Change Your Image
Koumiho
Reviews
Chihuahua Too! (2013)
This movie... is a movie.
I'll say it right now: the only reason I watched this movie was because the chihuahua in this movie has the same name and breed as my own little dog. Was the movie worth it? I can't answer that properly, but at least I know what it's about now, right?
Let me put it this way: I recently watched this movie on my birthday. There are better things you can do on your birthday. This movie isn't horrible, but it certainly is "eh". A solid 5/10.
Plot: White family checks out a house that belonged to their however-many-greats-great aunt or grandmother or whatever. This is where the chihuahua comes in. Sophie was a silver-screen starlet of the early silent era, or a vaudeville performer, I can't remember. She haunts the house, because she's a dog ghost. I've never heard that one before. Really. Shenanigans ensure as Sophie tries to get them out. Not too big a part though, because she rather warms up to the family with the help of their ginormous love struck golden retriever, Homer.
In general, I think this plot needs some polishing. First the family moves in, then Sophie the ghost chihuahua wants them out, then she falls in love with Homer the family dog, and then the family wants to sell the house. Then the kids pull pranks to keep the house from being sold. Then it's a matter of revealing Sophie to the parents. It's here to there. By the way, at one point it's revealed that Sophie's still there bc she was waiting on her old owners, who died in the titanic. This movie is a bit clumsy when it comes to moving from one part to the next. That titanic thing is more of a detail then a plot point. I think there isn't enough flow.
I gotta mention though, when the kids try to prank some (mildly haughty) lady out of buying the house, they're absolutely awful. One of their plans is boiling broccoli to make the house smell bad. They insult the lady so much, and she's just trying to buy a house, it's almost funny. Anyways, absolutely none of their pranks discourage her from the house, she's just annoyed. But the thing that DOES drive her away is seeing the ghost chihuahua. That's kinda funny. This is where the title comes from I guess, when she meets the parents and says something like "I hate you guys and your dog and your chihuahua too!" Still a weird title.
Acting: The acting ranges from "eh" to ok. If I had to pick, the best actor is Mr. Real Estate guy. He's ok. The family is the worst though. It's not hilariously bad, or painstakingly bad, just "eh" kind of bad. Needs work. The voice actors for the two dogs, too. Needs work.
Characters: eh. Nothing new or too interesting. Just eh. The family acts like a cross between a Disney Chanel family and a stock photo. Trying to be quirky or a happy family at times, but lukewarm. The dogs are eh as well. There are moments where it's basically just everyone bonding. It endears and moves the plot along as much as you'd expect.
Dialogue: there are some awfully cheesy lines here. These guys are trying to be quirky too much! Although there were two parts that made me chuckle.
The first one is when white dad guy goes to the front door in the morning. He begins with something like "aw, the nearest Starbucks is miles from here". He looks down to see a pile of suitcases. His next words are "What in tarnation?"
The next one is when the family discovers that the bathtub has been used (by Sophie the ghost) and they're wondering who used it. The guy starts humming the twilight zone theme. Kinda funny stuff.
Final thoughts: This movie honestly could've been better as a Disney Chanel original movie. Better production value, better acting, better script sorely needed. At the end of the day, there are better movies I could've watched on my birthday of all days. I wouldn't recommend this movie per say, unless you want to spend an hour and twenty minutes doing something.
But I'll appreciate this movie for what it is. (especially because the end credits said the movie was dedicated to a dead guy who always wanted to make a family friendly film and now I feel bad for ragging on this movie) This movie tried. It made a so-so way to spend some time, and I can appreciate the effort. It isn't bad, boring, mindless drivel. In the end, it's a movie. A movie about a ghost chihuahua. Is it a good movie? Not what comes to mind. Bad movie? No way. It is an ok movie. It could be worse. And at least I satisfied my burning curiosity to know what this movie about a chihuahua named Sophie could be about. This movie is the perfect 5/10. Somewhat better then what I expected from seeing that sparkly cover, I must say. A real "eh" with a shrug thrown in. Plus I love chihuahuas. 5.1/10.
Sukûru deizu (2007)
This anime is an experience
School days has haunted me ever since I saw the credits of the last episode roll, ever since I heard that ear worm of a song play at the end. I can't hear the year "2007" without thinking "hey, that's when school days was made." Don't get me wrong, it's not that good, but it is a real enigma. I will forever be mixed over it.
School days is a dramatic romantic comedy? anime, about some dude named makoto who has a crush on the shy anime girl, who gets some help from the cheery anime girl, named kotonoha and sekai respectively. It starts out as a grating experience. These flat, annoying, and really ridiculous looking characters do their stuff, bringing the worst of anime to the table. Shrill voices, fanservice, and a poor, unfunny excuse of a story run on for a while. I rewatched the first ep, it was worse then I remembered. The whole thing just moseys along. The mc and the two girls all go on with their antics. One dimensional main characters, forgettable side characters. Sexual harassment. Bad jokes and boring plot. Uwu. But then something happens. The plot thickens, slightly. It turns out the mc is only interested in kotonoha for her hot bod, and when she rejects his "too-soon" advances for a while, he gets bored. It went from an unfunny, over gratuitous anime to an unfunnny, over gratuitous anime where the mc is sort of a douche. Suddenly, it had the smallest whisper of depth. It almost said, "this main guy is a douche. Now hate him and see what happens next." But I didn't really get interested until the real swerve came in. Cheery girl sekai is in love with the mc (of course), and the mc, who's been ignoring his gf shy girl bc she won't smash (much to her worry) decides to sleep with sekai. That's really when things picked up. It had a bit of drama, and tension. I had a reason to watch other than the really unflattering art style and terrible jokes. Unsurprisingly, the mc goes on to sleep with every girl he can get his hands on, with little regard to sekai, or even kotonoha, who he doesn't even remember at this point. It was really investing to see how this would turn out.
After a school festival, a terrible insert of comedy which had no place in the show's dramatic spiral downwards, a dance, and a terrible event, makoto breaks up with kotonoha, which devastates her (along with bullying, isolation, etc.) She becomes increasingly unhinged, and so does the rest of the story.
Mega spoilers here: Sekai (cheery girl) reveals she's pregnant. Suddenly no girl wants to be with makoto, so he crawls back to kotonoha, who turns somewhat back to normal, with a few changes. Sekai discovers makoto's with kotonoha, and angrily storms off. She feels betrayed, and even more so when makoto texts her and essentially tells her and the baby to buzz off. But don't worry. Things don't end well for him. Nothing ends well for anyone in the end (expect for the other dumb guy who got off scot free for his actions, I'm still mad). Sekai, at her wits end, meets makoto at his apartment, and while he's making a phone call, she brings out a knife. Cough. Later, kotonoha discovers makoto, and decides to get revenge. She meets sekai on the school rooftop with a blade and a bag... and she gets revenge on sekai, and the baby. Our final shot ends with former shy anime girl kotonoha (head over heels in love) on a boat, with makoto (sort of), with the sunrise, up ahead. To top it off, the credits play a really catchy pop song that was in one of the good endings of the original game (that's right I've seen it, only slightly better than the anime). I can't help but wonder what in the world the people who made this thing think about it. An epilogue reveals the aftermath, mainly, that their classmates go about their lives as normal, with no mind to their missing classmates or their terrible ends. Quite the ending indeed, the ending was what brought me to it in the first place.
That was school days. A truly mixed experience. If there's anything to praise, it's how well everything spirals downward so perfectly and awfully that you can't help but be invested in how these characters, while still bare, have more convoluted and complex actions. The way that ending jumps out at you, because you didn't expect it at the start. Even after everything had changed, it still came crashing down. That cursed, blessed ending changed everything, it was the reason why I didn't have to have another kotonoha bath scene, thank god. As for everything else, ewh. I truly can't place my thoughts on it. Did I enjoy it? I guess so. Did I like it? I have absolutely no idea. Like makoto's horny a**, I can't pick one side. As for the people who made this show, what do they think? Is this a satire? Does this have a message about how you should handle relationships? Was this for a joke? For fun? For seriousness? Or is it just senseless, a basic adaptation of the game, but with that heavy stuff thrown in to make it different from all the other anime like this one's beginning. What was the intention, the thought? I've seen other anime like it a thousand times, and yet this one is something all of it's own. I shall never know peace, and it's because of school days.
Mini-review of the two OVA's: They're both awful. Right at square one in terms of plot. The first one is about how all the girls want to give makoto Valentine's Day gifts. There's also a random bath scene in the beginning :/. The second one is about how some of the girls in the show have to fight robots or something, so they magically transform into revealing suits. When it came to fanservice in this episode, no one was holding back. Also kotonoha's little sister was there. Yes she was involved. Ew. You know what, I think I hate this show. That's solved. These two ovas threw me off. They're as terrible as the beginning of the show. I still don't know the intent, the message, the audience, and who's supposed to like this show anyways? I don't like it. The worst otakus probably wouldn't like it. What I want to know is: who would fully and enthusiastically like most of the aspects of this show, enough to give it any more than a 6/10? Forever a mystery, I'll leave this show to rot in 2007.
Higashi no Eden (2009)
Alright, but it's probably not for me
I just finished this series (11 episodes, didn't see any movies), and immediately looked it up right after. I don't usually do that, but I did it this time because I was a bit mixed over this show.
Eden of the east (I was drawn to this show bc of the cool name) is about one dude named Akira, who happens to end up in front of the White House naked, shocking a female tourist from japan named Saki. He remembers nothing about himself, and it turns out that he has a special phone that enables him to spend 7 or 8 billion yen that he now happens to have.
My first impressions were that akira was going to end up being some villain, not a knight in shining armor kind of hero if you know what I mean. He seemed off. I also thought this show was going to be some high stakes battle royale with high tensions.
I was wrong on both of those ideas.
For starters, Akira is just a good guy. He does stuff and acts pretty honorably. He never acts selfishly and is definitely one of the good guys. As for the battle royale or high tension mystery I expected...
Eden of the east involves a whole lotta neets. Some laughs and ridiculous moments. It's basically Akira, Saki, and her friends going on about as they do stuff. There was this whole thing about some terrorist attack called "careless Monday" that really affected the nation, and they wonder about that too.
I really don't know how to put this. Apparently there are several other people who also own special phones called seleçao, and they're tasked with making Japan a better place, and only one of them will get to live at the end. Does all this phone game money stuff sound cool and interesting to you? I can't say there was a central focus on these cool, potential action-provoking things. It was mostly these guys going around, doing stuff about solving a mystery. I thought it was weird how they brought up neets so much, sort of praising them. It made me feel like it was supposed to appeal to some neets watching this.
Other than the neet glorification, lemme tell you what else this show has: 10 or 12 seleçao. Akira meets this ruthless dude intent on winning or something, who dies in like ep 3 bc his wife finds out he's cheating on her and murders him. Adios. Then he meets some old doctor whose making life better for old people. Then we focus on a woman, who just so happens to be a serial killer who targets men she thinks are scum. That's about it for a while. Then we meet some quiet, almost softie guy who was behind the careless Monday attacks, intelligent dude who knows stuff, and some guy who's just there. I had high hopes for episodes 1 - 3, but after a while I realized I wasn't gonna see what I wanted. The cool stuff wasn't the focus. I'm not even sure what is. If you asked me what this was about, I could tell you the beginning premise, but not much later. I can tell you the ending: Akira and Co. stop the missile attacks. What happened beforehand? Eh, I don't think I remember. Also apparently this guy named Mr.Outside is behind the game thing. You never see him. You don't even know if he's alive or dead. :/ This show was funny though. I guess. Not a comedy, but there were enjoyable moments. They meet some dude who hasn't left the house in two years because he lost his only pair of pants. I don't know how seriously I'm supposed to take this show.
There were somethings I liked or thought was cool: I thought Akira was a cool dude, I liked the shopping mall, I like how it started in Washington D.C, I liked how it had that phone money world changing game element. I liked character designs for the most part. I think that's it. I wouldn't say I was disappointed, but I'm not sure if I was fully satisfied either. Stuff happened. I don't even remember some of it.
To sum up, I didn't get what I wanted, but I saw some other stuff that was ok. If I happened to wipe my memory though, I don't think I'd rewatch it. Also there were some mysteries at the end but I don't really care :/ it was alright. You can watch it if you want. And no I am not watching the movies, I heard they were bad. This probably wasn't for me. Good writing, good animation, good soundtrack. Characters get a B- though. Saki was really weak. I watched the English dub on Funimation btw.
Tokyo Ghoul (2014)
Thoughtful, complex, and very enjoyable
I first watched Tokyo ghoul when I was a young lass of about 12. Bad idea. No regrets.
Tokyo ghoul is about a shy, book-loving college student named kaneki. He lives in a certain famous city in Japan, and his only companion is one dude named hide. One day kaneki manages to score a date with a bookish girl, named rize, who's also hot. After a nice date, rize reveals that she likes him. I'm a dumbass because I forgot to mention that this world (or at least this city, as far as I know) is infested by a species of man eating "ghouls" that look exactly like humans, save for their black and red eyes that appear when in "hunting mode", but you knew that. Also rize is a ghoul and she tries eating kaneki. Then she gets crushed by a metal beam and just dies. Kaneki is rushed to the hospital for his life threatening injuries, and his kidney is replaced with rize's. Once released, he finds that he can no longer digest human food...
Yep, he is a ghoul. Surgery not a success. Thus begins the conflict, internal and external, as kaneki struggles to adjust to a new world in which he must eat what he once was or die, while learning to deal with new friends and foes, both human and ghoul. It's really complex. He really grows. The other characters are pretty interesting too, and everyone has depth, and good sides and bad sides to them. No one's perfect, but no one's truly evil too. My favorite aspect was when you were learning about the good ghouls and bad ghouls, good humans and bad humans. It brought up a certain question: Is any side truly good or bad? I absolutely loved that. Incredibly deep for a 12 year old. But then it got to that later part. :/ The part where that cool question went away and... (Spoilers?: Kaneki is put into another situation that changes him, for better or for worse.) Animation is great, soundtrack is great, good writing for the most part. Got a bit dodgy at the end, but other then that, great.
One important thing to note is that I gave this a 8/10 while I gave my review of Erased an 9/10. Numerically, that means I like erased more than Tokyo ghoul. That's honestly not the case. Tbh I would rather watch Tokyo ghoul more than erased. Though less "structurally sound" as I'd put it, it's incredibly enjoyable to watch, even if that may be my 12 year old self talking. This is a must watch.
Boku dake ga inai machi (2016)
Pretty great, I highly recommend (spoilers below)
This is a great show. Stellar. Erased is well written, entertaining, and emotional. I haven't seen it since 2016 and yet I vividly remember it.
Erased is about a young man named satoru (if I remember well enough). He's serious and a bit cynical. He's in his late 20's, works at a pizza shop, has no girlfriend, and wants to become a mangaka. He also has the ability to prevent death. By the power of time travel. Everytime someone nearby dies he's sent 5 minutes into the past repeatedly until it's prevented. Wild ride so far. But get this: one day, he's sent back a bit further than 5 minutes to prevent a death. Thus begins the wild adventures of a dude, along with many friends, to save someone's life. (If I made it sound like a comedy funfest it's way more serious then that).
I won't go into too much detail that everyone else has gotten into. The characters are likable, they develop, the pacing is pretty good, the setting's cool, and there are nice, strong emotional moments. This is one of the best anime's I've ever seen. Gold star. (I swear to god if you haven't seen this already then don't spoil yourself and go watch it I beg of you). I am an incredibly picky person, but not too picky to not absolutely adore this show.
That being said, it is not perfect. I gotta say that it's flaws don't really hinder the experience. But, to point out what I think it's flaws are: (spoilers lmao, not in order of importance)
- the villain was sorta obvious. I'm an absolute dumbass but I could tell right when satoru had a deep conversation with him that somethin' was off
- speaking of mr. villain remember how I said the characters seemed really human? No? Well that's because in this anime I don't get this guy's motive, his reasoning. His backstory + some more details are in the manga FYI. (I recommend)
- the big finale wasn't that big. All went down in less than 10 minutes tops. Confrontation on rooftop, attempted murder, then whoopsies haha I landed on an airbag I sure tricked you there mr. Villain. We heard everything. Sorry for bringing the manga up but it really had a more climactic ending. I was fine with the anime ending though. It's alright. Got really intense actually. I enjoyed it.
- in the manga red coat girl (forgot her name sorry) still goes to satorus school after moving in with grandma. In the anime she has to leave and that's it. Bye amigo. I thought that since the manga kept her around longer it did their relationship better, ya know. Longer time spent bonding the better. (You know what I think it was Kayo) In general there were small details I'd like to see in the anime.
- the anime only showcases satoru saving people with his travel powers like once before the main plot kicks off. In the manga (sorry) he saves someone like three times, with the help of nice pizza girl whose name I forgot (probably aoi or something) who also showed up more
- I'm thinking maybe it would do better with a few more episodes. Maybe like 3. Or just go all the way and make it one of those 15 - 20 episode anime's. It doesn't suffer too bad cause of its length though.
Well I think that's it. Overall, a good experience. 9.5/10. It's only flaws are what could be improved upon. (Adding a .5 for the anime not giving present Mr. villain an ugly beard like in the manga, I only watch my villains when they're hot lmao) go see this show it's great.
Zankyô no teroru (2014)
It was alright
Would I watch this again? Nah. Was I entertained? I guess so. Would I reccomend? Eh. Could it be better? Yeah.
Terror in resonance is about two young guys who plant different bombs around Tokyo, while the police scramble to find out who, where, and why. Along the way they meet some girl named Lisa who's a really weak character and doesn't do much now that I think about it. Then there's Five, a woman with wild hair who wants to... play games?
This show could be better. Is it good? Eh. Is it bad? That's a bit too far. This show is the definition of "alright". In the beginning I hated the two main guys, because I just thought of them as weird edgy teens who somehow had the smarts to create and detonate bombs throughout Tokyo, without anyone having caught on to them whatsoever. In the end, I still didn't really care for them. Sure, they had that tragic backstory, and yes they didn't want to kill anyone, but other then that I still considered them villains of some sort (especially since they destroyed millions of dollars in property damages, all to spread the message that they really could've gotten through with their first bombing.) I also thought it was weird they were all about not killing anyone, and yet they highly considered killing Lisa, whom they forced to be an accomplice. On to Lisa, I thought she was really weak. She's bullied (just cause) and has an unstable mother (who we never hear from after Lisa runs always). She's also a bad cook. What I really don't get is why shes hanging out and living with two terrorists. Seriously, why?? I know she's troubled and weak cause of being bullied, but I don't think she has mental issues. The cop guy who smoked a lot was cool. That's all I have to say on him. And finally, on to the lady with that onion looking hair. She's sorta there, just cause?? In the end she has no bearing on the outcome of the plot. It's like she's there to spice things up. Yeah I like her, but she's just there just cause. Also I don't understand her motives. Yeah she wants to play a game with twelve (or whatever the glasses terrorists number name is) but like, why? Why is she doing all this. She's got the Americans on her side, but for what?? I guess she was just there to dick around. These characters are something else.
Overall, I think some parts of this are nonsensical or illogical. Let's say I lived in Tokyo or some other major city with lots of people. If two terrorists started bombing around to spread a message, putting people's lives at risk and ruining millions of dollars in property, as well as unleashing an atomic bomb over the city, causing everyone to evacuate and shutting off the electricity (how did two 17 yr olds do this again?) and miraculously killed no one, all to spread some message about how they were experimented on as kids, I'd still hate the heck out of them. They really could've just dropped one bomb, said their piece, and left. This might be because of 9/11, (which I was reminded of a lot in this show), but if someone is willing to dick around with some bombs, I don't care what they have to say. I don't really care about the ending. It was sorta entertaining though. But if ten years passed and I forgot everything about what happened in this show and had the chance to watch it again, my response would be "eh."
Death Parade (2015)
One of the best shows I have ever seen
Death parade is so great that if I had the ability to forget that I watched it so I could watch it again, I sure as heck would. I would absolutely reccomend. It's interesting, entertaining, and really emotional as well.
I really liked how the opening, which was really upbeat (too upbeat in the context of the show), contrasted with the ending, which was much more suited to the nature of the show. The animation is great, the characters are great, and I can't reccomend it enough. The music was good, I loved the ending, and it was really entertaining. I always think it's better to watch a show blind, or while knowing just the basic premise. This is one of those times.
Now for the things I didn't like... not much. I didn't like how (Spoilers) in one episode a man and a kid walk into the bar, and then (gasp) the man is actually another judge guy and he has a weird fight with the white haired bartender guy for no good reason. It was out of nowhere honestly. I don't even know what was the point of that, it was just a random fight to introduce some jerk character.
Another thing I didn't like was when the bartender with the fiery hair (jerk guy) had to judge a pop star and a fan girl. After a game of twister (which the fangirl absolutely enjoys), and several awkward poses later, fire hair guy reveals only one of them can win and live or something. Pop star attempts to murder fan girl, and fangirl is really stressing out cause the pressure is too much for her, y'know, since the game is apparently to the death, and then she... pees herself. She didn't give a damn about the whole "to the death thing", all along she just needed to pee. Later she dresses up in a kimono, pop star guy thinks she's cute, and it's like he never tried to murder her. Then they stick around fire hair guys bar for no reason. The only positive thing I remember about fangirl is when fire guy is like "you're such a loser wasting your time obsessing over a popstar" and then she was like "yeah it's a waste but that's what I choose to do with my life so at least to me it's worth something" and that part gave me a small silver of respect for fan girls.
The first three episodes were basically the same thing too. I was cool with that though because they expanded on each other.
But other then that I really loved this show. The characters were interesting, likable, realistic, and even the lesser characters who were there to be judged were really compelling. Other then the negative stuff I mentioned, the show in general is pretty great. I loved it!
Mirai nikki (2011)
Overrated as all heck
I think we should get something out of the way: I hate Yuno very much. With that said, future diary is all about how some kid named Yuki has a phone with a diary that can tell him his upcoming future. He's in some battle royale which goes on with other future diary holders. I thought this concept was really great, but the actual show? ...eh. Yuki starts out as a weak, uninteresting pansy. He meets some girl (yuno) who's a "yandere". I think yuno is overrated, annoying, and awful. Watching their relationship unfold was really unpleasant and I did not care for it. Yunos obsessed with Yuki, and Yuki just has her stick around because she inexplicably know how to operate weaponry (she's 14?). He somehow falls in love with her, cause she's "cute", in spite of her obsession, murderous rampages, and extreme hatred towards anyone who tries to befriend him. Everyone else is extremely dislikable and unrealistic as well. I wasn't into the fanservice, and I wasn't into the extreme violence. That's fine, but it really didn't have anything else for me to enjoy. Lots of plot holes, and overall really bad. This is wayyy too overrated (probably because yuno). Was I entertained? No. Would I reccomend? Heck no. Go watch something else.
Shiki (2010)
Could be a lot better
Did I enjoy this show? Yes. It was entertaining. Could it be a lot better? Heck yeah. I like some of the themes it displayed, but the whole "humans are monsters" thing really bothered me. The characters in this show are really pathetic, there's hardly anyone you can root for, and most everyone is a jerk. It's really conflicting, because on one hand I feel bad for some of these guys. On the other hand, I don't really care. I can't say anyone acts very realistic. In the manga, when the humans are forced to murder the shiki, only some of them start going axe-crazy and enjoying it. In the anime? Forget that. Everyone's awful. The character designs could be a lot better as well. Honestly the only characters I were interested in were: blond guy who felt bad about being a vampire, green haired nurse girl, that mom who went crazy after her kids died, and the vampire lady who killed her entire family and felt bad about it. In short; not very many people are really likable or act realistic, some look ridiculous, fanservice was a bit off-putting, and I thought the priest with glasses was a hypocrite for getting mad at his doctor friend (cause doctor guy killed his own wife) then proceeded to help out a vampire (who's killed people). I liked the manga better tbh, it was much better. It had these elements, but it still pulled off certain stuff better (especially the pink haired chick). Would I reccomend this anime? Eh.