Hromino

The fact that the quality of KyoAni's audiovisual work is top-notch, is common knowledge in the anime world, and not many people would argue with that. That they are adept at delivering human dramas and psychological anime, is also something we have already seen, especially in their early productions. Sometimes, however, instead of an imaginative work, they manage to produce mere kitsch, and Violet Evergarden is an example of that. After reading the synopsis, it is very easy to predict how the story of the emotionless girl will unfold, but until about the eighth episode, this rudimentary plot is kept within reasonable bounds. It does smack a little of pathos at times, but that is not a major flaw, and it is the audiovisual experience and the successful fictional world-building that make this a fairly enjoyable show. Sometime from the ninth episode onwards, however, the great Mr. Pathos arrives and begins to mercilessly run amok. Holy shit, why does it all have to be so pathetic and contrived?! Wherever there was room for an emotional scene, the creators stuffed it in, wherever there was room for full-on orchestral music, they dropped it in, and as soon as Violet mentioned, for the fiftieth time, that the emerald brooch reminded her of her beloved darling’s eyes, or began to sigh pathetically at the sight of it over and over again, I was tempted to shove the brooch deep into the orifice of her excretory system. If you enjoy kitsch and watch anime because you want to be moved, or if the audiovisual experience is above all else, I can boldly recommend Violet Evergarden – this is definitely the anime for you. I can still taste the pathos in my mouth, though. I give it a weaker 3 stars.

Despite my original intention, I am not going to start my commentary by comparing this movie to Shinkai's previous works (and especially the last one), but I will start with what makes this movie unique compared to his previous works. Well: what the movie definitely excels at is its excellent depiction of the struggles of precocious teenagers and the conflict the naive main heroes have with reality, as they discover that a 15-year-old kid does not just become a real adult overnight. More than once while watching it, I was reminded of reading Kafka on the Shore, where Murakami also managed to handle similar issues brilliantly. Shinkai deserves another notch for one of the most accurate treatments of everyday life in Japan I have ever seen in anime - Western audiences may not appreciate it as much, but I could not help but notice how even the Japanese audience in the room giggled at it, the unexpected care and attention to minute detail with which Shinkai depicts life in a familiar Tokyo, in an effort to capture reality as faithfully as possible, and it is remarkable that so many well-known companies gave their permission for product placement in the movie without any need for inventing fake company names. In addition, anyone who perhaps disliked the narrative ambiguity, entanglement and fatefulness in Your Name should consider watching this movie, as Weathering with You offers a much clearer, perhaps one could say civil, story that is more accessible to a wider audience than its predecessor (and I do not mean that as a criticism). On the other hand, Shinkai's trademarks that were present in his previous films - Tokyo, trains, melancholy, piano music, sunsets, rain - are of course present here too, and again, by the bucketload, with the weather even playing a major role. So how does it compare to Your Name in the end? There are many crossover points (the main character from the preceding movie even makes a brief appearance!), so the comparison is simply unavoidable, however Weathering with You surprisingly does not come out of the comparison badly at all. It is a very well crafted piece of work, but it does not have the "wow effect" of its predecessor, and while I believe that this may have been intentional to some extent, I also found the movie lacking in a more careful introduction of the characters' family backgrounds, especially that of Hodaka, and of a stronger catharsis at the end - Shinkai unfortunately laid out his cards about 10 minutes ahead of time, leaving the ending itself with nothing to surprise and impact the audience. The bottom line is - a movie that definitely stands on its own two feet and is well worth seeing, it just has the misfortune of following a very successful predecessor and the expectations were set damn high for it. A strong 4 stars. (Seen at Shinjuku Piccadilly, Tokyo, 8/2019.)

I have not seen such a powerful and charged drama and family movie in a long time – and truth be told I saw many of them. The story of an intellectually ill-educated and demeaned girl (not in the sense of being bullied by her classmates or failing at school) who is psychologically abused by her grandfather. While she craves approval, he wants to humiliate her as deeply as he can. You do not experience these feelings while watching an ordinary movie, but Whale Rider is something else. Director Niki Caro, who was practically an amateur at the time, delivers an incredible performance, and together with Keisha Castle-Hughes, has created a monumental duo that works as wonderfully as the Depp-Burton pairing, though of course in a different genre and direction. The soundtrack is fascinating and reveals the mysteries and customs of New Zealand. The ending may turn out well in one way, however, after watching it a second time you realize it turned out even better – as true friendship, love and appreciation is stronger than anything else, and Whale Rider makes that clear.

As a little cheeky bugger, I quite liked it, however, after watching it now after all these years, I feel queasy.

Eh... have we not had enough of these movies about animals taking over, and their plans for world domination?! There are unlikable actors, lame humor, hyperactive tomcats, plague rats – and this is supposed to be a family comedy?! Dreadful! Comparable in quality to Home Alone 3. However, I am still going to award it one star for the somewhat unconventional idea and for the fact that I quite liked it as a kid.

I could not help it, but this movie did not impress me at all. While I like Dunst and Bettany, I found this to be an incredibly vacuous movie, dominated mainly by typical cinematic conventions, stale dialogue, predictability, and boredom. Ninety-eight minutes felt incredibly long to sit through, and if it were not for the above two actors, I probably would have fallen asleep from boredom. I am awarding this a weak two stars.

I don't believe World Trigger is as much of a disaster as some people claim. It's just incredibly forgettable, and there's hardly anything about it that's surprising. The simple storyline about alien monsters invading our world through an interdimensional gateway in a Japanese city might only excite undemanding and unsophisticated viewers. Those with a discerning eye may question: What sets it apart from other movies and TV series with similar plots? How will the production team bring something new to the table? Unfortunately, this is where the anime falls short. The production team seems to have struggled to come up with anything remotely interesting. They attempted to add depth by explaining the inner workings of Border, the organization fighting against the monsters, and the nature of the characters' supernatural abilities. Perhaps this decision was intended to give the impression of profundity and make the viewers feel like they were witnessing a highly sophisticated work that required significant effort and dedication, similar to what was seen in The Irregular at Magic High School. However, it still feels lacking and fails to make logical sense. The actions of Border members, who often behave like little children, don't align with the importance of the city's safety. Would the inhabitants of any city in any country truly be okay with menacing giant alien creatures randomly attacking them, endangering their safety and lives? I don’t think so. One would hope that the audio-visual experience would at least redeem the show, but once again, it disappoints. The soundtrack is passable, the artwork is unremarkable, the character designs are average, and the animation quality starts off quite poor (for instance, the first episode mainly consists of static shots), only reaching mediocrity later on. Since this show was produced by Toei Animation, a studio known for stretching stories with recaps and flashbacks, viewers might wonder how it would have turned out if a studio like Bones or Madhouse had taken on the project. Perhaps those studios could have at least delivered a more captivating audiovisual experience. Additionally, if the creators had taken bolder steps and approached the adaptation of the original material in the right way, World Trigger could have been more interesting in terms of the story. The only positive aspects I can mention are the absence of ecchi elements and the character of Kuga, the white-haired character who is well-voiced, has a good sense of humor, and exhibits some depth. However, the rest of the show is a repetitive and unremarkable mush that I've seen countless times before. The remaining thirty-five episodes probably won't surprise or impress me. Therefore, after fifteen episodes, I've decided to call it quits and give it a generous one-star rating, perhaps more than it deserves.

The characters are well-crafted and plausible, there is a nice chemistry between them, the pacing is suitable, the drawing and animation are precise, the soundtrack is good, and it is mature for its genre, while relatively avoiding the most well-worn tropes. All this was put into Sing "Yesterday" for Me, but as time went on, the scum came to the surface, with which all the good around it gradually turned bitter - and that scum was the story that remained. This is a story that got tangled up and lost in itself, as if there was not even really a story there in the end. The initial exposition was good, excellent even, but what followed it was like trying to sober up after a night of heavy drinking. Slow, tiring and full of waiting for change that in the end never comes in the end. The characters check each other out a few times, a polygon is outlined, there are some hints at the characters’ having some conflict and inner dilemma, the molecules weakly bump into each other a few times, but in the end they return to their original positions and the expectation of some more significant reaction remains unfulfilled. I can certainly recommend this anime to those who are comfortable with anime that is about nothing, and are content to check out an anime that throws around sketches of slight characters without any proper development, but to the rest I would rather recommend they invest their time more wisely. I give this a mere 3 stars.

I had almost given up on this artist, because I was convinced he was experiencing a gradual decline in his creative powers and heading inevitably to the bottom of the artistic abyss. If one could explain Makoto's creative failures of the last few years to me, lost in dullness and rumoring, by the fact that he was just saving and gathering his strength for this gem, then I would let him be forgiven for these indiscretions and enthusiastically pat him on the back. What I expected from him, I certainly now got: polished visuals, fluid animation, sunsets and picturesque skies bordering on the kitschy, lots of shots of trains, full of melancholy, and an excellent soundtrack, albeit this time performed by my favorite band Radwimps; but all this now goes hand in hand with an interesting storyline, which, although God knows how far from being original it is, and even if some might call it a mixture of various anime tropes, it is handled exceedingly well. It offers various interpretations of the story, making the movie resonate strongly with the audience even after watching it. It is playful, cute, and funny, but it is not primarily touchy-feely in a stupid way. It is classic Makoto, all of his trademarks are there and in large quantities, but at the same time it is a distinctive and unmistakable work in the context of Makoto's oeuvre. It is an oeuvre that teeters on the thin edge of superficial likability, where you can see both a merely audio visually compelling story, and a multi-layered piece that will not let you rest for a minute and will resonate with you for quite some time – and Mitsuha and Taki have clearly pulled me towards the latter. After a very long time, this is finally one hyped anime that I can relate to and ride the wave of, too. A small insignificant plus for Shinkai for making me buy both a movie on DVD and its soundtrack after nine years. And a minor minus for getting really crushed by the phenomenon and not being able to resist shelling out a disgusting amount of yen to visit a themed café and buy a bunch of crap like notepads, pens and postcards. What a cheeky movie! (Seen at Toho Cinemas Nijo, Kyoto, 11/2016.)

This is even better than The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope. The Fall of the House of Usher exceeded my expectations, although I could not really get on very well with Petr Cepek's performance. Not that he was absolutely terrible, but sometimes he spoke too slowly and sometimes too quickly, to the point where he was almost unintelligible – although it did not adversely affect the action of the scenes. Cepek was better at the end, so that is the only such average thing about this beautiful short film. Svankmajer once again demonstrates how he can successfully combine Edgar Allan Poe's short story with other, historical short stories, as he did with the aforementioned The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope. In this movie, Svankmajer’s ideas are voiced by Cepek, as he recounts the miserable mental anguish suffered by both Usher and his sister, whom Usher buried alive. Cepek portrays the narrator who visits Usher in person, and who faithfully describes his feelings about the house, its surroundings, and Usher and his sister. When you hear that Usher was sitting on his chair, his back to the door, the whole time and swaying erratically, you know something suspenseful is about to happen. Only the climax will give you the answer to what is really behind the veil of truth. Then you shall finally find out what it means to be consumed by the notion of retribution for what you have done every day.