juliko25 | Entries tagged with review

Here's the index for all reviews rated 70-79 out of 100.

Arte - 79/100
Ascendance of a Bookworm - 79/100
Astra: Lost In Space - 79/100
The Case Study of Vanitas - 79/100
From The New World - 79/100
Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 - 79/100
Granblue Fantasy (Manga) - 79/100
Healin Good Pretty Cure Movie - 79/100
Love Live Superstar - 79/100
Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage: Mirai no Tomodachi - 79/100
Aikatsu - 78/100
Child of Kamiari Month - 78/100
Claudine - 78/100
Do It Yourself!! - 78/100
Fuga: Melodies of Steel - 78/100
Future Boy Conan - 78/100
Gift of the Magi - 78/100
Heike Monogatari - 78/100
Little Women (Anime) - 78/100
Love Live Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2 - 78/100
Mirai - 78/100
Misaki no Mayoiga - 78/100
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom - 78/100
Pokemon: Paldean Winds - 78/100
Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life - 78/100
Skip and Loafer - 78/100
Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure Movie - 78/100
Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card - 77/100
The Deer King - 77/100
Final Fantasy 5 - 77/100
Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics - 77/100
Lassie Come Home - 77/100
Love Me For Who I Am - 77/100
Lunaria: Virtualized Moonchild - 77/100
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - 77/100
Pokemon Evolutions - 77/100
Rune Factory 3 Special - 77/100
Rune Factory 4 - 77/100
Rune Factory 5 - 77/100
Shino Can't Say Her Name - 77/100
Shuna's Journey - 77/100
Smile Pretty Cure - 77/100
Spy X Family - 77/100
Super Cub - 77/100
Tsurune - 77/100
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk - 76/100
Because of Winn-Dixie - 76/100
Clannad The Movie - 76/100
Kase-san and Morning Glories - 76/100
Konnichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables - 76/100
Mary and the Witch's Flower - 76/100
Sakura Gari - 76/100
Sansha Sanyou - 76/100
Tales of Symphonia OVA - 76/100
Tokyo Mew Mew New - 76/100
Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg - 75/100
Bloom Into You - 75/100
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light - 75/100
Glass Rabbit - 75/100
Harmonia - 75/100
Heart of Thomas - 75/100
Her Blue Sky - 75/100
Hiraeth: The End of the Journey - 75/100
Hula Fulla Dance - 75/100
I Married My Best Friend To Shut My Parents Up - 75/100
Inu-Oh - 75/100
Jane Eyre - 75/100
Loopers - 75/100
Mana Khemia: The Alchemists of Al-Revis - 75/100
My Little Pony Tales - 75/100
Pokemon The First Movie - 75/100
Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage 2: Kokoro no Tomodachi - 75/100
The Princess Trilogy - 75/100
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure - 75/100
Sailor Moon Crystal - 75/100
Sailor Moon Crystal Season 2 - 75/100
A Silent Voice - 75/100
Show By Rock!! # - 75/100
Show Us Who You Are - 75/100
Summer Ghost (Novel) - 75/100
Umibe no Etranger - 75/100
Windaria - 75/100
A Wrinkle In Time - 75/100
Anne of Green Gables (Udon Manga) - 74/100
Fire Emblem Engage - 74/100
The Flying Phantom Ship - 74/100
Granblue Fantasy - 74/100
Happiness Charge Pretty Cure - 74/100
Kemono Friends - 74/100
Meiji Tokyo Renka - 74/100
Mrs. Pepperpot - 74/100
Night on the Galactic Railroad - 74/100
Sailor Moon S - 74/100
Spy x Family Season 2 - 74/100
Unico - 74/100
Asteroid In Love - 73/100
Atri: My Dear Moments - 73/100
Doki Doki Pretty Cure - 73/100
Durarara - 73/100
Etrian Odysey 5: Beyond The Myth - 73/100
Harvest Moon 2 - 73/100
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns - 73/100
A Letter To The Sky - 73/100
Mia and the Forbidden Medicine Report - 73/100
Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal - 73/100
Promare - 73/100
Saint Tail - 73/100
Sweet Blue Flowers - 73/100
Aikatsu Season 2 - 72/100
Belle - 72/100
Coraline - 72/100
Delicious Party Pretty Cure - 72/100
Goodbye Don Glees! - 72/100
Hanamaru Kindergarden - 72/100
A Kind of Spark - 72/100
The Knight Blooms Behind Castle Walls - 72/100
The Little Mermaid (1975) - 72/100
Macross Plus - 72/100
Naisho no Tsubomi - 72/100
On a Paper Crane: Tomoko's Adventure - 72/100
Pokemon Puzzle Challenge - 72/100
Swan Lake - 72/100
A Tale of Magic - 72/100
Zassou-Tachi yo Taishi o Idake - 72/100
Otherside Picnic - 71/100
Kimi to Boku - 71/100
Love Live Superstar Season 2 - 71/100
Merc Storia - 71/100
Monster Tamer Girls - 71/100
A Tale of Witchcraft - 71/100
The Yellow Wallpaper - 71/100
07-Ghost - 70/100
Actors: Songs Connection - 70/100
Ai-Ren - 70/100
Astro Boy (1980) - 70/100
Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and The Secret Hideout (Anime) - 70/100
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - 70/100
Devilman Crybaby - 70/100
The Golden Bird - 70/100
Hamtaro (1999 OVA) - 70/100
Horus: Prince of the Sun - 70/100
Hoshi Mamoru Inu - 70/100
Lady Georgie - 70/100
Link Click Season 2 - 70/100
The Little Broomstick - 70/100
Little Witch - 70/100
Magia Record Season 2 - 70/100
Magic Knight Rayearth (Manga) - 70/100
Okko's Inn - 70/100
Sasaki and Miyano - 70/100
A Timid Woman Longing For Her Delivery Girl - 70/100
Totto-chan: The Little Girl At The Window - 70/100
Your Name - 70/100

Here's everything I've rated from 0 to 69 out of 100, aka the below average to BAD stuff.

Akudama Drive - 69/100
Bananya - 69/100
The Demon Girl Next Door - 69/100
Dragon Quest: Your Story - 69/100
Healer Girl - 69/100
Home! - 69/100
I Am Here! - 69/100
Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun - 69/100
Air (Visual Novel) - 68/100
Bubble - 68/100
Bungo and Alchemist: Gears of Judgment - 68/100
Everlasting Flowers - 68/100
Gone With The Wind - 68/100
Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! - 68/100
Lego Elves: Secrets of Elvendale - 68/100
Love Live Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Next Sky - 67/100
Magia Record - 67/100
Show By Rock!! - 67/100
Queens of Geek - 67/100
Heaven Official's Blessing - 66/100
Nyanko Days - 66/100
Pretty Princess Party - 66/100
Secret of Mana - 66/100
Tearmoon Empire - 66/100
Big Fish and Begonia - 65/100
Candy Candy Movie - 65/100
Cyberpunk Edgerunners - 65/100
Final Fantasy - 65/100
Final Fantasy Adventure - 65/100
Harvest Moon - 65/100
Little Lord Fauntleroy - 65/100
Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure - 65/100
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir - 65/100
Pop in Q - 65/100
Tales of Zestiria The X - 65/100
Tokyo Mew Mew New Part 2 - 65/100
22/7 - 64/100
Cinnamon The Movie - 64/100
Lady Lovely Locks - 64/100
Tokyo Mew Mew (Manga) - 64/100
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai - 63/100
Maboroshi - 63/100
Tsuki ga Kirei - 63/100
Ultra Maniac - 63/100
Fairy Idol Kanon - 62/100
I Had That Same Dream Again - 62/100
The Last Unicorn - 62/100
Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki - 62/100
Why Raeliana Ended Up At The Duke's Mansion - 62/100
Wonder Egg Priority - 62/100
Just Listen - 61/100
Kemono Friends: Welcome To Japari Park! - 61/100
Wish Upon The Pleiades - 61/100
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - 60/100
Five Centimeters Per Second - 60/100
Light of the Clione - 60/100
M In The Middle - 60/100
Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure - 60/100
A Whisker Away - 60/100

Poupelle of Chimney Town - 59/100
Bonjour Sweet Love Patisserie - 58/100
Digimon Xros Wars - 58/100
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - 58/100
Show By Rock Stars - 58/100
Kiss The Scars Of The Girls - 57/100
Yuki's Sun - 57/100
Fair Then Partly Piggy - 56/100
Fire Emblem Fates - 56/100
Miss Monochrome - 56/100
Napping Princess - 56/100
The Earl and The Fairy (Manga) - 55/100
Fena: Pirate Princess - 55/100
Happiness Charge Pretty Cure - 55/100
Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal - 55/100
Ms. Itsuya - 55/100
Pokemon TCG - 55/100
PuraOre! Pride of Orange - 55/100
Storm Boy - 55/100
Show By Rock Mashumairesh!! - 54/100
Iggie's House - 53/100
Pretty Cure All Stars F - 53/100
The Stories Of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians - 53/100
I Want To Eat Your Pancreas - 52/100
K-On! - 52/100
See You At Harry's - 52/100
The Littlest Bigfoot - 51/100.
Marabel and the Book of Fate - 51/100
Deemo: Memorial Keys - 50/100
The Gilded Girl - 50/100
The IdolM@ster Cinderella Girls U149 - 50/100
Ni No Kuni Movie - 50/100
Prima Doll - 50/100
Sorairo Utility - 50/100
Fireworks - 49/100
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets - 49/100
Vampire In The Garden - 49/100
One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e - 48/100
The Orbital Children - 48/100
Earthian - 47/100
The Twin Souls - 47/100
Lapis Re:LiGHTS - 46/100
The Rainbow Mountain - 46/100
Aiura - 45/100
Of Mice and Men - 45/100
Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island - 45/100
To Joker... - 45/100
Bloody Stumps Samurai - 44/100
Nanare Hananare - 44/100
Bibliophile Princess - 40/100
The Categorical Universe of Candace Phee - 40/100
Japan Sinks - 40/100
Kirby's Dream Land - 40/100
Pom Poko - 40/100
At Night, I Become a Monster - 38/100
Bang Dream Film Live - 35/100
Bang Dream Film Live Second Stage - 35/100
The Klutzy Witch - 35/100
Ongaku Shoujo OVA - 30/100
Elsie Dinsmore - 25/100
Ijime - 20/100
Fat Angie - 15/100

Here's the review index for everything I've rated 80-89 out of 100.

A Forest World - 89/100
Another Code Recollection - 89/100
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - 89/100
Goodbye My Rose Garden - 89/100
Kurau Phantom Memory - 89/100
Lonely Castle In The Mirror (Manga) - 89/100
Pluto - 89/100
She and Her Cat: Everything Flows - 89/100
Somali and the Forest Spirit - 89/100
The Star Shepherd - 89/100
Tanoshii Moomin Ikka - 89/100
2001: A Space Odyssey - 88/100
Ashita no Nadja - 88/100
Before Green Gables - 88/100
Digimon Adventure - 88/100
Go! Princess Pretty Cure - 88/100
Hotori: The Simple Hope for Joy - 88/100
Kiki's Delivery Service - 88/100
The Legend of Hei - 88/100
Magic Knight Rayearth - 88/100
My Sister Momoko - 88/100
Nabari no Ou (Manga) - 88/100
Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid - 88/100
Nurse Angel Ririka SOS - 88/100
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (Novel) - 88/100
Story of Seasons - 88/100
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns - 88/100
Treasure Island - 88/100
A Place Further Than The Universe - 87/100
Alps Stories: My Annette - 87/100
Anne of Green Gables - 87/100
Aoi Hana - 87/100
Bocchi The Rock! - 87/100
Etrian Odyssey Nexus - 87/100
Girls Last Tour - 87/100
Jack Jeanne - 87/100
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - 87/100
Laid-Back Camp Movie - 87/100
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War In The Pocket - 87/100
Petite Princess Yucie - 87/100
Pokemon: Hisuian Snow - 87/100
Shounen Maid - 87/100
Suite Pretty Cure - 87/100
Wish - 87/100
Yuzu The Pet Vet - 87/100
The Beast Player (Novel) - 86/100
BL Metamorphosis - 86/100
Etrian Odyssey 4: The Legend of the Titan - 86/100
Hanasaku Iroha - 86/100
Our Wonderful Days - 86/100
Romeo's Blue Skies - 86/100
Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle - 86/100
The Wind Rises - 86/100
5-tou ni Naritai - 85/100
Amal Unbound - 85/100
Anthem of the Heart - 85/100
Beasts of Abigaile - 85/100
Cells At Work! - 85/100
Digimon Frontier - 85/100
Digimon Survive - 85/100
Ernest and Celestine - 85/100
Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star - 85/100
Get a Crip, Vivy Cohen! - 85/100
Girls Band Cry - 85/100
The Girl From The Other Side - 85/100
Hakumei and Mikochi - 85/100
Hop Step Sing! - 85/100
Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair (1979) - 85/100
Kageki Shojo!! - 85/100
Kagome Kagome - 85/100
Kitchen Princess - 85/100
Okko's Inn (Movie) - 85/100
Pokemon Adventures: Ruby & Sapphire Arc - 85/100
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX - 85/100
Pokemon Yellow - 85/100
Princess Arete - 85/100
Sazanka - 85/100
The Secret World of Arrietty - 85/100
Tales of Arise - 85/100
The Vision of Escaflowne - 85/100
Welcome To The Space Show - 85/100
The Wild Swans - 85/100
Yakunara Mug Cup mo - 85/100
Yakunara Mug Cup mo Season Two - 85/100
Yume no Hashibashi - 85/100
Dust: An Elysian Tail - 84/100
Flying Witch - 84/100
Given - 84/100
Glass Mask OVA - 84/100
The Garden of Words - 84/100
Girls Last Tour (Manga) - 84/100
Haikara-san ga Tooru Movie 1 - 84/100
Kamichu! - 84/100
Kobato - 84/100
Lonely Castle In The Mirror - 84/100
Jewelpet Twinkle - 84/100
Octopath Traveler II - 84/100
One Week Friends - 84/100
Pokemon Adventures: Gold/Silver/Crystal Arc - 84/100
Pokemon Let's Go! Pikachu and Eevee - 84/100
Puella Magi Madoka Magica - 84/100
Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Manga) - 84/100
Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars - 84/100
Stella of the End - 84/100
Suite Pretty Cure Movie - 84/100
Triangle Strategy - 84/100
Air - 83/100
Astra: Lost In Space (Manga) - 83/100
Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky - 83/100
Comet In Moominland - 83/100
Dear Brother... - 83/100
Laid-Back Camp Season Two - 83/100
Laputa: Castle In The Sky - 83/100
Les Miserables (2015 Manga) - 83/100
A Little Princess - 83/100
My Happy Marriage - 83/100
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - 83/100
Omishi Magical Theater Risky Safety - 83/100
Only Yesterday - 83/100
The Princess and the Pilot - 83/100
Trials of Mana - 83/100
Voices of a Distant Star (Novel) - 83/100
Yuuki Yuna is a Hero - 83/100
A Journey Through Fairyland - 82/100
Actraiser Renaissance - 82/100
Angelic Layer - 82/100
Annie On My Mind - 82/100
Digimon Adventure Pilot - 82/100
Drifting Home - 82/100
Embrace Your Size: My Own Body Positivity - 82/100
Final Fantasy 4 - 82/100
Good Different - 82/100
Heartcatch Pretty Cure Movie - 82/100
The Heiress and the Chauffeur - 82/100
Hirogaru Sky Pretty Cure - 82/100
Look Back - 82/100
Love Live Nijigasaki High School Idol Club - 82/100
Our Dining Table - 82/100
She and Her Cat (Manga) - 82/100
The Sign of the Beaver - 82/100
The Summer You Were There - 82/100
Tasogare-Boshi no Sui to Neri - 82/100
Voltron: Legendary Defender - 82/100
Ai no Gakkou Cuore Monogatari - 81/100
Aikatsu Season 3 - 81/100
Aikatsu The Movie - 81/100
Doki Doki Literature Club - 81/100
Clover - 81/100
Fire Emblem Awakening - 81/100
Infinity Train - 81/100
Insomniacs After School - 81/100
Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish - 81/100
Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish (Manga) - 81/100
Laid-Back Camp - 81/100
Link Click - 81/100
Magical Girl Pretty Sammy - 81/100
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Manga) - 81/100
Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green - 81/100
Pokemon: Twilight Wings - 81/100
Pollyanna - 81/100
Raven of the Inner Palace - 81/100
Ruby On The Outside - 81/100
Sing a Bit of Harmony - 81/100
Zombieland Saga - 81/100
Adventures of Mana - 80/100
Bones of an Invisible Human - 80/100
Cardcaptor Sakura The Movie - 80/100
Dareka no Manazashi - 80/100
Fighting Words - 80/100
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - 80/100
Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak - 80/100
New Pokemon Snap - 80/100
Night In The Woods - 80/100
Nutcracker Fantasy - 80/100
Octopath Traveler - 80/100
Otaku no Video - 80/100
Planetarian - 80/100
Planetarian (Anime) - 80/100
Pokemon Concierge - 80/100
Pokemon The Movie: I Choose You! - 80/100
Return to Popolocrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale - 80/100
Sailor Moon SuperS - 80/100
The Secret Garden - 80/100
Shadows House - 80/100
Summer Ghost - 80/100
Summer Ghost (Manga) - 80/100
Tales of Zestiria - 80/100
Tamayura: Hitotose (Remake) - 80/100
Tokyo Mew Mew - 80/100
Twinkle Stars - 80/100
Violets Are Blue - 80/100
The War That Saved My Life - 80/100

Yeah, I don't know why I didn't make one of these sooner. Here's a long overdue index for my reviews, for this one being specifically for everything I gave 90-100 out of 100 ratings to. The other ones will come soon, but they'll take a while since they're considerably longer than this one.

With The Light: Raising an Autistic Child - 100/100
Mother 3 - 98/100
Bambi: A Life In The Woods - 97/100
Shounen Onmyouji - 97/100
Dog of Flanders Movie - 97/100
+Anima - 96/100
Dog of Flanders: My Patrasche - 96/100
Anne of Green Gables (Manga) - 95/100
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai - 95/100
Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette - 95/100
Natsume Yuujinchou Seasons 1-4 - 95/100
Natsume Yuujinchou Seasons 5 and 6 - 95/100
Ramona - 95/100
The Rose of Versailles - 95/100
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 - 95/100
Earthbound - 94/100
Fancy Lala - 94/100
Haibane Renmei - 94/100
Homeless Girl Remy - 94/100
Looking For Magical Doremi - 94/100
My Brain Is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders - 94/100
Ringing Bell - 94/100
Whisper of the Heart - 94/100
Yona of the Dawn - 94/100
The Girl From The Other Side (10-minute OVA) - 93/100
Hotarubi no Mori e - 93/100
Perrine Monogatari - 93/100
Pokemon Adventures: Yellow Arc - 93/100
Popolocrois Monogatari - 93/100
Ride Your Wave - 93/100
The Rose of Versailles (Manga) - 93/100
Snow White With The Red Hair - 93/100
Snow White With The Red Hair Season Two - 93/100
The Tale of Princess Kaguya - 93/100
Where The Red Fern Grows - 93/100
After War Gundam X - 92/100
The Chronicles of Rebecca - 92/100
Digimon Tamers - 92/100
Full Moon o Sagashite (Manga) - 92/100
Heartcatch Pretty Cure 92/100
Ikoku Meiro no Croisee - 92/100
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers - 92/100
Yoru no Kuni - 92/100
The Beast Player (Manga) - 91/100
Bunny Drop - 91/100
From Far Away - 91/100
Majo to Neko no Hanashi - 91/100
Millennium Actress - 91/100
Ramona Quimby - 91/100
Seirei no Moribito - 91/100
Tales of Zestiria: A Time of Guidance - 91/100
Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga) - 90/100
The Girl From The Other Side (Manga) - 90/100
Healin Good Pretty Cure - 90/100
In This Corner of The World - 90/100
Land of the Lustrous - 90/100
A Little Lily Princess - 90/100
Liz and the Blue Bird - 90/100
Mandy - 90/100
Maquia: When The Promised Flower Blooms - 90/100
Natsuiro Kiseki - 90/100
Pokemon Adventures: Red/Green/Blue Arc - 90/100
Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal - 90/100
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town - 90/100

Current Music: Jack Jeanne OST

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!!

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Rumi Shishido - Owanarai Monogatari

I give this epic shoujo manga that revolutionized an entire genre...a 93/100!

In the year 1971, shoujo manga was beginning to get popular, with many new mangaka, many of them being women, changing the comic industry in Japan by writing stories aimed at women. The tides were turning swiftly, but none more so than the debut of Riyoko Ikeda's masterpiece, The Rose of Versailles. With its lush artwork, sweeping storyline spanning several decades, telling the rise and fall of French queen Marie Antoinette in the years before the French Revolution, accompanied by a strong, charismatic, fearless but still human female lead in Oscar, Rose of Versailles exploded in popularity all across the world, with many hailing it as one of the absolute best manga ever made. It has been constantly referenced, parodied, and used as inspiration for many other anime and manga since (Revolutionary Girl Utena is one notable example of this) because of its willingness to not only push the boundaries of shoujo manga aimed at girls, and for proving that shoujo manga that tell more serious, action-oriented stories can be good. To this day, Rose of Versailles is still hailed as a classic.

Oddly enough, even though it's very popular across the world, the manga itself didn't get released in North America until 2020, almost fifty years after its first publication. The first two volumes of the manga did get translated, but only because someone used them solely for the purposes for teaching English to Japanese readers. Even the anime had trouble getting brought over to the US. One reason that the manga didn't get published in the US at first was that according to one article, it was surmised that Ikeda wouldn't allow publishers to license it unless they paid the licensing fee that she specifically asked for, which was said to be so exorbitant that no American manga publisher could ever hope to afford it. Licensing manga for American release isn't exactly a get-rich-quick scheme, and don't let those long-running shounen manga fool you into believing so. This would eventually get rectified for both the anime and manga, with the former being released on DVD by Nozomi Entertainment in 2013, before falling out of print and now with a newly released Blu-Ray set from Discotek Media. Against all the odds, Udon Entertainment managed to license the Rose of Versailles manga in 2015, with intent to translate and release the entire series, including the side-stories, in large, hardback omnibus collections as a means of putting it out quicker. The first volume was originally going to be released in 2016, but due to the scale of the project and the gravity of just how important it is to the manga world as a whole, along with wanting to give it the most polished, faithful, authentic translation possible, it was delayed for years until it finally came out in 2020, along with COVID-related delays for later volumes after that. The fact that Rose of Versailles is getting a complete English release at all is a HUGE deal to anime/manga connoisseurs, and considering the industry has had plenty of miracles in the past few years (Legend of Galactic Heroes getting released in the US, a small movie licensor managing to get US blu-ray publishing rights for Neon Genesis Evangelion—which is also considered exorbitantly expensive to license, Gunbuster getting an English dub after years of not having one, and other classic anime and manga getting the same treatment), this proves that even the impossible can be possible.

So enough of that history lesson. What's the story actually about? The manga tells the tale of infamous French queen Marie Antoinette, her rise to power, and eventual fall from grace leading up to the French Revolution. It also follows the exploits of one Oscar Francois de Jarjayes, commander of Marie Antoinette's royal guard. Oscar's father has wanted a son for so long, but despite his best efforts, his wife has only provided him daughters, so he decides to raise his youngest baby as a boy, even though Oscar is female. The story explores how Marie Antoinette's decisions negatively affected France, Oscar seeing how France is governed, along with the plight of the poor, and all the important events that lead to the French Revolution, with a few fictitious elements sprinkled in for good measure.

Really, what's there to be said about the manga's artwork that hasn't been said already? All the characters have distinct designs, the page layout is outstanding, backgrounds, costumes, and set pieces are lavishly detailed, and from a non-artwork standpoint, it's made very clear that she did her homework in regards to making sure the overall setting and history is as accurate as humanly possible, even with certain characters either being completely fictional, highly fictionalized versions of other people, or did things differently than their real life counterparts. My only real complaint about it is that some characters can be hard to distinguish from one another, as many of them have the same 18th century hairstyle that was common during that time period, but that's more of a nitpick than anything. But I do have to critique parts of the English translation, as there are several instances where the characters use "must needs" for some reason, like "You must needs change clothes." This to me makes no grammatical sense, and it would have flowed better if the translator had written it as either "You need to change clothes" or "You must change clothes." This weird sentence structure is used other times in the manga as well, and it just feels very jarring to me, especially when you take into account that Udon poured over translating it over the course of years, from when they first announced the license to actually putting the volumes out.

Of course, a series like this absolutely lives or dies on its characters, and I think on that front, the manga succeeds spectacularly. Every single character, from the main ensemble to minor characters who don't exactly get a whole lot of page time, advance the story in their own ways, and even when they're not on screen, you can bet the manga isn't going to let them sit around doing nothing until they get focus again, as they all have their own agendas they carry out behind the scenes. Plus, while most series only cover a few years at most, Rose of Versailles' whole story takes place over a period of 24 years, and in that time, you really get to see them grow and change, some for the better, and some for the worst. Plus, you have to give the series kudos for making a good character out of Marie Antoinette, succeeding in making her sympathetic while still retaining her as the wildly naive, careless, irresponsible queen that she was. And then you have Oscar, who...what's there to say about Oscar that hasn't been said already? There's a reason why she's considered one of the best shoujo protagonists of all time, if not THE best one. She's strong, independent, charismatic, doesn't take crap from anyone, but still has plenty of flaws, like being overly prideful, and is allowed to be emotional and vulnerable when the time calls for it. People nowadays believe that the only way women can be truly strong is if they're nothing but stoic, emotionless beings, and that having them be vulnerable will make them come across as spineless and weak, but that's not true. People forget that characters need to be interesting in order to be truly likeable, and that involves showing how they deal with their flaws. Even many anime characters in anime nowadays are so focused on either being completely flawless, overpowered, or outright jackasses who get everything handed to them on a silver platter, that they come across as boring or too perfect to be invested in. Flawed characters are interesting when you show them dealing with their flaws, people!

The characters aren't the only ones with top notch development. Ikeda really worked hard to make the setting and the story feel alive, and the story itself really evolves over the course of its run. At first it seems like it'll be old school shoujo fare, complete with nobles, frilly dresses, sparkles, romance, and cheesy court politics (Seriously, I found Du Barry's whole motive to be really shallow), but once the French Revolution comes closer, the series gradually gets darker and darker. From that point on, you can't really call it a shoujo anymore, and it transcends genres. As far as overall flaws go, they're pretty negligible, but I can name a few. For one, the series doesn't always make transitions from one scene to another very clear. Most manga have things that indicate the changing of a scene or the passage of time, like bars that change size, or stylized borders, and so on, and Rose of Versailles doesn't have those. With the way most pages are set up, it looks like several scenes are playing out on the page at once, and it's often hard to tell if time has passed or not. Also, some of the cartoony expressions and humor can feel out of place at times, though unlike, say, Yona of the Dawn, they're not so pervasive that they pop up every single time there's a serious moment. There are also a few side stories that, while fun as their own entities, don't really feel like they fit into the narrative of Rose of Versailles because of how tonally dissonant they feel in terms of their mood and genres, namely the Countess In Black story at the end of volume 4. That one was just...weird, and it felt like it should have been its own separate story because of the supernatural and even sci-fi elements involved. I mean, RoV is a shoujo historical fiction story, so it's pretty jarring to have a side story where one of the characters is basically a bona fide robot made to look like a human being even though that kind of technology couldn't have existed in the late 18th century.

That being said, those things are negligible compared to how great the rest of the series is. Having seen the entire anime and now having read the entire manga, and owning it, I can wholeheartedly say that Rose of Versailles has absolutely earned its place in the anime/manga pantheon. There's really no other manga like it, and I can only imagine what the industry would be like had it not made the splash that it did. So don't think the seventies was full of badly animated fodder meant to sell toys or fill up empty space on TV channels. Do yourself a favor and read Rose of Versailles. It's not considered one of the greatest shoujo manga of all time for nothing...if you can manage to track down the English volumes, that is. Yeah, even though the series is fully out now, it's starting to fall out of print because of COVID causing delays in production, and Udon hasn't been able to make enough stock despite the manga being so recent. Even Right Stuf is running out of stock. I'm lucky to have managed to get all five volumes when I did, but if you can find it, definitely check it out if you can!

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Music: Aimer - Trill

I give this anthology cartoon about a magical train...an 81/100!

So...I didn't hear about this show until just this year, when I started reading a fan fic that happened to cross over with it. I did remember reading about it several years ago, but it had slipped my mind. But since it was uploaded to HBO Max, I had an account there, and wanted something new to watch because of the plague keeping everyone inside, I thought why not? Then I did...and thoroughly enjoyed it immensely! I ate the show up, and it helped that every season consisted of ten eleven-minute episodes. I wanted more! Sadly, the show ended at four seasons, and it was planned to have more, but the execs at Cartoon Network, in their infinite stupidity, cancelled it because they didn't think the shows future seasons would really appeal to children...which is stupid, if you ask me. It didn't help that said cancellation resulted in a lot of creator Owen Dennis' ideas for the series never coming to fruition, because he had a lot more that he wanted to do with the show, such as exploring important characters and the overall lore of the series further. That's...really sad if you think about it.

But what did we get from Infinity Train? Every "season," referred to as books, centers on different protagonists going on different adventures on a magical train. Whenever someone is going through problems in their real life, they get on the train and find glowing numbers on their hands. The goal is to sort through their problems and get their numbers down to zero so they can go home, and doing so requires going on journeys of self-discovery through the train. Book one centers on a twelve-year-old girl, Tulip, trying to cope with her parents' divorce, Book two on her sentient reflection, MT, and her desire to get off the train, book three on the adult leaders of a cult of children called the Apex and a mysterious girl they find, Hazel, and book four on two boys, Ryan and Min-Gi, who have a strained friendship as a result of both their problems. All four seasons are connected solely by the train and the actions of several major characters, though they all have different tellings of the overall history of the train and who took control of it.

Now, it's been a while since I've seen cartoons in Infinity Train's general style, so I don't know if this was Flash-based computer animation or just hand-drawn, digitally colored animation that's prevalent in stuff like Regular Show or Bojack Horseman. But I have to say, it's pretty good! Every character design is unique, the backgrounds for every train car are gorgeous and always manage to fit the feel and mood of whatever atmosphere it's going for, and character movement is pretty smooth, the occasional still frame notwithstanding. It helps that the animators really go out of their way to sneak in little details that foreshadow or reference things to come. For example, one of the characters from Books 2 and 3, the blonde guy Simon? He was actually very briefly shown in a blink-and-you-miss it shot in Book one, and is a main character in book three. One episode of book three shows a character holding a cannister of tea with a picture of a mantis wearing a cowboy hat, and in book four, the two main characters go into a car themed after the wild west, only the denizens are all bug cowboys.

I admit I don't have much to say on the soundtrack, as I'm not familiar with the instruments used for it. I know it's pretty heavy on synthesizer music, and the show doesn't even have much of an intro theme, just a single riff that lasts for about five seconds and that's it. But like the animation, the OST is also pretty good for what it is. The characters are definitely the most interesting part of the series, as Infinity Train shifts protags between each book. Since the series is all about having characters grow as people and face their issues, it's practically a requirement that they develop and be fleshed out over the course of each book. I found all of them pretty interesting and well fleshed out, even the ones who don't change for the better, and they never overstay their welcome, so that's always refreshing to see. All of them have their own engaging personalities, problems, weaknesses, and strengths that help them along their individual journeys, and are, for the most part, pretty relatable. I found Tulip to be the best of them, and MT to be the weakest one, mainly because, while MT's issues are understandable, she's often unnecessarily mean and abrasive towards people who haven't done anything to her personally, and she gets very destructive and endangers the lives of multiple people and denizens when she generally has no reason to do so. Everyone else falls somewhere in between, but other than my gripes with MT, the rest of the cast are perfectly fine.

Like the characters, each book also tells different stories of the people who get on the train, all facing their own issues and going on their own adventures. This is a children's show, and a damn good one at that, and it's not afraid to be dark or even scary at times, but knows when to hold back when need be and handles tough topics with the right amount of subtlety and nuance. I've always been a fan of kids shows that treat their audience seriously and don't try to sugarcoat things or dumb things down for the sake of it. Hell, many children's shows before this, and even outside of America, like half the anime I watch, never hesitated to show serious issues like death, divorce, mental illness, and others. Unfortunately, the execs at Cartoon Network still can't take the hint and canned Owen Dennis's plans for future seasons because they felt the topics he and the other writers wanted to tackle were too inappropriate for a show aimed at kids. But when has that stopped animators before?! They also thought having a show with an adult main character would turn kids away from watching it, even though that's a loaded statement because there are plenty of kids shows featuring adult protagonists that many people like, such as Gargoyles, Samurai Jack, Avatar: Legend of Korra, the Batman/Superman shows, and even this obscure one called The Legend of Calamity Jane. So yeah, the idea that people are still convinced kids can't handle tough topics in children's shows and that kids shows should only be either overly sugary or full of gross-out humor is utter bullshit.

Speaking of which, the Pig Baby episode can go die in a fire. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?!

Unfortunately, the cancellation of future seasons wound up being the biggest flaw of the series. Infinity Train hasn't explained all of its lore, and it ended with a lot of questions left unanswered. Dennis has mentioned that Book 4 is meant to be a breather season to transition from the emotionally charged Book 3 to a Book 5 movie that explained in detail how one character usurped the train from the original conductor. So having Book 4 be the final season can definitely leave a bad taste in fans' mouths, more so when you learn just why it's the final season in the first place. It's clear Owen Dennis really wanted to do more with the series, and the fact that it's only real problem has nothing to do with the show's actual quality really says a lot. Seriously, why are all these American cartoon execs so intent on screwing over good shows?! Are they really that convinced overzealous Karen moms will attack them if a kids show is a little bit dark? It doesn't help that they consistently churn out crappy shows and make them overstay their welcome, like Johnny Test (Which thankfully ended a while ago) and Teen Titans Go (An absolute mockery of the show and comics it's based on), convinced that kids will watch anything no matter how bad it is. But we all know that's bullshit. Hell, when countries like Japan and France have more respect for their animation, even going as far back as the 60s, you know you're doing something wrong. Hell, American animation being only for kids wasn't even a thing until the late 70s and 80s. Trying to make kids shows as either little more than gross-out fodder or overly sugary, squeaky clean fare really doesn't do anyone any favors. Just ask one of the people who worked on Little Clowns of Happytown, a show that was intended to be the perfect kids show with absolutely no conflict, violence, or anything even remotely dramatic or thought-provoking whatsoever. That should tell you all you need to know!

So yeah, Infinity Train is a great show that unfortunately got canned before it's time. What a shock. But I'm glad we have what we do have, because at it's heart, it's a genuinely nice show that deserves all the love that it gets.

Current Mood: grumpy
Current Music: Yuuki Ono - Yoshiwara Lament

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.

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: Adventures of Mana OST

I give Bang Dream's first ever movie...a 35/100.

Now before anyone comes at me with their pitch forks, let me clarify something: I NEVER go into something wanting to hate it. I admit that I haven't seen the Bang Dream anime beyond the first episode of season one, nor have I played the game. I did read one of the spin-off mangas (The one centered around Roselia) and liked it. Seeing that Bang Dream has become a popular franchise since its initial failed launch, it's inevitable that it would eventually get a movie. Then I heard what the movie actually turned out to be. Curious, I decided to check it out for myself since HIDIVE started streaming it the other day. And...seriously, I can't fathom just why this movie was even made and why the creators were even serious about making a movie like this. I'm talking about this purely from the perspective of someone who has seen very little of Bang Dream. But even with that, I don't know if this is meant to be fanservice for the fans, or some kind of promotional vehicle for the series. Usually movies are given leeway to tell bigger or more experimental stories with their franchise. But you won't find an actual story here. Want to know what this movie is? It's literally an animated concert showing the main bands from the series performing various songs, with a little bit of banter in between.

That is literally it. No, really. The whole anime is just a 3D animated concert sequence. I'm not even kidding. The characters literally just show up, sing a bunch of songs, have some banter between themselves, rinse and repeat for every band. I'm normally fine with movies wanting to do something different from their original source material, but the way Bang Dream's first movie did it just reeks of laziness and making a quick buck with minimal effort. For one, the 3D CGI animation is just awful. Whose bright idea was it to animate not only this, but Bang Dream's second and third seasons in this herky-jerky Barbie doll style? I know the first season's animation wasn't great, but it looked a hell of a lot better than this! Everyone has creepy-looking plastic faces that have little to no expression whatsoever, and while the character movement is okay at best, the 3D models have this weird glossy look that just makes them all look doll-like. All of the animation just feels uninspired and mediocre.

For what it's worth, most of the music in this series isn't bad. But most of the good songs, I feel, only consisted of the ones by Afterglow and Roselia, and a little bit of Poppin Party's songs. Everything else just sounds like rip-offs of other songs. Also, Hello Happy World's music is just painful to listen to, trying too hard to be as aggressively cute and saccharine as possible and nothing else. I wanted to rip my eardrums out every time spaghetti hair marching band girl opened her mouth and belted out her screechy voice. In all honesty though, the music is pretty much the only thing this movie has going for it, and even that can't save it from just how bland and lazy this movie feels. I honestly have to question why Bushiroad felt the need to pour so much money into what is literally a one and a half hour long animated concert, possibly to rake in more money, when the same effect could be achieved by going to the bands' actual, real life concerts. That is literally what concerts are for! Because of this, the movie feels unnecessarily padded out, and nothing happens in between songs. I can't comment on the characters because, again, all they do is perform and chat amongst each other, nothing else. They don't change, they don't do anything noteworthy, they're just kind of there, and their dialogue is just so boring that I couldn't bring myself to care about these people.

I don't know. Maybe I'd like this movie better if I was a fan of Bang Dream as a whole. But seriously, this whole movie feels like a waste of time and money. They really could have done something different with Bang Dream's first movie. They could have expanded on the stories told in the first three seasons in some way, or focused on the bands that the anime didn't get to cover, like the new one called Morfonica. Hell, it could have even been one of those compliation movies that animation companies love to shell out! But even for a movie like this, Bang Dream Film Live is incredibly cheap and feels wholly lazy and uninspired. I honestly wouldn't recommend this even to fans of Bang Dream. But if you like a time killer that won't make you use your brain too much, feel free to check it out. Otherwise, give it a miss.

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Tales of Zestiria OST

I give the second season of this lovely camping anime...an 83/100!

Who would have thought an anime about cute girls going camping would wind up being popular? And popular enough to warrant not only a second season, but a movie set to release next year! This second season takes place immediately after the first one, with the girls doing more camping and learning about all the ways one can experience it. I was surprised when I found myself liking the first season, so I couldn't wait to watch the second season. But often times, sequels don't really add anything new to the first installment. Most of the time, they take a nosedive in quality, or are just retreads of the first installment without trying to do anything new with it. Having seen Laid-Back Camp's second season now, I can say that while most of the time it retreads the same ground as the first season, it does manage to find time to offer more than what the previous season did.

First off, we actually see the characters get fleshed out and look back on what they used to be like before they met. The first episode begins with Rin in middle school and showing her rather rough first attempt at camping, a stark contrast to the camping veteran she is now. We even get to meet new characters who pop in every now and again, such as a childhood friend of Nadeshiko's from before she moved to town, and Aoi's younger sister Akari who actually gets quite a lot of screentime in the latter half of this season. It helps that none of the characters, old or new, feel shoehorned in or out of place when they get introduced, making them really feel like a part of the core casts' lives in some capacity. There's a scene where two shopkeepers talk about seeing Nadeshiko gazing at a gaslamp she wants, and little moments like that really make the show and its setting feel more alive.

I know in my review of the first season that I said not to expect much in the way of character development, as this is a slice-of-life show, but the second season seemed to turn that on its head by throwing in something that the first season didn't have: Conflict. Well, only in episode six, but the way the show introduces said conflict into the episode actually feels warranted, because while the show isn't shy about extolling the wonders of winter camping, it also isn't afraid to remind you that it has its downsides as well, especially in regards to stressing the importance of proper preparation and planning. Checking the weather, the conditions in the area, having the proper gear and money to buy said gear, and so on, and failure to do such will result in life threatening situations and tragedy. Having the characters actually confront the results of their own reckless decisions and lack of preparation makes them feel much more three-dimensional and fleshed out than they were in the first season, and I applaud Laid-Back Camp for not shying away from reality. Besides, having everything go smoothly all the time would be boring, now wouldn't it? Of course, the development isn't limited to just those three, as Nadeshiko and Rin are also given moments where they go out of their comfort zones and try new things.

As far as the animation and music go, it's the same quality as the previous season, so I think belaboring how good both of them are would be kind of redundant. I will say this though: I feel this season's opening theme song is way better than the first season's opening, even though they're sung by the same singer. Yes, I said it, I think Seize The Day is better than Shiny Days. Fight me. It helps that the camping tips and narration have been dialed back a bit, and while I never found them to be obnoxious, they could be a little much, and I like that season two cut down on them. After the disappointment that was the Heya Camp shorts, I'm glad to see this adorable camping show going back to its roots and expanding its horizons just a bit. One thing I want to mention is that while on the surface, the show in general seems to have a moe aesthetic going for it, since it focuses on cute looking girls, one of the producers said in an interview that he and his team tried really hard not to make it seem or feel moe when making the show, as the story itself and the camping segments were just as important as seeing the girls having fun. Plus, he also said that having the characters act more cutesy-moe than they were would be disingenuous, as they don't act like that in the manga. I really wish more creators tackled moe anime with this thought in mind, as most anime feel they can only sell their shows on cute girls alone, when that in and of itself can't carry an entire piece of media.

To reiterate from my review of the first season, if you just want to kick back, relax, wrap yourself in a blanket, drink some hot chocolate, and watch a comfy anime, then let it be Laid-Back Camp. It may not be full of action or fanservice, but it can be fulfilling in its own way.

Current Mood: ditzy
Current Music: Rie Murakawa - Anata no Shiranai Koto

I give this manga adaptation of one of the more divisive Tales games in the franchise...a 91/100!

When adapting something into a new medium, one has to take into account how certain aspects will or won't be able to fit into or make the transition to whatever medium it's being adapted into. Depending on the amount of creative freedom or restrictions involved, an adaptation can either succeed or fail, as there's always going to be some degree of changes involved, and execution is everything. I'm pretty sure you all know by now, but I LOVE Tales of Zestiria. I think it's a fun video game and while I won't deny that it has its flaws, I still found it entertaining. The anime version, on the other hand, suffered too much in not only diverging way too far from the game, to the point of outright contradicting and ignoring many of the game's rules, but shoehorning in scenarios and characters from the prequel game when it isn't needed. Zestiria is definitely one of the more divisive games in the franchise, and every iteration seems to have its own flaws that prevent it from truly being good...except for, oddly enough, one that many agree is the superior adaptation of the Zestiria game as a whole: the manga, which will be the subject of today's review.

I won't belabor the plot summary, as anyone who's read my reviews probably already knows it at this point. But this manga adaptation, called A Time of Guidance, changes and rectifies a lot of issues that players had issues with in regards to the game. For one, many parts of the game are either compressed, rearranged so that they happen earlier or later, have events happening differently, or are just left out altogether. For example, many players of the game hated the four trial shrines, as not only were several of them really long and had really difficult mechanics (Looking at you, Water Temple!), they were extremely tedious, and were mostly just time-consuming fetch quests that slowed down the game's pacing. The manga doesn't even bother adapting them, as the mangaka was only allowed four volumes to tell the story, so the trials were left out, freeing it from a lot of the chaf that bogged down both the game and the anime. This also makes the manga feel rather fast paced as a result, which many, myself included, is a huge boon to the manga's way of telling the game's story.

It also rectifies other issues in regards to certain characters or events feeling like they were just yanked out of the creator's ass. For example, in the game, when Sorey allows Alisha to become his Squire, one of the side effects is that because Alisha's spiritual ability is low, his power is drained, and it results in his right eye turning a bit blind. The foreshadowing for this in the game is very subtle to the point of being missable, and many found it to just be a source of unneeded drama. Here, while the side effect is kept in, Lailah flat out mentions right in the beginning that making Alisha his Squire will come with negative side effects because her spiritual abilities are too low for him, and is even given a much better, more poignant resolution than the game did. The manga even expands on some minor characters roles and have them interact with the main party more than they did in the game, such being the case for one seraph, Uno, who they purify at the bridge leading to Marlind. He was just an exposition dump in the game, but the manga gives him a few scenes where he and Mikleo interact, and Uno serves as his confidant for a short while. These new additions and ways of getting around the game's limitations make the manga's approach to storytelling feel much more organic and less padded out. This does come with the side effect of having the characters not feel as fleshed out as they were in the games, but many of the other characters didn't have their backstories explored much in the game anyway (*coughSymmoneandLunarrecough*).

As far as artwork goes, it does its job pretty well. Shiramine captured the look of the characters perfectly, and the backgrounds, while not as detailed as the game's designs, still look stunning. The character designs are also slightly more angular, and Shiramine really seems to like using stark, completely dark shadows. I admit I'm not the best at critiquing art, so forgive me if I don't have much to say about it. As far as adaptations go, the Tales of Zestiria manga is pretty damn good!...but it does have one HUGE flaw that I feel prevents it from being a masterpiece in my eyes. While the manga makes a valiant effort to rectify a lot of the game's flaws, it does introduce one idea near the end involving both Sorey and the main villain that, if you really think about it, not only makes very little sense, but if you learn about the villain's backstory, it opens a huge can of plot holes that don't get resolved in any way. I can only assume this was Shiramine's attempt at trying to tie Sorey and the main villain together and make the conflict between them feel more personal, which isn't a bad thing, but the way Shiramine did it here just opens up a pretty massive plot hole, and I think they would have been better off had they tried to tie their arcs together in a way that didn't contradict the game's backstory for the villain in question.

Plus, the manga is pretty short too, only clocking in at four volumes long, so while it does cover the main story of the game, it leaves out a LOT of sidequests, characters, arcs, and many other things. This is mainly because it's just there to promote the game, not really trying to one-up it in any way. Is it one of the best manga ever? Not really, and it doesn't give you the whole package in terms of what Zestiria has to offer. But is it one of my favorite manga? Oh, hell yeah! So if you want to experience the story of Tales of Zestiria but don't want to invest in the game or the anime, the manga's a pretty good alternative. It's a fairly enjoyable, fast paced, fun little manga that cuts out a lot of the chaf from the game and is overall plain great! To me, at least.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Rie Murakawa - Anata no Shiranai Koto

I give this manga about a man going to his father's funeral...a 90/100.

Do you like manga about families? Do you like manga with realistic character designs, and that don't adhere to the typical cliches and tropes that you see every day? Do you want your manga to be a little more grounded and realistic? Well my friend, Jiro Taniguchi's A Journal Of My Father is definitely for you. Jiro Taniguchi was a relatively well-liked manga artist whose works leaned heavily on the more realistic side of the anime/manga spectrum, with shorter narratives, non-cartoony character designs, more grounded and realistic approaches to his storylines, and for just being unconventional. Basically, he was considered the Yasujiro Ozu of manga. But this won him a lot of fans, including a lot of my online friends who recommended that I read some of his work. He unfortunately passed away in 2017 at 69 years old, but he continued to make manga into the twilight years of his life. One online friend recommended that I look at some of his work since they're different from most manga, and now that I've read one of his works, I can certainly see why people like his bibliography so much, and I think I'm a fan now. Thanks, Armitage!

So what's the story? Yoichi Yamashita is a man who's made a good life for himself. He has a well-paying job at a designing firm and is happily married. One day, he gets a phone call bearing terrible news: His father recently passed away. Although he's always had a strained relationship with his father, Yoichi feels compelled to at least attend his funeral. Friends and relatives tell all sorts of stories about his father, and Yoichi, who had always considered his father to be cold and distant, begins to see a side to him that he never knew, and the experience makes him re-evaluate the role his father had in his life, along with how his actions affected him and those around him. Maybe his father wasn't the absent dad he thought he knew after all.

(more to come soon)

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Peter Gabriel - Heroes

I give this sweet book about two middle schoolers experiencing romance and coffee...a 78/100!

Has anyone ever picked up a book because they thought it's title was cute, catchy, or cool? Yeah, I admit to having done so with this one. Now, I admit that I've never been the biggest fan of the romance genre. Most romance-themed media I've seen, be it books, TV shows, movies, anime, or video games, are often very formulaic and melodramatic, and often play out the same predictable stories with the same predictable cliches. I especially hate the trope of two girls falling for the same guy and getting into catfights over it, because it's old, it's a dead horse that's been beaten to death, and there's really no way to do a new, original spin on it. But lately I have found some romance-themed media that has been genuinely good, like The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary, that Ghibli movie Whisper of the Heart, and a few others. I went into Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life with low expectations, and while it's still rather...by the numbers, it manages to subvert just as many romance cliches as it indulges in them, and is actually a pretty sweet book on its own.

The story centers on 13-year-old Nadine Durand, who loves going to the local coffee shop, the Snug Mug, and playing the cello. But the main reason she goes there is because her best friend, Daniel Dae Cho, works there. The two have been best friends since they were very young, and while Nadine is busy with music rehearsals and Daniel with his snowboarding, they always manage to make time for one another, sharing pumpkin spice lattes over whatever else they talk about. But their routine is shaken up when a new girl, Kiya Renaud, moves into town, and Daniel falls head over heels for her. Normally this wouldn't bother Nadine, but the fact that Kiya's family bought the Snug Mug and are changing it to fit their standards, along with the lengths Daniel goes to try and impress her, are sending her unchanged world upside down. There's also the fact that her mother, who left the family years before, has come back into the picture and Nadine wants nothing to do with her. Can Nadine make sense of all these changes and tell Daniel how she feels?

On the surface, the book doesn't seem like anything special, and reading it, it's still a rather by the numbers romance. Girl likes guy, guy crushes on another girl, first girl gets jealous, and so on. But I can definitely praise Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life for its deft handling of this plot and not taking it into the really idiotic cliche places that most romance media usually take this storyline. For one, the characters, while middle schoolers, are far more mature about handling the various conflicts that arise, and even when they aren't, the characters react appropriately and realistically, as middle schoolers do. They don't make it into something bigger than it is, nor jump to conclusions about it based on what they see on the surface. Plus, I like how the main conflict isn't that Nadine is solely jealous of Kiya getting Daniel's attention, but more that she's concerned that Daniel is making up these elaborate schemes just to impress some girl he barely knows but is putting her on a pedestal and idealizing her for his own gain, and realizing how unhealthy this behavior is, both for him and for Kiya. I also found the resolution to be both sweet and satisfying, cheesy but appropriate for the story Suzanne Nelson wanted to tell. Basically, while the characters may not be anything special in terms of their development, I liked how the story used them and I found their individual arcs to be sweet and well done.

Seeing as this is a children's book aimed at a middle school crowd, the prose is rather simplistic and easy to understand. Kind of barebones, with only a few notable passages that made an effort to be engaging. Not bad, but I can see eight-year-olds reading this with no problem. While I do like the book just fine, it does have a few signicant flaws that hold it back. Like I said before, I'm not generally a fan of romance, and there's no new way to tell a romance story anymore. Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life follows the same story beats as any other romance media does, and while I liked how it turned out, any romance readers who know their tropes can predict the story's events coming from a mile away. It's nothing you haven't seen before, and it's the same kind of romance story that's been told in a million other iterations over the past hundred or so years. Another thing that irked me is that...the book is depicting middle schoolers drinking copious amounts of coffee. When I was these kids' age, nobody in my age group ever drank coffee or lattes at all. This premise might be easier to swallow if the characters were in high school or something, but middle school? What middle schoolers drink coffee and lattes every day? I found this part in particular to be very unrealistic, as I've never met any middle schoolers who drank coffee or lattes, much less the amounts that Nadine and her friends consume on a daily basis. I know I certainly didn't! Eh, I'm sure the authoress had good intentions, and other than those things, I still like this book and I can definitely say the romance aspect of it is very well executed.

Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life may not be breaking any new ground in terms of its genre, but like a nice latte, it's sure to warm you up and leave a sweet aftertaste.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Yuuki Ono - Yoshiwara Lament

I give this book about children dealing with the trauma of sexual abuse...an 80/100.

Growing up, my childhood was pretty good, and my parents love and accept me for who I am. But when I started getting really into reading in 6th or 7th grade, I always found myself morbidly curious about books exploring tough topics like bullying, child abuse, illness, and even sexual abuse. Don't worry, I don't mean this in a creepy, fetishistic way either. That's gross and unethical. It was more in the "Why would anyone, let alone a parent, want to hurt their child?" kind of way. I actively sought out any media that dealt with these kinds of topics, via movies, TV series, books (Both fiction and non-fiction), and so on. I even met and befriended people who went through similar experiences themselves, and I can bet that they would have loved to have read a book like this, if only to let them know that they weren't alone in their struggles and to give them something they can relate to. I was already interested in Kim Brubaker Bradley's work after reading The War That Saved My Life and its sequel, but the second I read the premise of Fighting Words, I knew I wanted to read it as soon as my local library reopened. Having read it, I can say it met my expectations. It's not a masterpiece in any way, but it is an important book.

The story centers on two sisters, ten-year-old Della and sixteen-year-old Suki, who have just been put into a new foster home under the care of a woman named Francine. Their mother's in prison for blowing up a meth lab and endangering her kids, and said mother's evil boyfriend was cruel to the both of them in ways no child should ever have to go through. Della and Suki are trying their hardest to carve out a normal life for themselves, and Della is confident that she'll be fine as long as Suki is there to protect her, like she's always done. But Suki hasn't had anyone to protect her throughout her life, and is still reeling from the trauma she had to endure, trying desperately to hide the extent of what happened to her out of fear and shame. It gets so bad that she attempts to kill herself one day, and Della's life is turned upside down.

I knew reading Fighting Words was going to be a different experience compared to reading her War That Saved My Life duology, especially considering that this book takes place in the modern day rather than in the forties, so I had a feeling that the prose would be different as well. It's not as overly detailed and eloquent here as it was in TWTSML, but it's perfectly easy to understand and breeze through. It helps that the chapters are short and Della's narration, while not entirely believable, does hit more than it misses. I did find the overusage of snow as a substitute for cursing to be really irritating though, and while I can understand why the authoress did this (Presumably to keep it in the children's novel rating, as adding in profanity would ramp it up to a teen rating), I just found it to be obnoxious, and it took me out of the story more often than not. Luckily, this is mitigated by the wonderful cast of main characters, all of whom all have the right amount of pagetime and development, or at least manage to get it overtime. The minor characters are okay, but aren't as fleshed out as the main trio. I definitely wanted to see more of Teena and Luisa.

I liked how the story played out, and everything felt natural and realistic. Well, about as realistic as can be expected in regards to tough topics like suicide, sexual abuse, awful parents, and so on. I've never been through stuff like that myself, so I can't really comment on the authenticity of it. Bradley does say in the afterword that the book is based on some of her own experiences as a CSA survivor, and for what it's worth, none of the sexual abuse is described graphically or in detail, but definitely implied, and it's never used for shock value or forced drama as far as I can tell. It also helps that the book doesn't try to resolve every issue and tie it up in a neat little bow at the end, as that's not how life works, but that doesn't mean the characters can't find happiness. Now, I know a lot of people are going to take issue with the fact that this book, aimed at children, is covering topics like suicide and sexual abuse at all, claiming that kids shouldn't learn about those things in any way, or at least only have this book be shown to teenagers or older.

Personally, I think the idea of trying to hide tough topics from kids at all is utter bullshit. People are constantly underestimating children's intelligence when it comes to whether they can handle tough topics or not, and I really don't think actively trying to sanitize everything aimed at kids is the best way to go about this. I know every person handles these things differently, and with every kid that does want to know about tough topics like these, there are just as many who are sensitive and don't want to know about them until they're old enough to handle it, and that's fine. But I've always held the philosophy that kids should at least learn about these tough topics so they can learn how to deal with them, should they ever find themselves in that sort of situation. Why not use them as teaching tools in order to teach kids things like kindess, empathy, and the importance of reaching out for help? Kids are much smarter and more resilient than people give them credit for. I think every child should form their own opinion about whether they know they can handle tough topics in their media or not and make the decision for themselves whether they want to learn about them or not. Oh, and any overzealous Karens trying to claim that even the mere knowledge of suicide and CSA will somehow "corrupt the children" can go jump in an ocean of sulfiric acid.

Not perfect, but it's definitely an important book that absolutely deserves to be read at least once, especially for people going through the same situations as the main characters are. Remember, you're not alone, and all the bad things that happened to you are never your fault.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Yuuki Ono - Yoshiwara Lament

I give this Harry Potter-inspired Pretty Cure season...a 65/100.

While Pretty Cure as a franchise is pretty notorious for being very clingy to its formula, you can't deny that the shows always try to do something new with each new show, so no two seasons of Pretty Cure are exactly alike. This also means that every Pretty Cure season has their own parts that they excel at and parts that they don't. I fell out of Pretty Cure after Go Princess due to other obligations and...other things, but that's neither here nor there. But recently I've gone on a bit of a kick involving stories about young witches using their magic to solve problems and help people, what with watching shows like The Worst Witch (The Netflix season), Flying Witch (A very good anime, BTW!), and reading books such as Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett, the original Kiki's Delivery Service novel and, a particular favorite that just came out, Eva Evergreen: Semi Magical Witch (Definitely give that one a read!). Since I've been trying to get back into Pretty Cure thanks to Healin Good turning out really great, I thought I'd give Mahou Tsukai a gander...and man, I really wish I could rate this series higher than I did. It has a lot of potential, but I really didn't enjoy this one. In all honesty, Mahou Tsukai is one of the most frustrating Precure shows I've ever seen.

The story is pretty much a magical girl version of Harry Potter. One night, Mirai Asahina sees a witch girl, Riko, flying around on a broom. She manages to find her and the two become friends, but Riko is on the hunt for something called a Linkle Stone Emerald. She's not the only one, as a slew of evil villains try to get their hands on the gem as well, intent on making sure Riko and Mirai don't get in their way. But a pair of magic necklaces they have allow them to transform into the mythical superhero witches called Pretty Cure, whose job it is to defeat these enemies. Their appearance doesn't go unnoticed, as the headmaster of the witch school Riko goes to takes a particular interest in them, supporting them all he can while doing his own research on just what these enemies want with the Emerald. Along the way, Mirai enrolls into remedial classes at the magic academy, Riko learns to get better at magic...since she's actually rather lousy at it, and on top of that, the two girls find themselves raising a magical fairy baby they name Haa-chan. Mirai's life is sure to get more exciting!

...And I only wish the series were that way as well. I don't want to be a killjoy, so as I mentioned before, every Pretty Cure season has things they're good at and things that they're not. For Mahou Tsukai, it's the worldbuilding and setting, mainly in regards to the magical world that Mirai and Riko are tasked to protect. You know how most Pretty Cure shows establish that the fairy companions come from a magical land, but the shows themselves rarely, if ever, show said magical land or give the audience reasons why we should care about it? Well, Mahou Tsukai rectifies that issue tenfold, as the first few episodes of the series takes place in the world where Riko hails from, and even after that, the story never forgets that it's there, often showing the heroines going back there on occasion or interacting with the other denizens, making it feel much more alive than most. This series, from the few Pretty Cure shows I've seen so far, actually makes an effort to flesh out its setting and explain why things are the way they are...most of the time. It also helps that Mahou Tsukai has no shortage of fun ideas that would definitely make the magical world fun from a kid's point of view. Parts of the world only having one season only, snail trains, flowers that make fireworks, ice dragons sighing on clementines to freeze them for consumption, a magical tree that produces magic wands when a child is born, and so on. The real world setting is nothing to write home about, but Toei really put their all into actually fleshing out the setting this time around, giving the audience reasons to actually care about it!

I only wish Toei put that same amount of effort into...well, everything else. I mean, the animation is fine, but it's typical of magical girl shows at this point: Bright and sparkly, with some off model scenes every now and again, with transformation scenes that go on for too long (Cure Felice's especially!), and 3D CGI for the plastic toys they're trying to promote. They also decided to ditch the CGI attacks that were prominent in Go Princess, so it gets points there. Since this season started off with a new composer and decided not to use the person who made the music for Doki Doki, Happiness Charge, and Go Princess, any music that's made is completely new this time around, thankfully. But it has been several years since I've seen Go Princess, and I don't know if this season actually reused music or not. One thing about this season's OST does stand out though: In Mahou Tsukai, the girls use magical gemstones to transform, and depending on one of four stones they use, they gain new outfits and Cure powers (IMHO the Ruby form is the best version. I honestly wish that was their default outfit as it has the best animation and designs out of all of them), and each transformation is given their own variation of the theme that's used for it. I'll give Yuuki Hayashi props for actually making the four transformation scenes distinct from one another, so kudos to him for trying. Not gonna lie though, the opening and ending songs are a massive downgrade from Go Princess.

Not gonna lie though, the characters are one of the weakest aspects of the show, and for several reasons: Mirai is your typical bland, peppy, go-getter girl who doesn't have much personality and depth other than "gets excited over everything" and even though she's a normal kid with no experience with magic whatsoever, she manages to master learning magic after just a few lessons at magic school. Riko fares slightly better, as she actually has to struggle and overcome her flaws to achieve what she wants to do and learn more about herself. Out of all of them, she's the best...but the episodes where she's allowed to show her stuff and become a more three-dimensional character are few and far between, and after her initial first arc, she doesn't get to do much after that. In all honesty, many of the side characters, such as Emily, Kay, and Jun, were more interesting than the main trio. I wanted to see more of those three and see episodes wholly dedicated to them. The villains are the absolute worst, being little more than Saturday morning cartoon villains with nothing in the way of personality or depth, and the thing is, rather than actually develop them, the show just kills them off in the first half of the series, completely replacing them with brand new villains right afterward while also giving them little to no purpose or depth whatsoever! Seriously, Healin Good, while it has similar issues for its villains, at the very least managed to stay consistent with them and gave them their required amount of screentime! And I'm not the only one who thinks this either. Isao Murayama, one of the producers for Mahou Tsukai, has stated in an interview that he came to regret how he wrote the villains, so when he went on to work on Star Twinkle Pretty Cure three years later, he made an effort to give the villains in that better, deeper character writing. Good on him for making an effort to learn from his mistakes.

But the character I have the biggest issue with is Haa-chan, particularly after she becomes a Cure. When she's a fairy baby, she's perfectly fine! But after she became a Cure, the creators made her not only overpowered as hell, but absolutely annoying too! Haa-chan is able to achieve feats that no witch in the magic world can do, when she's told to do or not do something she absolutely refuses to listen (Like using magic even though the others tell her not to do so, and even when she seemingly learns her lesson, she immediately goes back on it two scenes later), she's constantly shilled by all the other characters, it tries to present some of her more flawed traits at the expense of them actually being flaws, and worst of all, the creators feel the need to have her take away focus from other characters, even in said characters' focus episodes! One example being the episode where Riko reunites with her father but is frustrated by the fact that he focuses more on his work than her. For an episode that was touted as a Riko-centric episode, she doesn't get so much as ten whole lines out of it, and she doesn't get to do anything throughout the episode other than stew in her frustration and let everybody else do the talking. When Riko's father is feeling bad about himself and realizing what he did, is Riko the one to actually communicate with him? Nope, let's just shoehorn in Haa-chan and have her give the cheesy, moralistic rousing speech to him while completely ignoring Riko whatsoever! See what I mean about Haa-chan actively taking time away from characters who could actually benefit from it? I think the series would have been so much better had Haa-chan stayed as a fairy baby. At least in that form she was quiet and didn't shoehorn herself into every character's business and cause needless trouble for it! I wanted to throw my computer at the wall every time Haa-chan hogged the spotlight.

Lastly, it feels like the show doesn't really know what to do with itself. There are times when the show puts in some effort to flesh out its story and put on a grander narrative, but a good chunk of the episodes are pointless filler that amount to nothing, one of them being the one where the girls get their power-up item...and the way they acquire it is one of the absolute dumbest things the show has ever done. Do they earn it through training, through getting stronger, through overcoming an adversary, coming to terms with their flaws, or growing as people? Nope, they get it by way of a bizarre magical dream that has absolutely no bearing on the storyline whatsoever! At heart, the anime is a lighthearted magical adventure, which is fine, but the two halves of the show feel like two different series, what with how they shaft old villains in favor of new ones. I feel like this show would have been more enjoyable had it just focused on the fantasy world and made more of an effort to flesh out its characters and make them feel like three-dimensional individuals. In all honesty, the anime's biggest strength is that it doesn't ask anything from the viewer. You can just watch it, turn your brain off, and not have to think about anything difficult...but you can achieve that same effect by watching paint dry.

(Oh, by the way, don't watch episode 50. Episode 49 provides a MUCH more concrete finale and is a perfect stopping point. Episode 50 just shoehorns in the KiraKira Precure A La Mode main character for the sake of a pre-series cameo that accomplishes nothing)

Not one of the better Pretty Cure seasons, but it's a nice, lighthearted romp you can use to babysit your daughter/little sister/nice or whatever.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Yuuki Ono - Yoshiwara Lament

I give this sequel to the first Harvest Moon GameBoy Color game...a 73/100!

The first Harvest Moon game I ever played was the first one for the GameBoy Color via the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. That was basically a pint-sized port of the SNES game, but without marriage, character events, and it basically locked you to your farm and turned the town into a menu. Probably not the best game to get into the franchise with. It didn't help that a lot of requirements to get a good score at the end of the game were not only glitchy, but extremely hard to understand. That was my entry to the series back in 2016, and I did find it repetitive and at times frustrating, but I still liked it enough that I wanted to play other entries in the franchise. There are three GameBoy Color games for Harvest Moon in total, and I own all three, but haven't played the third one yet, only the first two, though from what I hear, the third game has a lot of issues. But I will say that out of the GBC games I've played so far, Harvest Moon 2 is the best one I've played.

Like the first game, you're tasked with running a farm, raising crops, taking care of livestock, getting to know the townspeople, and so on. But there's an actual storyline here this time around: The mayor of the town you move to says that in three years, a company will set up an amusement park, and apparently that's bad, so you need to run a successful farm within those three years if you want to prevent the amusement park from being built. This plotline would get reused in the games Save The Homeland and Hero of Leaf Valley, the latter of which is a remake of the former, and similarly to Homeland, you don't get to marry a potential bachelor/ette. But this game does give you the option of choosing your gender, even though it's completely inconsequential to the story.

The first Harvest Moon game was very, VERY barebones in terms of features, and there wasn't a lot that you could really do. Harvest Moon 2 improves on it by a country mile by adding a ton of new features, such as NPCs you can talk to (Even though they repeat their dialogue over and over again), foraging for items in the forest and mountains, bug catching, and a goal you can work towards. Plus, the game introduces sheep as livestock, but you can't raise them until you get a sheep barn, which unfortunately costs a lot of money to build. The game also introduces hothouses, where you can plant flowers and herbs in clay pots, and yes, they count as crops, so you're able to sell them, though you need the scissors tool to get them out of the pot when they've bloomed. Speaking of crops, the game even lets you plant crops during the winter, so you won't have to spend your winter days doing nothing! It also helps that the setting of the game is much bigger and more expansive than the first game, with your farm being much bigger, being able to explore the town and the mountain area.

That being said, don't go into this game expecting expansive character development or any semblance of action, because simulation games aren't necessarily for everyone. This is a game that's solely about owning a farm and being part of the community. As I mentioned before, you're unable to marry anyone in this game, something which has become a staple in many of the more popular games, both before and after this one. Anyone looking for hotblooded action will find this game terribly boring, and compared to games that would come later in the HM franchise, this one would also feel rather barebones and primitive due to the refinements made by later games. Furthermore, the game does require you to make a lot of money if you want to get certain facilities like the hothouse and the sheep farm, which can result in the game feeling rather grindy after a while, and this is on top of the fact that the game doesn't allow you to purchase cows or chickens until you have a lot of grass planted behind their barns/coops. The graphics are the same as the first game's, what with reusing character sprites for your farmer, the animals, and the crops, and since the game doesn't let you carry anything other than tools, foraging can be rather tedious.

In all honesty though, I still found Harvest Moon 2 to be very enjoyable. I can certainly say that I liked it way better than the first game for the GameBoy Color! While not necessarily groundbreaking in any way, Harvest Moon 2 is still a fun little romp that can serve as a pleasant time killer.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Yuuki Ono - Yoshiwara Lament

I give this new manga adaptation of L. M. Montgomery's famous novel...a 74/100.

What?! There's a new Anne of Green Gables manga?! You read that right. Udon Entertainment commissioned someone to make their own manga version of Anne of Green Gables as part of their Manga Classics line, and it was just released back in November of last year. Anne of Green Gables is one of the most popular children's novels in Canada (Though I have a friend in Vancouver and he says he never even heard of it until I told him about it), published way back in 1908, and since it's technically in the public domain, it's rife for adaptation in any format. However, what many don't know is that while this is technically the first English language manga version of Anne's story, fully endorsed by Montgomery's descendants, it's actually the second manga version to ever be made. There's another manga adaptation that was published in 1997 by one Yumiko Igarashi, a mangaka who did the artwork for stuff like Candy Candy and Lady Georgie. Granted, that version was never brought to the States, so it's easy to understand why hardly anyone would know about it. I did manage to read that version and I absolutely love it. Of course, being a fan of Anne of Green Gables in general, as soon as I saw this, I bought it straight away...though, in the back of my mind, I had a feeling it wouldn't reach the levels that Yumiko Igarashi's take on it achieved. Now that I own it and have read it, while this manga is a perfectly serviceable adaptation of Anne's story and is true to the spirit of the novel, there's really no denying it: the Yumiko Igarashi manga is just better in every way.

Anyone who even has a passing knowledge of the Anne novels already knows the main premise, so I won't repeat myself here. As of this review, I've seen the following adaptations of Anne: The 1979 anime series (Which I consider to be the best one), the 1985 miniseries/movie, the 1997 Yumiko Igarashi manga, and Anne With an E, though I have yet to finish the final season of that. As far as faithfulness to the novel goes, this manga version is fairly faithful to it for the most part. It keeps the more important story beats while glossing over the unimportant parts such as Anne's trek through the Haunted Wood and the Sunday School picnic. But for some reason, the artist decided to reduce some of the chapters to just one whole page, completely glazing over chapters such as the liniment cake incident, Ms. Stacy's introduction, Mr. and Mrs. Allan, Anne falling off of the roof of Diana's house, and so on, with the events just being told through narration. Ms. Stacy in particular gets little to no pagetime in this adaptation at all, with the narration basically spelling out her whole character for us without even giving her any kind of agency or impact on the story at all, so we as the audience can't help but question why we have to care about this woman at all. This is one area where the 1997 manga succeeds: Even though it was three volumes long and covered the book in a probably shorter chapter duration, Igarashi was still able to not only give the characters the right amount of pagetime and development, but also made sure to adapt every important event in the novel, including the liniment cake incident and Ms. Stacy's role in Anne's life, never condensing anything to just one page. Igarashi knew what to leave out and what to focus on, and it seems like this manga can't quite seem to find the right balance in regards to deciding what to leave out and what to focus on.

There's also the art to consider. Now, the backgrounds are very well drawn, and from the notes at the end of the manga, it's made clear that the artist who worked on this tried very hard to get the details of the setting just right, from Green Gables itself to the meadows and flowery trees in Avonlea, so on that note, they succeeded. That said, the backgrounds aren't as detailed as Igarashi's, but they still get the job done. On the other hand, I find the character designs to be rather...questionable. I mean, they're not...bad or anything, but again, compared to Igarashi's detailed designs, they look woefully generic and uninspired. I mean, just look at the pictures below.

(Sorry for the bad photo quality. Took this one with my phone)

First of all, the empty eyes on both Marilla and Matthew make them look like they're dead, and Matthew is, for some reason, given a really long beard that just makes him look like a discount Santa Claus. Out of all of them, Diana, Jane, and Ruby look fine, and I do like that the artist for the 2020 manga actually bothered to give Mr. Phillips a first name (He was never given one in the book or any other adaptation). Also, whose bright idea was it to make poor Gilbert look like another stock, spiky-haired shounen manga protagonist?! I mean, look at him! He looks like a younger version of Taichi from Blue Flag or Kanata from Astra Lost In Space! Josie, who gets little to no pagetime or dialogue in the 2020 manga whatsoever, just looks like a generic shoujo protagonist, while Igarashi at the very least gave her a design that fits her bitchy personality. While Igarashi's art style is guilty of heavily leaning into the 70s shoujo art style, complete with curly hair and large sparkly doe eyes, she at least made everyone look distinct and somewhat realistic, with her designs fitting not only the story, but the time period in which Anne of Green Gables takes place. The 2020 manga also has some continuity issues as well. In the chapter were Anne accidentally dyes her hair green, it gets cut off, but in the very next chapter, which is said to take place a while after that, her hair is immediately back to being long and in braids, which isn't possible. Again, this is something Igarashi realized as well, and had Anne's hair be shoulder length in her take on the chapter.

I feel kind of bad for criticizing the 2020 manga, though. I always try to be as objective as I can when reviewing anything, and I never go into something wanting to hate it. On its own, the 2020 manga is fairly serviceable for anyone who wants to read a comic-based take on the story without having to read through Montgomery's overly sentimental prose. It's not even a bad adaptation of Anne's story. The characterization is on point, the artist does make use of funny, cartoony facial expressions whenever the situation calls for it, the background art captures the feel of the novel just fine, and you can tell it wanted to do more even with the restrictions it had. But having read the 1997 manga, I just can't help but compare it to that, since that version did everything this version did much better, and in a more streamlined, organic fashion in a way that felt natural. Still, I don't hate it in any way. This is pretty much the only English manga version of Anne that we're going to get, and unless someone decides to bring over Igarashi's Anne manga and translate it into English, we might as well appreciate what this adaptation has to offer, even if it does stumble a lot in the process.

Not one of the better manga adaptations of Montgomery's famous novel, but it tries. It really tries. But for me, Yumiko Igarashi's take on it is better in every way.

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Yuuki Ono - Yoshiwara Lament

I give this short OVA about a girl visiting a Hiroshima memorial site...a 72/100.

The thing about anime is that it covers a whole variety of genres, and you never know what you'll find. I literally just discovered this movie, On A Paper Crane: Tomoko's Adventure, today, and surprisingly, it was a lot easier to find than I thought, though that was because I knew where to look. It's a short OVA about a little girl, Tomoko, who visits Hiroshima and goes to a museum about the atomic bombing of the city. Although appalled by what she sees, namely the bombing reconstructions, she has a great time. When she sees a statue depicting a girl holding up a paper crane, Tomoko makes a crane out of a candy wrapper, and to her surprise, the girl from the statue, Sadako, magically comes to life and tells Tomoko about the war. The two of them become fast friends, though their friendship doesn't last very long because...well, anyone who knows about Japanese post-war history know that Sadako, who is basically Sadako Sasaki, technically died at 12 years old because of radiation exposure from the bomb.

War movies tend to be hit-or-miss for some. Many of them, with the right writing and execution, can turn out great, while others wind up being cheesy, bad, disingenuous, or outright insulting, again, depending on the staff behind them. Most of them aren't the most faithful to the facts (*coughMichaelBay'sPearlHarborcough*), or some try to use the war as a backdrop for something else. On a Paper Crane keeps its scope fairly small, focusing on a child going to a museum and having a magical adventure with the ghost of a dead girl. The animation is mostly fine, as the character designs are fairly realistic and not very cartoony, namely with the characters' eyes being small and not overly big and sparkly, and the way they animate debris flying through the air when the bomb is dropped is very lusciously done. It helps that the background art is well drawn and the movie doesn't skimp on the details of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park's monuments, particularly on one particular building Tomoko and Sadako visit. Though since this movie was made in 1993, the park was very different back then compared to how it looks now. The music isn't much to write home about other than consisting of mostly cheesy piano tunes making their corresponding scenes come across as more syrupy than they should. The song at the end is nice, though.

On a Paper Crane centers on just two main characters, who while not receiving much in the way of development, do have good chemistry and bounce off of each other pretty well. Tomoko is a realistic, well-meaning kid who is naive to the harsh realities of war, and Sadako is...mostly just there to exposit about the war and her own experiences with it. The movie is only 27 minutes long, so they don't really change much throughout the course of that run time except for Tomoko becoming more aware of not only what happened during the bomb dropping, but of Sadako's situation. But while I understand that this movie has good intentions, I really don't think portraying Sadako Sasaki, a real person, as a magical ghost girl who takes her modern day friend on a magical crane and flying around the world was the best idea. Doing that just felt ingenuous, mainly because Sadako is just there to be an exposition dump. I think maybe this movie would work better if Tomoko not only visited the museum and saw Sadako's statue, but read the book that Sadako's brother put out about her life, and maybe make the movie about Sadako's life as Tomoko reads it in the novel. I mean, Japan has made anime movies about WWII survivors before, like Ushiro no Shoumen Daare and The Glass Rabbit (Though I still think the former is better). Now, the only reason I even know about Sadako Sasaki's story is because I bought and read the short book about her put out by Eleanor Coerr back in 1977, which is a more fictionalized take on her life. While I can somewhat understand what On a Paper Crane was trying to do, but the way it told its story just came across as really cheesy, treacly, and overly sentimental for my liking.

To my knowledge, On a Paper Crane did get a very limited VHS release (I couldn't find information on whether this was a US release or elsewhere), even having an English dub, surprisingly enough, which is the version I just saw. But I'm not gonna lie, the English dub...isn't bad, per se, but a lot of the acting could get really hammy and cheesy. Sadako's voice actress in particular just sounded really stiff and stilted, like she was just reading off a script, particularly when she's expositing about the war. But I've heard worse dubs, so On a Paper Crane's dub isn't the worst dub I've ever heard. As far as I know, it never got an official subtitled release. If you're interested in watching this though, you can watch it here, both the dubbed version and the Japanese version without subtitles. So, in conclusion, while I wouldn't call this one of the better World War II-themed movies, it's serviceable enough and has its heart in the right place, but be prepared for a lot of cheese.

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Yuuki Ono - Yoshiwara Lament

I give this cross-dressing LGBT themed manga...a 77/100.

Just like how LGBT-themed books are becoming more and more common, manga centered on the subject have started popping up in the anime/manga industry, with varying degrees of success in regards to how they portray LGBT themes and issues. Some, such as Yuhki Kamatani's Shimanami Tasogare: Our Dreams At Dusk, drawn by an actual non-binary mangaka, explore every possible facet of what it means to be a part of the LGBT spectrum, from finding accepting communities to dealing with the various types of homophobia with nuance and sensitivity. Others, like Kaito's Blue Flag, while well-meaning in its own way, tend to miss the mark on certain things with their superficial treatment of the issues they try to address. I first heard about Love Me For Who I Am, aka Fukakai na Boku no Subete o, through someone mentioning it in passing on TVTropes (For clarification, I don't have an account there. I just lurk whenever I feel like it). Curious, I decided to check it out, and as of this writing, all five volumes have been scanlated, and I've read the entire thing, with intent to buy the rest of the volumes that Seven Seas hasn't put out yet. So what do I think of the manga? Well, I do like it, but there are some things that prevent it from being truly great. And for any trolls wondering, no, it is absolutely NOT the fact that it actually tries to seriously tackle LGBT issues and take its premise seriously. I don't know why people consider that to be a problem, as I'm going to clear the air right now: This isn't a fetishy trap manga meant to titillate people. It's an actual manga that makes it very clear that it's going to explore LGBT issues, and anyone who tries to claim that the manga is somehow "pushing an SJW agenda" or is claiming stuff like this should never be in a manga or are pissy about not having their fetishy trap hentai can go piss off.

If that's the case, what is Love Me For Who I Am about? The story begins when a young boy, Tetsu Iwaoka, accidentally sees a classmate of his, Ryuunosuke Mogumo, tying a wishing tag to a tree. He happens to see the tag's contents and finds that Mogumo, who dresses effeminately for reasons Tetsu doesn't know, wishes for friends who accept them for who they are. Tetsu thinks he has just the thing, and invites Mogumo to work at a cafe that his sister runs. But when Mogumo gets to the cafe, a problem arises. The cafe in question is a crossdressing maid cafe, where boys wear maid outfits, and Mogumo doesn't identify as either male or female. Through trial and error, Mogumo gets to know and befriend everyone at the cafe, eventually carving out a place for themselves there, maybe finally finding the acceptance they've always wanted. But the world isn't very understanding towards people like Mogumo, and when certain people from Mogumo's past threaten to uproot everything they worked so hard for, the people at the cafe intend to do all they can to support their friend.

Now, a little background: Kata Konayama started off as a hentai doujin artist, which isn't particularly uncommon among up and coming mangaka, and one of the doujinshi he penned, Kimi Dake no Ponytail, was conceived as a prequel to this. So technically, this is Konayama's official debut as a mainstream mangaka and a sequel to one of his early doujinshi. On a technical level, Konayama's art is fine. Backgrounds are reasonably detailed but not overly so, the linework is clean, the panel layout is good, and I gotta say, Konayama has a real knack for facial expressions. But one thing I can see people having a problem with is that the character designs lean very heavily towards the moe aesthetic, with the employees at the cafe looking like cute little ten-year-old girls even though many of them are boys (With two exceptions, Mei and Mogumo) and are teenagers at the oldest. Most anime/manga fans I know aren't too big on cutesy moe character designs because of their somewhat fetishistic nature, which is fine, but in case anyone is wondering, there's no fanservice or characters being sexualized or put in compromising positions here (Thank God!), so you can rest assured on that one.

The characters, I admit, I'm conflicted on. On one hand, the author does try to give Tetsu, Mogumo, Kotone, and others decent development throughout the manga, which is good. But a lot of their development is tied to their sexual orientations, and while we do get to see some tidbits of their personalities on occasion, a good chunk of the manga is spent with them dealing with their own issues related to their identities, which can make them feel like they came out of an after school special at times. What I mean is, after reading the manga, ask yourself these questions: Who are they? What drives them? What are their interests outside of wearing their favorite outfits and learning about their sexual orientations/identities? Much of the manga focuses on the characters trying to come to terms with themselves, which is fine, but other than a few small things, it feels like the characters are solely defined by their orientation. Plus, other characters, such as Suzu and Ten-chan, don't get much in the way of development at all, and mostly have one or two personality traits at most. They're not bad or anything, but this cast of characters feels rather bland like wheat toast. It doesn't help that they don't exactly leave a good first impression at the start. I've seen a lot of people take issue over Mogumo getting upset over being misgendered by people who didn't know them and their circumstances right away, decrying them and their struggles as just being a whiny, entitled brat throwing a tantrum. I personally didn't mind Mogumo reacting the way they did in the first chapter, as I assumed it was the culmination of them just getting sick and tired of being misgendered but not knowing how to really explain it in a calmer manner. I mean, they're teenagers. Would you really expect teenagers to talk to each other calmly about these kinds of issues? Plus, Tetsu doesn't have much character other than being nice and an ally to others on the LGBT spectrum, and I really didn't like Kotone. I hate it when characters fall into the "I'm jealous of this random person and bully them because they have the nerve to talk to my friend/crush/whatever" trope, as it's old, boring, and really needs to die, though the manga does give her reasons for being that way.

Plus, there's something else I find myself confused about as well. Seven Seas constantly mentions Mogumo being non-binary in their blurbs for the manga, and Mogumo doesn't identify as either male or female. I have to ask: Does Mogumo even know that the term non-binary even exists? There's no indication that Mogumo knows that there's even a word for what they are. I think the manga really could have benefitted from Mogumo learning more about what it means to be non-binary and finding others like them. Furthermore, the manga doesn't always nail the occasional mood shifts between its various chapters. Some chapters can go from happy-go-lucky to piling on angst and drama at the flip of a coin, and it can feel rather jarring. Mogumo is also given a needlessly heavy-handed, angsty backstory—though it may be true to life for some who actually experienced something similar IRL—but Konayama really could have tried to put in more effort to make the drama more subtle. Also, the manga is weirdly short too, only clocking in at five volumes and ending rather abruptly. I don't know if this is because Konayama wasn't allowed to do more with it or if they chose to end it on their own terms or what have you. I would have liked to have read more. But for the most part, other than some needless angst, the manga does make an earnest effort to tackle LGBT issues in a sensitive, tasteful light and promote understanding and acceptance, even if the ending is cheesy as all hell.

While not the absolute best LGBT manga out there, Love Me For Who I Am is still one of the better ones out there, even if it stumbles along the way.

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: LiSA - Homura

I give one of Makoto Shinkai's shorter movies...an 84/100!

Makoto Shinkai is a director who has made a name for himself in recent years. He started out doing short movies before dipping his toes into longer feature length films, and then his movie Your Name came out and basically became the most popular anime movie ever. I've been following some of his work since Children Who Chase Lost Voices, and I only just now saw a short movie he made in 2013, The Garden of Words, thanks to Netflix. Now, I did see Your Name, and I have yet to finish my review of it, but I found it just...okay. It had some good ideas, but it suffered from trying to be too big for its own good and combining ideas together that mix like oil and water. I find that Shinkai is at his best when his movies aren't trying to be big and ambitious. As far as his movies go, I think this is his personal best and my favorite Shinkai movie (Though my favorite short goes to Dareka no Manazashi, which I need to rewatch one of these days).

The story centers on a young high school student, Takao Akizuki, who knows what he wants to do with his life but feels alienated and stuck. School hasn't done much for him, his mother isn't around, his brother isn't the most supportive of his dream of being a shoemaker, and he regularly skips classes whenever it rains. He wants to become an adult as fast as possible so he can make his own living. One day, while skipping school, he comes across a young woman, Yukari Yukino, at the gazebo he frequents. Although Takao isn't very fond of authority, the two of them form a friendship over the course of their rainy day meetings. Yukari has some problems of her own and sees her meetings with Takao as an escape from her own hardships.

I admit to only having seen a few of Shinkai's movies, not all of them. But one thing that many anime fans know about Shinkai is his penchant for absolutely breathtaking animation, especially on the backgrounds and environments. There's no denying that his production team really goes all out on the backgrounds. Every frame is packed to the gills with detail, from the ripples in rain puddles to sunbeams through glass, it really feels like the world Shinkai makes for this movie feels alive, even down to the sound mixing and usage of ambient noise to set the atmosphere. It also really goes for "show, don't tell" at every possible time, like conveying how Takao wants to be a shoemaker by showing how he always sketches feet and shoes. I don't have as much to say on the soundtrack. It's good, though I can barely tell you anything about it except that I didn't like the ending song. I found the singer for that to be too obnoxious for my liking.

I like the characters well enough. The main two are pretty good, and they both have aspirations, strengths, and weaknesses people can relate to. They're not going to bring the house down or anything, but with the setting being as realistic as it is, and not trying to make them big and bombastic, Takao and Yukari fulfill their roles pretty well. The side characters on the other hand...really don't get to shine as much, as many of them are just there to either dump exposition or cause the main conflict in the movie, not much else. We only get one line of dialogue in regards to Takao's mother and she's only in the movie for one scene and that's it. I feel like if the movie had been longer, it could have gotten the chance to expand on them a lot more, as they shouldn't be relegated to just props to move the story along. But the main two really carry the movie on their shoulders, and I liked them perfectly fine.

Now, people who aren't huge fans of Shinkai often point out that he often either rehashes the same story over and over in different ways, or bites off more than he can chew. Considering this is a 46-minute long movie, he opted for a more realistic setting here, which is fine. Having seen some of his work, I can understand where some of his detractors are coming from. I saw Your Name, and I feel that it tried way too hard to be too many things at once when it could have just stuck to one plot and made the most out of it. Garden of Words is just that, a simple story of two people finding solace in one another in the face of their own personal hardships...but there is one part of the narrative that I'm sure people are going to have an issue with: Takao is a high school student, and Yukari is a teacher, and the story implies that Takao is in love with her. Japan has a...weird fascination with age gap romances (CardCaptor Sakura is one of the more egregious titles in regards to this), and I totally understand why people would be put off by it, as this kind of thing would absolutely NEVER fly in countries like America. If a teacher or a student got together romantically, the teacher would get arrested for sure. But without spoiling anything, I think Garden of Words handles the subject very well. It doesn't try to condone or encourage a romance between a teacher and her student, and the way the plotline is resolved, while not upfront about its answer, does subtly imply that any romance between them would never happen, something I greatly appreciate. The movie doesn't necessarily end happily ever after, but it does still have a sense of hope that things will get better for Takao and Yukari in the future.

That being said, the actual ending does, unfortunately, come across as very cheesy and melodramatic. Again, I won't spoil how it plays out, but it does involve a lot of dramatic yelling and crying, overly triumphant music, and usage of light rays that make the ending feel like it came right out of a sappy Hallmark movie. That's really the only dark spot I feel the movie has is how cheesy the final scene before the credits played out, and Shinkai does tend to go for the melodramatic when he feels like it. But yeah, that's pretty much it for my feelings on Garden of Words. Is it a perfect movie? No, but how do I like it? Out of the few works of his that I've seen, this is my favorite of his movies. It stumbles near the end, and at other points, but the things it does well, it does really well, and any person looking for a low key, somewhat realistic, relaxing movie should definitely check out Garden of Words at least once.

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