Back to k-0da's Profile k-0da's Profile

Just one heaping serving of incest.

Like the show proper, Witch Craft Works: Takamiya-kun and His Sister's Conspiracy meanders the whole episode, while always remembering to deliver on the fanservice front. The episode focuses around Kasumi and her deep, deep incestuous love for Honoka--and I am not an incest fan. Kasumi does not change, she does not learn, she doesn’t really do anything of value besides discover a new magic technique--she remains the same imouto she was in Witch Craft Works. Seriously, unless you’re into this kind of stuff, this OVA is not worth it. It’s not even available in english. Tanpopo is the episode’s ... saving grace, and she’s a comedic relief. It’s a shame, because for a moment the show threatens to reveal more complexities about Kasumi, but all the show cares about is her brother-complex. Not happy I had to sit through this one.

This show is hot garbage, but its hot garbage appeals to MY tastes. Which means at the very least, it deserves a fair shot.

The animation is way more decent than I was expecting, considering this was a romance-slop show from 2014 I had never heard of. The action choreography is there on the screen--there are no slideshows, and there are some interesting cinematographic choices made. It’s below a subpar-shounen, sure, but I didn’t hate it. The show makes use of CGI pretty liberally, and while you can always notice it, it wasn’t overtly distracting. The CGI fight choreography is similarly mediocre.

Witch Craft Works ... is not good. It is self-indulgent male-oriented romance slop. THere are a horde of beautiful waifus, and the prettiest, richest, strongest girl in high school wants to jump your bones. I roll my eyes and ignore this type of show most of the time, but Witch Craft Work’s gimmick intrigued me; the male female lead, Ayaka, is the strongest witch around, sure, but she is actively stronger than our male lead and usually has to protect/and or save him from harm. The male lead, Honaka, takes on the role of a “princess” or a damsel in distress for most of the show. He’s not totally an uke, and is allowed some badass moments here and there, but Ayaka is the one running the show 80% of the time. The accidental gender politicking of this show pleases me greatly--I do love to see a man princess carried by his woman.

However, the harem roots of this series are too strong to be ignored. Ayaka is perfect and not allowed to be a person outside of her devotion to Honaka. She is cool and strong and love Honoka and wants to be his ever doting protector. The only thing that makes her and by definition Honoka is the whole male princess/female prince thing they have going on. Which is a shame; Ayaka as a pillar of excellence could give way to interesting character decisions, in regards to her arrogance regarding her skill power, as well as the isolation being the best would have. But no, those low-hanging character growth traits are scarcely acted upon, and all we get is one big-titty anime girl who loves her cardboard brother of a man.

The only other notable characters are similarly boring. Kazane, Ayaka’s mother and chairperson of their high school (because of course) exists to be an easy figure connecting the couple to the series exposition. She is a mentor and doesn’t do anything except beat Ayaka up one time, and talk about mysterious topics with other mysterious characters. The most interesting thing about Kazane, much like Ayaka and Honoka, is that Honoka has a massive, lesbian crush on Kazane that neither of them could act upon due to internalized homophobia and compulsive heterosexuality.

Besides Kazane is Kasumi, Honoka’s incestious little sister. She is a tsundere brocon. That’s about it. She hates Ayaka for monopolizing her big brother, and sometimes is allowed to fight. There is literally nothing else to her, she’s even more of a rose bride than Ayaka. Seriously, she needs to connect with Nanami Kiryuu from Revolutionary Girl Utena and emancipate herself. Besides Ayaka is Chronoire, a Tower Witch whose job is to be mysterious and move the plot forward. Then there are the MDM witches, or the tower witches under Medusa’s group, whose entire job is comedic relief. It would be an interesting twist that the group so obviously set up to be the villains of the season are actually useless, but this cast is so bloated that their existence feels like an excuse to have more cute girls.

The worst part about the show is easily the worldbuilding. There’s not any thought put into it beyond what the mangaka thought was cool at the time. Everything exists for the convenience of the story, rather the world feeling like a living place. Most of the girls don’t even get their magic explained, and we barely understand how magic works. There are also, inextricably, cat girls walking among us, and no explanation is given as to what they are. Inextricable cat girls on paper sound fun, but in a world where nothing is explained, it merely frustrates me. It doesn’t help that Honoka refuses to ask any questions about what the hell’s going on, basely trusting Ayaka and the rest of the workshop witches. It would be interesting to explore why Honoka trusts her so easily, but alas. The workshop witches as a whole are useless. We get introduced to 20 tower witches in like 3 episodes, but the actual defenders of the town, the people Ayaka is supposed to be working under (if you can believe that), get about an episode and a half and three characters worth. While they don’t feel as unimportant as other tower witches, it would’ve nice to learn anything at all about Witch culture that wasn’t through Ayaka’s or Kasumi’s lens.

This show is classic otaku fair for the 2010s, and I can’t say I’m a fan. While I really did enjoy Ayaka and Honoka’s prince/princess relationship, it wasn’t enough to save a show poisoned by Japanese incel culture. If you are willing to look past all of that for Ayaka and Honoka’s relationship, than by all means--but I can’t in good conscience recommend this to anyone else.

The second ever One Piece special, and it continues the trend of specials just being longer, worse filler episodes. The animation is no better than the average main series episode, and the character designs aren’t all that great either. While I liked a majority of them well enough, I found that the main villain designs were boringly evil, and felt that Amanda’s outfit was too modern for the world of one piece. While Oda what’s considered “timely” for One Piece is extremely debatable, something about her look just didn’t sit right with me. As the OST is the same from the main series, I have ... nothing to say.

Instead of a random boy to lead our coming of age tale, it’s a random girl in Amanda. While I appreciate the switch up of going to a more mature protagonist, her gender and second character trait being “I take care of my siblings” leaves a poor taste in my mouth. She has something of an arc regarding accepting the choices her father made in life, and finding joy in what he left behind, but it's extremely by the numbers and not at all exciting. This whole special was honestly a snoozefest. I did enjoy Max and Bonnie’s relationship. I liked how they were already (or at least already implied) to be together, and that their romance wasn’t the focus of the story. It gave their interactions more spice. However, I say that because I’m grasping at straws trying to find a piece of this movie that didn’t bore me to tears. Max and Bonnie are in a mature relationship, but they don’t bring much else to the table.

The Straw Hats felt just as bored as I was. Amanda’s backstory would’ve been perfect for an Usopp-focused story, but Sanji takes the lead instead, and not very well--there are so many characters here, especially when the Straw Hats number seven. Character moments are short and sweet, and of course, no one in the Straw Hats is challenged enough to grow. Nami drives the plot forward again with her money-hungry attitude, Luffy bonds with the child main character, and we all set sail at the end of the day. At the very least, Chopper and Usopp had some time to shine during the final battle, but it's not enough. Amanda is unfortunately the throughline to the entire story, and she is not very interesting.

This is one nothing-burger of a special, which is a shame when it’s Toei’s first original with a leading female character. Hopefully the next specials are of a higher quality.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky is among the few fairly-popular Ghibli movies that I knew fairly-nothing about. I went into the theater with high, yet measured expectations, at least aware of the movie’s notoriety among Ghibliphiles. Needlessly to say, Laputa: Castle in the Sky met my expectations by completely blowing me away.

This movie is stunning, as most Ghibli films are. Obviously the roundness of the world gives it a great sense of childlike charm, but I want to pay special attention to the mechanical design and painted backgrounds. Ghibli artists tend to pull from real life rather than other anime, so the film’s mechanical and ... environmental design feel impossibly fresh and unique, even some forty years later. The Cardiff inspiration shines in the industrial-revolution era mechanics and coal-mining towns that decorate this movie. I also really love the painted backgrounds in this film; every frame is a canvas, literally speaking, and everything is beautiful.
The plot itself is very straightforward. There’s a giant castle in the sky, and our two intrepid young people must find it to uncover its mysteries. I liked Pazu and Sheeta--they were both cute and determined, and I found their unwavering support for one another to be very endearing. Dola and her pirate family were so fun to watch--I love how they’re professional pirates, but still a very loving family at the end of the day. Dola herself was awesome, as I always appreciate a female character with agency, especially if she’s ugly. Musca was definitely a mustache-twirling villain, and while I would’ve loved more nuanced, he played his role in the larger narrative well enough.

The characters in this movie really shine; thanks to an uproariously-funny script, I fell in love with each and every one of them. The Disney localization of Ghibli movies gets a lot of flack, and deservedly so, but I found the changes made to make this film sound more natural were spectacular. It made me that much more invested in the cast at large. If anyone knows who did the english script for this, please let me know! I cannot find them anywhere.

The dub cast is very good, as expected for a Disney Ghibli. I really loved James Van Der Beek as Pazu--his voice was deeper than what I was expecting, but he played Pazu with such sincerity that I could not help but love it. I also loved Anna Paquin as Sheeta--she was able to capture Sheeta’s reserved, frightful nature without forging Sheeta’s inner strength and resilience against Musca. And of course, Mark Hamil as Musca is iconic, as he is iconic in any of his voice acting roles.

As it is with most Ghibli movies, Laputa: Castle in the Sky is an easy recommendation. Try to catch it in theaters while you still can!

Your Letter feels like something that would air on the Disney Channel, and that’s not necessarily a compliment.

It’s clear to me LICO and the other studios behind this movie put a lot of effort into this movie’s animation quality, but the effort didn’t translate into quality. The backgrounds are stunning. The character designs are fine, if a little plain. There’s some really interesting shot composition. But all of it feels amateurish. I don’t know if it’s a composting problem, but something else, but the movie lacks a clear artistic identity--which is a shame, considering that the manhwa’s art looks quite nice. The movie looks incredibly ... average in comparison. I did like how the movie presented its first few letters--I love the mixed media aesthetic--but unfortunately, this style is not kept up for the rest of the film. It is a film that attempts beauty without understanding what beautiful would look like for this story. The OST is fine. There were a fair bit of lyrical tracks, but nothing overly distracting.

As I stated earlier, this story feels straight out of a Disney film, something that would air at 7/8c. It is an incredibly straightforward movie about the power of friendship and the value of standing up to bullies. As far as I’m aware, Korea has an insane childhood bullying problem, so perhaps I’m coming at this with the wrong cultural viewpoint. Even still, I found this story’s depiction of bullying to be extremely unoriginal. The bad guys are bad guys, it’s important not to be a bystander, and all you need to do is to tell a bully “You’re a bully!” right at the end of the movie and all of your problems are solved. I did enjoy the mystery with Ho-yeon Jong, though it wasn’t enough to save this movie. I simply did not care for what appeared to be the perfect boy, and felt no pressing need to find him.

The bully characters are extremely straightforward and not at all nuanced, and unfortunately, the same can be said for our two leads. So-ri Lee and Dong-soon Park are forced to live in this very boring plot. I don’t find them boring as characters; they’re cute, and the mysteries they go on are endearing. But the main bullying plot is so lame that I found it very hard to get invested in them. I wanted So-ri and Dong-soon to face more complicated problems, to push and test their friendship in new ways. The trials the movie threw at them gave them pause, but not a very interesting pause. At the very least, I appreciate that So-ri was the person driving the plot forward, but unfortunately for her she was driving on a neighborhood road going 25 miles an hour. You could read some queer undertones in Dong-soon and Ho-yeon’s relationships, and further queer parallels between So-ri Lee’s and Ji-min Kim’s friendship--duos who were outcast by the bullies in their schools, only having each other. And when Ji-min and Ho-yeong leave their respective partners, I like the idea of So-ri and Dong-soon finding friendship and solidarity in each other as the only queer kids in their middle school. Unfortunately, that’s not the plot of this movie, and there’s only so much I can read into before I just start making things up.

Nothing about Your Letter is explicitly bad, it’s just kind of boring. It’s a Sunday movie you watch at 2pm with your kids to relax before a stressful week. I’m not mad that I had to trek off into the theaters to see this, but I definitely wish I watched a better movie.

Your Name. is a good movie. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s still a pretty good movie.

You don’t need me to tell you that Your Name. is a beautiful looking movie. If Your Name. has masterful qualities in anything, it’s animation. The beauty in which everything is drawn reminds you of the world’s simple pleasures, and that life is worth living (Cue Justin Bieber). I particularly loved how cosmic events were depicted, as well as the equal care given to Tokyo and Itomori. And as standard as they are, I did enjoy the character designs. Their corporate-friendly nature melds well with this movie’s shaders. ...

I happened to catch the dub of this movie, and I think the cast did a great job. The dialogue felt natural, in spite of the script’s anime-ness. I enjoyed the two leads’ performances, Stephanie Sheh as Mizhua and Micheal Sinterneklaas as Taki. They played their both their characters and their opposites very well. Special shoutouts to Sinterneklaas for playing the most ukeful man of all time when Mizuha was living in Taki’s body.

The story does not challenge the viewer, but a plot twist in the middle kept me invested. I really wasn’t expecting the twist at all, and it helps pull the story in a really unique direction. However, the story does nothing at all to make you feel uncomfortable. Similar to Ghibli movies, Your Name. is spectacular tasting junk food. Taki and Mizuha’s relationship has little edge and is extremely boring, save for the mid-movie twist. Said twist loses a lot of its value when you’re not coming into the movie blind; again, this film does not try to challenge its viewers. As good as the twist is, it distracts the narrative from delving deeper into Taki and Mizuha’s relationship. The whole body-switching gimmick has a lot of gender and socioeconomical implications to their relationship, and Your Name. is interested in none of that. Mizhua shouts from the rooftops that she wants to live as a hot boy in Tokyo, but Mizhua and Taki remain painfully heterosexual to the point of parody. This movie adores gender stereotyping, despite the chance to say something a lot more interesting than “Boy loves boobies and penises are disgusting”.

I don’t think your name is the best thing since sliced bread, but I’m happy I got to see it in theaters. Try to catch it during its theatrical run while you can, because once its off that shiny IMAX screen, this movie loses a lot of what it’s offering.

We live in times where true heroics requires the sacrifice of comfort. The Ribbon Hero attempts to weave a tale about heroics, but neglects this aspect of sacrifice; as such, it falls flat on its face.

The Ribbon Hero’s animation is its most lauded aspect, and for good enough reason. The colors are vibrant and expressive, and the character movement is fluid. The characters themselves look wonderful; Mochizuki Kei’s designs are sharp and eye-catching. While it’s a sharp departure from Tezuka’s original designs, I can’t say I hate them. (As I am not a Osamu Tezuka scholar, my comparisons to Tezuka’s original work end here; I ... do not know Tezuka, so I cannot accurately compare this movie to his original manga nor its previous anime adaptation). The compositing, however, was not great. Whenever Sapphire was fighting a monster, or Nergel, it looked like she was superimposed onto its CGI body. The nergels don’t look good to begin with; the dark brown CGI monsters clash heavily with the movie’s colors and Mochizuki Kei’s designs. Elements in this movie--background, characters, and terrible CGI monsters--look like they were glued on top of each other. While The Ribbon Hero often attempts a mixed-media aesthetic, I do not say that former sentence as a compliment. And while watching the movie, on several occasions I had to google whether the backgrounds they used were AI-generated or not. Regardless if they actually were, that is not a good sign either. The narrative of this movie is so paper thin that you want to give credit where credit is due to the animation, but the animation is not without flaws.

As I teased in my opening pre-amble, this is a movie about sacrifice that does a poor job of establishing comfort and apathy and the real villains. The Ribbon Hero is not at all concerned with the broader symptoms of society that keep the King of Ash in power (beyond poorly constructed symbols of apathy and comfort), so its final message feels weak. The characters aren’t much to write home about either. Basically everyone, including sapphire, have very one-note personalities. And without strong themes to ground them in, the bloated cast feels paper-thin. The only slight exception to this is Velvet, the film’s deuteragonist, but he’s certainly not saving the film; his character arc is very paint by numbers, the only thing setting him apart form the rest of the cast is his brooding backstory and extremely GNC design. This movie’s social commentary was thrown in on a whim, rather than built into the world’s foundation.

If you’re interested at all in this movie, beyond being a Tezuka fanatic, you can just watch the sakuga clips from The Ribbon Hero. The movie doesn’t offer much more beyond that.

Akane-Banashi is not what a lot of modern western weebs would expect from a shounen. With hard-hitters like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer captivating minds across the world, it may be hard to imagine a show about a young girl becoming a rakugoa in the same magazine as One Piece. However, Akane-Banashi has all the heart, fire, and determination it needs to be a bonafide, tasty shounen story.

The animation, while decent, is not much to write home about. We’re not getting the flashy sakuga some shounen fans have come to expect from the genre. Akane-Banashi’s best parts are its direction. It’s the unique angles and ... desire to get creative make the show much more interesting to watch. While Akane-Banashi’s art isn’t explosive, it’s certainly not ugly. The OST is OK, the music never bothering me.

The set-dressing of the rakugo world is really interesting. As someone who knows precious little about the artform, I found myself just as enraptured in its worlds as Akane is. The story does a very good job at explaining what is likely an unfamiliar thing to its audience; this is not soccer or volleyball, but a traditional Japanese artform most outside of Japan are unaware of. I loved seeing Akane nerd out about her art, because I was nerding out with her--the story immersed me completely. I especially loved the little post-credit scenes where cast members explained elements of rakugo directly to the audience.

What I loved most about Akane-Banshi was Akane herself. She’s driven, ambitious, naturally talented, but willing to learn--all of this makes her a very cool, very endearing protagonist. Her deep love of her craft propels her forward, her fiery passion inspirational. It is deeply refreshing to have a female protagonist like this. Where the entire focus is on her journey to become a rakugoa. Akane’s story would be no different if she was a man, which makes the show fantastic.

The support cast is good, though there weren’t really any standouts. They do their job of supporting Akane and the story as a whole. I liked how the main cast is primarily adults, with Akane graduating high school at the end of this first season. Entering the world of adulthood rather than remaining in the confinement of high school opens the story up to more interesting settings and characters. The castmembers as such are extremely mature, which makes central conflict more compelling; these are adults competing against each other for the sake of their art. I especially like that Akane-Banashi isn’t afraid to shine away from the reality of living as a working artist. It’s all really interesting for someone with an interest in Japanese culture!

Even with all my praise, this first season did not blow me away. Beyond its lovely protagonist and fascinating setting, it’s a pretty-bog standard shounen. But if all shounen anime had detailed female protagonists and an enrapturing setting, then we’d be living on a much better MAL. Akane-Banashi is a breath of fresh air, and an easy recommendation.

Go for it, Nakamura-kun!! is an extremely cute, light-hearted rom-com that warmed my cold dead heart. It’s not a perfect work, but its love for young queer boys shone through at every moment.

Go for it, Nakamura-kun!! looks pretty good, which makes it a animation masterpiece by BL standards. The colors are light and bouncy without feeling faded, oozing classic 90's romcom feelings. The series art copies a lot of nineties character design aesthetics, and while usually I take issue with nostalgia bait, the designs are able to stand on their own. The OST is okay to unnoticeable, so that could be worse.

Go for ... it, Nakamura-kun!! is deeply cute. Its lighthearted, comedic take is so refreshing, that even I, the local “Ivantill should always be unrequited” fell in love. Nakamura is just so genuine and passionate, and as a young queer boy staring down an impossible crush, you cannot help but root for him. Nakamura feels like the essence of a teen’s heart and soul condensed into an actual person, acting out crazy teenaged fantasies because he’s That Down Bad and That Socially Awkward for Hirose. For the most part, the comedy hits for the show, as Nakamura’s over-the-top antics are extremely endearing to watch.

I take issue with the supporting cast. While they fulfill their roles as set dressing for Nakamura’s episodic antics, I sort of wish their characters came to more of a climax. The series is a combination of the original Go for it, Nakamura-kun!! One-shot and its unplanned sequel, so the anime's characters feel weirdly unfinished. Hirose himself was alright; he fulfilled his role as so-close-yet-so-far-crush very well, and while you could read some very interesting extra depth into him, I find him to be just okay. The show is about Nakamura, and the show does a very good job at being about Nakamura.

I do wish the show wasn’t so neutered compared to the original manga, if only because I care about things being accurate. The original manga does still exist, and I understand why they wanted to take the rape jokes out, but certain elements feel weaker. I get why they did so, because they knew the show was gonna be popular in the west--and the OG mangaka Syudei regularly gets raked in the coals by western fujoshi. If you’re looking for an accurate adaptation, this might not be it.

If you're just in for a good time, though this is a treat for fujoshi and general romance fans alike. Go for it, Nakamura-kun!! has as much charm as Nakamura-kun himself, who we are all rooting for.

Similarly to Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro is just as lovely as I remember it being. Looking at it some fifteen years after I first saw the movie, I fell in love again with not just Totoro, but the beautiful Japanese countryside. 

Look, It’s a Ghibli movie, the animation is gorgeous--you don’t need me to tell you that. Miyazaki’s works make you happy to be alive. He paints the world so appealing, that I leave every film of his with a renewed passion to try my best at life. The Kusakabes’ new neighborhood glows with the lush life of summer--endless fields of rice, plump vegetables, twisting streams, ... and ancient, emerald forests. Miyazaki illustrates an extremely idyllic countryside life, making great use of its time period being pre-television. 

The plot of My Neighbor Totoro is fairly straightforward, even more so than Ponyo. Mei and Satsuki adventure through their town and local wildlife, grieve life without their hospitalized mother, and hang out with their sick new pal Totoro. Both are extremely realistic depictions of young girls; naive, compassionate, yet exceedingly brave and ambitious. Both girls desperately want to grow up, Satsuki unconsciously emulating her mother, and Mei unconsciously emulating Satsuki. Mei in particular is very charming; she’s every bit as toddler as she can be, who lives and reacts in a way a very young child would. As the world is so idealized, Mei and Satsuki’s flaws feel far less grating; the world is their cushion. I also loved how welcoming and friendly the townspeople were. The audience feels just as welcomed as the Kusakabes. The supporting cast as a whole, however, wasn’t touched upon too much, but they did exactly what they needed to do to move the story along. 

Something I wasn’t expecting when watching this film in theatres is how funny My Neighbor Totoro is. This is a bright, comedic movie, as Totoro himself is a funny thing to look at. He’s a big cat-racoon-tanuki thing with a giant mouth. He loves to shout and do funny dances in the girls’ backyard. I was pleasantly surprised at the movie’s silliness. Totoro is more than just cute; he’s got this little bit of edge, which makes him all the more wonderful. He’s a giant troll the girls happen to be friends with, because the girls earned it by being good people. I feel like Totoro could wreck someone’s day just as much as he could make it better. 
What I loved most, though, was not the movie itself, but the people around me. The audience was mostly children, who were laughing the whole time at Totoro’s antics. Even twenty or so odd years later, My Neighbor Totoro is still able to connect with this generation’s children. I find that the most damning thing about Miyazaki’s art. His care and appreciation for the child gives him the uncanny ability to reach the hearts of the young and young in heart.