Fuck it, anime thread

[letsgobrian]

If want a confused adaptation of a Go Nagai manga, look no further than Cutie Honey Universe. The tone is all over the shop. is it serious, is it a comedy? It certainly doesn't know. A hot mess, but one that has stuck with me.

It's also the most accurate adaptation of a Go Nagai manga that we've had. The comic is all over the place too, with orphaned characters from cancelled strips being folded into it like a Japanese Buster.

I enjoyed the show because of it being a mess like the comic, but it suffered from not being a Toei production, and thus not having access to the best theme tune ever written.

[madhair60]

it is finally time

[Small Man Big Horse]

Wolf Children (2012) - Lowkey effort where after sleeping with a man who can change in to a wolf her children have the same affliction,

Spoiler alert

but then he dies and she heads off to the countryside to bring them up where they can live as their wolf side if they so choose. The first half is a celebration of nature / childhood / small communities and quite lovely, but the it dips in the middle and the second half where the kids decide if they want to be human or wolf is fine

[close]

but lacks something. 6.5/10

[Small Man Big Horse]

Tokoy Godfathers (2003) - three homeless people discover a baby that's been abandoned and do their best to find it's parents. It's quite sweet and sometimes funny, but the amount of contrivances and the action packed finale borders on the ridiculous and prevent it from being something that I can really recommend. 6.6/10

[Consignia]

Aww, I loved Tokyo Godfathers. Japan has a real problem with the way it pretends homelessness doesn't exist. Tokyo Godfathers does a lot for me by centring it's three main characters on it. And it's Satoshi Kon, so obviously I love it. I'll admit it's been a long time since I've watched it, though. Probably about 15 years, so memories could have faded.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Aww, I loved Tokyo Godfathers. Japan has a real problem with the way it pretends homelessness doesn't exist. Tokyo Godfathers does a lot for me by centring it's three main characters on it. And it's Satoshi Kon, so obviously I love it. I'll admit it's been a long time since I've watched it, though. Probably about 15 years, so memories could have faded.

Expectations might have come in to it, as I love Paprika enormously, and am a very big fan of Perfect Blue, but the way they

Spoiler alert

kept on running in to long lost relatives / the child's supposed mother

[close]

seemed absurd by the end, and

Spoiler alert

the magic realism aspect of it

[close]

just didn't work for me. I know a lot of people who love it though, so I could be wrong.

[Consignia]

You're not wrong, your criticisms are valid. But I feel they don't hurt the film like you do.

I wasn't trying to disparage your view, I was just a little disappointed a film I regard quite well didn't bring someone else similar joy. Like you watch a comedy show you've found absolutely hilarious, and then a friend tells you they sat stony faced through it.

I could be the one with inflated views of it here. 🙂

[Small Man Big Horse]

You're not wrong, your criticisms are valid. But I feel they don't hurt the film like you do.

I wasn't trying to disparage your view, I was just a little disappointed a film I regard quite well didn't bring someone else similar joy. Like you watch a comedy show you've found absolutely hilarious, and then a friend tells you they sat stony faced through it.

Oh I get that completely, I just never like to rain on anyone's parade, as it were, I used to have a friend who seemed to hate everything we saw at the cinema and it was no fun at all, to the extent that I stopped going with him in the end.

[Sin Agog]

Oh I get that completely, I just never like to rain on anyone's parade, as it were, I used to have a friend who seemed to hate everything we saw at the cinema and it was no fun at all, to the extent that I stopped going with him in the end.

No wonder Noodle Lizard moved to America. ;) ;)

[Sin Agog]

Anyone got any good Korean animation recs?  I think I've only seen three K-anime, and they all had a pretty interesting voice- they also had that scratchy line art style I sometimes dig.  The Story of Mr Sorry (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2078651/), about a guy who shrinks down small enough to clean people's ears and plumb their memories, was particularly cool.

[Consignia]

New season of anime, so therefore time for my regular pithy mediocre new season round up.

Quite an interesting season this one. I was half expecting it to be desolate due to COVID, but it's actually ended pretty packed. I'm still in midst of triaging what I actually want to watch this season, but I've watched the first episode or two of most of these. Some are tricky to drop because of grandfather clauses that I watched the previous seasons of.

Without further ado,

Continuations
Is the Order a Rabbit BLOOM - The mellow slice of life show about a coffee shop. It's not laugh out loud, but it's so sedate it can fun to spend time with.
Danmachi 3 - The continuation of the fantasy adventure series. It continues it's downward slide, as we get more characters shilling for the overpowered main, which feels it gets worse each subsequent season because of the numbers. Still enjoyable
Love Live! Nijigasaki - Not technically a continuation, but another entry into the rapidly diminishing franchise about young idol groups. This one feels a bit fresher since it doesn't heavily lean on it's predecessor like Sunshine did. But nowhere near as lively as either previous one.
Osomatsu-san - The sequel to the brilliant comedy about the NEET virgin sextuplets. Brilliant start to it's new season, loads of laughs as the bros literally turn into shit halfway through, with a sprinkling of satire throughout. Love it.
STRIKE WITCHES: ROAD TO BERLIN - Very much the grandfather clause series for me. It's the semi-world war 2 analogue with weird other world monsters and too many panty shots. If you can get past that horrible alienating concept, which if I came to this new now I probably couldn't, it's quite an enjoyable romp.
Yashahime - Sequal to the early 00's hit, Inuyasha. It's competent enough, I guess, but I wasn't a huge fan of the original and this isn't doing loads to endear me.
Higurahi naku koro ni - GOU - Is it a remake or a sequel to the infamous doujin horror series? [spolier]It's a sequel, but it's complicated[/spoiler]. Regardless, the original is one of my all time favourites, and this a really good adaptation, more accurate to the original sound novel for good or ill.


New Series
I'm Standing on a Million Lives - Isekai. Overpowered protagonist. Don't care.
Iwakakeru - Sports Climbing Girls - Sports series, this time taking on Bouldering. Would perhaps be a little better if it wasn't so leary and the animation wasn't so poor it feels like a slideshow at times.
Tonikawa - Comedy series following a pair of newly weds by the creator of Hayate no Gotoku. Sadly not as fun as Hayate, but it's quite enjoyable otherwise.
Assault Lily Bouquet - Post apocalyptic high school stuff that was so generic, I can't even be arsed to summarise further. Expect more from Studio Shaft.
Wandering Witch - Quite a little show about a fledgling witch and her travels. I'm enjoying it a bit more than I'd usually credit something like this.
Adachi and Shimamura - Fun yuri show about a pair of sarcastic delinquents.
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear - Isekai. Overpowered protagonist. Don't care. Not even the quirky design of the protagonist can cover the turd inside.
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle - Quirky little comedy about a princess taken hostage but making her captors' lives hell.
Dropout Idol Fruit Tart - Interesting spin on the idol series, where it basically admits that it's a crap profession making all the main characters unemployable stragglers.
Talentless Nana - Can't give too much away about the premise, but it's one of those series with a cutesy wrapper but a dark under belly. I actually liked it way more than I was expecting from the premise, as the dark switch felt quite natural and earnt.
Maesetsu - Opening Act - Comedy series about comedians from the creator of Lucky Star. Obviously quite difficult to make a series comedy if the comedians themselves aren't funny, but it gives a reasonably fun stab and is full of heart.
By The Grace of the Gods - Isekai. Not so overpowered protagonist. Gave it a shot, but still don't care. The reincarnation scene left me with a horrible "In a new world with my smartphone" taste.
Warlords of Sigrdrifa - Probably a slightly more palatable version of Strike Witches, at least there's no knickers and they fly real planes. Not bad actually, but there's one main character that gets on my tits too much to recommend it.
The Day I Became a God - New show from the mind who created Angel Beats and Charlotte, so you know what to expect. Mix of comedy and emotional tugs about a girl who claims to be a God and the world is about to end. If the girl doesn't turn out to be a normal girl with terminal cancer or something at the end, I'll eat Jun Maeda's predictable hat.

Like I said, quite a packed season, but quite variable in quality. But nice to see the industry chugging along even during the time of COVID. Gal and Dinosaur will be resuming as well by the end, so there's that to look forward to. As well as Attack on Titan which will randomly commence in December.

[Consignia]

Anyone got any good Korean animation recs?  I think I've only seen three K-anime, and they all had a pretty interesting voice- they also had that scratchy line art style I sometimes dig.  The Story of Mr Sorry (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2078651/), about a guy who shrinks down small enough to clean people's ears and plumb their memories, was particularly cool.

I'd certainly love to give some ago. The recent Japanese animation adaptations of Korean comics have fallen short some what in my eyes, and I feel that they lost something in the transition over the Sea of Japan. Although the comics themselves did try to ape manga a bit too much.

[letsgobrian]

New season of anime, so therefore time for my regular pithy mediocre new season round up.

Quite an interesting season this one. I was half expecting it to be desolate due to COVID, but it's actually ended pretty packed. I'm still in midst of triaging what I actually want to watch this season, but I've watched the first episode or two of most of these. Some are tricky to drop because of grandfather clauses that I watched the previous seasons of.

Without further ado,

Continuations
Is the Order a Rabbit BLOOM - The mellow slice of life show about a coffee shop. It's not laugh out loud, but it's so sedate it can fun to spend time with.
Danmachi 3 - The continuation of the fantasy adventure series. It continues it's downward slide, as we get more characters shilling for the overpowered main, which feels it gets worse each subsequent season because of the numbers. Still enjoyable
Love Live! Nijigasaki - Not technically a continuation, but another entry into the rapidly diminishing franchise about young idol groups. This one feels a bit fresher since it doesn't heavily lean on it's predecessor like Sunshine did. But nowhere near as lively as either previous one.
Osomatsu-san - The sequel to the brilliant comedy about the NEET virgin sextuplets. Brilliant start to it's new season, loads of laughs as the bros literally turn into shit halfway through, with a sprinkling of satire throughout. Love it.
STRIKE WITCHES: ROAD TO BERLIN - Very much the grandfather clause series for me. It's the semi-world war 2 analogue with weird other world monsters and too many panty shots. If you can get past that horrible alienating concept, which if I came to this new now I probably couldn't, it's quite an enjoyable romp.
Yashahime - Sequal to the early 00's hit, Inuyasha. It's competent enough, I guess, but I wasn't a huge fan of the original and this isn't doing loads to endear me.
Higurahi naku koro ni - GOU - Is it a remake or a sequel to the infamous doujin horror series? [spolier]It's a sequel, but it's complicated[/spoiler]. Regardless, the original is one of my all time favourites, and this a really good adaptation, more accurate to the original sound novel for good or ill.


New Series
I'm Standing on a Million Lives - Isekai. Overpowered protagonist. Don't care.
Iwakakeru - Sports Climbing Girls - Sports series, this time taking on Bouldering. Would perhaps be a little better if it wasn't so leary and the animation wasn't so poor it feels like a slideshow at times.
Tonikawa - Comedy series following a pair of newly weds by the creator of Hayate no Gotoku. Sadly not as fun as Hayate, but it's quite enjoyable otherwise.
Assault Lily Bouquet - Post apocalyptic high school stuff that was so generic, I can't even be arsed to summarise further. Expect more from Studio Shaft.
Wandering Witch - Quite a little show about a fledgling witch and her travels. I'm enjoying it a bit more than I'd usually credit something like this.
Adachi and Shimamura - Fun yuri show about a pair of sarcastic delinquents.
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear - Isekai. Overpowered protagonist. Don't care. Not even the quirky design of the protagonist can cover the turd inside.
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle - Quirky little comedy about a princess taken hostage but making her captors' lives hell.
Dropout Idol Fruit Tart - Interesting spin on the idol series, where it basically admits that it's a crap profession making all the main characters unemployable stragglers.
Talentless Nana - Can't give too much away about the premise, but it's one of those series with a cutesy wrapper but a dark under belly. I actually liked it way more than I was expecting from the premise, as the dark switch felt quite natural and earnt.
Maesetsu - Opening Act - Comedy series about comedians from the creator of Lucky Star. Obviously quite difficult to make a series comedy if the comedians themselves aren't funny, but it gives a reasonably fun stab and is full of heart.
By The Grace of the Gods - Isekai. Not so overpowered protagonist. Gave it a shot, but still don't care. The reincarnation scene left me with a horrible "In a new world with my smartphone" taste.
Warlords of Sigrdrifa - Probably a slightly more palatable version of Strike Witches, at least there's no knickers and they fly real planes. Not bad actually, but there's one main character that gets on my tits too much to recommend it.
The Day I Became a God - New show from the mind who created Angel Beats and Charlotte, so you know what to expect. Mix of comedy and emotional tugs about a girl who claims to be a God and the world is about to end. If the girl doesn't turn out to be a normal girl with terminal cancer or something at the end, I'll eat Jun Maeda's predictable hat.

Like I said, quite a packed season, but quite variable in quality. But nice to see the industry chugging along even during the time of COVID. Gal and Dinosaur will be resuming as well by the end, so there's that to look forward to. As well as Attack on Titan which will randomly commence in December.

To illustrate how much anime there is, I'm watching 8 currently running series and you've only mentioned one of them (Mr Osomatsu).

Extra Olympia Kyklos - Ancient Greek vase painter is bullied by his mayor into organising a rival to the Olympics. He frequently has panic attacks which lead to him time travelling to 1964. There he picks the brain of a Tokyo antiquities professor for ideas on how to run the event. The Greek characters are stop motion clay figures and the Tokyo characters are paper cut outs. It is the best television programme of 2020, animated or otherwise.

With a Dog and a Cat, Every Day is Fun - Have you ever noticed that dogs are like this? But cats, they are like that? Ultra short gag manga adaptation. 85 seconds per episode.

Jujutsu Kaisen - Latest hit Shonen Jump manga adaptation. One of these niche luxury adaptations rather than a super popular Toei grind. Teenager eats ancient artifact then enrolls at magic school to make himself useful before said magicians execute him. Dazzling animation and a good adaptation that improves on the source material.

Golden Kamuy season 3 - Our damaged slabs of muscle continue their search for the stolen gold they mistakenly think will fix their PTSD and assorted disabilities.

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai - Late Gen-X and Early Millenials in Japan get to force their kids to watch a new adaptation of their favourite videogame manga. Some ambitious effects animation for a Toei TV show, and a simple nostalgic tale. I suspect it will result in me buying my first DQ game.

Gymnastics Samurai - the team from Zombie Land Saga reunite for an original story about a 29 year old single dad gymnast. In the now historical setting of 2002. Charming and slightly surreal.

Moriarty The Patriot - what it Moriarty out of Sherlock Holmes was doing all his crimes for Class War reasons? Well question no more true believer, that is the plot of this manga adaptation.

[Consignia]

I am watching With a Dog and a Cat, Every Day is Fun as well but I neglected to mention shorts. And most of the shorts are trash and I didn't want to group it with them. Of them Dogeza stands as an almost artistic/dadist level of shit.

I really like the look of Gymnastics Samurai[nb]Shanghai Honey, how could I refuse?[/nb] as well so might I pick that up at some point.

[Consignia]

Wandering Witch - Quite a little show about a fledgling witch and her travels. I'm enjoying it a bit more than I'd usually credit something like this.

In certain anime watching circles there's something known as the "3 episode rule". Basically you give something 3 episodes to see if you commit to the whole series[nb]I'm much more harsh. If the first episode does nothing, I won't bother[/nb]. To counter that, producers occasionally drop a massive twist/bomb on the third episode to pull viewers over that cliff edge.

Now for Wandering Witch, Majo no Tabitabi, I'd effectively written it off as mild Kino's Journey clone. I was going to completely bin it after the first episode. I watched the second and didn't feel it was worth anymore of my time. However, I noticed the third had generated a little buzz, so decided to just see what crack was.

And my god, what a game changer and not for the best. It's a pair of short stories, both with nasty twists in them but you can probably see them coming. However the thing that really stands out for me is how vile the protagonist, Elaina, is, like I've never really seen in anime. Like there's been bad protagonists before, poorly written and effectively bad guys, but this one is such a nasty narcissistic nihilist. I think it really has to be seen to be believed, so I'm not going to spoil it, and I'd recommend people just give it a go. The second story has some even nastier barbs in it, that I didn't notice until pointed out.

[Osmium]

Wolf Children (2012) - Lowkey effort where after sleeping with a man who can change in to a wolf her children have the same affliction,

Spoiler alert

but then he dies and she heads off to the countryside to bring them up where they can live as their wolf side if they so choose. The first half is a celebration of nature / childhood / small communities and quite lovely, but the it dips in the middle and the second half where the kids decide if they want to be human or wolf is fine

[close]

but lacks something. 6.5/10

but lacks something

That could be said for all of Mamoru Hosoda's films that I've seen. I'm baffled by how well received they have been. Aoi Miyazaki was good in Wolf Children and The Boy and the Beast, I guess.

[Sin Agog]

Agree with Wolf Children and The Boy & the Beast being pretty soft-focused and never quite landing, but nice to see Aoi's name there.  I remember trawling through her IMDB page a few years ago when she was doing all these sweet, touching indie character dramas (and pretty bleak in the case of Harmful Insect, which was a damning attack on the Japanese patriarchy and how young women so often just give up hope in the face of a barrage of objectification from adult men).  Really great actress.  There was a period of about ten, eleven years from around the turn of the millennium where Japan were just churning out amazingly observed, minimalist dramas by the dozen.

[samadriel]

Edit bug

[buzby]

Tonikawa - Comedy series following a pair of newly weds by the creator of Hayate no Gotoku. Sadly not as fun as Hayate, but it's quite enjoyable otherwise.

I don't really know much about anime, but I've seen a few episodes of this and it's funny, absolutely charming and so sweet it will rot your teeth. I gather that it subverts a load of standard anime plot points and tropes, and is very self aware. It also looks great and the opening titles song is an absolute banger. It's been not so subtly implied that Tsukasa is not an ordinary 16-year old girl, but so far the plot hasn't really bothered itself over this, which is fine by me (I prefer that their relationship is more based in realism rather than her being a 'magical girl' type).

Another recent anime I've caught a few episodes of and fell in love with is Teasing Master Takagi-San, which despite it's suggestive title is a thoroughly wholesome and sweet comedy (with a very slow burning romance aspect) about two young middle schoolers, the titular girl Takagi and her classmate Nishikata. Takagi loves to come up with teases and challenges for Nishikata, which he usually loses and then tries to come up with ways to get back at her, which inevitably backfire too as Takagi is particularly adept at second guessing him.

[Consignia]

Glad you enjoying Tonikawa. It was kind of a dessert series for me, sweet but not a lot of substance. I think the fantasy elements of it are a bit boring, but it seems to be more a short hand for not having to establish the usual beginnings of a relationship and really get into meat of wedded life; an area rather unexplored by many romantic series. The anime has concluded, but the manga continues, however I believe it takes the same lack of clarity about Tsukasa as the anime so will continue that focus on the cute relationship.

Takagi-san is a series I do have a bit of a soft spot for. Really nostalagic for those school days. Also some top draw voice work from Takahashi and Kaji really helps sell it.

[letsgobrian]

Bandai Arts Channel have put up the second episode of Pui Pui Molcar, the first anime of 2021 to blow up big on Japanese social media.

No need to worry about having missed episode one as it's a two and a half minute stop motion animation short involving cars that are guinea pigs made of felt.

Humans are represented by both "A Town Called Panic" style miniatures and stop-motion photos of real humans when they get in the "cars".

It's really quite charming and exceptionally well executed. The director Tomoki Misato had an acclaimed student film "My Little Goat" in 2018 and is likely someone to watch for going forward.

[buzby]

Takagi-san is a series I do have a bit of a soft spot for. Really nostalagic for those school days. Also some top draw voice work from Takahashi and Kaji really helps sell it.

I've not got Netflix but I managed to get a hooky DVD that had both series and the OVA on it and binge-watched them over a week. It's absolutely lovely. I was sat there like Nishikata watching 100% Unrequited Love and actually let out an involuntary cheer at the conclusion to the last episode. As you say, the voice work is outstanding, Rie Takahashi in particular. I also love that the gorgeous background plates are painted from photographs of real locations from the home town of the manga's author. I do hope it gets another series, or possibly they move onto adapting the sequel manga.

Going back to one of your earlier mentions in the thread, I've watched a few episodes of Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out too, and despite trepidation after seeing the controversy about Uzaki's character design (though it was good to see a backlash to that from women of a similar build) I have enjoyed what I have seen so far. The premise reminded me a bit of Welcome To The NHK[nb]Another series I would thoroughly recommend, though it can be hard viewing at times due to the themes the story revolves around[/nb], though focussed more on the humour (and Carry On-esque humour at that).

I've seen a lot of praise for Toradora and OreGairu/My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU online (though the latter seems to have a fanbase who identify too much with the main character and produce rather tedious analysis videos). Anyone seen them, and if so are they worth going the distance? I gather the latter got it's third series last year, after a 5-year break.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Serial Experiments Lain is all on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8nbEGDR4Yg&list=PLvDJyBgCi8B_8kSSFS0ZFj4yn5KqqpKtg

[Consignia]

I've seen a lot of praise for Toradora and OreGairu/My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU online (though the latter seems to have a fanbase who identify too much with the main character and produce rather tedious analysis videos). Anyone seen them, and if so are they worth going the distance? I gather the latter got it's third series last year, after a 5-year break.

Yeah. I absolutely love Toradora. It's one the best anime romantic comedies, which is a low bar, but it sails way above it. It benefits a lot from having a small core cast.

Oregairu is quite good, as it tries recontrust a cynical attitude to teenage romance. I think it's not as good as Toradora, but it is really thoughtful. The third series is supposed to be a conclusion, and I think it just about makes it but it feels a bit abrupt.

Yeah, would recommend both.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Weathering with You - bit disappointed in this one, particularly after loving Makoto Shinkai's previous film Your Name. Still worth a watch though, at least for the visuals.

[Consignia]

Style and no substance is Shinkai all over isn't it 🙂? That said, I really did like Garden of Words, which felt a very human drama. Also liked She and Her Cat, but you can hardly call it much of anything and the TV adaptation was much better.

[Nobody Soup]

I've got into a not of anime over lockdown, death note, Tokyo ghoul, one punch man, sadly there's no cowboy bebop on Netflix. It's been good stuff actually.

One thing though, is there any sort of study on why the structure of the action stories generally follow this trend of being a sort of power arms race? It's not enough to win in the final showdown, you have to have reach a level of total dominance to the point where your opponent is humiliated. Leading to a merry go round of one upsmanship with subsequent villains to the point where they're throwing the moon at each other by season 4.

[letsgobrian]

I've got into a not of anime over lockdown, death note, Tokyo ghoul, one punch man, sadly there's no cowboy bebop on Netflix. It's been good stuff actually.

One thing though, is there any sort of study on why the structure of the action stories generally follow this trend of being a sort of power arms race? It's not enough to win in the final showdown, you have to have reach a level of total dominance to the point where your opponent is humiliated. Leading to a merry go round of one upsmanship with subsequent villains to the point where they're throwing the moon at each other by season 4.

It's classic cartoon gag heightening and escalation applied to violence over a longer time.

Akira Toriyama's first success was Dr. Slump, a gag manga, and he applied what he learnt there to martial arts with Dragon Ball.

Then you not only got a generation of manga authors being told by editors to make another Dragon Ball, you had Takao Koyama, the Dragon Ball screenwriter, opening an agency/training school.

The members of "Brother Noppo" dominated anime screenwriting in the 90s, but also worked in manga, were involved in the first Light Novel boom and videogames.

You can probably go back earlier and find things that might have influenced Toriyama. A likely one that springs to mind is the school Vs PTA war in Go Nagai's Shameless School. Nagai's genius being to combine the skills of his mentors  Fujio Akatsuka & Shotaro Ishinomori to create gag comics with great action panelling.

But Nagai, while influential, is too scattershot in his ideas and tone to boil down to formula like Koyama was able to do with Dragon Ball.

[buzby]

Yeah. I absolutely love Toradora. It's one the best anime romantic comedies, which is a low bar, but it sails way above it. It benefits a lot from having a small core cast.

Oregairu is quite good, as it tries recontrust a cynical attitude to teenage romance. I think it's not as good as Toradora, but it is really thoughtful. The third series is supposed to be a conclusion, and I think it just about makes it but it feels a bit abrupt.

Yeah, would recommend both.

I've burned through Toradora in less than a week, thanks. You are totally right - it's a wonderful series, and like the mark of anything good it just left me wanting more, to see how the duo's relationship developed. I was particularly impressed at how it managed the gradual tonal shift in the second half of the series, with more dramatic plot developments and how the main duo's friends went though the process of reconciling themselves with no getting the outcomes they wanted (Minori especially, being torn between her own happiness and that of her best friend, and the toll it was taking on her). Onto Oregairu now....

I also watched A Silent Voice, in the past week, which I'm reluctant to mention in here as it should really be discussed in the film forum (you gave it a glowing review in the thread about Your Name, which seemingly overshadowed it when it was released). It's a heartbreaking film (I openly blubbed at least 3 times) but as a story of redemption and forgiveness it's up there with any film you could mention, animated or live action. It must have been a very brave decision for Kyoto Animation to make it, given Japan's attitudes to both school bullying and disability. It looks absolutely beautiful too, right up there with Ghibli. It was only afterwards that I found out Shouko's voice actress was Saori Hayami, who voices Yukino in Oregairu. Having grown up with hearing impaired neighbours (my mum and dad knew sign language too) she did a fantastic job. It could only have been bettered if they had hired a hearing impaired actress to voice her character (as they did in the English dub), but I guess in Japan these things have to be taken one step at a time.

[idunnosomename]

Serial Experiments Lain is all on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8nbEGDR4Yg&list=PLvDJyBgCi8B_8kSSFS0ZFj4yn5KqqpKtg

oh bloody hell. not sure if i can take this dystopian virtual network stuff atm

not unless i have an antistatic cloak and am surrounded by a load of open tower cases with motherboards inside