What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

[The Cruel]

Now FLCL

[robersora]

I finally got around watching Alien 9 .
I'd describe it at as a female FLCL (a.k.a. that what FLCequeLs tried to be and miserably failed at), with the tone of Cencoroll and the sensibilities of Made in Abyss.
The show sadly doesn't have an ending, though I kinda like it that way, also by the end I really struggled to bear with relentless, ear piercing crying. Like JESUS, this girl is what some people accuse Shinji of being. The narrative is very interesting tho, especially on a thematic level. I see it as a commentary on girl's coming of age, struggling with growing into a sexual desirable body in a mind not ready for that yet; also creepy remarks by older men; a.k.a. girl's puberty. The animation is just gorgeous. So fluid, so detailed, such great color design and timing great pacing and shot composition, also a lot of personality. The backgrounds are a little lacking, tho, but overall, breathtaking. The music is also great, it goes for that worn-out trope of making children's melodies and sounds sound creepy by use of dissonant elements... but it actually manages to pull it off in a convincing manner and GOOD.
I really enjoyed it a lot, but I wouldn't wanna watch it again, since watching little girls cry for minutes on end is not my kink.
6/10


Blood: The Last Vampire
Damn, this thing is amazing from beginning to end. Just gorgeous on every level, I'd really like to own this on Blu-Ray... There is nothing quite like it.
9/10

[chazthesilencer]

Only saw Blood the one time, and that was over a decade ago. Does it really hold up? The only thing I can remember about it was the Conan gag-dubbing: https://youtu.be/odjImP9SMSE?t=276

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!- This could probably have been localised as “How to Win Friends and Influence People: Isekai Edition”.
MC gains knowledge from a previous life and realises she is the antagonist of a romantic visual novel, she tries to avoid her fated bad endings by… generally being nice to everyone around her.
The animation is a little on the cheap side, but the story has been a pleasure so far. Light comedy, light romance, most refreshingly however is that it has been very light on the usual isekai tropes- there are no levels, no guild quests and the MC is not boringly overpowered or comically underpowered.
6 episodes in and I’m not sure where the story might go. It could stick to romantic-comedy, full-romance, might even end in tragedy.

Ascendance of a Bookworm: The apprentice-priestess story is as engaging as the early episodes and a pleasant watch.
One’s suspension of disbelief is stretched when we remember that despite having the mind of an adult- the MC is still only a 5-6 year old child in-universe, and she is still somehow expected to assume the role of an orphanage director. Lolwut

Pizza in animay makes everyone happy.

The 8th son? Are you kidding me? – Yet another uninspired isekai. Checkmarks include: generic brown-haired male lead; boringly overpowered magical ability; cheap CG dragon animation; cookie-cutter world aesthetic…
Gimmicks, USPs, hooks- what have we got? Well- the MC is the youngest of 8 sons in a struggling, sort-of-noble family, so he’s in a rough spot for a child in a world of swords and sorcery where status and lineage goes a long way.
So, he’s going to have to work and suffer a little for his happy ending, like The Rising of the Shield Hero? I can bite.
He has a teacher train him in episode 2, puts in some effort, so far so good (well, average), but then episode 4 hits and he kills a supposedly terribly, threatening dragon without trying, gets knighted, rich, and another sameface love interest.
That’s all the time I’m wasting with this one.

There was this one hilarious moment midway through ep 4 however:

Aww. Don’t you feel sad for these characters? They’ve been a team with Well for all of 10 minutes of screen-time and been on exactly zero adventures together. Truly this is more soul-shattering than the end of Grave of the Fireflies.

[robersora]

Only saw Blood the one time, and that was over a decade ago. Does it really hold up? The only thing I can remember about it was the Conan gag-dubbing: https://youtu.be/odjImP9SMSE?t=276

I think, it's even better than I remembered. It's only 50 Minutes too, so you won't miss out on it. Didn't know about the Conan thing, it's funny! : )

[Gus Hanson]

Last anime I saw was the first episode of Golden Time except dubbed in English. I really adored Koko's playful rendition which the actress who played her I last heard on Cross Ange as Ersha and there had a more motherly tone given that character's personality.

[Shamsiel-kun]

I recently watched Kamisama Dolls. Excellent animation, even background characters have distinct faces. The ending theme is quite catchy. The story is also quite good, with good exposition and pacing, but unfortunately the show has no ending because apparently it was made with the expectation of a second season that never came. The lack of ending is all the more grating because apparently there was enough budget to produce five shorts that focus on nothing but blatant fanservice

So I found scans of the manga on the internet and read those to get the events from the non-existent second season (and if I had the money, I'd pay for having that second season made).

I finally got around watching Alien 9 .
I'd describe it at as a female FLCL (a.k.a. that what FLCequeLs tried to be and miserably failed at), with the tone of Cencoroll and the sensibilities of Made in Abyss.
The show sadly doesn't have an ending, though I kinda like it that way, also by the end I really struggled to bear with relentless, ear piercing crying. Like JESUS, this girl is what some people accuse Shinji of being. The narrative is very interesting tho, especially on a thematic level. I see it as a commentary on girl's coming of age, struggling with growing into a sexual desirable body in a mind not ready for that yet; also creepy remarks by older men; a.k.a. girl's puberty. The animation is just gorgeous. So fluid, so detailed, such great color design and timing great pacing and shot composition, also a lot of personality. The backgrounds are a little lacking, tho, but overall, breathtaking. The music is also great, it goes for that worn-out trope of making children's melodies and sounds sound creepy by use of dissonant elements... but it actually manages to pull it off in a convincing manner and GOOD.
I really enjoyed it a lot, but I wouldn't wanna watch it again, since watching little girls cry for minutes on end is not my kink.
6/10

It's based on a 3+1-volume manga that does have an ending. The anime covers a bit more than the first volume, which somewhat sucks because the most important bit of the story happens in volume 2 (and vols. 3 and the epilogue volume are borderline incomprehensible if you haven't read vol. 2 - guess which volume I'm missing? )

[Shamsiel-kun]

Hanasaku Iroha eps 1-13 watched, another show with great animation and a lot of lovely scenery (I'm not only talking about the girls). It is also thankfully free of blatant fan service (which I rather dislike...). However, considering the subject, it is filled to the brim with another kind of fan service and hits a lot of typically Japanese tropes, plus gives you a nice introduction to work in a ryokan. There are a few suggestive scenes, some of which almost look like they were written with H doujin writers in mind, and serve as a (lampshaded) warning that writing

SPOILER: Show

erotic real-person fic

is not a great idea... Of course, those also all hit only typically Japanese tropes (i.e. shibari, the sexy nape of the neck of the female kimono-wearer, and naughty shenanigans in the onsen), because the real writers did their best to keep to their themes . In general the characters are all likable. Initially, some characters have behaviour that is actually pretty shocking, but they have their reasons (even if the

SPOILER: Show

slapping

remains quite disturbing - values dissonance, I guess). The music is really good, with both opening and ending themes being quite more rocking than I expected. It is also used to support the plot in unexpected ways, by having a nice upbeat melody during certain scenes that gets turned down (and off ) the moment a character shoots down an idea or makes a snarky remark.

[Gus Hanson]

Patlabor The Movie

Can you believe I understood the messages way more with the Bandai Visual USA dub that the Blu Ray came with than I ever did with the Japanese version? I still have the Manga DVD and even that is sometimes an enigma to me. Guess I got to give kudos to Bandai Visual USA for an intelligent script that was easy to follow. Anyway, there's only three big Labor sequences at play in this movie with two at the beginning and the third in the big climax. The whole film is basically a huge character study on a dead developer based on the SV2 piecing together what is making the Labors go berserk as well as the HOS system's intentional bug. If you wish to watch an anime movie that's dialogue laden but makes you feel enriched after seeing it, check it out.

[Alaska Slim]

Revisions

From the Director of s-Cry-Ed, Planetes, Active Raid and ID-0, comes a mecha outing that's... functional. Just like those last two.

It has a few interesting conceits; What if not just people but a whole city is transported into a different world?

What if we spend the length of the series demanding the MC respect the fact he's not the MC?

What if we get adults acting in ways towards their charges that would make Misato go "waaa---??""

What if you have 5 pilots but only 3 bots? With one of them destroyed halfway through?

I honestly didn't think they'd get that last one to work, but then I remembered all those times I played CO-OP in Earth Defense Force.
If two people can defeat hoards of giant ants, why not hoards of giant cyborgs? One sniping, the other boost-dash cancelling? Doable. "The S-D-S DE-PLOYS!"

Nothing ground breaking, characters are pretty standard. Got your nervous one, your best friend, your lancer, your corrupt politician, your time traveling waifu, etc etc. The MC's Subaru-esce hiki mindset also gets a bit grating at times. But he gets better.

Also, where else have I seen this?




I KNOW I'VE SEEN THIS INTERSECTION BEFORE! CURSE YOU Japan AND YOUR NON-DESCRIPT ICONIC SCENERY!

[Alaska Slim]

I recently watched Kamisama Dolls. Excellent animation, even background characters have distinct faces. The ending theme

What I remember is that syncopated, latin-esce OP sung by the always-great, can uninstall-me-any-day Chiaki Ishikawa.

... ah both are sung by her in fact.

And sadly Re:Zero season 2 is delayed by coronavirus impacting production.

And Gundam. And Oregairu S3.

Just seen the trailer for Re-zero 2 they put out this past week; does the witch look different to you? Like, from the first trailer?

Is this where they tell us there's more than one, even though I specifically remember the lore saying somewhere the Witch of Greed ate all the others?

[Shamsiel-kun]

Hanasaku Iroha episodes 14 to 26 watched. In general more fanservice, mostly onsen-based, and more drama than the first 13 episodes.
The fanservice is a bit too much at times, e.g. Minko gets basically shown entirely naked from the front save her naughty bits (nipples and crotch) that are hidden by her very long hair. There are also some double standards going on in that showing the bare butts of teenage girls is okay, but showing an adult female in her early 60s bathing requires her to be mostly censored by other characters' heads from her neck down . The latter is actually rather strange in general because the other aspects of getting older, such as worse health and remembering lost loved ones, are treated seriously. Still, again nothing truly blatant, nor unrealistic breast sizes and shapes (so no G-cup 15 year olds, and also no sexual hanky-panky in the onsen).
The plot moves into high gear in the last third of the series, and is essentially about what people want to do with their lives and their motivations, and how unexpected developments can throw future plans into disarray. For the main character, it serves as the catalyst for major character development, leading to events that mean that the downer aspects of the ending won't be permanent in the series' universe.
Of course, even more scenery porn is involved, including a meticulously reproduced local festival.

Also watched, the Ghibli movie Only Yesterday, which basically is a very slowly moving belated coming of age love story. I can see how it's not for everyone, as its plot mostly moves along through the introspective reminiscences of the main character (slowly...). These involve many scenes showing the Japan of the 1960s, which actually is really interesting to watch as a foreigner. What makes them good, is that they are truly structured in the same manner as memories of the past, with missing environmental details on one hand and very personal aspects on the other. Even if I was born two decades later in a very different place, the scenes shown reminded me of similar things in my youth, and so I got to make a comparison . The other driving aspect of the movie is the contrast between being a city dweller and appreciating "nature" in the countryside, which of course involves a lot of lovely scenery. That what the main character calls "nature" is actually mostly man-made is also dwelled on, and is an important factor in her final choice.

[chazthesilencer]

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! – Had an engaging start, but after ep6 it failed to do anything interesting with its strong premise.
Katarina is actively making plans and preparing for danger in the beginning, but later on she becomes little more than a cake and cookie addict for us to point and laugh at.
A villain is suddenly plopped in at the very end because… well, a 12-episode cour needs some kind of climax, right? This could have been set-up easily enough; Katarina could have remembered the existence of an “Everybody dies” ending in ep 7 or so, leading her to become paranoid and cautious around the lesser known characters, making some questionable decisions due to fear, straining some of her relationships, building a bit of tension, then BAM- worst fears realised.
Who needs intrigue though? Let’s spend an episode trapping the characters in a magical book revealing their innermost desires- teaching the audience nothing they didn’t already know.

It was a harmless enough watch. Could have been something better however.

Kaguya-Sama: Love is War second season. Had its moments here and there, an enjoyable enough watch, but the best part of the first season is sadly lacking in this one- specifically the hilarious confrontations/mind-games between the two leads.
I hate it when a comedy tries to go dramatic; I don’t care about the elections for the school council presidency and I don’t care about the tragic back-story of a side character. Try making me laugh instead.

[Justacrazyguy]

Oh look. The season is over.

Nami yo Kiite Kure- Best anime of the season, mostly thanks to an excellent cast of charismatic and flawed and very goofy people.
While this isn’t a complete adaptation, it ends on a good spot, with most of the cast having completed a nice character arc.
It also boasts some impressive and realistic character animation.
8/10

Kami no Tou-If this is the average quality one can expect out of anime adaptations of Korean comics, then I hope a nuke hits South Korea soon.
An exaggeration, of course, but I would recommend one to steer far away from this work, unless you were a big fan of the original or something along those lines. For someone like me, who knows nothing about the comic, watching this was a miserable experience.
4/10

Gelipnir- Good action, fanservice and lovely character designs are the highlights here.
It is unfortunately one of those anime where the ending goes “READ THE MANGA” so that’s annoying.
7/10

----

Thanks to Covid this was a rather weak season, with many delays, so I went and decided to go on a marathon of sorts of movies and OVA from 1969 to 1991 or so, in which I watched over 50 anime. I already discussed some of them in a previous post, so here are a few more:

Project A-Ko- Only this movie could have somehow made splashes with Miyazaki and Oshii and somehow have the entire Evangelion crew, including Hideaki Anno, work on it, Christ, even Tezuka went out and praised one of the scenes on this anime.
It’s a very lighthearted, fun anime. I laughed out loud many times and was in awe at the animation may other times.
9/10
A-KO 2 can’t replicate the energy of the original and I didn’t expect it could, but there is still wonderful animation at display and some funny scenes. The OST is a big step down though.
And these words can be said about all the other sequels, VERSUS included.
7/10

Senyia Ichiya Monogatari- Absolutely incredible film visually, I have never seen anything like it. It is possible that the other two films in this unofficial trilogy (Cleopatra and Belladona) are similar, but still. Only legends working on it, the director of Ashita no Joe, veteran animators who still work today and of course, Ozamu Tezuka. There was nothing like that in 1969 when this film came out. An "erotic" film and in fact has erotic scenes, but style and abstraction prevent you from enjoying these moments in this way (even though the reporter said that the Swedes liked it). Appreciation is artistic. And in total the erotic scenes should be only 20% of the film, if that. The film also sometimes uses miniatures and live action for excellent effect. I must also mention the incredible soundtrack, a mix of rock and classical music. I wonder how you would see this anime if you had read 1001 nights? The director read the original work (the Japanese translation) and certainly gives another angle from which to appreciate this film. Interestingly what this reminded me of at times was the Odyssey, or at least my idea of the Odyssey, I never read the original work (I really should) The only complaint I have about this film is that it loses a bit of energy in the second half (or was it me?) and it has fewer visually exciting moments, but the cathartic conclusion more than makes up for these weaker moments

8/10, but I would move on to 9/10 if I saw this film as it should be seen in a cinema. How jealous of the Japanese who saw this at the time, must have smashed their heads

Cleopatra- I think this is the first animated film with a clearly lesbian character. If there is an older example it was surprising.
Although this film is not so dense with visually crazy moments, it still exists quite often, the way they show Caesar's death is one of the highlights of the film for me. To say that Caesar dies is not a spoiler, right?
By the way, Caesar has green skin. I don't know if they decided this because there is that famous bust of him with green marble (or it was another stone) at the Altes museum in Berlin, or if they just thought it was cool with that color.
This film is more focused on comedy, and is generally quite funny in certain parts. Unfortunately this film is weaker than 1001 nights. Not bad at all, but the other film is clearly superior. I still recommend it.
7/10

Belladona of Sadness- Absolutely a joy to watch. That is all.
10/10

Angel Cop-Cool fights and great animation abounds in this very patriotic anime. Decent amounts of fanservice can also be found. The political intrigue present in this OVA is the weakest part by far. It just gets in the way of the more interesting fights against the psychic guys.
Not for people that can’t handle violence and xenophobia

Japan STRONK/10
Actually 7/10

Space Adventure Cobra- A very stylish anime by Ozamu dezaki. The plot can fell kind of barebones at times and it all feels like a vehicle for the cool set pieces.
Despite that, the visuals are strong enough to carry the movie on their own. It also helps that it has a nice soundtrack.
For some incredible reason, it seems Hayao Myazaki did key animation on this movie, which is incredible to me, since it’s so different from his style. Maybe he was helping a friend?
8/10

SPOILER: Show

Castlevania

Vampire Hunter D- A well know vampire movie from the 80s. Sophia Belmont, AKA, the woman with the shortest skirt in the world is bitten by Christopher Lee. She then hires

SPOILER: Show

Alucard

D to help her.
The first you’re going to notice about the movie is the art style. The world is this odd mix of historic and futuristic and the monster designs are wild and varied. It’s also a very violent movie, featuring plenty of blood and gore.
The comparisons with Castlevania aren’t random, this movie came out two years before the first Castlevania game. Sure, Castlevania is also very obviously inspired by old horror movies (as is this movie) but maybe D had some influence. Hard to be sure though, I don’t think any of the staff ever commented on this movie.
7/10

Sol Bianca-Cute pirate girls do cute pirate things. The cast has fun interactions and the animation is generally good, with some great ship and mechanical animation.
Really, the only annoyance is this OVA being so short. This should have been longer, with an episode for each character’s backstory and then a cool finale or something along those lines, but there are only two episodes, totaling 1:30H.
This anime was supposed to have more episodes. They show this villain (that has Char’s VA) doing ominous stuff, but they never did any more stuff. There is another OVA from 1999...
8/10

Sol Bianca: The Legacy: Despite this anime having a conclusion, unlike the 1st OVA, I still missed a few more episodes. This probably worked better as a series, but the animation wasn't going to be nearly as good. The end did not go in the direction I expected. Was it ... bittersweet? But that is also not the word I want. Not bad, anyway. I’ve talked about CG before, nothing too boring, it’s used more in the last episodes, but it’s still easy to ignore. What I miss most about the 1st OVA is the fun interactions between the girls, in this OVA things get serious very fast and there are many less moments of comedy.
So yeah, not as good as the 1st, but solid nonetheless
7/10

Armitage III: Dual Matrix: The digital world does no favors for this sequel, but the visuals are still good. The sequel was a good idea, the original ended on a satisfactory note, but left it very open, so it was good to have some conclusions in this film. Good action scenes, just like in OVA. He also continued to have fantastic backgrounds, although they probably looked better at cell height.
Oh, and there's a little girl, an important note.
8/10

Kasei Yakyoku- Ozamu Dezuka showing off is directorial chops in OVA format. The man actually did quite a few of these in the 80s and 90s, but this is the first one I’ve seen. I think it has to do with how he directs, but the difference between his TV work and OVA work isn’t very large, animation wise, aside from the more complex backgrounds, detailed character designs with plenty of shading and a few sakuga scenes (and even then, Ashita no Joe 2 can probably beat this OVA on that regard).
The theme is romance in 1920s Japan. The romance itself is nothing revolutionary, but Ozmu’s direction makes all the difference, it’s just a joy to watch nearly all the time. There are rarely any boring compositions.
If I can make any large complaints, it’s the music, what is here isn’t bad, but I swear there are only 5 different tracks in this 4 episode OVA.
I quite liked the very bittersweet ending. It felt like the only possible conclusion to such a dramatic and blood drenched romance.
8/10


Armor Hunter-A man seeks revenge for the death of his army buddies. Most episodes follow a simple formula. WE see who our protagonist wants to kill, he tracks them down, and then there is a well executed action scene where they fight and die.
Due to the short length of the episodes (just over 20 minutes) everything is gets wrapped up quickly and there is rarely a dull moment.
There are episodes that are not episodic in nature, but they are only at the end. You can watch two thirds of this anime without caring much for it, or the romantic subplot that also takes up little time.

Crying Freeman -Never have I seen a show do such a jump into a cliff, only to somehow back flip upwards again out of sheer style and ludicrousness.
Out of this 6 episode OVA, only the first episode maintains some semblance of seriousness, and not even all the way trough.
It quickly transforms into a very exaggerated power fantasy. The protagonist, Freeman, is borderline immortal and never loses (unless he wants to) and every woman he meets (including his enemies) all fall for him within seconds of meeting.
It’s almost impossible to take seriously even if you accept the campiness, because it just keeps finding new ways to be silly every episode.
Also hope you like sex scenes because there are tons of them. A woman appears on screen? Someone’s gonna get laid soon.
Despite all this, it can be fun, when the campiness and silliness levels are just right.
One thing that made this very enjoyable to me was the incredible character designs, which are some of the most realistic and detailed you will ever see in any anime. Well, maybe realistic isn’t quite the right word, it is still idealized, but it’s probably the closest you can get to “real” without going for the designs of, for example, Jin-Roh. This isn’t a sakuga fest (although there are at least 3 or 4 great sequences every episode) but just the fact that they make these incredibly complex faces and bodies move at all is incredible.
7/10

Crusher Joe OVA-Pretty but boring. I really don’t understand how they managed to make the sequel to such a fun movie so boring. Not having the original director certainly played a part. I guess he was too busy making Arion and Venus Wars when these OVAs were being made. The original was fantastic and it never felt like it wasted your time. These OVAs are the opposite. Everything goes on for far too long and the fun character interactions that were so abundant in the movie are far less common here. The animation, while still fantastic and with a style I personally prefer to the early 80’s vibe the movie had, isn’t as impressive as the old movie.
The score is still great, but the production can’t hide the boring script, and the direction isn’t flashy enough to disguise it.
5/10

Venus Wars-Extremely good looking, like all other movies this director made. After Crusher Joe, this is probably my favourite of his movies. It’s also the last one he made before stopping work as an anime director for whatever reason. Despite being an adaptation, it finishes on a good part, and it feels conclusive enough while leaving room for sequels (that will never happen).
8/10

Parasite Dolls-Probably the weirdest of the Bubblegum Crisis universe OVAs. It’s strange, the first 2 episodes look like they were made in the late 90’s, but the anime is from 2003, only the final episode reveals the age of release, what with the extremely muted colors, atrocious CG and extreme digital effects that make 90% hard to see properly.
The character designs have these great realistic vibes, but the stories on display do not live up to the animation here. Only the second episode is sort of good. 1 just feels like it mashes two different stories. The final episode sort of gives a proper conclusion, but the visual style is hard to look past.
Despite all these complaints, I still liked, and with it’s short length it’s not a big time investment.
7/10

Arion-Incest and betrayal abounds in this movie. Joe Hisashi did the soundtrack and you can kind of tell. It’s pretty fantastic and so is the animation.
At times this movie feels like the anime equivalent of those old action movies that used stop motion like Sinbad and Clash of titans.
7/10

And that is some of the stuff I watched

Next season is mostly sequels, so that'll be interesting.

[Blockio]

Gelipnir-12- Good action, fanservice and lovely character designs are the highlights here.
It is unfortunately one of those anime where the ending goes “READ THE MANGA” so that’s annoying.
7/10

Yeah, that's a bit of a bummer; although the show has definitely made me interested in reading the manga.
also technically it was 13 episodes, not 12 if I'm being nitpicky

[silvermoonlight]

Crying Freeman -Never have I seen a show do such a jump into a cliff, only to somehow back flip upwards again out of sheer style and ludicrousness.
Out of this 6 episode OVA, only the first episode maintains some semblance of seriousness, and not even all the way trough.
It quickly transforms into a very exaggerated power fantasy. The protagonist, Freeman, is borderline immortal and never loses (unless he wants to) and every woman he meets (including his enemies) all fall for him within seconds of meeting.
It’s almost impossible to take seriously even if you accept the campiness, because it just keeps finding new ways to be silly every episode.
Also hope you like sex scenes because there are tons of them. A woman appears on screen? Someone’s gonna get laid soon.
Despite all this, it can be fun, when the campiness and silliness levels are just right.
One thing that made this very enjoyable to me was the incredible character designs, which are some of the most realistic and detailed you will ever see in any anime. Well, maybe realistic isn’t quite the right word, it is still idealized, but it’s probably the closest you can get to “real” without going for the designs of, for example, Jin-Roh. This isn’t a sakuga fest (although there are at least 3 or 4 great sequences every episode) but just the fact that they make these incredibly complex faces and bodies move at all is incredible.
7/10

I remember this like its been years since I watched it but I have really strong memories of this having lots of sex and the guy had this insane dragon tattoo.

[Gus Hanson]

I remember this likes its years since I watched it but I have really strong memories of this having lots of sex and the guy had this insane dragon tattoo.

Yeah, he had that tattoo riding all over his body from front to back. And the women are such one track minded fuck heads who despite Freeman marrying the first one he bagged because "love" , he keeps having sex with enemy and allies alike but it's okay because when the mission is at hand, no act is off limits!

[silvermoonlight]

Yeah, he had that tattoo riding all over his body from front to back. And the women are such one track minded fuck heads who despite Freeman marrying the first one he bagged because "love" , he keeps having sex with enemy and allies alike but it's okay because when the mission is at hand, no act is off limits!

Oh yeah....that might be why I remembered this so vaguely thank you for clarification .

[Lavinius]

By the way, Caesar has green skin. I don't know if they decided this because there is that famous bust of me with green marble (or it was another stone) at the Altes museum in Berlin, or if they just thought it was cool with that color.

d-doxx'd...

*_*

[Justacrazyguy]

d-doxx'd...

*_*

I've corrected the Gleipnir bit and the Caesar stuff. I'm not sure how that even went through me.

I assure you all, I'm not a 2000 year old roman.

[Dr. Nick]

Weathering With You:

What to even think of this? I got simultaneously three totally different readings out of this film, and I find none of them really satisfying.

1. The charitable reading: Shinkai Black Label

SPOILER: Show

Hello, Internet, welcome to Film Theory. Imagine you're Makoto Shinkai, a famous one-trick pony if there ever was one. With Your Name you've perfected your trick; you've finally caught the car, and people applauded you for it. How do you follow it up? How do you grow as a director? The obvious solution is to get self-reflective, even self-critical, and interrogate your own work. In Your Name, the happiness of the main couple was threatened by complex circumstances, but the story was not morally complicated. What was good for the couple was good for the larger society as well. Saving Mitsuha meant saving the people of Itomori. But it was also a story about all-consuming, self-absorbed teenage myopia, and the film took a big gamble on its ability to place the audience in the same heady, hormonal headspace. Luckily for Shinkai, the overwhelming consensus seems to be that this gamble worked marvelously, and I agree with the sentiment. I think Your Name is a 10/10 teen flick, even though its big twist relies on Mitsuha and Taki both being dullards who don't their realize their desynchronous timelines until its horribly late. But I get what the movie is going for. They're both too busy living the dream to notice the flashing warnings of Itomori's supernatural early warning system, I can buy it 100%. Sometimes a degree of teenage thick-headedness is required to get the plot rolling, like in WarGames for example.

But surely, if the circumstances were different, such all-consuming, self-absorbed teenage myopia could be equally destructive as well. I can just see the gears in Shinkai's head starting to turn, I can see him crafting his elevator pitch: What if Your Name was a horror film about the trolley problem? That's your big twist this time. This new film starts out as your typical sypernatural meet-cute, until it turns dark, so tone-crunchingly dark it's guaranteed to JOLT the fans of Your Name. Let's even have Mitsuha and Taki make cameo apprearances, and then throw a good heap of implied suffering on them. Mitsuha losing her home town for the second time, that's brutal. And then cap the whole thing off with a nasty downer ending that reveals Hodaka might be an actual sociopath. Good luck dating the girl who's almost guaranteed to suffer from unbearable survivor's guilt.

Of course, almost nobody seems to have read Weathering With You this way, so I'm obviously grasping at straws, but that's my charitable best-case reading of the end result: a bold attempt at doing something completely different, whose ideas unfortunately got suffocated by Shinkai's inability to break free from his signature style. In this interpretation the film's intentions were so muddled that people just defaulted on a surface-level reading of it being essentially Your Name 2 with some tacked-on bizarro morals. (See also: the fan theory that Mayoiga was meant to be a comedy.)

IMHO, assuming for a moment the above fanwank is true (it isn't), had Shinkai actually managed to pull this new trick off, he'd be hailed as an absolute King Shit director by now, a master rug-puller who has completely renewed himself and launched a new and exciting career track for himself and his studio. The light-and-dark-pair of Your Name and Weathering with You would be a monumental cultural touchstone. Unfortunately, in our always disappointing reality, the overwhelming consensus seems to be we were left with a big, feisty number 2:

2. The neutral reading: Shinkai Hack Label

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Shinkai just wants to create cute anime romances and doesn't consider even the most horrifying of plot implications. There's also a potential yes-man corollary here; since Your Name was such a monster hit and gave him so much clout, now nobody is going to check any of his dumber impulses.

3. The uncharitable reading: Shinkai Wack Label

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The film is risible climate change denialism (although the brand of denialism is pretty exotic from a western point of view), and Shinkai is some sort of weirdo New Age nihilist. "Mother Gaia strong, human science feeble, don't vaccinate your kids."

To sum up my experience, the film gave me low-key anxiety, and I'm in no rush to revisit it, even if that might help to clarify what in the heck the director was attempting to say.