100 Girlfriends eps 10-12 (dub) (complete)
That's interesting, I've only come ever across purple raving about this one, which was why I added it to my watchlist despite not being something I would normally make time to watch. Maybe now it'll go down a few notches on my watch order heh.
And on the subject of harem romcoms:
Quintessential Quintuplets
I have some time off so am trying desperately to dent my watchlists and so I finally got round to this one. Back when this was simulcasting, I was completely put off by the recurrent bombardment of the woefully put together crunchyroll adverts (before I had subscribed), assuming this would be a salacious, poorly-written, wish-fulfillment harem. The obvious love fans had for it indicated otherwise and so on my watchlist it went at a later time.
I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this, nothing like what my first assumption was at all. Tropey, cheesy and wish-fulfilling no doubt, but it I found it quite well written, with great humour, and almost all characters well developed and given agency. I had a constant smile watching this, alternately laughing & tearing up and didn't do much as binge but rather inhaled the two seasons and movie in a handful of days. The protagonist was funny and likeable and I really, really appreciated the sisterly bonds these girls demonstrated. Despite the inevitable "who will win/who do you ship" trope, I was left more with the feeling at the end that no one loses here and these loveable six idiots will always be together as family.
It had some of the usual shortcomings but as it is such an earnest feel-good show, those don't matter at all to me. Given the fanfare I had expected to like it, but I genuinely loved it and feel the need to go rewatch it immediately.
Been on a Kore-eda binge also recently so thought that off the back of sisterly bonds in QQ I should rewatch:
Our Little Sister
When I watched this on its release I thought it was okay but nothing special, so have always wanted to watch it again to see if I may change my mind. I haven't, it's slow and is almost bereft of any conflict despite the characters having been put through the ringer by their family situations. But that's not to say I didn't like it. I personally may not find it that special but again the sisters' relationships, love and understanding of each other were also heartwarming. There were some beautiful scenes in the movie including the fireworks one on the poster, the cycle ride through the tunnel of cherry blossoms and the final scene on the beach as the credits roll. I wonder if I'm comparison, the manga that it's based on has more turmoil and strife, as would be expected in any familial relationship at some point.
And lastly whilst we are on Kore-eda:
Monster
"Who is the monster?"
I almost missed this one, not realising it was on in the cinema until I just happened to see a poster whilst out. Managed to just about sneak in presumably one the last showings on the big screen and very pleased I did. This was excellent, a return to form after Broker which hadn't lived up to my expectations at least. I love movies that bring together different perspectives together to flesh out an event (the QQ movie
misdirected the viewer to do this really well also!) and Monster does this with panache and empathy. Want to avoid spoiling this by saying much (if you're not already bored to sleep), but would highly recommend this one, especially to Kore-eda fans. It's like his more recent output, dealing with tougher subject matter but yet again with such gentleness that it's easy to forget it could easily be portrayed as the stuff of nightmares.
but the plot line it set up was one of the things that put me off in the end.