I ain't done with you yet Ghibli.
The story is from the point of view of Sho who explains the story of the Borrowers from a week during summer at his mother's childhood home.
The Borrowers are tiny people who live in the floorboards of houses and as the name suggests, borrow things from humans but their society is a closely guarded secret so any form of discovery and they move on to another place, this version could be seen as just another house they visit. Being British and the story being British written, this is the weakest version of the Borrowers, mostly because I expected more from such an idea in anime format be it film or TV series, yet what I got was a version so watered down it lost it's whimsy and became boring.
Dubbing is better but lacking still.
Final Verdict: This film lacks whimsy, imagination and adventure, it's just so boring to sit through that reading the Borrowers would actually be easier.
So Tales From Earthsea.......Yeah?
The world is no longer in balance as the Black Dragon kills a White Dragon, an event believed impossible signalling the decline of the world. We move to Prince Arren who after slaying his father, wanders the world until being picked up by Sparrowhawk, an Archmage and also tagging along is a girl freed by slavers named Therru. Sparrowhawk aims to restore balance to the world, but danger is never far away.
I really don't care for this, even my synopsis ends so abruptly, Tales From Earthsea is the worst movie Studio Ghibli has ever done which is a shame because it looks amazing with it's animation.
The story is hard to follow, the lead character gives me no reason to like him, the action is bland, the dub voice acting is monotone and barely anyone sounded invested in their performance and finally it barely adapted the original Earthsea book at all.
Final Verdict: I can't tell if Studio Ghibli got complacent, lazy or simply didn't care, either way this is easily the worst anime film I've ever watched
Prepare to have your mind opened.
Kosaku's mother passes away, on her deathbed she requests that her son stays with an old friend Ibari Ozora, a well known Yakuza. Things seem normal at first with Ibari and his daughters but then Kosaku meets Ibari's son Hibari who acts and dresses as a girl much to her father's chagrin. Hibari doesn't seem to care how she acts and is more than capable of holding her own against people who try and force her to act male, however Kosaku is left confused as he doesn't know how to respond to Hibari as Kosaku thinks she's cute but all too aware that Hibari is male.
I wouldn't let the review picture fool you, the animation is way more 80s than that. It's a decent comedy that has gotten better with age thanks to further interest in trans culture in recent years and the fact that Hibari is the most positive progressive figure in transgender manga. Yeah the series suffers from being 80s and it's failure to finish, resulting in a "the madness continues" ending means if you've seen one episode you've seen the other 34 episodes. But the fact that it was able to create such a positive character in Hibari and the fact that Kosaku is hardly a pushover himself makes them worth watching and remember the first manga was 1981 followed by the anime in 1983, it was doing this long before creators like Steven Universe's Rebecca Sugar was even born.
No dub but deserves one, it also deserves a modern remake.
Final Verdict: A strong anime with a strong character that transgender people can support with pride; suffers from 80s at times but a decent anime nonetheless.
This will be my shortest review, probably.
Kinnikuman is a bumbling fool of a superhero who is the missing Prince of Kinniku. In order to ascend the throne and prevent others stepping on it, Kinnikuman must prove his worth in intergalactic wrestling tournaments defeating long time enemies the Chojin.
A generation later his son known as Kid Muscle in the only translated anime to date does pretty much the same thing against a new organisation the dMp.
Basically in short, it's what happens if WWE was an anime and was written by pre Dragonballz Akira Toriyama. Again in short, copious amounts of juvenile humour packed into a camp show that has all the typical shonen traits of it's contemporaries.
The 80s original and the sequel from the early 00s are really not that much different except obviously the 00s benefits from better animation from improved technology.
4kids dub surprisingly suits the 00s anime as it compliments it's style of releasing anime, more so than it's other attempts, looking at you Shaman King and One Piece.
But is it good? Well do you like wrestling? If yes, this will likely get a few giggles but very much like most kid's interest in wrestling it fades away when you realize it's not as good as it makes itself out to be and even if you still like wrestling into adulthood then you're more likely to make fun of it. If no, you'll likely find it too childish and you are hardly short of alternatives in action comedy.
Final Verdict: There's nothing really wrong with it, it's one of the few anime you can look at and say "this is for kids" a term I hate using to describe any anime but it's juvenile humour and wrestling plot makes it a low hanging fruit for kids.
Now for a genre that doesn't age well.
Translated as "If I see you in my Dreams" Yume De Aetara is about two star crossed lovers, Salaryman Masuo and Kindergarten teacher Nagisa; both are 20 something virgins with a lack of experience to match but they do manage to fall for each other only for an endless run of misunderstandings to constantly drive them apart usually created by their friends or love rivals.
This feels like the prototype for Love Hina but instead Masuo is even wimpier and Nagisa is a wilting flower who would break from a sneeze, it's painful to watch especially when most of the conflict comes from Nagisa being way too quick to judge; as bad as Naru was in Love Hina at the very least she has a personality that's memorable.
This type of romance narrative is better suited to younger characters, not 20 something adults; in this format, both characters come across as kind of pathetic which is of the detriment to the love rivals who have stronger personalities as well as the comic relief characters for the same reasons.
Dub is underwhelming and to be honest if you saw the OVA, the TV series will be more of the same barely changing plots.
Final Verdict: Maybe I'm just bitter on love stories now but I kinda expect more effort from romance anime. A fanfic writer could do a better job of making a romance anime than Yume De Aetara, even if it's themselves making out with the characters.
