Scalpelexis

Eyes dart angrily at each other, tension mounts mightily, sharp internal monologues go nonstop, followed by aggressive grabbing of a full glass of juice, banging on the table: "ENOUGH!!!....now I want to take a drink."

A reverse terminator tale wrapped in musical garb about how singing makes even an alloy heart ring. The confusing, idol-show-esque poster belies a multi-arc space-time travel adventure with many good ideas behind it, albeit philosophical (challenge Asimov, human-robot relations, sentience), the subtle incorporation of an excellent OST into the plot, and the way the main duo meet, all backed up by great action when given the welcome opportunity. The first half is excellent, and I enjoyed the trips to the android ethical controversy madly. Even though we always stayed briefly, I never left the two-episode run without being lost in thought and gaping at the admittedly anticipated yet still epically served closers. Episode 4 was a heavenly anime symphony for me ("Ensemble for Polaris" is a beautiful song) that reached for the best of several different genres. The story even found time for a minor gag via Fukuyama's snarky but relatively unpredictable Matsumoto, Vivy's flip-flopping from initial naivety upwards to new semi-resets, and I thought nothing could go wrong. Unfortunately, the creative ideas dry up quickly in the 2nd half, and the work never even comes close to the previous bar of quality, set brutally high. It starts lacking basic answers, traveling through all the variables a lot worse than Steins;Gate, the role of the rival fizzles out like gauze in water, and it soon becomes apparent that the material, ironically, needed a lot more time to render satisfactorily. Where did all that thoughtful filler go? Why is the ending so flat, unoriginal, rushed, and stupidly (un)explained? We'll never know, and even that lovely singing and precise art don't make for a sufficient band-aid on this wound. As usual, the form from WIT STUDIO is first class: I'm not so much praising them for the static visuals with partial but solid use of CGI, but for the impeccable animation work, the OP, the music, and most importantly the amazing sound. Oh, yes! The sci-fi setting with the awesome soundtrack sets a new dimension of enjoyment for me and I have nothing to complain about in this area. Overall, it's rather disappointing that Vivy didn't strive for the highest standards; even so, this is an innovative, original, skillfully assembled and surprisingly powerful work in places. 4 stars

First of all, I will not excuse myself of the very important remark that I was induced to watch it by a virtual kabedon :-) My only currently more pleasant feelings are that I obviously haven't watched many similar curveballs, so only the two memorable ones come to mind: the main characters' relationship in Yosuga No Sora: In Solitude Where We Are Least Alone and the intro to the main stud's behavior in the style of the universally hated Makoto Ito from School Days. Honestly, as massively taboo as the topic of forbidden love between siblings is, I'm not such a robot that a more interesting exploration/narrative wouldn't pique some measure of curiosity. It's just that Boku wa imoto doesn't know the boundaries of decency, and for every serious moment, there are 10 unacceptable or cringe-worthy scenes, lest we get the impression that it's even meant to be serious. Once the main character (who looks like he must have flunked out of school like 3 times) tries to hurl obscenities towards his sister by not keeping his fly in check, is as indecisive as the most spoiled Kardashian at a handbag window, and then talks his way out of it worse than the most infamous politician, any decent attempts at evoking romance or touching you have passed without effect. The pair of stranded, notoriously deranged girls don't help matters and cry themselves a grumpy river. I nearly choked on the church scene with the angry angels, but it was the pun on CLOVER that sent me rolling barrels across the room in convulsions. The film can't get much done in the short time it takes, and it's as if the final scene on the express train symbolizes the style with which the filmmakers tackled the subject matter. The poor composers and animators could only bend over backward to add various shimmers and dramatic plucking of the violins to evoke a sweet atmosphere, all of which ends up having the exact opposite pathetic effect. It's easy to guess that I didn't get anything out of this expedition, and figuratively I'll be pissing myself thoroughly the next time I take a bath, lest some memory make me do an extra painful somersault out of nowhere.

A rationalizing, wannabe harsh-demonic cruelly cool noirish post-American B-movie from the Philippines that is visibly lacking in funding, so it lets all sorts of story turns get cut short, drops frames, and the tired dubbers (with really few exceptions) monotonously read the crappy written paper blatherings a la Jaden Smith. The filmmakers operated on the main character Alexandra Trese's face so that she knows only one perpetually sour expression, and if she doesn't have her family dagger in her hands at a given moment, then judging by her behavior it must be concealed very high up her ass. Anyone who meets her on the street, at the punching bag, or in the toilet can't help remarking how similar she is to her "Kiritsuguvian" father or how proud he would be of her. Since her father was a badass, Alex must also be naturally as tough as sandpaper from a cleaver, pulling one incantation after another out of her hat and being senselessly berated by every helpful beast in this otherwise creative Manila monstrosity. I don't find the mythology of the anime to be bad, it's just that the creators are pure businessmen, shrinking the explanations into a measly 6 episodes so they have material for the next season, while in this one they explain nothing and figure it out yourselves! Let the last episode be proof of this writer’s cramp, when instead of fighting the boss, the episode has to sacrifice 2/3 of its time stumbling through his whiny and nonsensical expository monologue. And yet as far as I understood at least some of the snippets from the abundant flashbacks provided, all of that destiny and all of that curse wouldn't have happened if his father’s wasn't so philandering, heh. The animation in Trese didn’t strike me as particularly smooth, whereas the density of detail was very cheap, and what we get in abundance is just a liter of blood; even the fights were worth a whole lot of nothing. I don't have anything to single out with this one and would recommend it for viewing in the late morning hours of the weekend after a raging party or maybe for dispatching to the underworld for cremation. A better 2 stars

Sadly, for me personally, a slightly unexpectedly inferior effort to the last film. It more or less confirmed the impressions I caught myself with last time and as outlined by Jeoffrey here: Violet is much more fun and moving when we experience the varied, happy or sad stories of the supporting characters through her work than watching her own story. There's no fault in the direction, but the script is far from certain, and the source material probably didn't allow for much free machinations or other strong editing. Even in the series, I was hoping with all my thoughts and wishes that a certain important character from Violet's past would not reappear on the scene, because as conveniently as he had served to build Violet's future, as cruel as it sounds, his return to her present time would not lead to any kind of joyous, happy welcome for me, even if it brought well-deserved closure for the character of Violet and the fulfillment of her lifelong quest. If the story is more than successful in anything, it's in its capable use of the theme of written communication to evoke emotions that the spoken word probably couldn't manage with a similar style and intent, and all of these side stories contain at minimum imaginable and suitable situations for portraying such an approach. This cannot be said of the main storyline between Violet and the Major, however, where the drives it in violently, and besides the insanely overwrought emotions (the talk through the door was just sensitive, but the finale was significantly overdone) with the overly relational behavior of perhaps all the characters involved had a rather negative impact on my reception. I can understand trying to make something more epic out of a fairly ordinary romance, but this is not the way to go. And this brings me back to the fact that I enjoyed the references to past stories much more. Overall, my favorite is that postal group of people, and Benedict in those crazy boots, for example :-D Likewise the poetic rendering of the world of Violet Evergarden, which Kyoto Animation never dares to knock; the scenery is dreamy, overwhelmingly soothing, and I always get a blissful inner feeling from watching these stories within the aesthetic. In equal measure, thanks again to Evan Call for the magical soundtrack. I can't say that the film is bad, but it doesn't pack an emotional punch where one would most want it to. And considering that's the main thing going on Violet's head, the outcome is relatively inconsistent. An unconvincing 4 stars

A gentle, harmonious, and almost exemplary representative from the romcom stable, Horimiya ably lives up to the high expectations of the popular manga and felt like a fresh rain after a long dry spell. The excellent direction guides the story at well-oiled high quality without a single blip, skimming high from the ingredients of its cheap counterparts and focusing on the civility of the developing relationships of the high schoolers featured, especially the romantic ones, with a light touch of the comic situations of the most minor absurdities. The characters are literally nurtured with almost parental tenderness; it's important that not a hair is harmed on anyone’s head, and if I found any flaw, it was in the total lack of conflict. Relationships are thus put through minimal tests of endurance and the characters' greatest enemies are themselves and how much they let themselves, their counterparts, and their surroundings get away with. And yet it still bothers me a little, since the relationship between the temperamental and insecure Kyouko and the icily poised Izumi is as sweet as coffee with a glass of sugar added, and even if Kyouko doesn't forgive herself for a bit of suspicious jealous outbursts in the face of Izumi's non-existent usurpers, the mutual respect and overall sensitive future of their relationship is a joy to watch. It's a shame that the romances of the supporting candidates, who had more than enough promise and deserved to be satisfyingly fleshed out weren't similarly fleshed out; without them, some of the characters began to lose their purpose. With a heavy nod of my head, I welcome the total absence of annoying fan service, which only added gravitas to this anime, gave the more poignant scenes a more thoughtful atmosphere, and yet without costing the characters even a crumb of their charm (those peepers!). In terms of character design, the only thing that bothered me were the color creations on the heads, wilder than the KEY visuals, with the "same hair, same eyes" policy which caused confusion when it came to recognizing several characters. The rest of the CloverWorks mold turned out wonderfully, and while I didn't enjoy the opening and closing songs, the soundtrack was colorful. I can understand that some may find Horimiya a bit boring without the central duo on the scene, some may miss the emotions running at full steam, but if you're looking for a fulfilling, appealing, and wholesome high school rabukome, you've come to the right place.

A heated, lasciviously steamy (the director of Iwatobi Swim Club and Banana Fish) adrenaline-fueled skateboard ride with the sterling message that the most important thing is to have fun. It doesn't matter if you break every bone in your body in the process or if you break someone else's, skateboarding with your friend/rival will either solve all your problems or clear your mind so that you always know the right thing to do afterwards. It's a successful advertisement for skateboarding, and the series has focused on making the action scenes extremely effective and efficient. The tension during it comes in kilo pack portions, the tricks (supernatural in places) have a bite that made my hair bristle with excitement, and the cosmopolitan art with the thumping sound of the rides is wonderful. For me, these aspects blended positively and were mainly delivered through the character of the creepy, demonic and "Hisoka-esque" villain ADAM, whose colorfully overdone love-outfit and deranged demeanor with the voice of the highly entertained Takehito Koyas added a level of extra glamour to the anime. The main duo's bromance, with its rather clichéd unraveling and subsequent tearful reconnection through the power of friendship, didn't do much for me; those endlessly repeated new and relatively childish realizations followed seconds later by another, then several severely underdeveloped amateurish attempts at deeper branching, and a glued-on ending with a dysfunctional character resolution, thoroughly stomped out whatever optimism the ride had earned. If you can overlook these narrative shortcomings and focus your attention purely on the show's sporting themes, relatively likable characters, and excellent audiovisual work from Bones (both the opening and closing songs are cool), you'll be rewarded handsomely by Sk8. For quite some time I was inclining toward 4 stars; in the end I am landing on a very strong 3 stars.

This anime, unfortunately, embarrasses itself with every episode, with the author absolutely running out of steam and his brain locking up in episodes 3-4. This isn't even fluff, this is worse than the coal in Santa's sock.

All wrong, weird, disturbed. CGI that blinds you, utterly disgusting SFX, and a plot that can't be grasped using human logic at all. The garbage king among anime.

A dystopian terminator for the little ones. A mature, existential idea gets a naive, childish facade, the philosophy of the subject matter just tickles the surface and, most importantly, doesn't get a chance to sell the mission adequately in such a short space of time. I sense a bit of topical Vivy in this, it vaguely leaves me with memories of Robinson's melancholy Shelter series or any other allegory where man is the main malevolent entity. As the series is aimed at the tadpoles, unfortunately we don't get any fuller substance, the ideas are brief and the twists and turns poorly explained by logic; all so that we can be happy-go-lucky. Simplicity and straightforwardness is the alpha and omega, playing on emotions reaches its lowest effectiveness – the attempts to teach robots feelings are endearing, but at the same time too rushed. Because of the moderate pace, I liked the "wholesome" 1st episode the best, but from there on it went increasingly downhill in quality. I wasn't impressed at all by the simple CGI visuals, which made the action very simple, so the brightest point was Penkin's music, which I still had honestly expected a bit more from. If I were to consider the target audience, subjectively my rating would be around 3.5 stars, objectively it's the weakest possible 3 stars.