Kurayakaba: Finally got around to watching this. It was a lot weirder than expected and I'm not sure that watching it on a sweltering afternoon was a good idea, because it was very hard to stay focused. As a short story there's not much resolution or explanation of the setting or even the characters, and I'm not even entirely sure whether I liked it or not! Still, it was certainly an interesting experience either way. The stylised, old fashioned visuals are lovely (like Yamishibai, if Yamishibai had a significant budget) and the details in all of the text and scenery design added a lot of atmosphere. We'll watch the other part later in the week, by which point I might have decided whether or not the first of these two films has stuck with me or not.
True Beauty ep1: I wanted to like this because the clean, poppy art style looked fun, but it's an extremely superficial story about a girl who is bullied and changes schools, then gives herself a makeover and enchants everyone at her new school. And there is a haughty conventionally handsome guy who actually engages with her when she's in ugly mode, but because she's a bit of a disaster she makes it weird. The animation is decent but the heart of the drama - that the lead is ugly without her makeover skills - makes no sense when she looks exactly as hot in and out of makeup, with the only relevant difference being her visible acne and lack of tracksuit. I also find it deeply implausible that she has enough money to pay off her brother, support her various fandom habits and buy such a broad range of cosmetics for use every day. This is a typical fantasy series and while I get that being conventionally attractive and 'the hottest girl in school' matters to some people, it doesn't to me, so I was hoping for a bit more from the lead than what we got in this episode. The series hasn't really explained why I would want to root for her or given any hint that there might be some hidden depths later on.
Delico's Nursery ep1: A bunch of pouty vampire guys get together to solve mysteries, with the gimmick that they're all dads and have to do so while raising a crowd of excitable vampire infants. Setting aside the awkward hilarity of the main plot device being called 'TRUMP' (a name which is reverently blasted across the screen more than once) and the bizarre tonal inconsistencies in nearly every scene, there were two things I didn't like. Firstly, the character designs were great but all of the backgrounds and props seem to be CG with a grubby texture overlaid, which made everything look cheap in spite of the lavish designs (the horrible sped-up horse animations were notable too). And secondly, the entire first half of the episode was a dramatic build-up to the joke that the main character was unavailable because he wanted to be with his kids... except that they already explained that at the very start, so I didn't understand why the narrative was setting everything up for a 'twist' that had already been telegraphed. It was one of the most uneven first episodes I've seen in a while. Weirdly my partner really likes this, so I guess we'll be checking out the second episode anyway!
R
