Back to chevybow's Profile chevybow's Profile

Eun-sil-i is an uncomfortable korean animation film. It is intentionally uncomfortable as it covers very serious topics- but I found its execution and overall premise to be seriously lacking. There will be minor spoilers in this review.

The movie opens up with a young girl being pronounced dead after giving birth to her child- a baby covered in blood is brought by a boy who discovers the dead body. As the movie goes on- it deals with both the present day town and how they are treating the baby of the dead mother, as well as going into the past and revealing memories of Eun-sil, ... the girl who died while giving birth.

While not immediately apparent at the start of the film, unless you read the plot summary beforehand, Eun-sil is mentally retarded. She befriends the main character in the movie, though they eventually get into an argument. My main issue with the scene that deals with this argument is that it seems out of character. The main character seems to overall be very kind of Eun-sil and shows great generosity, yet out of nowhere she finally decides she has enough with the slowness of Eun-sil and they argue.

Eun-sil is taken advantage by several men of the village and a number of them rape her- a few short scenes occur while the rape is happening, but it would not be surprising if just about every guy in town had their way with Eun-sil since they knew they could. While this rape is a major focus in the show, it seems like it was done unrealistically. In fact- all the characters and how evil they are is pretty unrealistic.

Not only do a number of men, including someone from Eun-sil's school- a fellow classmate, rape her: but there are witnesses to many of the rapes by fellow classmates. No one does anything and it doesn't seem that anyone really cares save for maybe 2 women in the entire town. Every character, except for Eun-sil and another girl that gets taken advantage of, is uncharacteristically evil. I just cannot wrap my head around the idea that an entire town in Korea would be okay with raping a mentally disabled young girl, but that after she gives birth to her child they care little about the child's well-being and wish for it to be dead (with many attempts to kill the baby having taken place in the movie). It is just not believable.

Perhaps the attempted killing of the baby is done by certain women in the film because they know about the rape and believe that by killing the baby they will have put this whole Eun-sil thing to rest for good. But I just don't buy that people would actually act this way. And while not all anime have to be realistic- there is nothing to suggest that this town is some sort of cult or that there are supernatural elements to this world. It is unusual for me to see people behave this way and it definitely took me out of the film, and the shocking scenes just kept coming- which made it lose its impact on me every time.

At the end of this movie I'm just left wondering "why". There is no real resolution to this film, nothing you'd really call an impactful "ending". Nothing is really solved at the end- everyone in the town is still shitty, the main character of the film and her friend end up moving back to Seoul- leaving the town for good. I'm just not sure if this movie really had a message. It is a story of an abused mentally ill girl- and goes into great detail of the abuse- but that is all it is. No one is really held accountable for the abuse, no good comes out of the abuse (or nothing bad either). The story just does not really go anywhere meaningful.

I give this a 4/10. I would call this a bad movie, but I appreciate it attempting to tackle difficult issues. It is definitely a unique watch.

Otaku no video is a rather.. boring OVA.


It transitions between animation and live action segments. The animation tells a rather uninteresting story of 2 otaku who build up this giant otaku empire.. or something. I honestly didn't care much for the animation bit. It was constantly interrupted by the live action segment (which was much more interesting)- consequently messing up the pacing and making it hard to connect to either the plot or characters. The fictitious story emits strong themes regarding otaku and their personalities but ultimately seems to serve little purpose. I would have rated the OVA higher if it did not include ... the animation bits.

The interesting part of this OVA are the live action interview segments. Otaku come in many forms: some obsessed with guns, some obsessed with anime. The live action segment interviews a variety of the different otaku that exist and very obviously pushes a message given the type of questions asked. Some of the questions are personal and dive into the (lack of) romantic life of the otaku- but regardless it was interesting to see the perspective of otaku first hand. While I have seen similar interviews online- the people presented in these live action clips seem depressingly more genuine than the otaku I've seen interviewed prior, and I would have rather just watched a series of interviews in this format than watched through this OVA.

It's difficult for me to say I dislike the OVA. I would not recommend it as I feel a lot of the OVA is unnecessarily boring and repetitive. It was interesting to watch and learn about Otaku culture- but due to lack of entertainment I give this show an average rating of a 5/10.

Inuyashiki is a very fun and unique anime.

Perhaps the most unique element of this show, which helped draw me in, is the protagonist: 58 year old (who looks much older) Inuyashiki who lacks respect from anyone, including members of his own family. In an entertainment medium where we are spammed with shows consisting of the same generic 16 year old nice guy protagonist: it is refreshing to see a different type of character take the spotlight.

Unknown the me prior to watching the show, there is another main character Shishigami. Shishigami more closely resembles the typical highschool protagonist we usually get, but he is ... far from the gentle-mannered nice guy we are used to seeing. While Inuyashiki is a gentle old man who is exhausted of living yet still manages to find it in his heart to love his family and others: Shishigami is an extreme case of an angsty teen- who finds life difficult and cares little for those he is not close with. With these opposite personalities and the coincidence of them being in the same place at the same time: Both are transformed in robots. The story then turns into a "Good Vs Evil" type battle, though I use the term loosely, as Inuyashiki and Shishigami do not know about each other early in the show.

As an old man, Inuyashiki learns about his powers much slower than Shishigami, though he later trains as he learns of the evil acts Shishigami is performing across Japan. While Shishigami is busy killing people in order to give himself some sense of feeling alive, Inuyashiki decides to try and save as many people as possible.

The beauty of this show is not in its intricate story line or dialogue, but with how enjoyable it is for the viewer. If I were to pick this show apart I could find many minor things that I disliked it in:


- Tons of scenes of people crying in every episode

- The robots are extremely overpowered which ends up in entertaining, but completely ridiculous scenes.

-Plot conveniences for the main characters

Etc.

However even with these minor things I have noticed throughout various episodes: I still managed to be on the edge of my seat waiting for what would happen next. Cliff hangers are done well and it is never certain what would happen next. Character motivations are intelligently done: not outright saying why a character is doing an action but leaving it up to the viewer to determine based on subtle actions. There is real anticipation wondering whether a certain character is dead or not- with it never really being clear due to the powers of the robots. And of course, Trump makes an appearance in this show which should be reason enough to watch the hilarious scene.

This is a great "Popcorn" show to just sit back, relax, and enjoy. I binged this show- completing it much faster than I thought I would, and I have no regrets. I cried, I laughed, and i was amused by both the absurdity of the show and its intense action sequences where the result was not immediately known. Yes- much of the overall plot is foreshadowed and can be easily predicted, but each episode is very intense, enjoyable, and has lots of justice porn throughout to satisfy those of us who enjoy that.

I would definitely recommend this show. While not perfect in an objective sense, its highly enjoyable, creative, and fun. I give this show an 8/10, one of my favorite shows that I've recently completed.

** Minor Spoilers throughout**


Koi to Uso is the worst show I have ever watched. It is a romance anime without the romance. It is worse than shitcom. Worse than any other 5 minute "WTF" show. It was physically and mentally painful to get through this show, and I continued watching only because I am a masochist. However I would urge others to watch this show so they can have a solid basis concerning what a "Bad" anime is- the worst of the worst- an absolutely shit show.

The first episode introduces us to the absolute worst MC of any show, let alone anime, in ... existence. It is almost as if the show is self-aware because the MC openly admits how shitty he is. However instead of normal shows where the MC is being hard on himself for little to no actual reasons- he is fully deserving of the "Worst Main Character" award. He has no personality. He has no interests. The only times we see him on screen is when he is interacting with other characters. He has a gimmick interest to make him "quirky" but in reality he is 1 dimensional, boring, and totally undeserving of having very character fall in love with him. Do you want a drinking game for this show? Every time the MC makes a stupid face and gets nervous take a shot. You will die 5 minutes into any given episode (including the OP). It is the most annoying thing I have ever experienced. "Oh no my assigned wife is in a bathing suit let me blush and make a wacky face and say *Japanese um* a lot". "Oh no I see my crush let me act like a little bitch and make a weird face". "Oh no my crush is wearing a new shirt let me make a stupid face and laugh like an idiot". "Oh no my crush is 50 feet away from me let me start shaking and having an internal meltdown". UGH


Speaking about love, you should know prior to watching this show that the main romance in this show has blossomed and was kept secret because one time the MC gave his eraser to this girl because she forgot hers at home. I shit you not. This girl tells the MC that she has loved him for the past 5 years or so because of that moment. It is not as if they really interacted prior to their feelings being known. This concept is totally ridiculous. The show (poorly) sets up a setting where people are assigned who they are supposed to marry. Instead of having some intimate romance and in-depth internal struggles related to societal pressure and consequences in this made-up world: They decide to pick some cheesy interaction to make two young teens fall in love and then create a melodramatic show out of it.


The setting is barely utilized and is used as a gimmick premise to create a generic harem love triangle/rectangle "romance". For instance, there is one character in the show who is either gay or bi. Instead of looking at what happens to gay people in this society or their internal struggles (since society would seemingly pair them with a member of the opposite sex to increase the birth rate)- they are just used as an addition to the harem cause ooh you weren't expecting a gay person to enter the situation did you. Another instance is in the first episode there is a message sent to a cell-phone that contradicts the married "match" that the MC receives. Instead of maybe using this as an opportunity to explore internal politics within this marriage assignment system they just use it to force conflict and more melodrama. Instead of exploring how society actually functions with these assigned marriages they just leave it at "its good" and don't actually show how this society operates or the major issues within it (apart from the OP and his little harem).


This only briefly highlights a major writing error in this show: Tell don't show. See usually when you write a piece like an essay or script for a show- you want to show ideas and concepts through actions rather than just telling about it. This show feels like it was written by a middle schooler while daydreaming and the result is the characters sounding like robots. They always have monologues that assume the audience is stupid. Instead of showing a character is mad at you through them avoiding you or through failed actions to get their attention they will have the MC talking to himself saying stuff like "Girl #2 has not spoken to me in a week. This makes me very upset because I want to talk to Girl #2. I wonder if she is mad at me. I hope I can fix this".


Apart from the writing, the directing is like its from a hentai. There will be lots of kissing in this show. And it is very cringy. Apart from the massive cringe you will experience due to the MC not having a personality and not knowing how to interact with anyone (though they still fall in love with him because... well the writers wanted a romance ok), the kissing scenes are just... extra. They make it a purpose to show the tongues moving on each other, and they add these "realistic" sound effects, and they try and show the spit that hangs from the lips when they break away. Its like some form of weird form of softcore porn... but anime version.


I can go on and on about all the faults in the show, but to prevent myself from writing a book on this show I will outline them here:


- Generic MC to the point of being unlikable and not possessing a personality. He makes watching the show really difficult and I have never disliked a character in any book/movie/show as much as I hate him
- Generic side-characters used for the purpose of having cute designs so that people can "choose" which character they want to win
- Terrible Plot Development and uninspiring story given the premise
- Unrealistic character motivations and actions- people falling in love with each other for no reason at all, at least none that we can see on screen. If anything, the show gives us reasons to hate the MC not love him.
- Overly cringe-worthy scenes, directing, writing.
- Boring melodrama with the plot making little progress towards the end of the show
- No real conclusion at the end of the final episode
- Setting and premise are not utilized to any form of their potential, instead being used as gimmicks.
- No intelligent social commentary on a show that can relate to modern Japan with their birth rate crisis
- Subjective opinion, but I thought the art style was... bad
- Concepts are brought in to produce conflict and then forgotten about
- Even without the cringe this show produces, it is just boring and meant to be watched in the background while doing something more meaningful with your time.

(Minor spoilers in this review)


Da Yu Hai Tang is an okay movie. Unfortunately, that's all that can be said about this movie and it is not one to leave a lasting impression.


The movie starts in a fantasty-like setting where we meet our main character, our main character's best friend, and the main character's family and other random people in this fantasy society. In order to fully become an adult, at the age of 16 they must undergo an arbitrary task of going to the human world as a... red fish.. and then come back after a week and then they get to be called ... real adults.


When the main character enters the human world, after being told by her family to avoid humans at all costs, she gets saved by a human and low and behold he ends up dying to save her, leaving his sister behind as it is implied he is her caregiver, and now the main character feels guilty.


So she finds a way by some lucky miracle to bring him back to life and the rest of the film is the journey she undertakes to try and bring him back, as she must protect him (his soul embodies a fish) as he grows until he is able to return to the human world through flight.


In general, I picked this movie because it had an interesting premise but it turned out to be a low-grade quality studio ghibli like film. The voice acting in this film is bad as characters talk quickly and don't really have much emotion to their roles. One role that stood out particularly to me was the main character's father who was seeing her off, knowing he might never see her again, and in the most monotone voice basically says "ok leave". What?


The art-style in this film ranges from decent to terrible as there are inconsistencies with the visuals due to bad implementation of CGI. There are certain scenes where something will just look "off" to you and it can really take away from the experience of watching the film.


The story itself started off with a good premise but its execution is lacking. The story uses an old trick to progress the story. "Magic". This fantasy world has no rules, or rather, the rules aren't really explained and its hard to get emotionally involved in the story when you realize that there are no real consequences to the majority of the character actions because magic can fix everything. Without spoiling too much, there are characters near the end of the film who should die but instead magic saves them in order to push for a traditional happy ending, which is disappointing.

There are also plot points that are just... confusing. For instance, the attitude of everyone in the village is that they should never go into contact with humans and the human world is bad- yet everyone throughout the film seems to believe that the human world is much better. Yet, we rarely see anyone try and escape into the human world. One of the first scenes in the movie, a major character explains how in their journey to the human world they enjoyed it- to the extent where they implied it was better than their own world. Why does it seem like no one actually leaves this "other world".


There is another point in the movie that says that you need an object from the human world in order to enter the human world and leave behind their world- but in the instances we see of people entering the human world only once is there a human world object involved. It seems like the fantasy world in this movie has made-up rules that can change when convenient because "magic" and "happiness" and "We must push forth for a happy ending at all costs, no matter how bad the writing".


Did I necessarily dislike this movie? No. That's why I give this movie a 6/10. However it is mediocre in the sense that this feels like a movie aimed at children with a premise already done before. Romantic elements in this movie seem forced due to lack of character development, which seems great for a kid's movie but should still be criticized, and characters seem very one dimensional showing little growth and performing illogical actions.


In general, you won't be missing out on much if you skip this movie.

Anime shorts are a weird topic to talk about in the anime community. Most go relatively unwatched with little interest stemming for them. I mean, how often do you see someone get hyped over an anime that has 1-3 minutes of content every week? The ones that do gain popularity gain popularity due to being absolutely ridiculous. An anime short about a fart is going to get somewhat popular with people giving joke 10/10 reviews. Bananya is perhaps the worst culprit with it gaining popularity on sites like reddit for being so "cute". From last season, Sushi Police gained an infamous bit of popularity for ... its bad visuals amongst the very silly story.

Agressive Retsuko takes what gimmick anime shorts like Bananya possess (Cute main character) and improve upon it by adding on a worthwhile plot and series of events. That's not to say that the plot in Aggressive Retsuko is necessarily mind-blowing or out of this world. Its a simple premise- but one that is executed so well that I couldn't help but fall in love with the show.

Retsuko is an adorable red panda that is very relatable as a main character. She works as an accountant in an office building and the 1 minute shorts follow her daily routine as we witness the frustrations that Retsuko has to deal with. These frustrations are not unique to Retsuko, for many of them will have been experienced in the viewers life as well. How many times have you caught yourself trying to peel away the price tag from an object only for it to peel halfway and then become impossible to get off?

The humor from the show comes with how Retsuko deals with these frustrations. She ends up doing screamo vocals that exhibit the anger she feels from the situation. What's not to love about a red panda doing screamo?

Aggressive Retsuko takes an adorable main character and puts her in a show that is relatable to the viewers and is amusing and fun to watch without relying solely on a gimmick. There is actual substance and actual value to be taken from this very underwatched short series. And for that I give this show an 8/10. Highly recommend you at least give it a shot if you haven't seen it already.

Tanaka-kun is the first anime Ive finished where I was actually genuinely surprised at the rating upon finishing the show.

The show's premise is simple: The main character is lazy. That's it. That is where all the gags, all the humor, and the entire anime is focused on. Every episode is predictable to the point where the show becomes boring rather than entertaining- and the only reason I kept watching was for the supporting characters. Contrary to the main character- the supporting characters were interesting to watch on screen and they were believable as real highschool characters.

While yes all the memes about "lol Tanaka ... is my spirit animal xD" Or "Wow this show is totes me_irl" can appeal to a certain demographic- it will not appeal to everyone and certainly doesn't appeal to me. There is no variety in the episodic nature of this show with the exception of the introductions for new characters. The show that most closely resembles this show from this current season is Sakamoto- but unlike Sakamoto this show fails to go "all-out" in a sense. The jokes have the same quality and Tanaka's laziness never goes to an extremity or anything. Its just the same old same old. Every episode.

While I will never understand the appeal of a generic boring show like this one- I will say that there appears to be a pattern in recent anime. The visuals of this show are absolutely outstanding and out of this world- perhaps the prettiest show I have seen in a long long time. We saw last season a show with an absolutely abysmal story- Grimgar- rise in popularity essentially due to its unique watercolor art design. Similarly- Tanaka lacks in any story or character progression with its one dimensional characters and nonexistent plot. Each episode is the same as the previous and I don't think I'll ever find a more "average" anime in my lifetime.

If you run out of melatonin just watch an episode of this show. It'll put you right to sleep. And I don't mean it in a good way.

Indeed I was quite excited to notice that Harmony was finally available, subbed, on my favorite streaming site. I've been anticipating this movie ever since I first heard about it. What I got, opposed to my expectations, was a mediocre film wrapped in beautiful visuals, animation and sound.

The story begins with a red haired girl named Tuan Kirie who is first seen doing some sort of illegal operation with a refuge group. We then learn about the setting that our story takes place- a future utopian society in the very distant future. The world is supposedly perfect as issues such as disease are no ... longer a concern. The narrative is told through the perspective of Tuan: both in present and via flashbacks.

The most important thing to note about the story is the complexity of it- and I must say- if I have one major complaint it is that the movie did no justice to the story. The execution of the story was pretty poor and the movie would require many re watches in order to fully comprehend it without looking up explanations online. I feel that the enjoyment of this show will be lost to most who will be unable to fully understand the story. I don't mean this in a condescending way- as I only grasped parts of the story myself and was left clueless at many parts.

The other main character we learn about is Miach who is the main character's childhood friend. We learn about Miach mostly through the flashbacks of Tuan, which has its pro's and con's. I for one believed Miach to be the most interesting character of the series and the most meaningful philosophic statements to be expressed were expressed in scenes dealing with Miach. Unfortunately, she barely resembles a main character as she gets little screentime in the present day Utopian world.

Without spoiling anything about the story that isn't basically given in either the first couple minutes or the synopsis- I can only mention that the ending was another great disappointment to this show. Not that I didn't like it necessarily- but because it felt incomplete and anti-climactic. The show felt like it was progressing towards the ending which would be epic and mind-blowing and what we got instead was confusion along with disappointment.

While the characters are interesting- many of them are too complex to relate to and sometimes- even after learning a great deal about them- their actions are unpredictable and hard to interpret. The ending is a great example of this- but there are many moments in the show where your perceptions about a given character will change suddenly due to an out-of-the-blue action.

The pacing for this show is another major problem for me as the beginning was ridiculously slow to the point where the person I was watching it with got bored and uninterested. Meanwhile- the ending felt pretty fast paced whereas I would have liked there to be more substance near the end of the show. You watch through this show hoping there will be more but you just receive more vagueness and ambiguity.

While the writing suffers and can be super confusing and hard to interpret: the production value of this show is amazing. The visuals, animation, and sound are all above average and quite excellent at times. The stunning visuals are apparent from the beginning of the series and some breathtakingly gorgeous shots are presented later in the film.

But a film with great appearance cannot fix broken writing. I DO recommend this show for people who are looking to challenge themselves intellectually. If you like works like Paprika and Penguindrum perhaps this movie will be up your alley. But I fear that for most, the story was presented in such a way that it is hard to keep up. With complex dialogue and narration- many people will feel lost without looking to the internet for an explanation for this movie. And having to look up what happens in a movie kills the enjoyment for me.

Umibe No Onnanoko is quite possibly the worst piece of literature that my hands have touched in the past decade.


Now to be fair, I knew absolutely nothing about this manga prior to buying it. Perhaps I should have done my research. When the first sex scene came by I was surprised because, again, I knew literally nothing about the manga. But it was fine. Sex scenes aren't that bad right? I'm sure they have meaning. Oh look another sex scene. And another one. Another one. Another one. Dj khaled can't save me here this book is literally sex and bad story telling.


The actual story ... is quite ridiculous and while the characters hold resemblance to what real teenagers feel at certain times- how they act as a whole is entirely exaggerated and unrealistic. You'd think that the author is a dinosaur based on their interpretation of teenager relationships. Yeah yeah, maybe I was the only teenager in highschool to not have sex every 5 minutes, but to be fair their rampant sexual behavior isn't the only problem. These kids are assholes to each other and its a wonder why any of them interact with each other.


The only reason I recommend you to pick up this manga is if you want to watch teenagers have sex. Well.. that's actually a pretty sketchy reason to pick this one up. I found no redeeming qualities in this book- no deep symbolism (wow people get sexually frustrated 2deep4me) and in general this was a bad and awkward read.


This is basically porn- bad story and characters but okay sex scenes.

Before writing this review, I recalled back when I was in elementary and middle school the "Parent-teacher" conferences that I was dragged along to. The teacher never failed to mention the same things over and over again.

"Chevybow is very quiet"

"Chevybow needs to learn how to come out of his shell"

"Quiet but attentive. Needs to come out more".


What kind of shell? On first instinct I thought that maybe she was referring to a hermit crab shell- a creature who sometimes goes into hiding within a hard shell that is unable to be moved. But perhaps she was talking about an egg shell? A hard ... shell on the outside with soft yolk and egg whites on the inside. What caused this shell? Perhaps it was my own doing- but it was not due to pure rebellion or through stubbornness. There is a reason for everything- and perhaps there was a reason for my quietness too. There was no reason for everyone to assume that I was doing it out of spite- or because I hate them. Perhaps, just perhaps, something happened while I was a talkative little child that made me scared to speak my soul from there out.

Perhaps.


Anthem of the heart tells a story of Jun, a girl who is not too different from myself. A quiet girl, it is implied that she never spoke at school due to a traumatic event that happened in her childhood... back when she was referred to as a "Chatterbox". With the curse of an egg preventing her from speaking up: she has to learn to express her emotions through singing; specifically within the musical for her school's outreach program. Along the way she learns about the power of music through her experiences with the students in the class and the members of the outreach program.

The problems I found with the show are as follows:

- One of the outreach members does not get fully developed and their motivations are unclear and appear to be unrealistic.

- Romance gets involved in several subplots when the show does not require it.

- While the plot is good, the execution is far from perfect and the ending, in particular, seems lacking as it seems to disregard certain characters.

With these problems aside this remains a beautiful show that I'm sure some quiet people, like myself, can relate to. With stunning visuals and sound: this show makes for an enjoyable watch. At times emotional and at other times comedic: This drama will keep you watching during the duration of the movie.


Will you find your prince? The prince that will open up the anthem of your heart?