Winter Season 2019
We're already a month into Spring Season, but I kept putting off posting this since I hadn't finished some of the series yet. But in the forseeable future I probably won't have time/space of mind for them, so let's post this as is!
Anime
Mob Psycho 100 II
The show I was most looking forward to in Winter I ended up... not watching :'D It just didn't feel right yet, for some reason. MP100 hit very close to home when I watched it in 2016, and I'll have to deal with Imposter Syndrome - The Show when I'm feeling all up to it, I think. So for the meantime, I'll save it for when I need it, but I'm just happy it exists, One is getting the love he deserves, and Bones still is the biggest Reigen stan existing.
Dororo (2019)
Since Amazon is utterly incapable of promoting its shows properly, I had no idea this was a) a thing b) available for me to watch until it already aired and people talked about it. I have no opinions on Tezuka's work neither here nor there, never having watched any of it, really, and haven't seen/read/played any of the Dororo adaptations. As a series of its own, I'm very much enjoying it so far! It's very good at capturing the grim unglamourous consequences of the Warring States Era for the common people, and Hyakkimaru's slow transformation to becoming (more) human (or is he?) is really well done overall. The only worry I have is that there will be a very bleak ending. Just let this found family be happy :( (Also, all the Dororo discourse on tumblr is just. A lot.)
Morose Mononokean II
Dollar Store Brand Natsume was back with a second season, and so far I've watched about half of it before dropping off for the time being. It finally did do some actual character development/background information/worldbuilding, but it still just all feels insignificant, inconsequential and overall lukewarm. I'll leave the rest of this season for a sick day or something.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
Part V is still ongoing, and I'm still very much enjoying my first trip on the JoJo train! Although that one tumblr post is still right - "Bruno's gang has six braincells and five of them are Giorno's". Also, that one episode with the gay villains, thanks David Production for spot-on fanservice.
That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime
The wholesomest Isekai will come back in 2020 with a new season, and the tailend of season one delivered more of the same. Apparently, it skipped through a lot of plot at the end, which I noticed even not being in the know about the light novel, but honestly, the less magical academy nonsense, the better. Rimuru is best chill overpowered isekai protagonist (watch and learn, Salaryman-san!), still solves most of his issues with diplomacy and kindness, and the recap episode from MVP tsundere-dragon Valdora's perspective (as he's trapped in Rimuru hyperspace along with an actual flamedemon) was just hilarious. Four #wobbelwobbel out of five!
Nanatsu no Taizai
I've been aware of Nanatsu no Taizai's existence from its first airing episode on, as Sawano did the soundtrack for it and it was hailed as the big new shounen series. The character designs did nothing for me, though (look, my introduction to Shounen was Kubo's biseinen style, not Dragonball, sue me!), and the ongoing ~hilarious joke~ of the protagonist groping the heroine just made me leg it a mile in the opposite direction and blacklist the hell out of the show. Then this January, I came across this clip on twitter and decided, okay, fine, it's on Netflix, I can give it a shot.
On the plus side:
- Ban is a very fun character, and surprisingly layered. There is always a certain darkness to immortal characters in a setting with otherwise mortal characters, especially if the immortality was gained against the character's wishes and effectively separated them from who they wanted to be with. Points deduced for the child-like appearnace of his love interest, though, and the fact that they seem to have known each other for like a week :') Nevetheless, the fact that he lets himself be jailed and tortured just because it's something new to do in the boring century he's hanging around in, his overall pragmatism and willingness to betray his boss if it was necessary make him a fun foil. (If the main character was less of an annoyance to me, the fact that the betrayal/attempted murder by Ban is accompanied with him going "I love you, Captain", but alas!). He also flings the dying body of an ally at a mini boss once going "I'm borrowing this", so!
- Gilthunder is a cool character! Okay, so maybe I'm just weak to Miyano Mamoru voicing a duplicitous knight with lightening powers, but the twist about his hostage situation and codeword was actually quite surprising and fun. Also, the above mentioned spear scene!
- The soundtrack, but I already knew that.
- I fully expected to hate King with a passion, but didn't! He was actually ironically the most humane character, imagine that.
On the minus side:
- The protagonist, Melodias. Look, I get the idea of "Age-old being on sliding scale of desparation and coping mecahnisms might not know how to human", but if the only "symptom" is him feeling up women when they're unconscious, that's a big "thanks, I hate it!" from me, especially as the girls in question are either into it or tacitly just let him go on. The one time you need an aggressive tsundere to punch him in the face, there's none! His "Saatte, saatte, saatte" catchphrase was admitteldy fun, though.
- The Seven Deadly Sin squad is dissolved some decade or so in the past, but none of the character seem to age or change that much (which makes sense for them individually), and no-one comments on it?? Or finds it weird?? And they manage to just go unnoticed??
- The heroine Elizabeth is the blandest, and her outfit was. A choice. By the author, not her.
- The pig mascot character was annoying as all hell, and the fact that his sacrifice in the big finale of season one is supposed to be so touching and heartwrenching is just hilarious to me. Also, I guess you have to give props to his Seiyuu for pulling off the "tondokoton tondokoton tondokoton" each time he runned, but it was more than a little annoying (esepecially as I binged the series).
I watched the first season and the movie, and then decided yes, I had seen more than enough of this. At least I now have some more appreciation for some of the soundtracks. Two old-school shounen out of five.
Hero=Mask
One more Netflix original I tried and deemed no good. So far, all their actual originals (versus those they just license and drop as a binge, completely robbing them from any impact in the community, thanks!!) have been messes of "I get the idea, but the execution is just all over the place“. I know Devilman: Crybaby has its fans, but to me it just appeared to be shock value for shock value’s sake, burying any commentary and insight into human nature it might well have had under layers of edge(tm). B - The Beginning meanwhile was an incoherent mess of two different shows smooshed together, constantly whiplashing between generic shounen action and dark seinen murder mystery, and except for its one stellar fight scene remained utterly forgettable. Hero=Mask also is targeting an older fanbase presumably, and is set up as a cop drama in London in some 80s inspired modern day, where someone managed to craft evil origami which, when worn as a mask, gives its wielder super strength. Or something. I zoned out after three episodes (out of 15) because nothing about it was gripping at all, and I had more interesting shows to watch. The one highlight was seeing Brompton Cemetery of all things being featured in episode two, which gave me a rush of HEY, I WAS THERE! Other than that, thank u next
Tenrou: Sirius: The Jaeger
One of the shows that Netflix' shit release schedule buried entirely. Originally being released in summer, they dumped it in winter as a binge, and thus the show never managed to get much talk in the community. I had watched a bootlegged version of episode one back in the day, and it looked nice enough, so I decided to wait for it. It took me until know to start it, and my vague memory from July (feels like I was a different person back then) was still spot on in that the action scenes look amazing. Studio P.A. Works is mostly known for making gorgeous slice of life and magical realism shows, so I was very surprised to see them heavily focus in this project on very fluid fight choreography. Each time Yuri (or Yuliy, if the subs are to be believed) broke out his lance, you knew you were in for a treat. The story is fairly standard fare for Vampire and Werewolf tropes, but I enjoyed the 1930s trappings of all of it. The show somehow offered a better Joker Game experience than the actual Joker Game show with its JIA Major character (who pissed me vaguely off in how tailormade he was to appeal to the tropes I like), and it gleefully leans into the whole Indiana Jones-sandbox. I mean, if your story is about finding the Ark of the Werewolf Covenant Sirius, you might as well. The one thing that truly annoyed me, though, was that the show has the most superfluous comedy-relief-love-interest-character ever. I constantly kept waiting for her to have an actual purpose in the story rather than just following Yuri around and making doe eyes at him, but not really? She’s set up as a strong-willed girl with swordsmanship skills, but it hardly factors in, and the irony of it all is that even as a love interest, she’s utterly wasted, as Yuri seems absolutely uninterested. His bond with his brother is the focal point of the show, and done fairly well, same goes for his interactions with his team. Going by what I saw recently posted on tumblr, the girl was intended to eventually turn into a vampire to stress the point of striving towards coexistence, but then the showrunners decided to drop that plot point and focus on the brothers instead, and she was just. Left as was, I guess .¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yuri is surprisingly not handled as your usual rage ball protagonist, but as someone really trying to get along with others, so there was enough emotional investment in the show already, anyeay. This is especially resonant in the theme of revenge and his relationship to his father figures. Ryoko, by comparison, really feels tacked on by the marketing department that decided that you need a love interest, dammit. Overall, if you want to watch a well animated show and any of the tropes appeal to you, I’d say this is definitely worth a watch! I’m low-key sad that this will never see a sequel, although the ending is a good one, but the characters were endearing enough for me to see more of their adventures. As it stands, four dog stars out of five.
Oh, additional fun fact re: Netflix really sucks at airing anime - they didn’t. Cut out. The still images :’) :’) You know, those „KONO BANGUMI WA GURAN NO SUPONSAAAAA DE TEIKYOU DE OKURISHIMASU“ ones. They’re. Still there. Including a slight lag after the commercial break in the middle of the anime. Why are you so bad at this, Netflix.
Children of the Whales
I realised that Netflix isn't really a business model suited to my watching habits (at the moment, at least) - I'm not a binge-watcher, and prefer my simulcast services over a library of stuff I can't rely on will still be there when I have time to get to it. So, I decided to cancel my subscription, and had a few days left to go through my List and watch some Netflix exclusive things. This is how I finally got around to watching Children of the Whales, another show that had its thunder stolen by Netflix not letting it be part of the ongoing fan culture promotion. I had seen some gifs of the first episode back when it originally aired, and I thought I saw people say that it kind of just fizzles out after the first episodes, action and plot wise, and that was about the extent I knew going in. Boy was I wrong :'D There is a reason Netflix has the show marked as 16+, because things go all sorts of directions pretty quickly. But the overall soft tone, look and unwavering (but not annoying) optimism of the characters kept it from feeling edgy just for the sake of edge and shock value. I've picked up the manga volues where the show left of, as a second season seems unlikely, and will follow the Mud Whale's journey from here on out. Also, that ending music /clutches chest Four trolley problems out of five!
Movies
Akiba Pass Festival (Natsume Yujin-Cho: Ephemeral Bond OV, I want to eat your pancreas OV, Mademoiselle Hanamura: Great Tokyo Romance OV) write-up is here.
Yojimbo (OV)
I had already seen the movie once as a stream, and probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to watch it again. However, this year marked the first time the International Film Festival Weekend in WÜ added a new location and roster of movies to its slate, namely the Siebold-Museum of Japanese history. My flatmate was interested in tagging along, so we decided to watch this classic on the first day of the festival. I didn’t regret my decision, as Kurosawa’s cinematography does translate even better on a larger screen after all. The introduction speech was delivered by someone who clearly was not a public speaker, but in general I had a fun time rewatching, and the audience reactions showed that it really is a classic for a reason. Four loner swordsman archetypes out of five.
Nokan (OV)
I had picked out two more movies in that festival circuit, but they were all already sold out, sadly. So my flatmate hunted down one of them at least as a stream, although he had already watched it back in the day when it aired on (where else) arte. I was left a bit ambivalent on the movie - it exists that limbo between whacky comedy and earnest commentary, and not always manages to make a graceful transition, but I suppose a lot of it also just has to do with the fact that I am an outsider looking in on a culture that is different. A lot of the problems are firmly rooted in Japanese society, and after finishing the movie, my flatmate bemoaned the fact that the wife character was relegated to nothing but the quiet supporting angel in the house trope, which isn’t untrue. Nevertheless, the movie had some touching moments, which to me was almost always when it featured the "daijobu daijobu“ boss. Overall, three examinations of profession based stereotypes out of five.
Long time no see
This, I bought and watched after encountering this post. I didn’t bother with a trailer first, because hey, it’s not expensive and is for a good cause… kind of. However, my main take-away still was just "this feels like a rough draft one volume BL doujin“ and "I really can’t with K-Dorama“, I’m sorry to say. There’s a lot fun story ideas that aren’t capitalized on/explored in more depth (the whole "assassin writes gay assassin original fanfic online and has a devoted fan“ alone! How good is that premise!!), and with the limited budget leading to very limited casting, the entire mob plot remains oddly small-scale. Also, the movie is cut into episode chunks which all end with a PV to the next episode - I strongly advise you skip them instantly, as they will spoil the plot of the next 20 minutes (which, considering the whole thing is only 90 minutes, is just silly). I get, however, why this was such an important project, and for example the sibling bond is very sweetly done. I just wish there was less sweeping K-Dorama music and more, you know, plot. And no, Black Rose’s abs do not count as plot, however nice they might be. One concept to be improved on out of five.
Alita: Battle Angel (OV 3D)
Reviewed here. I ended up seeing it twice, but it was more fun the first time when I was still caught by surprise by events. Four "best placed one 'fuck" in a PG-13 movie ever" out of five.
Loving Vincent
I bought this one in a limited edition sale for my mother, and since then, it's been lying around at home for "some time, let's watch this together". I had missed the one showing at a cinema close by back in the day, but even on the small screen, it's a just strikingly gorgeous film. I had read a lot of reviews that suggested the movie had no substance and plot and felt boring, but I don't agree - the mellow, soft tone fit with the images perfectly, and it very much felt like a journey with purpose, even if there will never be a clearcut answer to the questions asked. The making of was also interesting, and I'll leave this at four „I’d like to start every day with a punch to the face“ out of five.
Green Book
/sidesteps the Discourse(tm) gingerly
Look, my mother and Yamaken really loved the movie and she insisted on seeing it again with me. So I did. It's alright. I wish I had not been exposed to the 23957 thinkpieces and counter thinkpieces and could just enjoy it as "trashy Italian-American and his snooty boss have a fun roadtrip", but alas. The movie as such is fairly inoffensive, and does have some very fun moments. Three "Of course I don't have a gun!" out of five.
Avengers: Endgame (OV)
I'm whelmed. That's all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Netflix and Audible and Others
a.k.a. Yes I'm still on the True Crime Train, are you surprised??
Abducted in Plain Sight (OV)
Have you ever wondered how stupid people can be? Then this is the documentary for you. I cannot believe stuff like that happens, and I cannot believe this woman still is in contact with her parents after they went "whoops, I guess!" and her being abducted by the same neighbour twice.
The Ted Bundy Tapes (OV)
In my opinion, this was a quite respectfully done documentary on the case, and did show that he wasn't so much an unparalleled murder genius as a guy who managed to slip by police due to poor communication, bias towards white men, and carelessness.
Leaving Neverland (OV)
I was surprised Pro7 actually decided to show this with subtitles in Germany (which they got some flack for - not the subtitles, them showing it at all, I mean), with the chief of programming claiming that he thinks it's important to talk about the subject. The documentary was partly very hard to watch, and as someone who was never much into Micheal Jackson himself, and vividly remembers the second trial, I'm very much inclined to believe that at least part of the accusations are true. The most interessting part of the documentary was seeing the mothers try to explain how it was possible for them to just hand over their kids to a stranger like that, and the mixture of stage mom syndrome, starstruck idolisation and wilfull ingorance that was partly admitted, and partly excused by going "but he groomed all of us!".
Jörg Maurer: Im Schnee wird nur dem Tod nicht kalt
At this point, I guess I'm ride-or-die with this whacky crime series. It keeps getting more meta, as this time around, the plot is literally "fanboy of the detectives in question did not approve of a previous installment I mean case and decideds to kill everyone before their storylines jump the shark". The novel also cleverly retcons some decisions fans didn't like. I guess you have to salute the chutzpah of that, and hey, it's fun.
Keigo Higashino: Malice
I can't remember the last time a crime novel managed to lead me up the garden path so successfully! The unusual format and utter convincingness of the narrative tricked me all the way to the end, without it feeling just like a cheap ploy. After all, if you have a character that's just steeped in self-denial and regret, these things happen. I had a lot of fun with this one, and tried looking up other novels in the same detective series, which brought me to:
Keigo Higashino: Newcomer
This one has a more standard 3rd person POV, and as soon as Detective Kaga in all his deliberately sloppy and chill facade was described, I just had this mental image of a certain actor. Plot twist: I did see one of these novels in a movie adaption a while back, and yup, that actor was cast as Kaga. The subconscious is an amazing thing. So, this being a more standard POV, I thought it would be a straight forward narrative, but instead, the novel again has a fun gimmick up its sleeve. Rather than follow the investigation chronologically and from the Detective's POV, each section focusses on one of the people that might be associated with the crime, and Kaga just drops in and out of their lives as he solves all the many mundane mysteries and lies that pile up in our interactions with each other. A lot of them are very, well, Japanese Problems(tm), but nevertheless it was a fun to listen to, and surprisingly touching in its resolution that just shows how much mundane things influnece you.
I also picked up two podcasts I'd recommend, Casefile (more true crime, the Aussie is absolutely a coincidence - I recommend the Silk Road 3-part story because it's wild, let me tell you) and You're Wrong About (a very specific sounding thing - two journalists (born '82 and '88) alternatingly present a topic that influenced American culture in the past decades, and that is most likely misremembered).
Anime
Mob Psycho 100 II
The show I was most looking forward to in Winter I ended up... not watching :'D It just didn't feel right yet, for some reason. MP100 hit very close to home when I watched it in 2016, and I'll have to deal with Imposter Syndrome - The Show when I'm feeling all up to it, I think. So for the meantime, I'll save it for when I need it, but I'm just happy it exists, One is getting the love he deserves, and Bones still is the biggest Reigen stan existing.
Dororo (2019)
Since Amazon is utterly incapable of promoting its shows properly, I had no idea this was a) a thing b) available for me to watch until it already aired and people talked about it. I have no opinions on Tezuka's work neither here nor there, never having watched any of it, really, and haven't seen/read/played any of the Dororo adaptations. As a series of its own, I'm very much enjoying it so far! It's very good at capturing the grim unglamourous consequences of the Warring States Era for the common people, and Hyakkimaru's slow transformation to becoming (more) human (or is he?) is really well done overall. The only worry I have is that there will be a very bleak ending. Just let this found family be happy :( (Also, all the Dororo discourse on tumblr is just. A lot.)
Morose Mononokean II
Dollar Store Brand Natsume was back with a second season, and so far I've watched about half of it before dropping off for the time being. It finally did do some actual character development/background information/worldbuilding, but it still just all feels insignificant, inconsequential and overall lukewarm. I'll leave the rest of this season for a sick day or something.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
Part V is still ongoing, and I'm still very much enjoying my first trip on the JoJo train! Although that one tumblr post is still right - "Bruno's gang has six braincells and five of them are Giorno's". Also, that one episode with the gay villains, thanks David Production for spot-on fanservice.
That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime
The wholesomest Isekai will come back in 2020 with a new season, and the tailend of season one delivered more of the same. Apparently, it skipped through a lot of plot at the end, which I noticed even not being in the know about the light novel, but honestly, the less magical academy nonsense, the better. Rimuru is best chill overpowered isekai protagonist (watch and learn, Salaryman-san!), still solves most of his issues with diplomacy and kindness, and the recap episode from MVP tsundere-dragon Valdora's perspective (as he's trapped in Rimuru hyperspace along with an actual flamedemon) was just hilarious. Four #wobbelwobbel out of five!
Nanatsu no Taizai
I've been aware of Nanatsu no Taizai's existence from its first airing episode on, as Sawano did the soundtrack for it and it was hailed as the big new shounen series. The character designs did nothing for me, though (look, my introduction to Shounen was Kubo's biseinen style, not Dragonball, sue me!), and the ongoing ~hilarious joke~ of the protagonist groping the heroine just made me leg it a mile in the opposite direction and blacklist the hell out of the show. Then this January, I came across this clip on twitter and decided, okay, fine, it's on Netflix, I can give it a shot.
On the plus side:
- Ban is a very fun character, and surprisingly layered. There is always a certain darkness to immortal characters in a setting with otherwise mortal characters, especially if the immortality was gained against the character's wishes and effectively separated them from who they wanted to be with. Points deduced for the child-like appearnace of his love interest, though, and the fact that they seem to have known each other for like a week :') Nevetheless, the fact that he lets himself be jailed and tortured just because it's something new to do in the boring century he's hanging around in, his overall pragmatism and willingness to betray his boss if it was necessary make him a fun foil. (If the main character was less of an annoyance to me, the fact that the betrayal/attempted murder by Ban is accompanied with him going "I love you, Captain", but alas!). He also flings the dying body of an ally at a mini boss once going "I'm borrowing this", so!
- Gilthunder is a cool character! Okay, so maybe I'm just weak to Miyano Mamoru voicing a duplicitous knight with lightening powers, but the twist about his hostage situation and codeword was actually quite surprising and fun. Also, the above mentioned spear scene!
- The soundtrack, but I already knew that.
- I fully expected to hate King with a passion, but didn't! He was actually ironically the most humane character, imagine that.
On the minus side:
- The protagonist, Melodias. Look, I get the idea of "Age-old being on sliding scale of desparation and coping mecahnisms might not know how to human", but if the only "symptom" is him feeling up women when they're unconscious, that's a big "thanks, I hate it!" from me, especially as the girls in question are either into it or tacitly just let him go on. The one time you need an aggressive tsundere to punch him in the face, there's none! His "Saatte, saatte, saatte" catchphrase was admitteldy fun, though.
- The Seven Deadly Sin squad is dissolved some decade or so in the past, but none of the character seem to age or change that much (which makes sense for them individually), and no-one comments on it?? Or finds it weird?? And they manage to just go unnoticed??
- The heroine Elizabeth is the blandest, and her outfit was. A choice. By the author, not her.
- The pig mascot character was annoying as all hell, and the fact that his sacrifice in the big finale of season one is supposed to be so touching and heartwrenching is just hilarious to me. Also, I guess you have to give props to his Seiyuu for pulling off the "tondokoton tondokoton tondokoton" each time he runned, but it was more than a little annoying (esepecially as I binged the series).
I watched the first season and the movie, and then decided yes, I had seen more than enough of this. At least I now have some more appreciation for some of the soundtracks. Two old-school shounen out of five.
Hero=Mask
One more Netflix original I tried and deemed no good. So far, all their actual originals (versus those they just license and drop as a binge, completely robbing them from any impact in the community, thanks!!) have been messes of "I get the idea, but the execution is just all over the place“. I know Devilman: Crybaby has its fans, but to me it just appeared to be shock value for shock value’s sake, burying any commentary and insight into human nature it might well have had under layers of edge(tm). B - The Beginning meanwhile was an incoherent mess of two different shows smooshed together, constantly whiplashing between generic shounen action and dark seinen murder mystery, and except for its one stellar fight scene remained utterly forgettable. Hero=Mask also is targeting an older fanbase presumably, and is set up as a cop drama in London in some 80s inspired modern day, where someone managed to craft evil origami which, when worn as a mask, gives its wielder super strength. Or something. I zoned out after three episodes (out of 15) because nothing about it was gripping at all, and I had more interesting shows to watch. The one highlight was seeing Brompton Cemetery of all things being featured in episode two, which gave me a rush of HEY, I WAS THERE! Other than that, thank u next
Tenrou: Sirius: The Jaeger
One of the shows that Netflix' shit release schedule buried entirely. Originally being released in summer, they dumped it in winter as a binge, and thus the show never managed to get much talk in the community. I had watched a bootlegged version of episode one back in the day, and it looked nice enough, so I decided to wait for it. It took me until know to start it, and my vague memory from July (feels like I was a different person back then) was still spot on in that the action scenes look amazing. Studio P.A. Works is mostly known for making gorgeous slice of life and magical realism shows, so I was very surprised to see them heavily focus in this project on very fluid fight choreography. Each time Yuri (or Yuliy, if the subs are to be believed) broke out his lance, you knew you were in for a treat. The story is fairly standard fare for Vampire and Werewolf tropes, but I enjoyed the 1930s trappings of all of it. The show somehow offered a better Joker Game experience than the actual Joker Game show with its JIA Major character (who pissed me vaguely off in how tailormade he was to appeal to the tropes I like), and it gleefully leans into the whole Indiana Jones-sandbox. I mean, if your story is about finding the Ark of the Werewolf Covenant Sirius, you might as well. The one thing that truly annoyed me, though, was that the show has the most superfluous comedy-relief-love-interest-character ever. I constantly kept waiting for her to have an actual purpose in the story rather than just following Yuri around and making doe eyes at him, but not really? She’s set up as a strong-willed girl with swordsmanship skills, but it hardly factors in, and the irony of it all is that even as a love interest, she’s utterly wasted, as Yuri seems absolutely uninterested. His bond with his brother is the focal point of the show, and done fairly well, same goes for his interactions with his team. Going by what I saw recently posted on tumblr, the girl was intended to eventually turn into a vampire to stress the point of striving towards coexistence, but then the showrunners decided to drop that plot point and focus on the brothers instead, and she was just. Left as was, I guess .¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yuri is surprisingly not handled as your usual rage ball protagonist, but as someone really trying to get along with others, so there was enough emotional investment in the show already, anyeay. This is especially resonant in the theme of revenge and his relationship to his father figures. Ryoko, by comparison, really feels tacked on by the marketing department that decided that you need a love interest, dammit. Overall, if you want to watch a well animated show and any of the tropes appeal to you, I’d say this is definitely worth a watch! I’m low-key sad that this will never see a sequel, although the ending is a good one, but the characters were endearing enough for me to see more of their adventures. As it stands, four dog stars out of five.
Oh, additional fun fact re: Netflix really sucks at airing anime - they didn’t. Cut out. The still images :’) :’) You know, those „KONO BANGUMI WA GURAN NO SUPONSAAAAA DE TEIKYOU DE OKURISHIMASU“ ones. They’re. Still there. Including a slight lag after the commercial break in the middle of the anime. Why are you so bad at this, Netflix.
Children of the Whales
I realised that Netflix isn't really a business model suited to my watching habits (at the moment, at least) - I'm not a binge-watcher, and prefer my simulcast services over a library of stuff I can't rely on will still be there when I have time to get to it. So, I decided to cancel my subscription, and had a few days left to go through my List and watch some Netflix exclusive things. This is how I finally got around to watching Children of the Whales, another show that had its thunder stolen by Netflix not letting it be part of the ongoing fan culture promotion. I had seen some gifs of the first episode back when it originally aired, and I thought I saw people say that it kind of just fizzles out after the first episodes, action and plot wise, and that was about the extent I knew going in. Boy was I wrong :'D There is a reason Netflix has the show marked as 16+, because things go all sorts of directions pretty quickly. But the overall soft tone, look and unwavering (but not annoying) optimism of the characters kept it from feeling edgy just for the sake of edge and shock value. I've picked up the manga volues where the show left of, as a second season seems unlikely, and will follow the Mud Whale's journey from here on out. Also, that ending music /clutches chest Four trolley problems out of five!
Movies
Akiba Pass Festival (Natsume Yujin-Cho: Ephemeral Bond OV, I want to eat your pancreas OV, Mademoiselle Hanamura: Great Tokyo Romance OV) write-up is here.
Yojimbo (OV)
I had already seen the movie once as a stream, and probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to watch it again. However, this year marked the first time the International Film Festival Weekend in WÜ added a new location and roster of movies to its slate, namely the Siebold-Museum of Japanese history. My flatmate was interested in tagging along, so we decided to watch this classic on the first day of the festival. I didn’t regret my decision, as Kurosawa’s cinematography does translate even better on a larger screen after all. The introduction speech was delivered by someone who clearly was not a public speaker, but in general I had a fun time rewatching, and the audience reactions showed that it really is a classic for a reason. Four loner swordsman archetypes out of five.
Nokan (OV)
I had picked out two more movies in that festival circuit, but they were all already sold out, sadly. So my flatmate hunted down one of them at least as a stream, although he had already watched it back in the day when it aired on (where else) arte. I was left a bit ambivalent on the movie - it exists that limbo between whacky comedy and earnest commentary, and not always manages to make a graceful transition, but I suppose a lot of it also just has to do with the fact that I am an outsider looking in on a culture that is different. A lot of the problems are firmly rooted in Japanese society, and after finishing the movie, my flatmate bemoaned the fact that the wife character was relegated to nothing but the quiet supporting angel in the house trope, which isn’t untrue. Nevertheless, the movie had some touching moments, which to me was almost always when it featured the "daijobu daijobu“ boss. Overall, three examinations of profession based stereotypes out of five.
Long time no see
This, I bought and watched after encountering this post. I didn’t bother with a trailer first, because hey, it’s not expensive and is for a good cause… kind of. However, my main take-away still was just "this feels like a rough draft one volume BL doujin“ and "I really can’t with K-Dorama“, I’m sorry to say. There’s a lot fun story ideas that aren’t capitalized on/explored in more depth (the whole "assassin writes gay assassin original fanfic online and has a devoted fan“ alone! How good is that premise!!), and with the limited budget leading to very limited casting, the entire mob plot remains oddly small-scale. Also, the movie is cut into episode chunks which all end with a PV to the next episode - I strongly advise you skip them instantly, as they will spoil the plot of the next 20 minutes (which, considering the whole thing is only 90 minutes, is just silly). I get, however, why this was such an important project, and for example the sibling bond is very sweetly done. I just wish there was less sweeping K-Dorama music and more, you know, plot. And no, Black Rose’s abs do not count as plot, however nice they might be. One concept to be improved on out of five.
Alita: Battle Angel (OV 3D)
Reviewed here. I ended up seeing it twice, but it was more fun the first time when I was still caught by surprise by events. Four "best placed one 'fuck" in a PG-13 movie ever" out of five.
Loving Vincent
I bought this one in a limited edition sale for my mother, and since then, it's been lying around at home for "some time, let's watch this together". I had missed the one showing at a cinema close by back in the day, but even on the small screen, it's a just strikingly gorgeous film. I had read a lot of reviews that suggested the movie had no substance and plot and felt boring, but I don't agree - the mellow, soft tone fit with the images perfectly, and it very much felt like a journey with purpose, even if there will never be a clearcut answer to the questions asked. The making of was also interesting, and I'll leave this at four „I’d like to start every day with a punch to the face“ out of five.
Green Book
/sidesteps the Discourse(tm) gingerly
Look, my mother and Yamaken really loved the movie and she insisted on seeing it again with me. So I did. It's alright. I wish I had not been exposed to the 23957 thinkpieces and counter thinkpieces and could just enjoy it as "trashy Italian-American and his snooty boss have a fun roadtrip", but alas. The movie as such is fairly inoffensive, and does have some very fun moments. Three "Of course I don't have a gun!" out of five.
Avengers: Endgame (OV)
I'm whelmed. That's all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Netflix and Audible and Others
a.k.a. Yes I'm still on the True Crime Train, are you surprised??
Abducted in Plain Sight (OV)
Have you ever wondered how stupid people can be? Then this is the documentary for you. I cannot believe stuff like that happens, and I cannot believe this woman still is in contact with her parents after they went "whoops, I guess!" and her being abducted by the same neighbour twice.
The Ted Bundy Tapes (OV)
In my opinion, this was a quite respectfully done documentary on the case, and did show that he wasn't so much an unparalleled murder genius as a guy who managed to slip by police due to poor communication, bias towards white men, and carelessness.
Leaving Neverland (OV)
I was surprised Pro7 actually decided to show this with subtitles in Germany (which they got some flack for - not the subtitles, them showing it at all, I mean), with the chief of programming claiming that he thinks it's important to talk about the subject. The documentary was partly very hard to watch, and as someone who was never much into Micheal Jackson himself, and vividly remembers the second trial, I'm very much inclined to believe that at least part of the accusations are true. The most interessting part of the documentary was seeing the mothers try to explain how it was possible for them to just hand over their kids to a stranger like that, and the mixture of stage mom syndrome, starstruck idolisation and wilfull ingorance that was partly admitted, and partly excused by going "but he groomed all of us!".
Jörg Maurer: Im Schnee wird nur dem Tod nicht kalt
At this point, I guess I'm ride-or-die with this whacky crime series. It keeps getting more meta, as this time around, the plot is literally "fanboy of the detectives in question did not approve of a previous installment I mean case and decideds to kill everyone before their storylines jump the shark". The novel also cleverly retcons some decisions fans didn't like. I guess you have to salute the chutzpah of that, and hey, it's fun.
Keigo Higashino: Malice
I can't remember the last time a crime novel managed to lead me up the garden path so successfully! The unusual format and utter convincingness of the narrative tricked me all the way to the end, without it feeling just like a cheap ploy. After all, if you have a character that's just steeped in self-denial and regret, these things happen. I had a lot of fun with this one, and tried looking up other novels in the same detective series, which brought me to:
Keigo Higashino: Newcomer
This one has a more standard 3rd person POV, and as soon as Detective Kaga in all his deliberately sloppy and chill facade was described, I just had this mental image of a certain actor. Plot twist: I did see one of these novels in a movie adaption a while back, and yup, that actor was cast as Kaga. The subconscious is an amazing thing. So, this being a more standard POV, I thought it would be a straight forward narrative, but instead, the novel again has a fun gimmick up its sleeve. Rather than follow the investigation chronologically and from the Detective's POV, each section focusses on one of the people that might be associated with the crime, and Kaga just drops in and out of their lives as he solves all the many mundane mysteries and lies that pile up in our interactions with each other. A lot of them are very, well, Japanese Problems(tm), but nevertheless it was a fun to listen to, and surprisingly touching in its resolution that just shows how much mundane things influnece you.
I also picked up two podcasts I'd recommend, Casefile (more true crime, the Aussie is absolutely a coincidence - I recommend the Silk Road 3-part story because it's wild, let me tell you) and You're Wrong About (a very specific sounding thing - two journalists (born '82 and '88) alternatingly present a topic that influenced American culture in the past decades, and that is most likely misremembered).