Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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A year has passed since the UK première of Your Name, but not until yesterday did I finally get to watch it thanks to the Blu-Ray release.
I always considered Shinkai to be my favourite director, and assumed that, on the basis of this film's exceptional critical response, I would enjoy it at least as much as his early works. Sadly not. I didn't really warm to Your Name, despite its exceptional writing and structuring. Perhaps it was the overarching fantasy mysticism through which the story is forged; perhaps, similar to this, it was the unsettling body-swapping premise, the exposition of which taking priority over the gentler storytelling I always enjoy; perhaps it was the problematic nature of the central relationship that forces the viewer out of their comfort zone almost as much as it does for the characters themselves, in stark contrast to the unspoilt sentiment in which he previously traded; perhaps it was the supplanting of his piano scores with frankly pedestrian Japanese pop-rock. Perhaps, most likely, it was the amalgam of all these choices that dampened my experience. Overall, my unease with the devices used in the film simply disengaged me, not to the extent that Children Who Chase Lost Voices did, but still to a sufficient degree that the film's many merits—about which plenty has been written—counted for little. (One could argue that Your Name was a greatly improved revisiting of his previous fantasy outing's premise, but that is an aside.) For all the writing flaws one may levy against Shinkai's early films, their lulling, mournful tones would compensate plentifully when it came to an emotional response being elicited. Here, the many strokes of creative genius failed to instil as much affection as the story's weight seemed to demand. There was laughter and smiles, I concede, but never a tear—and I'm quite a crybaby! I fear that by proving his penchant for more complex screenplays, Makoto Shinkai will hereafter aspire to works of similar intricacy and detail, maybe to my detriment as an older fan of his. The Garden of Words, in spite of its objectionable character imbalance, could be the last of his films that I relish without difficulty. (Then again, I may fare better if he just steers clear of body-swapping in future. The concept really bewilders me, I must remark.) |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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As a fan of Shinkai's older works, Zin5ki, I understand where you are coming from even if I don't feel the same way. I adore everything he does, including Children Who Chase Lost Voices. I do miss his more bittersweet works and I agree that we are unlikely to see something like 5 Centimeters Per Second or The Place Promised to Us in Our Early Days from him again, which is a a shame. Nonetheless, the announcement of a Shinkai work is always a point of great excitement for me. While I liked Your Name, I am somewhat mystified it received the rapturous reception it did.
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Maybe it was because there is a wealth for the plot to unravel, and that the way in which this occurs is as close to flawless as one could expect: each little detail (down to the amateur radio club, the sake making and the faux election) bears some relevance to the storyline without anything becoming obscure. Indeed, the body-swapping itself is handled with grace, neither confusing the audience nor having to condescend to them. In short, this is a case of a conventional film that is filled to the very brim with detailed content, without ever overspilling. Of course, my existing gripes still stand. After watching, I was struck with the notion that this is simply someone else's film. Shinkai, being aware of those who criticised his previous focus, duly strove to escape their charges. The themes from all his previous works became grist for the mill, as it were, with an expectation-defying high concept constituting most of substance. A great film is the end result, should you happen to be one of such critics... |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Today I finally finished 91 Days and Aishiteruze Baby, which are about as polar opposite a pair of shows as you are likely to find in anime. But they do share three things in common. Both suffered from non-endings. Both had technical issues. And both are pretty darn good.
91 Days is actually quite awesome, a tale of righteous vengeance gone so wrong it goes back to being right (and then going wrong again in the most delicious of ways). Main character was a bit of a cipher at times, while one of the villains had the most boring reasons for his actions, but the overall show was just so well executed (hah) that I reckon it deserved an 8.5/10*. It might not be as good as The Godfather, true, but is that really a fair standard to hold gangster films to? Aishiteruze Baby was clearly made on the cheap, and the voice acting from practically all the cast grated my nerves (except for Kokoro who sounded refreshingly normal). But what I liked about it was that it chose to be more than some high-concept comedy*. Instead the story tackled subjects such as bullying, self-harm, parents abusing their children (psychologically and physically), abandonment issues, attempted suicide, childhood trauma, peer pressure, jealousy, the difficulty of being a mother and the expectations society places on them, the negative impacts of gossip and rumours on people's self-confidence, dealing with the loss of a loved one and accepting grief is natural, the loneliness of isolation (both social and physical), and above all else the importance of a stable and loving family. That's a lot of heavy material, and while the show's handling is almost always clunky and clumsy, it is also remarkably respectful towards these themes and towards its characters. It is also impressive that the source manga (which was a lot more explicit; the anime toned down or removed some of the more adult content) ran in a magazine aimed at teenage girls. Impressive because the content actually made it to publication, but also impressive that the manga didn't dumb things down to its audience. I ended up rating the anime at a 7/10, which reflects the way the poor execution kept on tripping up the quality material. * Which was then bumped up to nine because ANN doesn't do half-points, and having enjoyed the show so much I chose to round up instead of down. * "Seventeen-year-old playboy has to become a father-figure to his abandoned preschool-aged cousin. Hilarity ensues as he learns to be responsible for the first time in his life." |
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louis6578
 Posts: 1861 |
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I reevaluated 91 Days to a 5/10. Didn't grab me. It did that weird thing where they try to make the protagonist look smart by making everyone else incredibly stupid and gullible. He wouldn't get half as far if these people were cautious enough to survive in the real world, much less the world of crime.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of 91, either. I thought it started strong and got less impressive as it went along. And man, whatta sausage-fest. Not a fox-eared chick in sight. Boooooooo.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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How anyone could be disinterested in a show which gave us the wonderfully catchy phrase spoiler["Fango Family"] is beyond me. The way the Japanese voice actors said it made it even more hilarious. |
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Galap
Moderator
 Posts: 2354 |
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Shinkai is pretty on and off for me. I liked Voices of a Distant Star quite a lot (the kind of poor quality of animation being forgivable because he was ironmanning the whole thing and the backgrounds were quite nice), but I think Place Promised in our Early days and Children who Chase Lost Voices fell kind of flat. They were OK, but I wouln't watch them again.
By far my favorite of his, and his only work I would call truly great is Garden of Words, which has a lot of great visuals focusing on light and optics like much of his other work, but the story here resonated with me much more than the others for whatever reason. Your Name was also quite good, but didn't quite get there to make me REALLY deeply care about it. I'm not sure exactly why, though. Maybe I think it was because I found it not really having much more to say than just being a nice romance story with decently interesting fantastical elements. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Garden of Words is also my favourite Shinkai movie. The ending lets it down a little.
Saw Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel Presage Flower yesterday afternoon. I won't be doing a review in my thread as the movie simply doesn't stand up on its own. That's not to say it won't be part of a greater whole when the trilogy is complete, but it feels directionless so far. Things aren't helped by the familiar players failing to devise any coherent plan and simply reacting to the machinations of some, as yet, unidentified source. The film provides little to no context and introduces centrally important characters without revealing their significance. Don't watch this if you haven't seen any other part of the franchise - it simply wouldn't make sense. There's little humour or wit to the film aside from a couple of moments of violently cruel irony. On that note, Rider suffers her greatest indignity ever in the franchise, but also has her greatest ever moment of awesome. Also on the positive side, this is the first instalment where I've warmed to Shirou. And, granted, the fights are visceral, especially that between Lancer and Assassin and, later, between Rider and Assassin. Sakura and Shinji are, as ever, unbearable, while both my favourites - Rin and Sabre - sleepwalk their way through the instalment. I've rated it as decent. Perhaps I'm burnt out with the Fate franchise. It's like, "here we go, yet again." |
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Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
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Progress Report:
I got my Code Geass Recap of Episode Nine up. I realize now that I've only posted one Code Geass recap a month, a number that I hope to rectify. Fun fact: I forgot to put in the "What's Nunnally Doing?" segment, which is understandable when you realize Nunnally didn't appear at all in Episode Nine, nor was her existence alluded to. I even made a joke about it when I edited the recap by asking "Who's Nunnally?" If that isn't any indicator of how much of an afterthought Nunners is on behalf of the writers, I don't know what is. |
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louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
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Well, if this were the only Japanese track you'd heard with Engrish, I could see why you'd think that. 
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mglittlerobin
 Posts: 1071 |
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'Tis the way of Fate/Stay Night, dear Errinundra, if thy favorite heroine is not the love interest, she is shafted, LOL. Saber had her spotlight in 2006 with Studio DEEN's Fate/Stay Night, Rin's had two different adaptations for her route and now it's Sakura's turn. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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^
You're totally right, mglittlerobin. I've had a good run with Sabre and Rin, so I shall have to approach the instalment with an open mind. I'm hoping that Rider kicks some butt. |
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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How did you feel about the ending, out of interest? I wasn't quite taken with the decision to present Yukari as being less emotionally composed than Takao, given their differences in experience. To see spoiler[a female lead collapsing into a male lead's arms as if she were powerless without him] is less than an ideal representation. Luckily for me, the post-credit scene just about managed to compensate. |
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louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
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I just watched Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel I. presage flower in theaters. First off, seeing it in a huge crowd was some of the most fun I've had in a theater EVER. I don't think I've had this much fun watching anything due to the audience I was watching with in YEARS (not counting a few select Marvel films). It was especially fun watching it with my friend who was only JUST watching Fate/Stay Night 2006 for the first time and only understood the very obvious references to that continuity and anime. I felt very smart for laughing at the Mapo tofu scene with everyone else. Hearing everyone squeal like a god damn sitcom audience in response to Gilgamesh being in the church with Shirou and Kirei was awesome, and having everyone shout "EFF YEAH" when Shirou confronts Shinji about abusing Sakura was especially cathartic.
I appreciated that it rushed some things. It doesn't waste your time introducing you to things as though this were your first Fate-series. Things that are universal to all three routes are pretty plainly stated. Heck, everything from the start to Shirou going to the church for the first time is basically skimmed. I LOVED this decision. Instead of the first 30 minutes being a rehash of the previous two prologues, it showed us the emotionally important things to this continuity; Shirou's first meeting with Sakura and how that blossomed into a one-sided love on Sakura's part. I didn't think much of Sakura because, without the camera being focused squarely on her, she just comes across as a generic "waifu" nice girl archetype in the other two shows. Even with the Fate/Zero knowledge that she's been abused and molested since a young age, her Fate/Stay Night counterpart displays practically none of these aspects in the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works routes. Now, however, Sakura's personality feels more earned and genuine. You'll probably still prefer Saber and Rin to Sakura, but you'll likely at least CARE about her by the midpoint of this film. Her admiration for Shirou feels like more than just a "You're the visual novel protagonist so I have to love you" type thing. Imagine living life as Sakura. We don't even KNOW how the conversation went when she was forced to say goodbye to her father. We have no idea what Tokiomi said to her or how Sakura's last meeting with Rin was before this. We DO, however, know that she has been in a family that that was either abusive toward her (Byakuya and Shinji) or dismissively calculating toward her to the point of viewing her more as a test subject than a relative (Zouken). The only member of her new family who showed any genuine love and concern for her died ten years ago in Fate/Zero (Kariya Matou, Berserker's master in that war), a death that she got to see first-hand and only demoralized her further. Meanwhile, she was forced to act as though she didn't know who her previous family was. If you pay attention, she refers to Rin as Tohsaka-senpai and, while Rin gives her occasional looks of familiarity and sadness, she never acts upon her feelings of love for her sibling. Sakura was alone in the world and treated like an afterthought (if not a sexual toy or secret weapon to be used and messed with), abandoned to live this life for the foreseeable future. As Kariya put it in Fate/Zero "At this point, hope would be nothing but torture to Sakura." And then, Shirou comes into her life. An almost ideal nice guy who treats her with sincere protection and love. A boy who invites her to his home, cooks her food, walks her to classes, has the same club activities as her, and, at the time, is friends with her brother (meaning that the two can run into each other even more often). Shirou, to Sakura, has all of the traits that make guys love Rem from Re:Zero. His love and protection are unconditional toward someone who views themselves as worthless. It should come as no surprise that Sakura is the least-preferred of the three women in a game where you are supposed to view each of the main girls as a lover. If Saber represents how cool it would be to have a powerful warrior girlfriend to protect you and Rin represents how fulfilling it would be to have an equal (if not somewhat weaker but still capable) girlfriend to fight alongside, Sakura represents what it means to have a dependent girlfriend who needs you in her life, or else she has no one. I can see how having a useless, if not clingy spoiler[and incredibly destructive if emotionally disturbed] girlfriend would put many people off. She's still my least favorite female character in Fate/Stay Night with any prominence besides perhaps Caster, but I don't consider her trash-tier or unlikable. Enough about why Sakura is a good character though. My thoughts on the movie are as follows. It was good. Not great, because we didn't get to the truly amazing parts of the route yet, but good. This part was mostly about getting all the key players of this arc into place (Shirou, Rin, Archer, Rider, Zouken, and True Assassin) and killing off the characters who don't really matter in this route (Caster, Kuzuki, Lancer, and, to the immense surprise of anyone who avoided looking into this route of the Visual Novel, spoiler[Saber]). I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get to see any of the adorable Shirou and Ilya scenes from the visual novel in this movie, but I guess all good things are worth waiting for. It would've been nice if they just put ONE Kirei Kotomine fight scene in there. Mostly because I want my friend, who has no real impression of Kirei yet, to become an instant fan of his without having to show her Fate/Zero. So, the funniest moment in this entire movie was when Shinji first shows up as Rider's master and has Rider fight Shirou and Saber. His response to Saber one-shotting Rider with a PUNCH instead of any swordplay was priceless. Though, a runner-up goes to Shirou marching straight past (and scaring) Rin when she was about to attack/yell at him for not having his servant follow him to school. The best fight scene was undoubtedly Lancer vs True Assassin (who for all intents and purposes, I shall henceforth just refer to as Assassin since Fake Assassin (Koujiro Sasaki) dies immediately and completely sucks at life). I think my one complaint is that Saber's... erm... corruption wasn't as sad as it otherwise could have been. I mean, it wasn't NOT shocking, but considering that it was all over the promotional materials (find ONE poster without Saber Alter in it), I wish they would up the ante with the emotions on that scene. Oh! No! I just remembered my real complaint! There's a horrible dream sequence where Shirou is getting molested by Rin for no reason. Rin turns into Sakura and Shirou wakes up. Why does this happen? No idea and it would have been best to leave it out of the movie entirely. Overall I give it a 7.5/10. It's good, and it really could've been an 8 if it got to the juicy parts of this arc. |
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