Jeoffrey

I have mixed feelings about this movie. Some things in it were good, others not so great. First of all, the animation is really unique. The character models are largely done in CGI which sadly leaves a lot to be desired. The movement is choppy at times, it sometimes looks a bit artificial and there are moments (like the opening Halloween dance) where I just couldn’t believe what I was watching, and I generally didn’t like it very much. Fortunately, most of the backgrounds are classic 2D animation, so I quite enjoyed the setting of Chimney Town, which had an interesting vibe and a certain charm. The characters themselves weren't exactly likable. They felt like some weird 3D version of Rugrats most of the time. The cinematography doesn’t help much either, although it's clear that the cinematographer likes to experiment, offering shots from unexpected angles such as characters’ POVs or a scene as if straight out of a platformer. It often looks weird rather than interesting, though, and it’s disrupting the flow of the viewing experience. What was great was the music, which was powerful and did a good job of illustrating what was happening on screen. I also have mixed feelings about the overall story. On the one hand, it’s full of all kinds of clichés, and so many of the big surprises (like who Poupelle really is) are revealed too soon. On the other hand, there are some pretty powerful and emotional moments that work for the viewer. Overall, it was quite an unusual show. I feel like the creators wanted to experiment a lot in terms of expressive devices, but stuck to the tried and tested formulas story-wise, which they managed to handle quite well. 5.5/10

The Deer King had the potential to be a truly amazing film. The visuals are gorgeous, the music is amazing, the story is intriguing, and the setting has its undeniable charm. It's just that the whole thing seems sort of half-baked. The characters and their motivations and relationships are not fleshed out enough, you need to work out a lot of things on your own to make it all hold together and see the amazing overall picture and realize what it's supposed to be about. The film was aiming to be a grand spectacle in the style of Studio Ghibli's best works like Princess Mononoke. It tries to play out an intricate story with various different characters and their goals, but the characters’ motivations are only explained just enough to make you understand them, but you won't feel it and you will barely find it convincing. It's probably because the film format didn't offer enough space for this much material, and so a lot of the explanations, including even such basics as an effective exposition, were simply skimped on, and much of it feels incomplete. It negatively affects your overall impression as you have to concentrate a lot to make sense of everything, and there's something lacking to make you fully relate to the characters. There are a lot of important characters and not all of them get the space they deserve. You have to make a lot of assumptions about them to get the full picture and make sense of it all. The only relationship that is fleshed out is the one between Van and Yuna. I had no problem believing it and I enjoyed their journey together, but all the other important things around them weren’t that great. Dr. Hossar was fairly likable, as well as tracker Sae, but did I learn enough about them to make sense of their actions? Especially with Sae, it was pretty hard, and I had to guess her motivations from the subtle clues the series offered. These are two of the more important supporting characters, and they are already missing something, not to mention the rest. King Aquafa, his advisor, the administrator Yotaru, and the resistance leader Ofan – all these characters played a big role, and the entire conflict revolved around them, but their motivations and reasoning were explained in an extremely superficial way. The same goes for the message of the film. You really have to search for it and deduce it from certain scenes, or from what some of the characters say, instead of having it shown to you in a powerful and dramatic way. The film doesn’t really highlight what is important. It doesn't have enough power or depth. Even if you can sense that there is depth to it, and you can see how amazing and intense the story could have been, you actually end up quite disappointed. What could have been a 5-star experience only deserves a very weak 4*, and I’m being generous. It probably would have been better as a series with more space for everything... 6.5/10

Considering that the premise about accidentally switched babies feels like something out of a sub-par Mexican soap opera, I was quite surprised at what an intimate and sometimes boring romance A Couple of Cuckoos is. Some of the humor borders on stupidity and many of the would-be dramatic moments are based on silly misunderstandings or common genre clichés. I couldn’t really bring myself to root for any of the three girls, and I found Umino quite uninteresting, and sort of wishy-washy. What I liked the least was his relationship with his step-sister, which the show tried to push a bit too hard as a possible solution to the whole romantic polygon. I just don't buy it, and Sachi seems more like an annoying appendage than a romantic prospect. It's a bit better with the other two girls, there’s at least a little chemistry there and I understand what the writers were aiming for, but I can't say I find it particularly entertaining or enjoyable. It’s great in terms of animation and the music is audible and tries to create a certain vibe. There are a couple of stronger moments, but not powerful enough to excite me or arouse my interest. It’s just a run-of-the-mill anime that I watched until the end, but it didn’t leave a mark on me. I might even forget it in a few days. I'd have to really think about whether I want to watch another season. 4.5/10

Kingdom - Season 4 (2022) (série) Kingdom is a guarantee of great fun for me, although I wasn't as excited about Season 4 at first as I was about the previous one. I was expecting Qin Kingdom to finally go on the counter-offensive and begin the real journey to unify all of China. Instead, the season just dealt with internal conflicts. It does make sense, though. After the epic battles of the previous season that had brought Qin Kingdom to the brink of destruction, it was clear that someone would want to take advantage of this internal weakening. With a calculating and ambitious chancellor just waiting for his opportunity, there’s trouble ahead. And Lü Buwei is indeed a skilled schemer. His inner strength and cunning are impressive, and he quickly sets his plans in motion. This gradually leads to two dangerous attempts at revolution, each time using other powerful players from the emperor’s entourage. What I ended up enjoying more than all the revolutions and battles was the way the series portrayed most of the key characters in them. Both the brother and mother of the future emperor had a very interesting story arc, and their complicated relationships and past were explored in great depth. Especially the queen dowager had an incredibly strong and dramatic story that made me see her as a broken and tragic woman who believed that she had found happiness again, at least for a while. While she's definitely not supposed to be a positive character, I could definitely empathize with her. The confrontation between the emperor and his chancellor was also excellent and revealed their plans and visions, both of which were logical and powerful. Lü Buwei’s plan to unite the empire using money seemed just as acceptable as the emperor's plan to use force. Both visions are properly discussed and, given the context of the times and the situation, it eventually becomes clear which one is the right one. In the end, I wasn’t disappointed, even though the whole season was about the final resolution of internal strife and hopefully the final unification of the entire Qin kingdom into a stable entity that should be ready now to begin its own warfare. While it wasn't the strongest or most thrilling part of the entire story, it was clearly necessary, and so well-crafted that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kingdom never fails to entertain me, the author has everything well thought out, manages to sell me on all the drama and individual characters, and keeps on coming up with interesting battles between huge armies. The chessboard is set up now, the pieces are finally in place and the big game can begin... 8.5/10

Summer Time Render is a decent mystery drama that managed to hold my attention for the entire 25 episodes. It tells an interesting and meaningful story that incorporates some tricky themes, such as time travel (more specifically, traveling between different realities), without the story falling apart or coming across as silly. The ending was pretty satisfying, and the final episode was a nice touch. It may not have been as intense for me as, say, Erased, but it still had its powerful and thrilling moments and situations that seemed almost hopeless, yet the characters always managed to pull through in a fairly logical manner. I was decently entertained most of the time, looking forward to new episodes to see how it would all turn out. The very ending (everything about the "Haine dimension") seemed a bit far-fetched, and it was probably the only moment in the whole series where I wasn’t sure if the writers would manage to hold it all together, but they did. Admittedly, the ending was a bit too idealistic for my taste leaving no possibility for a sequel, but as I said, it didn't fall apart and at least it was a single coherent story. The characters were interesting enough for me to relate to, but not enough to actually make me fear for them and become more engrossed with the story. The animation was decent, the series managed to sell me on many of the locations, and the fights looked very good as well. The soundtrack was okay. It wasn’t striking enough to affect my overall impression, but it complemented the individual scenes quite well. All in all, satisfaction prevails, it was a pretty decent series. 7.5/10

It took almost ten years, but the sequel is finally here, and it’s far from disappointing. Its above-average quality still largely builds on the characters and their interactions. The chemistry between them still works after all these years. The atmosphere and vibe of the whole series are just as enjoyable as before, and the plot is still interesting enough. Some things start to unravel a bit in the last few episodes and others get slightly tangled up, which balances out the middle part (the beach and farm episodes) where I sometimes felt like nothing important was happening. New characters have appeared, and all I can say about them is that Alas Ramus is incredibly cute, Lyra is quite interesting, and I want to know more about her role in the story. She's obviously very important to both main characters. Gabriel is a witty yet dangerous and cunning enemy that I appreciate more than Sariel in Season 1. The show is still very enjoyable for me despite some of its weaker parts. What I didn't like, though, is the new animation style. I know Studio 3Hz very well, I've seen almost all of their work and I like it, but here it just feels off. I recognize most of the characters visually, but something about them feels different, and even the attention to detail and drawing just seems worse than in the first season. Plus, most of the fights that take place here feel worse overall, sort of bland and dull. Yes, you can get used to the style, and the fights aren't everything, but it still takes at least a point away from an otherwise great experience. When I subtract half a point for the weaker plot in places, I'm at 7.5/10 which corresponds to how much fun I had. It's still a decent and above-average series for me, driven by the characters, story, and atmosphere. I’m even looking forward to the third season which has been announced for 2023, but compared to the first (almost a decade older) season, it leaves a little to be desired (especially in terms of the visuals).

I must say I still like the first season of Hataraku Maou-sama! a lot. I like the concept of a conflict between fantasy creatures and their everyday life in the modern world with all the common everyday problems (work, housing, bills...) that every member of society has to deal with. What is especially great is how realistically these ordinary worries are depicted and how the Demon Lord deals with them. What made the entire series amazing were the characters. They were likable and their interactions and chemistry between them were the driving force behind the whole excellent experience. The supernatural issues made me want to know more about everything and everyone. It's funny, it's interesting, it's enjoyable. White Fox did a very good job in terms of animation, so the series still looks great today. It was nice to remember this enjoyable series after years. 9/10

There’s no question that the second season of Made in Abyss is simply a treat. There were a lot of things I probably wouldn't normally want to see, things that sent chills down my spine and even made me slightly nauseous at times. And yet it all made sense, felt incredibly intense, and I perversely enjoyed it. I wouldn't have believed that, once a week, I would feel like a passionate masochist who’s just been to a BDSM dungeon, and that it would bring a happy smile to my face because of how great it all was. The series literally tortures the viewer mentally but wraps it up in a story so powerful, emotional, logical, and clever that you'll wish it would never stop. Akihito Tsukushi is probably a very complicated personality, a writer with a huge imagination and a talent for profound and well-thought-out stories with more than one deeper message. Then again, I couldn't help feeling that this guy has some serious personal issues. During some scenes, I literally pictured Akihito as a little schoolboy who hates all his classmates and kids in general with a passion, and in his room, night after night, he tears up all his cute stuffed animals into bits and pieces, pretending they’re people he knows. And then this kid grew up and started writing fantasy... Made in Abyss not only knows how to sell all the powerful and gory scenes without sugarcoating it or censorship (they're not there just for effect), but it contrasts them with moments that are absolutely beautiful, making them stand out even more. It's often a literal rollercoaster of emotions. One moment it’s sending chills down your spine and the next you’re smiling, ending up completely moved by it, all in one episode. You don’t need to fear being bored by the series. What’s more, the whole story is set in beautiful and skillfully drawn scenery, inhabited by creatures of all shapes and sizes. It is fantasy at its best, with places you wouldn’t encounter in the real world and creatures you have never dreamed of. I do have one minor quibble, which is that we don't actually see much of the Abyss this time around. The setting is the same most of the time, but the series made up for this deficiency with all its peculiar inhabitants and their stories. The music is also excellent. Kevin Penkin can be rightfully proud of his work on this series. He considers it his best work yet, and I cannot but agree. The music is literally on a cinematic level in the last two episodes. Kevin knows how to use the choir, orchestra, and vocals - creating an impressive score that adds to the intensity and emotion of each scene. The second season of Made in Abyss was an absolute blast for me. It’s a great example of what fantasy, adventure, and drama should look like, and proof that the contrast between beauty and repulsion can be the source of some truly powerful moments. At the same time, it's also an example of great writing. Everything makes sense and the two storylines intertwine and complement each other perfectly. Plus, there are many moral dilemmas to ponder, such as what people are capable of in order to survive, or what can be of value to a person... If you've read this far, you probably know how I’m going to rate this - 10/10.

Definitely better than the previous two seasons. There's nothing here that I didn't enjoy or that distracted me from the main storyline. No lizard courtship, scenes of everyday life in the village of Carne, or other filler. Sure, you could say that the opening plotline with the empire or the dwarves could be thought of as similar digressions, but to me, they were important, intriguing, and fun parts of the series, and they didn’t feel redundant. Oh, and the second half is literal carnage. It's interesting to watch Overlord’s actions and to realize, with a chill running down my spine, that I'm watching the other side of the story than is common in fantasy. Instead of wondering if Overlord will take over the world and how much more epic the journey is going to be, you start to wonder if anyone will be able to stop him, and you gradually come to the realization that someone probably should... Luckily, this series also introduces new and interesting antagonists who could play a big role. It hints towards a big faction being formed, so the future confrontations could be epic and insane. Everything is well thought out and put together, and all the world-building truly pays off. At the same time, everything keeps expanding in new directions. Many characters get closure, some unexpectedly quickly... What the story goes to show is that the biggest and most dangerous monster that set everything in motion is nothing but a human. Heightened and intense emotions (Renner) as well as stupidity (Philip) can sometimes do more harm than you’d expect. It's simply a breathtaking series. I'm looking forward to the continuation of the story (in the form of a movie this time), and I pray that Kugane Maruyama will find new strength and motivation to write, get over his burnout, and return to his original plan, which is that the Overlord novella will have at least 30 parts, and the anime a few more seasons. His talent is undeniable and it would be a waste for an office job... 9/10

After five years, the cruel and emotionless manipulator with the face of a dead fish and the voice of a snake tranquilizer is back, and I can enjoy more of his elaborate tricks and maybe even learn a little more about his mysterious past. The second season doesn’t bring many new revelations, though. What I did enjoy here was the gradual fleshing out of certain characters and the first real confrontation between the protagonist and a sufficiently dangerous opponent, which is topped off with a very decently animated fight. The second season could be roughly divided into three parts. The opening part on the ship and the final one with the test were quite fun and interesting. I learned something new and saw some very powerful scenes. On the other hand, the middle part about the sports tournament was rather mediocre, almost boring. I find this series intriguing, and I don't see why some people consider it stupid and dull. I think the opposite is true, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and it would be boring if everyone perceived everything the same way. I'm excited to see new episodes and find out more about the "white room". I’m also curious to know if Ayanokoji will ever become a normal person with at least a semblance of emotions. The season took care of one antagonist while showing the danger and motivations of others, so I have reason to look forward to Season 3, also thanks to the last scene. It's a quality show, but one point off compared to the first season (mainly because of the weaker middle part).