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Kuragehime is the kind of anime I wish I watched as a younger girl. I think the idea of women becoming so submersed in their interests that they become utterly alienating to the rest of society at large is an idea that I would have really benefited from, as an insecure teenager anxious to fit in. Aside from Tsumiki, the cast is entirely unapologetic and almost blithely unempathetic with the way they are obsessed with their hobbies: every single one of them finds some way to shoehorn their interest into whatever conversation topic is at hand, and they sometimes just blatantly do not care about ... the interlocutor at all. Although this made all of them annoying at some point, especially with how loud Mayaya is, it was also incredibly refreshing because it doesn't matter if I found these women pleasant! They live entirely for themselves and their own otaku interests. This kind of selfishness is something that I wish I saw when I was younger.

I also really enjoyed Kuranosuke and Tsumiki's dynamic; Kuranosuke is so pure and earnest and so is Tsumiki, but in entirely different ways. The way their relationship developed (and I'm sure continues to develop in the manga) is very subtle and sweet, and I love that Kuranosuke meets Tsumiki where she is and falls in love with her exactly in the way that she is. I also like how Tsumiki is continually being stretched in her friendship with Kuranosuke, and gets caught up in his hurricane so easily. They are so incredibly sweet to watch.

The only thing I truly disliked about the story was the way the redeveloper's storyline with Kuranosuke's brother was treated; I felt really uncomfortable with the way she blackmailed and essentially harassed him and the way it was kind of written off later on. But seeing as this was a story from nearly a decade and a half ago, I am willing to give it a tiny bit of slack.

Jigokuraku is a story about the fragility, pointless struggle, and brevity of human life; it is also about the dignity of mortality, the incomparable strength that lies in our fragility, and the power of love to change absolutely everything. There is not a single one-dimensional villain in this manga, despite the cast being filled with death-row criminals—some of them innocent, some of them wholly deserving of the sentence, some of them a bit more morally grey. I think that's the greatest strength of Jigokuraku; it never fails to humanize the most inhuman of its antagonists, but never forgives them, either. Though it remains a battle ... shonen through and through, with its hallmark power creep and reality-bending fistfights, Jigokuraku is decisive and swift in its deaths, adding an edge and very real tension to each fight that's absent in your typical power fantasy. The party's desperate search for an elixir of immortality reveals all of the facets of precious mortality: the bonds we create and the bonds we sever; leaving your mark in history with the short time you're given; sacrificing your world for another's to continue on.

My favourite character, Sagiri, struggles continuously to reconcile Gabimaru, the murderer with the blood of hundreds on his hands, with Gabimaru, the helpless man in love who will go to the ends of the earth for his wife. This tension is what becomes the underlying theme of the story—a wavering spirit is intrinsic to human nature, and accepting the duality of oneself is when you finally become free. Sagiri is righteous, unbending, stoic, but also sweet, unsure, terrified of who she's chosen to become. Strength in weakness, and weakness in strength: Jigokuraku weaves this core tenet of Buddhism earnestly through the pulse of its story beats without ever falling into cliche.

Also, the art is gorgeous and the characters are just badass. Go read. Now!!!

my first thought leaving the theatre was that this movie had the potential to become a classic, and also that i would have absolutely adored this movie as a 12-episode anime as well (travelling with souta and daijin across japan to close doors in an episodic way seems like it'd be so much fun to watch!). unfortunately, it does have some (very) minor plot points that didn't get tied neatly enough by the end of story and some honestly offensively bad cgi that i think make it hard for it to become an enduring piece.

the only movie i've watched previously of shinkai's was your ... name and, to be honest, while i don't remember the main story beats anymore, i did feel like suzume immediately felt a lot more grounded and connected than your name was.

contrary to what a lot of people seemed to take away from this movie, i thought that its main strength was actually that it WASN'T a romance, or even trying to be, at all. i think suzume no tojimari was about suzume's grief, her journey to process it, her desperation to cling to life (and not just her own) despite her acceptance of death, and how death and grief affects the people around you in deep-rooted ways. and DESPITE all of this, to still choose to live and tread on even when it doesn't seem to make sense to. i think her grief was beautifully tackled here, and i really liked how they dealt with souta as a character in relation to suzume (though i did think it was a waste of some absolutely gorgeous character design lol.)

while we should find ways to process grief and be gentle with our soft inner selves and acknowledge them, we must also cling to life with desperation and seek every seed of hope to hold on to it, and i think the beautiful narrative contrast here—suzume making peace with her mother's death and moving on, versus suzume literally running down the entirety of japan to bring souta back from the dead against all odds—illustrates that perfectly.

the tokyo earthquake scene was hair-raising, and i also thought the roadtrip segment was one of the best executed film moments i've seen in a while—it captured that perfect coming-of-age, on the run, searching for something, untangling rotted knots feeling to it all while accompanied by perfectly written comedic beats. and, oh, the moment you realize the person suzume saw in the ever-after was actually herself... such an EASY ploy and yet the TEARS I SHED because in every girl there is a smaller girl wanting to be held and comforted ;-;

i think this is a perfect summer movie to watch, so i'll revisit it once the weather becomes sunnier :)

I can't fathom how this series makes a typically plodding genre so spellbinding, but it does and continues to do so to an even more wonderful degree in this second instalment. Yuru Camp has always touched on themes of coming of age, adulthood, bonds and identity with remarkable subtlety and nuance, but it delves into even more heartrending layers of these topics in this second season. I have always loved how Rin and Nadeshiko influenced each other to open up their respective worlds while still holding true to what makes each girl them, and this is even more clear in this season. The segment where ... Nadeshiko, inspired by Rin, tries solo camping for the first time, is just so, so beautiful—it's a small yet amazing thing to be pushed into trying new things thanks to someone you love, and Yuru Camp illustrated the impacts of that so beautifully and naturally, without fanfare. And oh my God, the way RIn's boundaries are depicted in this anime—ugh, I really wished I watched this when I was younger. The club happily accepting Rin's desire to ride alone to the camp while they're all in the van is so incredible and I wish that, when I was younger, I was taught the same—that it's OK to want to enjoy something by yourself, and that you won't be "killing the mood" by doing so.

All in all, this is a heart-warming, feel-good series I, and clearly many others, will be going back to over and over. I'm so glad this anime exists!

I truly believe this show pushed the medium of animation as a narrative vehicle to its fullest extent. The world-building, the creature and character design, the emotional beats, the music, the voice acting, the character development—each element has been stretched to its greatest potential and squeezed even more. Made in Abyss is visceral, timeless, immersive, beautiful and grotesque. I genuinely think it is an adventure story for the ages, up there with the likes of Tolkien.

BUT. But...

There is just enough indulgence of the author's pedophilic tastes without earned narrative significance to make one reaally, reaaaaaally uncomfortable while watching it. They're jokes, sure; they could be ... reasonable, even, given the world-building, but these nods are just so transparently off the tracks of the story that it's hard to move past them. And while it might be easy for some viewers to shrug it off, this aspect is very important to me, in the landscape of a medium that toys often with the innocence of children under the veil of lighthearted comedy; and especially, in a story that writes an otherwise extremely important narrative that I think the world needs.

It's a 10, a 20, even, but depending on where you draw your line, it'll be a hard watch—not necessarily in a good way, either.

A breathless rush of a series. This show has absolutely flawless pacing from the beginning until the very end. Never holding back punches on action scenes, always balancing the character's reactions to emotional events and indulgent badassery on a gossamer-thin line. Lycoris Recoil has some of the most incredible gun shooting animation I've ever watched!

The character dynamics are so varied and rich, and we have thoughtful LGBT representation and layered, mature characters. Takina and Chisato's bond is gorgeous to watch, and it's incredible to see how much they influence each other over the course of the series (yet stay so true to their core ... beliefs individually). Mika and Kusunoki are very interesting parental/mentor figures and I love how much they love all the kids, although they often make mistakes.

Also, best voice acting I've witnessed in anime in years, perhaps aside from Walnut's VA's performance of Faputa of Made in Abyss, from the same season. Takina's anguished cries were the most heartwrenching thing I've ever heard, and I love the way Chisato's VA plays her goofy moments.

I desperately need to scream from every rooftop about this anime because it is truly one of the absolute best of the iyashikei genre that I have ever watched. This show calls to a certain whimsy that my inner child has been starving for for years, while at the same time fulfilling my present need for character writing and conflicts to keep the show engaging.

I always find shows centered around two best friends to be the best of slice of life - Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san, Yuru Camp, Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu. You get a lot of that fluffy feeling of the leads finding "home" with ... each other, minus the angst that is comorbid to romance animes. This show truly takes that premise and elevates it to the max, with two absolutely lovable characters (Hakumei, a slightly boyish, easygoing handy(wo)man, and Mikochi, a faint-hearted but capable homemaker and businesswoman). Though their current life seems cozy and idyllic, both leads have uneasy histories that are slowly recounted throughout the show, and each episode challenges the leads in a new way.

I really enjoy how this show depicts the idealistic "cottage-core" lifestyle while still showing that even with this life, the leads face the same human conflicts and emotions we face every day; frustration about not performing well at work, that "never-enough" feeling when it comes to our material desires, etc. The show has an adult, bittersweet tinge while still delivering comfiness at every turn. It delivers the Ghibli-like delight of cheese and jam on a wooden cutting board while showing us that it's so delicious precisely because you're having it after a long day of hard work, drenched to the bone by the rain.

To speak on the art of the show - it is just gorgeous. I fell in love with the manga's background and character designs a long time ago (the egg salon! So precious!) and the fact that the main characters are these tiny little fairies is just fodder for endlessly whimsical fantasy settings, like a cottage inside a tree trunk, a mushroom for a table, an orange the size of our leads' full heights. Every episode introduces a new setting or character that makes me squee. It's so frickin' adorable and it's exactly what I have hoped for from a story like this.

I dropped this 3 quarters of my way into the show but still think it deserves a 7. The cast of characters is frankly so adorable I'd love to dive into the story and squeeze the cheeks of each one, and the art doesn't help. Unfortunately, when compared to the likes of Wotakoi, I think the character writing just wasn't compelling enough to draw me in for the whole run. And ultimately, character writing is the lifeblood of slice of life shows like this.

While on paper, the dynamics of both leading couples appears to be promising, when you watch it actually play out in ... the show, the characters are rather bland. Perhaps they're /too/ happy, is the problem? There were no character conflicts that felt high-stakes enough to warrant any proper development, and all issues felt practically solved from the get-go because both Igarashi and Takeda clearly respect and love each other on a deep level from the very beginning. In Wotakoi, both leading characters had some Adult Anxieties that were interesting to really dig into, but because Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi stays fluffy and light throughout its entire runtime, nothing ended up grabbing me.

This show has the office dynamics without any of the adult nihilism that comes hand in hand with office romance shows, and the high school romance without any of the fun teenage hijinks.

Perhaps I will revisit this in a later time when I desperately need some surface-level fluff to keep me sane, but as of right now, I think a romance SoL with more depth appeals to me more, like Horimiya or Wotakoi.

This review contains mild spoilers.

This show started off in a very promising way, with a main character who comes from an interesting background story pre-transmigration, and a bit of a twist on the isekai tropes since he's been specifically selected to be isekai'ed by God due to his skillset. I enjoyed his characterization and the worldbuilding of the magic system in the new fantasy world (which was quite unique), but as time went on the MC's character began to fall flat and it felt like the show regressed into its more comfortable wish-fulfillment harem isekai origins. Horrific events, such as child sex trafficking, seemed to ... be used for nothing but a plot device and an opportunity for MC to come in and save the day. This treatment of the topic truly turned me off the show. The relationships he builds with the people he recruits for his mission feel one-dimensional, and their subservience towards him, though logically understandable, don't feel rooted in any proper relationship development.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with the show evolving into a more standard harem isekai, but it felt like it had been promising something different, so it was pretty disappointing for me and I ended up dropping it.

I've been looking forward to this anime ever since reading the manga, and the adaptation truly didn't disappoint! For what it is, Mieruko-chan really hits all its bases beautifully. It has its more thoughtful moments, like with Zen's arc and Miko's dad; its sweet moments, like literally any time Hana and Miko interact with each other; and also its freaky moments, as each ghoul that gets presented somehow manages to be even more grotesque than the previous one. However, Mieruko-chan never pretends to be more than what it is - a light slice-of-life horror-comedy, and I think that's where it excels. It's a light but ... well-written show.