hibernation

miyagi touches souta's wristband / his wrist when he's anxious. it's a habit his mom also has (miyagi's elementary school game). but ayako gave him a new gesture when things get tough (stare at his palm). she wrote down "number one guard" on his palm to make him remember the new habit. it's a symbol that makes him move from the past (remembering his brother / inheritance from his mom) to the future (the goal of number one guard). at the end of the movie, miyagi stares at his palm, which shows that he's moved forward...!

when miyagi manages to break through fukatsu for the first time, sakuragi got so mad kawata cut off his shot that he started steaming

in his flashback against egawa, miyagi kept wanting to be put in the game, but didn't motivate his team from the bench. anzai sensei might have taken that into account...? also kogure comforts akagi after they lost... so cute...

when akagi passes out, his senpai asks him "how does it feel to look down on us", but when akagi opens his eyes, he's looking up at teammates that stare at him from above. it may have seemed condescending to senpai and the other members who weren't as serious as akagi about basketball, but in truth, akagi had never looked down on senpai. he was only looking beyond. and beyond him were the teammates he's always dreamed of. (his voice actor's commentary of this scene is also really beautiful!)

miyagi's hand trembled in his pocket when he faced mitsui

when mitsui and miyagi fight, miyagi's basketball shoes fly into the shadow away from the light. when miyagi opens the box to take out his shoes (after his suspension?), he pulls the shoes into the light

throughout the movie, the ocean is gloomy/rainy in miyagi's eyes. but when he crashes his motorbike, the ocean in the distance in his memory is bright. it is gloomy when miyagi goes to the hideout, but he when allows himself to cry, the sun shines on his face. when he picks himself up and starts to turn his life around, the weather has cleared. the sun is bright on the distant ocean when miyagi leaves for hiroshima, and when he finally expresses his true feelings to his mother, the ocean is bright and sunny

on the contrary, miyagi's mother always sits by a bright ocean. at the end of the movie, miyagi finally gets to be at the same place as his mom (i also love shugo's commentary of this scene!)

when mitsui sees anzai-sensei on a run, he hides in the dark, and watches anzai-sensei run into the light

after rukawa steals sakuragi's layup, sawakita checks his shoes for what i assume is sweat. also the voice acting direction for his line "if they get us, we can just pay them back! with three times over. please pass it to me, fukatsu-san" is sooooo good i really wish there could be a cast/director's commentary about that scene...!

sawakita says "yoi-don!" before making a dash. this was written in the movie artbook but i didn't catch this when i watched (and re-watched) it in the cinema lol

also im pretty sure i noticed this in the cinema but i remembered again when rewatching.. sawakita's inside voice is deeper and closer to the usual takep voice lol. i wonder if that was a deliberate decision on the director's part?? did he want a mature sounding person in sawakita's head, and a youthful sounding person on the outside...? im so curious!

when sakuragi refuses to pass to rukawa and passes to miyagi, he makes an angry sound when miyagi eventually passes to rukawa (its brief and in passing - i love it when the comedic moments come and go quickly, because we're experiencing it as a real basketball game!)

kawata and rukawa are the first to notice sakuragi's injury

anna has to be the communicator between miyagi and his mother on miyagi's birthday... their relationship really was rough...

kiyota has his mouth open when sakuragi collapsed lol. this was pointed out by a korean fan when the movie was still airing and i can finally confirm it now that i can pause the movie lol. how do these people notice these things so easily...

mitsui adjusts his knee brace when felled by matsumoto (in the art book, he kisses his knee!). miyagi asks if he's okay and chest bumps him causing mitsui to stumble

this was mentioned by kawata's voice actor during a twitter space - apparently fukatsu's voice actor adlibbed his speech to the others after mitsui's 3+1 move. (fukatsu's va also confirmed this during court side, but he cant remember what he said lol). doumoto speaks over it so it can barely be heard, i tried to catch what he said, but i couldn't...! one day i'll catch it and write it down...!

some little blink and you miss it expressions that i really love: when miyagi tries to pass to rukawa, sawakita gives an arrogant shake of his head as if to say "don't even think about it!". when sannoh make a dash for it, sawakita confidently waves off kawata and fukatsu - "let me handle them!" doumoto watches rukawa intently when he's beaten again and again by sawakita~ and at the final attack, akagi tries to pass to miyagi, but miyagi shakes his head as he's being blocked immensely by the sannoh members~

previously i used to think doumoto didn't take the break because he underestimated sakuragi. but now i also think that he might not have wanted to give sakuragi the opportunity to rest/recover for even a second longer

when miyagi gives souta's wristband to his mother, the two of them look at the ocean as if souta has returned. the scene also reminded me a little of liz and the bluebird when mizore returns the book to the library, and when nozomi and mizore leave the school gate (they are set free from the cage!). i love imagery like this!

mikio is so cute i've always thought this but mikio really is so so so cute...

when sawakita cries, he bows before sannoh. they surround him but they didn't comfort him. it's almost as if they can't touch him. i always wonder if it was meant to be framed as if he is making a prayer and they are the deities that sawakita was praying to for guidance... if i can get my hands on a cast or staff commentary somehow...

also kawata and fukatsu weren't even there when sawakita broke down lmao they dgaf!

when interviewed by the japanese interviewer, i heard sawakita say "i too play point guard" so that implies miyagi was also interviewed...? unless it means he also plays point guard alongside other positions...

sawakita plays for east thornton cougars, but all the adverts in the basketball gym contain the word "west" in them

that yamada naoko-yoshida reiko-ushio kensuke combination really cant be beat omfg. yet another dazzling movie from the trio. theres sooo much to delve into about the movie, it really was fantastic

the colours! of course it was heavily implied from the promotional pictures alone that totsuko - red, kimi - blue, rui - green. but the colours and tones all bled into each other, indicating certain character's presence and influences. for example, while totsuko went to the white cat bookstore, she walked across green grass, indicating she was about to enter a space that rui was in. and while totsuko and kimi were sneaking into the dorms, the blue of night outside and yellow light inside indicated that kimi was about to enter hiyoko sensei's territory.

even though totsuko couldnt see her own colour at first, the signs were so obvious. from the bright red apple she had with her meals, from the red tints that always seemed to find her... it was such a yamada thing to do. i was also reminded of yamada's commentary in tamako love story where she used the sky's colour to indicate tamako's increasing annoyance at mochizou's teasing.

so many things about kimi no iro brought back memories of past yamada works. the hand movements and frequent use of eye closeups were the most reminiscent, but also the casual interactions between the students brought back memories of tamako love story. the blotches of paint were reminiscent of liztori. also hiyoko sensei admitting she was part of a rock band in her youth - i couldnt help but think of sawa-chan sensei! of course im sure everyone working on the movie knew such recollections would happen. it felt familiar despite a completely new set of characters and a completely original work.

to me, this was my favourite piece of ushio kensuke work. from the muted piano, to the bursts of sound at highlighted parts, and the band music of course! it was a story about colours, but i couldnt stop paying attention to the music.

there were many parts of the movie i loved, but my ultimate favourite was watching the teachers and students dance together at the wakuwaku wakusei song. it felt like an ode to youth, almost. students and teachers dancing together in a school hall to music performed by other students. it brought back memories of my high school, even though i never went to a convent school.

i was surprised at the ending - but at the same time, i shouldnt have been. ive said this multiple times but the one theme yamada has always been good at executing is the impermanence of things... so it made sense that, while their band had a great reception, rui eventually went off to college... a build up to a final sparkling moment, that ultimately ends in farewell. that, to me, was very yamada. but the after credits scene where they uploaded their music on the internet gave us hope! and when totsuko takes kimi's hand... that was so liztori when nozomi turned to speak to mizore! so many possibilities could come out of that ending... ah, it really was a yamada naoko work lol

im unfamiliar with fujimoto's works, but there were high praises for the film so i decided to just go ahead and watch it. im glad i did!

in all honesty, considering how each new chapter of chainsaw man spawns endless discourse on social media, i was expecting to be shocked in some way. to my surprise, the plot was rather predictable. as the story progressed, i could smell the character death coming from a mile away. but ultimately, i dont think this movie is meant to have a shocking or unexpected plot line. more importantly, the author/director wanted to convey obvious messages to the viewers. the childhood days fujino spent drawing brought back old memories of my own childhood. the death of kyomoto due to an enraged artist was reminiscent of the tragedy that happened at kyoani years ago. the sequence of fujino working without rest on her manga echoed the many complaints made by artists working in manga and animation companies. i felt that these situations were stories the author and director wanted to highlight and show their audience. it wasnt unpredictable because these stories have already happened and are still happening. it wasn't meant to shock the audience, but rather, it made the audience "look back" on their own memories and on themselves.

there have been many high praises about the animation work in the movies, and as someone who knows nothing about animation i will leave that to the experts. but one thing i loved most about the movie was the music sequence. grand and beautiful music played as fujino (and kyomoto) struggled, celebrated, and everything in between. it felt like each failure and each success was deserving of a beautiful score. your effort will never be a waste! even when you gave up on your art, the experiences you gained during that time shaped you into the person that you are! even when fujino felt that nothing good came out of her art, she reminisced on the time she shared with kyomoto. perhaps her art really did lead to kyomoto's demise. but on the flip side, how could she say that nothing good came out of the art she drew, when she remembered so many cherished memories with kyomoto?

i get that people are rather unsatisfied with the end of the current arc, and i completely understand why! but honestly... because aki is my favourite, i'm always rooting for her happiness, so i'm glad she got to be happy...!

but of course i was a little confused as to how aki's feelings had seemingly changed just over the course of two chapters, so i had to go back and reread the old chapters... and it may seem far fetched, but it's not exactly a sudden development that aki's feelings did change. throughout the competition with shiho, aki had put her desire to confront (and make up with) shiho before everything else, even her own one sided feelings for yori. while she was engrossed in the competition, she didn't seem to be hiding anything away, she didn't seem to be bearing thoughts by her self, not like in the previous chapters where you could see her turmoil. somewhere along the line her feelings about shiho overpowered her feelings for yori. and even aki said it herself, she didn't know that her feelings changed.

(of course, the author could have fleshed it out better, so that it wouldn't feel like it was a development that came out of nowhere. but honestly, this arc has gone on for way too long! i like this arc, but i do think it's been dragged out enough lmao)

it may seem like an unpopular opinion amongst english speaking readers, but i do like shiho and i wanted her to be happy, whether or not she ended up with aki. even if it meant that they would never speak to each other again, i just hoped that they could reach a satisfying conclusion that would suit both shiho and aki. but it seems like the author wanted them to be together, and i'm not complaining! at this point i'm just glad it's over and aki and shiho managed to find happiness lmao. looking forward to the next arc, maybe it will be between miki and her senpai? and hopefully we'll get a momoka-hajime plotline sometime too!

on the topic of “true selves” i am reminded of ushijima who was an unstoppable force in high school (and given a title! ushiwaka! the name of a famous legend!) but dwindled down into a “so-so” player in adulthood. to counter this, he threw his “old” self away without a second thought, and he was only able to do this easily because of how certain he is about his “true” self. 

“i am blessed. even if i wasn’t blessed, i think i would still work as hard” his true self is the person who clings on to his father’s words. to join a strong team, and to love volleyball. “but, thank you for protecting my gift, dad”. his “true” self, throughout his life, has been bestowed all sorts of blessings. his left arm was protected by his dad, and it led to him becoming the strength he is today. the strong school of shiratorizawa, which shaped his foundation, and gave him the title of “ace” that he desired. when his time in high school volleyball came to an abrupt end and he made the transition to professional volleyball, he was no longer the strong player he was famous for being in high school. but even when he was facing a downturn, someone from his past appeared and offered some help. “i truly have good luck”, he says after gaining advice from iwaizumi. 

mitsui is the most "normal" person in shohoku according to inoue and honestly it makes so much sense... his whole sense of worth used to be "middle school mvp" but he got annoyed when he was tied down to that title, he wanted to be something more than that in high school. he thought his "true" self would be the player who would single handedly bring shohoku to the national championship and repay anzai-sensei for his kindness. but when akagi started matching up with him, his entire self worth of being the "ace" started tearing down and he destroyed himself in the process of trying to become the person he thought he was.

after he got injured, he was completely lost. if his "true self" wasnt the "ace", then who would it be? he ran away from his old self in an attempt to try and find a new self, he surrounded himself in cruelty and anger to avoid the reality that he was without his life's purpose, which was to be shohoku's special one... in the tfsd resource book, inoue says that miyagi and mitsui fight it out because they're not their true selves and are unable to fulfill their wishes. but ultimately, even when he returned to shohoku and tried to be the ace again, he realised in the sannoh game that the "ace" wasnt even the true mitsui either. the true mitsui was just someone who loves playing basketball, the one who challenged miyagi back in middle school, the one who needs people around him to improve instead of doing it all on his own...

"a main character cant do it without the supporting characters" thats what mitsui had thought before. but in truth mitsui himself was a supporting character. the main character was shohoku and the members were supposed to be the supporting act, all of them helping each other like cogs in a machine to bring shohoku to victory. but ironically thats when mitsui shines the most, when he's just normal... i've always considered mitsui's mindset change in sannoh a "development", but it was more than that, it was a "self discovery"....

finally got to watch the slam dunk movie and it did not disappoint at all... slam dunk is one of my favourite mangas ever (if not favourite) and i was so worried that i had way too much high hopes considering inoue directed the movie but the movie just lived up to my expectations and more!

i’ve memorised the sannoh game by heart so i knew the outcome of the movie, but i did read up the synopsis and cast list and it was enough to tell me there was going to be some divergences from the manga. fair enough, it was probably a choice made by inoue to make the movie more beginner friendly. still, even with the minor changes, it was amazing!!!!

when i read the synopsis that miyagi was going to be the main character, i was honestly a little skeptical because how many short disadvantaged main characters (knb hq etc etc) were we going to get in sports anime?! but inoue chose to show the disadvantage visually instead of making people point out how short he is, i think there was only one or two instances where his height was pointed out. it was a much more refreshing change than listening to the same “oh he’s only 5 feet tall? what is he doing playing” or whatever nonsense we’ve been fed over the years lol. the story focused way more about miyagi’s mental and emotional struggles instead of his physical disadvantage. being short was the least of miyagi’s problems, and after all, he overcame that worry in the shoyo game so there was no need to address the height thing again. i loved that they didn’t focus too much on that.

personally there were parts about the miyagi family drama which felt too draggy and heavy for me, especially when it involved his mom. but maybe because i hate family conflict like if i wanted to watch family conflict i would just go home! but it didnt ruin the movie for me, i just felt it was a little out of place in a movie about sports for my personal taste.

but at the same time... the piercing one shot manga is really about miyagi!!!! like my jaw dropped when he was yelling at his big brother not to come back like hmmm i read that somewhere.... unfortunately ayako’s part of the manga wasn’t shown but that’s okay, i can always read the one shot again kjsnfskjnfsk

speaking of which ayakooooo... im gonna be real im sad she didn’t get much screentime since she’s a character who is really important to miyagi. not to mention miyagi’s crush on ayako was barely touched upon! but anyway that’s not the important part of the movie lmao. ayako has always been pretty but she was just sooo pretty in the movie. and how she encouraged miyagi made me smile so hard like wow you are the only het ship that matters.

not to mention MITSUI... i’ve always known inoue likes him but my god i didnt expect so much more backstory... playing against miyagi when they were younger, reuniting when they’re in high school, the two of them fighting, mitsui clutching his knee, mitsui seeing anzai sensei on a run, mitsui returning to basketball... obviously they cut out that super violent fight and the iconic “i want to play basketball” but godd.... mitsui was so present in the movie i prayed for days like these!!!

in relation to that i’m glad inoue didnt put too much physical pain in the movie. the gangster fights were kept to a minimum and werent too gory. miyagi crashing his bike wasn’t shown visually. mitsui’s knee injury was just implied. sakuragi’s back injury wasn’t too touched upon, just enough to shown that it was serious enough to potentially hurt his career. it would be too painful to handle if they touched deeply about moments like these i think lol.

my favourite part of the movie was how the sannoh game was directed. almost every important part of the game had its moment, but it moved at the same pace as how a basketball game would move. it had none of those typical manga-to-anime moments where the comedic relief or reactions were amplified, instead all the events and dialogue happened in a blink of an eye while the basketball was going on... that is my biggest biggest compliment about the movie like. inoue really knew what he was doing when he was directing this movie, each sequence felt so well thought out and executed perfectly. and my god, the final few seconds of the game were so brilliantly fleshed out, from the static-y, glitch-y animation when sannoh scored their last points, to the sudden burst in speed when shohoku did their final counter... the way the sound dwindled down to beats, to glitches, to nothing, and then to a burst of sound... it was all so deliberate and perfect.

speaking of sannoh.... they were soooo cute. it was a dream come true to see them animated. i wish they expanded more on the characters other than sawakita but inoue showed the characters’ traits visually, especially when it came to how kawata moved and played basketball. on still pictures it would be difficult to show the stark difference between sannoh and shohoku’s play, but animated, it really showed the difference in caliber between the players, especially sawakita and kawata. seeing mikio move around and hearing fukatsu saying dapyon is soooo damn cute!! it would be nice to see more of their personality but this is miyagi and shohoku’s story after all, not enough time to flesh out these opponents lol

ugh and of course i had to talk about the cast... its one of the main reasons why i got so excited to watch the movie! SHUUGO... im so proud of him.. i remember being so happy when the cast was released and he did such a great job, all of them did! iirc shuugo is also from okinawa so it fit miyagi really well since he’s from there too! when i saw kazama jun as mitsui i thought it was pretty much a perfect cast, and he proved me right! he was amazing as mitsui. same with miyake kenta as akagi! i was surprised to see sakamoto maaya as haruko but of course she did her job well. and i loved seto asami as ayako, she sounded so youthful and cute! 

sannoh were all great too, kawata especially stood out to me. but i think my biggest surprise came from takep as sawakita. when i saw the cast i was so shocked, i actually thought that if takep were ever cast in a slam dunk reboot, he would be mitsuii! i didn’t know how he was going to approach sawakita but he sounded sooo different from what i usually hear from him! he voiced sawakita with so much youthfulness i could barely recognise him until he pronounced certain words lmao. he captured sawakita’s genius and immaturity in equal parts, he was a perfect sawakita for sure! i did laugh when sawakita cried at the end though because it reminded me of that time when i watched caligula and takep’s character was screaming and crying too lmao.

first off i'll have to thank my lockdown self for gaining a mild interest in all things yoshitsune because i actually read the books before watching the story.... the tale is incredibly famous and therefore im sure locals would understand the episodes better than i did... but reading the books definitely helped me understand the story!

yamada naoko is just so brilliant damn.... i tend not to tune into war stories because of how futile they are, and also i was really worried because of how violent the books got at times, but her direction just left me in awe.

i was especially compelled to watch due to the trailers - the constant repetition of motions emphasises on the fact that this story has been told again and again and again, there is nothing new to this story. but that entices the viewer to watch - they’re not interested in how the story ends, but they’re interested in how the story will be told, because they’ve heard it so many times before. i’m sure that’s the reasoning why famous tales get adapted again and again and again, and this one is no exception.

i found it a good touch that biwa was the main character instead of lets say shigemori, or koremori, or tokuko/kenreimon. if those characters were the main characters, that would pull it into a series alike game of thrones. but yamada and yoshida seemed to emphasise mostly on the fact that this anime is a retelling of events that has been told for over 800 years. biwa is in a similar position as the viewer / reader of the tale, because she knows what will happen in the future but continues to follow the characters anyway. she can see the past, just like the viewer who has been reading this story for years and years. in the beginning she resents the heike, just like how the viewers / readers do as they read about the horrors that the heike have committed, but along the way she feels sympathetic for them, the way the readers do.

there are around 12 books in total, and there are so many stories to tell, but yoshida reiko skewed the vision down to the most famous parts of the books, and the story was mostly told from the heike's point in view, so a lot of it was left out (ie yoritomo's mistrust of yoshitsune, the death of shunkan, etc etc) but the story Is supposed to be about the heike, so the series focuses almost entirely on the heike, with the bare minimum of attention on their opponents. the story flows on for quite a long period of time and it was difficult to condense it all into 11 episodes, but for the most important scenes, every moment was drawn out carefully, so that the rush of plot wouldnt leave you devoid of emotion.

of course there were loose ends that she didnt tie up, like what happened to munemori and shigehira in the end, but it was a good choice to end all mention of the remaining misery after dannoura... the ending was brilliant and it was so... yamada. i really cant say anything more than that.

as someone who really loves yoshitsune's character, i really enjoyed his inclusion in yamada's story. two things i hoped for: he would actually be a short man with buck teeth instead of a beautiful man, and his fall from grace (especially since the latter was captured in the books pretty well).. but anyway. this story is about the heike, not yoshitsune. but if director yamada ever wants to direct a story like hashi benkei or ataka/kanjincho though, i would definitely be the first person to tune in!

what can i say about the cast and the voice acting... they were brilliant. irino miyu and hayamin once again playing important characters in a yamada naoko production. almost all, if not all the important characters were played by heavyweight veterans, so of course they were able to do the famous characters justice. i found it absolutely amazing that they could cast akio ohtsuka in a role with such few lines, but him being cast as benkei was literally like someone picked my dream fancast and laid it at the casting director's feet. 

ushio kensuke and yamada naoko share an incredible vision and the soundtrack is fantastic, on par with girls,dance,staircase as one of my favourite anime osts of all time. i was really happy hitsujibungaku was chosen to do the opening, because they’re one of my favourite bands, and i never thought they would ever do an anime opening, but here we are! this anime really is everything i’ve ever wanted, from the story to the director to the cast to the music and even to the band doing the opening track lol.