Jeoffrey

They announced an anime television series of Little Witch Academia on June 24, 2016, following the final episode of Space Patrol Luluco. I was, therefore, immediately intrigued by a witch on a broom I had not seen before. Every once in a while, I let something slip I should not have, and Little Witch Academia is a good example. If you make a show about a magical world, well, the result has to be magical. Otherwise, it is going to be a lot of hard work. I fell for the supernatural aspect almost immediately with this lovely short film. While there are a lot of elements taken from mythology and other anime series I have already seen about magic, the resulting combination is very well done. On top of that, it has a good atmosphere, a bit of wit and likable characters. For example, Sucy Manbavaran was "love at first sight" for me. I liked it; I even liked it a lot, although I do not see it getting five stars. That is because the narrative could have perhaps been much better. Still, this was a very enjoyable affair. 8/10.

Because it took thirteen years to make this sequel, the screenwriters had enough time to think about it properly; I did not believe it would be a disaster. On the other hand, I was expecting that it would be much more of a mess by focusing the narrative on Dory as the main protagonist. In the end, the result is very good, and Pixar has managed to keep the bar of this franchise still very high. The animation is, of course, perfect, and the characters, both the old ones and the new ones, are also very good. The narrative does feature a few minor quirks, although I could not find anything majorly bothersome. The ending was good, and I found the moment with Dory and Marlin interestingly profound. So, in the end, they pulled Finding Dory off really well, though I do not know why, although I was expecting a bit more. 8/10.

Piper is a brilliantly made, cute, funny, and fresh short film that perfectly set the mood for the underwater adventure about Dory. However, this also stands on its own. The animation is simply gorgeous, the narrative is great, even though the theme of "overcoming fear" is a bit of a cliché. However, because of the shorter running time, it certainly does not have the chance to get boring. The moment when the little bird watches the wave sweep away the others and then it naturally does not want to go to the beach made me laugh my socks off. So I thought it was very good. 9/10.

Ookii 1 Nensei to Chiisana 2 Nensei features a pleasant narrative about growing up, friendship, overcoming fears, and a great adventurous journey to the Ipponsugi forest to find blossoming spotted bellflowers accompanied by Dvorak's Humoresque and other very good musical motifs. The animation is endearing, the narrative features decent storytelling, and the whole thing is very likable and heartwarming. 8.5/10.

There really is not much to say about this insane movie, and what could be said has already been noted by others. Anyway, the gentlemen from Studio Trigger are a mental bunch of people that can combine some mental things into a mental narrative with some mental characters and some very original animation. It is only a few minutes long, yet it is still pretty much taken up by the opening by Japan Animator Expo and the theme song. Sex and Violence with Machspeed is a mental and peculiar ride even though it is definitely not boring. 7/10.

Have you ever wondered what Pinocchio would have looked like if a Japanese man with a penchant for fantasy adventure had taken up his story? Apart from a few minor shortcomings, A Tree of Palme was a very good anime movie. So I am going to start with its weaknesses, and, in my opinion, these are the various sudden shifts in the plot, where the narrative moves forward too quickly and slightly chaotically at certain points. These shifts could result in less attentive viewers feeling it is a bit of a mess and often unnatural. I was extremely pleased with the rest. I like the animation, even if it is dated. The soundtrack is, in my opinion, really good, and I enjoyed some of the motifs a lot. However, the most positive thing for me is the intriguing narrative, the engaging atmosphere, and the fascinating setting: the flowers, trees, and animals combined to create a rather desolate and slightly depressing landscape, which I thought was interesting. Even the ending was pleasing; I was worried for a while that it would end like a dumbed-down fairy tale. However, in the end, it was quite good, and as a result, it ended and did not end at the same time, so it was also well-executed. I might have been able to find a few minor reservations about the characters as well, even though I did not mind them on the whole; in fact, rather, I was intrigued by them. On the whole, I found this quite a respectable offering, and I am awarding it a strong four stars which means 8.3/10.

Just because the animation is satisfactory and the movie has a pretty good soundtrack does not necessarily mean you have made a good one. This is especially true when it does not have a very good narrative, and you decide to present the story in a way that there is hardly anything which engages the viewer. Add to that the rather unappealing characters, of which I could only tolerate the main male protagonist and the passionate, romantic policeman, and his dog. No one can be surprised that, in the end, I was not impressed by Quackerz. So, this is a very muddled, poorly presented, and not particularly entertaining movie, even though it may be watchable. 3/10.

I was expecting Shonen Maid to be rubbish, and I also expected to drop it quickly because gender-bender style costumes are somehow not my thing really. The reality, however, must be suspended, and this is a pretty funny slice-of-life anime series that is inoffensive and quite entertaining because of the eccentric uncle Madoka Takatori who is quite fascinating. I am very pleasantly surprised and often have to smile, which means it is better than average. 6/10.

There are a lot of things that cannot be explained logically, and my penchant for cute silliness is one of them. Rilu Rilu Fairilu, meanwhile, is an insanely colorful and childish affair that overuses chibi and mainly offers only cuteness. The narrative reminds me of Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama, which I quit after the first episode, so it is nothing to write home about, rather the opposite. This is the kind of thing that should be mainly entertaining for young children, and adults are probably going to find it quite boring. However, I am not exactly a normal adult, so I am enjoying the cuteness and childishness for now. Sure there are characters I could do without (the majority of them in the "beautiful fairies" category) even though the rest are quite endearing and, for example, Lip is fine. So this is an anime series that I would probably only recommend to hardcore moe fans and small children, and I obviously know that the actual quality is something other than my subjective opinion. However, I enjoy this show, so now I am going to start carving out a little door and look for a key for it so I can get a proper look into this world of Rilu Rilu Fairilu - 5.5/10.

♪ If there's something strange in your neighborhood. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! ♫ The fascinating Ghost Stories struck me as a Japanese version of Ghostbusters, where the main characters are children, and the ghosts are, of course, adapted to local traditions. The show is not that scary and is not a fully-fledged horror anime by any means, even though the atmosphere of some of the narratives is quite good. By making stand-alone episodes, the feeling you get from each episode is also quite different. What I did not get a very good impression of, however, were the characters. The only one I was able to grow quite fond of was Amanojaku. As far as the kids are concerned, the girls were pretty good, especially Momoka Koigakubo; however, I found the male cast very annoying. Keiichiro Miyanoshita was probably the most extremely annoying character, and his whining got on my nerves quite often. However, the other two boys also had moments when they got my back up. I sometimes even wished one of them would die... I think this is quite an average show because while it was interesting, I had to force myself to finish it. I also had to shut out thoughts of how nice it would be if some of the characters died a slow and painful death. 5.2/10.