Forum - View topicREVIEW: SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table 44: CLOUDY BEACH Anime Film Review
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 19169 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Completely agree with James on all points. I'll only add an alert to watch out for a post-credits scene which I suspect will be a lead-in to any additional animation this franchise might get. (You'll know you're coming up on on it when you see cars driving backwards.)
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Greed1914
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Came in to say the same. A bit of a hook for a possible season 2, but otherwise this serves as a pretty good conclusion to anything dangling from season 1's developments. I think that hook, as well as other developments in the movie could have things in a position where there is more of an overarching narrative next time. spoiler[ Since Yuki knows Hakushi is alive, the reason she gave herself to keep playing is gone. Hakushi herself retired, so no need to take up the mantle of someone who dropped it. And we are told there was basically a Candle Woods 2, so it's likely that the slaughter, and not the games, are the point, so Yuki might come back to that offer to help end the games.] I think it did a good job of showing how much Yuki is coming unraveled by hiding enough from us in the right moments to make it believable why she doesn't trust herself. The things the tv series did well are still there. I suppose I didn't pay much mind to the visuals not being anything more impressive there since this felt more like three episodes put together than a movie. Also, I didn't pay much mind to the episode titles until the song for the end credits shoves that part out there. 
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1744 |
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Oh, it’s on Netflix, not Crunchyroll.
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Kiwi93
Posts: 540 |
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It’s also on Crunchyroll that’s where I watched it. |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1744 |
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It doesn’t turn up for me when I search for it (I’m in the US). Just the TV series. |
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Kiwi93
Posts: 540 |
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I just checked and it’s there for me still (I’m also in the U.S), it’s listed as episode 12. |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1744 |
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Thanks! I missed that, what with the episode titles having a consistent theme throughout, including “episode 12”.
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jdnation
Posts: 2526 |
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Finally made time to sit in the comfortable dark and watch this with the headphones on, as anyone should!
The audio from the VA and music (I watch the dub) is excellent as always, and does the heavy lifting for the lack of animation. I agree that I had higher expectations for a movie animation-wise. I didn't expect it to go full high budget spectacle, but I did expect more. That said, I was fine with it as I was with the show thanks to it's mastery of sound and still visuals. That said, it did disappoint in terms of story. It never reached any of the highs or developments of some of the games in the series. It was very much more a character piece on our girl's dealing with the violent aftermath of last season, and the fate of her mentor. The "games" part of what makes playing the death games interesting was largely missing here in this Among Us scenario. It was clever to spoiler[fake one's death, and then just steal a gun from the corpo security], but most of the time there isn't anything really interesting happening game-wise. I do have a questions about spoiler[the ability to survive such a brutal disemboweling attack as happened last season and in the film - I assume that it is an unintentional benefit from having survived many games? Like the replacement of parts of the body eventually add up that someone reaches a state where they can survive being almost entirely disembowled? Like a levelled up player gains an adaptive level of invincibility?] If so, that's a pretty cool idea! I liked the movie well enough, but it felt more like a middle-episode, or an epilogue to Season 1, or at least an interesting start of what could've been Season 2. Frankly the opening with the train sequence seemed like a more entertaining game to watch. I realize the irony that I as an audience member want to see these girls play a fascinating entertaining death game, which is the concept of the world in which these girls are performing in whose draw on their end is that real lives are actually being taken advantage of and are at stake. But that is how it is... With concern to a Death Game, the movie doesn't deliver; especially disappointing considering the series managed to do the games so well, with intriguing dilemmas, puzzles and conflict and deliver on the catharsis and character portraits and studies. |
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champeagle3
Posts: 68 |
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Agree on all points, James. Excellent write-up. Especially loved the OST callout. Great reminder about it being one of the year’s best. I kept hearing "L-O-V-E" being played in the background of that final scene and the drink order followed by the build up to the big band rendition had me howling. Absolutely wild way to end the movie.
Quick suggested edit: spoiler[Koyomi's Hakushi's friend/ drinking buddy, not student. Essay's Hakushi's student who studied her and wanted to take on her goal of 99 games.] |
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