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Aug 21, 2017
If you think anime can't be good horror, just look at Higurashi. Higurashi is good horror. Not jump-scare shock horror, which can be done with just decent placement of some surprises, but rather, Higurashi is scary because it manages to create a legitimately eerie atmosphere.
Even then Higurashi manages to be a bit more than that, including a message about friendship that even managed to be fairly touching for me.
Sound (8/10): The music is good for setting an atmosphere which is important for the kind of anime Higurashi is. Particularly, pieces like the “Main Theme” stand out and is excellent music to be playing in
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the background. My main complaints were that some pieces were overused, and some of the ost was kind of… bland. Otherwise it was really good, and the voice acting (for the subbed version of course) was great, producing some chillingly creepy laughs and crazy voices.
Art (8/10): The art in this show is pretty meh. Ranging from standard to below average in terms of pure animation quality, one might wonder why I rated this category as an 8. Well, it’s mostly because I really enjoyed the way it dealt with the tone shifts. Because of its generally meh slice of life-y animation, the way it transitions to the darker more disturbing scenes is so jarring and creepy, that, in a way, the bad animation almost works to the shows benefit! So overall, i’d say that for this particular series, the art is pretty good.
Story (10/10): The way Higurashi presents its story is one of the best, if not the best parts of the story. Without getting into spoilers, the way the arcs are told keeps you wondering what’s going on, what’s happening next, and even by the time the last episode rolls around, you still don’t know what exactly happened for the past 26 or so episodes, and it’s great. All in all, the plot is great, the way it’s presented is great, and it makes for a great ride.
Characters (10/10): One problem I feel a lot of horror shows make, and what makes a lot of horror shows bad, is that there is often little character development and so any deaths that happen are pretty meaningless for the viewer. Higurashi does not fall into this category, which is what, in my opinion, helps it stand out from lots of horror shows. It balances some of the horror with slice of life-ish elements, and looks at the characters’ backstories and lives, so it becomes all the more terrifying when things get really crazy. Granted, I thought 1 character was kind of annoying, but it wasn’t really that bad to the point where it detracted from my experience.
Enjoyment (9/10): Higurashi was crazy intense for 90% of the show. Barring the slower slice of life parts, (which dragged on longer than I liked on occasion) but other than that, it was an easily binge-able and fun ride.
Overall (9/10): Higurashi was an incredibly fun, dark, creepy, and at times terrifying show that anyone looking for an intense thrill ride/mystery would enjoy. One of my all time favorites, I would strongly recommend it. Despite some flaws, such as the slice of life parts being a bit slow, and some OSTs that are used a bit too often, this is an excellent show that I’d highly recommend.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 13, 2017
Sound: 10/10
Art: 10/10
Character(s): 9/10
Story: 10/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
Like the original series, this one surprised me in a pleasant way. It wasn’t exactly like the original series, but it was great in its own way - which was somewhat surprising considering that I was concerned that this was just going to be a money grab (which it probably was, but that doesn’t change that I thought it was quite good).
Sound (10/10): Yuki Kajiura did such a great job, and, dare I say, did a better job than in the series with regards to the soundtrack. The music was so solid, in fact, that there is music
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for almost the entire movie, and I loved it. The OST does a great job at portraying the emotion at every single moment in the movie, and even does great on its own. Pieces like “Doubt,” or “I Remember,” and others worked particularly well in the context of the movie. It is worth noting that this does sound like a lot of Kajiura’s other music, which has seemed to be a bit of a weakness for her. It doesn’t change that the soundtrack is awesome, though. Meanwhile, like the series, the (Japanese) voice acting is phenomenal, and never feels boring, always conveying the emotion of the characters, particularly that of Homura.
Art (10/10): The art was even better than the first series, which was no surprise, since being a movie, it would have a higher budget and what not. What I thought was really nice was how how the majority of the artwork in the movie remained trippy, at times overloading the viewer with color, information or symbolism, which, depending on the person, you might either love it incredibly (like me), or think it just adds to the confusion of the plot. To each their own, but as I’ve mentioned in other places, it’s nice when a movie gets you to think about the information you receive rather than just making you receive it. I also think that at times the symbolism/imagery used is done in a way that helps convey what the characters are thinking - that is to say, it’s not symbolism for symbolism’s sake, and I think that’s great.
Characters (9/10): I can’t get too much into the characters without getting into spoilers, but I will say that some characters got extremely good character development, some got development that’s particularly interesting, and some… Were just introduced and were fairly unnecessary to the plot.
Story (10/10): Similarly, with the story, If I’m to avoid getting into spoilers, all I can say is that it will throw you for a loop with some certainly unexpected developments, without coming out of nowhere, and everything having at least an in universe explanation.
Enjoyment (9/10): I’d say that I enjoyed the movie a large amount, sporting things like a stellar soundtrack, orgasmic level animation with symbolism galore, as well as having one of my favorite fight scenes in anime, all while presenting an intriguing storyline and building on the awesome characters introduced in the series… So why’d I give this show a 9/10? Mostly because there were times, on the first time watching it, where it got too overwhelming, or felt too dark or bleak. The ending was also eh in terms of satisfaction. (I thought it was a good ending though) Perhaps it was just the day, or maybe it was because the plot was presented in a way that was more difficult to follow, but upon rewatching it, those issues were not as big of a problem. But, I think enjoyment should be considered when evaluating shows rather than trying to just objectively categorize them with ‘how good the plot was’ etc.
With that said, this is a movie that very nearly ticks all my boxes and while I’d round it to “9,” if I could include decimals I'd probably give it a 9.4. If you liked the series, you’d likely love the sequel movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 13, 2017
Why do I watch anime? While I can’t necessarily speak for others, I watch it because of two big reasons: One, because there is such diversity in the medium that there are so many different unique ways of illustrating a story, and two, because I have been subject to a much greater range of emotions when watching anime than I have watching other mediums. And if someone were to ask me what is the best example illustrating these characteristics, a good contender would be the fifth Kara no Kyoukai movie, Mujun Rasen, a.k.a. Spiral Paradox.
Story (9/10):
The way the story was presented was, for me, both
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a plus and a minus. While I love having to think about what is happening on screen, and can make for an intense ride, at certain points I feel like it can detract from the experience. For me though, the non-chronological, weird way of presenting the story was an overall plus, since it just felt unique - It felt disorienting, and intense, and I loved it (mostly).
Animation (8/10):
I was actually mildly surprised about the noticeably lower quality of animation compared to some of the other Kara no Kyoukai movies. Note, this is by ufotable standards, which just means that the animation was really really good rather than amazing or shockingly beautiful or anything like that. A good example of what I mean is the fight in the apartment complex. The designs and backgrounds were good.
Music (10/10): Ahh… Yuki Kajiura never fails to disappoint. While Yuki Kajiura seems to be sticking to a style (for instance the music from this movie and Madoka Magica: Rebellion feel extremely similar), the music was so appropriate for every moment, creating such a twisted and dark feeling at the right time, while similarly creating shockingly emotional moments using excerpts from the ending song, “Sprinter.” Meanwhile, the background music stands ridiculously well on its own (listening to M23 right now!). Finally, it’s worth mentioning the sense of epicness I felt during the movie, which I attribute to the combination of awesome plot but especially the amazing music, vastly surpassed such feelings I felt from other shows (yes even Gurren Lagann). This movie is a great example of how background music should not be underestimated as an aid to tell a story.
Character (9/10): In this movie, while we don’t really see Kokuto very much (and in most of the other movies), other characters receive a good amount of character development, particularly Touko, Shiki, and Enjou. I especially thought that Enjou was a great character considering the amount of time in the movie. Meanwhile, we learn more about Touko’s history, and she proves to be a competent mage, and we see some fairly interesting dialogue between Enjou and Shiki. I felt like the villians were a bit more flat and not that interesting, but they weren’t the biggest focus of the movie so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Enjoyment (10/10): Nearly the whole movie had me on the edge of my seat with the exception of a moderately slow early-middle part. Everything afterwards had me experiencing a whole range of emotions: awe, sadness, confusion, etc. It’s a crazy, wild ride, made more so by the interesting and mildly confusing style of presenting of the story.
I’d highly recommend this movie to anyone who watched the first four movies as it is, in my opinion, the best in the series. I’m somewhat saddened that more people haven’t seen such a solid film, possibly due to the difficult to access nature of the first movie.
If you somehow haven’t been exposed to the Kara no Kyoukai series, and are reading this review, I highly recommend you get started, at least for the purpose of watching this movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 14, 2017
**Characters section contains spoilers**
tl;dr:
Sound: 10/10
Art: 9/10
Character: 9/10
Story: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
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I went into this anime with no expectations. I had heard almost nothing about this anime before I had found it, only that it was at least decent, and would change tone at some point. With nothing else to do, I decided that I had nothing to lose by watching it, and that I might as well try it out. Man, was I surprised. By the end of the last episode, I was thoroughly impressed at the anime I had previously thought was going to be a boring, part adventure, part slice of life, feel good anime. It had presented a well written story that felt fresh to me, stellar music and unique artwork, and all within a short span of only 12 episodes making it one heck of a ride.
Sound (10/10):
The opening and ending songs are both fairly solid, and the OST done by Yuki Kajiura is probably one of the best, if not the best OSTs I have heard in my somewhat limited experience with anime. It’s even better in the context of the anime, making events feel more significant, more dramatic when appropriate. The Japanese voice actors do a great job at portraying the emotions of the characters as well. There’s really nothing to complain about here.
Art (9/10):
This is arguably the weakest part of Madoka Magica from my perspective, but for really small reasons, which didn’t generally detract from my overall enjoyment, and there is a lot more going on that’s good rather than bad when it comes to the art in the show. Most of the time, the animation is gorgeous. That is to say, major things like the witches’ labyrinths and character designs are done really well. The main issue I and others have is that at times there are details that the studio might not have paid attention to because they are just not well done - these tend to be in the background, but it’s still somewhat noticeable, and gives a sort of sketchy quality (which I actually didn’t dislike a whole lot, but it is noticeable).
Story (10/10):
One thing that I really enjoyed about the story is that it took something that I thought was going to be predictable and bland and turned it over its head. Within the course of a couple episodes, the series went from an adventure/slice of life anime to a dark psychological drama and thriller; it felt fresh and unpredictable, and I liked it. There were many moments when I felt genuinely shocked, while the tragedy throughout made me get “feels,” and even included symbolism and allusions to other literature without seemingly dumbing things down, but also never feeling “2deep4me.” The story is intelligent and unique, but not too far out there so that it hampers the experience of the viewer, and is also dark and mature, which I like.
**Spoilers**
Character (9/10): I felt that the characters were really well done, especially considering that the series is a measly 12 episodes long. However, with 12 episodes, even with such a small group of main characters, a few characters, namely Mami and Kyoko, felt underdeveloped. While I was able to sympathize with Mami, and her death felt tragic, I just feel like more character development would give more weight to her death. After all, we only saw her for 2 and a bit episodes. Additionally, I think that Kyoko’s progression was a bit rushed, and it almost feels unrealistic how she warms up to Sayaka so quickly. I can believe it, but it could have been better done. The rest of the characters are pretty good. Sayaka gets a tremendous time in character development, being introduced in the first episode and only dying in the ninth, and her downfall seems natural and believable; her transformation into a witch was one of the more saddening scenes for me. The writers must have really liked her to give her so much character development. Additionally, Homura was a character that I think was well written - (evident from my profile pic at the time of writing this review) the well known episode 10 did a great job at illustrating the pointlessness of her attempts to change Madoka’s fate, and really helped me empathize with her, and ultimately made her my favorite character in the series.
**Spoilers are done**
Enjoyment (10/10): This series gave me a lot of enjoyment - there were surprises, feels, and overall great music and art to complement it. Having only 12 episodes with a lot of content, the pacing is fast, and there are no “useless” episodes. I will likely come back to this series again sometime.
Overall, I’d recommend this anime to anyone who likes serious or dark animes, such as Fate/Zero (which is by the same writer), but I really think anyone could get a good amount of enjoyment out of it, as well as some mature themes or ideas. Ultimately, I would give the show a 10/10. Yes, I think Madoka Magica is certainly a masterpiece.
It’s probably also worth noting that this is my first review I’ve ever written, so it might come off as rambling, but hopefully not!
Edit: I plan on rewriting this review some time in the future.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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