juliko25

Bring out those pumpkins and candy bags, because this autumn season is stacked with plenty of anime to watch, both long and short. I'm still watching some older anime I mentioned in my last Choices post, but I have one I've decided to rewatch since it's short and sweet.




New:


1. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
I haven't caught up on the manga for this, but I genuinely enjoyed what I did read, and I even bought the manga volumes that have come out in the US so far. So you can bet I was looking forward to the anime, and sure enough, its first four episodes dropped all at once. I have to say, I'm overjoyed by how amazing this looks and how nicely it keeps the manga's melancholic, heartfelt tone. I admit I'm not a fan of both the opening and endings songs, though. That's more a personal preference than anything. I'm looking forward to see how the rest of Frieren turns out, and I really hope the anime doesn't screw up the adaptation process down the line.


2. Tearmoon Empire
Okay, I'll bite. Even though I own the first novel for this on my Kindle, it didn't really stick out to me. But I did watch the anime and was pleasantly surprised at how good the first episode was, even if Mia's voice is...really shrill, though not to Misaki Kuno levels of shrill. I'm not normally into villainess stories, but after how good this first episode turned out, I'm gonna watch the rest and see if it keeps up this level of quality.


3. Stardust Telepath
A CGDCT anime about a shy girl who meets another girl who claims she's an alien, and said alien can read her mind by touching her forehead. The first episode is fine so far, though Yu is such a generic cutesy genki girl that she literally has nothing unique about her. While I can relate to Umika's shyness and her imagining herself as an alien, I do feel like her flaws are played more for cuteness and moe points. But the animation is beautiful, and I do want to see how this goes.


4. Spy x Family Season 2
Spy x Family is back, y'all! Though it starts with a fairly light-hearted first episode, probably since the finale to the previous cour actually had some degree of plot progression. This season is also promising to adapt a particular arc that actually puts Yor into the limelight, something fans have wanted for a while. Don't worry, Yor fans, she'll finally get time to shine in this one.


5. The Apothecary Diaries
I've heard a lot of good things about this one, and I even read a little bit of the manga. A lot of my friends really like it, too. Might as well check it out and see if its any good in animated form. Plus, it's said to go on for 24 episodes, which is a rarity these days.

Old:


1. Sweet Blue Flowers
Hey, a yuri anime from 2009 that I actually watched when it first aired! I own the DVD for this, and I liked the series when it first came out. Since then, I've read the entirety of the manga, and I figured maybe now was the time to revisit this. And honestly, this show still looks amazing almost 20 years later, and its characterization and writing are still top notch. Expect a review of this in the near future.

Come on, did you really think I wasn't going to put this at number one? Discotek Media is a company that's dedicated to putting old, forgotten classics on home video here in the US, but restoring them to the best of their ability. This year, they really went all out in rescuing titles that were either left behind or assumed to never be brought over here: Saint Tail, Kamen Rider Black, GaoGaiGar, Urusei Yatsura, Ninja Robots, Digimon Adventure (Including the Japanese version!), the Japanese version of Sonic X, Ultimate Muscle, and so on. But get this: Remember a little anime movie called The Flying Phantom Ship? Yeah, that was never brought over here until Discotek announced they got it in May of 2022. Not only that, Discotek was even able to dub it into English, and the only reason they were able to do so was because Toei, who produced the movie, actually had the wherewithall to preserve the music and effects track, which is needed to make a dub, and preserving those wasn't a common practice during that time. Some staff on Discotek have mentioned that there are titles that they'd like to dub, but can't because the M&E tracks have been lost or were never preserved, which is pretty common with older titles, but Flying Phantom Ship is the exception here, even though that movie was made in 1969.

So yeah, glory to Discotek, and here's hoping they manage to get more cool stuff in the future.

I'm still bugging them to license the 1997 Dog of Flanders movie. Get on that already!!

Moment #1: The various licensing miracles Discotek Media pulled off in 2022.

Summer heat brings new anime. Let's see which ones I might try out?



New:


1. Aquatope of White Sand
This one is pretty and good so far! A slice-of-life/supernatural story about an ex-idol and a young high schooler both working at an aquarium and becoming friends. I like what I've seen of the first episode so far, and PA Works has a pretty good pedigree in regards to their original shows. I'm hoping this one will be good. Also, for some reason I thought Aquatope was Aquatrope for the longest time. How did I get that confused?


2. Kageki Shoujo!!
Not to be confused with Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight. This is a much more normal anime about girls going to a fancy theater school and performing in a Takarazuka Revue-like troupe. I read the first manga for this a while ago, and while some elements were kind of...ehh, I liked it well enough. I did really like the first episode, and I'm interested in seeing how the anime covers the manga. Plus, it's a refreshing change of pace after all the ecchi, romcoms, and isekai we've been subjected to almost non-stop.


3. Scarlet Nexus
Eh, this one's okay. Anime adaptations of video games don't normally go over well, because it's impossible to compress a 40+ hour game into a short series. This one already feels kind of...workmanlike. But maybe it'll get better over time.


4. Love Live! Superstar!!
So...after having seen the Love Live Nijigasaki anime and was blown away by its willingness to NOT shoehorn in unfunny sexual humor, I've become curious about this newest addition to the Love Live franchise. Granted, this season is confirmed to have some of the same staff from the first two series here, so for all I know, they might go back to throwing in the skeevier elements that turn me off, but a part of me is praying that this doesn't happen. I'm gonna at least give it a chance and see how it plays out.

Old:


1. Hanamaru Kindergarten
I actually saw this when it first came out, back when I was in high school. I remember liking it well enough, but I didn't find it very memorable, and at that time, I hadn't started my journal nor was my reviewing all that refined yet. I think it's time I changed that. This ought to make for a decent rewatch, and maybe I can get a new perspective on it now that I'm older and not in high school.


2. AKB0048 (Including Next Stage)
I remember watching this when it first came out, and a blogger I followed back in the day really liked it. Since I haven't seen the dub yet, I think maybe I'll rewatch it in English this time around.

I give this movie about a girl in a wheelchair finding love and a purpose in life...an 81/100.

Media about disabled people are a dime a dozen these days, and their portrayals are equally varied. Some manage to portray the struggles of having a physical disability very well, while treating the disabled characters in question with respect, never reducing them to just their disabilities or making them into inspirational props. Others...not so much. There's plenty of movies, novels, shows, and games depicting people with disabilities and the lives they live with varying degrees of sensitivity, with Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish being yet another addition to that growing pile. Based on a 1985 short story by Seiko Tanabe, this isn't the first time Josee has been adapted into film. There was a live-action movie in 2003, which was the only movie adaptation until 2020, when not one, but two new films adapted it as well: This one, the only animated version, and a Korean live-action one, both released late in the same year. Guess it's gotten popular nowadays, hasn't it? I read about the 2003 movie, and have no interest in seeing that, as it contains some elements that really turn me off. Upon having heard that the anime movie doesn't have those particular elements, I decided to watch it. How do I like it? Let's find out!

The story centers on a young college student, Tsuneo Suzukawa, who works as a diver and dreams of going to Mexico to study oceanology. One day, he saves a disabled girl, Kumiko Yamamura, aka Josee, from her wheelchair going out of control. Their first meeting...doesn't go well, as she doesn't make the best first impression, but Josee's grandmother insists on hiring him to help Josee around the house when she's not around. The two find themselves growing closer, to the point where Tsuneo helps Josee get out of the house more, even though her grandmother wants to keep Josee confined to the house, thinking the world is all doom and gloom. But when tragedy strikes on both sides, Tsuneo and Josee find themselves at their own impasses, unsure of how they can keep moving forward.

One thing about adapting a slice-of-life story into an animated movie, as opposed to just using real people and actors and settings, is that animation allows people to do more with the material than the limitations of live-action can do, even though modern technology has helped the latter make new filming techniques possible in order to achieve certain things. I will say that the animation is very well done. The characters are expressive, the movement is smooth, and although the linework isn't all that polished, with a few empty spaces every now and again, it's much more subtle and harder to notice than, say, Granblue Fantasy season one, which had the same problem but that one was much more jarring and noticeable. The movie makes fantastic use of colors and fantastical sequences conveying the characters' thoughts and feelings. Even what little CGI it uses is well-integrated and blends almost seamlessly with the 2D animation. Good on Bones for making use of their good animation as always, as their productions are usually top notch. Not too big a fan of the soundtrack though. I mean, the background music is fine, though some pieces bordered on being kind of cheesy and making big, emotional moments come across as more melodramatic than necessary. The rest of it was okay, though the singer for the vocal songs...kind of needed to restrain himself at times.

I'm conflicted on the characters though. The main cast receive the appropriate amount of development, and their struggles are relatable and grounded. Tsuneo in particular stands out, as he isn't just yet another milquetoast male lead character with the personality of a slab of wood. He has a layered personality, a dream he wants to pursue, and we get a full look into his likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, and what makes him tick. Josee is the same, and with Tsuneo offering to let her see the world outside her home, she gains the courage to push herself out of her comfort zone and sees that the world isn't all doom and gloom like her grandmother said it is, from how she presents herself to how she relates to other people outside of her grandmother and Tsuneo. The movie uses a lot of mermaids and ocean metaphors to reflect how Josee's disability affects her life, i.e. being a mermaid on dry land, and how she blossoms upon receiving proper support and accommodations. In that aspect, the movie really goes out of its way to show that people with physical disabilities deserve to be treated with respect, and can do things they want to do with the proper tools and support. That being said, there are times when Josee has moments where she's rendered helpless and needs immediate assistance, and some give it without her express permission (I don't use a wheelchair, but from what I've heard from others who do, touching someone's wheelchair or helping them without their permission for both is considered a big no-no), so as far as portraying Josee and her disability sensitively, I would stay it's above average: Doing a lot to treat Josee with some degree of respect and giving her some agency, but still stumbles on some ableist cliches on occasion.

However, my conflicting feelings for some of the characters come from the fact that the movie still relies on tired cliches in regards to the female characters. For one, Josee starts off as a real bitch in the beginning. Tsuneo saves her from her wheelchair going out of control, and how does she thank him? By biting his hand and accusing him of having groped her, which he never did!! On one hand, it is established that her grandmother is so overprotective of Josee that she not only tries to keep her confined to the house, but tries to convince her to react negatively to anyone that's outside her home. However, even with that, she continues to treat Tsuneo like crap when he's forced to help her out, at least until he manages to connect with her and help her in ways that'll actually benefit her. I'm not saying she needs to be some sort of saint or anything, as doing that contributes to plenty of other ableist tropes in and of itself, but would it have killed her to actually thank Tsuneo for all he did for her, or even apologize for how needlessly bitchy she was towards him in the beginning? Plus, the movie also plays the whole "Two girls hate each other because they like the same guy, and one of them is jealous and mean to the main character just because he's around her even for non-romantic reasons" cliche straight as a nail, and to be honest, I wish that trope would just die already. Granted, the character in question, Tsuneo's friend Mai, is slightly better executed in regards to how this trope is usually played out, even compared to the live-action movie, where their confrontation escalates into violence. But honestly, that whole trope is just a rotting corpse of a dead horse that really doesn't need to be rehashed yet again. Girls can be friends with the same guy without being constantly mean to one another, producers! This is also one reason that I don't find myself liking a lot of romance movies, as they play this trope a lot, and it's cliche, stupid, and even kind of sexist, because the guys are portrayed as more sensible than Josee and Mai are.

That being said, from what I heard, the producers for Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish deliberately set out to make their movie different from the live-action movie that came before it. I don't know how true this is, and I don't have any official sources confirming this, so do feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I have no desire to see the 2003 movie, but from what I've read about it, it has elements that aren't present in the anime version, with the ending in particular being much more bittersweet and tragic. The final half of the anime version veers in a very different direction from the live-action one, even to the point of giving it a happier ending and changing a lot of things. I won't spoil things here, but I do appreciate the creators of the Josee anime for trying to do something different with the material they're adapting. Plus, now that the Josee novel has three different movie adaptations, all with different ways of telling the source novel's story, viewers can choose which adaptation they prefer from a wide selection, and you never feel like every iteration is exactly the same as the other one. As a movie, I like Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish for what it is and what it chose to do. And thank God they at least got rid of some of the creepier sexual elements the live-action one had! (And by that, I'm referring to a part where Josee mentions that she's forced to allow a man to sexually assault her in exchange for him taking out her trash. I'm so glad the anime got rid of that, along with making Mai less of a jealous harpy than her counterpart Kanae was in the 2003 movie) Also, I really wanted to see more of Josee and the librarian Kana getting along and being friends. Their interactions were the absolute best part of the movie, no cap!

It doesn't quite hit the landing, as it's held back by some tired cliches and the main character making a very bad first impression, but Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish is perfectly nice and serviceable if you want something nice and uplifting to watch. And now to wait for the upcoming English dub that FUNimation is going to put out in theaters next month.

I give this moving short anime about two lovers caught in the Civil War...an 85/100!

Some time last year, I decided to hunker down and read the massive novel that is Gone With The Wind, an epic romance taking place during the Civil War and the reconstruction period that followed. To be honest, I'm not a fan of it. If you've read my review, the tl;dr version is that it goes on for way too long, the characters were all either annoying, useless, or outright reprehensible, the plot never seemed to go anywhere, and the authoress really went out of her way to romanticize the South and make the case that slavery of people of color was good for them. Yeah...I think anyone can see how that wouldn't go over well nowadays. But the reason I bring up Gone With The Wind is that I found out that a fansub group I follow randomly subbed an obscure anime from the late 70s called Kinpatsu no Jeanie, which has a similar premise. Being a fan of old anime in the style of the World Masterpiece Theater, I decided to give it a try, as I wanted to scratch that WMT itch I hadn't had in a while. Seriously, I did NOT expect this anime to turn out as amazing as it did! And keep in mind, this anime was made in 1979, when the medium was still fairly young in Japan, and it's amazing to think that even in that time period, the anime industry already managed to churn out its fair share of masterpieces and great stories.

Now, for anyone who might get confused by the English title, Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair (Which makes no sense to me because they made Jeanie's hair blonde), this is nothing like the 1992 anime that's basically an animated biopic about Stephen Foster and his wife, Jeanie MacDowell, whom the titular song he wrote is based on. This 1979 anime does use the title for the show, and has a cover of the song used for the opening theme, but other than those two things, this iteration tells an entirely original story out of whole cloth. The story goes as follows: 15-year-old Jeanie Reed lives a nice, happy life with her family in the town of Agatha, Virginia. Five years ago, she met a nice boy, Robert McBee, and the two fell in love. But due to circumstances involving his family, he was forced to move to Pennsylvania. Robert does promise that once his situation is stable, he'll return and they'll get married. Even now, Jeanie still waits patiently for him. There's just one big problem though: The Civil War is afoot, and the two lovers find themselves on opposite sides of it: Jeanie and her family live among Confederates, and Robert is a commanding officer in the Union Army. This in and of itself is bad enough, but to complicate matters further, Jeanie discovers that her family has kept secrets that completely shatter her worldview forever. In light of these revelations, both Jeanie and Robert have to make hard decisions just to be able to survive the Civil War.

Seriously, where the hell has this anime been all my life?! This anime seemed to go out of its way to address every single issue I had with Gone With The Wind tenfold. The anime only has 13 episodes, so completing it isn't hard for people who want to watch something short, and Kinpatsu no Jeanie really makes optimal use of its short run time. It leaves no moment wasted, it never drags on for longer than is needed, the story is always moving forward, and it's always developing all of its characters and fleshing them out whenever possible, delivering the perfect combination of drama, humor, and heart. It helps that while the anime is limited by the confines of, well, being made in the 70s, with plenty of animation issues that hold it back, along with overly theatrical acting and sound effects that were common at the time, all of the drama it does manage to show is meaningful and brings out the best in the characters, giving them far more depth and nuance than other stories of this caliber. Continuing onto that, unlike Gone With The Wind, which is very heavily biased towards the South, Kinpatsu no Jeanie makes absolutely no attempt to present one side of the war as being wholly in the right. It shows that both the North and the South make their fair share of bad decisions and do their fair share of bad things while not presenting either side as being outright villainous.

On the subject of animation, it's clear that this anime was made in the late seventies, complete with shoujo-esque character designs, limited character motion, rough linework, and painted backgrounds. The animators really tried hard to make this anime look as good as they could, and even with the occasional goofs here and there, it's clear there's a lot of care put into this. But Kinpatsu no Jeanie does have some pretty glaring animation flaws. For one, the backgrounds are beautifully painted, but during scenes where characters are either running or riding horses, when the background is scrolling past them, it often looks like the animators just looped the same backgrounds over and over again while making no attempt to make the transition look seamless, almost like a gif. Plus, there are times when the creators outright spell English words or names wrong. At several points, there are saloon signs that spell Agatha as Agata, and even Jeanie's last name is spelled as Leed instead of Reed, even though the latter is the correct spelling. Other anime did this as well, even the various World Masterpiece Theater anime, but yeah, they could have tried a little harder with that. On the other hand, the soundtrack is very pleasant to listen to and really captures the feel of old timey America, complete with harmonicas, trumpets, saxophones, banjos, and ukuleles. At one point, the anime uses the instrumentation for Camptown Races during a saloon scene, and the only reason I even know about that song is because I heard it in an episode of Hey Arnold.

Returning to the characters, the show makes great use of them even with its short run time. Every character, from Jeanie and her family to even minor characters who only appear in one episode, are all amazingly well developed and fleshed out, given multiple sides to their personalities, and all serve their roles perfectly, with all of them feeling fresh. Jeanie herself is a great main character, who grows as a person throughout the course of the series from a naive, sheltered, lovestruck girl to a brave, open-minded, caring young woman who is much more aware of the things going on around her, but she also has enough flaws and weaknesses to make her feel like a three-dimensional human being. The other characters also get the right amount of time in the limelight, and even the characters who look like they could be villains at first glance are not only surprisingly competent, but are given plenty of depth and nuance so that they feel like regular people just doing their jobs in a bad situation, or feel they've been wrong by the other side, rather than just incompetent villains who are evil just for the sake of it. Take note, Gone With The Wind. Of course, the series makes no attempt to portray Jeanie and her family as being paragons of good, as they don't hide the fact that Jeanie's family does own slaves and make plenty of dubious decisions in the wake of the war, Jeanie included, but given the time period, I think it makes some degree of sense, and I'm glad the creators didn't try to whitewash history or make the main characters pure paragons of goodness. Seriously, the people who wrote the scripts for this series are incredible, as every single episode was solid, engaging, had great build-up, delivered excellent characterization, and a conclusion that was believable, intelligent, and pushed the characters even further in terms of their development, even if it still left some things unresolved.

However, as much as I really want to praise this anime to high heaven, and believe me, I really wish I could, this series does have another glaring flaw holding it back, alongside the limited animation. There are times when the anime really wants to make things more convenient for itself in order for the plot to happen, so it often contradicts things it did in previous episodes, forcing the viewers to really stretch their suspension of disbelief. What do I mean? Here's an example: In one episode, Jeanie, a nun named Elizabeth, and a group of orphaned children try to strike out on their own when the war starts getting violent. The journey is shown as being very dangerous, and they almost lose their lives on multiple occasions just getting to a certain location. But after they get to said location, the series just forgets that the first way of getting there was perilous, and the characters always manage to find their way to and from that location no matter what, often within minutes, even though the episode showing how Jeanie and friends got there showed that said location was not easy to access. Secondly, one character is shot and falls down a ravine, only to somehow not only survive, but climb out of said ravine with zero explanation as to how he survived and got out of there. A third example, and I'm going to keep this as spoiler free as I can: Near the end of the series, a character commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with a gun, but he's shown completely unharmed, with no blood or brain matter whatsoever, and there isn't a single mark on him even though he's explicitly confirmed to be dead. For this one though, I can only assume that the creators weren't allowed to show the character with a hole in their head and leaking out blood, since Kinpatsu no Jeanie is considered a children's series, and I heard that graphically depicting suicide in a children's anime is considered taboo in Japan in recent years due to the country's high suicide rates...though how they're allowed to actually show characters outright dying, along with showing small amounts of blood at all, is beyond me. Not that I mind, as I respect Japan for having higher, looser standards for their kid's anime and not being afraid to show frightening content. Oh, and for anyone wondering: There is a person of color who dies for the purpose of advancing a white character's development. So yeah, even back in the seventies, Japan was still far behind in terms of non-racist portrayals of minorities, even though the character of color in question is treated with respect and given a reasonable amount of development, and not a stereotype, but I know plenty of people will still take issue with it in regards to the racial implications. But I'm not the best person to speak about this in detail, as I'm sure there are others who can go into this in more depth than I'm capable of doing.

For what this series is though, I can wholeheartedly say that I'm glad I decided to take a chance on this show. I would never have even known of its existence had I not randomly stumbled across Old Castle Fansubs' announcement that they subbed the whole thing, and since before then Kinpatsu no Jeanie had never received any subs ever, I think it's good that it finally got pulled out of obscurity. It's easier to find now if you want to check it out. To me, this is what Gone With The Wind should have been like: a short, moving, romantic epic about flawed but good people just trying to make their way through a terrible time. It's shows like Kinpatsu no Jeanie that remind me that children's anime can be refined and mature, and not just silly entertainment for the sake of it. If you ever want to scratch that historical fiction itch, please give the 1979 Kinpatsu no Jeanie anime a try!

I give this nice anime about two robots raising a human child...an 81/100!

(more to come soon)

Rating: 80/100

Hey kids! Remember those old Rankin-Bass Christmas specials that used to be shown on TV all the time? Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, The Little Dummer Boy, Jack Frost, and so on? Every child has seen them at least once in their life. I know I have. But something most Rankin-Bass fans aren't aware of is that the stop-motion animation that RB is famous for is that all of it was outsourced to Japanese companies that RB worked with. Plus, Rankin-Bass wasn't the only company trying to experiment with stop-motion, as in 1979, Sanrio—Yes, the Hello Kitty company—wanted to really break into making movies and get an audience in the Western world, and the people who worked on said movies weren't trying to churn out generic after school special fodder used to babysit kids for half an hour. No no, the people at Sanrio worked their butts off to make the most lavish, expensive, and experimental films that they could. Sadly, back in the day, all of them underperformed, and Nutcracker Fantasy, Sanrio's first ever stop motion film, is no exception. Based on both the ballet and the Nutcracker story by E. T. A. Hoffman, Nutcracker Fantasy was the only Sanrio movie that I know of to not only have a limited release in the US in theaters, but had a stacked cast of celebrities dubbing the voices into English. But it fell out of the public eye until Discotek randomly rescued it and put it out on DVD in 2017, with a blu-ray release to follow later on, which I own. Now that I've seen it, it's...not the best Sanrio has to offer, but it's definitely got a lot to like.

So what's the story? A young girl named Clara is excited to see her cousin Fritz after a long time, and her beloved Uncle Drosselmeyer gives her a rather homely-looking nutcracker doll as a gift. But one night, she finds that mice are trying to take her doll, and she runs into an evil, two-headed mouse queen intent on taking the doll for herself. Later, Clara finds herself in a magical fantasy land, where toys are at war with Queen Morphia, the two-headed mouse queen who makes their lives a living hell. With the help of Prince Franz, everyone has to work together to defeat Queen Morphia and turn the king's daughter Princess Mary back to normal. Yeah, not exactly the most original premise out there, and it does deviate quite a bit from the original story, so don't expect it to be the most faithful adaptation of the Nutcracker.

(more to come soon)

I give this eclectic romance movie...a 49/100.

Romance media usually isn't my cup of tea. There are good ones out there, but the majority of them are either bad or just reuse the same premise over and over again without much in the way of substance. Others try to do new things with it, and some succeed while some don't. Fireworks falls into the latter category, as it tries to do something new with its premise...but really doesn't do it well. Basic plotline is that a young boy, Norimichi, finds a classmate of his, Nazuna, trying to run away. When he sees what happens to her, he wishes to change the outcome, and by way of a magic sphere he finds, he's able to repeat the same day over and over to make it go how he wants to, helping Nazuna in the process. This premise has been done before, but there's so much wrong with Fireworks as a movie. I'm not going to use my usual reviewing style for this one, as I really don't want to waste brainpower trying to make sense of this, so here's a laundry list of the movie's flaws:

1. The main characters are woefully bland, have no chemistry, and there's basically no real reason for them to really be together in any way. Norimichi in particular really can't carry the movie, as he's too passive for his own good, and he just gets dragged into the plot by Nazuna, who's just a mysterious girl without much in the way of actual depth to her. Nazuna also never bothers to consider that she's essentially dragging Norimichi into her scheme and how this might hurt his very clearly loving family who know nothing about her or her issues whatsoever, which makes her come across as very selfish and thoughtless.
2. Norimichi's friends are not only useless, but absolutely annoying as hell, as they contribute absolutely nothing to the movie. Yusuke in particular is especially bad, because his characterization is inconsistent. He asks Nazuna out but then blows her off, but later in the movie, when he sees Nazuna with Norimichi, he completely flips out, which not only makes him a hypocrite, but speaks to the movie's bad writing.
3. There's this stupid, unnecessary subplot involving Norimichi's friends openly sexually harassing their teacher by talking openly about her breasts WHILE IN CLASS, and they don't get punished for it. What purpose does this scene even serve? You could cut it out and nothing would be lost. Seeing that really skeeved me out and there is literally no reason for this scene to be here in the first place, as it accomplishes nothing.
4. It fails to flesh out just why the marble Nazuna has is able to either take them back in time or transport them to parallel worlds, or even explain how this is even possible.
5. The movie thinks it's good at compelling drama and romance when it really isn't, since the two main characters barely know each other and have little reason to be together, but the movies tries to make it seem like they HAVE to be together no matter what by forcing them to be so rather than having their relationship grow organically. Thus, this makes the entire movie feel really contrived and forced.
6. The CGI is awful!! The 2D animation is fine, but there's just so much jarring CGI, from water spewing out of a hose to the characters riding on bikes, and none of it makes any effort to blend seamlessly with the animation.
7. The story is just another rehash of a bunch of other romance media with the exact same premise, only with time travel/world hopping slapped in, and not even in ways that make sense.
8. A good chunk of the movie is wasted on Norimichi's friends trying to figure out whether fireworks are round or flat when they explode, and this also does not contribute to the movie in any way whatsoever, so I honestly have to question why the writers thought padding it out with this was a good idea.
9. The movie is also weirdly obsessed with getting close-ups of Nazuna's and Norimichi's faces and eyes. A lot of the lingering shots on them almost have this...uncomfortable eroticism to it.
10. The premise in and of itself does have potential, but the movie never bothers to use it, just focusing on pointless teenaged shenanigans rather than stuff that actually matters.
11. The ending makes absolutely no sense and comes absolutely out of nowhere, though it's not as mean-spirited as the Ni no Kuni movie's ending.

So, taking all these flaws into account, does the movie actually have anything that's good? For one, the soundtrack is fairly nice, albeit generic and repetitive, and isn't going to blow anyone's minds. Nazuna's backstory is fairly decent as well, but the movie doesn't reveal it until near the very end. Had it revealed it much earlier in the movie, it might have been able to get the audience to actually care about her. Thirdly, the English dub is really good. The kids are voiced by actual kids, who sound pretty good, and Nazuna's voice actress, who is mainly a theater and live-action film actress, does a really good job with her. She's also a great singer, too! Unfortunately, these things cannot save this movie from being an utter trainwreck. Shaft and Akiyuki Shinbo, why did you even bother with this? This movie just isn't good. At all. I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone, not even fans of the romance genre, as this is just a rip-off of other, better movies that thinks it can succeed with eclectic animation and weird time travel shenanigans when it just can't.

I give this movie celebrating one of Toei's most popular magical girl franchises...a 92/100!

Whoa. No, seriously, whoa. Based on what I read about this movie, I had a feeling it would be good on its own merits, but after finally seeing it...damn. This movie seriously blew my mind in all the best ways possible. I admit, my history with Ojamajo Doremi is rather spotty. I remember seeing pictures of the characters and fansites way back when I was a kid, and later, I saw the 4Kids dub of the first 26 episodes when it first aired, and then it got cancelled. I heard the rest of it was dubbed and streamed on 4Kids' website, but I never sought it out. I've only seen two episodes of the first season in Japanese, and one of the movies, and that's it. I know, I really need to watch the whole series one of these days, as I hear nothing but good things about it. So when I heard a new movie celebrating Doremi's 20th anniversary was coming out, and supposedly not based on any of the shows, I decided to check it out thanks to this review of it. Considering all the good things I heard about the original show, I thought I'd at least give this movie a try, since it's both filled with references to the show and newbie-friendly for anyone who hasn't seen it. What I honestly did not expect was for it to be absolutely one of the sweetest, most wholesome, most heartwarming, and most heartwrenching movies I've ever seen. In fact, I'm declaring this the best movie that ever came out in 2020!

Now, for any Doremi fans expecting this to be a new movie about the girls, you're out of luck. It's not about fighting an evil queen, there's literally no magic at all, and the girls we've come to know and love aren't the focus of the movie. This is because Ojamajo Doremi, in this movie, is a show that the three main characters watched and are fans of. Kind of like how Digimon Tamers made the first and second seasons into a show the main kids in that show watch. Anyway, the story centers on three very different women, living very different lives, and having to deal with various problems. Reika is a young woman trying to make ends meet and get into college, but is stuck in part-time jobs, her lazy boyfriend is constantly stealing her hard-earned money, and she herself is reeling from her family's divorce. Sora, a college student, is struggling with training to become a teacher, as she got too caught up in trying to help a special needs child, and begins to question whether she's fit to be a teacher. Mire works at a trade company, but is constantly belittled and degraded by her bosses for being a woman and for speaking her mind, and they waste no time taking all the credit for her achievements. The three find themselves meeting at a real life location used in their favorite show, and after finding out they're all fans of the Doremi anime, they decide to indulge in some anime tourism in order to find reprieve from their troubled lives and find solace in each other's company. It becomes an experience that the three of them will never forget.

For anyone wondering, although the movie is filled to the brim with references to the show and its characters, you don't need to have seen the show in order to enjoy this movie, thankfully. The movie tells its own original story about three completely new characters, all adults, and how they become friends through their shared love of their favorite children's show, and the hardships they face and overcome along the way. Basically, it's a low-key, slice-of-life road trip anime movie...and honestly, I really like this approach, as not only does it allow the movie to stand as its own entity without relying too much on the Doremi brand, so that it doesn't alienate newcomers, it also presents relatable conflicts and storylines that people in positions similar to the main trio can sympathize with. Even without the Doremi connection, this is a movie about the friendships you forge through shared passions and helping each other. The same story can be told using nearly any other anime one can find, but it's often more poignant when children's shows are involved. I mean, who hasn't befriended someone because they liked the same TV show? That's basically how I tried forging friendships as a kid, and I still do to this day! It really hits home whether you're into Ojamajo Doremi or not, and that kind of universal appeal is just amazing to me.

A lot of animation staff from the original series returned to make this movie, and although I haven't seen much of the series, I can recognize it's animation style from miles away, and based on stuff the staff worked on after this, such as Heartcatch Pretty Cure, it's very easy to recognize. Large, sparkly eyes, exaggerated cartoony expressions and movements for comedic scenes, zany animation, fluid and smooth movement, thick linework, all of it is on display here, and it surprisingly fits the movie's overall tone quite well. Animation isn't always about having great artwork or having the biggest budget, but being able to bring the characters to life, and I think the animators who worked on this pulled that off wonderfully. It helps that the background art is very pleasing to the eyes, filled to the brim with color and detail, and consistently excellent all around. The soundtrack is no slouch either, with no shortage of great tunes and a whole variety of instruments like saxophones, oboes, full on-orchestras, and every single piece of background music absolutely rocked. Also, the movie contains a much slower, more melancholy version of the first TV anime's opening theme, "Ojamajo Carnival!!" and the TV version is much more peppy, fast paced, squeaky, and akin to stuff you'd see on a Saturday morning cartoon. Honestly, I'm probably going to commit blasphemy for saying this, but...I actually like the movie's version of it better than the original, because I found the original to be way too obnoxious for my liking. The movie's slower, low-key version with its acoustic guitar, lovely piano tunes, and softer vocals is more my jam. Sorry!!

Of course, the heart and soul of this movie comes from the characters, especially the main trio. Not gonna lie, I love all these precious beans. Every single one of them is perfectly likeable and three-dimensional even with the movie's short run time, all displaying their strengths, flaws, weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and the things that make them who they are. They're a fun bunch with their own eclectic personalities and different approaches to life, making them the kind of people you know you want to root for. Even the minor characters they run into have more to them than just one character trait, with plenty of subtle nuances to their characters that make them stand out from the usual archetypes associated with them. The fun in the movie comes from seeing how these characters deal with and overcome the various adversaries that make up the roadblocks in their lives, and seeing them help each other through their hard times. Also, seeing Mire judo-throw Reika's awful boyfriend and tell him off was satisfying as hell. Best girl right there. Everything from the way these girls carry themselves to how they connect over their shared love of Ojamajo Doremi makes them all feel like people, their actions throughout the story are realistic, and the movie really wastes no time in showing what these girls are like, actually giving you good reasons to care about them. I can wholeheartedly say that Looking For Magical Doremi did a bang-up job in making me care about this loveable trio, and I want all three of them to be happy!

With all the praises I'm singing for this movie though, as far as flaws go, I can really only find two, and IMHO, they're pretty inconsequential. One is that Mire and Reika get into an argument about how the latter dealt with a recent event, and while I can understand where the other girls were coming from, I don't think they should have tried to paint Mire as completely in the wrong about what she said to Reika, because she's actually right. Could she have said what she said more delicately? Sure, but Mire is technically right about Reika's inaction during said event, and in some way, Reika did have a right to be told the truth. The second one is the scene at the very very end, just before the credits, as it comes across as a little too magical for an otherwise grounded story. But that's really it in terms of drawbacks, and even then, they didn't kill my enjoyment of the movie one bit. Actual hardcore fans of the Doremi franchise are bound to take issue with how different this movie is compared to the other ones, especially with it not being about the Doremi girls at all, and I can understand where they'd be coming from. I did read that the creators did originally want the movie to be about the 20-year-old versions of the Doremi girls finding a time capsule that they buried during their graduation, but had concerns that doing that would alienate viewers who weren't in that generation and figured the best way to go would be to appeal to a more general audience than just Doremi fans, so that newcomers could have an easier time watching the movie without feeling lost, if they hadn't watched the show. I personally think this was a good decision on their part, because it helps the movie stand on its own without relying too much on simply cashing in on the nostalgia, something other movies have a hard time doing. Plus, the story of the original Doremi girls is over, and they don't really need to overstay their welcome. Who says you can't try something new once in a while?

Whether you're a fan of Ojamajo Doremi or not, this is an absolutely amazing and wonderful movie that really deserves more love. Please watch it!!

I give this low-key magical girl/slice-of-life anime...a 63/100.

For anyone who's into shoujo manga, particularly from the late 90s to early 2000s, who among you has heard the name Wataru Yoshizumi? Or if not that, ever heard of a previously popular show called Marmalade Boy? Yoshizumi, real name Mariko Nakai, created that. Marmalade Boy was a pretty popular shoujo anime and manga around the late nineties and early 2000s, but that's not the only thing they made. In 2001, Yoshizumi published what would be her first fantasy/magical girl manga, Ultra Maniac, which was adapted into a TV anime two years later, which is the subject of today's review. It had been on my radar, but I never got around to watching it due to other obligations and the Geneon DVDs going out of print. But in 2017, Discotek Media rescued the series, re-releasing it on DVD, and now it's officially streaming on sites like RetroCrush for free. Magical girl anime don't normally get uncut releases here in the US, much less even faithful English dubs, so this was a rarity. But by magical girl standards...as much as I hate to say it, Ultra Maniac isn't one of the better ones.

On the outside, Ayu Tateishi seems like the coolest girl around. She's pretty, popular, smart, mature, and has a good head on her shoulders, but inside, she's actually rather awkward and really wants to ask out the coolest guy in school, Kaji. One day, she has a strange encounter with a mysterious but clumsy girl named Nina Sakura. It turns out, Nina is a witch from a magical kingdom sent to Earth on a mission to collect five holy stones, all of which are in the human world. But the problem is, Nina is utterly lousy at magic. Even so, the two of them wind up becoming friends and decide to help each other out. They have to deal with all sorts of mishaps, from one annoying kid constantly trying to find out Nina's secret, to Nina's callous rival Maya, who is not only better than her at magic in every way, but wants to get those holy stones at any cost. Ayu's life just became a little more magical.

For anyone who's read my review for Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, rememeber how I said on there that the main characters of that show were the weakest part of the series, with the side characters coming off as far more interesting and less obnoxious? Well, Ultra Maniac has the opposite problem. Ayu, the main character, isn't like most lead characters you'd find in shoujo manga, and she's actually the best character in the series. She's mature, intelligent, and has plenty of flaws but is competent enough to carry the series and grows as a person. Granted, she's not the most three-dimensional—and neither is anyone else—but she's definitely the kind of lead character that you want to root for and won't want to strangle. The other main characters...are rather bland. Nina is your typical klutzy but sweet magical girl who can never seem to do anything right, the two male characters, Kaji and Tsujiai, are really just there to be love interests and are about as bland as white toast. But the main quartet are an absolute blessing compared to the minor characters, because every single minor character, even random characters who only appear for one episode, are not only utterly abysmal, but annoying as hell!! Seriously, I have honestly never seen a show that actually goes out of its way to make every single minor character be as utterly annoying and rage-inducing as possible! Tsujiai's cat Shinnosuke, Luna, the three little kids from the magic world, Maya's butler Sebastian, Nina's grandfather, that Kawanakajima kid, dear lord! Most of them are just there to be violently possessive (Sebastian) or creepily clingy (Luna and Shinnosuke), and Nina's grandfather in particular completely ruins every scene he's in. He's such a raging asshat it's not even funny, and not only is he verbally abusive to Nina even when she improves her magic, he often goes out of his way to mess with her friends in ways that are downright criminal...and the show expects us to forgive him for it JUST because he was worried about Nina. As a result, many of his more heroic actions later in the series feel completely unearned. Ugh, bite me.

But while everyone except the main characters is the worst thing about this series, it's unfortunately not the only problem holding the show back. Ultra Maniac as a show is mainly a slice-of-life magical girl series consisting of the girls encountering a problem and Nina trying to help with magic, with most of her solutions going wrong. This isn't necessarily a bad premise, as other shows I like have done similar premises, like Fancy Lala. But Ultra Maniac doesn't do anything new with it. A lot of the show consists of teenage angst revolving around trying to get with the guys, with only very few moments of brilliance here and there. There are times when the show tries to flesh out some of its ideas, like Nina being unfamiliar with how most human customs work due to being from another world, but they're never really expanded upon, and I feel like the show could really benefit from fleshing out the more fantastical parts of its premise and ditching the romance and teenaged angst. It also refuses to explain certain things, like just why Maya hates Nina so much and why she would even want to get the holy stones in the first place. Plus, the animation and soundtrack are pretty typical of early 2000s fare, and are completely unmemorable in any way.

So with all this, does Ultra Maniac have anything to offer that's actually good? Well, yes. For one, it's a fairly safe, kid friendly show that you can totally show your little sister, daughter, niece, or whoever else without feeling skeeved out. Secondly, like I mentioned before, the main cast of characters, while nothing noteworthy, are a fun little group to follow with good, light-hearted chemistry between one another. Thirdly, it does have little moments where it actually subverts a lot of cliches that it follows (Example: Girl sees her crush and another girl together, assumes they're in love and angsts about it, only in here, the show actually has the real situation explained to her, and the characters ACTUALLY TALK TO EACH OTHER about their issues rather than angsting about it or believing a misinformed third party!). Unfortunately, for me, these aren't enough to save the series from being utterly cliche, generic, shallow, and ultimately uninspired. Though from what I've heard, the anime diverges a lot from the manga, so for all I know, maybe the manga did the premise better. Who knows? I ought to check it out. That being said, I do admit to being a hypocrite and buying the DVD set for Ultra Maniac anyway, mainly because I want to support Discotek and because magical girl anime don't get a lot of love in the US, so I thought I'd give some support to the genre.

All in all, it's just a cutesy slice-of-life magical girl anime, and nothing more. But if you want something better, I'd recommend stuff like Fancy Lala or Cardcaptor Sakura.