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Sep 23, 2016
New Game's goal as an anime is to be a mediocre "cute girls doing cute things" show. It succeeds in that regard.
Normally I try to review an anime in the context of what it was trying to be. I don't expect action anime to seriously delve into character's inner minds. I don't expect slapstick comedies to have a coherent plot. I found it difficult to accept this show for what it was trying to be.
There are no well written characters, there is no interesting story, the setting is barely passable and there is no "point" that the show is attempting to make. There
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is absolutely no reason to watch it unless you are a fan of "cute girls doing cute things" shows.
More power to the people who enjoy this kind of show, but I personally will continue to avoid watching it and it's ilk.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 22, 2016
Kimi no Na wa sits not only at the top of AnimeLlist, but at a score of 9.4 it is miles ahead of the next top runners. I will try to argue why I think it is a good but not exceptional movie.
Spoilers below.
The plot takes some creative licenses to force drama that are hard to forgive. The main male character is selectively an amnesiac to increase drama in a way that can feel cheap and unnecessary, especially when he loses memory of the name immediately after repeating it over and over. Somehow in the entirety of his experience, he never once had
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the year or the name of the town mentioned to him, nor did the girl, otherwise the big reveal would already be known to them. The grandmother is randomly and ineffectively revealed to be a baba-yaga style all knowing sage, which just makes the plot seem cheesy at that point.
Most importantly, though, is just that the entire meteor portion of the plot could have been cut and you would probably be left with a better story. Simply have the phenomena suddenly stop after the celestial event with no disaster, and proceed to have a missed-connections theme like Shinkai Makoto's other major movie, 5 Centimeters per Second.
Which leads into the last major flaw: Makoto's apparently petrifying fear of writing actual relationships. We saw a smidgeon of one in 5 Centimeters, but he damn well makes sure not to include much actual interaction within the romance, preferring to instead show the angst of love "forgotten". Perhaps this is what causes him to love the "missed connections (AND TRAINS)" trope so much, which at this point is becoming more of a detriment than a strength to his films.
All in all, the gorgeous animation and sound, as well as an interesting initial premise, still made it a enjoyable watch for me despite my gripes with the plot. I enjoyed it more than 5 Centimeters, which I gave a 7, so I'll give this one an 8.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 31, 2016
I watched Clannad, Clannad AS, and after that bought and played to completion the VN. So it's probably safe to say that I like the Clannad series as a whole.
Season one of Clannad sucks. Badly. There is no real way to dance around this. It falls into all the pitfalls that VN adaptions can (the awkward half-dance between doing all girl's routes and focusing on Nagisa's). It's pacing is atrocious, ESPECIALLY in the horrendous first episode. People who rate season one of Clannad highly, in my opinion, are either factoring in Afterstory into their rating or highly susceptible to emotional tragedy porn.
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They're still entitled to their opinions, however.
I want to push back on of the common criticisms of Clannad, however. Plenty of people think that Clannad sucks in part because the main heroine, Nagisa, is a "mary sue" type character who "is weak and mopes around".
Clannad would not be better if Nagisa had some odd quirk, upbeat personality or passionate hobby. Nagisa -- and Tomoya -- are not supposed to be driven characters who try their best to succeed at the start of the show. The story of Clannad is one where two directionless souls find meaning in each other, and then persevere through life's hardships with the help of each other, and their support networks.
Perhaps the concept of "finding life's meaning through a relationship" bothers some people, as maybe it should, but that doesn't mean Clannad is a better story if Nagisa has her shit together at the start of the show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 31, 2016
I tend to view the wide umbrella of "dystopian anime" as laying on a spectrum between clarity of message and attempted profoundness of message.
On one end of the spectrum are anime's like Stein's;Gate, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Attack on Titan. The message is very clear (good vs evil for FMAB and AoT, "defying destiny" for Steins;Gate), and they can be damn entertaining, but you aren't trying to extract a deep life message, and the show isn't trying to give you one.
On the other end are more philosophical animes such as Ergo Proxy and Serial Experiments Lain. These can ask more profound questions, and are worth
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the watch, but can be overladen with "arthouse" style storytelling that can cause a haziness of message and a sense of "talking past" each other if you try to discuss the anime with someone.
Shinsekai Yori hits a perfect medium on the spectrum. In a Brave-New-World style universe (with fantasy elements), the show hits at morally uncertain questions without ever leaving you too dazed and confused about the plot -- or the point -- of the show.
Shinsekai Yori does almost everything right, to the point that it could very nearly be my favorite anime. The one point where it does falter, substantially, is in the characters themselves. In their efforts to show why Saki should take the role she does at the end of the show, they turn her into an overly detached observer of her world, rather than a fully emotional participant. They allow Saki to cry when tragedy strikes, but almost never allow her to show anger. They had an easy way to do this, as well; just make better use of the narrator of the show and you can develop Saki as a character.
The other "main characters" of the group are also nothing to write home about in terms of inner conflict or development. In fact, the most interesting and multidimensional character of the show is probably the "antagonist" himself, who only really shows himself for less than a third of the episodes.
The gripe about the weak characters, however, is really only one acceptable flaw in a show where everything else is damn near perfect. The truth is that Shinsekai Yori does dystopia better than pretty much any other anime, as well as most books on the subject. My biggest regret at the end of watching it is that the source material isn't translated professionally into English, which speaks to how little there really is to complain about the show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 7, 2016
REC is a relatively enjoyable short watch that goes through an adult romance, which is a rarity in anime.
Its upshot its some of its interesting premises, such as the episodes being themed by various Audrey Hepburn movies. REC unfortunately tends to devolve into the same "MC is as dense as a brick, which causes misunderstandings" comedy/drama that is horrifically common.
All in all it's an enjoyable enough watch for it's length (short). The only caveat is under no circumstances should anyone ever read the original manga. It jumps off a cliff violently shortly after the anime ends, in the worst of ways.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 30, 2015
American and Japanese fantasy usually put forth the same views on two things: love, and the human condition.
That love is a powerful emotion that churns our stomach and makes us go crazy, but ultimately brings out the best of us. If you someone doesn't love you back, or if you go too far in your pursuit of someone, break some rules, hurt some people, then you don't truly love someone - you're merely obsessed with them. True love doesn't hurt.
And that ultimately, there is value in being human over something else, a machine or an animal. This frequently comes up in your
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standard fantasy or sci-fi plotline. You could end your suffering, you could save people, you could become immortal if you simply give up your human emotions and ideals, your humanity. Inevitably, the protagonist chooses his or her humanity over taking "the easy way out", arguing that the human struggle is necessary to understand the world and grow.
In Rebellion, neither of these ideas are respected. A true, pure love -- not an obsession, although some would call it that -- is a dangerous and destructive influence, and our [spoilers] willingly chooses to give up their humanity, and their entire world, in the pursuit of their sole happiness. Rebellion ends abruptly, leaving the final judgement of the choice up to you, rather than attempting to make an argument for or against.
There is almost universal acceptance that the first 70 minutes of Rebellion are an amazing piece of animation, sound and story. If you liked Madoka, you will almost assuredly like the majority of Rebellion. Lots of people are greatly pissed off by the end of Rebellion, including me originally. But almost every Madoka fan who has watched Rebellion has been unable to forget about it. That alone makes it a worthy watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 18, 2015
[This review probably contains spoilers, probably is too lengthy, probably is too personal and probably goes off on a tangent you weren't interested in. ]
"It's OK now. You did well. Now it's your turn to cry." -- Akio to Sanae
"It looks like I finished things without even realizing it." -- Tomoya's father
Clannad Afterstory is universally recognized as a show that can and will make many (most) viewers tear up, or even start bawling.
While many people are touched, or even moved, by the tragedy and heartbreak, a fair portion of reviewers see a relatively average romantic-comedy-slice-of-life show being elevated by blatantly drawing on viewers tear
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ducts, making viewers forget that they watched 40 episodes of , in some people's opinions, mediocrity to get to this point.
I'd like to argue that Clannad Afterstory has an underlying theme which is far more important than wet eyeballs and drama: what it truly means to be a parent, and to forgive a parent.
It's common knowledge that parents are generally absent from anime. Between boarding schools, orphans, and parents with bizarre work schedules, the only time we typically see parents is as a form of comic relief. This could be due to the younger audience, or it could just be because parents are hard characters to get right.
Clannad gets parents right. They are human beings, not disciplinary robots who dispense useless platitudes, and they have numerous, numerous faults. At the same time, they aren't these appalling monsters who revile their children and regret ever having them (another anime trope...). They suffer, they cry, they falter, but despite flaws they care about their children and go to great lengths to support them. This is how most parents exist in the real world. Instead of ignoring the parent-child relationship, Clannad Afterstory explores it in depth and uses family as the strength necessary for the characters to persevere through tragedy.
With the faults and strengths of the parents naturally comes the concept of forgiveness. There are many things in Clannad that are forgiven. In other anime, Tomoya might continue hating his father to the end. Akio and Sanae may never forgive Nagisa for halting their dreams. Akio, Sanae, and Ushio might always view Tomoya as the deadbeat who walked out on his child. And Tomoya might never forgive himself.
Clannad does forgive these characters, and in doing so tries to tell you to do so as well. In the end, their lives are easier and more complete because they are able to forgive.
Clannad Afterstory isn't just about crying at loss. The two scenes that touched me the most aren't the two most tragic, but rather the two I quoted at the start. Those scenes helped remind me the sacrifices my mother made, and to forgive my mother for some of the things she has done.
And if I have to watch 40 episodes of melancholic slice-of-life to remember that, despite her faults, my mother's love is what truly matters, well it's damn well worth it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 9, 2015
I found myself quite willing to forgive this show for not progressing a romance or plot. Its calming music, light-pastel art style and enjoyable, multi-dimensional characters made this a relaxing and moderately entertaining watch. Plus, clearly, the premise of weekly memory loss leads into naturally little changing from week to week.
Eventually however the story had to move on slightly, and when it did, it unfortunately faltered. The new character (I'd struggle to cause him an antagonist) wasn't particularly likable, relevant or interesting in any way.
Overall I enjoyed watching the dance between Hase-kun and Kaori week to week, but when things started moving forward
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(as they had to), I found myself disinterested and disappointed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 20, 2015
A frustrating show. The anime takes the most generic Rom-Com characters and plot-line imaginable. It then expands the story, adding nuances and drama that bring life and interest to an otherwise cliched genre story. It then throws away all this hard work by making characters so one dimensional that they are insulting.
Your template: Plain-Jane girl swoons over genius handsome idol classmate.
The plot twist: None, this is a romantic comedy and we already know they end up together.
The improvement: Girl gets guy, SHOW ACTUALLY CONTINUES, we get a view of married couple life and university life.
To insult the feminist within you: Genius-Handsome-Idol is as emotionally
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approachable as a waifu body pillow. Plain-Jane girl seems to accept being ignored and general emotional abuse as OK because guy is hot, rich and smart. Show portrays this as acceptable and basically ends with the moral of "love can solve abusive relationships, it's probably your fault anyways".
To insult the man-isist within you: Dumb broad deserves what she gets; she has no problems deceiving and manipulating comic-relief-romantic-interest-male in a pretty disgusting way for her own benefit.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 13, 2015
Some may point out the complete lack of anything that could pass as a "plot" in this anime. Others could criticize the cliched character types and lack of any development whatsoever. It'd be a fools errand to try to argue with either of these points.
But sometimes I don't need those things! If I wanted to find storytelling and literary merit in absurd places, I would have become an English major. Sometimes a troll-tastic anime full of puns, slapstick and yes, fan service, is in order. This anime is lighthearted and absolutely hilarious, and never failed to put a smile on my face OR any of
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the shameless friends I watched it with.
Your enjoyment may also scale with your level of Otaku-ness. References to other anime, or even producers, are strewn throughout the show (bonus points for the Fate/Stay night reference). Even if these don't make sense to you, however, you'll still enjoy yourself. It's not Noucome makes sense the rest of the time anyways.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This anime is approximately 10x funnier if you are watching the FFFANSUB sub of the anime, compared to the other subs out there. The other subs do a more literal and.. correct... translation, but the effort FFFANSUB put into making both the puns translate well (a Herculean task) and some other ridiculous translation choices make it truly a different anime experience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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