Zíza

The kind of show where people talk a lot, like each other, but classically as a family they argue, pick fights, help each other out, have fun. You need interesting characters and very well written dialogue to make a show like that good. And you're in luck, because this show delivers. It doesn't play games, it revels in the mundane, the everyday, and the quirky. It takes some people a short time and some people a longer time to move on from a disappointment. All the characters are sort of finding their place in the world, if they haven't already. If they already have it, they're sitting on it quite contentedly and from that position now dealing with other things. Good and bad. But it's fun. Moderate fun with the chatty Ikuta Toma. It was nice, you liked them and hated them, depending on how they were acting at the time. And that's just the way it is. An enjoyable slice-of-life story with very good acting and well-directed performances.

I definitely liked the second season better than the first. Especially the character development (Mob in particular covered a lot of ground) and the viewer's deeper introduction to Reigen was very nice. It was suspenseful, fun, mature, and playfully childlike. I liked how the anime escalated, but I didn't like it anymore by the ending – by which I mean the final battle between Mob and Daddy. The broccoli plant was good, but that's about it. Mob at school, opposing Reigen, and forming a complex personality was the best. A weaker 4 stars.

Boring, uninteresting... maybe it was supposed to be a parody of BL clichés, but it only kept that up for the minimum amount of time, and eventually even that got annoying, and it ends up sliding all too easily into what it wanted to avoid. The best parts were the opening and ending. The acting... like there was some, but it wasn't really needed. A quickly forgettable void.

Some say it's like a slideshow, but who needs action animation when that's not at all the point here. It's a gag. Totally. The Yakuza code as we imagine it, driven ad absurdum. And I enjoyed it immensely. It's a relaxing one-off that's great to digest. [EDIT.] The second half didn't amuse me as much. I'm dropping it a star. Still, it's not bad if you like this type of humor.

I think I would have liked for this topic to be given a longer and more complex presentation. This wasn't enough for me. Yes, it's good, an interesting slice of the complicated life of hikikomori and their families. Well acted. Brisk. It manages to engage the emotions. But I would have liked more.

It runs at a brisk pace, stopping absolutely nowhere to scribble in any problems or relationships. It's basically a rush compared to other series from similar settings. And that's both an advantage and a disadvantage of this series. Sure, you can like them, you can understand the transformation of some of the characters, but at the same time there's room for the characters to be so much more complex because some of the action was overly simplistic. On the other hand, it easily felt intentional: after all, we're going according to an imperfect script by a young writer who was criticized by the lead actor. It's funny, it's sweet, it doesn't shy away from romance or traditional Chinese drama, which in order to be complete must end in death. It’s just... The twenty-four episodes pass by like a breeze, nothing drastically spoils your viewing, and it's actually a great respite if you need to switch off but don't want the script to underestimate you and think you're a dumb viewer. It's kind of that slightly supernatural loveable goofiness. A nice 3 stars.

Basically nothing more than a sort of cute and leisurely guide to the traditional shops of Kyoto. All the shop owners and employees are real, no hired actors, and they explain everything they are asked by the curious heroine, who has just quit her job. What would you have in Kyoto? Where would you like to go and not run into a bunch of Chinese tourists?

It might seem like it would be action-packed and extremely suspenseful, but it's not. That's not quite Kurosawa's style. This is pure drama full of pretense. Despite being set during WWII, with secret police wandering around and military secrets falling into the hands of ordinary people, it's an intimate film with perfect sets and costumes. Everything is tuned to a grim grey, ignorance combined with lofty goals. But if you take the period-ness out of it, it's a film about love and betrayal and the complexity of relationships, their transformation and permanence. And as such, I liked the film. Plus, Aoi Yū and Takahashi Issei were great.

Once again, a very real story from Japan, and it's no wonder it came from the pen of Okada Yoshikazu, because he has a plethora of them. The acting was very good, supported by the steady hand of the director and the cinematography, which at times took it up a level. Especially the moment when Arimura and Sakaguchi's characters meet after some time in Kesennuma and their gazes meet, it makes you feel like you've been punched in the stomach, because there's a lot to take from it. But in the end the absolute best character was Han-chan, a Korean woman who loves to explore the world. She accomplished a lot with her positive attitude and straightforwardness. In the beginning, the two characters fall in love and you really wish for them to work it out, to be happy together. Only it doesn't work out, their relationship fizzles out (they're out of touch) and eventually, through the interplay of events, their lives go elsewhere. And you just want to make it right so they can get back together. But in the end it's very real, all the characters have their motives, they evolve, they stick to what they think will help them, what they think will be good for them. And they don't care that maybe the audience might not like it or might think their own thoughts about them, because they're flesh and blood characters. You don't have to agree with the other person on everything, but you can understand them, and they can be understood if you take the trouble to get to know them. The series was beautiful, touching, and warm and six episodes was just right.

Yamada Yuki is just not suited to romantic comedy with his voice, looks, or facial expressions. He's a great comedian, he can handle dramatic characters too, bad guys even better, but the main character in a romcom... no, he just didn't fit. Nagasawa Masami, on the other hand, is the type who can act in them just fine, and she wasn't bad here either, though I've seen her do better. Director and writer Fukuda Yuichi, who has a plethora of comedies and parodies to his credit, took a stab at romance and I don't think it suited him. It seemed so bland to me, always just biting off something but not quite finishing it. Sure, it is based on the American original and leaves out the most vulgar jokes, though that's the film's strength and weakness. What it fails to translate, though, is the chemistry between the main characters; I really missed that here. I couldn't understand at all why the two fell in love. Not great.