Back to murakafkami's Profile murakafkami's Profile

I'm going to start off with the classic cliche - I don't usually write reviews. I used to. I've written tons of reviews, for everything from music to movies to whatever I could analyze in a somewhat objective manner. However, after a certain point I stopped. I felt like the process of publishing a review was a futile thing - any work of art is bound to inspire a review of sorts inside you - an internal discussion (if it has 'impact' and/or some sort of a 'connect') that you can choose to externalize - but then, why would you? To gain more perspectives? Sure, ... you could add layers to your comprehension by trying to look at said work of art in a different light, but wouldn't it rob you of the intimate first impression the said work left on you? Because after all, there are certain things that you don't really want to talk about with people, even if sheltered by a pseudonym. The reasons might vary - anything from the fear of being misunderstood to wanting to jealously guard your perspective as something personal, letting it be part of what defines you, treasuring it as an anchor which binds you to a time, a place, an experience that helps you stay rooted in the chaotic flow of every day life.

And then there are some things that just shatter all these essentially made up paradigms. Surrealism was one of them - I had fun reading Baudelaire, Lautreamont, Steppenwolfe etc etc. I devoured anything digressive and acidic for the novel ways in which they broke down my filters of perception and subsequently reshaped them. But as with everything, even though I changed (and keep changing), the violent yet delightful experiences which changed me started fading away. This manga, even if only for a few precious hours, made me feel as alive as I did back then, albeit in a completely different way.

Story/Characters: (10/10) (contains mild spoilers)
The title can be a little misleading for those who expect some sort of an adaptation of Baudelaire's work - it does use some themes which recur frequently, but it essentially is a bildungsroman at heart, following the lives of the Baudelaire obsessed protagonist who goes through puberty in a thoroughly singular fashion, thanks to a classmate that brings out his wildest impulses by sheer force of will, showing him a world beyond literature and hooking him on to unhealthy doses of feeling alive. I've come across reviews where the behavior of the teenagers is viewed as 'uncouth' and 'mystifying, unrealistic, or even downright insane'. I beg to differ. Hyperbole is definitely utilized, but it seems more like a very peculiar combination of somewhat unlikely events rather than a lone man's venture into fantasy land (think Bonnie and Clyde) - in short, sensationalization of reality for added impact and a heightened sense of pacing, which drops when the second arc of the story favors a more mature approach. I realize this made a lot of people unhappy, maybe understandably so considering it is never fun getting off a roller coaster. But I feel like it nicely captures the shift in energies and moods - you could even liken Kasuga to a postwar Japanese survivor who wanted to go all out in a blaze of glory but survived while the ideals he fought for were turned to ash around him. The conclusion is very subtly done - you can clearly feel the author struggling to part with the characters he put his soul into, nevertheless realizing the importance of ambiguity as the most 'natural' conclusion to a bildungsroman - now the characters can make the choices - not that they are going to be any less difficult to make, but those struggles demand a completely different treatment - the metaphors driving the story can no longer sustain it.

Art(10/10)
There's none of the typically manga 'weird faces for relief' stuff here. The facial expressions, even when bordering on the unreal, are extremely well done - everything from the body language to the eyes, the slightly surreal sequences - everything fits perfectly. Since I'm not very qualified to make objective judgments in this department (or perhaps any department), I find it unlikely that everyone will like it similarly.

Enjoyment/Overall (10/10)
When I started reading this somewhat late into the night, I did not expect much. I'd been binge reading manga for the last couple of weeks, and even though there were many that were unputdownable, this was much more. Appealing to the intellect and to emotions buried under a veritable pile of rubble wasn't in the menu, but this manga served it. It might be weird to say, but in some ways it healed and brought some unfinished things to conclusion. Unlikely that I'm going to forget about this soon enough, though I won't particularly recommend it for that specific purpose. Read it with an open mind, and you won't regret it.

This has to be the most disappointing anime movie I've ever seen. Considering people say this is much better than the book, I can only shudder to think how mind numbingly boring the book must have been. Studio Ghibli's and Miyazaki's prodigious talents are exhausted and wasted in trying to make this movie pseudo-bearable.

To summarize, it's the classic witch curses girl fantasy, but with some meaningless filler war and random side characters and just... ugh. It's a mess. And by no stretch of imagination a beautiful one, save for the visual appeal.

The brilliant art and the passable music do nothing to alleviate the intense ... boredom and the unease generated by the confusing, haphazard story and the annoying voice acting. Not to mention it's excessively LONG, in spite of which the characters are completely hollow and insubstantial.

If you want to pleasure your eyes with a studio ghibli production, go ahead. But do yourself a favor and lower your expectations to nil and switch your brain off.

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" - Gintama is an anime that verifies this Aristotelian platitude on a multitude of planes. Kidding. Kind of. Also, warning - fanboy review ahead with occasional mild criticism thrown in to provide pseudo-legitimacy.

Gintama is an odd one, but belonging to the lovable variety, or so I'd presume. On the first watch, one wonders if the essentially primitive animation and a somewhat overly colorful cast is worth the time, but as one gets immersed in the world where J-pop references and historical fiction collide with sci-fi and an esoteric but quickly endearing sense of humor, ... it's one hell of a ride.

Story(8): The narrative is surprisingly well built, and focuses on some more dramatic/action-based arcs interrupted by essentially disjoint episodes and mini-arcs. Unlike anime like Naruto (kill me for mentioning this in a Gintama review, but well) where filler is code for 'skip' more often than not, Gintama fillers are more filling than the main arcs itself. It's not exactly the Serial Experiments Lain of storytelling, but manages to be conventional and yet oddly satisfying.

Art(7): The animation is not particularly well polished, and the mangaka himself admits to the fact that the character designs are very basic and interchangeable, sometimes characters distinguished solely by their hairstyles (Gintoki and Hijikata) and costume, their base facial features being more or less identical. In spite of this, the overall flavor is really gutsy and cheery, and is rarely a reason for complain, but at the same time nothing to enthuse about.

Sound(10): The music is EXTRAORDINARILY amazing. It's a universe of sound. From the hilarious openings for Prince Hata, to the hardboiled Camus soundtracks, blues, jazz, traditional japanese music, straight up J-rock, Otsuu chan's Chome Chome - this is a varied soundtrack if there ever was one. The epic music is epic enough for all the great fight arcs - Benizakura, Yoshiwara etc. The collected CDs make for great background music for all occasions - birthday parties and funerals included.

Character(10): The mangaka and the voice actors have breathed life into the characters like no other. As with all great multi-cast anime, it rarely relies on the primary protagonist to carry the weight of overall development - it instead focuses on the complex relationships developing all across the cast - from Gorilla and Sarutobi's stalker-kinship to the uncanny meta-rivalry between Katsura and Kyubei in one of the series' more bizarre arcs- it all makes for some fantastic attachments, not only to each character's unique idiosyncrasies, but also to the bonds they develop, which are organically instrumental in shaping the series narrative, and at the same time provide for great running gags (Zura janai, katsura da!).

Enjoyment(10): I've tried a lot to find an anime even remotely as funny or engaging as Gintama, and failed. For some reason(s) (or the aforementioned plethora of), this anime resonates like the proverbial tuning fork - the ensemble of lovable characters (except Shinpachi, no one likes a whiner, but someone has to make Yamazaki look good), the sometimes lame but still expertly dropped one liners, the episode naming, the voice acting, the thematic diversity, the references that threaten to over-annotate the episode for the lesser informed viewer.. all make this anime, in my opinion, a piece of art that's as perfectly flawed and alive as any out there.

Hence, an overall 10! And can't wait for the new season to begin! Love and peace, y0!

P.S - First anime review, but please be brutally honest with the voting.