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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave (2002)
The end to the worst season of Buffy
Used to like this show a lot, but the quality of its writing has seriously downgraded. Makes me marvel how a show that can produce such great episodes like The Body and Fool For Love can also churn out such a disaster as this finale and season as a whole, the main culprit being the writer as character motivations are written as sloppily as a five year old's colouring book.
There's the way that Spike's romance with Buffy was degraded into a purely sadistic and sexual affair culminating in Spike's attempted rape of Buffy which was not only incredibly tasteless but out of Spike's character to do.
As a result of her dealings with Spike and her robotic morals which demand she MUST save the lives of three rapists and murderers because they're human, she's become way too detached and insufferable to enjoy as a protagonist. In her battle with Willow, I honestly found myself roaring at the television hoping she'll lose.
The same goes for Anya who for whatever reason decides to also stop Willow in killing the rapist trio, which has her working alongside not just Xander who broke her heart only a few episodes prior but also her "friend" group whose strongest words of condemnation for him were "I want to be mad at him but I can't". Anya, a vengeance demon who spent her entire life either maiming or killing men who harmed women, turned saviour of rapist men alongside the man who broke her heart? Makes sense to me, 10/10 writing.
Not to worry though, as she's not alone in her quest to save the lives of rapist-murderers as dues-ex Giles shows up out of nowhere with magical powers (I guess he can use magic now, not like this would have been helpful in the numerous instances of the show where their running-in with demons would have necessitated such a thing) to stop Willow, and despite the fact that she's supposed to the most powerful witch around, he somehow goes toe-to-toe with her for a while, even though regular vampires and at times, regular humans, have given him trouble and almost killed him in an instant.
The rapist-murderer duo get away by the good honour and graces of Buffy and her gang, and the world gets saved by Xander's power of love and friendship. You know for a season that wants itself to be taken seriously for being more gritty and dark, it sure is conflicted about what it wants to be. You can't drop a cartoonishly Disney ending but also be Breaking Bad.
What's more is that it's becoming increasingly clear that the writer's personal biases either for or against certain characters is muddying the waters and quality of the show. It's well known now in retrospect that Joss Whedon hated the positive fan response to Spike as a character and saw himself in Xander as his POV. And it shows when you sit through a season of Spike being dragged through the mud and becoming a rapist meanwhile Xander saves the world through his love for Willow, even though the pair have shared paltry scenes since their dissolution in Seasons 2 and 3.
Moral of the story I guess is that to be a good and moral person, you MUST save the lives of rapists. Currently burning every library as every possible book in it is inferior to Joss Whedon and his writing genius.
Promising Young Woman (2020)
Terrible ending
Movie had me gripped most of the way through but the ending totally ruined it for me.
Having her die and the people responsible for the fate of Nina not meeting justice as well as the main creep character played by Bo Burnham not being punished just feels like my time was wasted.
One of the main factors of rating movies is the rewatchability factor and knowing how this movie ends, I'll not be rewatching it anytime soon.
I get that the ending is meant to hammer the point home that in real life, men don't suffer the consequences for these crimes but I'm watching a movie and not real life and in this setting I want a satisfying conclusion and the movie didn't give me that.
Terrible ending which ruins the movie and as such I'll never watch it again. 1/10.
RuPaul's Drag Race (2009)
The most terrible judging I have ever seen on any show, ever
Long and short of it, while the show is very engaging to watch with the production being so well-done along with the diverse cast of queens putting together amazing looks and performances, the show just gets unbearable to watch after a certain point because of how TERRIBLE the judging is.
Favouritism is rampant in the show where you can obviously see certain queens being pushed to win simply because the judges/Ru like them and nothing to do with merit.
Part of this is intended I think to draw the viewer in further and get them invested but personally I'm calling it quits as I'm no longer watching a show that disrespects the people it brings on and subjects them to ridiculously skewed voting and eliminations from people less than qualified on being a drag queen.
It's a waste of everyone's time and money to slog through a whole season only to find that the person who wins is woefully undeserving and only does so because of favouritism from Ru. And at the same time, infinitely more talented queens go home.
I reckon the people who make this show need to give their head a shake, and I also wish there was another big TV show like this about drag because while I love drag, RuPaul gives possibly the worst platform possible for the art form.
Sonachine (1993)
If A Scene At The Sea and Outrage had a baby...
An unorthodox crime movie interspersed with Ozu-esque slow-paced meditative scenes featuring the cast of characters generally involved in dialogue or killing time at the beach in between killing people.
Definitely not a movie for people who aren't aware of Kitano and his directing style, if that describes you then you'll probably not have much fun but as a longtime fan of his cinema, I saw this as a good transitional film between his crime-heavy work and his softer, more artsy era of films like Dolls.
Ultimately though I think it's one of the weaker entries in his filmography as even though I enjoy the no-context, erratic, absent-minded style of directing that Kitano employs this movie admittedly failed to keep my attention at times and felt that it needed a stronger attachment to the characters.
In retrospect however I suspect this may have been intentional to make some commentary on Japanese mob life and how casual violence and death is treated, in line with Kitano's obsession with depicting Yakuza life in his movies.
Joe Hisaishi is on the soundtrack yet again and does some masterful work in setting the tone of violence and meditation, bringing to memory the great score he put together for Hana-Bi.
Kiseijû: Sei no kakuritsu (2014)
Great Concept, Good Execution, Bad Conclusion
Aaaaalright, now this is where I unwind after having just finished the story. Before I do so, let it be known that I like this show a lot, which is why how it ended pisses me off to no end. To begin with, my first admission is that this show should have ended at its eighteenth episode, the death of Reiko Tamura summarily also the death of the essence carrying this story.
Reiko was probably my favourite character aside from the protagonist because her circumstance proved the most interesting in the ensemble that the show offered. From the very get-go, she stood out as an explicit non-human entity while growing to bear a lot of human characteristics, this much gradually being echoed by others around her. Our protagonist was on the opposite end of this spectrum, being a human steadily influenced by the other side as the story's events carried on. This, I think, was the essence of the story; what is human?
This theme was expressed through the mutual progression of these two characters, each being born to one side of the terrestrial chessboard having their identities questioned at every point by the attachment to beings not of their side, with Reiko's baby and Shinichi's Migi. It was very interesting to watch, and even more interesting to guess where this clash of interests would lead to come the eventual conclusion of the story.
But then, out of nowhere, Reiko dies. Totally out of left field and seemingly without direct explanation. With that being said, I actually enjoyed the episode in which she made her departure. In fact, it was my favourite episode just because of how beautifully tragic her death was captured. In fact, I even had myself a cry. A big one. Lasted for like a damn half hour. Don't tell anyone. Anyway, from this turning point, the story fundamentally loses its essence and no longer feels like the same thing as what I had been watching on my screen for seventeen episodes prior. I'll tell you what it feels like, it feels like the storywriter died and an intern at his office had to cobble together an ending. It feels like Game of Thrones without the supervision of George RR Martin. It feels like a cake dropped on the floor and it's your birthday.
It's hard to articulate exactly what goes wrong, but much like a human body inhabited by a parasite, the soul just kind of dies off and all that is left is the physical form doing its thing. The events that take place following Reiko's death make hardly any sense and I cannot fathom why they were written up at all. Being a writer myself, the final six episodes of this show stink to high heaven of writer's block and a lack of interest in meaningfully finishing the story; just wanting to get it done.
A military stronghold against Parasite HQ erupts, the end result being the apparent defeat of them. This leaves a lot of questions, like; where are the other parasites? Were these the only ones left? Do others still exist, but their survival is effectively worth nothing if not for this subverted hippy political group?
Which then unfortunately exposes even more holes in this story, such as the viability of this species' capacity to reduce the world's human population. Like, if they can't even make do by themselves with what they have, how could they ever have been feasibly expected to take over the world? Don't they kind of suck if they can be merked by one assault squadron in a single prefecture in a single country? And this opens up even more concerns, like if they were spread worldwide or just locally, in Japan? I could go for hours.
Regardless, a single supposedly "invincible" Parasite makes it out alive and actually manages to confront our protagonist, whom he had a failed confrontation with a few episodes prior. For whatever reason, he doesn't kill him even though there is nothing preventing him from doing so. He gives some guff about "oh I'm tired lols, gotta take off", but that is writer language for 'I'm in writer's block and have no idea how to end this, send halp'.
As it so happens, this "invincible" Parasite ends up meeting his end at the hands of...GARBAGE. Not a joke, after the Parasite pussyfoots his way around merking the main character for like half of an hour, he gets a shiv stuck into his "weak spot" which was apparently coated in garbage juice. And thus, he goes to Parasite purgatory, I guess. I had to laugh while watching this unfold.
Oh yeah and before this all goes down, the Parasite attached to our protagonist's hand dies. How does he die? He and the protagonist attempt to deal with the invincible Parasite by taking him on separately. This fails, the two get separated and as opposed to prioritising his own existence as any parasite should, FOR WHATEVER REASON, Migi decides to ensure Shinichi the protag gets to live. Why? We don't know. I guess AN ACTUAL PARASITE who has made it expressly clear on multiple occasions that he lives only for himself has suddenly developed a moral framework and sunsets himself to save someone else, even though there is literally nothing in it for him because well, he dies in the process.
Not to worry though, as he comes back to life in the middle of Shinichi's final showdown with Big Chungus Parasite. Apparently, he got absorbed into Big Chungus but now is sentient and prevents his captor from killing Shinichi by literally bursting out of his body and finishing the job that Shinichi started with the magic of Garbage Juice.
Not sure what I'm more angry about, the fact that we clearly see Migi decompose and die with our own eyes or the fact that this show has the balls to pull a fake-out death on a MAIN CHARACTER with only one episode left in the chamber. Remember kids, fake-out deaths aren't cool, ever. They sever the viewer's emotional connection with the character irrespective of them being brought back. I thought the writer of a good story like this was above doing that but I was wrong, like when I thought I would give this show a good score. Sike!
Anyways, the duo defeat Big Chungus but before they actually kill the bozo, there's this weird pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo they engage in where they share an impromptu debate about the ethics of murder. This is kind of an annoying trend that stalks the rest of the show. In fact, this final act really just embellishes every single bad thing that was underlying what could have been an overall good story. SHOW, DON'T TELL.
Migi doesn't want to kill Chungus because like him, he is a Parasite and thus opposed to committing what he sees as murder. This is obviously nonsense, so I will not bother talking about it too much. I think the writer was high on some good stuff during this point of the story and kind of forgot everything leading up to it, just like I forgot that this used to be a good story a number of episodes ago.
Shinichi also proves himself to be a rather large punk-a$$ and doesn't want to finish the job because it would be mean. JUST. So they agree on letting bygones be bygones and trod off home....right before Shinichi returns to tear the sucker a new one and merking Chungus, thereby regaining his street cred but losing me in the process. What....what...is the point of these absolutely mind-numbing philosophy lectures if you're just going to do whatever it is that you were going to do before haphazardly embarking on them anyway?
The story ends with Shinichi going back home, and Migi deciding somehow to "close up" and not really exist as a hand parasite anymore. He's not dead though, apparently he still exists. I...just...don't ask questions at this point, okay? Shinichi and Murano are together now. Oh yeah, they had mad $ex yo, like three episodes prior. Do you care? Nah, me neither. All is not tea and biscuits in the English sun though, as the serial killer from a few episodes ago who the authorities thought would be cool to release unto the public (again, don't ask) makes a grand return to maim Shinichi and his new gf, along with killing two other people. Almost kills Shinichi's gf (kind of wish he would tbh) but alas, she is saved by the power of boner. The end. I'm cancelling my Netflix subscription.
Like I said previously, the essence of this show was the conflict between what is human and what is not human, this essence being killed with Reiko in the eighteenth episode, the absolute high point reached in my opinion. The story really should have stopped here, and it would have made infinitely more sense to do so as the viewer is given far more closure. Okay so maybe you don't really gain closure on the nature of the Parasites themselves, the relationships between the main characters or even our protagonist, but then again you don't really get any of this in the actual ending either. The eighteenth episode would have been a nice, very bittersweet send-off. Reiko unfortunately succumbs to humanity, thereby securing the future of her child and curing Shinichi of his internal stress he has been dealing with throughout the whole story while also mending the strained relationship between Murano and Shinichi by reassuring him of his human identity.
Instead, the story carries on from this point and watching it do so felt like it was stuck in perpetual limbo with nothing meaningful carrying it forward now that such a vital character bit the dust. RIP Reiko.
Ultimately, I have to separate the story between episodes one through eighteen and all that remained afterward. To the former I award 8/10, to the latter 2/10, bringing my total score to be half-marks, with 5 stars out of 10. Here's to hoping that someone with even more time and energy than me commits to a total re-do of the final act.
Der siebente Kontinent (1989)
A Meditation on Meaning in Existential Europe
The Seventh Continent is a bold, imposing and altogether very depressing film. As I've seen others say about the director Haneke's filmography as a whole, it's more of a gut punch than it is a movie, at least relative to the movies most people like to watch, which largely pull punches. I can certainly imagine that most people who are in the business of watching movies will likely skip this from its presentation alone, and even large sums of those who stay to give it a chance will either turn it off somewhere along its runtime or weather through it, consoled only by the very sour review they will soon after leave on iMDB or Rotten Tomatoes.
What I mean to say is that this movie will certainly not be everyone's cup of tea, but as with most other arthouse films, this is only to be expected so it's no skin off of my back, or Haneke's. And given all that, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. "Enjoyed" is admittedly a strong word, as it's not the sort of enjoyment I get from watching a Ghibli flick that isn't Grave Of Fireflies, for example.
If I may use a culinary analogy, viewing this film is much like drinking raw milk. It's not for everyone and yeah, its consumption gives you a sick feeling, but it's an acquired taste and even the bad taste can make you meditate on how and why someone came up with it. As Haneke said, the mark of a good movie is how much it makes you think both during and after the viewing. So while watching safe movies is all well and good, it's good to watch something that discomforts you every now and again, if only for the questions that the discomfort will cultivate. In many ways, this film and others like it are designed to make you ask questions and above all else, think.
The overall silence this movie contains is very much suited to that end, along with very little dialogue from the characters in it, which leaves you to fill in the gaps that they leave vacant with their unexplained decisions. So did I like this movie? Yes, very much so, even though the memory of what transpired in the story plagued my thoughts for the next two days. Keep in mind that I'm by no means a newbie to arthouse or thematically challenging narratives. Stories that can do that to someone like me without being gratuitous about it are very clearly well-crafted ones behind which their creators obviously laboured mentally.
But now that I've made my feelings about the movie clear, reasons for why I feel this way are probably in order. To begin with, I really enjoyed how masterfully the topic of depression was handled in this movie. Depression along with its derivatives are hot-button topics being challenged by every loser with an idea and a laptop these days, and so naturally I always feel as though the attempts to depict it accurately fall flat on the mark. An example is the Netflix-special series Thirteen Reasons Why. Since this isn't a review for that show, I won't get into why the topic of depression doesn't work there but to summarise, it paints an unrealistic scenario filled with unrealistic characters and relies on gratuity to sell its point, which appeals only to young people who misconstrue the chaos of adolescence with depression.
This movie, I think, gives an honest, maybe even too honest a depiction of what depression is, what it looks and feels like. The only drawback is that the devil is in the details and viewers who don't look between the lines will miss it. What happens at the end of this movie may strike many out of the blue, and I've already scanned over many reviews given of the movie in which people argue that a sufficient enough reason for what transpires was not given, to which I would both disagree and agree. While there is no formal statement given by any character saying 'hey viewer, here's what we're going to do and here is why", I hardly think you need such an explanation.
To explain a little bit, this movie gets at what other movies have been getting at for a while in the past two or three decades and that is the atomisation which comes as part of a parcel known to us simply as "the modern world". As some human societies have strived farther than others for progress, it seems we have now gotten it in some form across the wider Western world and to a lesser extent, in Eastern Asia. And yes, that includes Austria, where this movie is set in.
Centuries of human development has led to what people like Fukuyama call "The End Of History", and what can be observed as this experiment drags on is that this is actually not a very desirable model for human existence. At least, this is the takeaway which can be gleamed from this movie...a rather cynical one, I admit. Our characters in this movie exist to some extent, but rarely do we see them living. All the consuming done on their part may fill physical ambitions, but certainly not spiritual ones. They, thanks to the ones who came before them, are able to "enjoy" life in an idyllic, quite suburb in which nothing of note happens. Only the occasional car going by fill the noisy silence in their lives. There is no risk present, no "great other" to fight against, no cause to live and die for. They wake up in their perfect beds every day, dress perfectly to eat perfect food before they ride off to a perfect job in a perfect car. And they do this every day. t's modernity in effect, and what unfolds in this movie may be interpreted as a side effect of it all.
What Haneke is trying to get across in this movie is that the model of life chosen by progressive, developed societies is necessarily combative with the happiness of people, as well as families themselves. I suspect he chose a family to be the focus of this story as opposed to just a single person or even a group of people to help drive the point into not just the viewer's mind, but also their hearts. On some level, we may have to reassess whether this model of existence is utopian on some level. And if we can conclude that it is, perhaps it is better to discard it.
Yahari ore no seishun rabukome wa machigatteiru. (2013)
The slice-of-life that shouted love at the audience
Story: 6/10
The story told here is for the most part, quite generic. That's not to say it's bad, but it's nothing that I haven't seen before and reuses a lot of character tropes seen in...well, every other slice-of-life anime that takes place in high school. It's a retelling of a story likely every anime fan has seen played out numerous times, depicting a cast of teenagers as they deal with the troubles of youth while slowly dealing with their transition to adulthood, the process being rife with romance, conflict and the making of memories. And so in that vein, it does its job very well. This iteration is different from others in the sense that I feel the author is more aware of his target demographic than others who also write similar stories. The story largely focuses on the experience of youth from the perspectives of three people, different in their unique personalities but united in their common issues dealing with the outside world. The protagonist will be instantly relatable to large segments of anime's male demographic I think, as he is a stoic, asocial teenage guy distanced from his common man and alien to youth itself as it is experienced by seemingly most people his age. The story in that sense, is very much his, as it perceives developments from his lens. Friendships, relationships, the opposite sex, competition, happiness, wisdom, this is all examined from his end which separates it from other slice-of-life anime and makes me respect it more. A lot of anime with a high school setting that involve a male protagonist usually offer an unrealistic depiction, having him be a jack-of-all-trades as regards dealing with the side effects of adolescence but the main character here is flawed, and will likely polarise the viewer with his perspectives and dialogue. Admittedly, being a spectator to some of his social pratfalls throughout the course of the story was difficult to sit through and I did feel antipathy towards him at times but I suspect this is merely the evolution of the character as a message from the author to the viewer. The story's side characters are very diverse in their perspectives and all play off each other to help their own character progression, mainly the protagonist's two friends-in-the-making who each have their own youthful struggles and deal with them as the story carries on. As far as side characters are concerned, I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of meaningful time spent on them. This first season mainly focuses on the main character Hikigayama, as well as drama that unfolds between him and another member of the main trio but in total retrospect, that's about all the significant character exploration done in this first season. I felt that the story mainly focused on trivialities that didn't matter much and spent far too little time on character building. As a result, I got the impression that the change in the characters' perception of each other wasn't totally natural and almost forced. That's not even mentioning the cast of side characters who were pretty much ignored, save for comic relief or when they were used as stepping stones between the viewer and the main trio. Comparing the work the story put into developing its characters to that of other slice-of-life anime I've seen like My Little Monster, which also only had 13 episodes to work with but adequately fleshed out its roster of characters to the point where I can remember what made them all unique years after my first viewing of it, I can only say that it fell a little flat. The best way I can explain it is that I walked away watching too much filler and not enough actual story. For the second season, I would appreciate if they spent more time building up other characters, both the other two in the main trio in addition to the side cast.
Animation: 5/10
The animation work done here is quite average, which is why I'm awarding it half marks. Certainly it looks as it should, the visuals being on par with many other slice-of-life romcom anime, utilising similar character outlines, facial features and such. Nothing out of the ordinary or commendable. I will say that in several scenes, the animation was quite sloppy with the outlines of characters either blurred or missing outright but this is balanced by the background of scenes being very colourful and pleasant to look at. Like I said, it's average. Having watched my fair share of anime and knowing what exceptional animation work looks like from titles like Garden of Words as well as having seen animation work on the opposite end of the spectrum as regards quality in other titles like the 2016 adaptation of Berserk, I can comfortably say that the animation does its job at creating a world to be immersed in but not without its flaws here and there. At the time of writing this review, I have not yet seen the second season but I have heard that the animation studio involved with the production is swapped out and as a result, looks very different.
Voice acting: 8/10
The voice actors and actresses do their job very well at putting a voice to the characters they play, and excel at differentiating from each other as a result. It's challenging to put into words, but tropes are used in this story to define certain characters and the voice actors/actresses jive with this well. The stereotypical popular girl sounds like one, the introspective loner sounds like one, the extroverted self-conscious girl sounds like one also.
Music: 9/10
A high point of this anime is almost certainly its soundtrack, which boasts a fresh opening and a melodic ending song with three variations of it played throughout its runtime. The music played in the background of each episode is also well done, with some tracks I enjoy listening to on their own, outside of watching the anime itself. When a soundtrack has me listening to it that way, it has definitely succeeded at its job. I can only hope the second season has similarly good music.
-
Overall, my feelings towards this anime were positive. Points of critique would land on the subpar animation and insufficient character exploration but with the defined voice acting, exceptional setting, good music choice and comic relief, it does a good job in my eyes. I would recommend it to people who enjoy a good old high school slice-of-life story focused on themes of alienation and learning to deal with the outside world.
Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019)
Winter is coming....but not right now, apparently.
I'll preface this review by saying the following; I loved this show dearly. I blew right past the first four seasons when I started watching the show during the airing of Season 5 back in 2015, and I have since bought the series on DVD and Blu-Ray, spent far too much time in theory/discussion forums online and have even started reading the books. Which is to say, I am many things but not a senseless hater. So while my criticisms of this episode may be harsh, understand that it is not because I hate this show, but because I love it and I hate what it has become.
Well, where to start? I suppose we can start off strong with the biggest critique that I, and thankfully many others, have leveed at the writers. And that is the "resolution" of the White Walkers' storyline. Ever since this show has broken out into the mainstream, what tagline has followed it all it's way? "Winter Is Coming". The existential threat of the Walkers has been highlighted and built up for entire seasons, and so naturally the fanbase expects a meaningful delivery to all of the hype and that is not what we got. What we did get was a rushed conclusion to a meaningful storyline that should have impacted the world of the story more. To think that the overarching plot of the entire show could be resolved in a mere one episode is so anger-inducing that I think I will need to buy a new keyboard by the end of this review. It seems like the biggest example of a wasted opportunity, and the knowledge that it was done on the back of a solid four seasons of cinematic gold and then a further three seasons of cinematic poop makes it even worse. Truthfully speaking, I feel robbed. As a die-hard fan, I spent days and weeks pondering and theorising over the mystery that the White Walkers presented, and what their role in the story was. And if I had known that my curiosity would be satiated with the bitterness of an anti-climatic disappointment, I would have stopped while I was ahead. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a time machine, but perhaps I could procure one from Westeros. After all, that place is rife with teleporting machines!
In the end, we put a bow on the White Walkers' role in this story without knowing literally anything meaningful about them. Sure, we know that the Night King was created as an experiment of the Children of the Forest and we know that Valyrian Steel as well as dragonglass kills them, but apart from those bare details? Nada. We have no idea if the Night King and the White Walkers are sentient beings, what transpired after patient zero of the White Walkers was created, how the Children of the Forest managed to lose control over their Frankenstein, or what motivates the Walkers to do what they do. We also have no idea why they chose to return at the beginning of the story after being dormant for thousands of years. We have no idea why Bran has a connection with the Night King. The only thing we are deserving of knowing is that they are big, bad and white. Grr. Effectively, all we know about them is a snippet of their origin and what kills them. I suppose the writers of this show decided to shelve any further story-building for the Walkers in hopes that the upcoming spin-off series about the previous Long Night will answer these questions and so that they won't have to. I would call it laziness, but then that would be an insult to laziness itself.
So we know nothing about them, and they disappear as quickly as they arrived. But even their collective death is extremely anti-climatic. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that whoever propositioned the writers to have Arya kill the Night King must have been high as a kite filled with helium. There is absolutely no meaning in Arya killing him. Arya's storyline is entirely divorced from anything related to the Wall and what lies beyond, much less with the Night King himself. Whatever happened to his conflict with Jon? I guess that stare-down that they had at Hardhome meant nothing? An entire character arc that was obviously moving toward a showdown and this is how they end it? What was the point of Jon being resurrected then? I guess it's now safe to conclude that his resurrection was fanservice after all. And speaking of, whatever happened to that prophecy about Azor Ahai or the Prince That Was Promised? The writers specifically brought this up last season, only to give everyone blue balls. So we have an immortal general of the undead who has managed to slay a dragon, break the unbreakable Wall, kill in the hundreds of thousands and raise dead, only to have him be the victim of a Arya-ex-machina? What's next, Tyrion kills Euron by challenging him to a fistfight?
And speaking of deus-ex-machinas, I may as well mention that "no one is safe" is a virtue seemingly lost in the show. I find it both funny and sad that a series which was popularised in large part due to its creator's reluctance to adhere to literary norms such as "good guys always win" has now become the ugly image of what it hated. When I watch the show, I feel almost no suspense anymore, exactly because of episodes like this. Despite facing the biggest threat yet experienced by anyone in this show, all of our main characters make it out unscathed, even when their situation does not leave them any wiggle room to survive. Whatever happened to that fond realism which the show loved? Gone, just like my hopes of this story improving.
I know it seems like all I have are questions, and that's perfectly reflective of what this episode did for me as a viewer. It didn't conclude or resolve or satisfy anything. It did the exact opposite. All it did was breed more questions about the story, and about those who are at the helm of it. I'm just so incredibly confused. Why spend these past three seasons in particular building up this conflict as an apocalyptic scenario if this is how it unfolds? I felt more intensity watching the Battle of Hogwarts in Harry Potter. And I don't even like Harry Potter that much!
The ONLY reason I am willing to continue watching after this episode is only to see how the writers manage to degrade the story even further. This show should be renamed Game of Train-wrecks.
Aku no hana (2013)
The Unseen Flower.
I'll start this review off by saying that I think this show is criminally underrated. Got it? Okay? Okay.
To keep things concise, the plot revolves around teenager Kasuga who has a crush on class idol Saeki. Much to his detriment, he's very shy and his interactions with her is limited to him staring at her until she notices his gaze whereupon he quickly begins acting as if he was looking at the very interesting wallpaper behind her....quite hopeless, really. So far, this sounds like your average romance anime. Luckily for us, the plot takes a unique turn when Kasuga impulsively steals his crush's gym-wear after school and is subsequently seen in the act by class outcast Nakamura who blackmails him into forming a "contract" with her which involves.....details you will have to watch the anime to see! This begins the chain of events that is the story in a nutshell.
The first thing you'll likely notice about this show is the animation style it uses. If you aren't familiar, this show utilizes rotoscoping, which means manually animating over live action footage shot beforehand in contrast to simply animating the show. This aspect of the show has garnered it a lot of unearned hate. Admittedly, the animation had me a bit concerned at the beginning but it really grew on me by the end and helped give the show a strong sense of identity and unique nature. Due to the very serious and dark nature of the show, the unnervingly realistic character designs helped paint the mood very well. If anything, it is very much a strong point of the show rather than a weak one. I don't think the show would have been nearly as enjoyable for me had the characters been animated in a generic manner with gravity-defying hair and massive eyeballs.
The show itself is quite dark thematically, as it deals with topics such as bullying, depression and resentment. Interestingly enough, this show was heavily inspired by a book of the same name, The Flowers of Evil by a French poet, Charles Baudelaire and the book itself is featured in the show and used as a major plot point. So, you know....a little something-something for fans of poetry or philosophy. The imagery the show presents is gorgeous and beautifully embellishes the themes it presents. A rusty stop sign overlooking cracked cement on a cloudy day, a small book shop overshadowed by buildings surrounding it; the distant cracking of sunlight atop a purple morning sky overlooking a vast field, its grass swaying softly with the wind...various scenes of this show really do make for some pleasant wallpapers.
Voice actors/actresses do their job very well. Conversation doesn't sound overacted, and feels very genuine, tying into the very taut and real nature of the show. The music of the show is amazing as well, boasting a grand four individual opening songs in a thirteen episode season as well as one very unique ending song. The soundtrack itself is absolutely gorgeous in what it is trying to do; present a melancholic nature in the story. Having listened to the soundtrack myself, it makes for pleasant listening even outside the viewing of the anime. Several tracks were downright mesmerizing.
Without delving into spoiler territory, the ending of the show initially feels quite empty and leaves you with a metaphorical gaping jaw and almost left me feeling with a dreary sense of anticlimax in my mouth as it fails to resolve much. However, after a second viewing, I would say it ends on a rather interestingly good note. It's implied there will be a second season to this, something I would genuinely love to see, and would make the ending to this season appear that much better. The ending overall wasn't great, but it was by no means bad. I've seen my fair share of bad endings and that wasn't one of them. A second viewing experience and perhaps some speculation on the viewer's part will clear up any issue....at least, that was the case for me.
When all is said and done, I HIGHLY recommend this show. I absolutely adored it, and has earned one of the top spots on my list as far as anime goes. That being said however, it certainly is not for everyone. I can definitely see heaps of people dropping this show on the basis of the animation style alone, and even more so with the omnipresent dark themes but you would be stupid to do so as you would be missing out on one of the most unique and investing anime out there right now. If you're a fan of dark themes, complex romance and feel that the anime medium at the present is rather stale and needs some individuality struck back into it again, this is the show for you. Please support the fine chaps who made this by buying it and spread the word about it to encourage the production of a second season.
For anime similar to this when done watching, see: ~Monster ~Another ~Serial Experiments Lain
The Walking Dead: The Day Will Come When You Won't Be (2016)
The Storm Before The Calm
Wow......all I can say is, what an episode. Me and the fan base were all incredibly annoyed after that Season 6 cliffhanger ending, but this episode makes up for it and more. In fact, I think this may overpass Too Far Gone and No Way Out as my favorite episode.
To say the deaths crushed me would be an understatement. My favorite character being Abraham, his death wasn't easy for me to bear. And then Glenn.....poor Glenn. I think what really got me weren't the deaths themselves....it was the concept and nature of them. Abraham just got a new lease on life with Sasha after his soul being crushed by the deaths of his family, and then Eugene revealing to him that the promise of his "important mission" was all a big farce, all for naught. And then Glenn, the only good soul in the show (with the possible exception of Eugene and Aaron). I think it's becoming clear that The Walking Dead is taking a page out of Game of Thrones' book and it's ideology "good guys always get screwed over.....mercilessly. It hurt so much to see two paragons like Abraham and Glenn go, especially to the hands of a deranged and lifeless individual like Negan.
*sigh*......I don't know what's in store for our beloved group, but it won't be nice. I sense a very bleak mid-season ahead of us, and a very long tunnel we must walk through before we can see the light that comes at the end of it, overshadowed by the looming threat of Negan coming to rain death on everyone's parade. While on the topic, Jeffrey Dean Morgan does an excellent job at bringing Negan to life, and I can already tell he will be a villain we will come to love to hate.
I think the large and present themes of this episode were that nothing good ever lasts....and that it is a new day for our group, as they are introduced to the harsh reality of living like livestock. But with sadness, grief and death comes clarity....and acceptance, and a chance at a fresh start. It's really like they say, "bury your dead and keep going". But it is ever present that hope is not yet dead, for people like Negan are a nightmare on the world of Walking Dead, and nightmares always end....it really makes me wonder if Rick and the group would have been better off if they stayed with Dr Jenner back at the CDC in Season 1. What he said came true...that there would be a day of reckoning for Rick that the day would come when he would not be so grateful for making it out of the CDC alive, and that day has come.
I think what really got me this episode, and hammered home the fact that things would never be the same again was how I kept expecting the unexpected. Usually, in either a television series or a movie, there's rules to it. A format. This episode took all those rules and formats, and told them that they couldn't care less. After the two deaths, I began to expect anything. Rick getting his hand cut off, Rick dying, Carl getting his hand cut off, hell, everyone dying. For a single episode, The Walking Dead made fools of us all.
I cannot wait for this season, what happens next, how it resolves and how our heroes and heroines deal with the rules of a sociopath. Among other things I want to mention are Andrew Lincoln's fantastic acting (seriously, give this man all the awards already), the complete dread this episode made me feel, and just the entire episode in itself......great job.
It really is like they say. The grass is always greener....but you never know how good you have it until it's gone.