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canmom · 2 years

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Three animated films about children in the war

So, I have finally seen Grave of the Fireflies! (And watched Totoro for the... not even sure, n+1th time.) For comments before the film, see Animation Night 111.

Anyway, what a fascinating range that was. I went into Fireflies not know much more than the premise - two children die in the war - and to expect an extremely sad movie. So, let me talk about some things that stood out to me, compared to that expectation. And then, I want to lead into a comparison to some very similar films, namely Barefoot Gen and In This Corner of the World...

So. The first surprise - perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise, given we’re talking about Takahata here - is how understated it is. It does use music, but only sometimes. In contrast to the exaggerated emotions and stretchy faces of Totoro, characters are mostly quite stoic. It’s not to say that characters do not emote at all, as in many of Mamoru Oshii’s films - indeed, the film may be the first to contain the iconic Ghibli tears running down a character’s face - but a lot of the time, we are led to infer the emotional context from the characters’ actions, the scenario, and the framing of the scenes.

Grave of the Fireflies opens with the death of the boy Seita. He is one of a number of starving, listless children in what I think is a train station. Even before his death, he barely responds to interaction or offers of food, and before long he dies. A uniformed man finds his body, but does not seem to find it remarkable - children dying here is a regular occurrence. He finds a sweets tin, and can’t work out what’s inside it - it is only much later that we find out the tin contains ashes of Seita’s sister Setsuko, who starved to death under his watch, and the tin becomes a symbol of their relationship through the rest of the film. Seita and Setsuko’s ghosts rise from the tin; the rest of the film is a flashback, showing the circumstances in which Setsuko died.

The film is based on a short story written in 1967 by Akiyuki Nosaka. It is semi-autobiograpical; in reality, Nosaka lost three family members during the war: one sister to illness, his father to the firebombing of Kobe, and then his younger sister Fukui to malnutrition; the story is framed as an apology to Fukui for her death. So in a most direct sense, Seita represents Akiyuki Nosaka, and Setsuko represents Fukui. The story is written in the tradition of ‘double suicide’ stories, more typically about lovers. It is in a way quite abstracted: Nosaka spoke of writing about an ‘idealised humanity’ in an ‘idealised situation’ in contrast to his feelings about the culture of 1967.

If you read the wiki article there, almost all of what we read is Takahata’s interpretation; it’s safe to say his film has heavily overshadowed the original story in memory. So let’s look at his connection to it.

Takahata was born in October 1935, so he would have been nine, approaching ten years old when the war ended. He had also survived a US air raid, on Okayama in June 29, but it seems he did not lose family to the war. However, as his later films would show, he is very concerned with cultural memory, and things being lost: the protagonist’s memories of her rural childhood in Only Yesterday, or the tanuki forest being cut down in Pom Poko.

So, by the time of Grave of the Fireflies being released, Takahata was already 53 years old. In the context of the 80s economic boom, he evidently saw himself as belonging to a different era; there’s something of a ‘kids of today!’ angle in how he spoke about the contemporary generation in the 1987 interview that forms the basis for most of that article..

There are two other obvious films to compare this one to - both dealing with children living through the war, and the time afterwards. Historically, the most relevant one is Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン), which we watched back on Animation Night 26. This is based on a manga by Keiji Nakazawa, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, but it’s equally concerned with the brutal period right after the war, serialised from the period 1973-1987. The manga began serialisation in Weekly Shōnen Jump but stayed there only one year where it proved unpopular with readers, before moving to leftist publications like Citizen’s and Cultural Criticism; it was enjoyed a lot by Art Spiegelman of Maus fame. You can read it here on archive.org.

In the introduction, Nakazawa writes that many of the awful scenes in the story are directly autobiographical; he says:

1966, after seven years of illness, my mother died in the A- Bomb Victims Hospital in Hiroshima. When I went to the crematorium to collect her ashes, I was shocked. There were no bones left in my mother's ashes, as there normally are after a cremation. Radioactive cesium from the bomb had eaten away at her bones to the point that they disintegrated. The bomb had even deprived me of my mother's bones. I was overcome with rage. I vowed that I would never forgive the Japanese militarists who started the war, nor the Americans who had so casually dropped the bomb on us.

Barefoot Gen was adapted to two anime films by Madhouse in 1983 and 1986; at the time the mighty Osamu Dezaki had just departed in 1980, and so under Masao Maroyama, Madhouse was becoming much more auteur-driven studio with an increasingly diverse output with figures like Rintaro coming into their own. The two Barefoot Gen films are directed by first Mori Masaki and then Toshio Hirata.

Compared to Grave of the Fireflies, the approach taken to animation in Barefoot Gen therefore comes from the Mushi-Pro/Dezaki lineage rather than the Toei lineage. It’s much less concerned with realism in character animation, taking a more exaggerated approach to motion with a lower drawing count that at least to my eye calls back to the Kanada school, but also the Dezaki visual language and drive towards going all-in on presenting emotion seen in works like Ashita no Joe. Which is certainly not to say that Barefoot Gen is completely lacking in moments of subtler animation, like a doctor washing his hands after taking care of a patient or Gen carving wood; it’s just not the overwhelming focus of the film like Takahata’s work. Despite the harsh circumstances, most of the early parts of the film end with the characters laughing and a fade to black.

Then the bomb drops.

When it comes to the Hiroshima bombing Barefoot Gen does not at all hold back on detail; it is not exactly realism but it clearly draws heavily on nuclear bomb test footage. The moments leading up to the bombing are excruciating anticipation: the characters dismiss the ‘spy plane’ and talk about the weather, and then we cut to radio chatter in English between the observation planes and the Enola Gay discussing the weather in a horribly different light. The planes are drawn in exacting detail, and we’re shown supernatural omens like ants crawling inside. Then, we see the bombing through the scope of the plane; the pilots are drawn in a heavily hatched style with realistic proportions reminiscent of an American comic. The bomb drops, and the mushroom cloud rises silently as an expanding circle; then we see a series of shots abruptly switch into harsh black and white shadow shapes. Like in Grave of the Fireflies, they are using the techniques of cel shading to show form through shape, but with the contrast pushed up to maximum.

In the 80s OVA era, Madhouse would become experts at drawing monsters, but Gen actually predates most of these well-known works. Nevertheless, it delivers a huge amount of grotesque imagery: a chain of shots showing characters we have grown to like over the course of the film being melted away, their eyeballs falling out, etc. All of these are drawn with a low framerate, and there isn’t too much concern for realism, but that might be the point. All of these scenes are shown in vivid, hypersaturated colours against a swirling paint background.

Following this the rest of the film is a series of further horrors as Gen loses his family trapped in a burning building (an event directly experienced by Nakazawa) and stumbles alone through the city, witnessing the injuries of survivors (who stumble out of the ruins like zombies), and then the effects of radiation poisoning. It is a harrowing film; it never looks away. The focus on rubbing our face in horror and gore could feel voyeuristic, especially in the context of later OVAs which are pretty gleeful with their violence, but here - perhaps because of how it is framed by narration - it achieves an appropriately sickening effect. After all, even if it didn’t look like this, this really happened: there was an instant in 1945 where thousands of people had their flesh melted like this all at once. Animation here is used to slow down time and show the effects of the bomb in even more excruciating detail than live action could manage.

The focus of the first Barefoot Gen film is therefore the horror of the Hiroshima bombing. This wasn’t a completely unprecedented subject in film, with prior Japanese examples including the Japan Teachers Union funded Children of Hiroshima (1952) and Hiroshima (1953), and Barefoot Gen had already seen a live-action adaptation in 1976, but as I understand it was still at least something of a taboo subject; later in the 80s would come films like Black Rain (1989). The manga goes much further, telling the story of Gen’s life in the aftermath of the war, but the first film (reasonably) makes the decision to spend its runtime on Gen’s life leading up to the bombing and its immediate impact.

The second film adapts later parts of the manga, following Gen’s life in the years after the war - but if the first film was hard to acquire, the second is essentially impossible. So sadly I can’t comment on this one.

Grave of the Fireflies also has scenes of bombing, primarily at the beginning, with the firebombing of Kobe. Waves of firebombs fall like seeds and bounce off buildings to scatter in the street - in contrast to the expected explosions, it is a surprisingly quiet scene which gradually builds up into an emergency. There is one brief aerial shot, but for the most part, planes are seen from a distance.

Compared to Seita, who is caring towards his sister but quietly very proud, and who idolises his sailor father (who is fighting at sea and implicitly dies offscreen), Gen is a lot more energetic and playful. Gen’s father is also a completely different figure: the film is at pains to show that he is opposed to the war, which reflects Nakazawa’s real father, who was arrested and imprisoned for his involvement in an anti-war theatre troupe. Without knowing this context, the film can come across as somewhat idealised, painting the father as opposed to the war to make it easier to sympathise with him. But no, that’s real.

(please forgive the off-centre subs; it is almost impossible to find a good encode of this movie and the alternative is subs that are bright purple!)

In contrast, both Grave of the Fireflies and much later In This Corner of the World portray how much of the population did indeed hold nationalist sentiments and hope for Japan’s victory in the war. Seita acts as as a synecdoche for the forgotten children starving to death in the station, but he also represents a certain stupid stubbornness: rather than swallow his pride and return to his asshole aunt, he starves to death along with his sister. In one striking sequence, sitting in a hole in the ground, Seita sings to himself a patriotic song about Japan seeing off invaders near and far, and imagines a sequence where his dad sails past on a huge warship bedecked in lights, mingling with the symbol of the fireflies. It is a child’s view of the war, but he is after all a child. And sure enough, his dad almost certainly dies at sea; we do not find out for sure, only that he never returns Seita’s leters.

The archetype of a brother struggling to protect a sickly sister is a classic one - in recent years we’ve seen characters like Nier and whatever the kid from Demon Slayer is called - but here, Seita completely fails to live up to this. He can’t save his sister, and the failure kills him too.

Food is a huge concern of both films: because it is in such short supply, what little is available is all the more important. The loving rendering of food that Ghibli is known for began in Castle in the Sky, but it attains special significance here, with items like fruit drops and white rice becoming treasured items. Similar is true in Gen: a major plot point concerns Gen and his brother stealing a fish to give to their sick mother, and a kind fisherman letting them keep it.

And, for the most part, adults in Gen are kind, and proud of the children. This is absolutely not the case in Grave of the Fireflies. Here, the adults are just about universally indifferent to Seita and Setsuko’s plight. Their aunt berates them as other mouths to feed who don’t work in return, sees Seita’s decision to buy a stove as a stubborn refusal rather than an attempt to accommodate, and simply lets them go when Seita decides to leave to an unknown destination. The local farmers soon run out of rice to sell, and so Seita resorts to theft, which gets him beaten. The doctor diagnoses Setsuko’s malnutrition, but has no suggestion of where she’ll get food. About the only time they do receive a gift is after Setsuko’s death, where one of the farmers has a ready supply of charcoal to burn her corpse.

Since Grave of the Fireflies is adapting a short story rather than a long-running manga, it has generally fewer events to cover, and can proceed at a slow pace. The story is simpler: it is not trying to show all the horrors of the bomb, but merely make us bear witness to the story of these two children.

The final image of Grave of the Fireflies shows Seita and Setsuko’s ghosts looking out on a modern Japan with new high-rise buildings - implicitly one that has completely forgotten them. The painfully beautiful but short-lived fireflies are a recurring image; early on, Setsuko crushes a firefly by accident, and the title of the film refers to a point where the children capture a number of fireflies and release them to light their shelter, but by morning they are dead; Setsuko digs a small mass grave and puts the fireflies in it. Later, Seita will burn her corpse, and the grave marker comes to correspond to her as well. The symbolism is very direct, but the way it is executed - that fascination with light - makes it work.

In This Corner of the World (2016) comes much later in this lineage. Unlike the previous two films, it is not based on anyone’s direct experience of living through the war. Instead, the impetus comes from mangaka Fumiyo Kōno’s editor, who asked her to write a story about the Hiroshima bombing. Kōno is a resident of Hiroshima born in 1968, but none of her family are bomb survivors; she was not initially moved by the suggestion, but changed her mind after realising how the bombing had become a taboo subject, not even remembered by many people in the city. This led to her manga Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (夕凪の街桜の国, 2004). WP writes:

According to Fumiyo Kōno's afterword, she was prompted to write Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms when her editor asked her for a Hiroshima story. She was initially reluctant because, while she was born in Hiroshima neither she nor anyone in her family was a survivor of the atomic bomb, and growing up she found the subject upsetting and had tried to avoid it ever since. She decided to tackle the subject because she felt it was "unnatural and irresponsible for me to consciously try to avoid the issue." Living in Tokyo, she had come to realize that people outside of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn't know about the effects of the bomb, not because they were avoiding the subject but because it is never talked about, and so she attempted the story because "drawing something is better than drawing nothing at all."[9]

Kōno described "Country of Cherry Blossoms" as "what I most needed to hear two years ago, when I still avoided anything to do with the atomic bomb."[9]

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms is a two part manga, about two generations of descendants of bomb survivors. She followed this manga up in 2007-2009 with In This Corner of the World (この世界の片隅に), following a young artist called Suzu who lives in Hiroshima and nearby , during the war.

Kōno credits a series of inspirations, many of them old school manga artists:

She feels that Osamu Tezuka and Fujiko Fujio were among her early influences, but then she was inspired by Sanpei Shirato's literary style and at present, she takes inspiration from Yu Takita's versatility.

Tezuka needs no introduction. Fujiko Fujio is the pen name of a pair of manga artists who started writing in 1960, notably creating Doraemon. Shirato is a pioneering gekiga artist who frequently contributed to Garo magazine. Yu Takita was another Garo mangaka, known for autiobiographical manga, though I can’t find much more than this.

In 2016, this film received an adaptation directed by Sunao Katabuchi, known for Princess Arete (Animation Night 74). The animation was carried out at Mappa, who are funnily enough an offshoot of Madhouse, as well as outsourcing to Madhouse proper and DR Movie - however their approach calls to mind much more Takahata. The character designs are not nearly so solid and detailed, instead going for a more abstract and simplified style that follows the manga, but the approach to movement is very much in the realist school, with lots of carefully observed, subtle everyday actions.

Many scenes seem to draw heavily on Grave of the Fireflies, such as when the characters witness an enormous ship come into port and slide gradually past the camera, elaborately animated food preparation, a scene where a character ducking for cover in a field sings a patriotic song, a precious supply of white rice. Other scenes, such as aerial shots of bombs falling, step closer to Barefoot Gen. Actually all three films have a scene where a plane strafes the ground where a character is running and they have to dive for cover!

Compared to the other two films, In This Corner is less concerned with foregrounding the horrors of war and death, though it is absolutely interested in the emotional experience of war. There are certainly plenty of scenes where the main character has to duck from air combat; she loses her drawing hand and narrowly escapes death from a burrowing bomb. But it’s also deeply concerned with the romance plot, and the longer arc of a life. It wants to show not just the experience of the war, but the experience of moving past it.

One key moment not explored in the others comes with the announcement of Japan’s surrender. In Fireflies, Seita hears about this from a man in a queue to withdraw his mother’s money at a bank - he demands to know whether his father survived and flees but that’s really the end of it, since it leads right into the death of Setsuko. By contrast, In This Corner shows the whole family listening to the radio as the surrender is announced, and explores how Suzu is appalled to realise that everything she went through was for absolutely nothing; this is soon followed by the revelation that her parents are respectively killed by the bomb and dying of radiation poisoning.

The film continues after the end of the war for some time, heavily compressing time now, following Suzu adopting a child and gradually regaining a will to live. In a flashback scene it does show the bombing, and the child holding the corpse of their mother crawling with maggots and pierced with broken glass, but even here the drawing of injury is much less meticulously detailed than in either of the other films.

As far as depicting warfare, In This Corner uses CGI for some of the scenes of planes and bombs; it’s not especially jarring but it is a little noticeably different, and actually quite elaborate. There are some interesting bits of stylisation like the colourful bursts of explosions. Ships, on the other hand, are hand-drawn, and there’s an interesting balance between the detailed accuracy to the historical vessels and a certain sketchiness. The backgrounds have noticeable brushwork texture - they’re very strong in general, both more stylish and more detailed than Mappa’s TV backgrounds.

The most noticeable difference in aesthetic brought by 30 years is the use of digital ink and paint, and the looseness of shapes. I think the designs are quite closely based on the manga, which uses rough lines and watercolours; what it means in practice here is simplification and abstraction of shapes.

Oh, and of course... In This Corner is a much longer film than the other two, which both come in sub 90 minutes while the extended cut of In This Corner (which I haven’t seen) is literally the longest animated film ever made at 168 minutes; even the original cut more than two hours. This is in part perhaps reflecting different production conditions (making Totoro and Fireflies side by side strained the resources of Ghibli as it is, while Mappa are a large - if incredibly overworked - studio in a totally different era), and norms about how long a film should be. The longer runtime gives In This Corner time to do more, but it also makes it less pointed about any one thing.

In terms of the emotional tone of the three films, Barefoot Gen is a very angry film: it wants you to be confronted with the full horror of what happened and share in the author’s furious disgust towards the Japanese government and American bombers. But it’s also, perhaps surprisingly, a hopeful film that wants us to believe none of this is inevitable - as Spiegelman’s intro the comic describes it, an expression of the worldview that let the author carry on after going through a literal nuclear bombing.

Grave of the Fireflies is more a film about remembrance. Seita is a tragic figure, but we’re invited to understand him much more than condemn, and see what could lead to a girl dying in a hole in the arms of her brother. Its gaze is cold, almost clinical, precisely absorbing every detail. There is no living on after the war: just two ghosts watching a world become unrecognisable. There is very little that is hopeful to be found here; at best the wistful thought that all these people lost to time and entropy might live on as ghosts. But that is what gives the film its force.

In This Corner of the World expresses a different generation’s attempt to dig into a war that predates our births. It is the view of someone who cares a lot about portraying it right, and Katabuchi certainly excels at portraying wistfulness and loss of motivation, but it is also inevitably a view from afar, and to me that means it feels like it ends up being less bold in its artistic choices than the other two - though that could simply be because it reflects the tastes of this era, and not a past one! 'Less bold’ absolutely does not mean ‘bad’; it’s still a moving and truthful picture, and it was definitely the film I needed to watch after Gen and When The Wind Blows two years ago. As much as it’s rooted in history, its story is ultimately a personal one, about the course of a life, and I suppose about committing to a future despite incredible adversity.

Taking all three films... like, this isn’t about trying to pick a ‘best’ one. They all complement each other, and it is deeply fascinating to see how many different ways you can effectively approach the same period and even the same subject matter, and also I suppose a case study in seeing how 30 years changes the way we tell a story about one of the worst periods of history. By this point, the number of people who remember WWII is dwindling; we are left with artworks to get a sense of how they understood it, and then if it is relevant we try to connect to that history with our own artworks.

Perhaps it would be worth digging into other significant manga that deal with this period - I think for example Suehiro Maruo wrote quite a bit about orphans in the aftermath of the war. But that’s a discussion for another day...

(If you read all this... thank you. This isn’t really going to be a regular feature or anything, I just had a bunch of thoughts I wanted to write down after that movie, and I wanted to give it a more detailed treatment than I could in a couple of hours before the film!)

#animation night #grave of the fireflies #barefoot gen #in this corner of the world #anime #animation

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mooshs-crack-headcanons · 1 year

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I have a question. Tears of the Kingdom, final boss fight. Where are we stabbing him this time?

Personally, my bet is in the chest. It's been shown to be where the assumed strongest malice comes from, right at it's source and from the wall flash from the first trailer it shows the Hand™ attacked him in order to seal him so I'm thinking like with Twilight Princess where he was stabbed and killed in the stomach exactly in the same place where the sages stabbed him during his failed execution, that the final blow in Tears of the Kingdom is also going to be yet again going to be thematically symbolic.

Also, related but unrelated I'm literally SO excited to see this seen above in some kind of flashback. I'm fucking desperate to learn the Zonai connection/relationship with Ganondorf that would get them (or at least one of them/or maybe is one of their Deities, either way is the owner of the Hand™ most likely) to be 99% be the ones to seal him away like this, and given the expression and body language of Ganondorf's shadow here I think it's safe to say this sealing was definitely not a willing or constentful one and giving how the Hand is now helping Link by giving/providing his new abilities and the fact dragons, the representation of courage (going from the Zonai animal statues all over Hyrule of dragons, owls, and boars that these represent the respective elements of the Triforce) are found literally on every aspect of the Sky Islands which with the confirmation in the gameplay demo that the Constructs - that are 100% pulling a Ghibli Castle in the Sky on us and said constructions set on protecting/tending to the islands - are Zonai built meaning the islands and everything artificial on them were made by them (and they're undoubtedly living also living up there maybe in an equivalent to a settlement like Skyloft) So with that, it's obvious with just how much and how many dragon imagery and statutes there are where they're even on the logo of the game, that they tend to favor courage - the direct tribute historically associated with the hero - out of the triforce. Hell, maybe even why the Hand™ saves Link from falling (but not Zelda, RIP) is because he's the hero and stopping iterations of Demise's curse is like templated to BE his destiny, therefore the Hand™ knows saving Link from the fall in order for him to grow stronger to defeat Ganondorf is a must. As for Zelda? As the goddess' blood desendant she'll be fine, right? 🙂 (guys she'll be FINE)

Idk, I just have a gut feeling that like with how Zelda's powers and role was like the major focus in Breath of the Wild that we might get more focus on Link's here and honestly? I think could very much work. Like with this iteration of Zelda and Link having fully developed characterizations together with their amazingly excellent wonderful quality relationship shown off in botw alone but I would ADORE seeing more of in totk, it'd be very much appreciated and cool.

I rambled on enough, anyway, I think it's safe to say the Zonai are on our side and drink their "fuck Ganon, the piece of shit." juice every day.

#the legend of zelda #the legend of zelda tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom #the legend of zelda ocarina of time #the legend of zelda wind waker #the legend of zelda twilight princess #tloz ganondorf #tloz link #tloz zelda #moosh gives his dumb opinions #non request related

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biherselfsstuff · 1 year

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A Ghibli movie life

You know those days when you just don’t feel like doing anything? When you just want to wrap yourself in bedsheets and hide there forever?

Yeah…it’s one of those days. To be honest yesterday was an okay day. I went to university, late as always, and tried my best at career day. Spoke to three hotel representatives and they all wanted me to work there. They called today. I didn’t answer. I don’t know if I want to work there. There are so many expectations. It’s just…I feel it’s too early for this. I’m 19 years old and I feel as if I’m a kid again. I wish I would give the phone to my mom so she would explain, so maybe she would decide for me… I don’t know what to do. Don’t know what I want anymore…I’m not sure I ever did. Maybe I want the freedom of my best friend who gets to go home whenever she likes. Who doesn’t have to work. Who is open to life and feeling while I want to run away every chance I get. I feel as if I’ve lost too much over the years. Too much of my childhood…too much of myself. I used to be so…brave. Now I’m scared to even pick up the phone. Because if I don’t pick up and I don’t talk to them maybe they won’t be disappointed and I won’t tear out any expectations they may have had. I’ve come to a point where I constantly a support system. Honestly I would just love to run away to one of my fantasy words and pretend I’m someone else. Pretend I was brave, afraid of nothing or at least stubborn enough to deal with everything that came my way. Maybe if my life was a Ghibli movie it would be alright. Maybe then I would truly learn something. I would go on crazy adventures, scary and weird and truly live , truly find out the meaning of life. Even fall in love. That would be the only way I think for me to be remotely different. But…maybe my life is already an adventure…I mean the past two years I’ve had to face many monsters and I did try to fight but my fear got the best of me. I need to put my armor back on. To try to fight for a happy ending or at least the possibility of it. But I’ve both lost and gained so much along the way. Friends I thought would be different… don’t even speak to me anymore. I don’t know what I always do wrong. But I do have ones who stayed. After all these years they’ve stayed. Count your blessings not your problems, I guess. God, I wish I was a kid again. Running around, laughing and scratching my knees with absolutely no care in the world. Finding stories in clouds and a soft home in the grass of our yard. I wish summers weren’t just about work anymore. I wish I could dream of vacations and road trips with friends. I wish I could still go to theater class and act. Act like I was someone else. Pretend I could escape myself, even if it was for just a little while. I wish the world wasn’t the way it is. That the news weren’t all bad and I could still dream of something better. I wish it didn’t all end in a shallow “ what’s the point?”. I wish I could draw and sing and dance for the rest of my life without having to do anything else. Just me and a few dogs in a small cabin in the forest, close to a river with a waterfall in it. With fruits and vegetables that I would grow, away from the cries of the city. Just a simple, happy life. Where I could write and sing and paint and dance. Where I could just be me with no expectations. Grow old with someone who shares the same dreams. But I would first like to travel. Travel the world. Truly experience it. Learn so many things that my thirst for knowledge would be finally satiated. And yes, I do wish for that book romance. But I think I could live without it. I think this way I could truly live. Maybe I could volunteer all around the world and work with animals. Make the earth a bit healthier. Find myself in its roots. Maybe I’d be happy this way. In a simpler life. But still full of adventure, full of different types of love and no expectations. Just like waves that come and go. I would like to live my life away from the corporate world , away from the stress and pain, away from the self-inflicting catastrophes. Just a Ghibli movie, soft and clear in its message.

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adamwatchesmovies · 2 years

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My Life as a Zucchini (2016)

My Life as a Zucchini was nominated for an Oscar in 2016's “Best Animated Film” category but ever since Shark Tale, that Award's reputation has been dodgy. Does this picture stand toe-to-toe with Zootopia and Moana, or was it a scramble to find 5 nominees?

Orphaned after his perpetually drunk mother falls down the stairs, Icare “Zucchini” (voiced by Erick Abbate in the English Dub, by Gaspard Schlatter in the Original French) is sent to an orphanage. There, he experiences the same joys and sorrows all children do while waiting for a family to adopt him.

What you’ll notice about this French/Swiss production from the first frame are its visuals. Even in a year that featured wonderful CGI Imagery, traditional animation courtesy of Wild Bunch/Studio Ghibli, and another great picture by Laika, My Life as a Zucchini stands out. The colors, character designs, and overall style are so perfectly suited to the story anyone suggesting anything else would seem like pure idiocy. With their exaggerated proportions and color-coded features, the characters evoke children’s drawings - the ones you used to do when you couldn’t count so everyone got about a dozen fingers on each hand - polished and brought to life. Instantly, you're transported to a time of innocence and simple joys, but there’s more to this film than basic emotions.

The silly-sounding title may lead you to believe that this is a picture for little kids, but you'd be wrong. Inside the adorable children living at the orphanage are feelings that would be difficult to handle even for adults. I wouldn’t recommend it for those under the age of 10, but for everyone else, wow. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking that Zucchini has an empty beer can and a drawing of a superhero as mementos representing his dead mother and long-absent father. Without ever being sappy, forced, or cloying, the film turns towards you and opens its arms. All you can do is open yours in return and give it a big, warm hug. You’ll laugh at the children’s silly games, the way they ask each other about life’s big questions, and their wild logic-defying antics… until you start to think about them. At that point, you might be brought to tears.

It’s ultimately pointless to try and avoid falling in love with the characters of My Life as a Zucchini. I don’t know if I would’ve selected it as my pick for the best animated film of 2016, but it certainly would've been a contender. This is an excellent film, so bold in its visuals and so rich in heart. I had to jump through all sorts of hoops to see it and they were all worth it. When you check it out, stick around for the end credits. There’s a scene at the very end that gives us some insight into the process that brought this story to life. (Original French version on the big screen, October 7, 2017)

#My Life as a Zucchini #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #ma vie de courgette #claude barras #celine sciamma #germano zullo #morgan navarro #gaspard schlatter #sixtine murat #paulin jaccound #michel vuillermoz #2016 movies #2016 films #animated movies #animated films

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magpiejay1234 · 1 month

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Further addendum to Devas, the whole concept behind the Deva arc is of course a retread of Angels in NGE. Much like in NGE mythos how once an Angel contacts with Adam, the world will be terraformed to their specific species, once one of the Devas get Culumon, and bring it back properly, the Sovereigns will be able convert the Real World into data, so their subjects can make it their new home, and eat humanity instead of absorbing each other.

Similarly, the cast's concerns about the Devas representing the Buddhist Twelve Heavenly Generals, thus symbolically representing Heavens casting Judgment on Humanity is more, or less the same sentiment as the NGE cast had with Angels, particularly discussed in the Matarael episode (the spider angel with acid tears), and of course its episode was animated by Ghibli thanks to Anno's history as an intern there, because Gainax was running out of money at the time.

As we discussed with the Evolution lore being broken by the evolution TCG cards, this is one of the cases where direct plot references from your favourite show do not work as well in this context. Yes, professional writers like Konaka are not immune to these sort of tropes.

Granted, the elements of Deva arc become influential to be repeated countless times in other arcs, like Lucemon arc in Frontier, and King Drasil, and Royal Knights in Savers. So Toei, and Bandai are still trying to Evangelionize Digital Monsters.

#digimonstrosities #shitposting

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kuri-no-tani · 4 months

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JVC Post #16

Grave of the Fireflies

This movie is so so sad. I've seen it before and I remember it made me tear up in the theater, as it did again today. This is a Ghibli movie so there's also a great deal of quality and visible love. Overall it was a great watch.

What gets me every single time in this movie is Setsuko's death. I think it's the same for everyone who watches this movie, but it's really just so sad. I think that this movie really deserves it's widespread recognition as a grand achievement in animation, and as one of the best war films out there. Just fantastic.

The assigned reading was interesting. You can't blame Nosaka for his survivors guilt, but reading of his selfishness and abuse towards his sister really upset me. I can't imagine being so gluttonous at such a time, although it's clear he doesn't need to be told that now. Putting that aside, the description of his experiences was terrible to read. Particularly the part about his time in prison and the conditions of the inmates there.

I never picked up on the way that Grave of the Fireflies visually represents remembrance of trauma through the red lighting, and I find that pretty interesting. The representation of trauma, victimization, and loss through the deliberate imagery in the film really is what makes this movie so great. I know Takahata says this isn't an anti-war film, but I've always read it as one because of this.

I'd love to hear more about Stahl's points about "Response-Ability" in class though, as to be honest it flew over my head a bit.

#doing this for a class

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aulorawright · 1 year

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Independent Excursion: Media Reflection

June 8th - Studio Ghibli Museum

For my media reflection, I decided to go to the studio ghibli museum. This worked perfectly for me because I had just watched most of the films prior to coming on this trip, so I was super excited to find out that there was a museum in Tokyo, and I could do my assignment on it. We are so lucky to have Lauren and Eliza. They worked hard at trying to get tickets for everyone, and figured out the website and what to do when it was not looking good and not letting anyone buy tickets. We all headed over to the museum, and was delightfully greeted by the man and myth himself, Totoro. He was working the ticket booth. We gained access to the museum and they gave us a movie ticket that was a film reel of a scene from one of the movies, but unfortunately we were not able to take pictures inside the museum. The whole place was designed like a wonky house, with spiral staircases, bridges, small rooms with minnie doorways. There were lot of different rooms to inspect. One if the bigger areas looked like it would be the workspace of some of the designers of the franchise. With sketches all over the walls and scattered over desks, newspapers, pens, pencils, feather things, lamps, cigarette butts. It felt real, and was very detailed, I was super impressed. There was another room thaw was a little walk through of miniature replicas of some of the main objects or scenes in some of the earlier films.

My favorite room was an interactive display of how film works and other special effects. There was little gear operated sets that you have to crank the handle to get it to work, there was a motion picture display with a bunch of figures molded to be in different points in time that was spun on a wheel really fast so it looks like it’s actually moving. There were these layered pieces that looked 3d because of 2D drawings layered at different points in a box. There was also a film display that had rolls of film being pulled through a processor I’m assuming, and some where highlighted so you could see that when each square goes by fast enough, it looks like a movie. With all these beautiful pieces, and the light hearted music playing, I started to tear up a little because it was so cute and just made me so happy. We took a little break and ate at the cafe, then went back inside to watch the short film they gave us the ticket for. It was a short spin off of the movie My neighbor Totoro. It was the cutest thing ever. We then checked out the gift shop which was absolutely packed so it was hard to see anything. We left and a few of us tried to get these famous Totoro shaped cream puffs from this little shop but once we walked all the way there, we saw the sign that said the cream puffs were sold out. This really brought our mood down because we were looking for it all day, so we just decided to go home after that.

Academic Reflection

Because the museum was highly Totoro themed, I’ll talk about My Neighbor Totoro. The movie, has a realistic set based in Japan. It talks about real life issues and has a lot of aspects representing Japan. To name a few, the main characters house is set in a rice farm town, with the traditional style houses with the wood and paper paneled doors and windows. It also display the main mode of transportation being a bus, and having the working father travel far into town. I would say these are pretty accurate representations of some parts of Japan from what I’ve seen.

We took a trip to a rice farm which consisted of a small town on the outskirts and the rows and rows on farming land, it looked very similar to the movie. The bus transportation is accurate because public transit is very popular here, and the farther away form the busy cities the more scarce the transportation.

As for the clothing, I cannot speak on if it was accurate or not because I believe the movie was set in a different time. The unrealistic parts were definitely the mythical creatures of the forest, and flying bus cats and soot sprites. But who knows, they could be real too and we just dont know it.

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cancerhound6 · 4 years

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Yall just listen to Mitski "Nobody" and...

Is there a local friendly witch that wouldn't mind taking my sadness for a while asking for me

Please don't repost I spent so fukken long

#mitski #ohno #fuckingfeelings #yall ever just listen tona song and just #ghibli tears REPRESENT #animation #myart #vannaroberart #cancerhound6 #sometimes i animate #is there a witch i can sell my sadness to plz #mitski Nobody #nobody #FUCK

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willowcrowned · 3 years

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Thank you for the tag @darkisrising!!

[Picrew]

Remember to make a new post!

no pressure tags: @dykerory @ellie-you-idiot @phoenixyfriend @mandaloriandy

#are the ghibli tears and vampire bites entirely true to life?#no #but they like #represent me as a person or something #(or something)#tag games

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alonelysimp · 3 years

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For You, Anything

Characters: Kamisato Ayaka x GN! reader

WC: 1003

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Descriptive mention of food, Unedited

Tags: No Archive Warnings Apply, Word vomit, No beta we die like hilichurls, New relationship

Song: (open any Ghibli playlist + kimi no na wa + nakitai watashi wa neko o kaburu)

A/N: surprise my love language is physical touch and I had to bonk myself so many times to keep from mentioning a forehead kiss or a hug-

“I’ve missed being with you like this,” she mumbles, her hand squeezing yours. Her voice is soft, almost drowned out by the grass gently rustling in the wind. Graceful, as petals may float upon a pool or as a heron may perch beside a lakebed. You hum and squeeze her hand back.

“Like what?” She sighs. Her pace slows, just barely a walk now.

“It’s… my duty… as lady of the Kamisato Clan to represent the Yashiro Commission, but...” Her voice trails off and she comes to a stop. The air stills, as if the world were holding it’s breath waiting for her to continue. Her eyes cast downward, a soft pink dusting the tips of her ears. “I cannot be as open with my true feelings, as I can with you.” She pauses, taking a deep breath. “I wish to be more open, someone the people of Inazuma can trust, and yet I can only be like this with you. Where does the daughter of the Kamisato Clan end, and my true self begin?” You step closer, adjusting your hand to intertwine your fingers with hers.

“To me, you are Ayaka. Not the lady of the Kamisato Clan, or the Shirasagi Himegimi. Just Ayaka. The pretty girl at the festival, in the blue kimono with a kitsune mask that I watched the fireworks with.” She relaxes at your words, a smile returning to her face. The breeze stirs the sakura blossoms that line the path. “And I missed being with you too.” You gently nudge her hand forward, prompting her to walk again.

Fog settles around you as you near the forest’s edge. Bake-danuki statues line the pathway, appearing on the rocks in clusters. From afar, you can hear their song to tempt travelers towards them for a harmless trick.

“The forest is beautiful this time of year.” You can only nod and watch in amazement as the fireflies flit in and out of view in the blue haze. If you weren’t just outside a minute ago, you would’ve sworn it was night.

Her hand releases yours, running down the path and crouching just beside it. You hurry up to her, crouching down beside her. She holds a flower in her hand, one recently picked, and turns to you. Her hand reaches toward your hair hesitantly, letting you pull away if you wanted, but you remain still. She tucks the flower into the hair above your ear, fingers gently working it to stay put.

“There.” A smile falls on her lips, and you swear your heart does backflips in your chest. She looks ethereal in the blue light filtering through the leaves and the fog. Her hair glows, almost, and she… she’s… “I’m sorry, y/n. Do you want me to take it out?” Her voice brings you back to reality. Her brows are pressed together in concern. You reach up to touch your face, eyes falling on the ground, feeling tears roll down your cheeks.

“Oh…” You smile at the thought, albeit a bit cheesy. Her beauty, it brought you to tears. You look back up to her, seeing the tension in her expression lessen slightly at the sight of you smiling, despite the tears that fall. “You’re beautiful, Ayaka.”

Her hand draws closer to your face, hovering just above your cheek. Warmth radiates off it slightly, barely warmer then the slightly cooler air around you. You press your face against her hand, silent permission for her to gently wipe the tears from your eyes.

She helps you stand back up, leading you by the hand over the river. She sat on a rock in the clearing beside a cooking pot, left behind by a certain trio of chefs.

“I hope you don’t mind letting me cook today, I learned some recipes I want to try out. You shake your head, taking a seat beside her.

“You’ve improved a lot. I trust it’ll be good since you made it.” She smiles and pulls ingredients out of her bag.

“Turn around, I want it to be a surprise,” she huffs in amusement. You roll your eyes playfully, complying to her shenanigans.

A flower brushes against your foot as you turn to sit the other direction. It makes a soft noise as you pick it. Within a few minutes, you had the beginnings of a flower crown, braiding the stems of the flowers together. The silence that sat between the two of you is comfortable, simply basking in each other's presence.

She hums, tapping your shoulder. “Close your eyes, I want you to guess what it is.” You set the flower crown in your lap, turning to her with your eyes closed. You hear something crunchy cracking, and something not moist, but not dry either get moved around. It's spicy, that much you can smell, and the smell of sir fried ham has been making your mouth water.

The heat radiates off the chopsticks she holds out in front of your lips, not so hot it would burn you but not so cold it would taste weird. A smile tugs at your lips and your mouth closes around the chopsticks. It’s fiery at first, the sheer spiciness taking you by surprise which leaves as soon as it comes, leaving you with only the reminiscent flavour as the spices burst through the dying flames. The ham is crispy, a salty sear on the outside giving way to a mildly flavoured, juicy interior. A dry piece crunches in your mouth, a faint flavour of rice mixing with the other flavours that leave your mouth warm.

“...Can I have more?” She giggles, giving you another bite of her dish. “What is it?”

“A recipe I got from the traveler. They said it was a Liyuean specialty, jueyun guoba.” You open your eyes, seeing a warm blush on her cheeks and a dish in one hand, chopsticks in the other.

“It’s delicious, you should make it more.” She smiles and nods excitedly.

“For you, y/n, anything.”

Woah it has been a long minute since i posted- thinking abt putting the banner above the cut? how are we feeling abt it? Also I'm in love with Ayaka !!

#Ayaka #genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #genshin x gn!reader #ayaka x reader #ayaka x gn!reader #gn!reader #kamisato ayaka x reader #Kamisato Ayaka x gn!reader #genshin fluff #ayaka enjoyers i will feed you content #even if its unedited and i wrote this instead of working #ilyall #yall have amazing taste in women #ill be writing for the xinyan tag next bc its deserted <//3

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blk-satanic · 2 years

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I was in the mental hospital for a bit and when I came out my practice was shaky. But the other day I did a card reading that still pulls at my heart strings.

I asked Lucifer what would it be like if I worked with you. The response was 10 of cups upright which represents

- happiness, joy, and emotional contentment, particularly in relationships and family

- abundance of love and happiness in life and sharing it with others

Which almost had me in tears if I didn’t have a serious case of dry eye. So I’m planning on doing some further readings and one day I just have to show them a Studio Ghibli movie because I think they’d enjoy it.

Also I went to spencers the other day with my siblings and bought a sign of that one pentacle with the goat, however I did not realize there was weed on it. I also bought some neon green pentacle earrings. Tell me if you would like to see that.

#theistic luciferianism #luciferian witch #luciferian witchcraft #Luciferian #theistic satanism #young satanist #hail satan #satanic witchcraft

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pair-annoyed · 3 years

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Anime I Watched This Fall

My first semester of college is officially over and the December holidays are upon us! I hoped to make one of these posts sooner, but I have been incredibly busy with schoolwork. Now that things have slowed down, let’s take sometime to reflect on things I’ve watched.

These anime are listed in chronological order and encompass everything I’ve watched from 9/1/2020 - 12/15/2020

Like always, they will be rated on a 1-10 scale; 1 meaning complete garbage, 10 meaning masterpiece. I will offer my thoughts on what I did/didn’t like about each show!

1. The God of High School - 6/10

Despite the stellar animation from MAPPA and my high expectations, I was really disappointed by how this series was treated. Most of the story’s crucial elements were handled poorly. I finished this series feeling more confused about the plot than when I first began. The power system is really cool, but poorly explained. More time should have been spent on exposition and world building for this series, instead the fights were given the most screen time.

2. Doukyuusei - 7/10

I really liked the style of Doukyuusei. Granted, this was another movie I chose to watch primarily because of the hype surrounding it. The dynamic between Kusakabe and Sajou is an interesting one, and I also enjoy how the movies different acts were separated by the seasons. However, there's nothing that really sets Doukyuusei apart from other romance movies, its a little generic. Still, I enjoyed it nonetheless.

3. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season - 8/10

My opinions on Re:Zero’s second season are biased. This was, by far, the sequel I was most hyped for during the summer/fall anime season. I was so happy to see the story’s continuation and I’m looking forward to the season’s second part coming sometime in January. Re:Zero is one of my all time favorite series because of the way it handles it characters and power dynamics. I also really enjoy the show’s psychological aspects. If you haven’t already, give Re:Zero a try!

4. Saint☆Oniisan (Movie + OVA) - 8/10

This was a wonderful comedy. I wasn’t sure how the subject of Jesus and Buddha living together would be tackled, but it was handled wonderfully. I was laughing for pretty much the entire movie. I love the art style and little references to both Buddhism and Christianity, plus the incorporation of Japanese culture. Saint Oniisan is a bright comedy, with two eccentric main characters. If you like a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and need a good laugh, I can’t recommend this more.

5. Clannad: After Story - 10/10

Never, while watching anime, did I cry as much as I did while watching Clannad: After Story. I didn’t realize how much I related to Okazaki until I saw him grow up in After Story. I was left sobbing, especially after episode 18. I still, to this day, cannot listen to the Dango song without tearing up. The original Clannad is nothing special, but the continuation of its story its something heartfelt, emotional, and down-to-earth. I love Kyoto Animation with all my heart, and Clannad made me appreciate everything the studio has done just a little bit more. Thank you Clannad, for reminding me about the kind of person I strive to be.

6. Nakitai Watashi wa Neko wo Kaburu - 5.5/10

The art in A Whisker Away was beautiful. The story itself, however, is nothing too enjoyable. I found it difficult to like our protagonist or her love interest. Nothing about this movie is inherently memorable. The emotional climax came far too early which made the second half of the film seem long and drawn out. All in all, the movie has a wonderful concept, I just believe it could have been so much more emotional than it was. When I watch a move, I like to empathize with the characters. It’s difficult to do when the characters aren’t given the proper exposition to be empathized with.

7. Shikioriori - 6/10

This is less of a movie and more of a collection of short stories. Flavors of Youth is something you shouldn’t watch on an empty stomach, all of the food looks incredible. The same cannot beside for the rest of this feature. The stories themselves seems heavily clichéd. Much like A Whisker Away, the initial premise is intriguing, but the execution results in something that comes across as trying too hard and carries no emotional weight with the viewer. If you plan on watching, pay more attention to the artwork and animation than the actual plot. You won’t be missing anything.

8. Vinland Saga - 7/10

Vinland Saga helped me get out of the rut that Clannad: After Story. Not only does this show have a great story, its action packed with lots of interesting fights. I especially enjoyed all the Nordic history embedded within the show. Its really unlike any of the other historical anime I’ve watched. I will say, it’s gory. But, compared to all the other things I watched this time around, I finished this series the quickest. Its good, its graphic, its fast paced!

9. Mononoke Hime - 7/10

It’s ironic considering how much anime I’ve watched that I have yet to watch all of the most classic Studio Ghibli films. Princess Mononoke is grittier than most other Ghibli films I’ve seen, but it’s message is positive and its characters are wonderful. I can’t really speak ill towards classics like these. I guess maybe my one complaint is that this movie could’ve been a faster pace. Other than that... I really enjoyed everything Princess Mononoke offered! I understand why it’s so popular.

10. Howl no Ugoku Shiro - 8.5/10

Can you believe it took me this long to finally watch Howl’s Moving Castle? Me neither!! This movie is so endearingly beautiful. I loved every second of it, from the characters to the soundtrack. So many iconic things come from just this one movie. I would like to take this time to thank my best friend for reminding me that Studio Ghibli films are wonderful! Thank you for watching this with me, I loved it! All in all, I regret not watching this sooner!

11. Toradora! - 6.5/10

Toradora took me a while to finish, just because I lost interest about halfway through. But, I powered through it, and ended up really enjoying the show! I’m not the biggest fan of the ending, but that’s just a personal preference. Somehow, this show also made me cry? I’m not entirely sure why because Toradora! is probably the thing farthest from sad. Apart from the show’s dull slice of life moments, it was super cute! A much needed light-hearted romance.

12. New Initial D Movie: Legend 1 - 5/10

Full disclosure, this is the only thing related to Initial D that I’ve ever watched. My band and I watched this expecting to hear some of that iconic Initial D music, itself all we got was a mildly confusing story about different types of cars. It was cliché and frankly a little boring. Although, I am still considering watching the original Initial D just so I can hear the music in the way it was original intended. I’ve got no other opinions on this movie. It’s best not to watch these movies without the context from the rest of the franchise.

13. Uchuu Patrol Luluco - 7.5/10

I didn’t really understand why people enjoy studio Trigger so much until I watched Space Patrol Luluco. I loved all the fun references to other studio Trigger works. I loved the humor, and I loved all the bright colors. The animation was extremely high energy, and the art style fits the show’s premise. Each episode was only 12 minutes long so it was a super quick binge. If you’re looking for something quick, light-hearted and comical, this is the perfect show to watch.

14. Orange - 7/10

I owe a big thanks to a tumblr mutual for recommending this show to me! This holds the honor of making me cry by episode 3! I honestly did not expect the subject matter of this show to be as dark as it was. Usually when I see the genre ‘shoujo’ I do not associate it with a love story like that of Orange. The heavy subject matter made it a little too close to home for me, but I still really enjoyed this series. It reminds me off all the good times I had with my friends in high school, and of all the regrets I carry with myself to this day.

15. 3-gatsu no Lion - 7.5/10

March Comes in Like a Lion is another show that was a bit of a slow burn for me. Each episode left me feeling emotionally drained, so I had to take a lot of breaks while I was working on watching this series. Shaft, the studio behind this anime, holds a special place in my heart because I loved their work on the Monogatari Series. March Comes in Like a Lion is a little different. It’s driving force it is characters, and it was cathartic to watch our main character transform through the entire duration of the first season. I know the show’s second season is much better, so I’ll be starting that soon!

16. Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei - 8/10

I loved how artsy and smart The Tatami Galaxy is, but honestly I couldn’t watch too much at once cause it would hurt my head. I also couldn’t watch this show while I was tired because the speaking rate is much faster than typical anime. The Tatami Galaxy is so unique for its medium. I loved the different time loops and the crazy animation. The characters were fascinating. The dialogue, although very fast, it also fantastic. There’s an element of humor to this unique story telling, and I enjoyed ever minute of it!

Currently Watching:

Hunter x Hunter - 6.5/10 (As of Episode 30)

I pride myself in having watched a lot of shounen anime, but I was reluctant to start Hunter x Hunter for years because I thought I would find it boring. I was oh so very wrong. Considering great shows like Naruto and Fairy Tail that fall under the same category, I expected Hunter x Hunter to be subpar in comparison. It gets a low score for two reasons. One, the power system was introduced a little too late and now I’m wondering if all the fights post episode 30 will involved nen in some way, shape, or form. Two, its still on hiatus.

Two Cursed Additions For This List

Please to do not let these be representative of my anime taste.

1. Yarichin☆B*tch-bu - 4/10

I am a CLOWN for not knowing this was 18+. The only reason I watched this was to see why everyone was talking about the pink-haired boy with the glasses and tongue piecing. I know why now, and I regret it. This was a massive mistake on my part. But hey, at the least the art and ending song kinda slap?

2. Euphoria (Dropped After 1 Episode) - 2/10

If you know what I’m talking about when I say Euphoria, I am so sorry. And no, I am not talking about the HBO series. Seriously, don’t google this. Don’t watch this. Don’t interact with anything related to this. You’re probably wondering, “Then why did you watch it?” I did not watch this willingly. You see, I have a very bad habit of starting anime and then taking months to finish them. I made an ultimatum with a friend, lost, and then was forced to watch this a punishment. Not a fun experience. I’m very glad there are no GIFs of this on tumblr...

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