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Errinundra's Anime

take a look at Errinundra's Manga

ANN Takashi Anno page

My average ranking: 6.67

Director Pantheon: Takashi Anno▲▼ Rating▲▼
Donguri no Ie (movie) Decent

Hotori - Tada Saiwai o Koinegau (special) Good

A startling depiction of a child suicide pact opens this sombre 40 minute TV special that proceeds to step back and background the disturbing event. Suzu is a robot boy who is being programmed with the memories of a dead child in order to become a replacement for grieving parents. He befriends Hotori, a human girl with an untreatable illness that is causing her to inexorably lose her memories, no matter how precious. She is afraid of what she is losing; he is perplexed by what he is gaining. Despite Hotori’s despair and Suzu’s bewilderment, Hotori - A Simple Hope for Joy deftly avoids dreariness thanks to the quiet subtleties in the portrayal of the relationship between the two children, the attention to detail, and the simple but appealing artwork. The final scene is an upbeat and appropriate, if bittersweet, way to conclude this emotionally rewarding anime.
Magical Fairy Persia (TV) So-so

Review

Magical Star Magical Emi (TV) Decent

Spirit of Wonder Scientific Boys Club (OAV) So-so

Made nine years after the original OAV, Scientific Boys Club contains a two-part story about a trip to Mars by a troop of inventors and the long suffering wife of one of them, along with two shorter tales revolving around Breckenridge and China. It continues the flavour and follows the formulae set forth in the earlier OAV although the visual style is slightly less appealing. China has got bustier and less attractive at the same time. The middle-aged, and older, men relentlessly harass her and the young wife by fondling their breasts and lifting their skirts. You would have thought people would have learnt after the first time around but, no, things are just as tacky, if not worse, nine years later.
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (OAV) Very good

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou follows the daily life of a pretty gynoid called Alpha who runs a poorly patronised cafe by the sea in a sparsely populated future Japan where sea levels have risen significantly. Yet they aren’t desperate times: robots and people live and work together harmoniously and everybody helps each other out. As Alpha travels about with her camera, life goes along at a gentle pace. So gentle that these two OAVs make the Aria franchise seem like it’s on steroids.

Alpha is a passive observer of events; never quite having the courage to photograph the beauty she is witnessing, as if doing so might spoil the experience. All the while the ebb and flow of the tides and the vagaries of the weather determine the course of protagonists’ daily lives. Despite the pervasive sense of decay, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou remains thoroughly optimistic. Music plays an important role in setting the mood. The folky, acoustic fare enhances the simplicity of the other elements of the anime. Simple doesn’t mean ordinary. Somehow the gentle flow of the story creates a powerful emotional response.

The fluid artwork gives a sense of the various elements of the landscape flowing together and co-existing naturally. There is also an exquisite play with light. Sometimes a scene is completely static except the lighting changes: a cloud passes overhead; or the sky turns from azure to lavender to navy blue at sunset; or, even in indoor scenes, exterior activity creates a change in light through a window. The best example is in the magnificent final scene. Alpha and an older woman are watching a sunset from a lookout above an abandoned city, which is half flooded, half reclaimed by forest. As the sun goes down, miraculously the lights of the city switch on, whether under water or amongst the trees. I think it is one of most beautiful moments I’ve ever seen animated. To me the sense of melancholy and beauty is irresistibly moving.