Jeoffrey

"I am the world-famous gentleman thief and master of disguise, Arsene Lupin, and I have come to steal your heart..." After the first episode, it is pretty apparent that you have stumbled upon your average generic shoujo. It features a load of beautiful boys playing various fictional characters, rescuing one damsel in distress with big sad eyes and a long sad backstory. There is nothing here for the ordinary male audience, because even a young Dracula is portrayed as a blonde shouta, which will destroy any illusions left regarding this show having any other interesting characters. Still, I made it to the end, and now I am sitting here wondering why this was not as irritating as, say, Sengoku Night Blood, which I only managed (with difficulty) to get through the first episode. Perhaps it is because Lupin was immensely likable, although even then I can remember all his insanely clichéd catchphrases and supposedly epic moments, or perhaps not. Perhaps it was the narrative, which seemed interesting and unexpected at times; however, then I remember all the nonsense I had to deal with. So no, I do not believe that was it, either. Cardia, the main female protagonist, was cute; and there were several moments when she brought out my protective instincts and understood why the men's harem was hanging around her. She is simply a probably very well-written damsel in distress. That could be it. Throw in the insane love story, which was incredibly over the top in places (well, that is what shoujo is); however, it still worked for me every now and again. But yeah, it is not great, even though I did finish it. 3.5/10.

Talking about anime, making an anime and all of this is an anime... This is an anime series about anime series! They provide some interesting information, and basically, you could get to learn about a lot of aspects that anime series offer their fans. However, the problem is that the anime’s writers try to be very generic and cover all bases, groups, and genres. The result is that it all gets so mixed up that it ends up being a horrible and confusing mess sometimes. Even the ending itself was basically a bunch of all kinds of anime-related stuff all crammed into one show. In other words, when they could have made three different anime series focusing on different things concerning anime, I got one that turned out really weird because of the way they combined all the aspects. I just cannot decide if that is a good thing and I remain somewhat unconvinced. 5.5/10.

I had initially been expecting another Natsume rip-off. However, the honest truth is that this is first and foremost a slice of life anime series, and it also includes a supernatural element. In other words, as in Dawe’s review, “it is a slice of life with the supernatural.” I mean, there is an emphasis on the other side and solving supernatural problems, even though it takes a back seat to ordinary life. That includes studying, friendships, and all the relatively everyday things that a slice of life anime series is made of. Well, this is rather a shame because instead of an interesting and profound narrative full of supernatural stuff, we just have an ordinary narrative full of everyday worries and general life wisdom with a bit of that supernatural stuff. After saying that, if, in the end, there was no supernatural element, this would have still been a pretty average slice-of-life anime series. 6/10.

Now I know that the way to a woman's heart is through a glass of good wine, and it is just a shame that in real life, drunk women are not nearly as endearing as the main female protagonist in this anime series. Plus, indeed, men are not usually as understanding as her husband in real life. I would take this as a sort of anime version of Czech singer and songwriter Michal Tucny's song "Wonderful Woman." I am particularly thinking of the line "when a wonderful woman marries a wonderful man," and I may be drunk for a while every week with sweet fantasies about how great drinking is. 6/10.

I love this anime series because it has one of the cutest collections of cute girls, and somehow I still cannot decide if I like Kirie, Ebina, Umaru, or Sylphy the best. Each one is cute in their own way, and each one is as entertaining on their own as they are when they are all together. Still, I was expecting some kind of progression in this second season, I was expecting Umaru and her identity to be addressed, maybe even a more romantic subplot, in other words, something interesting. Well, almost nothing happened; a few new likable characters turned up, although not really essential to the plot. There was no consistent narrative going through the whole series as the episodes were stand-alone. Sure, the main strength of this is the proverbial "cute girls do cute things"; however if it does not develop or progress, it gets a bit stale over time. This is why I cannot help it, and while I enjoyed it again, my initial infatuation and noncritical attitude are starting to wane a bit. 8/10.

This show is an average slice of life anime series with a healthy dose of moe. On the other hand, it did not always work for me, and while I found the characters endearing, on the whole, I still rarely felt charmed by the overall cuteness or very amused by the jokes of the show. 5,5/10

Season two is easily as good as the first season, although I instead missed some of the more consistent narrative threads this time around. On the other hand, even as a season with stand-alone episodes, it easily holds up thanks to the fantasy elements and wonderfully wacky characters. The conclusion was again fantastic, and during the last battle when Klaus nailed it, I thought it was just a superb audiovisual spectacle. 8/10.

Sometimes you are really bored and feel like you are watching something really stupid. However, someone else could be watching the same thing and feel the opposite, like they are watching a beautiful and poetic work full of wisdom. Some people may find a certain scene pathetic to the point of being idiotic, and someone else may watch the same scene and see a beautiful parallel to the struggle for survival. They may also come to understand that under certain conditions, "a man is a wolf to another man" no matter how close you are. Many such interesting moments spoke volumes to me, which provoked my thoughts, imagination, and perceptions. In addition, there are also at least three movements (the rain song, the moonlight, the robot, and the fish) that I found to be absolutely stunning and which left me feeling I had reached nirvana at how beautiful, profound, and powerful I found them. I learned that I could find beauty even in ordinary things; I learned what compassion is and the value of life. I also realized that one should never give up and much more than that. It was all delivered in a very pleasant, understandable, and endearing way. It is all down to the two main female protagonists around whom everything revolves. The blonde Yuuri may come across as a silly girl, even though it is more of that childlike naivety that contrasts wonderfully with Chito and her curiosity. A lot of it is built on the dialogues, with the main two female protagonists talking about important and trivial things and always coming to interesting conclusions. It is sometimes silly, sometimes original, and always leaves room for the audience to figure a lot of things out and find their own answers. They regularly attempt to create an atmosphere of fantasy in this show; after all, the whole anime series does not say much at first; it just introduces us to two girls wandering through a ravaged world searching for supplies. What their goal is, what exactly has happened to society - this is not actually revealed until the very end, although most of the time you are simply left to contemplate what might be, to feel the emptiness of the world around you while watching the main female protagonists struggle to survive, and their everyday worries. The way it contrasts with each other and the fact that even the most cheerful moments still feel kind of bittersweet was another enjoyable aspect of this anime series. I liked the animation; again, the beautiful contrast of the cute characters and the empty grey environment worked well for me. The soundtrack was great, I liked the opening and the ending, and I also appreciated the omission of the cheerful opening at the start of one of the more serious episodes. In addition, the way the soundtrack helped create the atmosphere during the episodes was simply magnificent. It was flawless and suited the show perfectly. In other words, in my opinion, the way they created the atmosphere and made it a moving show was done perfectly. To sum up, if I throw away all the sequels and take only new anime series, I believe this is the "anime series of the season Fall 2017," even though it is clear that a lot of people won't understand. Some people just don't get, that this is not about the narrative but rather about the emotional aspect. This is not about reason but rather about imagination. The most important thing is that sometimes it is not the destination that is important, but rather the journey. 9,5/10.

New and modern adaptations of well-known anime series are rarely successful these days. There are always going to be fans of the original anime or manga series who will claim that the new adaptation is significantly worse. When it comes to Kino's Journey, unfortunately, this new adaptation is not very good when compared to the original. The animation is not as pleasant, and the use of CGI is once again detrimental to the look of the show. The soundtrack does not convey the atmosphere as well as it did in the first anime series. The magical atmosphere that fans loved is simply gone. However, is it really such a big deal? The narratives are still reasonably well thought out and almost always surprising in some way. The dialogues between Kino and Hermes are pretty endearing. I found both of these characters and also Shizu and his group attractive. Perhaps I should have been irritated or angry that they made a magical anime series into something like this. However, from the deluge of shows I have seen, it is still at least an average or slightly above average anime series, in my opinion, because of the narratives, characters, and a few really great moments. Indeed, for an anime series like this, just an above average rating is not good enough, and for me, it is disappointing in itself that I feel that way about it. However, it is not going to get any better than 6/10. If I wanted to give it a worse rating, I would have to go and re-evaluate a large number of other anime series I have already seen. This is because I have seen a lot worse than the new adaptation of Kino's Journey.

This movie is sensitively filmed, with an excellent soundtrack and nice animation. The fact that the author draws on his own experiences and has revealed a lot gives this short movie a certain vibe, and even without words, it manages to say quite a lot. This movie is one man’s tribute to friends and family. At the same time, it portrays someone struggling with his life and sexual orientation, a common subject matter and not so shocking in these days of political correctness. However, in this movie, it is portrayed in a very human and relatable way. Even for a person who is by no means someone who looks for this subject matter, it is entirely understandable and believable. 8/10.