The boys soft tennis club of Shijo Minami middle school is, in a word, hopeless. in a set of practice matches against the successful and popular girls soft tennis club at the school, the boys fail to win a single point. Faced with a laughing stock club with a dwindling set of members, trying to balance the books and ashamed of how this 'sore thumb' club sticks out compared to the girls soft tennis club, the student council gives them an ultimatum - win a match at regionals in the summer or the club gets disbanded for good.
Toma Shinjo is the president of the club,
...
and despite his own potential and work ethic he can't get anything to work. Until he meets a new transfer student he knew back in junior school who he finds, when he manages to catch a stray cat dashing around the class, has outstanding reflexes. As what he sees to be the only way out for the club, he begs this boy, Maki, to join. With no intent on joining (and living in a single parent household where his mum works long hours, he has to dedicate a lot of time to helping with the chores, shopping etc.) he jokingly suggests Toma pay him and he'll join. To his surprise Toma accepts. Somewhat hesitantly, Maki joins the soft tennis club and from then on its the long journey of kicking the club into shape in the space of a few months in the hopes of saving it from the brink of death.
We quickly find it's less so about tennis, and more so a character study about fraught family relationships and the impact that can have on vulnerable adolescent boys.
Toma has a rocky relationship with his mum, who seemingly no matter what he does sees him as a disappointment compared to his older brother, who used to compete in tennis nationally. Tennis isn't about fun for him- it's about winning and being someone to be proud of when expectations on him are stacked up to the ceiling. Maki, who becomes Toma's pair, gets the most focus - at the end of episode one we find that him and his mum are plagued by his physically abusive and now divorced father for money every few weeks. The mum works long hours for little money- with the father muscling in to skim away money they dont have, the family lives in borderline poverty. As they move house semi-regularly to try and avoid the father (all spoiled due to Japanese laws that allow biological parents to legally apply to find the residence of their children even if they do not have custody), Maki learns to build a front that everything's ok. He's cocky and confident but reserved and detached, and very good at acting like everything's ok, but it's a story of that front cracking open and opening up about his traumatic past and difficult life, and also finding an actual hobby in tennis that makes life something other than work/schoolwork/chores/sleep.
The supporting cast, bar practically none, have some sort of unhealthy relationship with at least one of their parents. In the interest of dodging spoilers, i'll go over some of the most interesting ones and err towards ones covered earliest in the show. One boy is trying to come to terms that he's adopted, as he reevaluates his relationship with his parents after he finds they aren't his biological family. Another is protective to the point of abusive, attempting to domineer and keep control of her only child in any way she can even to the point of trying to bully him away from the tennis club he grows more and more to love. One of my favourite characters in the show is an aspiring artist that secretly has a moderate following of fans online, as they sort of put on a brave face in real life while they have to navigate the toxicity of an unsupportive mum and of their own fanbase, responding cruelly as their interests and style changes drastically to what these fans first followed their page for.
One of the worst things about the show is that it tries to juggle a character arc for all of these characters and more and leaves development for each lacking. As these stories tangle and trip over eachother, nothing gets concluded satisfactorily. In addition to Maki and Toma, it's trying to give a character arc and develop each member of the entire club (at least 8 people), along with two non-players in its orbit, certain key family members important to them, and establishing personalities for key rivals in other schools' clubs. If that wasn't enough, it attempts to resolve all these plot threads simultaneously rather than giving you the time to digest a few at a time. All this in a one cour show. It's a Herculean task, to say the least.
It pays a price on the telling of practically each of these character stories. A plotline about an lgbt character gets promptly forgotten completely after the episode it briefly features in. Whilst Maki is compelling and believable and is given enough screentime and development to be satisfying, its hard to say that for any other characters unless their arc is intentionally brief and succinct for example with Itsuki (whose arc is centralised into a chunk in a single episode, and feels finished).The show was planned to run two cour and, supposedly, relatively late in the game was only given clearance for a single cour, so that helps explain the situation somewhat. But for most of the characters I felt attached to their situation and invested in their story only for it to develop only part way, and that feels quite disappointing when, for a few of the reasons listed below and its uncomfortable and non-prime-time TV friendly forefronting of domestic violence its quite unlikely it will ever get a continuation to resolve things.
In the sections it does actually focus on tennis, there's plenty to criticise. For an anime about a tennis club playing, it doesnt actually explain much in terms of the intricacies of the game. Though i learned a lot about some aspects of the game - strong servers are scary, stamina pays off in the ends of longer games, in doubles pairings are hugely important (in terms of being on the same wavelength and communicating, but also accommodating the other players' playstyle and personality and playing to their strengths, and you can abuse the weaker link even if one player seems indomitable a team's only as strong as its weakest link etc), the importance of the mental game and how you can throw even a challenging opponent off-balance by nudging them in the right way (and how gimmicks can gain real results by catching an opponent unprepared and putting them on tilt) - these points are the sole things it ever communicates about the games that get played, and it breezes past everything else in between.
Whilst it's good at expanding upon that chosen handful of the intricacies to higher-level play and at explaining the absolute basics, it forgets to establish much of the inbetween. Beyond brief platitudes to the roles of the front and back player and a repeated emphasis on smashes and volleys as confirmed ways to win points capitalising off of errors, as a complete novice to doubles tennis coming into the show i still come out not much wiser on the in and out rhythms, win conditions, roles, movements and shape of a point, a game, and a match of doubles should look like at the show's close. While part of that blame can surely he pointed towards the animation problems i'll detail in the following paragraphs, its also a problem with the show's understanding or at least conveyance of how the game is played to an audience that doesnt have at least some experience in doubles tennis prior.
For a sports anime, it's also quite a confusing how its animation is such a weak point. This is usually the easy bit, and something you'd expect to see down pat, particularly in a shorter runtime than your average sports-shonen. It's difficult to find the tennis compelling when the animation looks so shoddy. Though a handful of shots look great, theres a lot of shots that blatantly gets reused, uses very limited animation or just looks lazily made. It infringes on the pacing of the games as it can make it difficult to interpret why someone's winning or losing when there's not much animation budget to spare to animate many of the points in each game. When you do get more than a brief still with a score change layered over it, most actually animated points rely on enough reused animation there's little room for nuance in communicating the improving talents of these supposedly radically improved talent this club develops.
In the scenes and episodes the show focuses more on the people than the tennis, the show can pivot off of the broken leg of its limited animation and onto its stronger foot - the candid view on its characters' mental health through harsh family situations that arent handled much in most anime (and certainly not in its genre), and its portrayal of the unspoken atmospheres of the club changing throughout the series as bonds strengthen, talents grow, results turn around.
As for other things worth praising in the show, there a few aspects worth mentioning. It's art is very very pretty, and some of its backgrounds are gorgeous (I'm thinking of the riverside walk the gang take to and from school). The pastel colours and simple backgrounds take a leaf from Wandering Son's book, and are some of the biggest reasons I jumped into the show in the first place. The soundtrack is nothing to go crazy over and occasionally suffers from its best tracks getting overused, but it's generally quite a good fit for the show and has a few bops (including one surprisingly math-rocky track I quite liked). The OP is a beautiful track that really captures the wounded but proud, fighting vibe that its communal cast effuse through the show. The ED is, hands down, the best animated part of the show, and is brimming with personality as it shows pairs of its characters dancing each with their own measure of style, bombast, stamina, timing and interest.
Hoshiai no Sora was a show I was expecting to love after one episode and came away somewhat disappointed in after thirteen. But having listed all those quite biting points of contention as strong flaws against it's name, I'm surprised I still liked it enough to give it a 6/10. In so many ways, something that's such a mess for most of its runtime is something I shouldn't be so kind to. And that's partly why I'm writing this review - despite all of its glaring faults, the show has heart. It's fascinating, and I hope despite knocking it down a few pegs, it comes across I think it's totally worth your time if you can stomach it's occasionally gratuitous portrayal of domestic abuse and want a sports anime out of the ordinary or a decent character study.
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Apr 4, 2020
Hoshiai no Sora
(Anime)
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The boys soft tennis club of Shijo Minami middle school is, in a word, hopeless. in a set of practice matches against the successful and popular girls soft tennis club at the school, the boys fail to win a single point. Faced with a laughing stock club with a dwindling set of members, trying to balance the books and ashamed of how this 'sore thumb' club sticks out compared to the girls soft tennis club, the student council gives them an ultimatum - win a match at regionals in the summer or the club gets disbanded for good.
Toma Shinjo is the president of the club, ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 30, 2019
Yagate Kimi ni Naru
(Anime)
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(Both the manga and the anime are absolutely worth your time and this recommendation touches on both and what makes each unique)
Bloom into You follows 15 year old Yuu in her first year of high school. She loves to read shojo manga and finds joy in seeing romances unfold in the pages of those stories, but she feels a deep frustration and guilt in her inability to reach and grasp those emotions herself. She understands the meaning behind the words, but the words are never 'hers'. When she confides in her senpai, Touko Nanami, about how to react to a confession from an old friend, ... Yuu's ecstatic to find someone who's also never fallen in love then confused and initially distraught to see Nanami quickly developing an attraction to her. Behind the front of the student council Yuu and Nanami's relationship leaps from mere friendship to an odd, doting one-sided sort of romance which morphs and bends as both characters become more and more intimately familiar with how the other thinks, what kind of a person they are and the secrets they keep locked deep inside. I think the singular aspect of this series that's handled the best is its characters. Almost all of the side characters are brimming with personality even when they get very little time to shine (there's more than just these but i'll keep to just three for the sake of being concise and dodging side characters whose appeal is best explained in more spoilerific terms)- Koyomi's a budding writer absorbed in writing a novel, at the expense of her sleep and schoolwork. Rei, Yuu's older sister, cottons on to Yuu's bubbling feelings and the broad strokes of the complexion of Yuu's dynamic with Nanami relatively early on and she's a very accepting and wholesome figure throughout the story. Maki's an asexual boy on the student council who takes great pride in watching Yuu care more and more for Nanami, cheering her on from the sidelines. As for the main characters. Yuu's quickly become one of my favourite protagonists in this medium and I don't quite have the words to place why. As someone with a history of depression it the imagery of sinking and being unable to reach your feelings at the surface/trying to take flight but being tethered to the ground struck a personal chord, and that's certainly a part of it. There's also the unique way it constructs her exclusion as self-inflicted and separates her from caring, loving friends not by their malice or ignorance but an aversion to talking about her experiences with people that can't relate. More so than that in a way I can't quite word I feel a little piece of myself alive on the screen (or paper) I hadn't met before. Someone I'd like to be. Yuu is a me I'd be proud to become some day, and a person I couldn't be more thankful that I met. Yuu may be outstanding, but Nanami more than pulls her weight too and her constant pressing and prodding of Yuu's limits, her fluctuation between her public and private faces, and the lifelike, human realism allotted to her mental health are another core artery in the heart of Bloom's appeal. Nanami isn't the perfect model student she'd like you to believe her to be, and it's convincingly conveyed that her academic, posh and pretty front is little more than a fragile facade. It inspires who she lets in under her armor: Yuu, whose inability to see anyone else as 'special' is a captivating reprieve from Nanami's acting; and her longtime friend, student council colleague and amazing third main character Sayaka Saeki, a trustworthy and perceptive friend who knows her boundaries and is fine not to tread any further than that, despite her feelings for Nanami. It's in supporting characters like Saeki where the series interacts most with sexuality talking about how a bad experience can lead to repression and conveying the need for more and more representation to normalise homosexuality for kids just coming to terms with it. Bloom is a lot about tiptoeing around the philosophies that Nanami internalised in the wake of her past and building up to a point where softly, with love and care, the two of them can talk it out and confront those beliefs in a caring, loving manner and work past them. It's more of a character study than a romance (certainly so for most of the parts covered by the show, at least) much more than it's a romance - for the most part Nanami's headspace isnt too conducive to sustaining a healthy relationship and it wholly understands that. It's about putting your feelings aside and considering whether the person you care for needs a friend rather than a lover right now. It's respectful and nuanced in its portrayal of mental health, not minimising, stigmatising or stereotyping it and talking about the long process of moving past your troubles with the help of a few good friends. To compare the manga and anime, first off I wanted to cover the dimensions of art and sound. The manga is better in that it captures emotion in its facial expressions in a much more subtle, precise and consistent way that makes the anime in certain scenes look sloppy in comparison and hamstrings the manga's outstanding success at communicating detail with 'show don't tell'. The art in the anime is propped up by the backgrounds and the richness of the colour palette (both of which are absolutely gorgeous). The voice acting in the Japanese dub is genuinely stellar, emotional and personal and serves to compensate for where the animation of characters faces would dissolve the emotional punch of the manga. Michiru Oshima's soundtrack also serves to build a serene, mundane and peaceful atmosphere in the background to Yuu and Nanami's daily lives. It also knows when to shut up, and gains power in its scarcity and measured usage- some of the most powerful scenes in the anime are silent and punctuated by shrill, unforgettable sound design. Keep an eye (and ear) out every time you notice a train. The anime is notably slower-paced than the manga (which can cause quite a whiplash when reading the rest after you complete the anime, especially because the ending few chapters are really rushed. I'll get to that). This works wonders in the first two episodes, where it languishes in the beautiful atmospheres it concocts, lives in the moments it creates and eases the viewer into the series better than the manga does. But in the middle of the series this serves to artificially slow down a manga that has found a more balanced and effective rhythm and makes it drag more than it should, though this is by no means a colossal flaw. The anime was only adapted for one cour and past where the anime ends the manga hurtles at a breakneck pace for nearly twenty chapters, never stopping or taking the resolution of a story arc as an excuse to slow down and smell the roses, expanding upon the lovingly rendered but largely ignored cast of side characters. I think that's a big mistake. And the way that arc was resolved seemed odd in how little tension there was in its conclusion. It seems to me that 1) Nio Nakatani chose too simple an ending because they wanted to see characters they loved end in a completely tied up, happy manner in disregard of an accurate simulation of what would have happened in a situation like that if treated on its own terms, or 2) Nio Nakatani was rushing to conclude the series rapidly in a short number of chapters for some reason. What we got was great but truncated, riddled with large gaps unnaturally unfilled. It also means it's reasonably unlikely we're going to get a Bloom into You season 2 as there's not enough chapters to fit a cour- though a season 2 would certainly work given some well-written and placed filler. Adapting some of the short stories in the Bloom into You Comic Anthology would be a great start for that (12 other mangaka drew a chapter of manga each as a fanfiction about parts of the Bloom cast. It's inconsistent but beautiful, the cheesecake chapter especially is brilliant. It's worth a read once you're finished with the series). Bloom into You is a gorgeous yuri romance demonstrating a masterful talent in building and breaking down multifaceted, layered and human characters, a series I learned a lot about myself from reading, and a series that I'll cherish for years to come. (I'm rating the anime somewhere in the middle of an 8, and giving the manga an ever so slightly higher 8.)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 30, 2019
Yagate Kimi ni Naru
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(50/50 chp)
(Both the manga and the anime are absolutely worth your time and this recommendation touches on both and what makes each unique.)
Bloom into You follows 15 year old Yuu in her first year of high school. She loves to read shojo manga and finds joy in seeing romances unfold in the pages of those stories, but she feels a deep frustration and guilt in her inability to reach and grasp those emotions herself. She understands the meaning behind the words, but the words are never 'hers'. When she confides in her senpai, Touko Nanami, about how to react to a confession from an old friend, ... Yuu's ecstatic to find someone who's also never fallen in love then confused and initially distraught to see Nanami quickly developing an attraction to her. Behind the front of student council formalities, Yuu and Nanami's relationship leaps from mere friendship to an odd, doting one-sided romance whose form wobbles and bends as both characters become more and more intimately familiar with how the other thinks, what kind of a person they are and the secrets they keep locked deep inside. Bloom into You, or "Eventually, I'll become you" (the less artful, blunter and more accurate translation of the Japanese title) is unique in that both Yuu and Nanami are drawn to the other girl's current self whilst chasing desperately to reinvent themselves, and that brings in a lot of fascinating questions about the difficulty of love in the face of change, sustaining a relationship with someone becoming a different 'them' to who you fell for. I think the singular aspect of this series that this series absolutely nails is its characters. Almost all of the side characters are brimming with personality even when they get very little time to shine (there's more than just these but i'll keep to just three for the sake of being concise and dodging side characters whose appeal is best explained in more spoilerific terms)- Koyomi's a budding writer absorbed in writing a novel, at the expense of her sleep and schoolwork. Rei, Yuu's older sister, cottons on to Yuu's bubbling feelings and the broad strokes of the complexion of Yuu's dynamic with Nanami relatively early on and she's a very accepting and wholesome figure throughout the story. Maki's an asexual boy on the student council who takes great pride in watching Yuu care more and more for Nanami, cheering her on from the sidelines. The side characters help ground the world and origins of the main characters, the real stars of the show. Yuu's quickly become one of my favourite protagonists in this medium and I don't quite have the words to place why. Part of it's the commitment to candidness and the deep mining of her thought process, something afforded to Nanami and Sayaka to an admirable degree too but pushed to 11 for the protagonist from whose perspective the story is told. As someone with a history of depression, the imagery of sinking and being unable to reach your feelings at the surface/trying to take flight but being tethered to the ground struck a personal chord, that's certainly a part of the affinity I have with her. There's also the unique way Bloom constructs her exclusion as self-inflicted and separates her from caring, loving friends not by their malice or ignorance but an aversion to confessing her experiences to people that couldn't be able to relate. More so than that, in a way I can't quite word, I feel a little piece of myself sparking, alive on the screen (or paper) when I watch (or read), a me I hadn't met before. Yuu is a me I'd be proud to become some day, and a person I couldn't be more thankful that I met. Yuu may be outstanding, but Nanami more than pulls her weight too and her constant pressing and prodding of Yuu's limits, her fluctuation between her public and private faces, and the lifelike, human realism allotted to her mental health are another core artery in the heart of Bloom's appeal. Nanami isn't the perfect model student she'd like you to believe her to be, and it's convincingly conveyed that her academic, posh and pretty front is little more than a fragile facade. It inspires who she lets in under her armor: Yuu, whose inability to see anyone else as 'special' is a captivating reprieve to Nanami from her act; and her longtime friend, student council colleague and amazing third main character Sayaka Saeki, a trustworthy and perceptive friend who knows her boundaries and is fine not to tread any further than that despite the love she feels for Nanami. It's in supporting characters like Saeki where the series interacts most with sexuality, talking about how a bad experience can lead to repression and conveying the need for more and more representation to normalise homosexuality for kids just coming to terms with it. Surprisingly the main narrative doesn't really discuss homosexuality or the surrounding climate around it at all, beyond a little line near the beginning where Yuu's surprised about how comfortable she is with the concept of dating a woman, and a later line where Rei thinks about different family members and how accepting they would be in the situation that Yuu and Nanami's started publicly dating. Bloom is a lot about tiptoeing around the philosophies that Nanami internalised in the wake of her past and building up to a point where softly, with love and care, the two of them can talk it out and confront those beliefs in a soft, careful and nurturing manner to work past them. It's more of a character study than a romance (certainly so for most of the parts covered by the show, at least) partly because of its focus on mental health. It asks its characters 'does the person you care for need a friend rather than a lover right now?' It's respectful and nuanced in its portrayal of mental health, it's not minimising, stigmatising or stereotyping, and its all about the long process of moving past such issues with the help of a few good friends. To compare the manga and anime, first off I wanted to cover the dimensions of art and sound. The manga is better in that it captures emotion in its facial expressions in a much more subtle, precise and consistent way that makes the anime in certain scenes look sloppy in comparison and hamstrings the manga's outstanding success at communicating detail with 'show don't tell'. The art in the anime is propped up by the backgrounds and the richness of the colour palette (both of which are absolutely gorgeous). The voice acting in the Japanese dub is genuinely stellar, emotional and personal and serves to compensate for where the animation of characters faces would dissolve the emotional punch of the manga. Michiru Oshima's soundtrack also serves to build a serene, mundane and peaceful atmosphere in the background to Yuu and Nanami's daily lives. It also knows when to shut up, and gains power in its scarcity and measured usage- some of the most powerful scenes in the anime are silent and punctuated by shrill, unforgettable sound design. Keep an eye (and ear) out every time you notice a train. The anime is notably slower-paced than the manga (which can cause quite a whiplash when reading the rest after you complete the anime, especially because the ending few chapters are really rushed. I'll get to that). This works wonders in the first two episodes, where it languishes in the beautiful atmospheres it concocts, lives in the moments it creates and eases the viewer into the series better than the manga does. But in the middle of the series this serves to artificially slow down a manga that has found a more balanced and effective rhythm and makes it drag more than it should, though this is by no means a colossal flaw. The anime was only adapted for one cour and past where the anime ends the manga hurtles at a breakneck pace for nearly twenty chapters, never stopping or taking the resolution of a story arc as an excuse to slow down and smell the roses, expanding upon the lovingly rendered but largely ignored cast of side characters. I think that's a big mistake. And the way that arc was resolved seemed odd in how little tension there was in its conclusion. It seems to me that 1) Nio Nakatani chose too simple an ending because they wanted to see characters they loved end in a completely tied up, happy manner in disregard of an accurate simulation of what would have happened in a situation like that if treated on its own terms, or 2) Nio Nakatani was rushing to conclude the series rapidly in a short number of chapters for some reason. What we got was great but truncated, riddled with large gaps unnaturally unfilled. It also means it's reasonably unlikely we're going to get a Bloom into You season 2 as there's not enough chapters to fit a cour- though a season 2 would certainly work given some well-written and placed filler. Adapting some of the short stories in the Bloom into You Comic Anthology would be a great start for that (12 other mangaka drew a chapter of manga each as a fanfiction about parts of the Bloom cast. It's inconsistent but beautiful, the cheesecake chapter especially is brilliant. It's worth a read once you're finished with the series). Bloom into You is a gorgeous yuri romance demonstrating a masterful talent in building and breaking down multifaceted, layered and human characters, a series I learned a lot about myself from reading, and a series that I'll cherish for years to come.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 2, 2019 Recommended
To explain what it is first: FLCL is Naota's story. Naota's a stubborn lil 12 year old boy just hitting puberty and FLCL is his perspective of a world he doesn't quite understand transforming before his eyes. Naota's hero is his older brother, and the series starts in the wake of his brother moving to America to chase a baseball career, a move that leaves Naota confused and a little lonely (though he'd never admit that to anyone). He takes it upon himself to look after and care for everything Tasuku left behind- from the top bunk of their bed, to his old baseball bat,
...
to his hurt ex-girlfriend, Mamimi. Naota's always looking up at the sky when a jet flies over town. Episode 1 sees Naota struggling to find the words to explain to Mamimi that his brother's moved on and is dating someone new... before an alien girl on a flying vespa swoops in swinging with a bass guitar and robots come flying out of his head...?
Every episode has it's own little narrative and teaches something new and important about adulthood asks a question about growing up and what it means to be an adult. Every episode is its own beast, usually working overtime to develop a character with a different approach to growing up and maturity, and the lessons everyone learns from their overlapping stories to Naota's. Most episodes function in a semi-standalone way within the progressing narrative, with their own distinct focuses, visual identities and spotlighted characters. Those 6 episodes pack so much content into such little screentime without feeling rushed it's actually nuts. The side characters are almost as fleshed out as the main cast and just as endearing- take Commander Amarao for example, who is genuinely hilarious and blesses every scene he's in, or Ninamori, the mayor's daughter and Naota's classmate/friend(?)/rival, a personal favourite side character who is fleshed out awfully well for someone rarely seen outside of her one dedicated episode. There's a lot of inherited eva dna in particular with how it treats its main characters (after all it is a Gainax show made just a few years after eva went huge with many of the same staff and a director who spent the next few decades in his career after codirecting the rebuild films with hideaki anno). FLCL, unlike Eva, does a much better job at communicating its brilliant characters to the audience, however. It's laser focused, cutting through the layers of philosophy babble and obtuse lore that weighed eva as a character study down while retaining all of the meat on the character bones Eva is known and loved for. I think FLCL genuinely has something for everyone. FLCL is a heart-wrenching, vulnerable coming of age character study from the most authentic and all-encompassing representation of a preteen boy's head I've seen in fiction, using perspective masterfully. FLCL is a story that never hesitates to get to the very core of its characters' underpinning philosophies and beliefs while also giving the whole cast a lot of development by regularly putting obstacles in their path to make them reflect on the ways they think about the world. FLCL is bombastic Gainax-brand weirdness with method to its madness. FLCL is gorgeous, with fluid animation, fantastic fight sequences, more breathtaking shots than you can shake a stick at and easter eggs galore in a love letter to animation worldwide. FLCL is a bucketload of symbolism but unlike Eva, most of it hits like a truck- the bat, the sounds of a jet, or Mamimi's links to fire are things that carry emotional weight and hit with immediate punch. FLCL is a beautiful soundtrack that snugly fits the world coming to life on screen, serving up moods whether its sunburnt nostalgia, fast, fighty rock, or something more melancholy (god bless The Pillows). FLCL is exciting- there's a sense of mystery in never quite knowing what to expect around the corner on the next episode. And FLCL is one of only a handful of shows that I'll choose to watch dubbed over subbed (if you'll excuse a few scenes in ep.1), filled with passionate performances and smart translations of a nightmare script packed with very Japanese pop-culture references. FLCL is my favourite OVA and one of the best anime I've ever seen.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 9, 2019 Recommended
i'd like to document some stream of consciousness thoughts here: partly to paint the emotional landscape that it brought out of me, partly to use my limited filmy/animationy knowledge to try and expound upon why i feel like i feel, and to touch on aspects of shimura's style i'm starting to pick up on after wandering son and this.
sleepy rhythms of a sleepy town. breathes and sleeps in mellow. words and a deafening lack of words that echo for episodes after they're said. fickle loves that bloom, shrivel, detonate. loves that echo for episodes. loves that compete with others within you and in the hearts ... of others. loves that emerge from dark corners you never knew existed within you. loves that refuse to float away. it's a show about friendship, about not letting go of old pals who are there for you through whatever may come, and about how important it is to just talk it out about whatever's weighing you down and take a deep breath. it's a gaze out the window on a rainy day kind of show. collapse on your bed after a hard day kind of show. a strum the blues kind of show. the kind of endlessly endearing, vulnerable coming of age story that you can't help but donate your heart to. the most underrated thing about takako shimura is her bedrooms. places of refuge that tell you everything about her characters without saying a word. it's a mirror to the soul of its owner- with intentional, thought out detail. it goes without saying that this helps bring out the colour in the stars of this series- the flawed, jealous, repressed, recovering, earnest, performatively mature girls (and occasionally, boys) trying to find happiness. fumi is quickly becoming a favourite (with sugimoto as a close second), but wherever you look you find people just trying their best to get through hard situations, people making bad decisions for good ends. i want to talk about chizu for a bit- fumi's cousin and first partner, with whom she, on and off, held a one-sided sexual relationship- as we are told in the first episode. as a big flcl fan something i hugely admired in that show is how tasuku, main character naota's older brother, leaves such an indelible stain on the show and the story with the tiniest of screentime and effectively no dialogue on their own. chizu's husband is never even shown. all we get is a scene with a half-hearted sorry, a birthday cake (there's a certain other scene that's also interesting to talk about on this subject too, but that's more of a spoil). it's like yui from eva all over again. the look on fumi's face as she walks in and see's the cake in the room in the first episode? the look of sheer and absolute horror? it's incredible. chizu echoes through most of fumi's actions and the asymmetrical feelings awkwardly skirted around in that relationship is paralleled repeatedly in virtually all of the other key relationships. i think it's masterful writing to realise such a character in such little space. i finally want to touch on what i'm slowly discovering to be a favourite tool of shimura's to expand upon character dynamics- plays, and acting. characters' relationships parallel each other and teach us more about each individual, what they learn, and how they progress and what others need to do themselves, but [play name redacted to avoid spoils] helps illuminate certain main characters' perspectives on characters that mimic their own, helping to understand their mindset and where they are as a person better. whereas acting in wandering son was a pocket of safety in your gender identity in 'gender-bender plays', acting in aoi hana is about naturalised parallels and mirroring character arcs to illuminate character development without using anno-esque arthouse direction that really wouldn't fit the chill vibes of this sleepy little town by the ocean and the mundane stories it hides. i think it shows a lot of flexibility and development as a writer. the only things i can think of to fault is that the OP turns otherwise intricate character work on akira and fumi's childhood-best-friendship/maybe romance into explicit, unsubtle homoeroticism from the very start by having them lovingly gaze at eachothers' naked bodies, even though akira's sexuality is at best a mystery even after the anime ends and 99% of the series' efforts at romantic development focuses on sugumoto, that the character designs don't have enough colour diversity so can occasionally look a little monotone and flat, that the animation isn't outstanding (but it doesn't need to be), and that the relaxed, languid pacing might not be to everyone's taste. it's not bombastic or fast, but it doesn't need to be. aoi hana is delicate and tender moments of humanity incarnate, beating, throbbing, pumping, laughing, crying, living. in this world there's no happy endings, there's no evil, there's no villains, there's just... life. bittersweet, heart-wrenching beauty dripping from every pore. I don't think our world and aoi hana's is that different, all in all. Easy 9/10. Required viewing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 22, 2019
Kuragehime
(Manga)
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Outstanding start and finish but touch and go in between.
Speaking of touch and go- think of this review more like a jumble of thoughts I'm trying to stop disappearing from my brain. It's not complete, it's no concise, and it's not well organised. But hopefully it might be insightful. Especially for what I'd consider faults. I feel like I can talk more at length what I'd consider it's big flaws than the grip it had over me making me come back anyway. Spoiler-free at the top, spoiler zone below the dashed line. Some points are spoilerific enough to be dropped entirely into the spoiler zone, ... others are examples to illustrate spoiler-free points at the top (asterisked). There's a lot of positives in the spoilers, I don't secretly hate it (which you might think, looking at the paragraph thickness of 'good/great' vs 'not so good'). The Good and the Great - Fascinating premise. Sets itself up to explore a wealth of unique and largely untrodden thematic territory in the medium: social anxieties, hikikomori/NEETs and reintegrating with society, mental health, gender dysphoria and queer/trans identity, the ethics of corporate capitalism, sexuality, politics, notions of femininity, love, marriage, fashion and family (ones chosen and ones born into). It may pull its punches or outright avoid certain choices but I think it deserves applause for finding such an interesting niche - Well-written and lovable main characters keep you invested despite its issues. Tsukimi, Shuu and Kuranosuke are all personal favourites- it’s always great when the characters with the most page-time (?) are strongly written, endearing and human, not overrun by their comedic register and with vices, virtues, and changing perspectives on the core themes as the manga progresses. It also helps that the relationships between the three are all unique and have amusing or thought-provoking dynamics, though I’ll come back to this later because I do have some issues. - The dialogue has its moments of real, profound beauty.* - Hanamori is hilarious - Great comedy… while it lasts. The Not so Good - The series has an identity crisis. It wants to be a drama, a comedy and a romance all at once. Rather than enriching and balancing and helping to pace the other strands, they all seem to be in conflict and interrupt each other, with goofy oddball comedy ruining dramatic atmospheres and otherwise interesting character dialogue situations alike. - Higashimura builds characters that run off from her intentions- developed to convince a reader they'll take one action and then writes them into taking another. This is exaggerated by the clashing genre styles I mentioned earlier. - The comedy starts hilarious then grows formulaic. Suddenly, somewhere in the middle of the series, Higashimura learns a bevy of new comedic tricks all at once and injects them into the show seemingly all at once, which is great but puts the reader a little offbalance with the random sudden tonal shift as the manga sort of drowns in skits, and then rather the same repetitive dullness strikes again. - Dumbass characters break suspension of disbelief because it’s terrified of moving the plot forward. The series works on the assumption that the vast majority of its characters are painfully ignorant and unobservant and/or uncaring about their flatmates/workmates and close friends in exchange for Higashimura’s terror in progressing key threads of the plot and character relationships. In fact, Higashimura repeatedly backs characters into corners where a certain piece of information SHOULD be teased out of them, due to a character’s terrible denial and/or another character’s insightful line of questioning or thought process being right on the money and then the scene inexplicably will end with the interrogating character none the wiser or that thought will be just abandoned because of a timely comedy sketch to save the day. It’s forced stagnation, and it not only indicates weak planning and predictive plotting of information reveals but a sense of cowardice, prolonging a series longer than an author feels it should go on for (if I was to guess, I’d say it’s a problem of serialisation). It helps ruin the pacing and makes a reader want to rush through a series to the finish- because Higashimura intentionally yanks the carrot away to chew on what’s effectively fragranced filler instead- but it also makes characters less believable, particularly in the sense of communal, chosen family that it simultaneously wants you to emotionally invest in there being. Something that struck me in the final few chapters and the torrent of reveals they drop on you is how well paced and satisfying is, because situations were actually treated honestly by Higashimura and reacted to as such. If you want to make a drama or a romance, you imagine a sort of sandbox simulation of your fictional world, and then you develop your plot and characters by asking yourself ‘if I flip this switch, this character as it is right now (and I have communicated them to be right now) would react in this way’, and then you need to be honest to that outcome. It becomes a problem if 1) you flip no switches (not so much a problem here) or 2) you flip the switches then act like nothing happens when the lights don’t turn on. It injures the worldbuilding, your suspension of disbelief and the pacing, and it shackles otherwise outstanding and beautiful character work on display here. - As a sort of follow-up to the previous few points, they all converge to make the Amars in general really frustrating. This isn’t to say I don’t like them- that’s not fair to say at all. I think they’re a really well balanced lot that and I think Chieko, Jiji and Mayaya have spurts of great character development and shining personality. They’re also ALL (with the exception of Nomu) really funny and a balanced collection of personalities, with the asterisk of the ‘repetitive gags’ point. They don’t seem to care about how Tsukimi feels. Ever. Even when she’s dejected and depressed. Moments when they do are far too late after an awful lot has happened and is pretty quickly ruined by comedic moments demonstrating they don’t within the same scene. They also don’t really care about eachothers obsessive otaku hobbies at all, to a point of finding frustration in them. Surely there are moments of overlap that could have been used to make the Amamizukan feel like the ‘family’ and ‘castle’ Higashimura is intent on telling you it is but doesn’t really feel like?** Could we not get any moments of Jiji and Mayaya bonding over Three Kingdoms history, with the obvious overlap of ‘cool old men’? How about Bamba agreeing to go to, say, the aquarium with Tsukimi because they’d be taking the train there and back? - In fact, developing any of the supporting characters to a notable degree seems to be a concept exclusive to the ‘Kuragehime Heroes’ bonus chapters. This should be a backstory bonus to fill the gaps and add to existing detail, not the basis of their depth in the first place. If less time was spent repeatedly teasing and copping out of big plot reveals and character developments then there would be more than enough space to actually include this in the existing chapter count. SPOILERY BITS BELOW: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *”If you meet that girl, tell her… to love Kuranosuke lots and lots. Just as much as I do”, Rina tells Shuu as the train doors close, tears brimming in her eyes. That moment is coming to mind when I think of dialogue that echoes around your head for a little while after you read it. Succinct, emotional stuff. **Nomu and Chieko are an exception, since they’re both technically the same- ‘clothes otaku’, and they were already friends before Nomu was introduced as an effective member of the Amars. - For what little coverage they do get, there’s a lot of substance to Kuranosuke’s mother, the Prime Minister and Kuranosuke/Shuu’s father, and all of them are wrapped snugly into the core themes of the series. - Fish and Hwayoung have a lot of personality and deceptive depth. - Fish: - Fish’s warm face and laugh, despite being a ruthless corporate ‘whale’- even bigger than the ‘shark’ Inari- and the sexual manipulation he uses on his models and designers - The way he carries himself. He doesn’t have to throw his weight around. He’s very measured and succinct with his words. He knows he is powerful, and so does everyone else in the room, and no one wants to face his anger. That anger doesn’t manifest as fury, because it doesn’t need to- even at his company’s death’s door he’s collected, calm, clinical, and cut-throat. - Parallels to Mayaya. Hiding his eyes because it shows him to be duplicitous, shifty, and power-hungry, rather than out of personal anxieties. Whether intentional or not, it helps foreshadow that there’s more than meets the eye with this man. - His manipulative powermongering even leads his childhood friend, ex-lover, and loyal, steadfast admirer Hwayoung to betray him. And the development leads a long way back too- using her feelings for him to make her into his loyal subordinate, seeing him use other models up in the same way, Fish not letting her go to their childhood friend’s wedding at the church orphanage because business was too important (but not for him) - The irony of Fish happening upon Jellyfish’s exhibition of their casual dress line, and the concept being ‘pretty yet poisonous’ – fantastic foreshadowing, as that’s the basis of his whole character - Hwayoung: - Her repressive nature and the minute expressional changes on her face telling the story all by itself - Gazing out the window, a furrowed brow, is sometimes all you need. Show don’t tell. Subtlety is hard to pull off, but it works. - You can tell Hwayoung would betray Fish and strike the deal with Kuranosuke before she does it. This is a problem in communicating character development/intention VS creation that I mention for other characters and plot developments, but it’s not the case here. - Her arc’s end. Returning home, full circle. Moving away from an industry and a hero she had grown to be repulsed by. Not throwing anything away, or burning the waste, but helping those who had nothing rather than extending the profits of a filthy rich billionaire. And in the end, she’s happy. Fish gets fucked over. It’s poetic. - I like that the moral compass of the series points to Inari’s character development favourably. I also like the intention to extend this portrayal of a cutthroat political/business world that Higashimura wanted to (and in my opinion successfully did) portray, and would help set up parallels to the fashion world that would be largely explored in the middle/late chapters of the manga. But the fact that Jellyfish makes comedy out of spiking drinks leaves a very sour taste in my mouth, and the fact that Inari is effectively a main character pretty early on and the joke was repeated to death, just like many other jokes Princess Jellyfish makes, just made it even more frustrating to me. It minimises sexually predatory action against innocent people, and this can have real world consequences especially when it’s wrapped up in this bubbly and generally wholesome package. Episodes 5 to 11 being packed with this shite is a big reason I have the Jellyfish anime at a 7/10, even though I think otherwise it can be excellent, especially in the OP/ED and in Kana Hanazawa’s interpretation of Tsukimi. Didn’t Tsukimi herself say something like ‘even the prettiest jellyfish can be poisonous’? - The ‘fashion world’ twist was a really well-planned and hidden surprise. Mayaya being perfect for a model? Tsukimi being a designer for dresses? Kuranosuke’s high profile political family/ upbringing being perfect training and publicity for running the Amars’ clothing brand? The quiet ‘forgettable’ Jiji becoming the accountant? Chieko’s sewing abilities? Difficult to predict, yet a comical perfect storm when the pieces all come together. This is one of those 'What I liked deserved much more than what it's packaged with', 'wish I could rate it higher' series that leave a bigger imprint on your heart than the number can really communicate. I've had a few of these recently, and it's making me go cold on numbered ratings. I have to give it a 7, and send it to the purgatory for the not quite great- for anything from goodish shows without that 'classic' gleam to these ones- ones you love but are gripped and pulled down by the ankles when trying to leap up into the sky. I fucking hate 7/10s.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 4, 2019
Penguin Highway
(Anime)
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Morimi adaptation (tick)
Coming of age story (tick) It's about penguins (tick) It's beautifully imaginative and has a fantastically unique premise it executes and takes flying with glee. Just try watching its opening sequences or its climactic half hour or so without grinning ear to ear. It's brimming with youthful wonder, like Hosoda's Mirai dashed with generous helpings of Ghibli and sprinkles of Pixar. Fantastically written flawed MC and holistic perspective-taking from his viewpoint, great dialogue (comparing Aoyama to the penguin puffing out its chest- 'so proud for someone so small', Aoyama's faux-objective dialogue collapsing under the weight of emotions he can't process or admit yet, the motifs ... and symbolism such as the titular 'penguin highway', etc.), outstanding micro-pacing due to slick direction. It's visually glorious, with absolutely gorgeous backgrounds, consistently fluid character animation, great attention to minute detail, and some exceptional sakuga. This is especially excellent considering Studio Colorido has a resume of shorts, adverts (one for McDonalds, funnily enough) and only a small handful of other earlier films which I am now compelled to check out! It's just outstanding in the first and last third of the film. The soundtrack AND sound design are magnificent and serve to enhance already wondrous scenes throughout the film with pretty atmospherics. The middle drags and drops the ball in most of the defining aspects which make the rest such a marvel. My largest gripes is that Suzuki is a trash character, and Hamamoto has her moments but is a little cardboard too. And an echoing gripe i'm noticing a little while after seeing it is the portrayal of dentist lady as so accepting of Aoyama's pretty creepy objectification of her- his obsession with a stranger's boobs is smacks a little of subtle misogyny behind the scenes. I'm very excited for whatever colorido comes out with next!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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