#top tier cgi in those episodes 10/10

[softcannoli]

you are the person who got me to watch the untamed and now I am BEGGING you to tell me what guardian is and where I can watch it.. is there time travel because sometimes I see two gifsets that do not seem like they're from the same show

ooohhhhhhhhohohohohohohohoohohhooo ohhhhhhh boy where do i even start

so uhhhhh Guardian is an on-fire trashcan of a show and also the only thing I've been able to think about for like a month. It's based on the novel of the same name by Priest, which I have not yet read but have heard is very good.

I say "based on" bc I have been given to understand that it is a VERY loose adaptation, bc the novel is pretty much entirely about That Gay Shit™, the undead, reincarnation, and literal gods, all of which IIRC are big no-nos under censorship laws. So the show had to get a little creative, and so now it's about aliens? and time travel? sort of? It's weird, but that's okay, because the show is far more interested in the homoerotic subtext, of which there is OODLES.

So basically our two main characters are:

Zhao Yunlan, who is a regular human dude who is in charge of Special Investigations Department, or SID, which is essentially the department of Supernatural Monster Cops, who are responsible for making sure superpowered underground alien people don't come up to the surface and run roughshod over regular humans, and

Shen Wei, a mild-mannered university professor who is Actually Ten Thousand Years Old, and is also secretly a superpowered underground alien person. He knew a dude 10,000 years ago who looks exactly like Zhao Yunlan for unknown (timey-wimey) reasons, and was very obviously in love with him, so when he meets Zhao Yunlan he is IMMEDIATELY lost in the yearning.

There's also a bunch of other people who work under Zhao Yunlan in the SID, and they are all absolutely delightful and have a whole found-family sort of dynamic going on.

Is this a good show? I think if I'm being totally honest I would have to say no? But is terrible in a bunch of truly delightful ways. The CGI is literally shit-tier. Some of the props could not more obviously be made out of craft foam and paper-mache. The quality of the dubbing work is really uneven, and by the last 15 episodes or so they seem to completely give up and some of the lines are dubbed over by someone who is CLEARLY not the same voice are the person speaking. A lot of the writing choices make NO sense, and the plot starts to go completely off the rails somewhere just past the halfway point. (there's also some stuff that is bad in like, a bad way, but I'll talk about that a bit at the end of the post)

The thing about this show is that it's gay. Like GAY gay. Like The Untamed was pretty gay, but I could conceivably see someone cover their ears and shut their eyes to all the gay subtext in that show and convince themselves there's a heterosexual explanation for everything. Not so with Guardian. Like, I really, legitimately cannot fathom even the most willfully ignorant person not picking up on the vibes between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei. I simply cannot picture it. There is, in fact, NO heterosexual explanation for them.

The show throws in the most flimsy, half-hearted nods to the idea that Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are just Good Platonic Buddies, and then in the next scene will just drop in a 5-10 minute sequence of Shen Wei taking a sick Zhao Yunlan home, tucking him into bed, staring at his sleeping face with a face full of tenderness and longing, and then cleaning his apartment and folding his laundry for him. It's fucking unreal.

The show was very clearly trying to push the limits of subtext to see exactly how much they could get away with, and as far as I can tell the answer they got was "not that much", bc I've heard some suggestion that the show was pulled shortly after broadcast for another round of edits.

So it's on Viki, but if you don't want to pay for a streaming service and don't mind sliiiightly sketchier subs, it's also on Youtube! It might be some other places too, but those are the ones I know about.

I'm going to stop now bc this post could seriously be like 5 times longer but please watch Guardian and join me in my daily cries about Shen Wei (Zhao Yunlan can come too I guess, but it's mostly about Shen Wei, bc of the inherent eroticism of loyalty and life debts)

Lastly, bc I would be remiss not to mention it, here's some warnings about the worst things I can remember off the top of my head. I personally still think the show was well worth watching, but there's a few things I sort of wish I had known going into it, beyond the vague warning "the ending sucks". It's gonna be spoilers, so read at your own risk.

There's some talk about suicide in the first arc which isn't really that bad in the grand scheme of things, but can come across as dismissive and/or insensitive. There's an arc somewhere in the mid-20s that leans on some really ableist "split-personality" tropes. I will fully admit that the only thing that kept me watching at that point was the knowledge that this would be over in an episode or two, and the fact that the youtube subtitles translated comments about other character's behavior as "cringe", which I found an extremely funny translation choice.

And lastly, the finale. The finale is bad in a number of ways, but the biggest and easiest to explain is that the show goes full Bury Your Gays and kills off both Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan. ( and then another entity takes control of Zhao Yunlan's body?? so the general public doesn't actually know he's dead?? which I found pretty uncomfortable) But like basically my view of the ending is that if something bad happened, No It Didn't. Which seems to be the general opinion, since apparently Priest went back and wrote an extra epilogue chapter to fix the drama's ending.

[wazafam]

In the same year that Titanic headed out to the open sea, a modest little horror movie called Event Horizon cruised through outer space, a sci-fi horror action amalgam that seemed to have something for everyone and yet appealed to almost no one. It bombed in the summer of 1997, but in the decades since has gotten some love for being a cult classic.

RELATED: 10 Best 90s Sci-Fi Horror Movies That Still Hold Up Today

Far from being the movie that killed genre auteur Paul W.S. Anderson's career, it didn't resonate with audiences who couldn't quite decide if it was too original or too derivative of other plots. It featured sophisticated camera work and a top-notch cast, but was lampooned as a rip-off of Ridley Scott's Alien with too much blood and guts, putting it into a niche category of box office bombs that are actually underrated.

10 Underrated: Amazing Cast

Event Horizon features a bevy of top tier talent prior to appearing in some of their most iconic roles. With the exception of Sam Neill as Dr. Weir, hot off his success as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, Laurence Fishburne appears as Captain Miller before he was Morpheus in The Matrix, and Jason Isaacs appears as D.J. before he was Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter.

With a supporting cast that includes Sean Pertwee (Alfred Pennyworth in Gotham), Joely Richardson (prior to The Tudors), Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13), and Richard T. Jones (the Why Did I Get Married? franchise), their acting quality ensures that viewers always take the material seriously.

9 Bombed: Unoriginal Idea

If Event Horizon feels like a couple of different movies rolled into one, that's because it is; its plot takes its inspiration directly from some of the most iconic horror movies of all time. Its Frankenstein-ed narrative is one of the reasons it's persevered, but also one of the reasons why it was persecuted at the box office at the time of its release.

RELATED: 10 Crazy Production & Development Facts About The Shining

According to The Making of Event Horizon, a haunted ship gripped by spirits after a passage to a hell dimension takes its cues from The Shining (but in space), and The Haunting. Towards the end of the movie, the obvious Hellraiser homages can't be ignored either (especially Weir's savage imagery).

8 Underrated: Sympathetic Characters

One of the key components in a horror movie is developing characters audiences can sympathize with. It's what separates a truly great horror experience from a typical slasher fest with nameless teens at a summer camp getting killed one after another.

As with Ridley Scott's Alien, the movie takes its time in setting up the plot, letting viewers get to know the characters, and making their plight sympathetic enough so that their fates are cared about. As bizarre events start happening around the ship, they're targeted to the fears and anxieties of each person, making them more visceral and profoundly jarring.

7 Bombed: Too Much Competition

1997 was a year for big genre blockbusters, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Men In Black. All of these movies were critical and commercial successes, utilizing elements like extraterrestrials, monsters, and suspenseful firefights, which were all similar to Event Horizon.

 Not only did it face stiff competition in science fiction, it also had to be careful around one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, Titanic. Event Horizon was forced to change its release schedule around James Cameron's historical epic, placing it in an undesirable spot in the dog days of summer.

6 Underrated: Great Special Effects

With a combination of practical effects and the latest CGI the movie managed to marry time-tested special effects with the most cutting-edge technology. It may not have been as good as other '90s classics like Jurassic Park in that regard, but it's managed to look pretty timeless since it debuted.

RELATED: 10 Things In 90s Sci-Fi Movies You Didn't Know Were CGI

Looking through a modern lens some of its effects might be dismissed, but because it used them effectively and efficiently, saving its coup-de-gras for the momentous finale, it doesn't seem as dated as its more CGI-heavy peers of the era like Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.

5 Bombed: Rushed Editing

Elsewhere in The Making of Event Horizon documentary, director Paul W.S. Anderson explains that while most of the time the Directors Guild of America verifies that movies get a standard 10-week period in which to be edited, this movie only received six. The short production schedule and its release date necessitated the first cut before principal photography had even finished.

Promising an August release date so as not to compete with Titanic's supposed September premiere (it ended up getting delayed), Anderson maintained a six-week editing schedule despite also needing to juggle the second unit shooting schedule. This invariably meant that he needed to edit within four weeks, which made the first cut rough, weak, and unfinished.

4 Underrated: Genuinely Terrifying

The late  '90s launched several semi-scary franchises like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream, but those movies capitalized on scream queen tropes and the bank-ability of their hot young stars.  Besides a few jump scares, they're more entertaining than terrifying, and aren't considered the sort of movies that will keep a viewer up at night.

Event Horizon on the other hand has a pervasive feeling of dread that only gets worse the further into madness Weir goes. Not only does it have several horror hallmarks, but it also pushes the boundaries of the genre in new and unexpected ways.

3 Bombed: Too Gory

With glimpses of a blood-covered orgy, fantasies involving severed limbs, and Weir's descent into madness, the movie is a gorefest of the highest caliber. Ironically, the first cut had even more gore, including a longer cut of the Hell Scene, and more emphatic horror imagery for the orgy and the death scenes.

RELATED: The 10 Goriest Italian Horror Movies Ever Made, Ranked

According to a Q&A with Anderson on Youtube, adult movie stars were hired to make the orgy more realistic. Critics' reviews on Rotten Tomatoes reveal it was considered too gory and shocking for its own sake to be taken seriously.

2 Underrated: Iconic Horror Villain

There's Pinhead and Freddy Krueger, and then there's Dr. Weir, an amalgamation of both horror icons and yet something else entirely. Unlike the other two, who were played by relatively unknown actors, Weir is played by Sam Neill, who had been America's hero saving young children from rampaging dinosaurs just a few years before.

Neill plays Weir as profoundly curious, whose interest in science begins to strain his compassion for his fellow humans, but he remains charitable, soft-spoken, and kindly. It's what makes his transformation towards the middle of the movie so effective, and his complete unraveling at the end of it so impressive. Weir is a horror figure that deserves to be counted among the great titans of terror.

1 Bombed: Unbelievable Science

While it's unlikely viewers and critics would consider Event Horizon hard sci-fi, the fact that it focused on black holes positioned it to be criticized for its lack of tangible science. Those looking for any actual information about the effects of black holes will be disappointed.

Unlike Jurassic Park, where real science was blended with pseudo-science to make a nominally convincing plot by MD turned author Michael Crichton, Event Horizon makes no such attempts at being plausible or realistic.

NEXT: 10 90s Sci-Fi Masterpieces You’ve Probably Never Seen

Why Event Horizon Is Underrated (& Why It Bombed At The Box Office) from https://ift.tt/3dumczs

[rieshon]

Winter 2020 Power Rankings

Time to catch up on writing some good old Power Rankings.

1. Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!: It's hard not to fall for Eizouken's infectious love for all aspects of the art of animation. They even pay respect to the people who make sound effects. I respect Yuasa, but most of his works don't really appeal to me--but Eizouken can be appreciated by anyone who's ever loved a piece of animation. ★★★★☆

2. Oshi ga Budoukan Ittekuretara Shinu: The first law of idol anime is they're always better than you think they will be. I had high hopes for Oshibudo and it still managed to exceed them. Idols and yuri are not an uncommon combination (even if it's usually just subtext) but Oshibudo manages to mix lesbian themes with the purest and most genuine depiction of idol fandom possible to make a truly delicious gay idol smoothie. ★★★★☆

3. 22/7: Speaking of idol anime always overperforming... I thought this would be a 'so bad it's good' show based on its first episode but instead it's just so good its good. A compellingly weird frame story that plays with criticism of idols just enough to be interesting props up an impeccably well done anthology series about several girls and their disparate paths to the idol industry. Some of the eps are magical, some are relative duds, but the sum of it all is an incredibly endearing series. ★★★☆☆

4. SHOW BY ROCK!! Mashumairesshu!!: Speaking of gay idols... The original Show By Rock was an okay series with yuri subtext that I mostly liked because Ayaneru was in it, but this spinoff trims all the fat from that series and delivers pure gay band girls and it's brilliant. No weird sci-fi drama, no laser fights between CGI gerbils, just some extremely gay girls starting a band. ★★★☆☆

5. Itai no wa Iya nanode Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu.: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Oonuma Shin always fucking delivers. Boufuri comes off as a boring MMORPG anime at first, but as a truly admirable "commitment to the bit" sees our protagonist Maple grow to literally God-like strength, it starts to worm its way into your heart. There's some great moments like Maple turning into a mech or a fluffball or fucking around and breaking sidequests, but for the most part it's just an extremely competent anime made by, still, the most underrated director in the business. ★★★☆☆

6. Koisuru Asteroid: It's a shame for a Kirara anime to ever be described with the term "disappointing" but Asteroid just doesn't deliver enough astronomy or geology and has way too much melodrama. The girls are still cute as fuck and it definitely hits most of the good Kirara anime notes, but it's decidedly a second-tier Kirara series. Also I'm still mad at them for ruining Suzu's hair. ★★★☆☆

7. Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei Shite Mita: This is definitely a funny premise, but it's also one of those comedy shows where they really only have one joke that they do over and over. Still, it's hard not to enjoy Amamiya Sora as a cool and standoffish science babe, and by the time the gag is getting old the show wraps up with a surprisingly strong resolution to the romantic tension in the series. ★★★☆☆

8. ID:INVADED: This is the kind of show I almost never actually watch, but every so often I stumble upon one of these male-led action-thrillers that really manages to tickle my fancy. ID takes a compelling premise--it's like Minority Report except the detectives have to solve weird metafictional puzzles in scenarios derived from the psyches of the killers--and spins it out into an enjoyable science fiction action-adventure romp. As a piece of sf it doesn't say much more than "me am play gods," but it manages to be genuinely cool in premise and execution and also has a cute loli BBA. ★★★☆☆

9. Kuutei Dragons: CG anime conspiracy continues with this well made adventure story about whaling but it's in the sky. Unfortunately its addressing of the ethics of whaling is too wishy-washy to be interesting and it has some weird tonal stuff like setting up a "dude saves girl from prostitution" plot arc and then just not doing it so we just have to assume she like... goes back to whoring herself I guess? But this is never even addressed? It's weird, but the show has some pretty beautiful visuals for a CGI show and the ending arc is pretty satisfying. It queerbaited me with that Za-san character though. ★★★☆☆

10. Magia Record Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Gaiden: Madoka is probably in my top ten anime of all time, so just the existence of a shitty cash-in mobile game based on it pains me, much less seeing the entire franchise pivoting to selling it instead of more actual Madoka. Magia Record is bad in multiple dimensions; not only is it a poor imitation of the original masterpiece in both style and tone, the writing takes some truly disastrous turns with respect to the original series's canon. But I'mma be real with you... Yachiyo is the hottest anime girl of the year and she's hard gay for Iroha. So two stars. ★★☆☆☆

11. Murenase! Seton Gakuen: It feels like there's A LOT of "animal people" shows lately... This is another one. The girls in this are enjoyable thanks to great character designs from Sasaki Masakatsu who always manages to impart a very understated but tangible lewdness to all his characters. ★★☆☆☆

12. Kyokou Suiri: I really like 'talking anime' and I really loved listening to Kitou Akari talk for almost the entire runtime of this whole series. She's definitely a real one. It was also nice to see a romance with a cute disabled character whose disability is only really there in the background. Kotoko was just cute as fuck with an impeccable fashion sense. The story is kind of meh, especially once it gets into the meat of the Koujin Nanase arc, but it's worth it just to see Kotoko and Kurou's cute interactions. ★★☆☆☆

13. Nekopara: I wish Nekopara was better, and lewder, especially given that the franchise literally has its origins in porn doujinshi, but it still has lots of cute cat girls. Even if they do live in Saudi Catrabia. Maple is best cat. ★★☆☆☆

14. Ishuzoku Reviewers: The fact that this show became such a sensation is truly a testament to the power of anime tiddies. Unfortunately the character designs in this show do very little for me even when the characters are ones that aren't objectionably weird (which is infrequent) which is pretty much a fatal flaw for an anime that's supposed to be all about getting horny and nutting. Too thicc for me, man. I admire its gumption but in the end I didn't actually enjoy the show that much. I did learn the Japanese word for "cloaca" though. ★☆☆☆☆

[mononohke-archive]

Anime Roundup Pt.1 - Fall 2016 [Spoilers]

It’s that time of the season again where I get to write thousands of words nitpicking whatever anime I happened to watch! For the first time, I want to add a SPOILER warning because although I don’t go out of my way to spoil plot points, I will bring them up if necessary. This is late once again, and honestly I don’t have much of an excuse. I did have some writers’ block, but I also just procrastinated a lot. It’s a good thing no one cares about my opinions in the first place! :D 

Also, I had to split this into two parts because apparently there is a word limit of 5000 on text posts. 

Overall: This was a really damn good season. The were a couple of disappointments, yes, but it still mostly good and there were a few amazing, Anime of the Year contenders too.

Total Anime: 11 | Average Score: 7.5 | Word Count: 5058

- (DIRECT) SEQUELS -

Bungou Stray Dogs 2nd Season [7/10]

Oh... Bungou Stray Dogs. How dare you do that to me? How dare you get so damn good you made me cry, then a few episodes later, take it all away? That’s what the first 4-episode, completely unrelated flashback arc of this second season did. Meaning: it switches protagonists (focusing on a character/friend from Dazai’s past in Port Mafia), switches tone, and switches... um, quality of writing to be perfectly honest. This whole 4-episode arc is like a masterpiece compared to the rest of the show before and after. I need to talk about why I like it better so much.

#1) The main character is someone I ended up really caring about. Oda Sakunosuke (voiced by the great Jun Suwabe) is a Port Mafia hitman who is unwilling to actually kill people. Despite his job, he takes care of a few adopted kids and tries so hard to do what’s right and follow his principles. He is a protagonist which I rarely see, and I fell in love with him instantly. Compare him to Atsushi who is... just okay... nothing special... kind of boring by comparison, actually. I have issues with being invested with the characters in the main storyline.

Of all the people in the Agency, I only like Kunikida and the boss, Yuki. Collectively, they don’t get much screen time, especially compared to Dazai, but even I did not have a problem with Dazai in this arc. His stupid suicide jokes and tomfoolery are severely toned down and frankly, he’s a lot more likable like this. The other side characters were great too, like the villain, Gide (voiced by another one of my favorite seiyuu, Shinichirou Miki).

#2) Total difference. If you haven’t seen BSD, you won’t know that it is full of humorous moments. A lot of it is... hit and miss. And sure, it’s not overall or primarily a comedy, but the comedy elements are pretty strong and frequent, especially in the first season. In this arc though, there was almost no humor. It was a serious gangster drama with a few supernatural elements. It’s almost comparable to last season’s 91 Days, which I personally enjoyed a lot.

#3) Genre shift. This is related to the previous number and to reiterate, the first arc of BSD season 2 is a dead serious gangster action/drama. The rest of the show is highly comedic with a lot of anime tropes/cliches, but the flashback arc had none of that. It almost didn’t feel like an anime. It was a legitimate crime drama (with the focus on the criminals instead of the police) which is actually really damn rare in anime. I praised 91 Days a lot for this in the previous season, so BSD gave me another taste of that and it was beautifully done. The bleak, but still beautiful color grading, the 1930s aesthetic despite it taking place in modern times, the soundtrack, everything was on point.

Aaand that’s why I upped the score by one point compared to the first season. This flashback arc did it for me. It made me desperately wish that BSD was about Odasaku and Port Mafia instead of Atsushi and the Agency. If this arc was released alone as an OVA, I would’ve given it a 9 for sure.

To be fair though, this season was also genuinely better than the first in a few ways. Namely, the introduction of the overseas/foreign group of specialists full of familiar Western authors like Mark Twain and H.P. Lovecraft. The leader of The Guild, F. Scott Fitzgerald (played by another one of my faves, Takahiro Sakurai), in particular is a delight to watch as he pulls the strings of his evil plans. Generally, all the new additions to the cast, including the extra focus on Port Mafia, are highly entertaining to follow, much better than the Agency alone. Although the Guild arc is a little bit rushed because of the flashback arc, the pacing and everything just felt a lot more exciting than the previous season.

Other than that, I can’t say I have any new criticisms or appraisals. Most of the things I mentioned in my first review of Bungou Stray Dogs carries over. I do want to praise the production values again because this show genuinely has top-tier animation and sound design (because Production I.G.). Forget what I previously said about the direction because that and the cinematography are beautiful. Some of the shots in the show are worthy of being framed. Even the soundtrack was good, even if it isn’t particularly memorable. The biggest, and pretty much only, flaws that this show has is in the writing/plot and characters and those are really important things. Great writing can often make up for a lack of production values, but it usually does work the other way around.

Haikyuu!! 3rd Season [8/10]

I was kind of surprised that for the next sequel of Haikyuu!!, they would dedicate an entire (10 episode) season just to one match. Even now, I question that decision. Don’t get me wrong, Haikyuu!! is still as good as it ever was in terms of production values, writing, voice acting*, etc buuut having 10 episodes dedicated to one match and nothing else? I’m not a fan of it.

Part of that is because as far as sports anime goes, I tend to favor training arcs and down time in-between matches, more than actual matches themselves (and I also prefer shorter matches). This “season” is one rather lengthy match, with nothing after it or before it like in the previous seasons. I’m sure I would’ve been fine with it if it was part of a full 25 episode season. That’s why I actually dropped it one point instead of being a 9/10 like the first two seasons.

Other than that, I don’t really have any complaints... I mean, yes, my preference for shorter matches is a thing, but it’s not at all badly paced like Diamond no Ace. But looking back, I might’ve preferred marathoning it than watching it week-to-week like I did...

*RIP to the original voice actor of Ukai, Kazunari Tanaka.

Natsume Yuujinchou Go [10/10]

Watching this new season of Natsume Yuujinchou was like meeting and old friend. It was like going home. With the exception of a slight change in art style, there is no difference at all between this and the last season that aired back in 2012. My biggest complaint, honestly, is that Go only had 11 episodes rather than 13 like every other season does. Thankfully, another season is guaranteed next year, so it’s not over!

Now, I don’t want to discuss every reason why I love Natsume Yuujinchou so much because I plan to do that one day in a proper review of the series as a whole, but let’s just say that this series is really important to me. This season gave me what I wanted: more fun, heartwarming, and emotional anecdotes of Natsume’s everyday life interacting with youkai and humans alike as well as a bit more backstory of Natsume, Natori, Matoba, and Natsume’s family/friends and the slight moving forward of an overarching plot. Further character development for some few characters also happened in the usual subtle way.

I’m so happy Natsume has maintained its level of quality, even with the studio change. All the original voice actors and most of the original production crew came back. Thank god for this consistency because not all shows get it (*coughsdgmcoughs*).

- INDIRECT SEQUELS & NON-SEQUELS -

Days [7/10]

This is a sports anime. Just a regular sports anime which hits all the beats of every other sports anime. The production values are pretty decent, although the CGI players in long shots are somewhat distracting, but they are nothing special.

So why did I like this one? Well, aside from how I generally favor sports anime (albeit for shallow reasons like good yaoi art/doujins/fanfiction), I did get invested in the characters, that much is undeniable. What helps is that the voice cast is incredible, with Takahiro Sakurai, Daisuke Ono, Tomokazu Seki, Daisuke Namikawa, etc etc. Yes, despite the sameyness of this sports anime, I took a liking to it. It entertained me and it’s good enough for a sports anime, which I rate relative to each other, not other anime of different genres.

Days, in all actuality, is pretty average, but I liked the characters a lot and that’s enough for me.

Drifters [7/10]

Before I start talking about this one, I am not familiar with Hellsing (yet, but it is on my plan-to-watch list), so I can’t really use that as a comparison. Now then, Drifters is a little strange to me because on one hand, it really plays to some of my base desires/guilty pleasures and overall I found it fun to watch. For example, It’s incredibly gorey and violent, which I appreciate. It’s a massive crossover story with famous historical figures and takes place in a very Lord of the Rings-esque (almost like a cliffnotes version) alternate universe. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and has plenty of hilarious and cool moments.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of unfunny “offensive” humor/etc that really takes me out of the viewing experience. How can I properly enjoy something when I’m always lowkey uncomfortable? Some of the sexism and homophobia/transphobia is so bad it feels like an 80s anime. (If you’ve seen an older anime, you know how much more blatant they are.) How is this writer still stuck so far in the past? Get a clue, man, most modern anime is usually at least subtle about it.

Anyway, aside from that, I did also have some problems with other things, which I can only describe vaguely because sometimes I zoned out while watching the show. Well, regardless, I still thought Drifters was pretty good, and I liked it, but it sure as hell is flawed. Looking forward to the second season though.

Fune wo Amu [5/10]

If I had to pick the most disappointing anime of the season, it would be this one. Not that Fune wo Amu/The Great Passage is actually bad, per se, but I expected much more. Granted, it was probably my fault in the first place. I made a lot of assumptions about what it would be like because I heard Haruko Kumota was attached to the project and thought it would be a masterpiece drama like Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (written/drawn by Kumota) earlier this year. Turns out that Fune no Amu is actually based off of a novel written by someone else and Haruko Kumota is merely the character designer for the anime and is currently drawing the manga adaptation.

Even so, this anime looked promising. The whole premise centering around an adult cast working on the production of a dictionary (a somewhat mundane job) is exceedingly rare in anime. Sooo... maybe it would give a unique experience since there would be little-to-no anime cliches and tropes, right? Um, well, yeah that’s the thing. While is succeeded in not having that many of anime’s typical pitfalls, it did not succeed in making the characters or dictionaries in general interesting.

The biggest problem with Fune wo Amu is the complete lack of focus. It kind of goes all over the place and tries to cover everything, but instead it spreads the narrative thin. The only exception is Majime (the main character)’s connection to dictionary making, but even that is marred by a different issue (which I’ll get to after this). There are other things which are subplots or otherwise brought up, but never get properly explored or resolved.

For example: the romance between Majime and Kaguya. For a few episodes, they interact a little bit, Majime has a crush on her, halfway through he writes a cheesy love letter to her and bam! 10+ year time skip and they’re happily married. As someone who hates romance in general, it’s really weird for me to say that I wanted more focus on the romance. (On a sidenote, can I just say that Kaguya’s career of becoming a chef and restaurant owner in an extremely male dominated/sexist industry is about hundred times more interesting than Majime faffing about with dictionaries? Makes me wish the anime was about her instead.)

And that’s not the only thing ofc... the friendship between Majime and Nishioka was not really resolved. The old man and his dedication to making the dictionary was there in the beginning and brought back only at the very end as he’s about to pass away. Almost everything felt like it didn’t get enough attention.

As for Majime’s character development and his relationship with dictionary making. The problem with that is not really the writing, but with the imagery. The symbolism in this show is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. A character says something like “a sea of words” to describe making a dictionary and then later in the episode, Majime has a dream where he’s literally in a sea of words. Not only is it distracting as hell, but it feels unfitting for this kind of anime. Yes, there is some media where big and bold imagery is the way to go (Gurren Lagann, anyone?), but Fune wo Amu is not it. If the symbolism was more subtle or abstract, it definitely would’ve worked in its favor. Instead, it’s hamfisted and corny. If you want a good example of subtle, interesting, and effective imagery from a show with a similar vibe, watch Rakugo Shinjuu (which is in my top 3 best anime of 2016).

I also have to quickly mention the music, even though it’s not visual, because it also suffers the problem of being too obvious and distracting. It’s not a good thing when the main theme kicks in and I groan because it annoys me that much. Again, a more subtle soundtrack would’ve been better. Other than those major problems, there’s nothing really of note to mention. The animation itself is decent and the voice acting is fine as usual. Nothing standout though, despite the cast full of veterans.

So in the end, I struggled between giving this an anime a 5 or 6. I originally settled on a 6, but then lowered it back down to a 5 because I was being too forgiving.