I am editing this review after finishing season 1. It went from being something I really enjoyed to one of my all-time favorites and something I consider a genuine masterpiece. This is a story about looking back by looking forward, about understanding the importance of living in the moment, about the importance of the little moments. Each arc, whether it goes by within a single episode or lasts multiple episodes, is suffused with emotion and impact, with an intentionality that is almost surprising considering how effortless and cozy the show feels. The animation is stunning, especially the visualizations of the magic, and Evan Call's soundtrack is top tier. It has been a privilege to watch Frieren's journey and reflection on her past, obvserving both unfold simultaneously as we learn the way she learns about the importance of small details she originally ignored. Honestly, everyone should watch this beautiful and poignant anime.
Original Review: This is ongoing, but I am really enjoying it. I appreciate how it takes a fantasy setting and the concept of an elf who outlives all her companions to explore how and why relationships between people matter. Using her unique perspective, the story is able to help accentuate humanity from the outside looking in. The side characters also get focus, so we get to see their character growth juxtaposed against the initial companions and Frieren. Sometimes the episodes feel inconsequential or too subdued, but they all have such a gentle and cozy feeling to them that I do not mind.
This Anime is just like watching a beautiful poem unfold and progress. Reminds me a great deal of the famous works of Miyazaki.
Forget about dumb isekai and overpowered anime with convoluted power systems, Frieren is the opposite, a calm slow burn slice of life. It's everything you need from a fantasy adventure.
Fun fact: The names Frieren, Himmel, Stark, Fern, Eisen, Heitel, and Flamme are words taken from the Scandi and Germanic languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and German) which represents their character's traits.
E.g., Fri(eren) is loosely translated as "The Free" or "The Frozen" in German, Himmel is "The Sky", Stark (or Stærk) is "The Strong", Flamme is "The Flame", Eisen is "The Iron", Heitel is "The Cheerful", and Fern can be translated as "The Detached" or Remote.
[9.5/10] They got me. They really did. I believed that Saul would do it, that he would find a way to lie, cheat, and steal out of suffering any real consequences for all the pain and losses he is responsible for. I believed that he would trade in Kim's freedom and chance to make a clean break after baring her soul in exchange for a damn pint of ice cream. I have long clocked Better Call Saul as a tragedy, about a man who could have been good, and yet, through both circumstance and choice, lists inexorably toward becoming a terrible, arguably evil person. I thought this would be the final thud of his descent, selling out the one person on this Earth who loved him to feather his own nest.
Maybe Walt was right when he said that Jimmy was "always like this." Maybe Chuck was right that there something inherently corrupt and untrustworthy in the heart of his little brother. This post-Breaking Bad epilogue has been an object lesson in the depths to which Gene Takovic will stoop in order to feed his addiction and get what he wants. There would be no greater affirmation of the completeness of his craven selfishness and cruelty than throwing Kim under the bus to save himself.
Only, in the end, that's the feint, that's the trick, that's the con, on the feds and the audience. When Saul hears that Kim took his words to heart and turned herself in, facing the punishments that come with it, he can't sit idly by and profit from his own lies and bullshit. He doesn't want to sell her out; he wants to fall on the sword in front of her, make sure she knows that he knows what he did wrong.Despite his earlier protestations that his only regret was not making more money or avoiding knee damage, he wants to confess in a court of law that he regrets the choices that led him here and the pain he caused, and most of all he regrets that they led to losing her.
In that final act of showmanship and grace, he lives up to the advice Chuck gives him in the flashback scene here, that if he doesn't like the road that his bad choices have led him, there's no shame in taking a different path. Much as Walt did, at the end of the line, Saul admits his genuine motives, he accepts responsibility for his choices after years of blame and evasion. Most of all, he takes his name back, a conscious return to being the person that Kim once knew, in form and substance. It is late, very late, when it happens, but after so much, Jimmy uses his incredible skills to accept his consequences, rather than sidestep them, and he finds the better path that Kim always believed he could walk, one that she motivates him to tread.
It is a wonderful finale to this all-time great show. I had long believed that this series was a tragedy. It had to be, given where Jimmy started and where the audience knew Saul ended. But as it was always so good at doing, Better Call Saul surprised me, with a measured bit of earned redemption for its protagonist, and moving suggestion that with someone we care for and who cares of us, even the worst of us can become someone and something better. In its final episode, the series offered one more transformation -- from a tale of tragedy, to a story of hope.
(On a personal note, I just want to say thank you to everyone who read and commented on my reviews here over the years. There is truly no show that's been as rewarding for me to write about than Better Call Saul, and so much of that owes to the community of people who offered me the time and consideration to share my thoughts, offered their kind words, and helped me look at the series in new ways with their thoughtful comments. I don't know what the future holds, but I am so grateful to have been so fortunate as to share this time and these words with you.)
EDIT: One last time, here is my usual, extended review of the finale in case anyone's interested -- https://thespool.net/reviews/better-call-saul-series-finale-recap-saul-gone/
I truly did not expect to love this story like I did. The Heike or Taira, if you think about it, are the antagonists in this story. Yet somehow this anime has you cheering them on and hoping for the best, despite already knowing what's going to happen. I bawled my eyes out watching this. It was such a beautiful experience, I'm truly grateful. Extremely recommended.
Belle... A collection of music videos glued together by a really badly written narrative.
Belle is one of the weakest animated movies i have seen in the past few years, and that makes me really sad, as a fan of the director i went into this expecting an 8 or an 9, but what i got is a 5 at best.
Belle has a interesting idea, with its reworking of the "beauty and the beast" and its child abuse themes... But it fails to build on its characters and to explain basic premises of its own world, making it for a very boring and bland experience.
Most of the things we thought would be relevant were completely ignored and absolutely useless, we asked ourselves watching "did she get some disease and now is unable to sing in the real world and that is why the U is an escape?" No, they never address this, she just fails to sing and vomits once because the movie wanted to i guess? They keep all her "friends" completely irrelevant and underdeveloped until the last quarter of the movie, so i basically don't care about any of them in the end, they never explain the socio economical structure of the U world... How does this work? They say the avatar is made automatically based on people physiognomy, but the avatars are crazy different in form and species, how can that be made from ones physiognomy? How is the invitation system decided? Who is invited and why? Why even have an invitation system instead of selling the app or freely distributing it if that ends up irrelevant to the story? Why show us a very interesting singer character on the start that rivalizes our belle if you are just going to forget her for the whole movie? How to know which avatars are AI controlled and which are actually people? Is it possible do die in U? If not, what is the relevance of all the conflict we see?
Belle raises too many questions and answer very little, it presents us with an beautiful and interesting virtual world but tells us NOTHING about it and how it all works, it presents us with futuristic technology in a world that seems stuck in the 2000s, it gives us many bland and uninteresting characters with only one personality trait each and develops none of them... There are so many problems, so many drawn out scenes... That it all gets boring and tiresome...
And.... That makes me really sad, the music is GREAT, the visuals are BEAUTIFUL, the music scenes are AMAZING... But they are few and far in between and the rest of the movie... Is not interesting, they present us a nice duality of belle and the beast, but their interest in one another is so out of nowhere and forced that it doesnt feel even a little bit real or natural... There is a great scene that develops the characters and emotional connects, but it is only in the last quarter of the movie... When it has already lost all my interest and attention... and the plot of child abuse is ok and very important... But it feels shoved in... The main plot... Feels shoved in... Oh, and how they find the boy... Well, that was just the worst "investigation" bit i have ever seen...
I really wanted to like this movie, but there are just too many unanswered questions, just too little character development, and a plot that is just generic and bland enough to lose my attention... The visuals and music alone are not enough...
At the end, i feel like they made some really great music videos and didnt want to release it as just animated music videos, so they wrote a really bland movie around it and shoved a controversial and important theme(child abuse) to appeal to peoples hearts in an effective but kinda cheap way.
If I had reviewed this series after just the first season, I would have said its quirky and mediocre. Towards the last couple episodes of Season 1 I had finally had some more enjoyable moments. From there, however, Season 2 only let the series get better and makes me excited for Season 3! This series is simply just fun to watch.
Edit: After watching season 3, it really seals the deal. This is one of the most entertaining and well orchestrated rom-com Animes I've had the pleasure of watching.
This is THE anime that we've all been waiting and yearning for. Many of us hardcore Mushoku Tensei fans have been waiting years upon years for an anime adaptation to finally hit, and HIT it has. I was a little skeptical with a brand new studio undertaking this, but all the previews had looked great so I was cautiously optimistic. The source material is my absolute favorite isekai series (which says a lot) and the light/web novel will always hold a special place in my fandom. So how were the first two episodes so far (first has aired officially and the first two were previewed beforehand)?
AMAZING. I really don't know if it's just because the source material is that good, but this has been a SPOT ON adaptation so far. Right when I heard "Gintoki" as the NEET narrator, I knew shit was gonna be good. The sense of humor and pervertedness of Rudy is really well incorporated throughout the first two episodes, and makes this more than just a "another OP isekai". But even with that sense of humor, the anime has taken great depths to give solid (but not overwhelming) background info on the characters and highlighting particularly serious moments. This was especially evident in the second episode where the handling of Rudy's "fall into NEETness" and past trauma was interweaved perfectly into his current situation and setting.
I can't wait for the rest of the anime to air. It seems that a second cour has already been green-lighted so let's hope this can turn into one of those long-running anime series. If they can make it to the school arcs, I'll have lived a complete life...
The title can change to "Enjoy Child Molestation After Tensei" now.
I pretty much stopped watching this after four episodes. Why would they think that skipping the manga would be a good idea? At any point of an anime? I honestly think they should always follow the manga, no matter how it is done. The Promised Neverland, more like the Promise Neverlanded. Don’t waste your time with this rubbish season, just watch S1 of the anime only, then read the manga. Don’t waste your time with this awful season.
Beware! Dangerously comfy anime, you might never want to leave your blanket behind!
So happy to have this back in my life! Maximum cozy levels and comfy gauge at full capacity! :thumbsup:
Oh, now here comes the edge... up to 999% of what Japanese TV allows huuh. While I'm not opposed to fucked up shit I didn't really care for how sleazy they presented some of the -well- hentai scenes (eg. her fingering herself was decidedly fetishized with a see through shot). Also, was the best plan you could come up with really to let yourself be drugged up and abused until you've come to your senses again? Still, this seems like I ride to take just to be "in" with the drama - already canceled in Germany o/.
And if anyone wonders; uncensored is indeed quite raunchy but also the only way if you don't want to watch an audio drama (is a shot of crooked fingers with a black tint really too much?)...
Oh, didn't catch the Boichi in the intro so that's why the designs looked so looks familiar. Anyhow, was lukewarm after the first episode and this hasn't sold me anything different either. Can't say I like Dr. Stone as a character nor do I get the feeling this will really be about rebuilding society in a post-apocalyptic setting but just rushing past some initial world building to focus on one-dimensional characters somehow fighting it out (which can be expected since it's running in SJ weekly). I'm not the target audience but I tried :wink:.
I have never really watched Star Trek (except the odd episode of DS9 and Voyager) but having watched every RLM episode about it I can only feel sorry for the die hard fans...
I really liked the anime adaptation of Flowers of Evil and was kinda holding out for a sequel but this ain't gonna happen anymore. To my big surprise however it seems as this movie version actually adapts the whole story in less runtime? That obviously comes with certain drawbacks, including less ominous atmosphere but despite "normal" movies not necessarily being Noboru Iguchi's wheelhouse he alongside Mari Okada sort of made it work? I say sort of because I was willing to give this a lot of slack and wanted to see the story progress - which it did - it's just that it sometimes has a clumsy feel including some comicy overacting.
Personally I just love the unpredictable dynamic of the trio and how the story touches on their struggles but I'd still be hesitant to say this is the best way to experience the material. I guess I just wanted to say it is OK :wink:...
Omg this episode was cuteness overwhelming:heart_eyes:
Again: Feeling so sad for Yui after this episode :sob:
Beautiful Story! but a little short for how the things were going in the end. They could have extended it to 24 Episodes and should have given more of the story from the manga.
Anime is till Chapter 24 (Vol 4) of the manga so i am looking forward for another season of this anime.
Just watched Mamoru Hosoda's new film Mirai and enjoyed it a decent amount. Beautifully made film with a lot of heart-warming themes, a very cool future/past interweaving dynamic and good development. Unfortunately, the biggest problem with this film is that it was kind of boring. No matter the amount of other great elements in a movie, if it is not entertaining, it's going to struggle a bit in my mind. I prefer Hosoda's other works to this where there is a bit of a more over-arching plot and driving story arch. Still, this is a nice movie to watch especially with your family.
I just got back from a preview showing for the new Spider-man movie, and WOW. It is LIT (pardon my language). Soooooo funny with tons of personality and a surprisingly great depth of emotion in quite a few scenes (some tears may have been shed). I love this new take on the comic book hero origin movie and the entire film just screams originality. I wasn't 100% sure on the animated look before, but it really fits into the entire setting and "alternate dimensions" premise of the movie later, which injects a ton of creativity and potential into this new film.
After Sony released Venom, I thought that they should just stop trying with the Spider-verse. However, this new film and universe gives me a completely different perspective. I can't believe something like this came from Sony...
Damn. Miyabi is such a b*tch. She is as cold and dirty as it gets...
She deserves a painful end.
Right in the god damn feels... This episode hit so hard even though I saw what was coming from a mile away. I'll always remember Mio and so will the gang...
While I don't think the show is bad so far, it does very little to sell me titular title characters. I know nothing of them except that they must be divine (so we are told) and whip up new songs on a whim... Really hope this changes.
The ultimate playing hard to get anime.
Gets better as it goes on. Live through the first two or three episodes, and it does pick up.
Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken has been a very pleasant surprise for me this fall season. While it definitely delivers in bunches with its otaku-centric humor, I think that any anime fan can find plenty of laughs here as well. I love the relationship between Kaoru and Hajime, and in 3 minutes, you couldn't ask for more. Also, Kaoru-tan is one of the best girls of the season. Science.