#derp's dissertation

There is no doubt in my mind that the day someone gave Gen Urobuchi a pencil and told him to start writing was a life changing day. His twisted and dark mind really translates well into his works and especially in Rebellion. However, his decision to create Rebellion's plot as it's shown can be questionable. I'm not going to spoil anything in this little review, but will only say things that you should already know. And by already know, I mean that I will assume that you have watched Madoka Magica and clearly understand what happened already. Oh and by the way, this will not be a little review.

Before I start out this review, I'm going to help you out if you ever plan on watching this movie. Under no circumstance should you watch this movie tired or groggy. You need to be absolutely awake and observant in everything in the movie. There is a LOT going on and it is very easy to miss something important or miss something very interesting. I'm not saying you need to be a genius at analyzing movies, but you should not take this movie lightly.

Let me start out with the most stand out part of the movie, the setiing and background. Now, this isn't like the cartoony grittiness of Summer Wars or the beautiful real world landscapes of 5 Centimeters Per Second. Rebellion manages to, in the beginning, move away from their typical dark scenery and backgrounds to show something else they could do, which is a vibrant city with many sparkling colors. It's almost blinding to go from the nightmare scenes in the beginning to a slice of life styled environment. It all looks beautiful and there's nothing I can find or see that deters from that. And honestly, what else is expected from a master studio like Shaft?

Another exceptional part was the music. Now I won't go as far as saying that Madoka Magica had a legendary soundtrack, but every piece that they created for the movie worked. It worked exactly where it was meant to work and it made the scene 100 times more enjoyable. The new opening is a nice touch and the throwbacks to familiar songs was pretty nostalgic. It isn't in the level of composers such as Joe Hisaishi, Nobou Uematsu, or Takeharu Ishimoto (TWEWY/Dissdia), but Yuki Kajiura makes some pretty exceptional music.

Along with songs, Rebellion was filled with throwbacks and allusions to the original anime. And by filled, I don't mean two or three interesting "Oh hey that was from the anime". I mean it was FILLED with every possible reference. Familiar scenery such as the school rooftop and the park benches to the deja vu of the opening with Madoka's mom to Rebellion's ending which came full circle with the show, every little thing in the show was familiar to a fan. I felt like this needed to be said because this truly is why this movie was well received and was the reason everyone loves this movie.

Speaking of Shaft, let me address a key issue that bothered me in this movie, which is the character interaction and how scenes played out in general. Another anime Shaft helped in, Bakemonogatari, has a lot of interesting camerawork. Most notable is the one on one conversations that seem to last forever. Shaft makes this work by constantly moving the camera to show the person's head tilt, make some provocative pose, have the character play with his or her hair, or just showing a part of the background. And, personally, Rebellion suffers from an extreme usage of this cinematography. It's hard enough to capture what exactly is going on in a scene in this movie and the constant camera work doesn't really help.

And here is the absolutely absurd part of this entire movie, which is the plot. As someone who enjoys a good intricate plot that revolves around the interaction and actions of one person to another, Madoka Magica the anime was a wonderful example of this. Everyone had an opinion of the other and either acted upon it or created some internal conflict with the occasional grudge fight. Rebellion was different; what I saw was the main protagonist talking to one person, fighting another, crying to another, which all led to a final decision (I really don't want to spoil it so I hope you know who and what I'm talking about when I say these things). There were also a lot of questions that still left you wondering (Why is SHE here in the first place? Hint: Name is B___). A lot of things were said in conversations and were never fully explained in the end. Don't even get me started with most of the "nightmare scenes". The amount of confusion and "What's going on?" that goes on in those scenes really frightens me. And it's not even the "Well this scene is a motif for _____" or "Well they're doing this because _____" . I can't give any insight and why they chose to do this scene (most obvious is the singing scene).

I'm going to give a whole section of this review just on the ending alone. I have openly expressed my opinion on the original ending in Madoka Magica and I'll say it again to make it clear. If Gen Urobuchi truly had an original idea for the ending but decided to take the safe route because people wouldn't be able to "handle more sadness", I would have wanted him to go with his original idea. I believe the ending to Madoka Magica was so far fetched and deus ex machina that it did what Mass Effect 3 did; It made everything that led up to the final scene worthless. That being said Rebellion made it so that even the original ending to Madoka Magica was deemed worthless and was replaced with this crazy, nonsensical cluster**** of an ending.

And now that I've said all of this, it's just common sense that I'd hate this movie and not appreciate it at the slightest. I always like to give credit where credit is due. Rebellion was a fantastic movie with all of its plot holes and inconsistencies. If you are a fan of the show this is the best love letter from the creator and animators. What I can personally say though is that I will take this movie with a grain of salt and am not considering the ending of Rebellion to have "actually happened". I'm considering the movie's plot to be "experimental" by Gen and a complete "what if" situation. It was an intense movie with a lot of heartbreaking scenes and new content and any one who watched Madoka Magica should absolutely watch this. I will not rate this movie simply because first of all I hate ratings and two this movie is different for everyone and reactions differ from person to person.

Let me start off by saying that yes, I have seen all of the aforementioned movies as well as a LOT more. I am an evident and proud fan of Hayao Miyazaki's works and other great directors such as Makoto Shinkai (5 cm) and Takeshi Koike (Redline and other stuff like Afro Samurai and Samurai Champloo), but I believe Mamoru Hosada has quite outdid himself this time with Wolf Children Ame and Yuki (which I will now shorten to Wolf Children to make my life easier).

Wolf Children is an animated movie about a girl named Hana who falls in love with a werewolf (no this isn't spoilers, this is the first 5 minutes of the movie) and is charged with the task of taking care of her two children. I don't want to go into too much detail about the "taking care of her children" part because it's just something that you'd need to see for yourself. One thing I want to say is that I don't care how much you judge people, whether you're critical of everything they do or you keep to yourself, but you WILL feel a multitude of feelings for Hana. You'll feel saddened by the heavy burden brought upon her at such a young age. You might even cry at the sacrifices she had to make in order to care for her children. You'll also feel a slight feeling of happiness as you see her bonding with her children (the "snow" scene is more than enough to make you cry from happiness. You'll see what I mean). And finally you'll feel the joy and emotions that Hana herself felt at the end of the movie. You will also grow a natural hatred of characters that might not deserve such hate. Whatever it is, you will feel strong connections with each and every character in Wolf Children.

First off, I wanna talk about the most obvious aspect of the movie, the visuals. If you aren't aware of what the movie even looks like, I implore you to search the "wolf children ame and yuki" tag on Tumblr (You won't be spoiled, I promise. If you do, I apologize and will retract this statement) and just gaze at how beautiful it is. There is no one stagnant time of the year; there is a constant changing of the seasons, starting with a bright spring day to the open air of an urban land to the cold and playful winters to finally an everlasting summer downpour. The changing environments blend perfectly with the situation at bay, whether it's Hana joyfully playing with her children in the snow or Hana running through the rain in search for ____. Talk is cheap though, and  my words don't bring justice to how beautiful this movie looks. 

Oh man, the soundtrack. One thing that will ALWAYS get me captivated into ANYTHING, whether it be an anime like FLCL or a video game like NieR or even a dating sim like Katawa Shoujo, will be the memorable music it leaves behind. I love to interpret Studio Ghibli's composer Joe Hisaishi and some sort of god, but in Wolf Children Takagi Masakatsu really outdid himself with creating the perfect scores to Wolf Children. One scene in particular that I've briefly mentioned was the "snow" scene. I'm not gonna go into detail about it, but if you imagine yourself with your significant other or your children frolicking about a snowy wonderland and sliding/racing down a hill, whatever song that you're thinking of to accompany this moment is exactly what Takagi had in mind when this scene was made. 

I consider myself to be critical of the small details in shows and movies. So when I say everything in Wolf Children connects well and smooths itself well, I'm saying this with the strength of a million Rottentomatoes critics (for those that don't understand, that's a lot). Every character has a bond or connection with each other, and you easily see these bonds either grow bigger or break apart. The choices made in the end will get the viewer close to a certain character, siding with one of the two choices. 

I would be lying if I said Wolf Children was my favorite movie of all time. Unfortunately, Wall-E has that spot for multiple reasons that I won't go into since that's a whole different dissertation. What I will say is that this is one of the best animated movies you'll ever see so far. There have been some movies that came out recently, such as From Up on Poppy Hill, but I am almost certain that this will outlast anything being released for a very long time. Do I wish for a sequel? No, only because the ending was so perfect that I wouldn't want to see it continue. This doesn't mean that they COULD continue with it; it is clearly possible that with the way it ended, there could be a second movie. However, I would not be mad in the slightest if Mamoru Hosada simply moved on to another project.

And this is why I think Wolf Children Ame and Yuki is the greatest animated movie you'll ever see.

Honey and Clover is a slice of life anime surrounding five art students: Takemoto, Morita, Mayama, Yamada, and Hagumi. With other supporting characters such as their teacher Hanemoto and Mayama's boss Rika, a series of relationships and a game of dog and cat occurs between these set of characters.

One of the main aspects in a slice of life romantic anime is a set of characters that have unique and distinguishable characteristics. Normally there is a foil between two people in the group (two polar opposites), which this one had in the form of a desperate, cute girl trying to woo her senpai (Yamada) and the senpai that is trying to shut her down in order to go for an older, more rugged woman (Mayama). There would be that one mysterious person in the group (normally female) that either starts up a conflict or becomes the central part of a conflict, which Honey and Clover represents via Hagu, a small and innocent little savant girl that captures the attention of two boys.

The next aspect is how these characters interact. Honey and Clover creates a sort of web that connects certain people to certain people, whether as a love or hate relationship. For example, there's Takemoto, the main character (arguably), and Morita going after Hagu, which neither can reach due to her uncle Hanemoto. Then there's Yamada, who's being chased by Nomiya, but is instead going after Mayama, whom he's ignoring to go after Rika, which would never work. And then in between there would sometimes be crossovers, such as Morita showing hints of affection towards Yamada and Hanemoto showing hints of affection towards Rika. 

The soundtrack is wonderful as well. The opening song Dramatic is a great starter and the songs in between are very well placed also. Songs are very simple and powerful, such as using the piano version of Dramatic or Waltz in tense situations or using a random pop song during a montage. The song that really stood out to me was the outro song, Waltz, that would be prematurely before the episode ends, which I believe is a REALLY nice touch.

As I said in the beginning, one of the main things I hated about this anime was the ending. Nothing really gets resolved in the end and ultimately no one is able to progress towards their love interest any further other than Takemoto, who is the only one to actually confess his feelings towards the one he loves. But to be honest, this was done in a very poor manner and I believe they could have done better. But hey, there IS a second season I'm missing, so maybe things get repaired there.

Overall, it's a very memorable slice of life that deserves much recognition. It's not breathtakingly astonishing like Clannad or AnoHana, but it is definitely an anime worth watching.

For those who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, there are two versions of the game NieR: the North American version of the game, NieR Gestalt, and the Playstation 3 exclusive game in Japan, NieR Replicant. NieR Gestalt's main character is a middle aged father that struggles to keep to daughter, Yonah, safe. NieR Replicant's main character is a teenage boy that wants to save her sister, Yonah. Do not ask me why Cavia, the developers of the game, decided to have two different main characters for the same game; they just did and we just deal with it.

Let me start out by saying that my opinion towards the cliche JRPG main character is very strong and radical. Although I can understand why these game companies do it in the first place, having the main character be a teenage kid with a god complex or rock solid can get quite tiresome. This is one reason why I really like papa Nier; his scarred, wrinkled face and unappealing looks makes the game portray his situation and role in the game, an old father in desperate times. Nier in NieR Replicant looks very bland and generic in my opinion, which makes him uninteresting both as a brother and as a fighter.

Now let's examine the motives of the two. Both Brother NieR and Papa NieR are both searching for a cure to the Black Scrawl in order to cure Yonah. Both are determined to find this cure, but the degree at which they'll go to find it is different. Brother Nier, since he's much younger and a bit more inexperienced, his looking for this cure because it is his obligation as a brother to take care of a sibling. Brother Nier's emotional connection to his sister is there, but not very strong. Papa Nier 's motives are almost scary; he will cut down anything, anyone, and possibly everything that stands between him and helping his daughter out. Now I may not be a father, but I understand that the bond between a father and a daughter is MUCH more sacred and strong than a bond between a brother and a sister. Papa Nier only cares about saving his daughter and he will slay any monster, no matter what size, no matter how much he underestimates his foes, just to save his daughter. This is best evident during Ending D (I will not spoil the ending, but if you are as observant as me, you will see why Ending D truly shows how much he loves Yonah). 

For the uninitiated, Ni no Kuni (a.k.a. The Another World or Second Country) is a role-playing game developed by Level-5 Inc. Level-5 Inc is famous for making games such as Dragon Quest VIII, Dark Cloud/Dark Chronicle, the Professor Layton series, and the White Knight Chronicles series. They have a track record of making outstanding and unique RPG's and this game is no different. Ni no Kuni was already released on the Nintendo DS in Japan in December of 2010; the PS3 version is a complete revamp of the DS version, which improved graphics, battle system, overworld, and new animations.

This is where I differentiate Ni no Kuni from the other competitors. The animations, storyline, and orchestrated soundtrack are created by no other than the legendary Studio Ghibli. In case you don't know what Studio Ghibli is, they created award winning films such as My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Ponyo. Yes, this means the amazing soundtracks of these great films will be reflected upon Ni no Kuni, courtesy of the greatest composer of ours times, Joe Hisaishi. If you would like a sample of a song composed by Joe Hisaishi, look no further, for I will link you to a song from Ni no Kuni's soundtrack (which I've already posted in my blog, so if you heard that already, this is just that song). Here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6x2vsK-stA. 

Studio Ghibli is also famous for their symbolic and unforgettable storylines. Who could forget the magical adventure of My Neighbor Totoro or the mysterious quest of Chihiro Ogino in Sprited Away. Ni no Kuni is the story of a boy named Oliver who travels to another world in search of a way to save his mom, who died. Along the way he meets faithful acquaintances such as Maru and Gyro as they fight their way to the White Witch. And don't worry, when you play this game, you won't forget that it's a Studio Ghibli experience. There are animations in the game similar to a Studio Ghibli movie, makign the game an interactive Studio Ghibli movie. What more could you ask for?

I just wanted to point this out: this game looks beautiful. The world is Ni no Kuni is simply stunning to look at and the animation cutscenes are enjoyable to watch.

Another feature of this game is its fairly unique battle system. You can either control Oliver, Maru, Gyro, or any of the many monsters you can tame on the journey. One you select who you want to control, it is a matter of attacking, using spells, and usign your monsters to defeat other monsters. Think of it like this: if Pokemon ever had a full scale RPG made, its battle system should resemble that of Ni no Kuni. 

I'd like to start off by talking about how I ventured about this anime. Two days ago (Oct. 28th) I was casually listening to Shuhei Kita's song "Breakin Through", the opening of Persona: Trinity Soul. I loved his song so much I decided to look up other songs sung by him. Upon search I noticed a song called "Issei no Koe", gave it a listen, and thought "Damn, this is a really good song". Then I noticed that the song was the opening of an anime called "Natsume Yuujinchou", which sounded interesting to me. So after looking up the plot on Wikipedia and looking at some previews, I decided to give it a go. Today, after thinking I'd watch one episode a day, I have finished watching all 13 episodes in a row and will watch the next three seasons over the next week.

NY is the story of an orphaned teenager named Takashi Natsume. Throughout his life he was able to see and interact with spirits, which made him a weirdo to his peers. After accidentally releasing a demon named Madara from seclusion and letting Madara be his bodyguard for helping him, Natsume finds a book called the "Book of Friends" in his house. The Book of Friends is a list of spirits that Natsume's grandmother kept as personal slaves. Natsume decides to track down these spirits and give them back their name, all while helping out spirits that come to him in need of help.

Characters: This is probably the highlight of the series. Over the 13 episodes the viewer learns the personality, history, and feelings of Natsume as he solves all of these spirits' problems. The reason why I say the characters are the best part is because even though each episode isn't dependent on the other (although some of the characters show up as cameos in later episodes), every spirit and every character Natsume meets is memorable and unique in their own way. From the fox cub guy to the umbrella man to the firefly woman to the lord of the shrine to the big doofus and his little friend to the bucketman in the castle and much much more, every episode contains a lovable set of characters that you'll immediately fall in love with. There are also a recurring set of characters that are, once again, lovable and unique in their own way, such as Natsume's two friends, Natsume's girl classmate who Natsume is oblivious to, and Madara a.k.a. Nyanko, the little cat/demon Amaterasu looking spirit. 

Story: There is a center plot to the whole series, but NY is mostly focused around single stories and episodes of helping out new spirits in need. Each episode is beautifully designed and organized to make the viewer cry, laugh, and stand in excitement. In almost every episode there is a theme that either Natsume learns through the spirit he's helping or the viewer learns by watching the episode. For example, in one episode, Nyanko abandons Natsume after Natsume becomes enraged at him. After harassing/splurging off Natsume's friends, Nyanko falls into a pit, where he meets a little girl. Because the little girl couldn't understand him, Nyanko had no choice but to be susceptible to her hugging and smothering. After a while, Nyanko makes the parallel of the little girl to Natsume as both are weak and fragile, but they make up for their willpower and determination. And, mind you, this was just a filler episode.

Soundtrack: Unfortunately, I cannot find the composer of the series. If I do find him though, I will congratulate him on creating an amazing soundtrack which contains everything from a catchy opening to fun jingles for funny situations and somber piano scores for depressing situations. I'd just like to say that this is the first anime I actually watch the opening every time for, unlike the 20 other animes where I skip the intro.

For those unaware that there was an anime for Persona 3, yes, there is an anime for Persona 3. Well technically it's a very loose spinoff of the Persona 3 with the same writers and composers as the Persona series. I say "very loose" because there are hardly any ties with Persona 3 other than 2-3 shared characters. So I guess it's more of a spiritual successor than a "loose spinoff". 

Persona: Trinity Soul is a 26 episode anime following the lives of the Kanzato family  specifically of the three brothers: Shin, the main character, Jun, Shin's gentle and kind younger brother, and Ryou, Shin's cold, harsh older brother. After being separated for 10 years after an accident that occured, Shin and Jun go back to Ayanagi City, where they meet up with Ryou, who is now the chief police detective. Throughout the anime Shin meets the usual cliche of Persona characters such as the outgoing and cheerful girl Megumi, the easy-going bro Takuro, and the shy timid girl Morimoto. Shin attempts to bring back his what's left of his family together while getting caught up in a series of incidents happening in the city. 

Trinity Soul's story line is VERY complicated. There is an abundance of symbolism and parallelism in each episode. The motif of the "whale feather" that the anime seems to shove in your face will get annoying, but it does make sense when you think about it. I will not tell you what it means, but I will tell you that by the time you finish watching it, everything is put together very nicely and finishes with a happy ending. Almost every episode of Trinity Soul is packed with emotion and feelings as you see Shin's life being changed and how his relationship with his brothers slowly drift apart.

Which brings me to my next point. Trinity Soul is NOT Persona 4 in terms of feel good happiness and cute little interactions with people. It is a god damn sad story. Most episode contains very somber looks into Shin's past and people around him breaking down. But then again, that's what makes this anime special. Although the events in the anime are surreal and bizarre, the raw emotion and reactions of the characters are very genuine and realistic. I can't really put examples of this without spoiling the anime, so I guess you'll just have to see it on your own to figure it out.

Of course there's the amazing soundtrack delivered by no other than my favorite composer ever, Shoji Meguro. Two songs I'd like to highlight is the opening and the second ending. The opening, Breakin Through by Shuhei Kita, is a faced paced rock song with an awesome guitar solo in between. The second ending song, Found Me by Yumi Kawamura, starts off with a very sad piano intro (for those who've seen the anime, you'll know what I mean when I say the first thing you'll think of when hearing this song is the ending of Ep. 23) and becomes very emotional in the chorus. As a side note, this is my favorite song by Yumi Kawamura; as much as I like Kimi no Kioku and Burn My Dread, she really gives it her all in this song.