A great many attempts have been made--in comics, movies animated and otherwise, and lots of other mediums--to capture the amazement and fascination of exploring the world as a little kid. Most of these attempts are not equal to the subject material, and when the topic is 'the magic of childhood', it's usually wise to brace yourself for something trite, drippy, and sentimental.
My Neighbor Totoro is that rare exception, a story about 'the magic of childhood' that is absolutely equal to its subject.
The things in the movie that are imaginary are wonderfully imagined. But no less wonderful are the things that are clearly real--from
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Jan 8, 2014
FLCL covers a lot of territory in a short time. It's a virtuoso performance of a show that zigzags from pure craziness to surprising thoughtfulness (then back to pure craziness). It throws gags and weird ideas at you at high speed, and pays you the compliment of assuming that you're capable of keeping up. There are fights with space robots... but then there are some quiet moments, little observations about adolescence, about the boys trying to catch up with the always-slightly-more-mature girls. You start to think maybe the space robots are part of a metaphor for puberty that is both
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