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Jul 8, 2021
As of the writing of the review, only two projects are attributed to Manga Productions (including this project) so keep that in mind for the rest of the review. Toei Animations does not need any introduction. I watched the original Arabic version.
The Journey is an ambitious but flawed experience. It is ambitious because it gambles its reception over the audience's acceptance or interest in Arabic culture. There is very little to take from the film if you're already well acquainted with Arabic culture and the Quranic legends. As a person who lived through and heard all those stories multiple times in his life, I'd say
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I felt conflicted while watching the movie; there is the joy in having a legendary story animated in Japanese style, and the boredom of knowing exactly how the story will pan out.
Starting with the premise of the film, it's an ode to Surah Al-Fil taken directly from the Quran as source material. The film also utilizes several other short stories to give the film the illusion of depth, but we'll take more about that soon enough. The story itself is adequate, it stays true to the source material and provides sufficient information at all stages without taking too much off the experience. What disrupts the enjoyment, however, are the short stories that are included to give the viewer this false sense of depth; the stories themselves do not add anything to the story, in fact, the film would probably be better received removing them altogether. They really cheaped out on them, and the stories (3 of them, if I recall correctly) are essentially glorified slideshows with decent art. They are mainly used as ideas that characters use to extract wisdom, motivation, and stoical qualities for application. The detail in them is great and appreciated, but the length it took them to divulge that information results in extreme boredom, where the viewer wishes the segment to end as quickly as possible.
The art, to me, resembles the western adaptations of anime (Netflix adaptations and originals) more than the traditional Japanese productions. It focuses more on aesthetics rather than quality of the animation. Much of the fight scenes were anti-climactic because they were extremely brief and have no momentum to deliver.
Voice acting for the Arabic dubs was unexpectedly good. The script of the dialogues was fun to hear and dissect because the characters converse using Classical Arabic (unspoken Arabic that is present and known only in texts, it was replaced by the more modernized version: Standard Arabic), and expresses itself more like stanzas in an elegant poem rather than just plain statements. This is usually the product of well-written Arabic prose.
There is not much to say about the characters themselves, they are bare-bones and much of the cast simply exists because, well, the directors shoved them in there. Quantity over quality. The designs were average, while some characters looked pretty good; nothing much to be said about them. However, it is important to note that several historically accurate characters weren't given the time they deserved, such as the main antagonist, Abraha, for example.
I viewed this movie with a friend of mine in the pandemic—we were the only persons in the theatre hall. I believe this greatly enhanced the experience. The enjoyment that can be taken from this anime would be the strict historical and cultural qualities, other than that, it is your average run-of-the-mill moderate budget anime movie.
To conclude, this anime is an okay watch. If you're interested in the legends it depicts, go for it. If you're wishing to watch the stories you read in text your whole life come to life in animation (and presentation, but I digress), then go for it. If you're looking for a unique experience that will leave you satisfied in virtue of the sheer quality of the product, then this is not for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 25, 2017
Golden Boy... I was extremely reluctant at attempting to review this anime, given my awful descriptive discourse. I'll sum up the whole anime in one word: enlightening. And no, I'm not talking Plato or Archimedes type of enlightenment. I'm talking some simple yet valuable life lessons.
Let's delve abit deeper. The anime is supposed to deliver a message, every episode is like a sub-message on it's own. Kintaro, the main character (and the only one, I reckon.) is extremely likable, entertaining and childish. His moments are priceless and the animators really did him good. The voice actor was also splendid.
Basically, the guy goes around 'hopping' jobs
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every once in a while learning about life. At every job, he acquires friends, experience, and wisdom. The characters, other than Kintaro, are extremely forgettable. Expected, as it is only a 6 episode OVA.
What shook me about this anime, was Kintaro's carefree attitude, and his continuous hunger for learning. His signature line is: "Study, study, study, study, study!" and this pumps me up every single time.
This anime is an underrated gem. Golden Boy, is, literally golden in every possible way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 22, 2015
I'll keep this short and simple.
The premise of the story is amusing, very unique and enjoyable. It surpassed my expectations, at first it was really annoying how Shi-Woon (MC) was defenseless, naive and weak; I thought it would be Tokyo Ghoul-esque battles all over again. However, Geuk-jin brings back focus on Shi-Woon again with him being somewhat competent in the series.
The art was satisfactory for the most part. While detailed and attractive to the eye, the only problem is that it's monochromatic. I haven't read much manhwa, but the ones I've been exposed to have been poly-chromatic. Doesn't hurt the manhwa itself but the
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artistic potential was deterred, I feel. Jin-Hwan, great job.
The characters themselves are fine, and that's what saved the manhwa for the most part. Except the character development was kind of poor, it always appeared to me that Shi-Woon had extreme bipolar tendencies, not sure what to make of that if it was intentionally written in the script by Geuk-jin. It introduced many countless new characters that are mediocre, most of them stayed the same through out the manhwa. I won't forgive the lack of Goomoonryong in the first part of the manhwa though. What the actual fuck? Geuk-jin seemingly deleted the single most interesting character in the series for around 120 chapters in favour of "character development" by the end of the manhwa, which if I may reiterate, is virtually non-existent. It stretches to the bipolar MC that gets his ass smashed every other chapter of the first half and it's agonizing.
The lack of a sequel is self-evident of the mistakes of the authors. While flawed, I thoroughly enjoyed this during my teenage years, so the sentiment is high. But none have been portrayed in this review, I hope.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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