Your Name Review: The Most Gorgeous Animated Film I Have Ever Seen.

When I reviewed A Silent Voice a few weeks ago, I said that it was probably my favourite anime.
Well, after seeing Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name, I can now say it has some serious competition for that title.
Like A Silent Voice, I had heard a lot about Your Name before I finally watched it.
I knew it was a body swap anime with romance but that is all I knew about it.
And you know what?
I am so glad that I did not know anything else about it because Your Name absolutely blew me away with its brilliant story twists.

The shocking twists and turns in *Your Name* goes beyond its simple sounding, body swap story, and I love that.

This was surprising to me because, from what I heard of the plot, I thought I would find the anime a little too sappy and cliche for my tastes.
Thankfully, this was far from the case.
The anime follows two high schoolers, Mitsuha Miyamizu (Mone Kamishiraishi) who lives in the small town of Itomori, and Taki Tachibana (Ryunosuke Kamiki) who loves in Tokyo.
Both lead normal lives until the two begin to mysteriously switch bodies every so often.
As they struggle to deal with this strange situation, they gradually learn more about one another and start to develop feelings for each other.
And that is all I will say about the film because, as I said, I love the direction the story takes and I do not want to spoil it for you.
The twists are engaging and add so much tension to the story, which is supported by the buildup of Mitsuha and Taki’s relationship.
I do not often enjoy romance films but this one was so moving I just could not help but get invested.
There were quite a few times towards the anime’s ending that I ended up crying.

You will probably find yourself shedding tears a lot in *Your Name*‘s third act.

I also laughed a lot too, and I do not think there is a single joke that does not land.
One of the things I find interesting about Your Name is the Japanese elements that I missed on the first viewing, like the Red String of Fate.
When I researched this it made the themes of the film even more engaging.
Along with this, and the engaging story and romance, one of the big things that stuck out about Your Name to me was its absolutely gorgeous animation.
My jaw dropped multiple times in the first few minutes because I was astonished at how beautiful it all looked.
From viewing this film, and looking up his prior works, it is clear that Shinkai is an artist when it comes to animating his films.
With its beautiful animation, great story telling, and investing romance, Your Name is another anime film that should have been nominated for an Oscar, however, (aggravatingly but predictably) it was denied this.

Comet — The fact that *Your Name* did not get nominated for its animation alone is a crime in my mind.

One interesting thing to note, though, is that Shinkai did not want Your Name to win an Oscar and actually advised people to stop watching it.
This is because the film is “incomplete” according to him since they ran out of money.
But, I think Shinkai is being too hard on himself.
From what I hear about what was supposed to be in the finished product, I actually think Your Name works better without these scenes, for the most part.
The one thing about the film that I think could have been done better is the relationship between Mitsuha and her father, which does not get a resolution.
However, the rest of the movie is so engaging and moving that it overshadows this one issue by a wide margin.
Want to know how much I loved Your Name?
I loved it so much that, after finishing it, I immediately bought a ticket to see Shinkai’s next film Weathering With You, which I will be seeing on August 22.
Your Name is a fantastic anime film.
It has jaw dropping animation, a thrilling story, and a romance that will make you tear up by the end.

The End of Evangelion Review: What did I just Watch!?

The only explanation I can think of for what I just saw watching The End of Evangelion movie is that someone spiked my food halfway through, resulting in me having a weird, hallucinogenic drug trip.
Seriously, this movie seems like normal Neon Genesis Evangelion at the beggining, only for the third act to evolve into one of the craziest endings I have ever seen that needs to be seen to be believed.

Ending crazy — When the third act of *The End of Evangelion* began I was pretty sure I had been drugged because of how crazy it got.

Hideaki Anno made this film after many were left unsatisfied with the ending of his anime, to the point that some of them even sent him death threats.
However, rather than The End of Evangelion appeasing many of these cruel people it only made them angrier.
Having watched the film I can see why this would result in such anger, although sending death threats is never acceptable.
And, personally, I actually enjoyed The End of Evangelion, even though it left me thoroughly confused.
It is certainly a better ending that what we got in Neon Genesis Evangelion because it actually has a narrative.
But I do not just enjoy it because it is better than the original anime’s ending.
I also enjoy it because of the obvious thematic weight it has, with a lot of complex and often disturbing symbolism that left me quite creeped out.
Even before the shocking third act, the film had plenty of jaw dropping moments.
One moment came with one of my favourite parts of the movie, which is a brilliantly animated fight sequence involving Asuka (Yuko Miyamura).
This fight was thrilling, horrifying, and brought a conclusion to Asuka’s character arc, which I felt was left unfinished in the original anime.

Asuka’s fight is the best in the entire *Neon Genesis Evangelion* series.

However, not every character is done well compared to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
A prime example of this is Shinji (Megumi Otaga) who I found to be quite unlikable compared to the original anime’s version of him.
This is because of his refusal to act, despite people dying around him, but also mostly because of something he does at the start of the film involving Asuka.
He is shown to regret his actions later on in the movie but this does not excuse that what he did is pretty deplorable.
Despite Shinji’s unlikability, though, I still found many of the characters to be well done and have fitting conclusions to their arcs this time around.
But the main thing that will come to mind whenever I think of The End of Evangelion will be that absolutely insane third act and ending that left me speechless and unsure of what to think.
It is bold, symbolic, and can only have been thought up by somebody in the middle of a mental breakdown, which I have heard Anno was when writing this.

third impact.jpg — It is interesting to wonder what Hideaki Anno’s mental state was when he was writing this.

Whether he was having problems or not, Anno’s The End of Evangelion provides a better ending to the original ending, although not one that is particularly happy.
The insane nature of this third act makes it worth a watch.
The End of Evangelion is a movie that got me thinking, although I am not exactly sure what about.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Review: A Classic Anime with a Bizarre Ending.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the big classic anime.
Not only do a lot of people love the series but it also helped shape anime into what it is today.
So, with the anime being released on Netflix, I knew I had to check out.
And what did I think of it?
Well… its complicated.
After watching Evangelion, I had honestly no idea what I thought about it.
There were things I liked about the show and things I did not, and my mixture of feelings was blended into an anime with great symbolism, well done and problematic animation, along with a downright bizarre ending.
You probably all know the plot by now but, for those who do not, Neon Genesis Evangelion is set in a world where giant monsters known as Angels pose a threat to all of humanity.
In order to combat them and stop a world ending event known as the Third Impact, a group of children are chosen to pilot robots known as Evas to combat them.
Our main character is Shinji Ikari (Casey Mongillo), a 14-year-old boy whose father, Gendo (Ray Chase), leads Nerv, the organisation that runs the Eva program.
Shinji is called in by his estranged father to pilot Unit 2 and help save the world.
From there the story unfolds into an in depth character study of Shinji and his allies, along with plenty of Eva vs Angel fights spread out.

Angel fight.jpg — The fights between the Evas and Angels are well handled and choreographed.

Speaking of these characters, I found them to be a bit of a mixed bag.
Shinji is a relatable protagonist, and I found his growing bond with his guardian Misato Katsuragi (Carrie Keranen) to be very well done.
But then there is the emotionless Rei Ayanami (Ryan Bartley) who was difficult to connect with a lot of the time, and Gendo, who both deserves the terrible father award and has pretty much no resolution with Shinji by the end.
And finally there are the characters who my opinion changed of over time.
A prime example of this is Asuka Langley Soryu (Stephanie McKeon), who I could not stand at first, until her backstory was revealed in an episode that sent her spiraling into a deep depression that I found very sympathetic.

neon genesis evangelion — *Evangelion* offers a wide range of characters from the appealing, like Shinji and Misato, to the less than investing, like Rei.

However, while the characters were a bit hit or miss for me, I found that the symbolism and themes of Evangelion were usually spot on.
The director, Hideaki Anno has talked about how the anime expresses his experiences dealing with depression and this can clearly be seen with many of the characters.
Then there is the Christian symbolism, which is everywhere and incredibly well handled.
I have no idea what it means but I do not think we are supposed to.
Despite these themes, though, I honestly was not able to become fully immersed in Evangelion’s story until episode sixteen but, from that point on, I was fully on board.
Some really great episodes came after this point, my favourite of which is definitely episode nineteen, “A Man’s Battle”, which had plenty of amazing character development and the best action of the anime.

a man's battle.png — “A Man’s Battle” is, without a doubt, the best *Neon Genesis Evangelion* episode.

This is helped by the great animation of the episode, which details all of the epic battle moments.
The animation is far from perfect throughout, unfortunately, as there are constant still shots that go on for long periods of time with nothing moving.
The worst of these comes in the first few episodes when there is a shot of Shiji and Misato staring at each other at a train station that feels like it goes on forever.
Sadly, the still images are not the only problem with Evangelion’s animation because it becomes quite obvious that they had almost no budget left by the final two episodes, with literal drawings being used.
Speaking of the ending, I had heard that it was not very good but I was not expecting the confusing, absurd, drug trip that I got.
I literally laughed out loud at the ending because of how nonsensical it felt.

bad animation ending.jpg — The ending to the *Evangelion* is certainly strange with its drug trip feeling complimented by its big animation issues.

The ending is not completely terrible because it does do justice to the characters’ inner psychology, especially with Shinji, however, there is no narrative cohesion whatsoever in these final two episodes.
I understand that the movie End of Evangelion (which I will be watching and reviewing soon) explains the ending but that is not good enough in my mind.
When watching a finale you need to understand what is happening without needing a follow up movie to get it.
Still, I will not say that the ending ruined what came before.
Overall, I found Neon Genesis Evangelion to be a good anime.
I cannot say that it affected me on the level that it obviously did countless other people but I can recognize its significance in the anime world.
Without Evangelion anime would be in a very different place to where it is now and for that it should be recognized.

Attack on Titan Chapter 120 Instant Review: A Stroll Down Memory Path Lane.

Coming into Attack on Titan Chapter 120, “Instant”, I was incredibly nervous.
After the shocking cliffhanger of Chapter 119, I was concerned that Eren would not survive.
Even though I was pretty sure he would, there was this lingering feeling of doubt in my mind.
Thankfully, the meme part of Attack on Titan‘s fan base was right because, as they predicted, Zeke catches Eren’s head when it falls towards him, showing that his baseball skills have more than paid off.
This allows Zeke to send him and Eren to the Path dimension for Eren to recover.
It is here that we get what I already consider to be some of the most glorious panels in the manga.
The one of Eren standing, illuminated by the light of where the Paths meet the Coordinate, is beautiful, and shows just how far Hajime Isayama has come as an artist.
Along with the great artwork, the character development of this scene is also stellar, with Eren and Zeke attempting to top one another with their betrayals.
Eren’s line here about how he betrayed his brother “because I was born into this world” is amazing and probably my favourite usage of that recurring line.
Before this, however, we get official conformation that the girl who saved Zeke in Chapter 115 is Ymir Fritz, the first Titan Shifter.
One thing I did not expect, though, was that Ymir apparently has no mind of her own.
She just serves the royal blooded Titan Shifters, which is why she saved Zeke, essentially making her a slave.
This seems to carry through with the themes of freedom Attack on Titan is known for, and has me wondering if Eren will attempt to free Ymir from her enslavement.
He looks like he wants to help her when he realizes her position.
I have actually already heard a pretty good theory that the Attack Titan was created to eventually save Ymir since it stands for freedom.
But, whatever happens, I do hope Ymir has more of a role in the story because it would be disappointing if the most important character in the series’ lore was reduced to an emotionless slave.
Anyway, after her introduction we get the betrayal topping scene, where Eren betrays Zeke, only for Zeke to betray Eren.
I expected Eren to turn on Zeke because I knew there was no way he would be in favor of the euthanasia plan but I had no idea Zeke was suspicious of Eren’s true motives.
I thought he was blinded by the love he has for his brother.
It was great to see that Zeke had actually outsmarted Eren here because, in earlier chapters, I thought Zeke was getting stupider.
These last few chapters Isayama has really hammered home how intelligent Zeke is again.
Just how intelligent?
Well, after spending so long in the Path dimension with Ymir, waiting for Eren to wake up, Zeke has found a way to remove the Fritz King’s renunciation of war.
This not only allows him to have control over the Founding Titan but, supposedly, should allow any royal blooded person who inherits the power to use it.
So, for example, if Historia or her child inherited the Founding Titan in the future they may be able to use it fully, without being influenced by the first king’s ideology.
Speaking of Historia, I would like to go back to the moment just when Zeke catches Eren’s head.
After this moment, we get a full page panel of Eren’s memories, along with Kruger’s and potentially Uri’s.
Here we get an image of Historia who we can see is wearing the clothes she wore in the flashback panels of Chapter 108, where she was seen talking to her child’s supposed father while a mysterious figure looked on.
This figure is thought to have been Eren by a lot of readers and this image of Historia from his perspective seems to support that.
If this is Eren talking to Historia at that moment then it could be when he convinced her she needed to get pregnant so she could save herself.
Whether this means Eren is the father remains to be seen but, with this image being shown, I do not think conformation is far off.
In fact, we may get a bunch of reveals going forward as Eren and Zeke look over Grisha’s memories.
In “Instant” Zeke is showing Eren their father’s memories to prove to him how Grisha has brainwashed him, only for the reverse to happen.
Instead of Zeke proving to Eren that Grisha never felt sorry for his actions, Zeke learns that he actually did.
The two brothers see their father quickly track down the location of the Founding Titan, only to abandon his mission to stay with his family.
This means Grisha took the Founding Titan when he was left with no other choice after the Colossal and Armoured Titan attacked.
Oddly enough, he even seems to see Zeke and apologies to him for how he was treated as a child.
Zeke is clearly very affected by this and that fact has me wondering if Eren could actually sway him into changing his mindset.
As for what would push him in this direction, I think maybe seeing that his father figure Tom Xaver was working with Eren Kruger could do the trick.
Again, this is just a theory of mine but with images of Kruger’s life being seen in that big memory panel it stands to reason we could get some memories from him next chapter.
And what memory could be better to get Zeke to help Eren than one of Xaver helping Kruger?
However, Zeke working with Eren may not be a good thing since I currently think Eren is planning to destroy the world with the Rumbling.
Still, we do not know Eren’s goal but this seems to be the most likely scenario.
Setting aside this grim topic, I have to say I found the scenes in Grisha’s memories to be rather funny at times.
There is a great moment of sarcasm from Eren and we even see a moment that confirms Grisha meet Kenny.
The reason I found that last one funny is because as Grisha is walking away from him he is sweating like a mad man, probably realizing how demented Kenny was.
It will be interesting to see what memories Eren and Zeke will uncover next chapter.
Maybe they will go even further and see the origins of the Titans?
Fingers crossed.
No matter how much they see, though, almost no time will have passed in the present, as shown perfectly by the title of the chapter “Instant”.
This title speaks to how all that is happening in the Path dimension will be over in an instant once Eren and Zeke return to the real world.
Overall, I thought Chapter 120 was another great one of Attack on Titan.
It once again went in a direction I did not expect, and looks to be laying the foundation for future reveals and the end of the manga.
At the very least, I think we have ten chapters left before we finally reach the story’s conclusion.

A Silent Voice Review: Thank You, Kyoto Animation.

I remember hearing a lot about A Silent Voice when it was released.
The film got a lot of praise as one of the best animated films of 2016 and there was much controversy (entirely warranted in my opinion) that films like the Boss Baby were nominated at the Oscars over it.
However, despite the praise, I never got around to watching it.
In fact, prior to a few days ago I had never watched anything Kyoto Animation had made, as far as I am aware.
This changed when news of the horrific arson attack at their studio, which has currently claimed 35 lives, hit me.
Along with this news, I heard countless statements about what a wonderful studio it was and how it not only put out amazing anime but also provided progressive working conditions for its staff, which is unfortunately a rarity in the anime industry today.
This motivated me to watch A Silent Voice and experience the emotional roller coaster the film is.
And, after seeing it, I can say that I regret not watching the movie when it first came out.
A Silent Voice is an incredibly thoughtful and tear jerking movie that can only be described as an experience.
Directed by Naoko Yamada, and based off the manga by Yoshitoki Ōima, our main character is Shoya Ishida (Miyu Irino), a student riddled with guilt over his relentless bullying of a deaf girl named Shoko Nishimiya (Saori Hayami) years ago.
Struggling through depression and isolation because of his actions, Ishida sets out to makes amends and pursues a friendship with Nishimiya.
And so the emotional tale unfolds.

A Silent Voice friendship.jpg — The emerging friendship of Ishida and Nishimiya is heart warming, as Ishida tries his best to make up for what he did, while not believing he deserves forgiveness.

I have to say that choosing Ishida for the main character was a risky move since showing the perspective of a bully could have failed miserably.
Had A Silent Voice gone the cliche route with Ishida simply being misunderstood and acting out because of a bad home life, it would have done so.
Thankfully, Ishida’s actions are portrayed naturally with reasons given for why he treated Nishimiya so horribly.
But, this does not excuse Ishida of what he did and he knows this.
His guilt manifests in such a harmful way that he can no longer look anyone in the eye, ingeniously shown by a blue X over his classmates’ faces.
The journey he goes through to make amends with those he has hurt and to forgive himself is moving.
Along with him, we are also given the struggles of Nishimiya as she deals with her hearing impairment in a world that struggles to understand and often lashes out.
The growing friendship of her and Ishida, and both of them moving towards self acceptance, is the emotional core of the film, resulting in many tear jerking moments.
I am not ashamed to admit I cried at the film’s ending.

I teared up a lot in the last half hour of *A Silent Voice*, making it one of the most emotional third acts I have seen in a long time.

However, A Silent Voice is also an anime that deals with harsh material like suicide so it is not for the faint of heart.
Even if you think you will be alright watching it I still suggest preparing the tissues before doing so.
A Silent Voice may be my favourite anime film.
I know I have just seen it but I cannot remember the last time an anime affected me on such an emotional level.
I am just sad that it took the tragedy at Kyoto Animation for me to finally watch it.
I will leave the link to the GoFundMe page for Kyoto Animation down below.
Over two million dollars has already been raised and it would be great to see this number rise.
I hope the money goes to helping the victims and their families, and I hope this is not the end for Kyoto Animation.
I could say a number of things to sum up A Silent Voice and what an emotional experience it is but, after thinking it over, there is really only one thing that needs to be said.
Thank you, Kyoto Animation.

To help Kyoto Animation you can donate at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kyoani-heal

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes Review – Bad Episode Leads to Great Film.

My least favourite episode of My Hero Academia season three is definitely “Save the World with Love!”
This episode is complete filler that breaks the built up tension of the arc, and the only point it serves is to advertise a movie.
However, I will admit that, even though I disliked it, the episode did succeed in its goal of getting me to watch the movie, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes.
And I am glad I watched it because the film is so enjoyable that it makes watching the bad “Save the World with Love” episode worth it.
Directed by Kenji Nagasaki, Two Heroes follows Deku (Daiki Yamishita) and All Might (Kenta Miyake) on a trip to I-Island, a place where quirks are studied.
There, All Might reunites with his good friend David Shield (Katsuhisa Namasae) and his daughter Melissa (Mirai Shida).

melissa and deku.png — Deku gets to meet important people in All Might’s life upon traveling to I-Island.

After befriending Melissa, and then coincidentally meeting up with most of his other friends from U.A, things go wrong for Deku when a group of villains attack the island and capture All Might and Dave.
With the odds against them, Deku and his hero friends have to work together to rescue them and defeat the villains.
One thing I want to praise Two Heroes for right off the bat is its amazing animation.
I was in awe over how amazing it is right from the first minute.
The fantastic animation, along with the typically great music, adds to the tension of scenes, with the story becoming more exciting because of this.
Speaking of the story, learning more about All Might’s rise to become the world’s number one hero and seeing his friendship with Dave was interesting.

All Might and Dave.png — The friendship of All Might and Dave leads to some great backstory and development in the film.

Dave and Melissa themselves are great characters but, given that this is a standalone movie, I doubt we will see them in the anime any time soon, if at all.
This does raise a few issues, considering that Melissa designs some equipment for Deku that will probably never be used again, despite their evident usefulness, but that is a minor problem which can be overlooked by all the film’s great features.
One of these features is the hilarious comedy.
I usually find Mineta (Ryo Hirohashi) to more of a creep rather than funny in the anime, but in the film he had me clutching my sides with laughter.
He is not the only character that shines though because all of the other U.A students are given moments that highlight their strengths.

Even if all of the U.A students being on the island at the same time feels a bit too coincidental, they are all given their chance to shine.

Even some of the villain characters are good, with one having a sympathetic motive that makes you understand them.
However, while the main villain of the film is interesting in terms of his quirk and power level, as a character he is one of My Hero Academia‘s most boring villains yet.
Still, at least his battle with Deku and All Might results in some cheer worthy moments for the two of them.
In the end, Two Heroes is a great addition to the My Hero Academia series.
The direction it takes makes it stand out from other anime movies, in my eyes.

The Lion King Remake Review: Unimaginative Cash Grab with Great CGI.

“Life’s not fair” Chiwitel Ejiofor’s Scar says in the opening minutes of the Lion King remake.
Well, this is certainly true for all the fans of the original Lion King out there because the 2019 remake is nothing more than an unimaginative cash grab.
I had hopes that it would turn out okay after the remake of Aladdin turned out to be good but, sadly, it was not to be.
I will get the positives out of the way first.
The CGI is incredible, the voice actors do a good job, and Scar’s introduction has surprisingly good cinematography compared with the rest of the film.
There, those three things are the only positives I have.
Now for the oh, so long list of negatives.
Probably my biggest problem with The Lion King 2019 is how it is an almost shot for shot remake.
I recognized so many shots from the original film that it was obvious they were simply trying to evoke the feelings of that movie rather than trying to do something new.

remake shot for shot.jpg — Many of the shots in the *Lion King* remake are blatantly taken from the original, which quickly becomes apparent in its opening minutes.

Worse still, whenever something differed from the original it failed spectacularly.
This is most evident with the musical numbers, which are incredibly boring compared to the first Lion King‘s.
Rather than the fast paced and vibrant dance moves we see there, the 2019 remake instead has the characters just blandly walking around and singing with no exciting movement to speak of.
This is by far the most apparent with “Be Prepared,” which lost so much of its power.
The reason for this, I speculate, is because the director, Jon Favreau, was trying to make the animals seem realistic.
And while he did succeed in this, with the CGI making the animals look incredibly realistic, this is also to the film’s detriment.
Because the lions and other animals are made to look so realistic they show no human-like expressions.
This creates an uncanny valley effect whenever an emotional scene is supposed to happen.
The characters’ faces do not match with what they are saying and their tone of voice.

lion king poster.jpg — This blank expression of Simba’s (Donald Glover) you see in the poster is pretty much all the emotion he shows throughout the entire movie.

Case in point, the gorge scene with the young Simba (JD McCrary) and Mufasa (James Earl Jones).
Not only is this scene downgraded to an almost laughable degree, but when Simba shouts his face has absolutely no emotion.
There is so little emotion or reactions on the animals faces in comparison with their voices that it creates a disconnect throughout the entire film.
Like I said, this also translates to the musical numbers, which are ruined for other reasons as well.
Take “Can You Feel The Love Tonight”, which is botched by the mere incompetent decision of having the song take place in a daytime scene.

Nala and Simba.jpg — Whose bright idea was it to have “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” play in the day?

Incompetent decisions like this can be seen all the way through, most obviously in a scene where we follow a tuft of Simba’s hair blowing in the wind, only to see it get eaten by a giraffe, excreted, and then pushed around by a dung beetle.
That’s right, someone thought it was a good idea to see an important part of the film literally being pushed around in a pile of dung.
This scene pretty much sums up most of my feelings about the remake when comparing it with the original.
In comparison to the animated Lion King, the 2019 remake is a pile of dung.
It may have good voice acting and singing from its cast, and incredible CGI, but almost everything else fails completely.

Wolf Children Review: A Heartwarming Tale… Just Ignore the Implied Bestiality.

Wolf Children is one of the first anime films I can remember watching.
I was part of a youth group where we spent a night watching films and Wolf Children was one of them.
I remember it as a moving experience so, when I saw it for sale at an Armageddon Expo, I naturally bought it to relive the happy memories.
Directed by Mamoru Hasoda, Wolf Children opens by showcasing the romance between college student Hana (Aoi Miyazaki) and a self-isolated but kind man (Takao Osawa), who turns out to be a Wolfman, although calling him a werewolf would not exactly be accurate.
From this point, we get a montage of their relationship that reminds me a lot of the opening minutes of the film Up.
Sadly, just like in Up, Hana and the Wolfman’s romance ends in tragedy, leaving Hana to take care of their two titular Wolf Children Yuki (Haru Kuroki and Momoka Ono) and Ame (Yukito Nishii and Amon Kabe).

ame and yuki — Yuki and Ame are adorable little bundles of terror. Seriously, when you need to tell your children not to bite the furniture you know you’ve got problems.

Being a single mother would be hard enough but Hana having to raise kids who are part wolf is on an entirely different level.
Nevertheless, Hana perseveres and strives to protect her children while giving them happy lives.
As a result, she is a highly relatable character with the audience being on her side throughout.
Likewise, Yuki and Ame go through a lot of development, which causes them both to end up in completely different places compared to how they started out.
Watching these three characters grow, both together and apart, as a family makes for plenty of heartwarming and heartbreaking scenes.

The development of Yuki, Ame, and especially Hana, results in emotional messages about family being delivered.

The emotional weight of these scenes is helped by the fantastic music and animation.
Although, while the animation is mostly great, whenever there is a long shot with the characters in the distance their faces will pretty much disappear.
There is also an incredibly cringey moment at the beginning of the film that hints at bestiality, which I did not need to think about.
Other than these two specific problems though, Wolf Children is still the same moving film I remember seeing all those years ago.
Hana’s struggles in raising her children continues to be a heart warming tale about love, loss and letting go, and I highly recommend it.

My Hero Academia Season 3 Review: End of Act One.

After highly enjoying My Hero Academia‘s first and second season, I rushed into the third hoping it would be just as fantastic.
And, I have to say that, while I do think it is a great season, it does fall short of the heights of season two for me.
Again, it is still fantastic.
I have heard people call this season “the end of act one” in the overall story, and I can certainly see why.
Where the season takes All Might and his nemesis, All For One (Akio Otsuka), half way through definitely makes it feel like the first part of the story has concluded.
Although, it honestly felt like they built up All For One a bit much last season.
Whether or not this is a good or bad thing has yet to be seen.
Either way, their confrontation leads to, not only an incredible fight, but a game changing event for both All Might and the very world of My Hero Academia itself.

All Might vs All For One.jpg — The fight between All Might and All For One is essentially *My Hero Academia’s* act one conclusion.

The build up to this was stellar as well with the Training Camp Arc putting a spotlight on all the interesting new villains like Toga Himiko (Misato Fuken), Dabi (Hiro Shimono) and Twice (Daichi Endo).
There are also plenty of great moments from the training heroes in this arc, especially Deku, whose fight with the villain Muscular (Kousuke Takaguchi) leads to a character defining moment.
Although, I do feel that this fight kind of makes the power system feel slightly broken, with the ridiculous heights Deku takes his power to.
Then there is the second arc of the season, where the U.A students take their practical exams to get their practicing hero licenses.
Here, we are introduced to another series of interesting characters and even see a well done twist.

tog-I mena camie attacks Izuku..jpg — The exam arc introduces a bunch of new characters for Deku and his friends to fight, one of which provides a great twist.

The twist is certainly a lot better than the one that is revealed during the All Might and All For One fight, which honestly feels very abrupt, due to the little to no build up.
Sadly, the second arc also has its issues with one episode cutting away to a pointless flashback just to advertise a movie, which annoyed me a lot.
But, there are still plenty of great things about the third season to make up for its bothersome moments.
One of these things is the character development of Bakugo.
When he was introduced in the third season, I could not understand why people loved his character so much.
He was just a bully with an inferiority complex that was always angry.
So imagine my surprise when, at the end of the season, Deku and Bakugo fight and it leads to an incredibly impactful outburst from him.
I had no idea he felt that way so this revelation served as another mini twist for me in a great piece of character development.

Bakugo development.png — Bakugo’s character development in “Deku vs Bakugo, Part 2” is both surprising and impactful.

This made me understand why Bakugo is a lot of people’s favourite character.
He is still not my personal favourite but he is definitely up there.
As for the animation and music, both are once again stellar, delivering two amazing openings with “Odd Future” and “Make My Story.”
Features like this, Bakugo and other characters’ development, and more all turned out to create a great third season that has me excited for the fourth one coming this year.
Season three may not reach the heights of the third for me but I still found it a fun time with a lot of excellent character development.

Attack on Titan Season Three Review: Proves Itself to be One of the Greatest Modern Anime.

After I saw season two of Attack on Titan, I became convinced that this anime was going to be one of the the most deep and well thought out series of recent years.
Needless to say, when season three finally started last year, I was overjoyed at being proven right.
Directed by Tetsuro Araki, Attack on Titan‘s third season adapts the Uprising and Return to Shiganshina Arcs from Hajime Isayama’s original manga and does it gloriously.
Both arcs are very different in tone, the first arc being more political while the second is more action oriented, and both are fantastic.
Many people were complaining about how, in two seasons, Attack on Titan was not delivering any answers to many of the burning questions fans had.
Well, this season gave us plenty of answers, and then some, in what has to be among the best exposition sequences of all time.
The anime spent so much time building up the basement reveal, and finally shows the history of the Titans in one big episode, “That Day.”
A lot was riding on this episode so it had to deliver big time, and it somehow did that in spades.

that day 2 — Grisha’s backstory in “That Day” is the perfect way to do an exposition episode.

“That Day” is basically one big exposition dump and yet it is one of my favourite, if not my absolute favourite, episode of the entire series.
Although, it is a close call between that and “Midnight Sun” because both are amazing for very different reasons.
There are just so many mind blowing episodes in this second arc, which makes sense since it is the best one of the series so far.
As for the first arc of the season, the Uprising Arc, it is heavily changed from the manga, where it was a lot slower paced.
In the anime, many of the events in this arc were switched around or removed entirely to create a more natural flow, which I think worked out well.
Sure, it is a shame that some characters who got development in the manga did not get that here but the anime version is better paced for it, with great episodes like “Wish” delivering the perfect amount of action, exposition, and character drama.
That is another thing I especially love about this season: how it continues to develop its amazing cast of characters.
Armin, Erwin, Historia, Levi and Grisha are the definite standouts this season, with so much backstory and amazing moments given to them.

Historia Wish — Characters like Historia get a lot of development this season, causing them to become some of my favourites.

This results in some gut wrenching moments when these characters are at their lowest points, and some crowd pleasing moments when they are at their highest.
Even characters with smaller roles in the overall story, like Kenny and those introduced in Grisha’s backstory, are memorable and well developed.
Then there is the animation and music, which are both stellar.
Episodes like “Pain” and “Hero” show off the best animation the anime has had to date with Levi’s impressive skills.
One of the few parts where I found that the animation faltered was with the CGI Colossal Titan but the rest of the animation is so jaw dropping that it more than makes up for it.
As for the music, once again I will be adding many of these OSTs to my Spotify so I can listen to them over and over again.
I have said before that Attack on Titan has my favourite soundtrack of any series and this season topped many of the already amazing songs seen in the previous seasons.
This fantastic usage of animation and music helps to build on the suspense and action that is happening on screen.
With this, the story builds to a contemplative conclusion in “The Other Side of the Wall” where Eren is put at a crossroads, which will lead him to a point of no return next season.

the sea.png — The final episode of the season sees our main characters reach their goal, only to realize they are facing an entirely new threat.

Speaking of which, season four is confirmed to be the final season, and with the manga currently in its final arc, it looks like the anime and manga may be set to end around the same time.
I am very excited to see how Hajime Isayama will end his masterwork of a story.
However, It will be interesting to see if season four takes a break in between arcs, like season three did.
Actually, I think it will be more interesting to see whether of not we will be told, if it does happen.
This is my one big gripe with season three of Attack on Titan.
We only found out about the six month hiatus when the first arc ended, displaying a sad lack of communication on Wit Studio’s part.
This does not affect my opinion of the season, since the wait was more than worth it, but I would appreciate more transparency if this does happen again.
I also hope Wit Studio can work on Attack on Titan’s final season because rumors are still floating around that they may hand it over to another studio.

season 4.jpg — The fourth and final season of *Attack on Titan* airs in 2020, starting with the Marley Arc where new and interesting characters, and perspectives will be introduced.

Overall, though, many people are now rightly calling Attack on Titan one of the best anime in modern times, and I am glad to see it getting this well deserved recognition.
I cannot wait for the final season where the story will go to much darker places and, hopefully, end on a satisfying note.