Hromino

We know the drill - every once in a while, a seemingly innocent anime emerges from the production landscape of horny tentacled creatures, overgrown lizards with radioactive breath, and angry nine-tailed foxes, but it catches many audiences off guard with the raciness of its jokes and the explicitness of some scenes. What the heck, even Hromino is glad for any creative refreshment in the otherwise somewhat stagnant waters of Japanese animation, except that in most cases, unfortunately, the production team’s desperate desire to shock the audience at all (obscene) costs gradually overwhelms all other qualities, which an audience might expect from a TV show, the imaginary mighty steed is freed from its bridle and reins, and the show turns into another stinking piece of shit, that only constantly likes to provoke. Grand Blue is an honorable exception in this respect, which, despite the numerous scenes with binge-drinking and the ultimate smutty jokes, has managed to find a reasonable balance and maintain its class. The show successfully balances a more serious screenplay with deep lessons - and scenes without any deeper meaning, which are simply there to amuse the audience and perhaps remind them of some of their experiences from their college years; those who have the experience of binge-drinking with Japanese friends will surely agree with me that this is in many ways a fairly realistic anime. All in all, a breezy 4 stars, which is underscored by an excellent opening with summer vibes and more than summer adventures!

I do not think it is entirely out of place to praise the main creators of Barakamon for their capabilities – one only has to look at their legacy to see what other creations they could "brag about" in their portfolio. Rather, I dare say that, given the subject matter, there was basically nothing that could have gone wrong with this anime, unless the creators had a talent for blowing it. Rather than being a meticulously produced anime, then, this is a show where the creators simply relied on a tried and tested formula they have proven works a hundred times over, and which they knew would compensate for their mediocre creative skills, and appeal to the widest audience possible. The story of a mischievous young dandy from the big city reforming, and finding new meaning in life, in the country as a total redneck among the warm-hearted villagers, and the not-yet-spoiled kids is just a sure thing. The show tries to warm the audience’s heart with its would-be immediacy and pulls on their heart-strings, but the much more well-made anime had spoiled the idiot Hromino. The screenplay and the way the characters are written, their psychology and interactions, the depth of the story, the quality of the animation, the soundtrack – all of this is average for its genre, which results in the fact that not once did I jump out of my skin during watching due to the lousy screenplay. However, on the other hand, Barakamon did not even stick in my mind in any significant way – unlike, say, Silver Spoon or Bunny Drop. I watched it, I saw it, I deleted it.

Ikuhara got his groove back with his seventh crown chakra, and he moved on to another animation studio, introduced his new collaborators to his new psychedelic-LGBT-allegorical shambles, and went berserk with it ticking off hundreds of thousands of animation boxes. However, who gives a flying crap if he delivers? Just do not expect any of the characters to have any hints of normalcy, instead imagine them all as walking inferiority-complexes and various fetishes. You can also have a good time ticking each box by unravelling the sex symbolism and being prepared for anything, including gay dragons and Ashtar Sheran’s space fleet. For the first five episodes, you will be treated to a remarkable show displaying the result of saving production costs sophisticatedly hidden behind artistic expression, supposed to make you understand the rules of Ikuhara's game, then the repetitiveness goes away and a lethal cocktail comes in the form of... an unexpectedly lucid story that, with its unprecedentedly high level of transparency, will shockingly make you finally start looking forward to and enjoying future episodes! So if the first episodes do not resonate with you, but you still feel that you could stand a certain amount of exposure to the balls pulled out of the anuses of supernatural beings, try to keep on going and you will see that you will not regret it. As the episodes roll in, everything starts to fall into place unexpectedly well, and as a result, a completely unprecedented four stars have emerged from my anus, which I hereby happily throw in!

Somewhat unnoticed by the otaku community, this anime is sometimes compared to Haikyu!!, imho rightfully so. Both anime do a very successful job of portraying character development and building relationships within a certain team against the backdrop of sporting events, plus a significant part of the same creative team are behind both anime. Unlike its aforementioned predecessor, however, Run with the Wind is not an adaptation of a still-being-released manga, but rather a complete, long-out-of-print book, resulting in a precisely measured narrative pace; the story does not drag, does not rush anywhere, does not overstay its welcome, and every scene is necessary. The psychological side of the characters is similarly deftly handled in this season - whereas in the case of the Karasuno boys' volleyball match in Haikyu!!, none of the players there were in any doubt from the outset that they wanted to play volleyball, here the residents of a suspiciously cheap-to-rent college dorm are faced with the dilemma of how to deal with an unwanted debt to their college landlord, who wants to realize his wet dream through the formation of a track team, then the group all have to somehow cope with a very fragile harmony that could easily be disturbed by the refusal of even a single member, and the associated clash of loyalties and self-ambition so typical in Japanese culture, will also trouble many a young adolescent’s mind here. These internal conflicts, along with other personal issues, throw each of the main characters into reevaluating their identities, sorting out their priorities are in life, and pondering what this mysterious concept called "running" actually means to them – a means of gaining recognition from those around them, a mere required duty, a simple pastime and form of recreation, a chance for some form of self-fulfillment, a chance to fit in... or perhaps as a means to gain power? It is this level that is handled excellently with an eye for detail and is clearly this anime’s greatest asset, and although it cannot be said for the potential of developing the characters’ psychological background is evenly spread through all ten members of the team, it is not a major weakness that would in any way spoil the overall impression – after all, in the space of 23 episodes this goal would be very difficult to realize, and less is sometimes more. The level of animation and artwork is, as expected, of a high standard (the Production I.G studio does a really great job with this type of sports anime), the original music too. The opening jingles didn't impress me much, but the closing ones did a little too much – my headphones are pretty tired out. Overall, this is an excellent but grossly underrated affair that works like a carefully oiled machine from start to finish, never letting up its pace for a moment due to well thought out planning, leaving the viewer with a very powerful catharsis at the end. And maybe being underrated ultimately doesn’t matter so much, because this is exactly the kind of anime where you feel that the potential wide popularity it could gain could be to its detriment, and where you do not actually want to watch the second season, as this one was so good in itself that a possible sequel would only spoil it. Plus, do not forget: The Mountains of Hakone Are the Steepest!

This anime is an accurately aimed cannonball between the eyes of all those who are convinced that sports anime is not for them and avoid it like the plague. Haikyu!! is a sports anime, but it is not primarily an anime about sports. The volleyball practices, tournaments and matches here only provide the narrative framework, or rather the backdrop against which the main thing that is going on – namely the development of perfectly written characters and their interactions. Although there is someone who could be described as the main character, there are many other characters vying for attention in the background, none of whom are neglected and each of whom is portrayed as realistically and in as much depth as possible. The plot of Haikyu!! is all about the clash of different motivations, overcoming mutual differences and animosity, finding commonalities, and finding ever new ways to improve teamwork. The creators let the heroes win and lose, the black and white nature of good and evil is done away with from the very first moment, and the events we see on screen transcend sports and can be applied to any group of people trying to achieve something together, and primarily by trying to change themselves. The realism comes to the fore here, so you do not have to worry about any silly displays of superhuman powers and techniques with overcomplicated, ridiculous names, as is sometimes the norm of this genre. All of the above is spiced up with a nice dose of humor and thrilling fights that will keep you on the edge of your seat, great soundtrack, likable artwork and smooth animation – and so there is no doubt about the rating I should give. Although the other seasons are also of high quality, I consider the first season to be the best due to the fact that there is the most room for what makes this anime so impressive, that is the aforementioned character development and relationship building. So if you are one of those who eye sports anime suspiciously, I recommend watching Haikyu!! as an excellent way to see the light.

This is a formulaic and almost pointless sequel that is only kept afloat by the middle section regarding the development of the relationship between Mob and Reigen. This is the only aspect that gives the existence of a second season a reason to exist, though it begs the question of whether a shorter OVA that focused only on the development of these two characters could have been created instead of the sprawling 13 episodes. The rest of the season is just padded out with filler, in which compared to the first season jokes, interesting characters, and plot shifts are significantly thin on the ground, and thus the positive impression from the successful first season is lost in this piece of meh. The Bones animation studio is let loose as tradition dictates, to show off their skills quite spectacularly, especially in the action sequences. However, just like you cannot make Nutella out of dog shit, the clever animators cannot make up for the zero plot topped off with an extremely shallow villain who was so dull and boring that I could not even remember his name. No matter how many tricks up their sleeve they have. A severe misfire and a weak 2 stars.

This is a skillfully mixed cocktail of those guaranteed ingredients for a typical Japanese high school “youth drama” – nothing more, nothing less. You could try searching for some originality on-screen with a magnifying glass, or you could even try searching under your seat, but too bad, as someone familiar with this type of movie could have easily gotten an idea of how the rest would turn within the first ten minutes, and gradually you would just confirm that there really would not be any real surprises here. Within its sub-genre, it is a well-crafted generic affair, into which the necessary ingredients of the genre are gradually thrown in (choosing school clubs, declarations of love, rejection, finding the solutions to the problems with themselves and problems of the surrounding characters...) and which will not make a deeper impression on you, but which, thanks to the excellent performances of the main duo, is at least nice to watch. (In addition, I shall give the producers a small insignificant plus for the cover of my favorite karaoke song at the end.)

Mari Okada's melodramas are swings and roundabouts. Sometimes she can keep her chakras at bay, and, despite the complicated interconnected relationships, her pen can produce a very interesting work, such as Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea, but sometimes this lady can atrociously over-do it and drown an initially promising storyline in an overly sentimental mess full of stupid, irritating characters whose features are basically the only character trait repetitively shoved into the audience’s faces. Kiznaiver is unfortunately an example of the latter. Okada probably got the idea to write an anime about an experiment in humans sharing their pain, but she just did not feel like trying to think any deeper about the implications of implementing such an idea and elaborating on the laws of such a fictional world much, especially when she had the opportunity to limit herself to something she loves so much: melodramas! Emotional outbursts! That is what it is all about in the first place! We have to let them scream it out properly, we have to cram in as much theatricality as possible, and make the audience as moved as possible! ... or suffer like an animal. One star for something resembling an interesting reveal in the last few episodes, to only be followed by an idiotic grand finale at the end, at which point I did not know whether I should laugh or cry, and a small insignificant plus for the excellent opening, though it is a shame that the last single by Boom Boom Satellites, had to be used for something so utterly stupid.

Take Fairy Tail, trim a bit of its level of goofiness and sunniness off, add a banal story, and ta-da! – The Seven Deadly Sins is born. Like the aforementioned Fairy Tail, The Seven Deadly Sins is a mixture of dazzling bright colors, flat boring characters, pointless and overkill power-ups, the rape of a largely worn-out story without even a shred of invention (though it must be sarcastically noted that there is at least some narrative progression compared to FT) and of course you cannot miss the lighter form of ecchi going on here. While watching a lot of shonen anime I often somewhat masochistically revel in how idiotic they are, but The Seven Deadly Sins was such a dull and boring show in every respect that I had to force myself to watch every episode in a way that I have not had to force myself with anime for a long while now. The producers may have been aiming for humor that works on a basic level, but when instead of laughter there is only a sense of awkwardness, there is something wrong. Devastated and bored, I demand that Meliodas and his crew stop this nerve-wracking ride already and let me get off at episode 15.

This movie completely fooled me. Although it would seem from the inclusion of this in the "comedy" genre on many movie databases, and the comedic focus of the trailer, that this movie is indeed a comedy, that is absolutely not the case. All the comedy scenes, which you can count on one hand, are basically restricted to the trailer and the rest is serious "post-apocalyptic" drama. So, here is where the problem arises, because I went into the movie theater expecting Yaguchi to deliver a lion’s share of absurdist humor and imaginative depictions of a world without electricity, and while watching it I kept waiting for something that never came. But so be it, I am an idiot, I was expecting something completely different, as I misunderstood the author’s intent in the trailer. Unfortunately, the problem is that even as a serious "post-apocalyptic" movie it doesn't really work. Emotions are amped up to the hilt, but the vision of a Japan without electricity itself is handled very superficially, and I just did not see any interesting ideas, which is a shame, because it slips into being a very ordinary drama, where the extraordinary setting plays only second fiddle. I also agree with the Czech critic Ziza, that in some respects I was just shaking my head in disbelief at the behavior of the family members in some scenes. It is a shame, the acting is decent, and the concept had a lot of potential to be engaging, but unfortunately, the end result often put me to sleep and I was woken out of it every time by members of the family screaming or by the pleasant closing song. (Seen at Toho Cinemas Nijo, Kyoto, 3/2017.)