Jeoffrey

There really is not much to say about this insane movie, and what could be said has already been noted by others. Anyway, the gentlemen from Studio Trigger are a mental bunch of people that can combine some mental things into a mental narrative with some mental characters and some very original animation. It is only a few minutes long, yet it is still pretty much taken up by the opening by Japan Animator Expo and the theme song. Sex and Violence with Machspeed is a mental and peculiar ride even though it is definitely not boring. 7/10.

Have you ever wondered what Pinocchio would have looked like if a Japanese man with a penchant for fantasy adventure had taken up his story? Apart from a few minor shortcomings, A Tree of Palme was a very good anime movie. So I am going to start with its weaknesses, and, in my opinion, these are the various sudden shifts in the plot, where the narrative moves forward too quickly and slightly chaotically at certain points. These shifts could result in less attentive viewers feeling it is a bit of a mess and often unnatural. I was extremely pleased with the rest. I like the animation, even if it is dated. The soundtrack is, in my opinion, really good, and I enjoyed some of the motifs a lot. However, the most positive thing for me is the intriguing narrative, the engaging atmosphere, and the fascinating setting: the flowers, trees, and animals combined to create a rather desolate and slightly depressing landscape, which I thought was interesting. Even the ending was pleasing; I was worried for a while that it would end like a dumbed-down fairy tale. However, in the end, it was quite good, and as a result, it ended and did not end at the same time, so it was also well-executed. I might have been able to find a few minor reservations about the characters as well, even though I did not mind them on the whole; in fact, rather, I was intrigued by them. On the whole, I found this quite a respectable offering, and I am awarding it a strong four stars which means 8.3/10.

Just because the animation is satisfactory and the movie has a pretty good soundtrack does not necessarily mean you have made a good one. This is especially true when it does not have a very good narrative, and you decide to present the story in a way that there is hardly anything which engages the viewer. Add to that the rather unappealing characters, of which I could only tolerate the main male protagonist and the passionate, romantic policeman, and his dog. No one can be surprised that, in the end, I was not impressed by Quackerz. So, this is a very muddled, poorly presented, and not particularly entertaining movie, even though it may be watchable. 3/10.

I was expecting Shonen Maid to be rubbish, and I also expected to drop it quickly because gender-bender style costumes are somehow not my thing really. The reality, however, must be suspended, and this is a pretty funny slice-of-life anime series that is inoffensive and quite entertaining because of the eccentric uncle Madoka Takatori who is quite fascinating. I am very pleasantly surprised and often have to smile, which means it is better than average. 6/10.

There are a lot of things that cannot be explained logically, and my penchant for cute silliness is one of them. Rilu Rilu Fairilu, meanwhile, is an insanely colorful and childish affair that overuses chibi and mainly offers only cuteness. The narrative reminds me of Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama, which I quit after the first episode, so it is nothing to write home about, rather the opposite. This is the kind of thing that should be mainly entertaining for young children, and adults are probably going to find it quite boring. However, I am not exactly a normal adult, so I am enjoying the cuteness and childishness for now. Sure there are characters I could do without (the majority of them in the "beautiful fairies" category) even though the rest are quite endearing and, for example, Lip is fine. So this is an anime series that I would probably only recommend to hardcore moe fans and small children, and I obviously know that the actual quality is something other than my subjective opinion. However, I enjoy this show, so now I am going to start carving out a little door and look for a key for it so I can get a proper look into this world of Rilu Rilu Fairilu - 5.5/10.

♪ If there's something strange in your neighborhood. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! ♫ The fascinating Ghost Stories struck me as a Japanese version of Ghostbusters, where the main characters are children, and the ghosts are, of course, adapted to local traditions. The show is not that scary and is not a fully-fledged horror anime by any means, even though the atmosphere of some of the narratives is quite good. By making stand-alone episodes, the feeling you get from each episode is also quite different. What I did not get a very good impression of, however, were the characters. The only one I was able to grow quite fond of was Amanojaku. As far as the kids are concerned, the girls were pretty good, especially Momoka Koigakubo; however, I found the male cast very annoying. Keiichiro Miyanoshita was probably the most extremely annoying character, and his whining got on my nerves quite often. However, the other two boys also had moments when they got my back up. I sometimes even wished one of them would die... I think this is quite an average show because while it was interesting, I had to force myself to finish it. I also had to shut out thoughts of how nice it would be if some of the characters died a slow and painful death. 5.2/10.

I thought this was quite an interesting short film. I have to say that you can cram a lot into five minutes. Plus, even without words, you can say a lot. 6/10.

My Dear Marie is an anime that shows me, how would Victor Frankenstein look like if he were Japanese, and if his story were not horror but rather a romantic, slightly erotic comedy. Otherwise, I thought that it was quite interesting; I quite liked the characters Marie and Hibiki, unlike Hiroshi, whom I was not too impressed with. I do not enjoy it when the "harem master" is a total douche, and every girl lusts after him. I think that is rather unbelievable. The animation is pretty acceptable considering it is from the 90s, even though honestly, even then, animation was better than this in general. Hence, the animation in this movie is just average. The soundtrack did not stand out, so it probably was not that bad. It has a pretty interesting narrative even though it is largely based on a love story. It is entertaining, and there is a decent amount of good old uncensored fan service. In the end, I think it is above-average because I found it quite intriguing. 6/10.

As an adaptation, this is pretty bad. Cramming a lot of characters, their interactions, and power struggles into a complicated narrative with a running time of twenty-five minutes does not work. The narrative also does not properly explain the past or introduce the characters and their motivations. So a person (me) who is not familiar with the original source material does not have a chance to get a handle on this. Sure, it is nice that they explain where it takes place at the beginning, although the storytelling is pretty bad on the whole. I honestly have to say that even the anime synopsis here or on any other anime database told the story much better than how it was told in the short film. I was too often lost; I did not understand who was who and what they were up to. I did not get why everyone was after Guan Yu, why that insanely insufferable white-haired crybaby had a second ego. I did not know what Cao Cao was up to, and if his relationship with Guan Yu was a love/hate thing or if there was something else going on. So for someone who is not familiar with the premise, it is hard to get into. So who is it for? Well, probably for experts in the subject matter and those who like bishies and especially characters with cat ears. I do not fall into the first category, and I would rather watch Spice and Wolf again because Guan Yu does not come close to the shaggy-haired goddess Holo. In the end, this movie did not do much for me. On the other hand, I did not find it offensive, although I am not awarding it more than 3/10.

I had written a review where words like mediocre, passable, etc., were used very often. Before I posted it, I read what others on FilmBooster had written and deleted the whole thing. The reviewers have said all there is to say. Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens is an average/standard show with one exceptional goddess (Nagi). However, that does not justify awarding more than 5.5/10, in my opinion.