Zíza

I don't care about the Bieber, I don't need to heckle him or “throw tomatoes" at him, but it's just that this documentary (?) was boring, it didn't reveal anything a judgmental person couldn't figure out for themselves, and you don't hear anything new, nothing you haven't already heard in other such films. This is the kind of thing that will make his fans cry, but it does absolutely nothing for people who don't really care about him. And people who hate him (for whatever reason) will hate this movie too.

It’s just got it. An unassuming film, enjoyable, human, full of friendship. It comes across as an ordinary film that can't especially surprise you, but suddenly you're laughing with them, suddenly you feel for them, suddenly tears well up in your eyes, suddenly you feel pain in your chest. No emotional blackmail, no happy or unhappy ending. Just a film full of diarrhea. I definitely recommend watching it, it shines with the newly rising stars of Japan's acting sky. And this civil film suits them. Plus, it doesn't have an overly long running time; it's just right, and it shows everything just right. A better 4 stars.

As of this series, it's official – my next Japanese crush is Katori Shingo. The guy just has something about him, plus he talks in such a strange way that his whole persona made me give this 4 stars instead of 3 stars. It's a nice romantic story, the main characters are likable, you can't even get mad at them. It's no triumph, but on the other hand, if you enjoy a sort of a normal, leisurely pace where nothing really stands out, it has a nice touch, nobody overacts. It's a simple series that depicts different life situations, but in the end all anyone wants is one thing – happiness.

I don't know why, but these movies move me much more than any romantic nonsense. After reading Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword and studying Japan for a few years, you feel like you get it (you don't, but whatever), so you know exactly what it meant to Ōba. All the decisions, the surrender, the "stubbornness", ... I had chills running down my spine at some of the scenes. Mao played the hatred beautifully – when her family was killed, her expression, those eyes! Wow, I salute you! Anyway, since Takenouchi is my hero, I was feasting my eyes with him the whole time, enjoying him – smeared, dirty, sweaty, desperate. An amazing commander. The other thing that made me happy was the acting by the Yanks (oftentimes foreigners in Japanese movies are worthless, but they couldn't afford to be that way here considering they're there for half the movie). WWII again from a different angle, and I liked this angle. It's entirely possible I'll revisit the film, which is not that common for me.

It might be the first time I was thinking to myself: "My God, this dubbing is terrible!" – for a long time the main character's voice got on my nerves, I thought it was creepy, but unfortunately the other girls weren't much better. The animation also sucks, the story is full of clichés that are used so awkwardly that you have to wonder if this was someone's first film and they were just trying to see if they have what it takes. I generally don't rate music/dance stuff too harshly, because in that case it's not so much the story that matters to me as much as the music or dancing. Here, unfortunately, the music (songs) wasn't that good, interesting, or original enough to hide the remaining flaws. So in the end it turned out to be an uninteresting anime with flat characters, poorly cast seiyuu, and animation that is not pleasing to look at. A waste of time and definitely not recommended for viewing, there are plenty of musical animes and better musical animes in this wide world.

Tomoya has a really rubbery face, plus sometimes he looked like half his face was paralyzed. Totally overdone comedy, too many farewell speeches, waving, and tears towards the end... but it was nice and relaxing. I enjoyed it. And I really liked where Makio really started thinking like an adult and when he smoked. I thought it was kakkoii :-D Even though I don't smoke.

I'm having a hard time with this, but two of my relatively favorite guys, Nobuhiro and Shinji, they got together and spit out something I was bored with, and unfortunately Nobuhiro couldn't squeeze anything out of the central characters. It's like they were all stifled by something and weren't allowed to do anything, so they just kept moving forward like zombies. I'll admit that Kubozuka stood out, he even looked like he had something to play and he did it well. And yet the rest of them. Nothing. The characters didn't appeal to me, let alone their portrayals. I found the script rather mediocre, as was the direction. What went wrong?

Even though he has such a moronic role, Kamiki Ryūnosuke simply knows how to act. Which unfortunately can't be said about Yamada Ryōsuke, who at the beginning was really very awkward, with only a single expression – some might argue that it suited the role, but I disagree, his character was also racked with emotions, but he just couldn't bring it to life. It got slightly better towards the end, but he still wasn't up to the level of Kamiki or even Shida Mirai. Some of the "single episode" actors played their roles very well (e.g. Hongō Kanata), but some couldn't even play a corpse and were still breathing and blinking in the midst of their rigor mortis. The opening and ending numbers were very good, I liked them and listened to them every time. Overall, the OST was really well done and I felt it really fit the atmosphere. Considering how young the main characters were, I thought it was too dark and had too many dead people – it was bound to leave a mark on such young psyches, but it didn't seem to bother anyone except Mirai – and that was only for a moment. Still, it was an interesting series that may have relied on certain clichés, but did so in a subtle and natural sort of way, as the characters dealt with them through logic or unyielding friendship. A better 3 stars.

It's not a story of dramatic twists and turns and screaming heroines, which is why it might almost seem boring to someone who watches Korean soap operas. Except that Jin possesses a charm that few historical Korean series can even dream of. Unlike Faith, the characters' behavior here makes sense, it doesn't feel out of place, and there are no stormy jealousy scenes or characters letting themselves be driven by jealousy. I confess that for me this was a big break from all the Korean scenery chewing. It's not perfect and it ends on an open-ended note (but that's why there's a second season), plus the two lead actresses Miki Nakatani and Haruka Ayase didn't appeal to me here, so it took me a while to be able to accept them properly, but in the end it all worked out, largely because of the way their characters were written. The male characters were interesting, not so much the doctor Minakata, but Sakamoto Ryōma. An awesome redneck. Plus it prompted me to study cholera and the history of syphilis. A weaker 4 stars and I'm going to watch the second season, somehow I haven't gotten tired of it yet...

It continues in the same vein as the first season and beautifully wraps up everything we've experienced with the Genie. Everything went where it was supposed to, and the ending was so Japanese it hurt. :-) Before it was a weak 4 stars, this time it's a strong 4 stars. The series is really interesting and well done, so I recommend seeing it; for my part, I'm going to find and read the source material, I feel like I've been robbed of a number of moments.