Rate the last anime you watched out of 10

Weathering With You

The only Shinkai film I think I've seen before was Your Name. At the time, the jury in my head was a bit hung , but there was certainly something about the ideals of that film that I found left an unpleasant aftertaste. But after watching his follow up big anime blockbuster, there is no doubt left in my mind about the insipidity of Shinkai's films and exactly what is insidious about them. It's the tension in these films between Shinkai's valorisation of a certain very drab and conservative sort of folklore that revolves around innocent shrine maiden-esque magical girls who stand in contrast to Tokyo and thus corrupt modernity, and at the same time Shinkai's complete and utter capitulation and even revelry in the worst of that corrupt modernity. He's not using the copious and conspicuous product placement to highlight the evil of these corporations and capitalism, he's in thrall to them. Just as he is to a generic and clichéd shot of a Tokyo street. But he tells us nothing of interest about that city or its inhabitants or of life at all. It's the worst of both worlds, it's regressive from both ends of the spectrum. The worst thing of all is how cynically dull and calculating it is in its profit motive, everything designed to be as painfully bland as possible. The film must also be inspired to some large extent by the climate crisis, and yet again Shinkai's comment appears to as worthless and hateful as it's possible to get. It's hard not to read the film as him saying "the weather is pretty crazy, Tokyo might even sink, but that's not our fault. Actually no it is our fault, but I'm glad I choose to let it sink because I'm never giving up on what I love , which is Yahoo, McDonald's and Apple products!"

-2/10
 
Vashdaman said:
Weathering With You

The only Shinkai film I think I've seen before was Your Name. At the time, the jury in my head was a bit hung , but there was certainly something about the ideals of that film that I found left an unpleasant aftertaste. But after watching his follow up big anime blockbuster, there is no doubt left in my mind about the insipidity of Shinkai's films and exactly what is insidious about them. It's the tension in these films between Shinkai's valorisation of a certain very drab and conservative sort of folklore that revolves around innocent shrine maiden-esque magical girls who stand in contrast to Tokyo and thus corrupt modernity, and at the same time Shinkai's complete and utter capitulation and even revelry in the worst of that corrupt modernity. He's not using the copious and conspicuous product placement to highlight the evil of these corporations and capitalism, he's in thrall to them. Just as he is to a generic and clichéd shot of a Tokyo street. But he tells us nothing of interest about that city or its inhabitants or of life at all. It's the worst of both worlds, it's regressive from both ends of the spectrum. The worst thing of all is how cynically dull and calculating it is in its profit motive, everything designed to be as painfully bland as possible. The film must also be inspired to some large extent by the climate crisis, and yet again Shinkai's comment appears to as worthless and hateful as it's possible to get. It's hard not to read the film as him saying "the weather is pretty crazy, Tokyo might even sink, but that's not our fault. Actually no it is our fault, but I'm glad I choose to let it sink because I'm never giving up on what I love , which is Yahoo, McDonald's and Apple products!"

-2/10
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I loved Weathering With You and I didn't take from it what you did, but thankyou for sharing your thoughts anyway. I find it funny thinking about how we have diametrically opposed opinions on this and Nana which I absolutely loved too and consider to be a beautiful, heartbreaking story about the devastating effects of compulsory heterosexuality (and arguably compulsory monogamy, in that it can further the isolation of people in abusive relationships) on it's two protagonists. I think one thing worth keeping in mind is that Your Name and WWY are probably meant to compliment each other in terms of the way the conflict is resolved - Your Name puts the emphasis on personal sacrifice and WWY puts it on personal happiness, trying to say that both are important. I'd also make the point that a LOT of Japanese media that I have seen shares a similar sentiment to the climax song regarding "we may get ahead of hard times, but what good does it do us?" and speaking as a disabled person I found Shinkai's universalisation of that sentiment somehow less distasteful than the general "work hard and everything will be ok (as long as you're abled, if you're disabled and can't just power through anything then **** you)" that I see in pretty much everything else. Honestly even as a fan of anime I have a love-hate relationship with it for that specific reason.
 
Oh I definitely share your distaste for the whole just work hard and everything will be ok schtick, and I suppose you're right the film is a bit different from Your Name in the
sense they don't avert natural disaster but instead seemingly embrace it
but I see it as a bizarrely hopeless and blasé comment when in the context of climate change, which I couldn't help feel the film was in. Not that I want to sacrifice specifically shrine maidens lives of course, but that goes without saying. I get how that message accepting and coming to terms with defeat might resonate with you though, as that's definitely a message I feel usually would resonate with me more than it did here.
 
But that's the Japanese mindset! They been through many natural (and man made) disasters and have bounced back. That's what you get for living on the most seismic land in the world, I suppose, but they're used to it.

Having said that I was put off by the "climate change is happening, oh well nothing we can do about it" message because it doesn't just affect Japan and there's plenty we can do about it!
 
D1tchd1gger said:
But that's the Japanese mindset! They been through many natural (and man made) disasters and have bounced back. That's what you get for living on the most seismic land in the world, I suppose, but they're used to it.
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Doesn't excuse the way that disabled people are often viewed and treated there though. Not that I'm saying that's at all an exclusively Japanese issue (mistreatment of and discrimination against disabled people), but it is their society's version of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" in this context.

Relatedly to that, I'm still pretty upset that they left out the scene from the A Silent Voice manga that is overtly sympathetic and compassionate towards disabled people and their families who recieve state support (the grandma says of it "what's so wrong with accepting help? doesn't everyone need help sometimes?" or something similar to that, when other family members are outright nasty at the prospect of their disabled child potentially needing assistance from the government), when they adapted it into an anime film - that definitely left a sour taste in my mouth, I'm not sure who made that decision so I'm not trying to put the blame on any one person, but yeah :(
 
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D1tchd1gger said:
My post was strictly about natural disasters.
But there does seem to be plenty of social problems in Japanese society, probably to do with trying not sticking out, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." and maybe the Buddhist belief in reincarnation and punishment for a previous life?
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It's certainly been a problem for a while. I remember the subject of disability coming up in CLAMP's 1990s manga Tokyo Babylon, where a blind man tells lead character Subaru that Japan was not the best place to be disabled.
 
D1tchd1gger said:
But that's the Japanese mindset! They been through many natural (and man made) disasters and have bounced back. That's what you get for living on the most seismic land in the world, I suppose, but they're used to it.

Having said that I was put off by the "climate change is happening, oh well nothing we can do about it" message because it doesn't just affect Japan and there's plenty we can do about it!
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I suppose you could look at the film as less of a comment on climate change and more riffing on Japan's more inherent natural precariousness. But I'm not sure I buy the argument that the Japanese are in general more blasé about the global climate crisis we're in, especially when so many of us (including myself in this) in the UK have our heads in the sand, most importantly our political leaders.

I feel like both WWY and YN are essentially intended to be pieces of comfort food across the board to help numb a mass audience ill at ease in our modern world and needing consolation. But I feel like these films go about this in a cheap, cynical and exploitative way.

I'm not trying to insult anyone who does love this film by the way! We just look at it from different angles. I do get where Radfem in coming from, it is refreshing in a certain way to have an big anime film essentially saying, screw society I just want to be happy. I just wish it did it in a different way or it at least had more interesting characters.
 
RadFemHedonist said:
Apologies, I didn't really think you were condoning those kinds of attitudes, just was making/following on from my previous point - thankyou for clarifying what you meant :)
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Weathering With You is Worse if You Read it as a Climate Change Analogy This essay from frogkun does a pretty good analysis of that angle imo. While I can understand why someone could take it as a "climate change metaphor" it is far more flimsy when taken as such. I do like the themes in WWY revolving survival and adapting in an ever-changing world.
 
I forgot to add my thoughts to this discourse on WWY. I personally loved this film on a number of levels including the really sweet characters with their very human foibles. On the deeper aspects I think overall the movie is more a commentary rather than holding judgement or pointing fingers as such. I also didn't seem to mind the display of brands as unpalatable given that it was more generalized and therefore perhaps more served a purpose to craft a more realistic world, than say certain Bond movies making it seem that the only cars to get are BMWs or all electronics are Sony Vaio or whatever.

For me a simplistic view of the human sacrifice aspect is it being an integral part of Japanese culture (in addition to a general human impulse) from their history around sacrificing shrine maidens to kamikaze pilots to modern day parents killing themselves with overwork for their families even if it is ironically more at the detriment of said families. I thought the article @MD_Prometh linked was spot on overall, and on this aspect mentioned some interesting points on the differences in the protagonists in Shinkai's movies either sacrificing themselves or not. For me WWY showed a realistic view when one may choose not to sacrifice themselves for everyone else. I feel the traditional self-sacrifice route as condoning society to attach all its guilt and hopes on one chosen person and let them take the hit on behalf of society (fate's angra mainyu anyone?) rather than society checking itself and taking responsibility on an individual level rather than wholly blaming the sacrifice when they say no. Yet, whilst I initially wondered about it being irresponsible to just go "meh, can't do anything about it so I'll just plod on as usual", the movie I felt spoke more to not giving in to the sense of hopelessness in the inability to change things not in our power (yes, we could all stop climate change collectively but as an example, whilst I think I try, I know that I don't do enough on that count myself, nor can I self-righteously influence anyone else to do so, let alone my own household members; our leaders have taken up responsibility and have a lot to answer for but let's not go there) and that the world keeps going on in the longer run and we will still probably give cockroaches a bloody good run in our ability to adapt to surviving in a world we've helped ruin and things will probably go around full circle. In the grand scheme of things we simply do not live long enough to experience cycling changes on the level of millennia of millennia for the earth and universe. Apologies for my drivel but wanted to eventually add some of my thoughts on that.

RadFemHedonist said:
Relatedly to that, I'm still pretty upset that they left out the scene from the A Silent Voice manga that is overtly sympathetic and compassionate towards disabled people and their families who recieve state support (the grandma says of it "what's so wrong with accepting help? doesn't everyone need help sometimes?" or something similar to that, when other family members are outright nasty at the prospect of their disabled child potentially needing assistance from the government), when they adapted it into an anime film - that definitely left a sour taste in my mouth, I'm not sure who made that decision so I'm not trying to put the blame on any one person, but yeah :(
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That's a very good point and a shame they didn't include that in an otherwise excellent movie.
 
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Right, what I really came here for was Maboroshi that I watched on Netflix and really enjoyed. A great sophomore work that was a visual treat and delivered all the heartfelt melodrama that fans love Mari Okada for. I really liked the message I took away on how we have the power in ourselves to choose to stop or keep moving on and evolving, if we so desire, whatever our situation. Lovely soundtrack to match the mood of the movie as well. Looking forward to re-watching it.

Off the back of that I re-watched Maquia, which I also enjoyed and thought was a beautiful movie on the relationship between a parent and child. I felt it got lost in the middle section in the fantasy elements, with some commentary on prejudice and servitude, which it simply didn't have time to develop. Therefore I was very pleased that it ended coming back full circle to focus on the protagonists' relationship. Also matched perfectly by Kenji Kawaii's score.

Interesting use of time in the two movies, with a character remaining unchanging whilst time swiftly marches on in Maquia whilst both characters (bar one) and time remain at a standstill in Maboroshi. An interesting point in the ANN review on the nomenclature and how the latter is from the viewpoint of the fixed inhabitants of wonderland rather than Alice.

I'd give both movies 8/10
 
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Gundam X (eps 1-19)
This is a decent show. I'm just not sure why it exists. In the 90s, Sunrise tried to diversify the Gundam franchise away from the Universal Century continuity. G was a martial arts adventure. Wing gave its pilots more agency and focused on school life and the aristocracy as much as war. Turn A turned mobile suits into lost technology and dropped them into a pseudo-19th-Century setting. In that vein, Gundam X is ostensibly a post-apocalyptic story, which you think would open up opportunities for a different type of story. The problem is it doesn't take advantage of them.

The first few episodes are promising. Cocky teenager Garrod gets his hands on a Gundam and looks like he's going to make it his personal toy. A boy and his Gundam alone vs the world would have been something different for the franchise. It doesn't last though. All too quickly, Garrod gets press-ganged by the grumpy captain of a ship that's basically White Base with the serial number filed off. He's Bright-slapped until he falls in line, chafes at authority and rebels occasionally, but generally follows orders and gets crammed into the typical role of all the early UC Gundam pilots. The ship isn't part of a formal military though, and the writers can't seem to figure out what to do with it instead. They just float around the world getting into scraps with bandits, local warlords and army remnants in a manner that's functionally identical to any UC Gundam show.

Individual episodes are generally fine, except for the dumb one with the dolphin newtype. It just feels like business-as-usual Gundam though, which isn't what these alternate continuity shows were meant to be about.

6/10
 
Love Me, Love Me Not - an enjoyable high school romance drama which had some Domestic Girlfriend and, at times I felt, White Album -like vibes, but fortunately didn't dwell for too long in the contrived drama in those veins, concluding with a satisfying resolution. There was a surprisingly balanced focus on all four of the main characters. I wasn't aware of this one, nor that it is based on a manga from the author of Ao Haru Ride which I've been wanting to watch/read for ages and am now further motivated to. Happy I got a chance to watch it thanks to the AL mystery box. 7/10


Sing A Bit Of Harmony

A family-friendly comedy drama that pays tribute and follows the Disney movie formula including some pleasant musical numbers (and I'm not one for musicals). It is not at all held back by it's generic story and animation as it is just so full of charm that it happily disarmed and gagged this old grump's inner cynic for the duration of its runtime. My main take away was the more positive outlook on the ramifications of evolving AI and technology. Rather than the commonplace dystopian genocidal skynet versions, here AI took on the more loving and nurturing aspects of humanity which was quite joyful to watch in spite of its partisan naivety. I was reminded of Mitsuo Iso's Den noh coil and Orbital Children. 7/10
 
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Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Season 1

I have been ill to the point of not even being able to play games effectively, so I have done the unthinkable and actually watched some anime I haven't seen before. I enjoyed it well enough. At its heart this is as much about loner Kobayashi learning to live as the provider and mother in an unconventional family as it is about clueless dragons learning to navigate human society. The dynamics and relationships between Kobayashi, Tohru and Kanna as a family unit is definately the aspect of the show I'm enjoying the most. I was initially a bit sceptical about whether the show even cared about the whole "dragons from another world" angle or if that was just a shallow gimmick, given how nonchalantly it skipped over the setup and launched straight into the premise, but the gradual reveal was worth it because it tied in nicely to how Kobayashi's feelings towards Tohru developed through the course of the series.

The humour is hit and miss, it does land some good comedy moments (the episode with the play in particular had me in stitches and managed to utilise all the characters well at the same time) but the repetitive jokes just left me looking at my non-existent watch. Haha, Saikawa has a crush on Kanna, cue heart eyes and screaming every time she touches her. Haha, Shota is uncomfortable around Lucoa's boobs. Boooobs. There's nothing wrong with these kinds of jokes when done sparingly or with some decent variation (the schoolgirl crush scenario in particular just made me remember how much better this was done in Azumanga Daioh with Kaorin and Sakaki) but when it's basically the same exact joke every time and that joke is made multiple times over the course of a single episode, it soon gets old.

Takiya and Fafnir get points as side characters, Fafnir for being the most relatable character for his quiet tsundere hatred of humanity while he spends every waking hour playing video games and Takiya for the laid-back ease with which he accepts Fafnir as a new roommate and friend just the way he is. Lucoa and Shota (that name was on the nose, wasn't it?) lose points for appearing to serve no purpose to the story whatsoever and seeming to exist only to cater to a particular fetish. I suppose time will tell whether that changes.

Also that ED is a bop. Am I enjoying things again? What's going on? 7/10 for now I guess, on to Season 2.
 
Dead Mount Death Play
Reverse isekai urban dark fantasy isn't a direction you see a lot of anime taking. It has a promising start with a good first episode twist and some interesting setup and conflicts in the early episodes, but it starts to show flaws in key areas as the series progresses. The main problem is structural; for all its attempts to affect the tone of a mature thriller, it's a shonen battle series at heart. Consequently it runs into the problem that afflicts a lot of Jump titles: cast bloat. Any time you think the protagonist's story is going to move forward, we instead cut to a bunch of new characters and focus on them, often for episodes at a time. It's rarely just one new character at a time either. Instead, whole new factions pop up each time. Some of them only link tenuously to existing plot threads within these two seasons. By the end of season 1, the supposed protagonist already feels like a side character in his own story, and it only gets more pronounced in season 2.

This wouldn't be a problem if the stories of this ever increasing cast had a sense of progression, but far too often it falls into the pattern where half a dozen new characters pop up, have their tragic backstories revealed in flashbacks, clash with established characters in an inconclusive manner, and then fade into the background where they just comment on what other people are doing occassionally. It's a structure that manages to be both frantic and lethargic, like the author paced it from the outset with the assumption that the story would run for 20 years. Either that or the author is just making up most of it as they go along, which would explain the messy structure.

By the end of this show's two seasons, a lot has happened and many things have been revealed, but it doesn't feel like the protagonist's overall story has progressed beyond where it was after the first few episodes. It keeps pushing to the brink of advancing or resolving plot threads in a meaningful way, but invariably chickens out at the last minute. This ultimately robs it of the dramatic edge that a story like this should have.

Many of the individual pieces of DMDP work in isolation, but the way they're clumped together and lack the will to push forward in less than 500 episodes makes for a disappointing whole.

6/10
 
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