Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Hundred Scenes of AWAJIMA
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jdnation
Posts: 2492 |
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My favorite new debut show!
2 EPs in and it demonstrates a series that is well written, complex, with realistic characters in both dialogue and portrayal that are a nice break from the cartoonery of typical mainstream anime high school girls; it's short story vignettes span different eras, covering childhood, teenage and adult lives of it's characters, crossing over with other characters in different times with sweet comfy nostalgic slices of life, comical moments, drama and tragedy; all demonstrated under simple but effective direction, and suitably good animation and art direction. Every season or year has at least one stand out special series that comes in under the radar for me, and Awajima is looking to be just that! It is always a delight to discover a new show like this! |
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Cryssoberyl
 Posts: 271 |
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For those who aren't aware, everything about this work is so much in the classic yuri iconographic and thematic tradition: boarding school, stage-play focus, princely girls, loads of language-of-flowers imagery, watercolor backgrounds, and most of all, the passionate feelings and relationships of young women growing toward adulthood, thoughtfully written.
So much of Shimura's previous yuri manga Aoi Hana is in this too, body and spirit; not only are there in-story references to Fujigaya, the school where Aoi Hana takes place, but even things as simple as the shot compositions are absolutely callbacks to it. These first episodes have been powerfully yuri in the classic sense of intense emotions and not-easily-definable relationships, and I am eager to see where it goes next.
It is my unfortunate duty to point out that Revue Starlight was eight years ago now. Recent? 
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EmeraldSaucer
 Posts: 916 |
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Episode 3 was especially fantastic, stunning use of Natsuko's portrait as a ghost whose beauty and reminder of past glories constantly haunts the spaces her family and herself inhabit (a poignantly somber twist on the repeating visual motif of talented people being able to "color" their surroundings)
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Gan_HOPE326
Posts: 118 |
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Well, more recent than Rose of Versailles or Revolutionary Girl Utena, though the links are weaker for those. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 475 |
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Probably worth noting that from the newspaper the religion is Soka Gakkai, which is much larger in scale than most Japanese new religious movements; Mormonism might be a comparison, proportionally.
Episode 5 is really fantastic at exploring some big but ambiguous feelings. Episode 3 was also great. I have to say, I find a lot of the shorter segments fairly uninteresting though, its a mixed bag so far. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2759 Location: United States |
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Is that the one that was founded by some dude named Daisaku Ikeda? |
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Eilavel
Posts: 475 |
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He wasn't actually the founder, but he was probably its most important figure.
Ep6 has good drama and weaves together better than some of the earlier more loosely braided episodes; on the other hand, while I understand the duality of the oblique reference to the kind of school ghost stories found in the kind of Yuri works Awajima and the analogy its using with "real" ghosts of the past, I probably could have done without that element. |
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