Lurker > PrinceKaro

Kaguya

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GuessMyUserName posted...

She said in an interview Monday that she thought she was sending a private message, but the comment was shared publicly on Facebook.
"This was an error on my part," she said.

Oh gee I'm sorry, I didn't know you meant to be a bigot in private instead of in public! Clearly this makes everything ok.

please remove this dumb racist bitch from office

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Immune: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Immune: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Boot: Sid Meiers Civilization V
Boot: Mass Effect 2

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Drakeryn posted...

this is also interesting because Star is psychically compelled to find and fight her opponent but will never be able to find them and it's gonna drive her crazy

she would be inevitably drawn to where the prions are, and even if she can't locate them the surrounding area is likely to be set on fire (by accident or on purpose) and eventually the prions will be destroyed.
star has a wide variety of magic abilities to draw from, the prions are just 'i gotta just sit here and hope someone sprinkles me in my opoonent's food'

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like the prion starts outside her body and has no higher brain function and no way to infect star unless she randomly starts eating the dirt the prions are on

Star Butterfly

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Rainbow Raider

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 382
Jona: 301
Inviso: 279
Genny: 266
Karo: 246
Red: 235
Charon: 211

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3. Promare

Genny: 3
Red: 4
Inviso: 5
Karo: 6
Charon: 9
Johnbobb: 15
Jona: 19

Total: 61

Genny: The only way I can see Your Name losing this list's top spot is if Promare Redlines its way to victory and to be honest if that's the ending we get I won't even be mad. If I had to list a single flaw it's that Promare almost TOO hype. There's so much happening on screen at some points that it's difficult to keep up with its fast-paced action, which is top-notch as is the humor. I'm so confident that this will place near the top that I'm gonna go ahead and declare it the second funniest film on this list after Mind Game. (As an aside, I can't wait for all these HAWT PREDIX to bite me in the ass.) The meta humor game is so on point that the protagonist Galo can be seen snoozing during important plot revelations only to moments later pilot a mecha called "Deus X Machina". I love that Promare sidelines the implied romantic subplot to focus on what the audience really wants: comedy, action, and bromance! The side characters are showcased just long enough to establish their personalities and come back into play near the end to lend support, but the beauty in this film is that the cast never feels bogged down because it makes it very clear who actually matters.

Red: Somehow, not the only movie on the list heavy on firefighting, but it is probably the most anime movie on the list. This is extreme firefighting with crazy literally fire-based people right to be fought with extreme anime glow. I dont know if it was just that it was very different in a list full of slice of life or if this was just somehow up my alley, but I enjoyed this way more than I was expecting when the initial premise was setting up. Then again, I really like the Disgaea series, so I guess anime characters power spiking to oblivion and teaming up out of necessity to defeat the villain does sit well with me somewhere. And yeah, I didnt just come up with this, I definitely had Disgaea vibes going through my brain while I was watching as well. This movie ended up a lot of fun is a serious but not ever all that serious manner. Oddly, the Promare themselves end up being the least interest thing about this movie despite getting the title.

Inviso: Up until this movie (and I say this with only three movies left to watch), my top tier was filled with far too much in the way of dramatic realism, and I figured I wouldnt find a truly amazing and FUN movie amidst this collection of forty. Promare proved me wrong. This was just action-packed and was WAY too familiar and relevant, given the current political climate. Galo versus Lio at the start was an interesting action sequence to kick things off and establish that the militarized police are kinda dickbagsfurther evidenced by the capture of an innocent pizza guy. Suddenly, the terrorists become sympathic, and Galo realizes theres corruption in societys power structure, and the whole movie just takes it up a notch with mech fighting and the burning of the entire planet Earth, all to save Earth from the willful actions of a select few. Everything just felt fun and enjoy the whole way through, and I really loved watching this.

Karo: What It Is:
Totally not anime X-Men.

What I Think:
Underneath Trigger's usual over the top antics lies an all-too-real tale about fear and bigotry that feels very relevant to current times, as paranoia about Burnish-started fires leads to a dehumanization of them as a people. Of particular note is a scene where a Burnish youth who only wants to cook pizza gets brutalized and hauled off by armored government thugs.
Our primary lens into this world is a young fireman named Galo, who over the course of the movie goes from spouting hateful rhetoric to questioning his beliefs to eventually having a Burnish best friend.
Much like the protagonist, the movie is self-awarely dumb, and often feels like a parody of the shounen genre. But under the surface it is anything but, and hell if this film is not exactly what the world needs right now.

Score: 85/100

Charon: Despite this film suffering a bit from a bloated cast the movie never really uses, the dynamic between the main characters is good enough to overshadow the use of "group of heroes with specific abilities, that we'll also not feature much beyond that" trope that I don't like very much. I think one of the best things about this movie is also how aware of itself it seems to be; once we get near the end for example we can this sort of strange twist with the Promare themselves and the main character comically falls asleep during the explanation. With a voice cast of JYB, Crispin Freeman and Steve Blum how could you go wrong there either? It's fun, action-packed and the character interactions are enjoyable. A very inoffensive and hard-to-hate film despite a few shortcomings that in my opinion stop it from being in super-elite territory.

Johnbobb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHlrHvt1dUE

Jona: This movie is just straight-up gorgeous and has amazing action. If youre absolutely fine with watching a movie just for eye candy, then this is for you. The soundtracks great as well. This movie is just such a stylish package. That should be enough for me to love this movie but for some reason I just like it despite me loving Redline. The characters here are nothing special. Youve got your hot-blooded main character and cool, haughty rival character. The four other people in the main characters squad might as well be cardboard cutouts since they dont matter at all. The villain is just there. The storyline is very on-the-nose with its subject matter, which is eerie considering todays circumstances. This is the most anime anime film, for better and for worse.

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Madoka Magica

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 370
Jona: 285
Inviso: 277
Genny: 266
Karo: 243
Red: 234
Charon: 205

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Genny: While Weathering With You certainly lives up to the standards set by it's predecessor it doesn't resonate on the same frequency for me. That's not to say it's bad as obviously indicated by this high ranking, but the main characters aren't as compelling to me as the duo from Your Name. While I do like Hina and Hodaka a lot, the side characters are actually more memorable to me and end up stealing the spotlight. Hina's younger brother Nagi (aka Sempai) is a stand out for one obvious reason: it's rare to see a character of his archetype at such a young age. The two Suga cousins are also very entertaining, and for as little time as they appear on screen, Nagi's girlfriends and the formerly stray cat Ame are charming as well. I think this film narrowly edges out the competition as far as animation goes as the most visually stunning film on this list and I for one can't wait to see what else this director and studio will do in the future.

Karo: What It Is:
An average day in Seattle.

What I Think:
This a beautifully animated movie that really shows how far the anime industry has come in terms of visual fidelity.
Basically the story is there is a young runaway who meets a girl who can make rain go away by wishing really hard. Everyone is like totally cool with this and acts like this a perfectly normal thing for a teenage girl to be able to do. The police do eventually come and try to take her away, but this is because she is an unsupervised minor, not because she is like a fucking mutant who can control the weather.
Makoto Shinkai is known for his great character chemistry, but I felt there was something lacking this time around. Here it is 'hey wow this girl bought me a big mac and now she's my waifu'.
I'm told that the movie is a climate change metaphor, but if you read into it that way it seems to have a horrible message that humans should just follow their selfish desires and let the ice caps melt because 'that was the way things used to be'. Yikes.
You can't go wrong with Shinkai's work (except for the movie that sucks and is now about trains), but this is a major step back from what I have come to expect from him in recent years and that is a bit disappointing.

Score: 80/100

Jona: I for one am glad that Makoto Shinkai gets an excuse to do weather porn again. While Shinkais focus on teenage romance is familiar territory, the road to that is pretty odd with the main character starting out homeless and Hina having weather powers. The cast as a whole is pretty likable, with some fun side characters. The story can take a while to kick things into gear but its pretty thrilling when it does. The twist of the movie is foreshadowed too much but it leads to an exciting climax due to when it happens. I would find it pretty entertaining if Shinkais next film is in the setting that the ending of this movie created, considering his movies share the same universe. Good stuff.

Red: Every now and then you get a movie where the ending destroys your opinion on your entire experience. That is going to be weathering with you for me. Hell there was a point in the middle I thought this was going to rank high on my list, the concept of the sunshine girl started to be interesting, then we learned of her inevitable sacrifice, but then one of our side characters from early turns into a jerk and the sacrifice actually happens. Except our main character cant accept that and hes going to go save her. Sure, Im on board. He succeeds, yay, end the movie we dont have to go anywhere else with this. Nope, we do. They flooded the world by being selfish and we got the bad end after all. A bad end that somehow makes their relationship with each other fine despite the fact it likely killed what, a couple million people? Are we supposed to just gloss over that? Shouldnt they be fucking horrified that they destroyed a major city? They took a neat concept, characters that were good enough, and just kind of stomped all over them in the end. They didnt even keep in contact during the epilogue timeskip. The movie just decided to hate itself.

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4. Weathering With You

Inviso: 2
Johnbobb: 4
Charon: 5
Genny: 8
Karo: 11
Jona: 13
Red: 20

Inviso: Normally on these lists, by the time we reach the end, Im either burned out by everything Ive had to watch over the course of a month and a half, or theres a point of diminishing returns in terms of film quality. I think Edge of Tomorrow bucked this trend, even if it wasnt my number one choice, but rarely do I reach the end of a list and think That most recent film that got releasedTHAT was the best film on the whole list. Yet Weathering with Youit REALLY gave me pause. It made me have to sit down and really consider whether it could potentially be the best film Ive watched over the course of this list.

Really, this movie has a touch of everything, and even though it shifted genres several times over the course of its runtime, I never felt bored watching it. Were introduced to this world where its always raining, and while thats certainly unusual, its still an innocuous enough trait to just kinda blend into the background of the plot at first, regardless of how important it becomes later. Hodoka runs off from his home town for reasons that are never really explained beyond I was suffocating, and Im fine with that. We give plenty of leeway to Disney princesses who want more in their lives, so why not a sixteen-year-old Japanese boy? He gets rescued from a sudden swell of rain by Suga, which sets in motion his life for the next severalmonths?

Basically, Hodoka winds up all but homeless and trying to scrape by on the streets of Tokyo, but hes too young to get a proper job. Two things happen that are minor scenes, yet they become relevant later on. First, he gets accosted by a sex club owner, which leads to him knocking over a trash can discovering a gun inside. Then, shortly thereafter, he briefly meets Hina at a McDonalds (nice product placement), and she takes pity on him and gives him a free Big Mac. This leads him back to Suga, where he gets a job working for a National Inquirer-type magazine. He works as kind of a writer, kind of an interviewer, but largely just tidying up around the office. THIS is what leads him to the eventual focus of the movie.

Now, I should point out that Hodokas struggles on the streets are interesting, so unlike other films where I found myself waiting for the plot to start moving, this was not the case in Weathering with You. But yeah, the magazine investigates Sunshine Girls as the made-up ramblings of a tarot card reader. Given the constant rain, its the kind of story people want to read, even if its all bullshit. During this investigation however, Hodoka comes across Hina again, this time apparently being accosted by the same club owner that accosted him in the past. He tries to intervene and rescue Hina, but he gets punched for his troubles, only to draw the gun and fire a warning shot that allows himself and Hina to escape. Terrified at his willingness to fire the gun, he abandons it in this dilapidated building that Hina takes him to. And its HERE that Hina reveals her big secret: SHE is a sunshine girl.

Upon demonstration of Hinas powers, the duo come up with a money-making plan that relies on clearing the skies in exchange for payment. It works out for a while and everyone seems happy. Its at this point that I realized this movie is only half overwhat kind of padding could they possibly add to make this two hours? The BEST kind of padding. THATS what. In the background of the main plot, the police are investigating the gun Hodoka found, which leads to them chasing Hodoka and putting both Hina (underaged and supporting her little brother) and Suga (trying to get custody of his daughter back) in jeopardy. Oh yeah, and Hina also has a little problem where shes starting to turn into water, as Suga and Nanami discovered while further investigating the weather girl phenomenon.

Long story short, Hodoka confesses his love for Hina, she reveals her condition, and she vanishes in the night as a sacrifice to end the torrential rain over Tokyo. The police arrive to arrest Hodoka and take Nagi into child protective servicesand THIS is the point that the the film switches genres and gets fucking INSANE. Its GREAT. Hodoka goes on a low-speed-turned-high-speed chase across the city, trying to reach the warehouse where he believes hell be able to find and rescue Hina. Nagi, in one of the BEST scenes in this entire rankdown, is straight-up pimpin by summoning two of his girlfriends to visit him in the child equivalent of jailonly to pull a body switch with one of the girls so he can escape. And then theres a sick Mexican standoff when Hodoka reclaims the gun he discarded earlier in the movie, screaming about how he needs to rescue Hina.

He does, of course, and rather than give a boring, happy ending, there are consequences to rescuing the girl who sacrificed herself for the good of Tokyo. The rain returns and never stops, flooding large portions of the city. Thats an awesome ending, and its nice to have a happy ending (Hodoka and Hina reunite at the end) without wrapping everything up in a nice little bow. I justI loved so much about this movie and it nailed almost every plot beat. It just falls a LITTLE short of matching the movie I put in the one spot. Thats nothing against Weathering with You though, its amazing on its own.

Johnbobb: I'm so, so glad I got to see this in theaters before the shutdown happened and made seeing films in movies impossible. This movie is breathtaking on the big screen. I loved the main characters, I loved the weird plot and I even love the cheesy romance of the main couple. There's something to be said for movies willing to go the "Fuck the world, I'm not throwing you away for their benefit" route. I felt the same way when playing a particular 2015 choice-driven game that featured a girl with unexplained magical powers and a girl that needed to be sacrificed to save her city. I felt a little like Suga, inspired by the main couple and willing to put all my hope into everything working out for them.

Charon: This film's ending makes it rare, in my opinion. It's very uncommon for protagonists of any film to basically say "fuck the world, we deserve to be happy too". It's usually not the message writers want to convey so to see it done here was interesting. I figured there would be some sort of happy ending regardless, but that didn't happen; instead the message of the film is that love will always come with a price, apparently. Some selfish decisions you make have repercussions that you can't unmake once you decide on your course. That was probably the most lasting thing about this film for me, and I just liked the concept of it since it's so rarely used. Outside of that, the cast of the film is great and of course the animation is beautiful. It was neat to see the little cameos from Your Name pop in too.


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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 370
Jona: 276
Inviso: 275
Genny: 262
Karo: 236
Red: 218
Charon: 204

johnbobb plz stahp

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5. The Anthem of the Heart

Karo: 4
Jona: 5
Red: 5
Inviso: 7
Genny: 7
Charon: 7
Johnbobb: 29

Total: 64

Karo: What It Is:
High School Musical - the Japanese edition.

What I Think:
This little known gem is about a group of schookids who produce and perform their own original musical as part of extracurricular activities. The central character of the story is a psychologically mute girl who wants to star in the musical despite her problem.
The strength of the movie it its characters, who are all believable and avoid most of the usual high school anime archetypes. Most people don't even know this film exists, but it deserves to be seen, especially if you like these kind of school life stories.

Score: 89/100

Jona: What Anthem of the Heart does best is incorporating its theme of communication and I really related to the struggles with it. The four main characters are really different and I liked seeing the drama, development and interaction between them as they work together to put on a show. I like how the music is a factor here with its relation to the theme and how it can be used to help express yourself. The movie is a well-put together package that made me emotional.

Red: A girl becomes traumatized by her parents words and creates an egg demon to prevent her from talking for years and years. Unlike many films on this list, the random egg creature she creates is actually a figment of her imagination. Honestly, my favorite part of this movie is the big payoff of the musical in the end. It really felt to me like a great coming together of all the buildup of the rest of the movie. In a list of movies where the ending definitely has a habit of floundering, the musical coming together well and our main character finding her voice again just hit all the right notes to satisfy my brain.

Inviso: It feels like a lot of movies from this section of the list revolve around teenagers with severe social disorders, who go through some weird, almost supernatural learning experience to overcome their flaws and make friends. And Im not gonna lieIm a sucker for these kinds of stories. I dont know where this movie will show up on the overall list, but at the time of this write-up, its placing very well for me, as are quite a few of its compatriots. The main character is sympathetic, and I appreciate the story of how she catches her dad having an affair, he blames her for the subsequent divorce, and that causes her muteness. But beyond just HER, I love the fact that the supporting cast feel like fully fleshed out characters in their own right. Im always intrigued when you have relatively large casts and bother developing each one of them. The arrogant baseball player who realizes he should be a better person, the nice guy nerd who struggles with social situations himself, and the cheerleader who cant bring herself to admit her feelings for said nerdthey all complement each other nicely. The culmination of the storyline is great, with happy endings for all, and Im enjoyed it quite a bit.

Genny: While the various styles of animation used here are absolutely gorgeous, positively A1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRs0OqV4uSc what really sets The Anthem of the Heart apart from other films is its exploration of deeper themes through lighthearted imagery. Tonally it's jarring, almost unnerving when, for example, a father tells his daughter that it's her fault he and her mother are separating. That one cruel act twists and reshapes Naruse's entire personality from that point onward, and I completely sympathize with her struggles with social anxiety and selective mutism. While I'm not usually one to go for high school crush drama, I found all four characters on the Committee tolerable, and even grew to like all of them aside from the jock Daiki Tasaki, who was just a tad too haughty for my tastes. The scene where Naruse finally unpacks all the baggage that's been weighing so heavily on her since childhood was so cathartic and it made me like the often aloof Sakagami at least three times more for voluntarily taking it all in even though I'm sure some of it hurt. I also appreciated that the climactic solution wasn't as easy as him just admitting his love for her was anything more than platonic, which is not a route many films choose to traverse.

Charon: An extremely competent slice of life film that features a small, central group of young characters. This is another film that surprised me with how good it really was, since I expected not to care for this film when we approached watching it on the list. The most unique thing about this movie was the use of the "story within a story", not that that is something new or even not featured elsewhere on this list, but the manner in which it was featured was unique. I thought Jun writing the sad ending for her play but then reversing it when she herself wanted her reality to have the "good ending" and she could see it running parallel to the musical she wrote. I think somewhere she knew that she wasn't destined to be the princess in the fairytale she had in her head, and seeing the musical unfold with how she wanted her life to go was a good watch. The meathead character here was much better than most other uses of the similar trope, also.

Johnbobb: Anthem of the Heart simultaneously gets the awards for having one of the best openings and also one of the biggest wasted oppurtunities. It opens with a tragic moment of a young girl's life, shown through her perspective, with just a hint of fantasy and a lot of her dad being just the shittiest person. I thought that's what this film was going to be, some dark self-reflection told through the eyes of someone who couldn't quite grasp reality. And while it did have the tiniest bit of that, it ultimately became the film's second focus, behind the teen romance melodrama.

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1. ???
2. ???
3. Lu Over the Wall
4. ???
5. Okko's Inn
6. ???
7. When Marnie Was There
8. Penguin Highway
9. Ride Your Wave
10. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
11. ???
12. Liz and the Blue Bird
13. Welcome to the Space Show
14. Mary and the Witch's Flower
15. Colorful
16. Mirai
17. The Boy and the Beast
18. Vampire Hunter D
19. The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
20. Giovanni's Island
21. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
22. Napping Princess
23. Children of the Sea
24. Memories
25. The Castle of Cagliostro
26. The Fantastic Adventures of Unico
27. Angel's Egg
28. Miss Hokusai
29. In This Corner of the World
30. Phoenix 2772
31. Dead Leaves
32. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters
33. The Wonderland
34. Fireworks
35. Little Prince and the Eight Headed Dragon
36. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
37. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
38. Blood: the Last Vampire
39. Appleseed
40. Mind Game

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oh hey it'll be done next year!

ive heard this shit before

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Madoka Magica

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 346
Jona: 276
Inviso: 273
Genny: 260
Karo: 235
Red: 218
Charon: 202

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6. When Marnie Was There

Charon: 2
Jona: 6
Karo: 7
Red: 11
Inviso: 12
Genny: 16
Johnbobb: 17

Total: 71

Charon: Currently serving as Ghibli's final hoorah, for now (let's hope), Marnie was a fitting sendoff for the storied company. Capturing all the magic and wonder of the films that came before it, this is another touching story of a young protagonist and a supernatural being. Despite it not making my #1, this film was definitely the #1 in terms of tearjerking for me. I guess I have a personal relationship with "grandmother" films, and tons of animated movies just love to use the dead grandma trope. It's played to beautiful effect here, even if some of the way I was sort of wondering if perhaps there were some LGBT overtones to the main character's arc. I still don't disagree with my assessment of that and find it makes her a deeper character and is inline with her portrayal in the film. Either way, I'm glad to have finally watched this film and hope the studio can return to the limelight again soon. The animation world just isn't the same without them.

Jona: Mystery elements? In a Ghibli movie? Sign me up! The relationship shown between Anna and Marnie is cute which makes it heartbreaking once we get to know more about Marnie and her mysterious ways. Its just a really well-done Ghibli film. Dont know what else to say.

Karo: What It Is:
The last Studio Ghibli movie for now, at least until Ghibli directors inevitably come out of retirement and/or rise from the dead.

What I Think:
A disagreeable young girl visiting the countryside befriends a mysterious girl who lives at a supposedly abandoned mansion and a lot of seemingly lesbian innuendo occurs.
While it is not quite up there with Miyazaki's greatest classics, Yonebayashi again shows great aptitude with female characters in crafting this touching story of friendship and family.

Score: 84/100

Red: A girl inadvertently learns about her heritage while thrown off with relatives for the summer. Were never really given much of a defintive reason for her actually interacting with Marnie, but there is a bit of a whimsical feel to their interactions that does come with a bit of satisfying curiosity. Anna coming to terms with her current parents and essentially making friends is rather touching, but the movie does suffer a bit from never quite rectifying her interactions with the past world.

Inviso: The back half of this movie is great. Its emotional and touching, and Marnies story, once we learn the whole thing, is so beautiful, especially as more and more layers are peeled back, and in turn we see Anna grow and develop as a character. The slow build of realizing just how unlucky Marnie is in terms of her relationships is just heartbreaking. Her parents were stereotypical socialites, neglecting her and leaving her with an abusive grandmother. Her husband died at a young age, and her subsequent mental breakdown got her daughter sent to a boarding school. The daughter hated her for this, and died before they could make up. All she had was her granddaughter, but by that point, life had taken its toll, and she started the cycle anew, leaving her granddaughter behind when she died.

The reveal that Marnie (who is pretty much an obvious ghost throughout the movie) is Annas grandmother, and is there to help Anna not feel so lonely and abandoned, adds a nice layer to the film. And Im not ashamed to admitthat ending scene where Anna introduces her foster mothercalled Auntie up to that point in the movieas my mom broke me. That just felt like a well-earned emotional climax, and it was subtle. The movie didnt hit me over the head with a scene of Anna breaking down and admitting how shitty she was and declaring her love for her mom. No, she just changes her speech pattern in a noticeable way, and even the mom recognizes this, wiping away tears at this introduction.

The only reason I dont rank this higher is because the first half of the movie is very difficult to get through. Its very slow, and I just dont care for Anna in that first half. Her whole character is just mopey and sullen, which doesnt make for a very dynamic movie. I GET that she has her reasons, but when were forced to spend half the film dealing with a bratty teen and no real explanation as to WHY shes behaving this way, before the PLOT actually kicks init drags the film down just a LITTLE bit, and keeps me from putting it at the top of the list.

Genny: When Marnie was There is like lofi beats to relax to The Movie. I'm not gonna seek it out for anything other than that purpose, but it's enjoyable enough. Once you know the twist it kind of negates what little suspense there is in young Marnie's life (this was my second time watching this for the record), and as strangely sweet as her relationship is with Anna I don't quite understand why they're initially so drawn to each other. I don't believe Marnie is a ghost, or a clairvoyant or time traveler so she couldn't know she's befriending her own granddaughter could she? Anyway in my opinion this isn't the worst Ghibli has to offer, nor is it even close to the best. It's a little above average in a company with an astounding pedigree of wonderful films (also Tales from Earthsea and Only Yesterday), which is of course high praise.

Johnbobb: man don't you just hate when that cute girl you're secretly in love with turns out to be the ghost of your grandma

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Immune: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Immune: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Boot: The Last of Us
Boot: Portal 2

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 335
Jona: 276
Inviso: 267
Genny: 250
Karo: 234
Red: 213
Charon: 198

thats a big chonker outlier

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Johnbobb: This was one of the biggest disappointments of the anime list. That's not to say it was bad, I just went in with really high expectations after seeing the film get really good critical reception and after generally hearing a lot of good things about it. Back when we were watching old romantic comedies, I mentioned how a lot of them fell into the same repetitive, annoying trope: upbeat ditzy girl forces herself onto stoic asshole guy who treats her terribly, and somehow they end up together because it's necessary for the plot. That's my exact issue here. The main boy spends a good half the movie being just completely unlikable (with one scene being particularly uncomfortable and almost irredeemable) but as an audience, it feels like we're just expected to go along with it because we know they're SUPPOSED to be together. The way both of the characters act for the majority of the film just feels completely at odds with how anyone would actually act, which is particularly damaging for a film dependent on making the situation feel realistic. It's not until about the last half hour or so that the film really starts to come together properly, but by then I was already so against them as a couple that it lessened the impact of the emotionally devastating ending.

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7. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas

Inviso: 4
Genny: 4
Charon: 8
Jona: 8
Red: 8
Karo: 10
Johnbobb: 35

Total: 77

Inviso: It says a lot that this movie ranks as high as it does, because I was just about ready to tune it out entirely after the first fifteen minutes. If you remember my rankings from previous lists, specifically Sausage Party and Plague Dogs, there are certain things that just make me super squeamish and make it really difficult to get through. Its weird that it only really comes out in anime, and gore doesnt bother me mostly in live action. But anyway, the first fifteen minutes of the movie are basically a constant reminder of pancreas pancreas pancreas pancreas tripe heart entrails pancreas pancreas, and that made my stomach turn a little bit. The fact that the main characters were generic silent boy and generic manic pixie dream girl did not inspire confidence either.

Slowly but surely however, the movie won me over. Granted, I feel like the whole introverted loser fixes his fucking life plot has been done better by other movies on this list, but the relationship between Haruki and Sakura was cute. There were moments of sexual tension, largely instigated by Sakura because she plays around too much, but it felt like a genuine effort to bring Haruki out of his shell, while simultaneously giving Sakura a friend who didnt really treat her any differently because of her medical condition. It was sweet, and I will fully admit that it got me at the end. The movie sets up the ending in the first couple minutes, but then it COMPLETELY swerves your expectations, and that was FUCKED up. GREAT, but still super fucked up. But its still sweet how the movie concludes, and it developed the characters enough to hit the right emotional notes and make me cry. So yeah, good movie overall, it just doesnt QUITE do well enough to match up with some other movies with similar, emotional tones.

Genny: I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is my favorite romantic anime on this list, yet to call the relationship between -Redacted- and Sakura a pure romance would be a complete disservice. While I could delve into why I feel that way I can't express the jumbled thoughts in my head better than my man gigguk can so if you're curious please watch this: https://youtu.be/zqao854TBM0 .... The interesting dynamic between the two leads is the driving force of the movie, and they end up changing in the best ways just by interacting with one another. Our gloomy protagonist goes from aloof and disinterested in meaningful relationships to actively striding to form friendships while Sakura goes from putting on a constantly cheerful faade to tearing down her open walls and being real with another person. Throughout the movie Sakura intermittently reminds the protagonist (and audience) that her death is inevitable by stating it outright, but it's the subtle ways she reinforces the fact (e.g. trying to bring her two closest friends together so that they'll have each other to fill the void her existence will leave once she's gone) that really tug at those heartstrings. When the pin finally dropped I felt sad of course, but more than anything I felt indignant rage. She only had a little more time left, and I even knew it was going to happen, and yet I was actually left teary-eyed because it was cut short. This was the impact I think Ride Your Wave was going for, but failed to achieve in my humble opinion.

Charon: There's a group of films for me which stand out the most on this list, and they're all at the top. I'm not sure if anyone else sees them this way exactly and I doubt anyone else grouped each of them together, but this film in the "lowest" ranking one that moved me. All my top films got emotion out of me, in the form eye liquids. It's like a set of 8 films which at some point, should break your heart. This one had such a bizarre title and I expected nothing from it. What I got was a heart-wrenching story about a popular girl and a guy no one really cared about. I guess I'd be lying if I didn't say I felt for the main character here in a personal way, even if his personality is a bit far out there in terms of identifiable. So much of the film's time is spent on this relationship, and even though you know the ending is most likely coming, how it comes is a true shock and still packs a punch, which should have been in theory difficult to do for a movie with this premise.

Jona: At first, I didnt like the beginning of the movie showing that Sakura would die. Her disease would already lead you to that conclusion anyways but the circumstances behind the death are whats unexpected. This movie is all about the development of the relationship between Sakura and a guy whose name we dont find out until later in the movie, who are interesting characters in their own right and they serve as good contrasts. Its an interesting relationship due to them being strangers with the guy knowing about her disease while her family also knows but her friends dont. The relationship gets a lot of development and made me feel invested despite knowing the end result and its still emotional. The movie does go on a bit after her death for even more emotional pulls and an ending which was quite touching. The post-credits scene was a nice touch too. The movie can be predictable, and it doesnt exactly have a unique flavor, but its just so executed so well.

Red: Ok, first off, I did not expect the title of this movie to be so literal. Second, while this movie prepares you for the death that is coming, I can safely say I never saw complete random stabbing coming and it honestly was a way to make the event hit you like a ton of bricks. You expect the death to happen and maybe some fallout with her illness, but you never even get to that point, its something the film never prepares you for. It ends up a tragic death in so many ways you might not have been expecting. Unfortunately were still viewing through the eyes of a fairly boring main character otherwise, but the movie still manages to pull the right strings most of the time. When its not making things awkward about literally eating Pancreas at least.

Karo: What It Is:
A bittersweet romance anime that is not actually about cannibalism. Honest.

What I Think:
It a subtle story about two young people, one of which is terminally ill, and the touching relationship between them despite the specter of death hanging over the girl's head.
With great emotional resonance and characters you can care about, the strength of its plot helps to overcome its weakness in animation, which looks alarmingly lackluster for such a recent anime movie.

Score 81/100

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Madoka Magica

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 307
Jona: 275
Inviso: 264
Genny: 247
Karo: 231
Red: 212
Charon: 197

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8. Ride Your Wave

Charon: 6
Karo: 9
Johnbobb: 9
Inviso: 10
Red: 10
Jona: 12
Genny: 28

Total: 84

Charon: Coming into this one I totally did not expect the character that would die would be the guy. That seemed to not be where the movie was heading, so when it happened it was a gut-punch because Minato was an extremely wonderful man that I just didn't want to see die that way. As the movie continues on, there were definitely moments I didn't see coming again with touches of supernatural elements to this drama. This movie is about coming to terms with the death of a loved one and that's obviously something most everyone can relate with in some way, so pairing that with likable characters is a surefire way to make a great film in my opinion.

Karo: What It Is:
A surfing movie that actually doesnt suck ass.

What I Think:
The main character is a girl who can summon the ghost of her boyfriend by singing in front of water, yet is not a Disney Princess for some reason. Anyway, the story details how they both help the other to move on after the accident, and shows what a touching story Yuasa can create when he reins in his worst instincts and lets his characters feel like real people. This film is just so damn cute.

Score: 82/100

Johnbobb: What's with the trend of every modern anime film just being SO FUCKING SAD. The biggest takeaway here is just how gorgeous the animation is. Like, downright stunning to look at the whole way through. Beyond the animation itself, the film is carried by a powerful performance from a very strongly written leading woman. I sympathized with her, I cried both with and for her. I ultimately only wanted happiness for Hinako, which says a lot for it. Unfortunately, I cared considerably less so about the side characters, with Wasabi and Yoko ranging from unpleasant to forgettable. Overall a very emotionally moving film with a solid ending.

Inviso: Its hard to say that a movie in which a girl sees the ghost of her dead boyfriend in water whenever she sings is NORMAL, but this movie is far better than you would expect from a normal movie. You would think Id be bored or annoyed during the first half hour of the movie, when its just a montage ofthe characters who make a point of how confusing their names aredoing boyfriend/girlfriend dating stuff. Buttheyre both likable enough in personality that I enjoyed that segment and I just kept waiting for the inevitable shoe to drop and fuck up that idyllic life. Of course it happens, and the guy at the center of everything dies, and suddenly EVERYONE has to deal with their depression and striving to better themselves in his absenceexcept the girlfriend.

Watching the main character devolve into a frightened wreck is sad, and realize just how traumatizing the whole ordeal was for her. But then theMinato, thats his name, Minatohe comes back in the form of some weird hallucination/not-hallucination water ghost, and we get to watch the girl openly refuse to move on with her life. She cant go surfing like she used to, she wont advance her life in any meaningful way, and she just cant bring herself to consider other romantic options, even as they present themselves. Even by the end of the movie, when everything works out and shes mostly moved on with her life, the film sticks that dagger in by having a pre-recorded message from Minato the year prior, and it just shows that shell never truly get over or forget himand thats okay. That makes her a realistic character. I appreciated that. Less so the weird, magic bullshit that made the third act feel super goofybut still, I liked the movie overall.

Red: A girl hallucinates with water after her boyfriend dies in a tragic accident caused by her indirect influence. Or at least, thats what I was assuming for awhile. Apparently I was wrong it was more water magic all along and she takes her friend and rides her way to safety. Oops. The year later message at the end felt absolutely devastating. I was honestly incredibly relieved they didnt go with the obvious route of having her fall for the other guy. The two other characters hooking up in the end was honestly quite refreshing.

Jona: The romance in the beginning of the movie is quite cute but the meat of the movie is when the boyfriend dies and Hinako has to deal with life after love. Hinako possibly hallucinating about seeing Minato in the water is intriguing stuff to see, which lead to some funny moments. The side characters are also interesting with them being involved in a love triangle with Hinako but they also have their own goals that they strive for which are a good contrast to Hinako and her situation. I do have a problem with the ending of the movie because it gives a clear-cut answer on whether Hinako was hallucinating or not. This is a movie that is ranked higher than it probably ought to due to Hinakos development appealing to me but I still liked it a good amount.

Genny: On an emotional level it doesn't hit as hard as I think it needed to hit for me to really feel invested in the outcome. If I was supposed to feel anything other than shock when Minato drowned then the movie failed to move me. Honestly it felt kind of hollow and cheap to kill off such a nice character. The proposal at the end of the film only serves to further exploit Minato's character, and serve up one last gut punch to the audience for no real reason. It's obvious well before this point he loved Hinako because he never left her even after death so why torture her or anyone watching with the knowledge that he wanted to be with her forever? Also by toying with the idea that Hinako was just imagining seeing Minato throughout so much of the movie only to remove that from interpretation near the end by implying other characters could have seen him all along only makes me feel bad for thinking she was just going mad with grief, and makes other characters seem cruel for trying to force Hinako to move on. Brand New Story might be a #1 jam, but Ride Your Wave itself can chill here at 28th.

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let's just say something like stadium 2 has weird math and you both reduced your speed to 0 resulting in a speed tie

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oops, fixed

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 306
Jona: 271
Inviso: 262
Karo: 230
Genny: 227
Red: 210
Charon: 195

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Inviso: If this movie was about thirty minutes shorter, I think I wouldve ranked it a considerable amount higher than I did. On paper, its interesting. You have this bear warrior whos undisciplined and thinks extremely highly of his abilities, yet he gets his ass beat when he tries to step to a REAL, trained warrior. Meanwhile, you have this kid whose mom died after she divorced his dad and separated them, so he winds up in foster care for reasons, and he runs away, only to wind up in the beast world. The kid, suffering from dad issues, and the bear, suffering from complete immaturity, play off each other, with Kyuuta teaching Kumatetsu how to dodge and rely less on brute force, while Kumatetsu teaches Kyuuta how to fight. Its a sweet story, and together, these two misfits work together to better one another.

This all culminates in Kyuuta eventually returning to the human world where he perhaps belongs, a rift is formed between the master and disciple, and Kyuuta storms off to the human world, where he realizes how out-of-place he is in that life. Kumatetsu, meanwhile, has to enter the arena to fight for the title of Grand Master, which was the original purpose of taking on a disciple in the first place. Without Kyuuta there to cheer him on and keep his head in the game however, Kumatetsu gets sloppy and gets his ass beat. Its only when Kyuuta pops up at the last second to offer words of encouragement that Kumatetsu turns the fight around and wins. If this was the ending, I would enjoy this movie a lot more. Its cheesy and cliched, sure, but sometimes clichs work for a reason.

Unfortunately, the movie goes WAY the fuck off the rails at that point. A second human characterthe adopted child of Kumatetsus opponentwho received VERY little in terms of characterization and development over the course of the movie, pops up and flings a sword into the victorious Kumatetsu. This is because, as has been repeated throughout the movie, humans all have darkness in their hearts. Kyuuta nearly lets the darkness overwhelm him with his desire for revenge, but he stops himself. And from that point on, I have no fucking clue what the point of the movie is. We introduce a weird antagonist for a story that feels VERY slapped on to the ending of the film, summoning ghost Moby Dick to fight Kyuuta in the real world. Its really dumb and REALLY hurts my enjoyment of the movie overall. The first three quarters of the film are enough to rank it this high, but stillWHY with that ending?

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9. The Boy and the Beast

Red: 2
Genny: 11
Charon: 11
Jona: 16
Karo: 17
Johnbobb: 18
Inviso: 19

Total: 94

Red: Hey look I ranked a movie with animal people in it highly I bet people are totally shocked again. In all seriousness, I enjoyed the double sided growth we see in animal land with master and student both learning from each other. It was both entertaining and functional. We eventually get horrible payoff in the hey isnt that other dude also a human realization that most of us probably make but somehow slips by all the rest of the rest of the characters. The action sequences at the end are good enough to keep attention, at least. Every character ends up having to come to terms with their place in the world, human or otherwise, and I think its rather satisfying.

Genny: This is only the second time I've watched The Boy and the Beast since it premiered in limited American theaters, and as someone who ranked Summer Wars, Wolf Children, and especially The Girl Who Leapt Through Time so highly on previous lists that should be pretty telling. While the general aesthetic is retained, it lacks the same punch as the aforementioned projects by the same studio and/or director. I can't quite pinpoint why I feel that way, but I think it has something to do with the pacing. It's not all bad though. Here's what I liked about the film: the action was great, the relationship between Kyuuta and Kumatetsu is a definite highpoint, and the humor is charming. I also love how Kyuuta came about his alternate name (for anyone who doesn't know, "kyuu" is nine in Japanese, so when Ren refuses to divulge his true name and Kumatetsu asks him how old he is instead, "Kyuuta" was born). I don't like how easily Kyuuta assimilates into the Beast Kingdom, winning the respect of everyone by beating up a few peers with mimicked techniques; nor how easily he assimilates back into human society after growing apart from it throughout his most formative years, and also the "Ren learns to read and write" segments are the most boring scenes in the film. I also don't like how predictable Ichirohiko's backstory truly is. While I understand it needed to happen for Ren to defeat Ichirohiko, I hate that Kumatetsu had to reincarnate so quickly after achieving his goal in the Beast World. Sure he gained the respect and praise that came with being acknowledged as the strongest by his peers, but he never even got the chance to rule as Beast Lord, even if that's not what he wanted the most.

Charon: A very classic example of "master and the student" style storytelling, I liked the world created for the animals. I perceived about halfway through who the villain really was going to be and even why, and even though I did predict it I still think the confrontation and battle between hero and villain here was excellent. I also feel this film was very well voiced, English wise, for what that's worth. It's hard not to judge films on how they sound since the convenience of watching a dub is appealing to me since my eyesight isn't that great to begin with. But yeah, this one hits all the right notes with me.

Jona: This movie would have ranked lower for me if the whole movie was like the first half. While the father-son relationship development between Kumatetsu and Kyuta was likable, it was nothing special. I found the second half of the movie to be really great though. Seeing an older Kyuta get back to the real world and seeing his father and befriending Kaede is really nice. I loved seeing the conflict in Kyuta having to juggle his life in two worlds. It was pretty obvious that Ichirohiko was a human from the beginning but Im just glad it wasnt glanced over. The climax is amazing looking and emotional. While its not as good as some of Mamoru Hosodas other works, its still a really good movie in its own right.

Karo: What It Is:
A young boy journeys to another dimension and goes to a furry convention.

What I Think:
Hosoda had a tough act to follow after his phenomenal 'Wolf Children', but he could certainly do better than this.
So what happens here is this human kid tries to learn kung fu from a beastman who is as childish as he is and somehow this actually works out because of idiotic shounen logic. Most characters are plain irritating, and there is far too much yelling in general. This assault on the senses continues unabated throughout the entire first half of the story. Toss in a generic teen romance that doesnt fit with the rest of the movie at all and a confusing final act that seems rejected from the kingdom hearts storyboards and I don't really know what to think about this film other than 12 year olds on deviantart can design better furries than these.
Hosada still remains a talented director and can still make you feel for characters even as bad as these are, but this is one story that should probably have been dustbinned.

Score: 68/100

Johnbobb: This is definitely one of the simpler films on the list, with a story that's very remiscent of a fairy tale, seemingly inspired by stories like Tarzan and The Jungle Book with a little bit of a spiritual twist. It's a very easy film to enjoy, with the characters being fun and memorable, the action well done, and a predictable but interesting plot. I love the imagery of the giant whale fight (though the Moby Dick references were a little oversimplified, and I have a little bit of issue with the ending. The reincarnation/god/lord situation was never properly explained, so when Kumatetsu reincarnates, the stakes are vague and the action comes across as a bit of a deus ex machina. I could see this being a very good introductory anime movie for someone who hasn't watched any before.

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KonoSuba

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Beastars

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 297
Jona: 264
Inviso: 252
Genny: 225
Karo: 222
Red: 203
Charon: 193

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10. Penguin Highway

Karo: 8
Inviso: 8
Jona: 9
Red: 12
Charon: 18
Genny: 21
Johnbobb: 24

Total: 100

Karo: What It Is:
A series of bizarre penguin-related incidents plague a small town, and a group of children join together to find out the truth.

What I Think:
There is a sense of childlike wonder infusing the whole movie, sort of like playing in the woods behind your house as a kid and pretending you discovered a portal to the penguin dimension or something.
They mystery of the penguin infestation is the driving force behind the film, and it always keeps things interesting. It is a little bit goofy and a whole lot of fun, and I expect great things to come from the studio behind this movie.

Score: 83/100

Inviso: This is a long movie, and it takes a while to hit its stridebut once that happens, it really gets going and becomes interesting. Basically, this movie feels, at its heart, like an eighties adventure movie. You have the brainy leader kid, his dorky best buddy, the tomboy girl who hangs around with them, stereotypical bullies, and then a weird mystery that they have to overcome. This small town is suddenly overrun by penguins, and the kids are trying to figure this out, realizing that the main characters adult crush has penguin summoning powers, and theres a weird, floating water orb that threatens to overtake the entire town. The movie just has a good pace when it comes to unveiling new information and slowly unwrapping the sci-fi mystery at the movies core. By the time you reach the final act, everything has gone crazy, but it feels like the movie has properly ramped up to reach that conclusion. Its just a really weird and fun movie and I enjoyed laughing along with it the whole way through.

Jona: Aoyama feels unique for a main character for an anime film. He has impressive intelligence and can be pretty cocky. Its interesting to see his approaches to solving the mysteries of the random penguins, the dentist lady and the giant floating sphere. The different mysteries and the interesting two main characters really helped in making this movie engaging. His relationship with the dentist lady is pretty cute despite the age difference. The ending is really strong and emotional. This movie is just full of charm.

Red: A girl saves the world by turning every object into a penguin-holding pokeball. Really, the movie tries to act like it was some mystery to be solved. Lets be clear here, despite the characters pretending any of that made a lick of sense was a complete lie. Yes, I get it, throw penguins pop sphere. But none of whatever they tried to pass off as a logical conclusion was a logical conclusion at all. The world had a hole in it, which I assume was an idea inspired by all our dumb flat earth conspiracies or something. It was kind of fun watching the kids go through their research, though ultimately the conclusion was not nearly as interesting as the journey.

Charon: I kept waiting for this movie to start making sense and I guess that was a mistake. I like the characters in general here; they're engaging and comical. Watching this extremely intelligent boy go from eloquently speaking in a precise manner to follow it up with "think about boobs if you need to calm down" is pretty funny. Despite the nature of the plot, it's still quite well told and does follow what I consider to be proper storytelling technique. There are some other films on this list which are bizarre in this same way and decide to just take it all the way off the deep end, whereas this one remains in the realm of sense while still being nonsense at the same time. Interesting.

Genny: I don't think Ermine would like Penguin Highway as much as gauntlet Discord seems to think he would. There are a bunch of hella cute penguins yes, but only one of them gets a name and actual characterization and that one dies so yeah not really screaming Ermine #1. I actually think he'd prefer Birthday Wonderland for Doropo who's a somewhat major character, or Welcome to the Space Show for Pochi, or maybe even Weathering With You because of the general vibe... but I'm digressing again. As far as the little kids crushing on each other and/or significantly older interdimensional ladies I am not here for any of that, but count me in for cute penguins, somewhat cute Jabberwocks, and hilariously stoic precocious brats. From the moment Aoyama started talking I thought I was going to hate him, but his self-awareness or lack thereof in some cases eventually won me over and I did a complete 180. I can't say I cared for any of the other cast members unfortunately, and the side characters here are all varying degrees of one-dimensional (and this is quite ironic given the nature of this film's "mystery") which holds this movie back. One stand-out character does not a movie make.

Johnbobb: Now, this isn't the fault of Penguin Highway specifically, but I've been getting pretty burnt out on coming-of-age movies. I can still appreciate a really great one, but Penguin Highway isn't quite that. Things like the protagonist talking about discovering his love of boobs feel like unnecessary padding onto a film that all-in-all has a pretty short plot. There's a lot of fluff, and a good bit of it is cute, but nothing incredible. Until the endoing, that is. The ending goes full bonkers in a great way that made up for most of the faults I had along the way.

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Madoka Magica

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Beastars

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Madoka Magica

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1. ???
2. ???
3. Lu Over the Wall
4. ???
5. Okko's Inn
6. ???
7. ???
8. ???
9. ???
10. ???
11. ???
12. Liz and the Blue Bird
13. Welcome to the Space Show
14. Mary and the Witch's Flower
15. Colorful
16. Mirai
17. ???
18. Vampire Hunter D
19. The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
20. Giovanni's Island
21. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
22. Napping Princess
23. Children of the Sea
24. Memories
25. The Castle of Cagliostro
26. The Fantastic Adventures of Unico
27. Angel's Egg
28. Miss Hokusai
29. In This Corner of the World
30. Phoenix 2772
31. Dead Leaves
32. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters
33. The Wonderland
34. Fireworks
35. Little Prince and the Eight Headed Dragon
36. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
37. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
38. Blood: the Last Vampire
39. Appleseed
40. Mind Game

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These are the movies remaining in the top 10!

When Marnie Was There
The Anthem of the Heart
The Boy and the Beast
A Silent Voice
Your Name
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
Penguin Highway
Promare
Ride Your Wave
Weathering With You

Top 10 will start monday but for now, thoughts? predictions?

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 283
Jona: 263
Inviso: 250
Karo: 220
Genny: 214
Red: 201
Charon: 185


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11. Okko's Inn

Karo: 5
Red: 9
Johnbobb: 14
Charon: 15
Inviso: 17
Genny: 20
Jona: 21

Total: 101

Karo: What It Is:
A little girl sees dead people, and much cuteness was had.

What I Think:
After a brush with death that claims the life of her parents, Okko is suddenly able to see some friendly ghosts and spirits who help her run the family inn. Through her new friends and purpose, she comes to terms with the tragedy and eventually has an emotional confrontation with the man responsible for the accident.
The movie's animation looks way better than you'd think just from seeing the still pictures, and is quite charming in style. You wouldnt think that a film could simultaneously be both so adorable and so heartwrenching as this one, but here we are.

Score: 87/100

Red: This movie absolutely started out full Disney, tragically and kind of graphically murdering parents to set up the plot. While being somewhat intriguing with her ghost helpers, what ended up working out best in the movie was the two future innkeepers coming to terms with their future in life. She comes to terms with her parents deaths and her and her rival develop a mutual respect. Not the most exciting or complex story, but I thought the growth for everyone involved worked out very well.

Johnbobb: This has to be the most precious movie we watched on this list, and there were a lot of cute ones. It's also the Disnified, complete with the child protagonist's parents dying suddenly in the beginning. Yeah, some of the themes it establishes can be said for half the list: young kid experiences a tragic event, enters an unfamiliar world, helps magical people with their own problems while learning to grow themselves before they can return to normal life. But even still, there's something that makes Okko's Inn feel unique. It's simultaneously mature and immature; it's just lighthearted enough without going overboard. Just a nice time.

Charon: A surprisingly good coming-of-age type story about the dealing with loss and grief. Outside of some of the gross habits of Uribo, all of the characters are pretty likable and add to the plot of the film. Even a character trope I'd typically dislike with Matsuki's character I found interesting since they inverted the trope that the new girl is bullied by the popular girl and her friends; in this case it's actually Okko that becomes popular and the strange "bully" sort of character is actually just an aloof, misunderstood genius. I was almost moved a few times in this film, by that I mean crying, but not quite there yet. It'll happen higher on the list for sure! I think a good indicator for these drama films for me, even if they have supernatural elements, is how good they are at getting me misty eyed.

Inviso: This movie made me tear up towards the end, and it felt earned, rather than forced tugging on heartstrings like some other films on this list. ButI dont knowit just wasnt QUITE fully realized, I think. Starting the movie off by killing off the main characters parents works for me, and it establishes this lingering sorrow that Okko is dealing with, even as she tries to maintain a childlike innocence. My problem is that the ghost children and the little inn demon almost feel shoehorned into the movie at that point, and they ultimately dont serve a real purpose. The story structure is simple enough, with three main guests coming to the inn, and each one helps Okko deal with her grief in a different way, but I just like the ghosts and even the introduction of a comically-bitchy rivaldont help to further the plot in a meaningful manner. Its still a solid movie, but its just not quite good ENOUGH to make my top tier.

Genny: I had a great laugh before this film even got started because Charon feared Okko's Inn would be a "slice of life" based on the name and YouTube thumbnail, and trust me the way Jason said that phrase was like he was spitting out poison. Well it's not a true slice of life because there are supernatural elements, namely a ghost, a demon, and a poltergeist, but other than that it fits the bill. Like most in this genre it's very calming, and there's no real antagonist. There was even a point or two when I got a little misty-eyed, which is about all I could ask of a film like this. I kind of hated Uribo's buck toothed design and nose picking habit, but he grew on me like pretty much everyone else by the end. It's a nice movie, but not one I'd likely ever revisit.

Jona: A cute and charming slice-of-life film about a girl whos helping to run an inn. Its nice to see the different relationships of Okko develop whether they be with ghosts, inn customers or an innkeeper from a different inn. The most interesting parts of the movie where Okko has PTSD and isnt over her parents deaths at the beginning of the movie. Everything works fine in this movie but it isnt particularly great.

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 280
Jona: 253
Inviso: 244
Karo: 214
Genny: 205
Red: 199
Charon: 181

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12. Lu Over the Wall

Karo: 3
Johnbobb: 12
Genny: 13
Red: 13
Jona: 14
Charon: 16
Inviso: 36

Total: 107

Karo: What It Is:
I want to be where the people are, I want to see, want to see them dancing.

What I Think:
A teenager befriends a strange little mermaid girl called Lu from the sea and as usual the adults are ignorant bigots who don't understand anything. Whenever Lu hears music she sprouts human legs and starts dancing, which is something way easier than selling your voice to an evil sea witch.
There is just so much joy in this film, and Yuasa's usual animation strangeness here seems cute and charming, rather than off-putting and unpleasant. Though it is still quirky, a certain grounding keeps the story from spiraling off completely into cloud cuckoo land like his films usually do and the movie is better for it.

Score: 90/100

Johnbobb: An enjoyable ride the whole way through. The whole "guy falls in love with a mythical girl and shows her the human world" trope wasn't as original as Yuasa's other movies, sure, but it never stopped the movie from being just a ton of fun. Brightly colored and powerfully animated, with all the characters managing to make me laugh at one point or another.

Genny: I found Lu Over the Wall to be equal parts bizarre and adorable. I think this movie is the perfect use of Masaaki Yuasa's distinctive aesthetic, and that's what made the movie such a joy to watch for me. You would think a movie called Colorful would have the brightest and most varied palette on this list, but you'd be quite wrong in that regard. I for one was never bothered by the implied romantic relationship between Kai and Lu because her race, the ningyo, seemingly age much slower than humans so I just assumed she was much older than she appeared. Her speech patterns didn't really throw me off either because ningyo have their own language and Lu was clearly still learning as the movie progressed. My only issue with this movie is that some segments did tend to go too overboard (pun intended) in their otherworldly shenanigans. It's a little jarring when a fantasy film grounds itself in a small degree of reality only to completely abandon that iota of believability for the sake of whacky entertaining shenanigans.

Red: This is a weird but fun one with a mermaid capable of dancing to music and basically enthralling everyone else around to also burst into dance and lose most senses of whats going on around them aside the happiness of dancing. Oh, and the merfolk turn people, dogs, who knows what animals or whatever else into more merfolk by biting them. Its strange. The film is lighthearted and never really stops feeling like fun even when things inevitably turn poorly for our town with a curse. Not the deepest of movies by any means, but a fun kind of weird.

Jona: Its so easy to write this off as a Ponyo rip-off but at the same time, I still like this more than Ponyo. The story beats are predictable but I feel this movie more than makes up for it in style. The art style is unique and colorful and the animation matches the films vibrance and energy. The music is also great whether it is being played by the band or not. The characters are likable and the movie can actually be pretty funny at times. If you dont mind an unoriginal story with predictability, the movie is just straight-up fun.

Charon: A cute, better Ponyo with more relatable characters for me is how I see this film. There are obvious parallels to be drawn there but ultimately I feel they are pretty different movies; they just happen to share a sort of unsettling romance between young characters. This was all very cute though, I must admit. I enjoyed all the characters and can't really say anything bad about this movie. I can't quite rank it any higher since it's a simple little tale with cuteness, but I think it being at this level speaks to the quality of the film. This is a good animation studio; I hope for their future success!

Inviso: This movie was REALLY fucking dumb. I hated the art style just when I saw the preview loaded up on Netflix, and then I watched it, and it was just as stupid as I expected. The whole movie ranged from over-the-top cartoony bullshitnamely in the form of Looney Tunes-style dance sequences and stupid song breaksto forced attempts at sentimentality that feel like a desperate effort to give the film some sense of meaning. But this all fails. The movie comes across not unlike how I felt about Ponyo. Its just childish for the sake of being childish. None of the characters are likable, and the vast majority of them come across as stupid. And the end result is a plot that feels cobbled together to include random J-pop bands and mystical curse water, failing miserably to make them work.

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Beastars

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I might be interested if it was video game music

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Madoka Magica

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 280
Jona: 251
Inviso: 220
Karo: 205
Genny: 204
Red: 198
Charon: 177

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Inviso: This one really frustrates me, because I feel like there was a strong, emotional throughline that SHOULD have elicited the proper response from meme, who cries at literally everything everand yet the movie failed in that regard. See, if you wanted to tell a story about motherhood, I think that works nicely. But the problem is that the movie was unable to tell the emotional story of motherhood without massive attempts at worldbuilding that ultimately fall flat. You establish this race of eternally-young characters, and the problem is that, after the initial attack, the movie keeps focusing on them. The princess storyline? Completely pointless. Krim? Completely pointless. Meanwhile, you introduce this Dita character for one scene, and then one OTHER scene, and it lacks ANY of the necessary emotional weight, because weve been given no investment in the character. Really, one of the major flaws is the constant timeskipping in this regard, and it just made this movie feel like it was too long and it couldve ended like FIVE times and just kept going. Its just nothing special.

Johnbobb: Ok, so this is a good movie. I can't deny that. Excellent animation, great voice acting, a well-built world, solid (if overused and distracting) music. But man, I just couldn't convince myself to care about it. I don't know what it was, but I was just not emotionally invested in this story at all. I didn't dislike it necessarily, but I was pretty bored throughout, and I can't place why that was. Gonna chalk this one up as my fault more than the film's itself.

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13. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

Red: 1
Charon: 3
Genny: 6
Jona: 18
Karo: 21
Inviso: 28
Johnbobb: 31

Total: 108

Red: So what makes this movie #1 for me? The fact that I could clearly recognize that it glosses over plotlines but the emotional notes hit by the characters touch all the right spots that my brain never really cared. We never learn much about the disease facing the dragon things, its just there. The rest of the Maquias race thatll live who knows how long, meh dont care. The leader of that race being held prisoner and her daughter not amounting to much of anything? Also little care. The movie effectively uses all of these potentially interesting worldbuilding elements to contain our main storie of Maquia, her family, and her having to come to terms with life, death, and life after everything you loved has died. We get a brief taste where this is going in a sad pet death moment that was already sad, and the movie all the way to the climax does not spare us the sadness of knowing Maquia is still relatively young while everyone else we knew has passed on. It was just an extremely effective way of using a unique world as the background for a story meant to tug at our emotions.

Charon: Oh hey it's another film where the ultimate theme is death near the top of my list, imagine that! This was one of the few films I watched more than once on the list so perhaps it has an unfair advantage, but I grew to like this one even more on my second watch. Watching Ariel grow under Maquia's care and having to see him live his entire life while Maquia will surely outlive him is definitely heart-wrenching. The way the humans treat the magical creatures of the world here seems to me to be a bit of a commentary on our reality and the way we view things that aren't humans like us. The world created here is very large, but the film does a good job of keeping you grounded to the main characters as they traverse through a large part of it. I could technically point out flaws in the film, but the narration and drive of it is so strong and emotional I have a hard time not liking it more than I feel I'm entitled to.

Genny: It would be too easy to praise Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms for its gorgeous visuals, stunning soundtrack, and heartbreaking moments alone, so I'm going to go a step beyond that and praise it for its deeper themes as well. To that end I'm going to discuss the parallels between the two Iorph girls whose lives were uprooted on one fateful day: the meek and subdued orphan Maquia, and the bold and beloved daughter Leilia. On the night of the sacking of the land dwelled in by the Clan of the Separated, Maquia is swept away by a Renato while Leilia is detained and held captive by the kingdom of Mezarte. The former is for the first time in her life truly free to make her own choices, and chooses to adopt an infant boy in a very macabre scene, while the latter is coerced into bearing a child for a man she did not love after being torn away from Krim- the Iorph boy whom she was infatuated with. Lelia is confined to the castle of a foreign kingdom and forcibly kept apart from her daughter whom she loved with all her heart despite knowing her so briefly; Maquia is bound only to the chains of freedom and all that entails, watching her son grow while moving from place to place to her heart's content to keep the nature of her Clan from being discovered. Maquia is essentially a child that plays at being a mother, while Leilia is a mother who can never see her child.

Though the movie focuses on Maquia and her relationship with her adopted son Ariel, her foil Leilia is the most interesting and most tragic character in the film by far. She has many chances to escape, but chooses never to do so, perhaps out of fear of what they would do to Medmel if she ever tried. It doesn't help that Izor, who was once the captain of Mezarte's military, takes it upon himself to become her personal attendant in a selfish effort to atone for his sins, something Leilia is reminded of every time she looks at him. Prince Hazel proves to be the most ignoble prince in existence and loses interest in both his daughter and his concubine when the former shows no traits of Iorph longevity, and though Medmel wants to see her mother just as desperately as Leilia wants to see her daughter, the castle's staff intentionally keeps them apart. Leilia's bitterness and isolation drive her into a state of temporary insanity that's agonizing to watch, while Maquia struggles with the trials of motherhood, but ultimately leads a fulfilling and charmed life.

The dynamic between Maquia and Ariel, who eventually begins to grow apart from his adoptive mother because of his inability to protect her as she did for him throughout his formative years, and between that of Leilia and Medmel, who were separated through their most crucial times, is another interesting parallel that I wish was further explored. Instead we get the second most heartbreaking scene in the film, whereupon they finally lay eyes on each other and Medmel has to question who Leilia even is. I can't even imagine what must have went through her mind in that moment, but Leilia decides she can't be a part of this life any longer and takes back some small bit of her freedom by telling Medmel to forget her while promising to leave this dark chapter of her long life out of her Hibiol. I don't think I need to tell anyone who watched this what the saddest moment was, but I cried my eyes out the first time yet not the second of the two times I've seen it.

If I had to name one shortcoming in this film it's that I don't get the character of Barlow, the half Iorph drifter. Is he there just to show that Medmel lost the genetic lottery? Any character that already existed could have provided the exposition he divulges here and there throughout the movie's duration so I don't understand his inclusion. Despite that, it's a wonderful film with powerful themes and symbolism that explores something rarely seen in fiction: a mystical world on the brink of losing what makes it so magical. I'd put it in the same tier as some of my favorite Ghibli films, but this is not one I'd want to rewatch any time soon. It's just too bittersweet for my poor heart to take.

Jona: The production values on this movie are top-notch. While the fantasy world here is a bit generic, the art is fantastic, and the world feels believable. The story and characters just end up being just fine though. Seeing the relationship between Maquia and Ariel is interesting but the time skips in the movie dont give the proper time to get attached to their characters. Because of that, the emotional moments are quite the mixed bag. Those scenes are done quite well though and have great music thanks to Kenji Kawai. This really could have been a fantastic film but it feels like its missing things that could make it go from good to great. I do feel like this would have been great as a television series.

Karo: What It Is:
An ageless elf loli from a mystic village raises an orphaned boy and names him after a disney princess.

What I Think:
This movie wants you to have the feels but it didn't do anything for me, while the characters and world have a very generic fantasy kind of feel that is a bit lacking.
It is competent enough, but it can't really reach the level it needs to to compete with the best of the exemplary animated movies coming out of japan in recent years.

Score: 64/100

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