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xuebaochai's Anime

Slice, no Slash Rating Comment
Azumanga Daioh (TV) Masterpiece Joy, joy, sheer joy. Exquisitely realized song of youth, friendship, life, and everything. This series has a heart the size of a whale, exploding with sympathy for its irresistible characters. There are times when falling in love with seven high-school girls is not only okay, it's mandatory. Pure delight.
Don't Tell Mother Maria (special) Very good Cute, very very cute short.
Gokusen (live-action TV) Very good
(The) Gokusen (TV) Good a.k.a. Great Teacher Kumichou. A pleasant little comedy with a nice feel for the mythology of Yakuza films (the segments with the wiseguys going all maudlin are hilariously spot-on). Madhouse's excellent character design and animation help the silliness go down easy. I'll confess that I'm a sucker for Madhouse chicks, and a meganekko with a wicked upper cut and a gokutsuma costume in her closet? Hubba hubba.
Gokusen (live-action TV 2) Good
Honey and Clover (TV) Excellent Have you ever seen the moment someone falls in love with an anime series? Have a mirror ready when you first watch this obsidian-sharp romantic comedy. A refreshingly adult romantic comedy anchored on careful, funny, lyrical writing and on gorgeous characterization. Beautiful set-piece after set-piece, beautifully written dialogue (my guess is that most lines scan), all come together to draw a perfectly modulated tableau of feelings that ring true, and characters that feel alive.
Human Crossing (TV) So-so Old-fashioned story telling. Very old fashioned, in fact: it feels like one of those early 60s live-TV theater shows. Nothing wrong with the actual execution of these well-produced morality plays, but they deliver their morals so heavy-handedly you cannot but laugh at their earnestness. Like all vaudeville, some numbers are better than other, and the high-points do compensate somehow for the silliness of the openers.
Maria Watches Over Us (TV) Good Lillian jogakuen sure has more shines than a footwear convention. And hell if all that maidenly restraint is not *hot* No wonder this gentle and understated shoujo-ai is a hit with the boys, despite the complete lack of fanservice.
Maria Watches Over Us Season 2: Printemps (TV) Good This bodice ripper without the ripping keeps going strong. The sheer amount of chaste yearning almost pushes it beyond shoujo-ai into (yama)yuri.
My Neighbors the Yamadas (movie) Excellent Thickest, juiciest slice of life ever filmed. Takahata showers affection on the small and the quotidian, with a portrayal of family that is as nuanced and delicately fresh as the Basho haiku that bookmark each episode.
NANA (live-action movie) Very good
NANA (TV) Excellent
Ocean Waves (movie) Excellent Kanto is Kanto and Tosa is Tosa and never the twain. The class issues delicately interweaved in this sweet love story makes it mandatory viewing for the sociologically minded.
Only Yesterday (movie) Excellent An evocation of childhood that is almost scary in its immediacy. I found myself whimpering as my own memories trickled down like raindrops.
Piano (TV) So-so The KISS principle is generally a good rule for life and for art. These guys sure keep it simple, creating a minimalist, ever-so-slightly dull story of growing up and self-confidence. It won’t shock your system, or haunt your dreams, but if you’re of a certain age, it will give you the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from knowing *your* adolescence is over, over, over, the Lahd be praised. Essential for all those of you who had to endure Mrs McGillicuddy’s ministrations Tuesdays and Thursdays for eight years.
Salaryman Kintaro (TV) Good
She and Her Cat (OAV) Excellent Shinkai is a great minimalist. He must write some killing haiku.
Summer Wars (movie) Decent
Whisper of the Heart (movie) Very good A beautiful, calm tale on the need to create. It has a remarkable feel for voice: Shizuku's tale is exactly what you'd expect from her. Its representation of daily life is so uncannily on-the-ball that this movie should be mandatory viewing in Contemporary Japanese Society 101.