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Jul 18, 2017
Note: my native language isn't English. Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes.
Also: this is my opinion. Im not here to regulate thoughts or influence the way you look at this movie. If you loved it: great! More power to you. However, I would like you to remember that I also am entitled to having an opinion.
Also: yes, I've read the book and watched every part of the series till Owarimonogatari.
I'm planning on working this critique out a bit further sometime in the future, but for now, here is my critique of Kizumonogatari part 3.
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This movie tried too hard.
As a mild fan of the Monogatari series (mainly
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bake, Kizu 1 and the Nadeko arcs) This movie really disappoints. It tries too hard to be a work of art while also trying too hard to pander to the otaku crowd, coupled with being inconsistent with/to it's thematic messages/the rest of the series. This doesn't try to be a quirky/semi-serious movie like previous instillments in the series, and coupled with some weird directing choices I think that it hurts this movie overall, on a thematic and artistic level.
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While critiquing individual categories of this movie, I will try to bring to light my main problem with it.
Starting with the:
Art: The base animation and more experimental animation cuts were lovely. Stylistically, I liked this movie a lot. The varying styles/art design could've been used a bit more tactfully, but in the end, they both were okay. The birth imagery and the visual callbacks to the other instalments in the series were interesting, but more on the imagery later. A more questionable addition was the idea of the non-chronological shots during this movie. I get what their trying to do with the idea of the unreliable narrator and the nuances between story and plot, but it was really hit or miss. It was a bit too overused.
the imagery: in my opinion, it was mediocre.
The shots constantly try to evoke underlying thematic deepness, which is unachievable with the:
1. inconsistent tone throughout the movie (first being about the choice between humanity and vampirism, then about the worth of a human life, then about sex, etc. Stick to one theme. Meanwhile it also tried to be otaku-ish with the close to rape scene of Hanekawa which was played off like comedy and was drawn to look very sexual, obviously for bait , while also dangling the message in front of us that hunger is comparable to indulging into someone sexually. This isn't the original series where sexual imagery was just a thing, and the constant popping up of it conveyed the themes of puberty, hormones and sexuality.)
2. wonky shot compositions (no film-school theory applied, except to the colour design)
3. hyperactive (enological) cutting, and scenes that drag on for too long, which prevents a consistent theme from developing in a scene.
This isn't The end of evangelion where the characters can actually support the imagery because of their realism; the characters in the Monogatari series are archetypes of harem anime; just a bit more developed ones.
However, it wasn't all too bad, because it sometimes did the imagery well. A great example is the first scene, where the positions of Araragi and Oshino, the cutting, the shot of the hallway behind them, the lenght of the shots and the color design really complimented each other well to make an engaging, atmospheric, and thematic scene.
Sound: good voice acting. Soundtrack was meh compared to the first and second movie, sound design was okay. Nothing special but not bad.
A thing which irritated me a lot was the amount of dialogue; unlike the first and second movie, this one was very strong on dialogue. Why would you add in a lot of dialogue in a film? It doesn't add to the tone here, (In the original Bake it added to the quirkiness, which wasn't as apparent here as there.) and weakens the effect of the more strongly staged scenes/shots. There is no reason you should have any advantages watching this over reading this because of the amount of info-dumping and dialogue, unlike the first 2 movies.
Character and story: this is a hard one. As I stated earlier, this movie tries too hard to be standalone and tries too hard to be part of the series. What do I mean by that? These movies try to develop their own, interesting narrative (which, is a decent one for the most part. Just poorly executed on every level.), while forgetting that it is:
1. inconsistent with the series (all the character development here is completely thrown out of the window when entering bake, where only a few elements of this story matter. Why try to make a dramatic narrative out of it when it doesn't even add to the story? This is a big problem the Monogatari series has in general.)
2. doesn't awnser many questions in a satisfying or deep/new way. (what is the worth of a human life?, What is the food chain and how does it influence our way of thinking about each other? What is the effect of the male gaze on the perception of female power? The answers provided here, if at all, aren't new, particularly deep or special.)
The character development was decent, for working out some archetypes in the harem genre. However, it suffers from the same fault as the story, with being inconsistent with the rest of the series. Again people, this isn't The end of evangelion, and in the end, these characters are meant as archetypes. Just some well-developed ones.
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Final verdict:
In the end, this movie is okay. This isn't a masterpiece, or a work of art in my opinion, but I just hate the attitude of this movie. It really, really wasn't my thing. I love the Monogatari series as a small, quirky series, but this really wasn't like that experience. And I know that my critique/score for the most part is very personal, but I'm trying to bring some legit problems with this movie to light.
This movie isn't as deep as it looks to be, because of meh craftsmanship or because everything that happens here, doesn't matter in the long run. Nisioisin isn't the next Shakespeare and I feel like people forget that in-between all the admittedly clever wordplay, In the end, he is an otaku, writing stories for otaku while being just being a bit above the norm. Same goes for the staff at studio Shaft. And I do not hate these peope! What I hate however, is the attitude of the fans towards non-fans, declaring them dumb for critiquing this/these movies for legit flaws, while not even looking into the thing that completely panders to their interest. Always look at something critically, don't buy into something blind.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 2, 2017
I'm pretty mixed on this one to be honest.. after the fantastic first movie and the long, LONG wait, kizumono 2 finally arrived. and oh boy what a ride it was, but was it a good ride? I think not. Stick to me if you wanna know why :)
to make this review and my overall feelings on this movie a bit more logical I'm gonna combine story and character, to juggle between those, since those are my main problems with the movie.
but to start off easy, let's start with art:
-the art was gorgeous. With Tatsuya Oishi returning to the monogatari series I
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was expecting it to return to bakemono's greatness and oh boy it delivered. Oishi really showed his directorial talents with showing innovative animation by combining high-quality CG backgrounds and high-quality, expressive animation. It also happens to be directed decently, more leaning towards the good side, so I was very pleased.
I still enjoy the change in design from the rest of the series, it really suites the tone of these movies and works really well. You can really feel this is a prequel with it's nostalgic colour palette and more oldschool anime character designs. And I adore that choice.
but what about the directing? It's solid. not a masterpiece of direction, but solid. Oishi definately shows he understands 'show don't tell', but I feel like he could apply it more often. It really would nail home the feel of this being a prequel and totally different from the rest of the series, but what we got wasn't bad. Combine what we got with okay cinematogrophy and you get yourself a beastly looking movie.
I do feel like it was less innovative then the previous movie, but not bad in comparison, and definately looks good on it's own too. overall I would give the art an 7, for being slightly less directed then the first movie, but still not bad looking regardless.
sound: movie has a great soundtrack. with Satoru Kosaki returning to this movie, and the monogatari series in general. he really shows his talents as a composer by fully grasping the tone of the movie and making some great, supplementary pieces to the animation that do work on their own, if you are a fan of his style.
I did feel like the soundtrack was used sparingly, along with the sound effects etc. still no bad stuff, but a mild complaint. The more frequent use of both really could nail home the odd feeling this movie has. I mean, it doesn't want to use it's sound design like Serial experiments lain, where the lack of sound did make the atmosphere.
the voice acting was great too, nothing to complain.
overall i would give the sound a 7, for sounding catchy, working well with the movie and being great music in general (only if you like stuff like it), but that it was used questionably. not bad, mind you.
-story and character:
my biggest complaint with this movie would have to be the runtime and the way the novel was adapted. you see, Oishii had difficulty adapting the source material, understandable, because the novel was clearly splitten up in 3 arcs. first the setup, second the fighting, third the resolution to Araragi's story. Oishii decided to adapt this book with 3 movies, all being around an hour and adapting a part of the story. But it just doesn't work for me.
you see, seperating the fighting away from the setup and conclusion simply doesn't work, at least with it lenght. It worked in the novel, where it all was presented in one package and could be experienced at my own pacing, but not as a seperate part of the story, at least for the amount of time it is given.
You see, if this book was split up in 2 movies, one being the introduction and development, alternating the novel, and one being the fighting and conclusion, the pay-off would be miles bigger and there would be way more time to develop the characters. It wouldn't feel rushed, and the story structure would make way more sense. But this sadly didn't happen. and it's not like this is a 'comparing the novel to the movie' problem, because the movie just doesn't work as a seperate piece, at least for me. it felt cheap and rushed, because the structure didn't make sense and the movie had way too less running time to feel natural.
...but what we got wasn't bad, just weirdly tought out. Again the dynamic between the characters and dialogue really made the story, especially Araragi's development. It is odd to see an actual fleshed out harem lead and this certainly was refreshing. I also liked how the OP hero archetype got justified and that the hero actually wanted to LOOSE his powers.
overall the story get's a 6 from me and the characters a 6,5, more leaning towards the 6 side. weirdly tought out structure of this movie just didnt work for me. a problem monogatari has in general.
enjoyment: my enjoyment of this movie was decent, with stunning scenes of animation and nice character dynamics, I just couldn't overlook it's flaws. they were too blatant for me, especially as a novel reader. overall I did enjoy this movie but it was a flawed experience, thus getting a 6,5 from me.
-overall Kizumonogatari part 2 is a gorgeous movie that has potential but get's thrown out of the window with it's overly confusing structure and rushed pacing. An enjoyable experience, made for fans of the series and newcomers. just don't look at it too critically, or your experience will get shattered. it gets a 6.6 from me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 7, 2016
The garden of words is a gorgeously directed and animated movie, with an average soundtrack, but with a story and set of characters which are really hindered by Shinkai his way of telling a story. The poetic style of story telling really ''under develops'' the characters, thus dragging down the character reliant story. Overall a mixed bag, but above average, and, in my opinion, Shinkai his second best work. If you're interested in why I think this movie is so mixed, read further! (consider this my overall, which is a 7)
-Story (6): the story of The garden of words isn't per say a bad one,
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but it definately has it's flaws. It's subject matter is very interesting; taboos. A type of story that is rarely touched upon in modern day stories. However, I feel like the movie underexplores it's subject matter. The story is told very poetic (not saying a lot of words, dramatic tone and ''rolling'' sentences. Habit Shinkai has a lot), which does make important moments hit hard, mainly because most of the dialogue is spoken at those times. However, in contrast to that, there isn't a lot of dialogue in the rest of the movie, which hinders it's character development, thus affecting the story. But more on that later.
overall I think the story of the garden of words is definately interesting and that it does resolve its subject matter and themes of taboos, growing up, and age gaps in relationships ( differences in general ) in the end, but barely scratches the surface of them. this could've been resolved by either more screen time or more dialogue, but sadly, this didn't happen. Shinkai his style definately hinders this movie it's story, which is dissapointing. Still more satisfying then other series of it's kind like Ore no imoto.
-Characters (6): I already mentioned this in story, but the characters here are ''under developed''. You see, the characters aren't per say badly written, but because of Shinkai his style of presenting a story, it's hard to pick up a lot of the character development. If you pay a lot of attention to the directing and visual hints + think a lot during your watch, you will get a bit more out of the characters, but yeah. Basicly, the opposite of ''show don't tell'' is happening here.
You could ask why this matters so much, and I will happily awnser you. You see, the entire premise of The garden of words is to explore it's theme of taboo, which is only reachable with it's characters (knowing of their desires, what drives them, etc.). But since we don't know a lot about the characters, nor hear a lot of their inner thoughts about, for example; their desires, it's hard to care a lot about the story or to get some meaning out of it. Again does Shinkai his over-poetic style drag the story down, which was a big let down for me.
-sound (7): the soundtrack wasn't very impressive. It sure was better then your average soundtrack, but it was nothing special, which was sad, because this movie could've gotten a lot more emotional weight if the soundtrack was somewhat more memorable. But if you're a fan of the violin and the piano you sure will get something nice out of this.
The usage of the OST however was excellently done and really made some moments grab you. I do feel like there should've been more music in some places and less in others, but that is a small nitpick in a, for the rest, excellently directed soundtrack.
The sound effects were good, simular with the voice acting. But this is anime, what did you expect XD
-art (10): If there is one thing The garden of words really nails, it's the art. Since the movie is largely set in one location the team could really make that location pop-out, and it really shows. It's a well laid out location, with clever color choices, and it's always shown at the right times, story wise. However, in usual Shinkai fashion, the rest of the art was gorgeous too, with detailed backgrounds, excellently done digital processing and a gorgeous colour palette. The character designs aren't anything special however. They didn't convey the personalities and didn't add to the story.
The actual animation itself is gorgeous too, and It really shows hand drawn animation, when well done, is a bigger sight to behold then 3d animation.
the directing is good too and does support the stoy really well. You could've stripped the audio from this movie and still understand a lot of the story, simply because the shots/frames themself do tell the story of the movie really well. However, they don't really add to the movie in any way, but that is okay.
the small bits of symbolism were also well done and weren't too obvious, but also understandable.
-enjoyment (8) : despite all my mixed opinions on the movie I did really enjoy it. The excellent directing kept me enthrolled into this movie, while grabbing my attention with a piano score, which I'm also a sucker for. The potential filled story and characters which were handled above average did make me enjoy this movie and definately made me think about relationships in general. This is however my personal enjoyment and NOT how enjoyable I think the movie is in general.
But if you are a fan of Shinkai movies, slice of life, romance or like movies which you are able to discuss, you will probably enjoy this. It will keep you enthrolled with a jawdropping presentation, a decent and excellently used score, sometimes, interesting dialogue, and a story and characters which were decently handled. However, if you expect a fast paced movie this isn't your cup of tea, because really, there doesn't happen a lot. If your attention span is good enough; go for it! It is only 45 min and is decent enough, but only if this is your type of movie.
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small notes:
-I'm not, in any way, a professional reviewer, nor an arts student or writer. If I do happen to make mistakes, point them out! I'm always open to learn how to improve my reviews.
-English isn't my native language. If I do make grammar/spell mistakes, sorry!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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