funny elements here. What they pass off as comedy in this anime is women hitting men, whether they are coworkers, customers or their own brother, interjected by a few short person equals kid jokes. Except perhaps the mc, the motivations of characters are very unclear as to why they stay together. Theres absolutely nil chemistry between the characters, most of them driven by some ridiculous motivations to do anything. Inami's androphobia started due to the lamest reasons, and it being the major plot point of the show,
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a bit more work could have been put into developing that. Instead they just want to use it as an excuse for her to hit the MC and hope people laugh. It was pretty annoying to watch.
However its a decent romance story and its definitely feel-good. Most of the characters seem very happy doing whatever stupid things they do and that kind of shit cheered me up quite a few times. The inclusivity of every weirdness gave out a good vibe. Yamada was a necessary character for progressing the "love story" and I appreciated how she was added to the cast as a mysterious character. However it does not seem that the show will make any progress with the story lines in the next seasons, else there wont be any "comedic element" left.
Story : 6/10. There are a few romance plot points, concerning only some of the characters. It was just fine. Wanted it to be a comedy but it wasnt. Pacing of each arc was good though, one would enjoy while the arc is happening but would be left with a bad taste after.
Art : 6/10. Not the best animation, but not the worst. Some of the emoting of the characters was done well, hence I scored it higher than I might have.
Sound : 7/10. The music and the VA were done really well in my opinion and some of the background sounds told us more about the characters than the lazy dialogues. Some even managed to make me smile.
Character : 3/10 Except the MC there's not one flushed out character, or even likeable for that matter. It felt like the MC was thrown into a pot of strangers doing eccentric stuff around him, I could not feel a connection to any of the other characters. If people might think one cant expect much characterization in comedies, they just havent watched great comedies like Grand Blue and BakaTest, which have eccentric groups, but with great interactions and synergy.
Enjoyment : 7/10 Perhaps the parameter to which I put the greatest weight to. Never mind how bad the story or the art or characters are, if you enjoy the end product, the anime did its job. This was a feel good anime for me, relaxing. It was the anime whose episodes I watched after a thriller or dark anime, to 'line the palate'.
Overall : 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 28, 2020
I dont know what the other reveiwers were expecting from the anime, when it clearly said Comedy and Ecchi in its tags, but for me this anime was top class in both these genres and I enjoyed it a lot. And a huge shoutout to the animation, the voice acting and most importantly, world class OP and ED, the best pair for me this season.
Yeah yeah the story was nothing, but it was way better than many of the higher rated and super popular ecchi anime out there. Perhaps this is reflective of the changing fanbases, who havent watched the trash, but popular ecchi anime
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of the past. Peter Grill's story had kind of a realistic character arc, I can see myself fuck up and fall into eroge situations like him. Enough of the story. 4/10
The real selling point of the anime are the comedic parts, which never stop and ecchi parts, which are just beautiful. Seriously though the women and, in a rare display, the men too, were stunningly animated. The art was worth it. The comedic animations of shock, rage, guilt were appropriately good. 9/10
I have already mentioned how I loved the OP and ED, a solid pair especially Yoridokoro the ED. Voice acting was top notch, the voices of the women often conveyed their main characteristics through their voices. Lisa the sexy mature woman, Mimi the sleazy sister, Vegan the spoilt princess, Piglette the shy rebel and Luvelia the noble knight. You knew these characters just from their voices which was kind of unreal to me, as to how much efforts the VAs put into the characters. 10/10
Characters were fair. This is not a drama or slice of life. 6/10.
In the end, this anime was one of the highs for me this season, sad to see it get slandered and underrated, especially with those songs. Enjoyment and overall 9/10. Eagerly waiting for s2.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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