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Jul 26, 2023
Ride your wave was a film I was looking forward to. It is directed by Masaaki Yuasa, who is one of the most celebrated anime directors ever, with classics such as Tatami Galaxy and Ping Pong, as well as underground gems like Kemonozume, Kaiba, and Night is Short, Walk on Girl. He brings this dreamlike quality to anime while also boasting some solidly explored themes. However, I found Ride Your Wave to be disappointing.
Before I continue further, I would recommend watching Ride Your Wave as I’ll be diving (hehe get it?) into spoiler territory. If you go in completely blind like I did, there’s
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an unexpected turn at the end of the first act that is pretty important to my criticisms.
Ride Your Wave is about a girl named Hinako who moves to a new town for college. She gets rescued by a firefighter named Minato, and love brews between them. Unfortunately, Minato drowns in the ocean when surfing alone, which fills Hinako with grief. However, Hinako discovers that she can make him appear in water by singing “their song,” which turns their romance into an unconventional one. It turns from a generic romance into a film about loss and perseverance.
The technical side of the film is pretty bizarre. It has good shot composition and some aesthetically pleasing shots. There’s a montage early in the film with the characters being a couple, and alongside it is them singing “their song.” When they sing, they often are off-key and laugh at each other. It makes their relationship feel more intimate, and would work wonders if both of them weren’t cardboard cutouts. The ost is repetitive, not only because she has to sing the same song every time to summon him, but because the same track plays when he is summoned. The editing is also off-putting, because whenever the film shows something that happened in the past, there’s this weird red and purple layering to the frame for this nostalgic effect. Maybe he didn’t want to use a sepia color correction because that’s pretty standard, but other anime have used incredibly creative methods to communicate this (Only Yesterday).
The characters in Ride Your Wave are bad, as Hinako is just a surfer girl who sucks at everything except surfing. Minato is a “Mary Stu,” who is good at everything except surfing, making him very dull. Minato’s sister, Yoko, is awful. She speaks her mind and isn’t afraid of confrontation, but showed no sadness about her brother passing away until 15 minutes left in the film. She tells Hinako to “get over it” like that isn’t her own flesh and blood. Wasabi was Minato’s firefighter friend who was just as insufferable. He waits until his best friend dies in order to corner his girlfriend at her work and confess his love for her. Hinako mentions two friends of hers, but they have to have two minutes of screen time. The film could have benefited from a longer run time to flesh out these characters, but it already feels longer than it is.
The themes in Ride Your Wave are pretty messy. There’s this weird prevalence of saving somebody’s life and how that leads to love. Hinako saved Minato’s life when they were little and he fell in love with her. Minato saved Hinako’s life from the fire and fell in love with him. Wasabi saves Yoko’s life by standing up to her parents and falls in love with him. Saving someone’s life is a very kind thing to do, but that doesn’t mean that love will blossom. Falling in love with someone means you are compatible, and sharing your lives with one another to support each other. I truly believe they made this theme so the characters have an excuse to like each other because they have no personalities. The themes it does explore well are very easy to read into. Water is ever present in the film, and symbolizes the unexpectancy of life, and how the currents and waves can take you places. The theme of perseverance was well developed, with Minato secretly working his ass off to be able to help people and be the best he can be. He also mentions a time where he watched turtle hatchlings scurrying to the sea with conviction after being born.
The first act of the movie is pretty boring. You’re just watching these two nothing characters fall in love in a generic romance anime fashion. The second act isn’t much better, because this is supposed to focus on the grieving element, but Minato is in the film again within 10 minutes. They show their struggles of their new unconventional relationship in a “comedic” way, but Minato being “alive” again brings up a huge problem. One of the worst aspects of “13 Reasons Why” is that Hannah committed suicide but she’s still present throughout the whole series. This falsely portraits death into being this idea that “you don’t really die, you live on,” but death is death. After you die there is no living to see how your friends and family cope. If many consider that a problem for that show, why don’t people consider it a problem in this film? The third act is also pretty bad, with Hinako trying her best to move on. Yoko and her make a stupid decision to follow a group that is going to launch fireworks from a building, which would definitely cause a fire. Instead of calling the police, they decide to get proof of them doing it instead, which leads them to be in a burning building. The last few minutes were very infuriating. Hinako sings “the song” to try to see Hinako again, but he doesn’t show up. She gets a very upset look on her face when this happens. Then, a cheesy Christmas message from Minato announces from the skyscraper she's next to to say he loves her and will always be with her, which makes her break down crying. So did she move on? Did she get past the grieving stage? The signs point to no, which renders this film pointless.
Overall, the Ride Your Wave was a disappointing experience. The characters suck, the ost got old very quickly, and the themes were underwhelming. It's goals were misguided, trying to balance being a heartfelt romance and a film about grieving. Originally, I was going to give this film a 5/10 but writing down my thoughts further ran my disappointing feelings into the ground. I didn’t like a single act of this film. This felt like a Makoto Shinkai film. It wasn’t as sappy, but just as messy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Mar 26, 2022
We all watch anime for different reasons. Some want the adrenaline rush a shonen or sports anime can provide. Some like the laid-back nature of slice of lifes. Some like the philosophy presented in psychological anime. Others watch for waifus, which is the audience Dress Up Darling appeals to. As someone who doesn’t watch anime for that reason, I found this series to be mediocre.
The characters are as lazy as they come. Gojo is a high school student who has an usual hobby of making Hina dolls. When he gets teased for it as a child, he believes he must hide this side of
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himself, which, in turn, leads him to having no friends. Marin, on the other hand, is just waifubait. She serves as a fantasy for otakus; she accepts him for who he is, likes anime, likes cosplaying, has an hourglass figure, is a virgin, super nice, eccentric, anything you can think of. The only “flaw” with her is that she can’t cook, but that's to feed into her quirky side. The series exists for loners to insert themselves into Gojo’s shoes so they can pretend to be with Marin. There is a will they/won't they plot going on between them, and it is very annoying, as Gojo is so timid at points that it was cringe to watch. The reason the series prevents these two from dating is to keep the audience invested, since the characterization is weak. Shows like Kare Kano and Monogatari can have the characters date early because they have actual character; further episodes will explore the conflicts that come up in their relationship, which would happen due to their personalities. This also makes those series far more interesting, since the end goal isn’t getting together, it’s staying together. I can only watch “I would’ve confessed if not only for this conveniently timed phone call” so many times.
There is some symbolism, but it doesn't mean anything. In episode one, Marin embraces Gojo’s cut up hand to show how she’ll be the one who will heal or accept his wounds. In the beach episode, Gojo dips his toes into the water, before completely soaking in it to symbolize his discovery of not only the world of cosplay, but a world that involves acceptance and friendship. The reason these don’t mean anything is also because of the characterization. The definition of Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a whimsical, quirky, eccentric woman character who shows a depressed, lonely, male character a “new world” and accepts him for who he is. The symbolism just re-enforces the obvious. There is a visual parallel of Gojo embracing someone’s hands to show that he now has the strength to help others, but to classify this as character development would be laughable.
The reason I’m reviewing this is because the series feeds into the otaku life, but making Hina dolls and cosplaying would be the PERFECT subtext to criticize it. The series could have served as allegory to the otaku life, where Gojo “creates'' the perfect woman (waifus) with his Hina dolls, and his character arc would be to touch grass and realize real life isn’t like anime and manga, and people are flawed. Making Hina dolls would warp his perception of beauty and set his standards at perfect. Maybe Marin isn’t too pretty, has slept around to make herself feel validated, and wants to cosplay to be anyone but herself. Gojo takes her as his muse, symbolism for how men feel the need to “fix” women; he falls in love with her despite her flaws, and realizes he is a flawed person himself. I get that not everything has to be an art film, but it would be a hell of a lot more interesting if it was this way instead of another run of the mill waifubait anime. In my opinion, this would also make the show more wholesome than people believe it is.
This paragraph will focus on positives. The series is easily digestible and kept my attention. Admittedly, there are some cute moments. The technical side of the house is solid. The series has good shot composition and framing, and there are some interesting moments with its presentation. There are multiple still image montages, as most of the animation budget went to the boob psychics; you definitely know where the production team had their priorities. The designs of Marin and the cosplay characters are good. The music is pleasant on the ear, although there was one scene that really bugged me with how it was used. They play soft piano when the little sister of the other cosplayer was explaining how she didn't think she could cosplay even though she wanted to, trying to make me feel sorry for a character who has had about 5 minutes of screen time before that point. The series should’ve been diegetic in that scene, as just hearing the rain would be serviceable enough, and would feel less manipulative. There are a few scenes with bad comedic timing, but there are funny gags here and there, even if some were unintentional.
In conclusion, Dress up Darling is just another run of the mill waifubait anime. If you’ve seen one before, you’ve basically seen this already. If you like those types of anime, I’m sure you will love this. If you don’t, I’m sure you will hate this. It’s better than most waifubait anime, but that’s still not a very high bar to clear.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 14, 2022
250 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW:
With every step forward Chihayafuru 3 takes from its predecessors, it simultaneously takes a step back. With the romantic element more present, the characters are the most nuanced they’ve been. There are a lot of interesting dynamics, and it wasn’t limited to the main cast. They would have been more complex with a restraint on flashbacks; instead of the audience having to piece together why a character would do something, the show (mostly) tells us why instead. Has more subtext than the previous seasons, as well as re-opens those thematic elements they teased in season one: gender politics, embracing Japanese
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roots, Taichi’s overbearing mother, Chihaya’s future (dealing with logic vs passion), and more sports themes. However, it’s becoming a trend with Chihayafuru to open doors to character dynamics and themes, but not explore them; they’re stagnant, and it's getting tiresome to wait for them to be fleshed out. Pacing returned to season one form, but worse. Most Karata matches and character moments are way too fast and don’t give the audience a chance to breathe, which limits the time to reflect on them. There was an obvious production hit in the middle of the season, as still images were spammed; previously, it was only reserved for when a character took a card. Hopefully they can combine all the strengths of the previous installments for season four, because the series has potential to be great. However, it is sad I’m still talking about potential three seasons in.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 8, 2022
250 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW:
Chihayafuru 2 only covers about half of what season one did. This was the right idea to fix its “sometimes too fast” pacing, but the execution had a lot to be desired. There was too much padding this season; the start to most episodes would be the last minute or two of the previous one. There were also multiple times where a character would reflect on their ENTIRE journey after a victory or defeat, which would take a few minutes to do. The games are drawn out more, which adds to the tension and gives the audience a chance to
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reflect on the characters during their matches. The national tournament was so exciting and I never wanted the characters to win more. The romance is still not at the forefront yet, but it is bubbling more than in season one. The characters are still endearing. I love how Arata has an accent, as many anime wouldn’t care to have a detail like that. More typical sports themes, and basically forgetting the theme of how the West is influencing Japan to stray away from its roots that the previous season opened the door to. I probably overanalyzed anyway. Season two improves upon multiple aspects from season one, but doesn’t really expand upon those opened doors from the previous installment as much as I would have liked. Still a solid addition to the franchise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 8, 2022
250 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW:
Blends shoujo and shounen sports elements better than I thought it ever could. Deeply rooted in Japanese culture and history. Structurally great; each episode has a clear goal. Structured well in the long haul as well, as it opens the door to a lot of possibilities thematically and for characterization, even if it doesn’t dive into them as much as I wanted in subsequent seasons. Characters are endearing and easy to root for; there’s some hidden depth to them that bubbles under the surface, which, if you pick up on those moments, really shows their consistency. Each of them is
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shaped by their past, and are either reflecting on it, running away from it, or trying to recapture it, all of which is extremely fitting for Karuta. Maturely handles the romance, as there are only undertones this season. This builds the characters as individuals before making us care about them as a relationship. The games were exciting and had me on the edge of my seat. During matches, the music will add instrumentation as the track goes on, which always gives a sense of progression; whether the characters are getting their confidence, losing their edge, or making a comeback. Triumphant tracks lose their pizazz as they are very repetitive, and made me desensitized. Has tons of unnecessary flashbacks and can be too fast paced at times. It truly has something for everyone, so I recommended giving this a shot no matter your taste.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 12, 2022
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the most recognizable and beloved anime in this day and age. It’s unique presentation and how it embraces its macho has gained a cult following over the years. The JoJo franchise has gone through many changes over its varying parts, and I believe Diamond is Unbreakable to be a step up from its predecessors.
The addition of stands in Stardust Crusaders was the best idea JoJo has had. It upped the creativity and gave a unique flair to every fight. The purpose for multiple seasons is to further develop on your ideas, story, and characters, so I was curious
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as to how they could develop stands more. I was grateful that JoJo did not become stagnant and expanded on them in interesting ways. Part 4 introduces the evolution of stands, which I thought was brilliant. If stands are a physical manifestation of a person's life energy, it only makes sense that it would grow and adapt just like humans do. Giving some stands special abilities was also a nice touch and kept repeat fights fresh. The stands in general are more overpowered in this part, but I believe it to be for the better; there were many times where a villain’s stand was explained, and they seemed invincible. Even though the conclusion of the fight was usually logically inconsistent, convenient, and had no room for interpretation, it was incredibly engrossing to try to figure out the puzzle along with the characters.
Some technical aspects in Diamond is Unbreakable are better than its previous parts; The backgrounds are much more colorful and vibrant, making every shot a pleasure to look at aesthetically. The scene transitions are easily the best of the JoJo franchise. JoJo has always had a unique presentation along with pretty good shot composition and framing, which is all carried over into part 4. Although there are no technical aspects that are amazing, it is definitely nowhere near bland.
Consistency was also a huge improvement over Stardust Crusaders. The quality was so sporadic in part 3, that I believe it to be equal with parts one and two; this is despite introducing stands, having my two favorite JoJo characters as main protagonists, and having some of the best standalone episodes in the entire series. The inconsistency is due to the episodic nature of the part and having the end goal established from the get-go; Part 4 does away with both ideas.
The main antagonist of Diamond is Unbreakable is not introduced until about the halfway point. Part 4 takes its time introducing the characters and the town, which was for the better, as we got to know the characters before they had a main conflict. Something JoJo established all the way in part one is they are not afraid to kill off characters, which makes me fear for them more than other shonen protagonists. It still follows a villain of the week formula, but part 4 usually reincorporates these characters throughout the rest of the season; meaning we will see them periodically throughout the town in later episodes. This makes it feel like a community and like a real town that these characters live in, which makes the experience more immersive. The community built was not quite as atmospheric as something like Yokohama Kaidaishi Kikou or as complexly interwoven as Boogiepop wa Warawanai but it still helped immersion nonetheless. This also feeds into part 4 having a scope on the smaller side, but this was also an improvement; it’s much easier to care about a town of people than it is to care about the entire world.
The characterization is fairly weak, given it is a shonen. Some characters were added for basically no purpose, like Joseph or the Alien, but one character that was a great addition was Reimi. We know how Kira affects JoJo’s group after Shigekiyo was killed, which was admittedly forgotten about, but we never truly see how the presence of Kira affects the townspeople. We see Kira carrying around a hand, but how are we supposed to care if it's just a hand, and we only knew it as a hand? That is where Reimi comes into play: she is supposed to represent the town in general. She can’t move on from this purgatory state and find peace while Kira is still killing women, and we want Kira to be defeated so sweet girls like Reimi don't die anymore. It was a smart addition that many shonens don’t make that I commend JoJo for thinking of. Since this is a series with stands, it was not hard to believe there are supernatural elements in the JoJo universe either.
What wasn’t smart about JoJo was drawing attention to some intelligent moments. At the end of episode twelve, Joseph gets to Morioh and gets off a boat, where his cane breaks. Crazy Diamond could easily fix this, but Josuke tells Joseph, “Oh that sucks it’s broken, I guess you’ll just have to lean on me”. It was, honest to God, the best character moment in all of JoJo. But I forgot this was a shonen and they must make sure everyone gets it, so Okyasu brings attention to it and says that Crazy Diamond could fix it. An actual intelligent show would not draw attention to these kinds of things, as it is rewarding for the viewer to pick up on those details and character moments themselves. Not drawing attention to details also makes it realistic, because how Okyasu acted to make sure everyone in the audience understood it was in no way how a human being would. It completely broke immersion.
Should you start watching JoJo just to see part 4? I would only say yes if you like shonen or wish shonen wasn't so bland and uninspired. At the end of the day, JoJo is a good shonen. It is much funnier, charming, creative, engaging, and unpredictable than its contemporaries. While part 4 still has logical inconsistencies, tons of conveniences, tropey characterization, and not anything of substance that is all that amazing, it has developed over time and found some good footing. Each part builds on the other which is what a series should do. JoJo has a cult following and it's easy to see why, and I’m excited to dive into part 5.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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