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Nov 5, 2017
As neither a fanatic of works by Adachi Mitsuru nor a frequent manga reader, I have somehow found the urge to write this review.
From its synopsis, one might think of "H2" as a typical tale of youth entailing character tropes the likes of which can be found throughout today's shounen genre of boys falling head over heels even through graphic printouts. Had it not been for my curiosity whence a quest has been fueled to further my appreciation for a certain mangaka's character designs, the story of a classless athlete, bounded by cries of unsung love and whose unfaltering passion for baseball having become the
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very premise of the coming 34 volumes, would have never been told.
I wish that I could share my love for baseball and write for you all just how much "H2" voices this oh-so profound resonance. Sadly, baseball never spoke to me in a way that would suddenly cause me to write a lengthy review on the subject. Don't get me wrong, though I did not have an initial interest in the sport, the panels portraying it throughout the many chapters were still satisfying to read and even prompted me to research more on the Koushien and its shares of youthful aspiration and talent.
34 volumes. 338 chapters. 'Base'-less thoughts on a sport that I have never switched a channel to.
Well then, what in the world did I get myself into?
The few chapters sprinkled around here and there between arcs of tournaments and practices that depicted daydreams of friends brought up by childhood memories are ultimately what had kept my reading of "H2" on a spree in spite of its length. To be teased by the flashing memories where a young Hikari would pester Hiro for his height only for the next panel to be the painful expression on a present Hikari wondering what could have been, to read a monologue of a tailing pinch hitter admist the dialogue between his childhood crush and his best friend only to say aloud the words of encouragement for the two in their coming date, and to watch it all happen beneath the shadows of a horizon infinitely colored by a solemn gray on a single page: a rush of emotions coming from the rare panels where only eye contact between these characters can be made.
From the simple character designs, in which a bolded set of eyes can be drawn so to tell the whole entire story from only staring at its pupils, to the mix of sports and drama laid out as a basic formula for a genre where a final victory marks the end only to somehow be rewritten as a longing pulse of fleeting memories washed away by the passing of time, "H2" serves to this day as an outstanding piece even with its age and length.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 21, 2017
Voices of a Distant Star has a certain charm in its swift execution of an introduction that puts the viewer in complete suspense with questions to answer questions, staging its several plot devices at the forefront without giving too much emphasis on who Nagamine Mikako or Terao Noboru really are or how the Tarsians have arrived as a threat.
From the start, the audience is invited to a serene atmosphere sounded by ambient lighting, slides of images that would inspire awe to the earlier generation of anime viewers. The character designs are not comparable in aesthetics to our today's ideals of how animated chins should
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be presented or the propriety in the locus of the eyes. It must be said that given the time frame and its contents, the short film can worry less about how the characters look and focus more on the feelings they should convey.
"I'm not in that world anymore."
The film is meant for the rush of silence in our everyday lives where the short, sudden moment should invite the unsettling thoughts: Just how should we measure the lengths and pursuits of human pride? How long can a love that treads on the thin ice last? Where at surface, the crystalline white glimmer with hope only to soon submerge in the burdens of a future told inevitably by time.
In a short time's manner, two individuals will ironically tell the story of the greatness in time itself.
Time is a measure. No. It's a distance.
No.
It's a thought.
Time is brilliantly concluded to be the series of thoughts accumulated throughout each passing day of our lives. Every moment is to be remembered or forgotten. Although the plot seems almost too fantastical in its likelihood, it presents the utmost extreme into which the end of time is made. The longingess for one another was what had been carried across the great lapse in time and it was this very longingess that, on their final stage, reminds these characters of their previous chapters filled with such simple senses from the sound of the rain to the light touch of spring soil.
An end in time was what was able to make these unthinkable thoughts that were once lost in the backgrounds of our daily lives all the more memorable.
My final words are: If you have the little time to spare, give this film a go. I promise you that this is worth every second for its message that should be carried out even further in time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 20, 2017
Although I am fairly new to the anime scene, I must say this: for those of you who have yet to find a promising story, I PROMISE you, this is the one.
Okay. It does start off almost as a monologue of a supposed antihero whose main ideals lie not too far from the cuckoo's nest. I'd say intriguing for a start as this has come to be a proper way of fitting the audience into the shoes of Okabe Rintarou. The introduction of Okabe and his crew does seem to be quite a dash, lapping dialogues atop dialogues. However, the brief character backgrounds and
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their sudden introductions are vital in setting the mood for informality in relationships alluding to a steadied plot point where characters can seem at ease to the audience; an "act one" of Innocence shyly portrayed.
Despite an early mystery, the story will be driven slowly. Characters will appear seemingly without any means of care or reason only to be explained within various intervals in between several settings. The initial setting, Akihabara, will have already been at heart to the audience simply from sharp transitions of sceneries, which are beautiful in both art and mechanism - a storytelling of its own.
Strap yourselves in patience and brace for the ride. The plot will literally unwind just as everything begin to seem fine and dandy. The audience will lose their hold on the sensible innocence and start to drift away from trivial matters of food shortages and character disputes. Yes, character disputes are a trivial matter, at least inter and not so much intra. The true matter at hand is to be realized with careful following as our antihero traverses across several timelines (though the mechanism is unclear, it is not necessary for driving the story forward).
I can not emphasize just how important it is to fit oneself into the shoes of the protagonist while fully thinking apart. To be challenged against fate for the very purpose of finding its existence, to fill the emotional void at times when characters are left incapable of doing so only to love them even greatly, and to end an antihero's journey with questions answered not by taught wisdom but from an inner desire to view this experience as one of his or her own.
These very interactions were what made watching Steins;Gate my own adventure.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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