Zíza

So this is what you call a feast for your eyes? Okay. Yes, the animation was beautiful – I admired his ship in every scene. I was also surprised by Oguri Shun, I didn't expect him to be that good. Miura did pull my ears a bit in the beginning, but after that I got used to him. The music was fitting, likable, except that the ED made me feel a bit like being thrown into another world. But otherwise fine. What was weaker, though, was the story. It felt a bit like a hodgepodge, until it made me want to watch the original series, because I trust that it will make more sense there and won't make some scenes feel explicitly violent next to the others. Overall, though, I enjoyed it. A simple movie with great animation (just the way Harlock's appearance changed...).

I had fun, I thought some of the scenes were brilliantly conceived. It had pacing and very fitting music. The acting was very good and Fiennes' pronunciation was simply pleasing to my ear. Although there is a bitter story beneath the veneer of comedy, I enjoyed it and left the cinema satisfied and amused all over again at some of the lines. The only thing that bothered me a little was the empty feeling at the end, but I guess it was meant to be. A weaker 4 stars, and I can definitely recommend it for viewing.

Gong Yoo is cute. Lee Min-Jung is the same as always, whether for better or worse. She spends a lot of time pointlessly crying. It ran around in circles at times because it had to be stretched to fill 16 episodes. I don't understand what everyone has against the ending; I thought it was good. It's definitely watchable, relaxing, entertaining. I liked that the main couple had quite a few scenes where they talked to each other a lot. The editing annoyed me at times because it didn't always fit. The music was passable – a classic accompaniment to romantic comedies. A better 3 stars.

The first season is fine, it keeps you in suspense – what’s going to happen? When the hell will they remember? But then the tension drops, if you don't see it for maybe a month or two nothing happens, you don't even feel the need to sit down and watch it right away. Plus, it's getting more and more clichéd, and while clichés are fine, unfortunately here they are not. Not to mention that it's a bit too drawn out for my taste, and it feels terribly convoluted (it's not, but they just keep piling new stuff onto what we know, maybe to give it an extra season, who knows...). In the end, the only one I'm enjoying there is R. Carlyle there anyway, because he's really great. Otherwise, average, below average, and at times some of the acting was only barely tolerable for me. A weaker 3 stars and I don't even have much desire to finish watching the 3rd season. And I like fairy tales, especially when they mix with our world.

Lord, that was some drama! The heck with some robot fights, what about the romantic quadrangle! That was nerve wracking! I almost couldn't catch my breath. I had no idea Macross was like that... Anyway, decent animation for its time, great music – of course that's what it's all about, the singing, and it will be a while before I can get the song “Watashi no kare wa pairotto" out of my head. When the Zentraedi were terrified of culture and swooning over it, I had an excellent time. Unfortunately, mecha isn't my favorite genre, so I wasn't too interested in the fights, but I welcomed them occasionally so I wouldn't have to watch Hikaru deal with his love life. Still, the characters were written in a way that was interesting and believable, the story was great, the music was excellent, and I was relieved at the end that he chose that one. Unfortunately, on the whole it still struck me as something only slightly above average (and above all, as I mentioned, I don't like mecha, so if you do, add a star and a half). Come to think of it, it's a series so full of contradictions for me that I'm not even sure how to properly rate it – well, try it out, if you're bored with half the series you’ll like the other half so much that you’ll want to see more. But I definitely recommend watching it.

From my perspective, a heavily overrated Korean sometimes funny sometimes romantic hodgepodge. I didn't like the main character, nor did the main character avoid falling behind, and I had my share of trouble not falling asleep from boredom at times. As for the script, music, and cinematography, everything is absolutely mediocre; even the actors didn't impress me with their art. This series completely failed to click with me and couldn’t even be saved by Park Shi-Hoo, who was the reason I watched it in the first place. If you're new to Korea and like the theatrics and melodrama of it, this mediocrity will definitely appeal to you.

What can I say, except maybe that after a long time I'm following the crowd again. :-D Do Min-Joon is a hottie with supernatural abilities, Cheon Song-Yi is a sassy girl yet again and doesn't fall into the stupid heroine column. I enjoyed, quite a bit, watching the interactions between the characters: they were goofy, they were serious, they had dignity then lost it again, they were in love, they hated each other, and it really seemed they felt that way. The villain was also quite the psycho. What bothered me, though, is that in the course of investigating and uncovering all sorts of things, there was always some kind of evidence that came up when it suited the writers; they didn't work with what they already had in their hands at all. They just didn't solve the problems with what they already had, but always threw in something new to move it along/resolve it. It wasn't downright terrible, but it’s a pity since otherwise I wouldn't have much to complain about. Yes, I felt a slight fuzziness towards the end and was a bit worried that they had increased the series by one episode, but they managed it quite well in the end. The ending was a bit different than I wanted and expected, but it wasn't an outright disappointment – on the contrary, I appreciate that it wasn't what I was expecting. Plus points: OST, acting (I was really pleased beyond measure, the main two characters were great, but I didn't expect the supporting characters to be so good – Song-Yi's brother, her friend from the comic book rental store, the villain wasn't bad, even the police did a decent job ; -) and towards the end Yoo In-Na surprised me, she put on a new face and even though she looked like a grey mouse next to Jun Ji-hyun, her performance was definitely not bad), the scenes where Do Min-Joon's character sits and comments on what happened and what he was feeling, basically all the flashback scenes that showed certain moments in a new light again. All of this appealed to me, won me over, and most importantly, kept me from being bored while watching. Bottom line, it has its flaws and a minimum of moments that I didn't really like, but it's definitely a series that deserves your attention. P.S.: Did you notice in the scene where Song-Yi is reading the manga that he's flipping through it from back to front? You can tell the actress has never read the manga. :-D ... But it's true that it’s easy to forget. I have a feeling it will go down a star after the next viewing. EDIT: 10 Apr The enthusiasm cooled down and in the end... it wasn't such a hit. :-D I'm downgrading it to 4 stars, but I still recommend it with all ten fingers.

It's a ride at the beginning, a great black comedy where everyone dies, even the earthworms. Unfortunately, towards the end, it gets a bit diluted, the pace eases... to fit the last episode(s) of "How London Burned, 1666". Incomprehensible to some, perhaps; after all, we're laughing at the fact that "innocent" people are dying here, but it was beautifully Japanese, absurdity at its best. Okay, I'm exaggerating; I would have added a lot more of that absurdity in there, just so I could roll my eyes the whole time and be able to say it was schadenfreude. But it wasn't, and it was sweetened by a song from NEWS. What more do you want from a show where the ending is done by J-pop singers, even though it has SABU on a t-shirt? A little bit of absurdity, a dash of explosions, 250 ml of animals, 10 grams of romance, all mixed with counter-clockwise storytelling. And a decent 3 stars is served!

Shōta plays a bit of a jerk here, but he's a capable doctor and a nice guy, plus he's steered by Emi, so it's watchable. After all, here Emi plays the first female character I’ve liked in a long time here, and more of it – especially in live action series. Some episodes are better, some are worse, the best of them without question is always the ending + the epilogue – I particularly liked that one. I had fun with them, they were a good bunch even with all the quirks. A weaker 4 stars.

Of course, the series makes the point that we are not all the same and that it is wrong to pigeonhole people into narrowly profiled groups. On the other hand, we survive because of it, so it's not surprising that people gravitate toward pigeonholing and prefer to reject what doesn't fit into their boxes. Indeed, for a long time I had a very bad feeling about this series, probably due not only to the not-that-great acting of the main genderless ones, but also the overall behavior of the various characters and the forcing of others to feel and act the way other people think they should. Free will? Not interested. It makes you sick to your stomach. While I understand that they were really trying to show the viewer how wrong pigeonholing is, I felt like we went around in circles for too long and nothing happened. Then the characters themselves said enough was enough and everything would get resolved in the last few episodes, even if there was going to be a sudden change in behavior for various characters. Pity. In the end, all the efforts to make the viewer feel bad came to nothing, and that's another minus for me. Still, it’s a series with an interesting theme, so if you’ve got a hankering for a high school series with something untraditional in it, give it a go.