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While I can hardly say that I’m in the target audience of the show I watched it regardless. I would say that even as a kids show my review would be harsh. Do you believe that children deserve fulfilling narratives and immersive experiences? Then I would not recommend Bananya for your toddler.

First I will address the positive sides of Bananya (2016). The “bananyas”, an assortment of cats stck in banana peels, are all colorful and appealing to the eye. I’m sure any child age 3-6 would enjoy a Bananya-themed stamp or a lunch box. In this the shows creators are to my understanding severely successful. ... I hope that branding and marketing is the goal here and not fulfilling entertainment.

Secondly I will address the more negative sides of the show. One of the shows primary sins is the lack of any overarching ideal or goal of the show. Bananya is almost purely episodic and while I wholeheartedly support episodic shows (infact some of my favorite series are episodic), there is no growth from the events in the episodes. The narrator of the show, of whom I will shortly return to, states in the series finale that “I’ve introduced several types of Bananyas. What do you think?”. This is indicative of the shows lack of any internal motivation beyond introducing the separate Bananyas. A child deserves to learn from media and from stories, but there is nothing to learn here, other than uncreative, largely descriptive, names of separate Bananyas. This is connected to the other main problem of she show, namely the inconsequence of every single encounter Bananya has with his world. In many other child TV-shows (Bluey to name one), there is a lesson, a moral, an invitation to reflection from your toddler. In episode 6, “Bananya goes out”, Bananya has joined Mama to go to the store. Bananya gets lost in the store, Bananya meets a foreigner, Bananya sees the candy in the store. In the episodes non-climactic ending Bananya is almost scanned by the cashier. This episode is rather action packed compared to the rest of the show. But nothing that transpires have any bearing on either Bananya, the narrator or us the viewer. The final interwoven topic I shall address on the quality of the show is it’s characters. As you would probably expect from reading the review thus far, Bananya sufferes from one dimensional characters. I would go so far as to accuse the show of having no true characters at all unless you count the narrator. All the side characters represent archetypes and the show hardly problematises thes archetypes. You have the tired adult, the timid younger brother, the handsome narcissisist, the… girl. Bananya on the other hand acts as a self insert for the viewer, and as a tool to drive the episodic progression. If you have seen the show, I would invite to consider: what is Bananyas personality? I find this a challenging query to assess. Bananya himself is just there. I would point to two episodes that does investigate this deeper. In episode 11, “Bananya takes a walk”, we are told by the narrator that Bananya is mischievous. This is appparent in many other episodes aswell. In episode 12, “Bananyas Afternoon Nap”, we see Bananya hit his friend “Calico Bananya” in the face. Calico is knocked out are dazed. As a response Bananya elects to take a nap, dodging the consequences of his actions. Is this the kind of moral you want your toddler to pick up? His actions are never addressed either and he goes on once more without learning anything.

Lastly I will address the more problematic aspects of the show. The presensce of archetypes ruins any chance of true representation or character developement. The “girl” archetype is always seen and describes by how the different male characters perceive her, and her one motivation is to be with the narcissist archetype. The final point I will make is the series narrator. The only character in the show as I see it. He comes of as a very insecure and indecisive character. His tendency to praise and adore the Bananyas is embarrassing for viewer and Bananya alike as shown in the finale episode where the line I quoted in the second paragraph is met with a collective frown from the castmember. He also reveals a lack of intellect in episode 3 “Bananya watches TV” where he mistakes the monster on the TV for a real monster. The voice actor expertly portraits a sad, weak man lost in a fantasy of cats in banana peels. He lectures the viewer, while never criticising Bananya for instance when he punches Calico in episode 12. The impression we as adults are left with is that of a failed parent setting up his children (the viewer) to fail, as they will not train their empathy, learn moral lessons or become exposed to the complexity of human nature.

In the end I would not recommend you watch Bananya (2016). At best you will be bored, at worst you might come to resent the show, anime as a whole or in the utterly worst case, yourself. Neither would I underestimate your toddler by showing presenting them with this show. They deserve better. They need better.

The ideals of two brothers clash, as the lines between demon and human fades before their very eyes. A diverse journey of fun, exitement, amazing animation, beautyful music, feelings and mild symbolism? This movie is one of the few side story movies I could recommend for anyone, fan or not!

Normally, I don't waste my time with movies attached to anime series. Lately though, I've been seeing alot of them, and it truly is like discovering one pearl after another, very much like discovering anime for the first time all over again.

I will not waste your time with a lenghty synopsis, as summarizing the movie ... is not my intention. Nevertheless, the movie takes place somewhere between Rins classmates discovering his identity, and the end of the anime. A festival for a historic exorcism is about to be held and Mefisto puts the care of a demon, sentensed to exorcism in the care of Rin, for reasons I will withhold in this review. Rin ends up spending time with the demon and uncovers a side to demons he has never seen before.

Most of the cast from the anime return for this film, from Rins classmates, to Mefisto and his brother and even Rin and Yukinos father in more than one flashback. The voiceacting cast returns as well, and right there you have a plus in the movies favor.

The producers are mostly the same as in the anime as well, with some of Aniplex finest at the helm. The best description I can demiver on the animation is "cool and colorful". As those who have taken a look at my anime list, I drive a mostly unjustified crusade against the use of CG animation in my anime, but in this movie it is onky used as polished, and only when animating beings supposedly from a different world, something I actually can get behind.

It would be a crime to review this anime without a segment avout the music. Being composed by Hiroyuki, Sawano (Aldnoah.Zero, Attack on Titan) you know you can expect some over the top quality, and he does not disappoint. Being not only well orcistrated but also well delivered in terms of timing and corespondance with the art style, it brought a little tear to my usually stern, cold, eyes at the more crirical moments of the movie. Something I found bothersome as I was traveling on a public transport at the time, and what my neigbours saw was a 21 year old man crying over some cartoons.

Was there something lacking in the movie? Yeah sort of... An aspect I enjoy about sidestories, is when two or more characters that don't normally interact get to explore their relationship, prominantly seen in the Fullmetal Alchemist specials, where Winry and Hawkeyes relationship is explored. This movie didn't take this approach, but rather focused on strenghtening the already existing relations, and exploring the unique characters for the movie.

The film sould also profit from some finesse though as the "big reveal" is something that's already quite obvious from the get go, and with the movie "holding your hand" about it, this revelation just feels slightly

I mentioned "mild symbolism" in the introduction of this review, but I will not delve into that here, but rather let you figure it out yourself, if you are interested.

Are you a Blue exorcist fan? By all means, watch the movie! If you have not seen the show, I would rather recommend you watch the movie without having seen the show, I am not saying that the show is weak, it is a strong 7 in my book, but it's nothing substantial enough to make me go door to door about it.

Ao no Exorcist Movie, was a solid watch that pulled my heartstrings, and it might just pull yours. Still, there is actually room for improvement to be had. And for that I I'll give it a nine in this review, though In my book it's a ten, because every anime is better, if watched on a train.

This review will contain my opinion and that alone. As such it will be a most unformal, oral and not very informative review, as far as these things go. And keep in mind that your opinion and enjoyment will most likely differ from mine, if it doesn't then I'd like to talk to you cause you seem like my kind of person. Also remember that this is the internet, the wonderful land where something is either terrific or terrible, there is rarely room for any grey zone.

I'm just going to go right ahead and say that this anime is not one you should ... spend your time on, unless you're adicted to yuri and have scraped the bottom of the yuri genre, and even then I'm reluctant to recommend this as what you get is merely teasing of this incestuous relationship between these two sisters, and little else.

Yes this is an incestuous yuri lovestory, is that wrong? No, absolutetly not, I'm all for both the yuri- and the yaoi genre, does that mean all yuri and yaoi is good out of the premiss of being yuri/yaoi? No offcourse not, it still needs an interesting plot and strong characters, like most romance shows need. I feel this is an issue with most of these kinds of shows, with a possible exeption from my own anime history being "No. 6". But I'm sorry, I digress.

All but one of the characters seemed, to me, uninterested in making you the viewer like the show. They're just sort of going along with everything that happens (which is quite little, but I'll get back to that later) the exeption of this is Sakuya, who's trying to lift the show up with an element of humor and her wacky shenanigans. To me she was the one positive point to this otherwise downright boring anime, and even she came out too strong at times making me hate her character for being the shugar-rushed masochist that she came of as in these moments. Our main characters however are the two sisters Yukino and Kanade. Kanade seemed so indifferent to what was happening in the world around her and opposite to her sister did not have a funny, mischeavous side. Yukino, while having her own charm would from time to time play along to Sakuyas shenanigans, both too Sakuyas benefit and dispair, making her an amusing character in the end, and you know that Kanade cares about her sister too giving her character some redemption too.

The show was quite frankly about nothing. Nothing substational happens. I guess there is that minor subplot about their sister, but I don't really feel like that went anywhere. You'd have conversations not going anywhere for a couple of minutes, then Sakuya would appear, with the same yoke over and over again getting rejected, crying, and then stand ready for her next moment to make a fool out of her self, and then the show would end with the sisters having another empty converation.

The art and sound were both quite boring. The show didn't have an opening something that was sort of disappointing to me, and the people, not only in the background did not move at all, making it look like they were statues rather than actuall human beings, The show is not even that old, so I think they should have done a better job with these, since this made the world feel less alive.

Believe it or not I actually went into this anime with an open mind. I'm no stranger to wierd romance situations in anime, and the phrase "show about nothing" had me intrigued as I am a pretty rapid Seinfeld fan. I also took heart by the fact that the episodes were so short and few, a selling point for me, even though I know those shows tend to be short for a reason. In the end, however, I was dissapointed.
I suppose the relationship between the sisters is a sweet one, and their bond together is truly unseperable. And it really shows through their actions (Or lack there of). But the relationship between two rather empty characters is not enough to make a whole 7 episodes shine, when all other points of the show feel so poor.