Weathering with You (2019) | Rating: 3.5/5
Between this movie and
Your Name, I've heard so many high praises and perhaps even comparisons. I watched this movie with my anime club while we were working from home. One thing that stood out the most for me (and some of the club members) was the animation. Oh my God! It was just so vibrant and colorful and bold! It's just amazing how far anime has come over the years. The story was a very interesting one. Plenty of good humor, flashy action, and fantastical elements to keep you immersed. Oh, and there were some emotional moments as well. As much as I enjoy it, I probably won't be running towards that hype train over this movie, but I do understand for sure. It's definitely worth your time and honestly, I wouldn't mind watching it again either.
School Days (2007) | Rating: 2/5
This infamous anime was chosen for last year's anime challenge. I knew going into it that many anime fans hate this series and how the show was going to end. Pushing aside the negative reviews, I dove in and immediately hated all the main characters. There's so many unrealistic decisions made regarding the main character's behaviors. Katsura and Saionji, ladies, get it together! Makoto is not worth all this emotional damage. Of course, I don't feel sorry for him either at the end. Honestly, I rather enjoyed that shocking conclusion (if I didn't already know what it was). Learning that this was based on a visual novel made a lot of sense with the female characters' motivations and behaviors...and also Makoto's bland personality. For my own amusement, I did watch
School Days: Valentine Days, which was just a bunch of fanservice, and
School Days: Magical Heart Kokoro-chan, which turned the main characters into magical heroes. Take heed, anime trash diggers, this one is definitely an infuriating ride.
Promare (2019) | Rating: 3.5/5
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and
Kill la Kill have left quite a significant mark in the anime community that it had caused much hype for this movie. Before the end times, I remember some of friends shouting their praises for this movie after seeing it in the theater and a couple of them even when to see it for a second, perhaps third, time. I probably had a chance to indulge in the theater experience, but at the time, I had not seen
Kill la Kill and was only mildly interested in checking it out. Seeing it at home, I had no regrets. The animation was fantastic and the story was action packed and left me wanting more. Fortunately, there are a couple character centric extras that I plan on divulging in, but for the most part, I understand why fans enjoyed this movie. While I'm not shouting my praises on the mountaintop, it does make me excited to check out the team's previous work in "Gurren Lagann".
One Punch Man (2015) | Rating: 3/5
Another entry from last year's anime challenge. I've heard some pretty great things about the first season
and some not so great things about the animation in the second season. I tried not to hype it up too much for myself as I really do enjoy the manga series. It's such an easy read and the characters are very entertaining. I thought with a premise with such an overpowered main character the schtick would get boring, but it doesn't. Unfortunately for the anime, I wasn't as super into it as I was reading the manga. I don't know if it's because I didn't put my full focus on it while it was playing or something was truly missing. Despite the negative comments, I'm still willing to dive into the second season in the near future.
Blood-C (2011) | Rating: 3/5
This one was from the current anime challenge I'm working on. I thought the premise was interesting and I liked the main character quite a bit. Unfortunately, the execution wasn't great. There were definitely some flaws when they were trying to reveal the big twist. Despite how it was presented, I was still interested in seeing how things concluded for Saya Kisaragi. I feel like that's the story's saving grace is that I did attach myself to these characters and the story was entertaining enough for me to move forward.
If there's something you want me to review, check out
Muddy Cult's Patreon on how to submit requests.
