Back to caesarsalad4361's Profile caesarsalad4361's Profile

I actually liked 'A Kite' enough to decide to watch its sequel. If one could call it that. It has literally nothing to do with its predecessor, except our MC masquerades as an assassin during her free time. So, in terms of story. There's a main plot and it's quite action heavy with a fair bit of sci-fi sprinkled in. That's all fine and good. Then there's some mild nudity, which is a few seconds of a minor's naked breasts being shown as she undresses, which was completely unnecessary in my opinion. The other major issue I had was an adult asking a minor out, ... knowing that she's underage. And he's also a cop, who was seen during the first few scenes at the start, disappeared mid-way through and made a re-appearance to ask a minor out on a date. Uh, what? What was even the point of that? Then there's the Manager character, who seemed pretty decent and supplies our MC with weaponry during the last bit. He implies that the gun he's giving Monaka belonged to someone else who disappeared a few years ago. Also a chick. Hmm.. And that a friend of his died around the time this chick disappeared. That's it. We don't get anything else. The implication is that the gun belonged to Sawa, but they don't actually confirm this is the case, which does nothing to tie the two OVA's together.

The art and action sequences are pretty decent for its age, as well as sound desgin. I could have enjoyed it more if the story wasn't so shitty.

Oh, Banana Fish... Where do I start?

I hadn't heard much about the anime prior to watching it. I never heard anything about it being BL or yaoi (I heard there was some discussion about that when it first aired in 2018 or something). In fact I was initially put off watching it because of the shoujo tag--it's not my preferred genre.

I decided to give it a try any way and I'm so glad I did. My preference is definitely shounen/seinen with lots of action and fighting. If that's what you're looking for then Banana Fish is the show for you. Banana Fish centers around ... our main character Ash who has grown up in a harsh and cruel world. The story doesn't shy away from difficult subjects, though (fortunately) some of those subjects are not shown explicitly in the anime. Ash meets Eiji--our other main character-- and the latter gets swept up in Ash's world of gangs, guns, violence and death. The two form a close (non-sexual) relationship and it's obvious that Ash needs Eiji in his life but at the same time it's also a danger to the both of them. It's rather bittersweet.

The characters are fleshed out quite well and most of them are very likeable. The pacing of the story is quite fast, since 24 episodes covers 19 volumes of manga but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You get sucked into the story in the first episode where it sets the tone immediately and you realise what the stakes are. It also does a great job of establishing the cast of characters from the get-go and watching them evolve throughout the series is very enjoyable.

The music and sound design is incredible in this show.

Warning: this show touches on subjects such as murder, rape and peadophilia. The latter two are not shown explicitly, but if you're sensitive to those topics, then maybe not watch this show or watch it with someone you trust.

I love this manhua.

The story starts off slowly as we're getting to know the main characters and their relationship evolves from acquaintances, to a romantic interest, to eventually them starting a relationship. It's not accepted by everyone, and I like how it showcases both negative and positive atittudes towards Yu Yang and Li Huan's relationship.

I like that one of them is an openly gay student as opposed to many of the tropes we usually see in yaoi and shounen-ai. The story is sweet and focuses on their romantic relationship, but also on relationships with friends, family etc which are just as important. Sex is a ... small part of the story and you won't see much of it, perhaps due to censorship (it is China after all) or perhaps because the story simply doesn't need it.

The main story ends at chapter 137. There have been several side stories published which focus on the other couples from the main story. While they're not all about the main couple, it's still entertaining to read because we've been with these characters throughout the main story and they deserve a proper ending as well.

The art is fantastic and aesthetically pleasing.

DBZ Kai... It removed much of the filler from the original show (though there is still some remaining) and it's paced better overall. Though the pacing is still one of my issues with this show compared to modern anime shows.

The other issue for me is the art in DBZ Kai. They largely touched up the anime style from the original show which aired in the 80's and 90's and used a different style altogether for some scenes. These two different artstyles clash a lot, especially in the earlier arcs and that prevents me from giving the show a slightly higher rating. Use one artstyle ... or the other, but not both. Some frames were lacking in detail as well, it reminded me of early DB Super.

Overall, still enjoyable and more digestable compared to the orginial anime with all its filler and dragged out fights and dialogue, but I do prefer the artstyle of the old anime over this version.

This film is your typical story of our main gang teaming up to fight evil and the outcome is predictable of course, but the film was still enjoyable. I really liked the pacing in particular. The dialogue doesn't go on for too long and the balance between the fight scenes and the slower scenes is just right to progress the story to where it needs to go. I tend to view the DBZ films as standalone films within the franchise because trying to make sense of them timeline wise kind of ruins how much I enjoy the films as a whole (because it doesn't make ... sense otherwise).

Overall I thought the film was good. The pacing and the art stood out for me.