REVIEW - 5 Centimetres per Second (2007)

Anime movies have always confused me for some strange reason. Whether or not it's because a lot of them are about the length of an average anime episode, three 20 minute segments joined together after each segment was aired individually or it's because they're just a recapping of [insert anime name here], I never really found much appeal in Anime movies, minus the works of Studio Ghibli (misspelled, most certainly). So, when I was faced with watching one of the works of the famous Mr. Makoto Shinkai, I didn't know what to expect.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the greatest anime movie ever made; Byousoku 5 Centimeter (5 Centimetres per Second) by ADV Films, Directed by Makoto Shinkai.

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, today's review is going to be structured a lot differently, and this is how I shall structure any reviews I do for an anime movie. It's hard to explain, but basically, I won't be grading the movie on the 5 typical categories that I usually do. It's going to be a bit more in-depth, so, without further ado...

5 Centimetres per Second, a movie that tells the story of two childhood friends in love, and how they try to keep their relationship going through hardships that life throws at them. Through three small stories, or episodes as they're called, we're told the tale of how they grow up and farther away from each other.

The movie tells of a love that's slowly torn apart because the lovers move further away, both in heart and home. It's underlying themes are beautifully incorporated into the story; about growing up, letting go of an unreachable past, and taking control of one's own life. Though they're not necessarily very obvious throughout the movie, the final scene symbolizes these themes, and what the main characters decided on in the end. 



The character we follow through the movie is Takaki Tohno, and we get to see how he looks on the events that unfold as a child, a teenager and finally, and adult. We see how he develops through these stages of life, and how it all relates to his childhood friend and love, Akari Shinohara.



The emotions are protrayed in an incredibly beautiful and realistic way; how they portray the love between Akari and Takaki, how they portray the girl who has a crush on Tohno during his high school years, Kanae Sumida, and finally, how they portray their development from children to adults all makes them characters you'll place your heart with. They're characters you'll love, feel sad with, and you'll wish for them to live happily.



The animation quality is astounding, from the detail in backgrounds to the astounding lighting effects and camera angles that help bring the mood of the scenes to a level different from mostly anything else. The only beef I have is that the characters' faces lost a bit of detail from time to time, but aside that the movie is a visual pleasure that goes beyond pretty much everything I've ever experienced.



Tenmon, who's made the soundtrack to other Shinaki films, does an astounding job on the soundtrack for the movie, with piano pieces that effectively and beautifully amplifies the mood of the movie, be it melancholy, calmness or nostalgia. However, if you don't like piano soundtracks, chances are you'll not like it, since it's mostly the piano that's used throughout the movie (I love them though, and that's what made me give it a 10).

The voice actors also do a marvelous job of portraying the characters, their emotions and age. I've only watched the Japanese version of the movie, so I can't say anything about the quality of the English voice acting. But I'd recommend it in Japanese anyways regardless of such.

5 Centimetres per Second is a movie that takes a story of growing up and makes it into something that cannot be described as anything less than a masterpiece, with astounding themes, storytelling, art and sound. If someone told me I could watch one movie before I died, I'd undoubtedly choose this one. It is by far better than anything Studio Ghibli has ever produced, and something that I think that everyone should watch. It's heartfelt, beautiful and out of this world.

Story: 10

Emotional Delivery: 10

Characters: 10

Animation: 10

Sound: 10

Production Values: 10

Originality: 10

FINAL SCORE FOR BYOUSOKU 5 CENTIMETER (5 CENTIMETRES PER SECOND): 10/10

Masterpiece.

ARTICLE: My Anime Story (Spoiler-Free)

Y'know, anime really is a beautiful art form. As I sit here contemplating what I should say in my review of Say "I Love You" (which, in brief, is another slice of life shoujo anime based off a manga of the same name), I look back on my 9 months Otakuship, and I've realised how far I've come in so little time. Today, I've decided to take a break from writing about certain anime and just write about my life as an otaku so far, and how I've come to appreciate the anime art form.

Like all great things, something has to begin somewhere, and I could say that my anime story technically began in my Youth. It all started with a little show known as Yu-Gi-Oh!, a show about a teenage boy who solves a puzzle which contains dark secrets. I liked the show back then because of how different it was to any other "cartoon" I had seen at the time (my five year old self had no idea that anime was it's own thing back then), in it's animation style, it's theme and just how the story was too. I will always be proud to say that Yu-Gi-Oh! is the only long-running Shonen that I've ever completed, clocking in at over 220 episodes + the Capsule Monsters OVA's.

Yu-Gi-Oh! was my start point. It was also to be my re-envigorator.

After Yu-Gi-Oh! finished some time in the mid 2000's (I think 2006, but I'm not sure), I actually stopped watching anime for a number of years (around six I'd say), simply because I thought that it was all for kids. Also, over this six year period, one of my friends kept trying to shove One Piece down my throat (which I did try, but gave up at around 40 episodes), and my cousins tried to make me watch Naruto. And thus, my hatred for long-running shonen began. I never liked the fact that these two shows were constantly the only two things these set's of people wanted to watch. I just wanted to go and play some Zelda or Smash Bros., not watch some show about a whiny ass pirate and his rag-tag band (HATERS GONNA HATE FIGHT ME IRL). I just got disinterested in anything that looked like those shows, except one episode of Soul Eater that I was shown one night. That was actually decent from what I can remember.

Sorry pal, your show is boring as shit.

2012 was when my interest started to slowly come back, and I mean really slowly. It all started when I got back into liking the Sonic the Hedgehog games. I became a hardcore, no nonsense Sonic Retro-obsessed Sonic Fan for most of 2012 and early 2013. O course, with me liking all things Sonic, I of course, started to watch the anime based off of the Sonic games, Sonic X. To be fair, Sonic X wasn't TOO bad. Now I know Sonic fans will be down my throat for saying that but as an anime, Sonic X was pretty decent for a show that ran for 78 episodes. I think that the best part about Sonic X was that they followed the games sometimes (they had an arc based off of Sonic Battle of all things...) and, while the English dub was pretty terrible, I think that it did the job well. Hey, it even entertained my little brothers for the summer. Due to being a Sonic fan, I was all over Sonic fansites. I'm also a retro gamer at heart. So when I saw posts about this new anime that was going to be based off of the infamous Nintendo vs. SEGA Console Wars of the 1990's, I flipped my shit. Now, before I go into a bit more detail of the next show, I must explain something here. At this point in My Anime Story....I used to have the conception that ALL Anime was extremely, EXTREMELY Perverted. Now, I know it isn't, but back then I did. So, that's just to give you a bit of an understanding of my mind frame going into my first traditional, non-English anime; Aoi Sekai no Chuushin Dei. Now, I did enjoy these three episodes, the problem was, it had everything that's wrong with modern anime in them; Women with what I like to call "Rias Gremorie Tits", some borderline Hentai moments and a fucktonne of groaning from women being beaten up by Monsters. But, as a whole, i enjoyed the show, due to my love of retro gaming and how much of a fan-service this was to retro gamers.

Aoi Sekai no Chuushin Dei (top) & Sonic X (bottom) got me back interested, but they didn't make me a fan

Now here is where the story gets interesting, since it all goes back to square one. I had gotten back into to Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game with the online Dueling Network, which allows you to build a deck of cards and play other people online. I then started to watch the anime again and became really nostalgic. I also started to watch the Abridged Series on YouTube, created by LittleKuriboh (which you should all go watch since it's amazing). Here, I learned about "Season 0". If you read my Top 10 Favourite Anime List, you know what i'm talking about. Before the "original" series aired in Japan in 2000, there was already a Yu-Gi-Oh! anime out in Japan for about 2 years, based directly off of the manga series which started the franchise off. I still to this day haven't seen something like Season 0 of Yu-Gi-Oh!, it's quite something else, but it's still a great anime.

HERD U BEEN TALKIN SHIT

 And now, for the moment at which I became an otaku. After recently playing through the emotionally gripping don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story, I had nothing to do. So I asked my internet friend, Ms. Jacqui Davieau for an anime recommendation, my exact words being:

"HEY.

I NEED TO WATCH A HIGH SCHOOL ANIME.

ANYTHING AT ALL.
PLZ.

JUST NO TITS."

A name of one of the anime that caught my eye was one that i'd seen before; Angel Beats! Despite how I feel about the show now, I went into Angel Beats! not knowing what to expect. Sure it wasn't as weird as the original Yu-Gi-Oh series, but the first episode of Angel Beats! was funny, had action, beautiful animation and one of the best endings to any anime episode ever. Seriously, while the show may be under the bar, the first episode is a stunning one, and it's the reason I got into anime the way I have now. After that, i moved onto shows like My Teenage Romantic Comedy SNAFU!, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and many others, which I mostly enjoyed (there being one, VERY LARGE exception). I found a new fandom and hobby, and I love it to this day. Anime is something I think everyone can enjoy. Even my mother enjoys watching Death Note for Christs sake! If she can do it, you can too!

It all started with a guy dying....

Sayonara, minna-san./さよなら、みんあーサン

REVIEW: Cowboy Bebop (1998)

I think with the exception of AnoHana: The Flower We Saw That Day, every anime that I've reviewed here has some sort of source material. Whether it's a visual novel, a bishonen manga or a Japanese Light Novel, pretty much everything I reviewed on the blog has been copied from a source, and is also grounded in one, maybe two genres. However, today's anime is almost in it's own genre, and it also has no source material to work on. It's also, arguably, the most famous anime from the late 1990's.

Cowboy Bebop by Sunrise.

Cowboy Bebop surprised me by not having an over-arching plot for a majority of the show. A majority of the episodes have their own specific plots, with occasional backstory of the four main characters that all comes to a head near the end of the show. The story is centered on four completely different people, all of whom are crew members on the spaceship, Bebop. Spike Spiegel and Jet Black live out their days trying to scavenge money by being inter-planetary bounty hunters. On their travels, they meet the beautiful yet somewhat careless gypsy, Faye Valentine, who I originally thought would end up being a Tsundere but, this is Cowboy Bebop we're talking about, it turns all your expectations upside down. They also meet up with a small young girl named Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, a strangle but technologically gifted child. Together, they try to catch their bounties in the year 2071, after a tragic incident that caused the moon to explode, and therefore humanity must migrate from Earth to other planets, mainly Mars. The story was a turn off for me at the start, but then, somewhere around when Edward entered the plot, the show's story just got better and better. Sure it's got a slow start, but it certainly ends with a brilliant ending.

The characters of Cowboy Bebop are so hard to talk about, especially since they're all very deep characters (maybe with the exception of Edward, who pretty much is comic relief). Everything that happens to these people really makes you think about them, and to be honest, I don't think there's a bad character, at least, out of the main four. Some of the villains though can be kinda annoying or stupid, but that's just me. As per usual with these anime reviews, I'll be talking about the main character and my personal favourite.

Spike Spiegel.
The driving force of the entire cast is Spike Spiegel, an honest bounty hunter whose past isn't very clear as the story begins. However, as the story progresses, Spike becomes more relatable and more human, and less of a wise-cracking cowboy. He matures over time, and gives the anime some sense of reality, even though it takes place in outer space. He's an honest, hard working and intelligent guy, and I couldn't think of a character better suited to lead this anime than Spike. His English voice is also completely kick ass too.

Faye Valentine
As pretty much the only central female in the entire show, Faye Valentine had a lot of thought rushing through my mind. However, it wasn't until episode 18 when I realized that she is without a doubt the best character in this show. She's a wise cracking gypsy who's addicted to gambling and is also ALWAYS in debt to someone, whether it be a member of the Bebop or otherwise. She's not as relatable as Spike, but a lot of the comedy in the show comes from her actions and doings, and she's also the trigger of one of the best scenes in the show (that one from Episode 26). Her character is complex and interesting, and she's one hell of an entertainer.

For something that was drawn up in 1998, Cowboy Bebop looks as though it could be airing today. It's an absolutely stunning looking anime, with extremely detailed backgrounds, amazing characters and a true 1990's feel and look about it. It's all so dirty and gritty and punk-esque that it almost feels like a western at times (hence the "Cowboy" in the title). It's certainly better than most long-running shonen and even modern animes like Sword Art Online and Higurashi No Naku Koro ni look nowhere near as good as Cowboy Bebop does, because it's distinct style has made it look as though it's animated in the period the show is set in.

Right from the get-go, the music in Cowboy Bebop is fantastic. From the bombastic and suaveness of the opening theme, Tank! to the smooth jazz of the ending theme, the show's soundtrack as a whole is fairly good, although there are a few songs here and there that sound a bit boring to me. However, the best part of the sound is the voice acting, particularly, the English dub. Steve Blum gives an amazing performance as Spike Spiegel and that is good enough reason to watch the show.

What can I say about Cowboy Bebop that hasn't been said already? It's got amazing characters, animation and great dubs on both Sides. While the story takes a while to gather up steam, and the soundtrack isn't perfect, Cowboy Bebop is one of THE essential anime to watch, whether you're interested in the space genre or not.

Story: 7.5
Characters: 10
Animation: 10
Sound: 8
Personal Enjoyment: 10

FINAL SCORE FOR COWBOY BEBOP: 9.1/10

"See you, Space Cowboy.."

REVIEW: Kara no Shoujo (2008)

Visual Novels are often the very hardest games in the world to critically analyse. The reason for this is as bright as day: They have pretty much no gameplay. They're mainly meant to be played for story (or in the case of anything by 07th Expansion, meant for atmosphere). But what if a game had such a brilliantly written story, that choosing choices becomes something almost impossible, due to your gut feeling telling you "this is wrong" but your head telling you "this is right".

That's how I felt playing Innocent Grey's masterpiece, Kara no Shoujo (The Girl in the Shell)

Kara no Shoujo is the story of a fear-gripped, post-war Tokyo, Japan in the year 1956. Feeling tired from the usual thugs and gangs that have been popping up around the place, Reiji Tokisaka is a pretty bored man. One day, his former cop buddy, Uozumi comes over to his office and tells Reiji about a case that "might interest him". All around Tokyo, there have grizzly murders occurring involving girls from ages 15-19, who have all had one of their limbs amputated. Each girl also has a black, crushed egg implanted into their uterus. It's also implied that the girl was involved in some sort of sexual activity, but not any form of Rape. As Reiji Tokisaka, it's your job to figure out the mystery behind the Black Egg of Neanis murders, by picking choices that affect the story in multiple ways. Something I will always admire about Kara no Shoujo is that it is a game that is not afraid to take a risk whenever it needs to. This is one of the most evocative and engaging game stories I have played in some time, and I must say, I am happy that the people over at MangaGamer gave this game the translation it deserves. Kara no Shoujo is not afraid to tell you that it's full of obscene and questionable content, but it's a piece of art in of itself. The game contains themes of lesbianism, teacher-student romantic relationships, gore and a lot of sexual themes, but it's not used in any sort of fan service or pornographical way. It's by far the greatest and most down-to-earth game story around, due to it;s characters. These aren't characters with set personalities: you shape the world, and therefore, the characters along with the story. What one character may find sexy in one story, they may find disgusting in another. It's all about the route you take and the choices you make. It's almost like a journey into one's own heart, and into one's morality. It's one of the most daring, graceful and out of this world plots I have ever experience from any story in any medium ever.

As with any Visual Novel, gameplay in Kara no Shoujo is (almost) as simple as it gets. You are offered a list of choices, each one of them impacts the story in one way or another. The game does throw a curveball at you every now and again though. Every once in a while, you'll have to do some investigation at a crime scene by examining the scene itself or examining a dead body. Another thing the game likes to throw at you is the Phoenix Wright-esque cross-examination sections. These require you rto pay close atention to character profiles and evidence gathered at crimes scenes as Reiji tries to figure out the mystery. Also, as a tip, play the game through first without a walkthrough and then beat it with one. Trust me on that one. As a whole, the gameplay is excellent for a visual novel, and average for a typical game, so it does what it's supposed to I guess.

Visually, the game is better looking than pretty much every visual novel ever made minus the Days series by 0verflow. This game's major theme is art, and I can certainly see why the development team chose that as the theme of the game. It's an absolutely stunning piece of technology that shows us how detailed and realistic the anime art style can be at times. I love the presentation of this game to death, speaking of which...

The soundtrack. The goddamn soundtrack. Oh my God, I just can't even explain how beautiful and amazing this game's soundtrack is. It is, without a doubt, the best sounding Visual Novel soundtrack I've ever heard. It's perfect right from the get go, witha captivating yet hopeless title theme which really sets the mood right for the game. It's a perfectly complimenting soundtrack and I just adore it.

I will not deny this now: Kara no Shoujo is certainly not for everyone, due to some highly questionable content. But it's that highly questionable content that makes the game full of emotional moments and some amazing writing. If you can withstand everything this game throws at you, I honestly think that you will love Kara no Shoujo, not as a game or a visual novel, but as a metaphor for the cruelty of the human race, a race that lives in an oh so tragic world...

Story: 10

Gameplay: 10

Graphics: 10

Sound: 10

Personal Enjoyment: 10

FINAL SCORE FOR KARA NO SHOUJO: 10/10

A Masterpiece.