Anime

[Mr Sausage]

Suggestions for the next Anime watchalong moved here.

[J Wilson]

I went to see Makoto Shinkai's latest, Suzume, this past weekend, which an AMC by me was playing in one of their giant IMAX rooms (to an audience of about 10 people on a Saturday night). I've liked most everything Shinkai's done, though Weathering With You disappointed, with his "young love fighting to stay together" formula not working for me. I went into Suzume knowing only what I'd seen in the unsubbed trailer, and found that once again we were being presented with that same basic formula, but filtered through the lens of a road movie mixed with a folkloric element. I liked the road movie/folklore elements, but felt that the slow burn romance didn't quite click for me again. I enjoyed this, but I'd like to see him do something totally different the next time out.

[Mr Sausage]

Suzume (Makoto Shinkai, 2022)

My first Makoto Shinkai film, and only the third anime I've seen in theatres (after Aragne: Spirit of Vermilion and Perfect Blue). I'm glad I splurged on the IMax showing, because the visuals were near overwhelming. They have a quality that's hard to verbalize, a sheen almost iridescent and gemlike. They're exceptionally glossy and impossibly detailed--overrich, really. A treat to look at, but bordering on a lack of taste. I can't tell if I'm being critical or not. But it was a rush to have all that light and colour filling my vision.

The movie is really two movies: the first half is a self-contained magical adventure where an energetic schoolgirl and a mysterious hottie transformed into an animate chair chase a magical cat and contend with doorways to another dimension. It's fleet and fun story-telling, full of obligatory cuteness, rollicking action, small comedy, and plenty of kindly strangers. It's the best part of the movie. The second half could almost be an immediate sequel to the first, arising out of the main character's disappointment with how the plot had ended and her dogged determination to undue what had happened, even tho' everything ended as it should. This part is less fun, seemingly out of ideas and yet not ready to let the story go. It's slower, less clear dramatically, and plays up the emotions in a way that's trite and shallow. The second half reveals the problem with the movie as a whole: it's shallow, all light and noise without substance. It doesn't invest in its character relationships, but still wants you to feel like universe-splitting true love exists between them, for instance. It has normal people encounter mind-bursting magical beings and just kinda rolling with it, because the movie isn't so interested in how people think or feel. And it never really explains the metaphysics that underlie the plot, so there's no way for ideas to develop. (And let's not even get into the fact that technically this is a love story between a 15-year-old and some college dude).

There's a really fun, visually incredible hour-long film in here that's unfortunately saddled with an hour of extra baggage. My impression of Shinkai, based on the unfair sample size of one movie, is of a whiz bang visual stylist full of conventional ideas he doesn't care to examine too closely, and who prefers surface entertainment to significance. I'll definitely watch something else by him, tho'. How's Kimi no Nawa?

[therewillbeblus]

I've been underwhelmed by almost all of Makoto Shinkai's work outside of his most famous, spectacular magnum opus Your Name. - it's interesting you note that there's a good short feature within a longer one, since most of his work is pretty short, but still feels lacking.. maybe narrative economy is just something he struggles with?

[Mr Sausage]

I've been underwhelmed by almost all of Makoto Shinkai's work outside of his most famous, spectacular magnum opus Your Name. - it's interesting you note that there's a good short feature within a longer one, since most of his work is pretty short, but still feels lacking.. maybe narrative economy is just something he struggles with?

Sorry, I wasn't being clear. I meant the first hour of the movie is an excellent short feature in and of itself, with a coherent beginning, middle, end, and epilogue. But then Shinkai decides to run everything back by replaying the movie, only with less interesting people and situations, until we end up back where we'd started. It's like he had a strong, clear vision for a one hour adventure, but wasn't satisfied with something so short, so decided to graft a second part onto the back of it.

[Michael Kerpan]

I even found Your Name frustrating (not "bad" but not fully satisfying either) -- but most people seem to have loved this. My sense is that he just doesn't make things that are on MY wavelength (except for his long-ago short "She and Her Cat").

[feihong]

For me Your Name and Garden of Words stand out. Weathering With You was too long and a little too fantastical/religious/convoluted for my tastes. The stuff before Garden of Words is all far, far less substantial.It seems to me like Shinkai struggles with complexifying his storytelling without making it convoluted, messy and mannered. The Children Who Chase Lost Voices and Weathering With You both felt overly complex to me, and the early films were so simplistic as to substitute pure, undirected atmosphere for depth.

Garden of Words is a straightforward, slow, earnest melodrama about a socially taboo relationship evolving beyond the restraints a pair place on themselves. The animation quality takes a huge bump up to Your Name territory, and the story is, for me at least, touching. It was honestly a first for me; I held off on watching the movie for years because the other films because the early ones had been such an empty experience.

Your Name is, for me, the moment where it all comes together. The story is ingeniously complex, but not convoluted; the visual and narrative work together throughout, adding clarity to what we're seeing; something which doesn't happen in the other feature films (I've not seen this "girl in love with a chair" movie yet, but the trailer didn't fill me with confidence, and your review, Mr. Sausage, makes me feel my instincts are right about it). The storytelling is unexpected, the genre shifts in subtle ways throughout. There's a comedy jostling next to a love story and a science-fiction mystery. The characters are funny, compelling...very strongly-drawn individuals. The idea of the characters experiences in one another's bodies fading away like dreams after you wake up is established in the first scenes, and the poetry of the idea gets richer as the film develops. Everything set up in the story gets paid off with satisfying scenes and moments. The structure is clever, giving us a subtle sense of inversion, as the film appears to be backing up from it's beginning point to an introduction at the end. The tone is playful a lot of the time, earnest when it needs to be, and sober when there is no more fitting recourse. The visuals complement the themes in unexpected ways. The film works so well, that once you set it next to the rest of Shinkai's filmography, it seems like a fluke. I probably hopelessly oversold it. But to me it was remarkable, it hit like a thunderclap.

But I'm someone who consciously looks for romance in films, who takes on melodrama without demure––so maybe the very romantic element to the movie helped me get an extra charge out of this one (I also loved the juxtaposition of elements––the comet trailing off, splitting in two, next to the threads of the cords the villagers sew winding together, the sake fermented from the girl's saliva providing the boy with a jolt that sends him traveling a vast distance––just a weird and rewarding working of these elements together). I also don't like sci-fi elements to play a role in a regular story unless they serve to play to characters' deep desires. In other words, it has to be a metaphor; I just have no interest in the mechanics of picayune time machine manipulations or dimensional doorways. Even asking a god to make it rain in Weathering With You was too technical and disruptive of my involvement. So I want the space-travel, time-travel, across-dimensions travel stuff to be fulfilling the main characters great desires, and here it does almost nothing but that. I also really love seeing characters construct meaning for themselves on screen, figuring out methodologies that get them what they long for as we watch them––and Your Name delivers that constantly, again and again, in different scenarios. I'm not sure I see Shinkai reproducing the artistic success of Your Name again. But then again, I don't think Mamoru Hosoda has reproduced the artistic success of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars ever after, either.

[Calvin]

I find Your Name to be unique in Shinkai's filmography in the fact that I like it more every time I re-watch it while, all of his other works, I find myself liking less.

SpoilerShow

I felt it difficult to invest in the romantic climax of Your Name; Taki and Mitsuha have never spent any time in each other's company, only time in each other's bodies, so it is like they have fallen in love with the idea or image of the other rather than the person. There is a poetry to that but I have trouble fully believing in their relationship. Where I think the film succeeds most is its examination of the role of tradition and the rural/urban divide in modern Japan, particularly through a post-Fukushima lens

[Michael Kerpan]

An easy to overlook little anime masterpiece is part of Modern Love Tokyo "anthology" on Amazon Prime -- Naoko Yamada's "He's Playing Our Song" -- written by live-action director Naoko Ogigami (Seagull Diner, Eyeglasses, Rent-a-Neko). Probably the best 30-minute stand alone anime I've encountered. A lovely (visually and story-wise) gem about regrets over youthful dreams (of love and art) lost -- and maybe (just possibly) starting to be recaptured. Not sure I saw anything in the last year better than this (of any length). Also episodes (live-action) by Ogigami herself and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (which I have yet to see -- as I need to get one of my children's passwords towatch things there).

[Boosmahn]

Following up on a previous post, Crunchyroll stated back in December that they were letting the SKUs of many Funimation Blu-rays refresh. Now, four months later, the vast majority of these titles are still unavailable. On its own, this is pretty bad, but Crunchyroll's July home video slate is abysmal. They announced only five releases; there were 14 announced by Funimation in July 2021.

Chris Beveridge of The Fandom Post had this to say:

They want all-eyes on the streaming. They need the numbers there to prove to Sony that they were a valuable project to undertake and to keep funding. Home video doesn't help that.

I don't think he's far off. I'll support the Crunchyroll releases that are there, but I'm placing more hope in Sentai, Discotek, and Anime Limited (and MVM, too). Oh, and Aniplex.

[Michael Kerpan]

>> Aniplex
The bluray company that necessitates taking a second mortgage in order to buy their products....

[Boosmahn]

Ha, that's why I edited them in after posting. At least they still release Blu-rays (occasionally).

[Mr Sausage]

Is Psycho-Pass worth watching?

[Boosmahn]

Yes, but I've only seen the first season. The series has an interesting history that might inform if you want to go past that point or not...

After the first season, creator and co-writer Gen Urobuchi (also responsible for Madoka Magica) and chief director Katsuyuki Motohiro left to work on a sequel film, Psycho-Pass: The Movie. In the interim, director Naoyoshi Shiotani stayed on and Tou Ubukata became responsible for the "series composition" of the second season. Because of the film, Ubukata and screenwriter Jun Kumagai (whose only credit in the series is on the second season) couldn't do much to advance the story. It sounds like the only connection season two and the film have is a small slate of side characters from the former at the beginning of the latter before the story moves to a different country. Reception for the second season has been negative to mixed, and reception for the movie mixed to positive.

A short film trilogy, Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System, brought back first-season co-writer Makoto Fukami. Shiotani still directed, while Ubukata left briefly for this installment. Fukami has been on all of the Psycho-Pass installments since (season three, its movie/mini-series conclusion First Inspector, and Providence... whose place in the timeline I have no idea of) alongside Shiotani and Ubukata. Urobuchi and Motohiro have not returned. Reception for these has been better than that of season two, but there are still some people who say the series has not recovered since Urobuchi's departure.

I really like season one and will check out these other installments eventually. For newcomers, I recommend the first season. If you don't like it, you probably won't like what comes afterward; if you do, your mileage will vary.

One final note: do not watch the "extended cut" of season one! It destroys the pacing.

[Boosmahn]

RightStuf is having a 480-product Discotek sale this week. I think it ends Saturday? I picked up both seasons of Honey and Clover (from the original creator of the excellent March comes in like a lion anime), The Great Passage, and Sion Sono's Suicide Club.

Also, RightStuf's big birthday sale is starting on Sunday.

[therewillbeblus]

I have both Gunbuster and its sequel Diebuster on my list - worth picking up now?

[Michael Kerpan]

I hope you like Honey and Clover better than I did.

[Boosmahn]

I have both Gunbuster and its sequel Diebuster on my list - worth picking up now?

Looks like some of Discotek's DVD releases (quick searching shows some from 2013-2017, but there could be some from other years) have been going OOS or OOP recently. (I've no clue if these could return -- I'm just tracking the recent posts here.) As such, it might be worth it to prioritize any old-ish Discotek DVDs on your wishlist.

Price-wise, Gunbuster is almost half of its MSRP. Unless it becomes one of the daily "Mega Deals," I can't imagine the price going lower than that anytime soon. You can still order it despite it being on backorder right now.

I hope you like Honey and Clover better than I did.

I hope so too! I'm going to watch it almost solely because of the March comes in like a lion connection. I just finished it, but it's already become one of my favorite series.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, Diebuster no longer even shows up on the website, either selling out or taken down shortly after my post

[Boosmahn]

It hasn't even been reported in the OOP thread yet. Discotek just released Gunbuster, though, so maybe they'll upgrade Diebuster soon? They have lots of upcoming announcements between a livestream on June 26th and a panel at Otakon.

[Michael Kerpan]

I love, love, love March Comes In Like a Lion. And I hoped Honey and Clover would do for art school students what Nodame Cantabile did for music conservatory students. But its portrayal of art student life was a fail for me. The more recent Blue Period (starting with high school -- moving towards art school) struck me as better in every respect.

[jojo]

I have both Gunbuster and its sequel Diebuster on my list - worth picking up now?

I can imagine Gunbuster might show up again in their Summer or Christmas sales for 50% off...but I always say that any title you really want, I'd pick up during the Discotek sales because you never know if they will put the titles you're eyeing in the other sales.

Was Diebuster in the "last chance items" filter before? They usually still list items that are out of stock if they know they're getting more copies later, but the last chance items are basically the ones that are going out of print. I picked up Dear Brother in this sale which is in the "last chance" filter.

[Mr Sausage]

Can you guys recommend a bunch of anime movies whose main characters aren't children? I'm bit weary of watching animes about plucky high schoolers.

[Michael Kerpan]

Well, there is my most loved anime movie -- Omohide poro poro (Only Yesterday) -- about a 20-something office worker who spends her summer vacation working on a farm owned by relatives of a brother-in-law. This has a split time line, of sorts, since -- during this period -- she has memories of her elementary school years. And, also by Takahata, there is the anime movie I think is most artistically wonderful -- Kaguayime monogatari -- based on a religious folk story dating back to 700 or so (at least). There is Texhnolyze (made by a lot of the Lain team) which makes Lain look like a cheery romp in the park (utterly grim -- but grimly beautiful visually). There's various films by Satoshi Kon, which are not teen-centered.

If you are interested in series -- there is Shirobako -- a great anime about making anime. And there is Sakura Quest -- about a college graduate whose first "real" job winds up being as a tourist development worker in a small rural town.

[therewillbeblus]

Can you guys recommend a bunch of anime movies whose main characters aren't children? I'm bit weary of watching animes about plucky high schoolers.

(I misread this as "shows" and already typed out a response, so I'll keep it here) Monster and Bubblegum Crisis. The latter is only eight episodes and available on blu for cheap - a kind of cyberpunk dystopian sci-fi world akin to Blade Runner. Monster is available on Netflix (at least in the U.S.) in full, but otherwise I don't think there's a legal way to see it. It's long - 75ish episodes, but I think you'd find the narrative really compelling. I don't want to spoil all the genres it incorporates, but it's awesome.

For films, I was quite affected by Your Name. I also think you might dig a little film called The Wind Rises