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Reviews
Shingeki no Kyojin (2013)
Disappointing but still good
I started watching this anime back in 2013. The soundtrack and visuals were breathtaking, but what got me hooked was its shocking cruelty and fatalism, something hard to find in the shounen (young male) demographic.
The story showed a world full of mysteries, in which friendship and willpower would not be enough for the characters to overcome their difficulties. The fantastic elements allowed epic battle scenes, but there were restrictions to the power scale that gave the feeling about a more thoughtful world-building in which unreasonably powerful characters, quite common in shounen, were not possible.
As the story goes on, many of the mysteries are explained, keeping the viewers hooked, waiting for more to be revealed.
As any other story, it had its ups and downs. However, it started losing its charm after the main breaking point. To make things worse, the studio that adapted the last story arcs didn't do a great job. The animation quality wasn't good, not even for the studio's standards. It lacked details, like textures and a good lighting. The production was rushed.
Nonetheless, that's not the main issue, but the deficient storytelling of the final arcs. The main characters lacked development, contrasting with greatly developed secondary characters. The drastic personality changes experienced by the protagonist were molded according to the events in order to justify them, instead of the other way around. That is, the changes were forced. The author missed his chance to deepen into the psychology of the protagonist.
The story also started falling into the most common shounen clichés, going far enough to break all the rules and logic set during the beginning: plot armours, deus ex machina (more precisely, enemy ex machina), illogically powerful enemies, loose ends and disappointing lore explanations with the addition of an attempt to introduce some symbolism to it. In other words, the author chose to take the easy way out of the labyrinth he built. The final events aren't the issue, but the way they were reached. It was like watching a racing car reach the finishing line completely out of control.
No matter how hard it tried to avoid being the stereotypical shounen happy end, it still failed.
Jujutsu Kaisen (2020)
Among the worst I've watched in 20 years
As the title says, this is one of the worst animes I've watched so far.
Other than the mind-blowing animation, the series has little to nothing new to offer. Not only are the characters highly stereotypical, but also, they're easy to forget and some of them, especially the protagonist have disgusting personalities. As for the story, its starting point is the same as pretty much any other shounen, it actually feels like an attempt to replicate Bleach but with a gross aspect that involves eating rotten fingers. The protagonist is unexpectedly introduced into an unknown world where he will meet other characters of different personalities and powers as well as different enemies who seem to have been put there so that the encounters may eventually lead to the greatest evil. This protagonist turns out to be the stereotypical naive but unexplainably strong shounen character that somehow gets along with cold and reserved characters. To make things worse, this series seems to be another victim of the recent trend of authors getting rid of characters only to make their work seem darker, but failing to properly justify their actions and properly develop the characters before they're gone.
All of these wouldn't have been so bad, had the action scenes been complete. That is, most of them are suddenly interrupted by unnecessary flashbacks that ruin the dynamics of the story, making it imposible to fully enjoy the show. After noticing this issue, I decided to skip or fast forward all of these scenes of flashbacks and explanations that didn't need that much screen time because they can be deduced.
Koe no katachi (2016)
Yes, it's a masterpiece
Without adding exaggerated dramatic scenes, this movie has the elements for being a perfect drama.
Discrimination, love, life, depression, friendship, betrayal, death, loneliness and all of the human feelings are there in a group of teenagers, and mainly two of them, who struggle to understand each other beyond what makes them different, both mentally and physically.
The movie has a deep and touching message.
Despite the animation not being amazingly colourful or full of shadings, the music and the visual sequences allow for the spectator to connect with the characters. Because of this, I highly recommend paying attention to every detail and analogy.
Without spoiling much, I'd like to point out that its characters are incredibly realistic. It's not the typical movie with a Deux ex Machina or a life-changing event which makes all of the characters suddenly realise their mistakes or become more mature from one scene to the other, so that at the end everyone is happy. It is actually closer to what real life is.
This movie is definitely a must watch , not only for anime fans, but for everyone.
Kimi no na wa. (2016)
Not bad, but...
The movie, in general, is good and entertaining, but being strict, its plot is totally disappointing.
It's visually stunning, nothing more, nothing less. It lacks an actual message and it has plenty of unnecessary scenes which seem to be there just for the sake of teenager fanservice. It isn't dramatically touching either. Just another pointless interpretation of the already seen body-switching concept.
It's certainly overrated. Sadly, it's a total waste of visual resources. Hadn't it been for its popularity, I would already have forgotten about it.
I'd actually give it a 7.5 out of 10, but I'm rating it a bit lower to compensate for other reviews which depict it as the best anime movie ever.