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Seen all Rating Comment
5 Centimeters Per Second (movie) Awful A woeful, overdramatic mishmash of fantasy romance and two-dimensional characters set against the film's one positive factor - eyecandy backgrounds. Should be avoided and destroyed! I only hope Shinkai's other works are better...
Akira (movie) Excellent Like many others, Akira is THE film that introduced me to anime. While the story loses direction towards the end, the film boasts some of the most technically impressive visuals ever seen in cinema, and - simply enough - is a piece of hyper-kinetic and hyper-violent sci-fi action like no other that puts most Hollywood flicks to absolute shame. Should be experienced at least once by anyone with an interest in animation and science-fiction.
Amazing Nuts! (OAV) See my comments on the individual segments.
(The) Animatrix (OAV) See my comments on the individual segments.
Batman: Gotham Knight (movie) See my comments on the individual segments.
Beyond (OAV) Excellent
Blood: The Last Vampire (movie) Good
Cannon Fodder (movie) Very good Like many of Otomo's endeavours in the world of animation, Cannon Fodder is a style over substance kinda piece, opting to wow us with its aesthetics such as the grainy offbeat steampunk designs and the use of one long tracking shot exclusively in its filming. It presents us with a look into the daily life of the inhabitants of a city built around the firing of cannons of numerous sizes at an unknown enemy. It retains a lot of Otomo's trademark black humour and interest for overly complicated devices and procedures (one particular scene as such details a minutes-long preparation of the city's main cannon - from it's cleaning to the hilariously overdramatic firing), and ends quite openly with alarms going off just as one of the denizens of the bizzare dystopia is about to sleep.
Castle in the Sky (movie)
Cat Shit One: The Animated Series (ONA) So-so A pretty straightforward CGI short that I believe is a loose adaptation of a manga, only the setting is changed from the Vietnam War to some generic unnamed desert region to reflect modern wars I guess. The novelty of 'bunnies with M4 carbines' unfortunately wears off pretty quickly and descends into a bland and badly-paced shootout while the two main soldiers await evacuation. Everything feels very cheap and hollow, from the banter between the two rabbits down to the designs of the enemy camels, and left me feeling that they could've done a lot more with its runtime of twenty-five minutes.
Comedy (OAV) Excellent Top-notch animation, and an endearing and interesting story of a young Irish girl who requests the help of a local lord to defend her village from the British. Simply told, with a stunning fight scene.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Very good This film felt more like an extended episode of the series, and never mounts up to any grand scale you might have expected from a Cowboy Bebop film, but is well worth watching regardless.
Dead Leaves (OAV) Very good An absolutely madcap OAV from the geniuses at MADHOUSE. There is a story, but it's really only there to string one crazy event to the next and by the time it ends you won't really care because it's just a hell of an experience. This is anime on acid! Recommended watch with friends and a few cans!
A Detective Story (OAV) Excellent Not the worst, not the best short from The Animatrix, but worth watching if you're as much as sucker for detective noir as I am. Interesting grainy animation makes up for a passable story.
(The) Diary of Tortov Roddle (ONA) Excellent Flash-animation done well! Who'd have thought it! Absolutely gorgeous little series, with charming artistry reminiscent of Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, though in a decidedly less dark manner. The atmosphere in each short is generally quite gloomy, but the event that happens in each is at times magical. My favourite episode was the one where Tortov encounters a fish in his cup of tea.
Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (movie 3) Worst ever Bought this when I only got into anime. I was in a HMV store, and with practically no knowledge of anime at the time, I was trying to decide between this and Barefoot Gen. Worst. Decision. Ever.
End of the World (OAV) Good Tripped out punk-based ecstasy, animation is signature Studio 4°C stuff. Not the best short on the Sweat Punch collection, but enjoyable.
Extra (OAV) Excellent I can't resist Ken Ishii's psychedelic acid-electronica, and what better a studio to accompany it the song EXTRA than Studio 4°C. Sure to make your eyes bleed. I heard there's a longer version of this, I wonder where I can find it...
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (movie) Weak Was given this by a friend for my birthday. Nothing to get excited over, for sure. Animation is typical CG shit, and frankly I'm not a FF fan.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (US CG movie) So-so Same as Advent Children. I ain't into CG animation much, and the plot didn't help either. Well, it was probably a bit better than Advent Children...
(The) Final Flight of the Osiris (OAV) Not really good
Four Day Weekend (OAV) Very good Not Studio 4°C's best music video, but I did listen to the Bluetone's full album after that (which wasn't too great either)
Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor (movie) Anime adaptation of Kafka's well-known short story. Fantastic stuff as expected from Morimoto. Animation is top-of-the-range, I even took several screencaps. Brilliant voice-acting as well, which is strange as I don't usually pay much attention to Japanese voice-acting.
Ghost in the Shell (movie) Excellent
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (movie)
Grave of the Fireflies (movie) Heartbreaking and gripping post-WWII drama. When people go on about how depressed you'll be after watching it, they definetely aren't lying.
Howl's Moving Castle (movie) Good Not the best Ghibli, but nonetheless a nice fantasy film, with some great character designs and backgrounds.
Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade (movie)
Jumping (movie) Masterpiece Tezuka; a master of the experimental. A child jumps his way through the world on a pogo stick. Amazingly told from a 1st person perspective too, and animation that surpasses most of today's.
Kakurenbo - Hide & Seek (movie)
Kemonozume (TV)
Kid's Story (OAV) Masterpiece Really neat animation, I'm always a fan of the sketchy. Unfortunately, it's a bit fast-paced and you can't really see the better moments too well. 2nd favourite of the Animatrix shorts.
Kujira no Chōyaku - Glassy Ocean (movie) Masterpiece An enchanting mellow experience, with simplistic animation and music from the guy who scored Cat's Soup. An excellent example of the abilities of animation, and the fusion of 2d and 3d.
Labyrinth (movie) Masterpiece A beautiful tale of a young girl's journey through a haunting and surreal labyrinth. Majestically realised, some of the smoothest and stylised animation I've ever seen.
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (movie)
Magnetic Rose (movie) Masterpiece A space opera suspence masterwork, involving the efforts of Morimoto, Kon and Otomo. Although not a faithful adaption of the original manga, still one of the most memorable film experiences of my life.
(La) Maison en Petits Cubes (movie)
Matriculated (OAV) So-so Horrible, dull animation mixed with crappy CG that looks out of place. The machine's experience in the matrix is a little too long too.
Memories (movie) See individual comments for the three films.
Memory (movie) Very good A strange un' from Tezuka again, I couldn't help buy chuckle a bit sometimes though at the cheeky humour.
Metropolis (movie) Masterpiece Not too true to the manga classic, but I like Rock's character. Brilliant Tezuka-styled animation, emotional Jazz score and all, but felt it a bit lacking towards the end.
Millennium Actress (movie)
Mind Game (movie)
Mt. Head (movie)
Mushishi (live-action movie)
Neo-Tokyo (movie) Masterpiece See individual comments.
Noiseman Sound Insect (movie) Excellent Yet another psychedelic experience from the creative house at Studio 4°C, with Morimoto directing. Extremely fast-paced, but designed to be. Needed a few watched to understand some parts, but totally enjoyable overall.
(The) Old Crocodile (movie)
Only Yesterday (movie)
(The) Order to Stop Construction (movie) Excellent
Other Worlds (movie) Very good It's got black n' white animation, and Satie's Gmynopedie, so it's pretty cool for a short that clocks in at a minute length.
Pale Cocoon (OAV)
Paprika (movie) Masterpiece
Paranoia Agent (TV) Masterpiece Possibly the most unsettling and disturbed anime experience of my life, and a fresh blast of originality. Best TV series ever.
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (movie)
Princess Mononoke (movie)
Professor Dan Petory's Blues (OAV) Good ...it's there to be enjoyed. There's practically nothing to say about it, it's complete nonsese, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Program (OAV) So-so Lacklustre animation, crap plot that you'll "facepalm" yourself when you reach the end.
Robot Carnival (OAV)
Running Man (movie) Very good Better than the other Kawajiri short I watched (Program), and similar to World Record, the weakest of the Manie Manie shorts, but still quite unnerving.
Second Renaissance (OAV) Excellent Jeez, this short always depressed me, heheh. Good gritty war scenes though.
Spirited Away (movie) Masterpiece
Spriggan (movie)
Steamboy (movie) Very good
Stink Bomb (movie) Good
Sword of the Stranger (movie)
Tekkonkinkreet (movie) Masterpiece
Tokyo Godfathers (movie) Very good
Whisper of the Heart (movie)
Winter Days (movie)
World Record (OAV) Excellent