Wow, that was a surprisingly emotional ending to the episode, and I wasn't expecting it. What DO you do when you've been robbed of your hope for revenge? What do you do then? Poor canadian guy. His Gundam wasn't as hilariously stereotypical as Neo-Mexico's (complete with hilarious mustachio!) but he himself looked as Canadian as can be.
After a few false starts, we finally get to see Volfogg in action, and he KICKS BUTT. He even manages to snag some Zonder Metal! Also, that villain's name is actually Pizza. PIZZA.
Yes, I've progressing advancing quickly. This show is so addictive
As for predicting, it's just about logic. Someone needs to lose in order for Aichi to have a match. It can't be the same one losing two times in a row.
This is true. Wolf Children winning is a real possibility, but it winning by a landslide is less likely I think. There's also the fact movies don't do amazing in the rankings, but that may change this year.
This is true. Wolf Children winning is a real possibility, but it winning by a landslide is less likely I think. There's also the fact movies don't do amazing in the rankings, but that may change this year.
1. Wolf Children
2. Wolf Children
3. Wolf Children
4. Wolf Children
5. Wolf Children
6. Wolf Children
7. Wolf Children
8. Wolf Children
9. Wolf Children
10. Chihayafuru S2
This is true. Wolf Children winning is a real possibility, but it winning by a landslide is less likely I think. There's also the fact movies don't do amazing in the rankings, but that may change this year.
1. Wolf Children
2. Wolf Children
3. Wolf Children
4. Wolf Children
5. Wolf Children
6. Wolf Children
7. Wolf Children
8. Wolf Children
9. Wolf Children
10. Chihayafuru S2
Thank goodness for Mobile Suit Gundam: Unicorn! Although wasn't the previous low for Gundam Turn A Gundam? Low sales aren't always warrented if that's the case.
However I style myself, I'm not an especially poetic person when it comes to communicating the simple joy of watching a work like this, and however I might appreciate Hosoda's technical mastery in animation and in direction he's put on for display here, I'm at a loss to find the right words to explain exactly why and how.
I can't confess to have seen all, or even most of Hosoda's works - while I count The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and, to an extent, Summer Wars as great films, I've never truly sought him out - until now. And I am very glad I did. Out of the three works now of his that I've seen, this movie included, Wolf Children stands out as his greatest by far.
The movie hinges on a fairly simple premise - a woman falls in love with a wolf-man, and finds herself being forced to raise their two children by herself. While a touch of the fantastical finds itself permeating its' concept, the core of this movie deals in some strikingly honest, grounded, very real themes and joys of growing up, family, motherhood, childhood, and acceptance.
I find myself continually impressed, if not astounded by Hosoda's ability to communicate so much to his audience with so little dialogue. We (rightfully) lauded the talents of Pixar's animators and directors in their ability, such as it was in the opening acts of WALL-E and Up, to tell a story as they did with as few words as possible, and I see no reason why we should not recognize how deftly Hosoda manages to do this throughout the entire film - as I look back on the film, I really can't understate the brilliance of its' many montages, be it Hana and the wolf father's life together, watching a wordless celebration of family in the snow or as it follows the children's journey through elementary school, it's impressive how much the audience understands purely from its' imagery, its' music, and its' framing.
If I had something to dwell over in regards to production, it might be the use of CG to represent passerbys in the crowd near the beginning of the movie, but given how absolutely magnificent this movie is to watch - and how well that Hosoda would proceed to use CG techniques to accentuate the beauty of the many, many flowers in this movie, I can't think of it as anything but a minor quibble. I imagine the only reason it stuck out to me, even, was simply how gorgeous so many scenes were to behold in the film. I've seen people criticize Hosoda's character designs before, and I absolutely can't see why, especially in motion - they animate incredibly well, and their level of expression is quite extraordinary. There's so many scenes in this movie that choose to leave all that needs to be said in body language and in expressions, and it works wonderfully. To use a particular example, as the movie reaches its' close,
there's so much about the goodbye between Ame and Hana that's left entirely to their faces, and as he howls, and music swells the way Hana's face transforms from grief to joy was stunning
. And excuse me while I pluck another example from near the film's end (to be fair, it's quite an emotional crescendo),
the scene where Yuki reveals her true identity to Souhei, the way it used the whipping curtains and that expression of sheer, exultant joy at acceptance of her other side could not be more perfect
.
It's worth mentioning how absolutely beautiful the music is. As I've mentioned, there's many segments of Wolf Children where it communicates almost solely through its' visuals and animation, and it would not have worked nearly as well without Masakatsu's absolutely stunning score to elevate those segments.
Wolf Children is a movie that ends as it began - with much unsaid, but little that needed to be. It's beautiful, emotional, and wonderfully paced, animated, directed, and acted. It uses elements of the fantastic to better bring out some grounded beauty, and it's absolutely the best animated feature - in either side of the hemisphere - I've seen in the past few years. Rarely have movies affected me in the way this did.
Perhaps the most simplest way that I could ever express how much I loved this film was that despite its' nearly two hour runtime, it didn't even feel half that. Whenever this film finally reaches North American shores, it will not be soon enough.
The reception party was so awkward. I'm a bit sad that the games were just mainly stills with a couple shots and the guys running, but I guess it's to be expected.
back to the ugly. I think Jexhius was right about 20's quality affecting the show to some degree. Some of the crazy so far has had its negative traits waved away under the pretense of no budget/likely the best the animators could do/etc. This was fun but just not quite as exciting as it could have been given I now know a higher quality product could be delivered.
That said, I don't want to detract from 20 itself as that shit was awesome.
I think I'm dead inside, because I found that scene to be less effective than the
Hana :firehawking Ame scene that takes place right before it
. It's just that the film gives you a direct representation of what Ame feels when they
show that captured wolf in a cage being all lonely trapped in concrete. There's nothing romantic about city life other than what we bring to it as audience members, while Ame's scenes are full of nature porn and exciting music and so forth.
I think you answered your own question here. The viewer is not separate from the movie itself. We are active participants and thus are more able to fill in the blanks, of sorts, to the missing exposition you are looking for. I'm pretty sure you don't need to be told that
not running around the mountain on all fours and having shelter and running water
is pretty awesome. While the flip side is more separate to us and thus needed more exposition. My 2 cents :lol
And a day later, I still find it weird that no one bothers asking Hana about what
They announced the Kaguyahime Fall date in the movie trailers. I'm sure they wouldn't do something that stupid if they weren't sure it would make it on time.
Huh... apparently the name of the upcoming Hayate no Gotoku season was announced to be Hayate no Gotoku Cuties, and the OP will be sung by Shizuka Itou as Hinagiku. No other details yet that I can find.
Hidamari Sketch Gets New Anime of Sae & Hiro's Graduation
The "Chō Hidamatsuri in Nippon Budōkan" event announced on Sunday that production on a new anime in the Hidamari Sketch franchise has been green-lit. The new anime will center on the graduation of the characters Sae and Hiro. Ryoko Shintani — the voice of Sae — confirmed the announcement on her blog after the event; the live program ran so late that the franchise's official Twitter account apologized to the attendees.
Huh... apparently the name of the upcoming Hayate no Gotoku season was announced to be Hayate no Gotoku Cuties, and the OP will be sung by Shizuka Itou as Hinagiku. No other details yet that I can find.
Chihayafuru S2 08
Eh. Decent but probably necessary filler episode. The ending sends hype levels through the roof though.
I watched Wolf Children too, but I don't really feel well enough to type much about it. A very good movie, but also not particularly fulfilling or necessarily fleshed out in the ways I might like.
I kind of wish more was done with Ame to show him assimilating with nature and clashing with the more structured side of humanity. It sort of just feels like stuff is missing on Yuke's side as well. I found myself wanting to see her reassimilate into class after her little slip up, but it lots of stuff winds up getting glossed over. As impressive as the visual storytelling in the first half hour or so is I ultimately have to question its importance on the story. Her more wild side just kind of fades out instantly. I guess it's sort of the same with Ame in that the characters just change too quickly and it didn't feel like there was enough to show the process or what it meant. I wasn't ever really sure if the story was about the mom or her kids, and the movie just kind of popped to a halt where the threads of the story are all drawn apart, as though untangling them was its motive all along.
I really enjoyed it, I can't stress that enough, but it might try to tackle too many different things. I found myself wanting more in depth stories of Hana adapting to country life and trying to give back to the community there, of Yuki integrating fully into an unfamiliar world, and of Ame coming to control the nature he initially fears. There is so much interesting stuff here that it's unfortunate large pieces have to be left offscreen.
Still getting in the occasional episode when I have nothing better to do.
I can't believe it only took Toei nine episodes to realize that Nagisa and Honoka looked like mutants drawn by a limbless child in the OP logo splash. nice attention to detail there guys
Man, what a terrible moral to this episode, too. Apologize when you've done nothing wrong just to smooth things over with someone who hurt you? Are they even trying anymore? (don't answer that)
Chihayafuru S2 08
Eh. Decent but probably necessary filler episode. The ending sends hype levels through the roof though.
I watched Wolf Children too, but I don't really feel well enough to type much about it. A very good movie, but also not particularly fulfilling or necessarily fleshed out in the ways I might like.
I kind of wish more was done with Ame to show him assimilating with nature and clashing with the more structured side of humanity. It sort of just feels like stuff is missing on Yuke's side as well. I found myself wanting to see her reassimilate into class after her little slip up, but it lots of stuff winds up getting glossed over. As impressive as the visual storytelling in the first half hour or so is I ultimately have to question its importance on the story. Her more wild side just kind of fades out instantly. I guess it's sort of the same with Ame in that the characters just change too quickly and it didn't feel like there was enough to show the process or what it meant. I wasn't ever really sure if the story was about the mom or her kids, and the movie just kind of popped to a halt where the threads of the story are all drawn apart, as though untangling them was its motive all along.
I really enjoyed it, I can't stress that enough, but it might try to tackle too many different things. I found myself wanting more in depth stories of Hana adapting to country life and trying to give back to the community there, of Yuki integrating fully into an unfamiliar world, and of Ame coming to control the nature he initially fears. There is so much interesting stuff here that it's unfortunate large pieces have to be left offscreen.
I watched Wolf Children too, but I don't really feel well enough to type much about it. A very good movie, but also not particularly fulfilling or necessarily fleshed out in the ways I might like.
I kind of wish more was done with Ame to show him assimilating with nature and clashing with the more structured side of humanity. It sort of just feels like stuff is missing on Yuke's side as well. I found myself wanting to see her reassimilate into class after her little slip up, but it lots of stuff winds up getting glossed over. As impressive as the visual storytelling in the first half hour or so is I ultimately have to question its importance on the story. Her more wild side just kind of fades out instantly. I guess it's sort of the same with Ame in that the characters just change too quickly and it didn't feel like there was enough to show the process or what it meant. I wasn't ever really sure if the story was about the mom or her kids, and the movie just kind of popped to a halt where the threads of the story are all drawn apart, as though untangling them was its motive all along.
I really enjoyed it, I can't stress that enough, but it might try to tackle too many different things. I found myself wanting more in depth stories of Hana adapting to country life and trying to give back to the community there, of Yuki integrating fully into an unfamiliar world, and of Ame coming to control the nature he initially fears. There is so much interesting stuff here that it's unfortunate large pieces have to be left offscreen.
However the movie isn't ultimately about the kids. As Yuki states early on, the story is about the mother. In fact, I think some stuff about the kids should have been cut out and even more emphasis put on the mom. There's some plotlines with the mother that feel kinda left to the wayside.
