Board 8 > Gauntlet Crew Ranks Anime Movies II

(+) Yeah! (+)

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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Outlier:

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

johnbobb plz stahp

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PrinceKaro posted...

Johnbobb: Anthem of the Heart ... gets ... one of the biggest wasted oppurtunities. ... 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.

https://youtu.be/2sRS1dwCotw

Alternatively, just replace "Sponge" with "John" here:

https://youtu.be/JsvnQc12S9Y

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Hey, I wanted to like Anthem of the Heart!

I even said, out loud to my girlfriend, like 20 minutes in or so "You know, I think this might end up being one of my favorites from the list. It's REALLY good so far."

Then it just progressively downhill for the rest of the movie. Ended up getting some eyerolls and I ultimately felt let down by the end

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That Marnie.....she make-a me cry.

Top 5 or 6 Ghibli film.

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50% chance of me tanking your favorites.

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^I feel nauseous...

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Please stick the landing, please stick the landing
Don't face plant, don't face plant, PLEASE DON'T FACE PLANT
No Whammy STOP!!

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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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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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Outlier:

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

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Holy crap

My top 3 are THE top 3

This has never happened to me before. The power I feel is... it's incredible!

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Finally
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Damn. That was the one of my top two I thought might actually win.

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How does one have seven paragraphs worth of thoughts for a movie one doesn't even have to watch for a college film class?

I'm gonna have to read that later.

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GenesisSaga posted...

How does one have seven paragraphs worth of thoughts for a movie one doesn't even have to watch for a college film class?

I'm gonna have to read that later.

Admittedly, one of my big problems when reviewing stuff is how long I spend just recapping the plot. In the case of WWY, I felt like the plot flowed so perfectly from act 1 to act 2 to act 3 that it required a summary to explain why I found it so good.

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Also, I'm bored, so here's the prelim rankings I did of what I've already seen.

1. Your Name
2. Penguin Highway
3. Night Is Short

4. Mirai
5. Boy and Beast
6. Mind Game
7. Maquia

8. Silent Voice
9. Lu

10. Marnie

11. Weathering With You

EDIT: This is before I started doing writeups, so I added spacing on the blocks where I'm confident there's gaps in how much I would rank
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I must say I don't get the Penguin Highway love. Aoyama was great, but he was also the only truly interesting character and he couldn't carry the entire movie on his tiny little shoulders. The plot, while it was unique, was not all that deep or fascinating in the grand scheme of things. As much as I love Adlie penguins, just throwing a bunch in for the cute factor can only elevate an average film so much.

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Seeing Prof's rankings makes me really glad he didn't participate. >_>

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Inviso posted...

Seeing Prof's rankings makes me really glad he didn't participate. >_>

Fuck you too :p
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Not sure I get the WWY hate

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It tries to hit a lot of the same beats as Your Name, while doing it noticeably worse imo
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A Silent Voice by far my favorite movie on this list or the last one.
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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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Outlier:

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

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I mean, I know it still made my top five, but godDAMN am I glad to see my number 1 made the final 2. Now time for the tradition of getting second place, as seems to happen quite often in these projects, when I'm not eliminated early.

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I have not seen Promare, but I will make my token "fuck Studio Trigger" post regardless.
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I'm rooting for A Silent Voice to squeak out the V, but I'm ecstatic either way. Either my favorite anime film of the last decade takes this or an underrated emotional power piece does.

I'll say it again as I said in Discord:

2016 was a great year for anime films. And also for In This Corner of the World.

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Oh cool, excellent top 2

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GenesisSaga posted...

Either my favorite anime film of the last decade takes this or an underrated emotional power piece does.

In what world are either of these films underrated. They were both nominated for all the awards either was AFAIK, and they're the top 2 anime movies on every ranking collection I've seen.
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profDEADPOOL posted...

In what world are either of these films underrated. They were both nominated for all the awards either was AFAIK, and they're the top 2 anime movies on every ranking collection I've seen.

I mean Your Name was a global phenomenon; a traditionally animated film has not enjoyed that type of success, especially from overseas, for a very long time. It nearly reached Spirited Away box office levels and is a top 10 grosser for the history of 2D animation atm. A Silent Voice might be as critically hailed, but it never achieved the popularity of Your Name.
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Sheep007 posted...

Oh man if I Want to Eat Your Pancreas finishes above Penguin Highway and only one spot below A Silent Voice I will riot.

Half riot?

GenesisSaga posted...

Genny's Predix- Get 'em while they're HAWT!

10. Ride Your Wave
9. Weathering with You
8. When Marnie was There
7. The Boy and the Beast
6. Anthem of the Heart
5. Penguin Highway
4. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
3. A Silent Voice
2. Promare
1. Your Name

Based off nothing in particular.

Got off to a cold start, but the finish is looking pretty HAWT right now!

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v_charon posted...

profDEADPOOL posted...

In what world are either of these films underrated. They were both nominated for all the awards either was AFAIK, and they're the top 2 anime movies on every ranking collection I've seen.

I mean Your Name was a global phenomenon; a traditionally animated film has not enjoyed that type of success, especially from overseas, for a very long time. It nearly reached Spirited Away box office levels and is a top 10 grosser for the history of 2D animation atm. A Silent Voice might be as critically hailed, but it never achieved the popularity of Your Name.

Fair, I was thinking more among the anime fandom, where they def go blow for blow, but when you leave that space, I suppose I've heard more about Your Name.
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GenesisSaga posted...

Half riot?

Maybe a peaceful localisted protest.

Good top 2! I'd personally have some other things higher but I guess that's what I'd expect considering they have more niche appeal. A Silent Voice would be my personal #1, and I couldn't complain if it came second because Your Name is a worthy winner too.

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Yeah, within the anime community they are pretty close. A Silent Voice actually managed to win the public vote over Your Name in the /r/anime Anime of the Year contest when they came out, though I don't think it was by much.
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2. Your Name

Karo: 1
Genny: 1
Charon: 1
Jona: 2
Inviso: 6
Johnbobb: 6
Red: 18

Total: 35

Karo: What It Is:
The only anime movie in the top 10 japanese box office not made by studio ghibli.

What I Think:
This film can be called nothing less that Makoto Shinkai's magnum opus. It is equal parts cute, funny and gripping as these two young people who mysteriously trade each others lives occasionally begin to fall in love with each other despite never meeting.
Shinkai takes a fairly standard body-switching tale and turns it into something wonderful, with a twist later on that adds a new dimension to the relationship and a race against time to save one of their lives.
If you only watch one anime movie from the last five years, it should be this one.

Score: 95/100

Genny: There was a long while I was considering awarding the honor of my top spot to A Silent Voice instead of this, because I thought it was a more ambitious and emotional movie that tackled tougher themes. While some of that may still hold true, it took watching Your Name once again right before submitting my list to realize it was just as ambitious and emotional, albeit in different ways. There are a few jarring cuts near the beginning where the film tries to be overly cinematic by introducing characters with accompanying pop songs and that strikes me as odd because the movie does a good enough job developing Taki and Mitsuha without the musical montages, but that's merely nitpicking because aside from that I can't list a single flaw this film has. To me Your Name reaches the same heights as the best Disney Renaissance masterpiece and doesn't rely on blind nostalgia to boost it there- it's just that good! The entire cast of characters, both supporting and main, are memorable, relatable, most are lovable, and not a single one isn't used to their full potential. The movie has no need to rely on such crutches as a token comic relief character because any single one of its cast can inspire laughter through their interactions with others.

The songs are also a highlight, and though the aforementioned montage jump cuts are unnecessary in my opinion they were still bops and I can't fault the movie for trying to include them. The one that leads into the end credit sequence is by far my favorite, but even the scores on the soundtrack that don't contain lyrics set the mood to each scene exquisitely. The humor, the voice acting, the action, and character development are all so well executed I cannot find a fault to discuss. Even the plot manages to touch on time travel in a way that doesn't feel convoluted or obtrusive, and I don't know how the director managed to pull that off. I ran the gamut of emotions while watching Your Name: joy, sorrow, fear, disgust, rage, shock, embarrassment, you name it I probably felt it at one point, and I can't recall the last time any movie made me feel so much. I cannot gush enough about this movie so if you haven't seen it already I'm not sure what you're still doing here because you need to hop up off your ass and watch it right now!

Charon: Part Romance, Part Fantasy, Part Comedy, Party Drama; easily one of the top animated films of all time with the sum of its many parts, Your Name is a crowning achievement of 2D animation in the 21st century. As the film with the most accolades on the list it isn't surprising that it remained my #1 film from the beginning of the project all the way until the end when we rewatched it. I view this film as one of the cornerstones of modern animation, rivaling anything Disney, Pixar or any other company has been coming up with since the turn of the century. The story is timeless and balances out interesting dramatic moments with hilarious bits of comedy buried within; something many films of the current generation really struggle with. In fact, I would say that no film on this list possesses both eloquent storytelling combined with actual funny moments. There's really no end to the good things I could say about this film.

Jona: I was definitely surprised by how big Your Name has gotten in popularity, considering Makoto Shinkais other works are nowhere near as popular. Having seen his other works before made this an even better film for me. Shinkai throws all his tropes and elements into a blender here and its fun recognizing them. With this being my first time watching it, I was invested in the ending and wondering if it was going to end like 5 Centimeters per Second. It even uses similar shots. I think what separates Your Name from Shinkais other works is that it starts out lighthearted with the body swap shenanigans. His other movies feel more dramatic from start to finish and it can be hard for people to immediately empathize with the characters. The movie is constantly engaging whether it be the comedy in the beginning or the twists that make things more dramatic. While this isnt my favorite Shinkai film (I still prefer the simplicity, tightness and themes of The Garden of Words), this is his magnum opus.

Inviso: I heard a ton of good things about this movie back when it came out, but I just never got around to looking into it back when it was fresh in peoples minds. Having now watched it, Your Name deserves all of its praise, even if I ultimately didnt give it the top spot on the list. Im just gonna get the ONE negative I have out of the way right now: I dont like the ending. The last fifteen minutes of the movie feel like the writers were just dragging their feet. I know sometimes people dont like when I make comments about how I wouldve done things better, butwellI would have done things differently in a way I think wouldve made the ending better. Leave everything EXACTLY as is, right up to the point where Mitsuha confronts her dad. Youve got some ambiguity there. Then do maybe five minutes of Takis future, wandering aimlessly through life, as though something is missing. Then you get the ending scene where they meet on the stairs. Done.

With that out of the way, the rest of the movie is amazing. The whole concept of the first third is great, with a high school boy and high school girl from completely different lifestyles switching bodies at random, and having to deal with the fallout from their strange shifts in personality. This sets the stage for a fun movie. About twenty minutes later though, the movie takes a turn. Mitsuha stops communicating with Taki, and they stop body-switching entirely. Somewhat worried, Taki decides to go looking for Mitsuhaonly to discover that she is one of about five hundred victims of a meteor strike that destroyed her town, three years prior. Thats rightthe body switch was not only intergender, but across time as well. And suddenly, Taki has a sense of urgency, because he cannot allow Mitsuha to die the way shed destined to die.

Through sheer force of will and determination, Taki manages to reestablish his connection with Mitsuha, and suddenly the race is on. Its pretty awesome, and like, its a time travel conundrum. Is it possible to change past events that you KNOW have to occur? As I mentioned in the first paragraph, the ending of this segment is ambiguous. Did Mitsuha save her town or not? Its a great way to end the storyline. I just wish the ending was a little bit more solid than it ended up being.

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Johnbobb: I probably would've gotten into anime a lot earlier had I known magical realism was such a recurring theme in anime films. I love it! It's just magical enough without being a full on fantasy world. The main couple are both likeable, the visuals are goddamn gorgeous (which would be later repeated in Weathering With You) and I never fully knew what direction the plot was going to take. A little bit silly and a little bit sappy but just a real goddamn excellent movie overal (chill out with the focuses on the high schooler's boobs though, geez).

Red: Ok first of all, people started calling this the obvious winner in chat and I was thoroughly confused because this was definitely not nearly my favorite film on the list, and actually jumped a few spots as I soured on a few films over time. I dont know if its going to win, maybe it does. I knew at the time I had it pretty low and it was taking a lot of my willpower to not just blurt out that it almost certainly wasnt going to contend to make even my top 10. Perhaps it was the more generic characters surrounding both main characters, but something just never clicked with the world to me, I didnt find that I necessarily cared about either. In the back of my mind, it was also being held over that someone would never not know of a town that was literally destroyed in a freak accident by a piece of a literal comet. Other part, I think at a certain point I was more interested in how they were going to impact each others lives, and the swap to dealing with the crisis somehow felt less interesting than the both of them dealing with the swap in their lives established prior.

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1. A Silent Voice

Inviso: 1
Karo: 2
Genny: 2
Red: 3
Charon: 4
Johnbobb: 5
Jona: 10

Total: 27

Inviso: I had a really tough time trying to decide just how high to rank this, because its amazing and could genuinely have taken the top spot on the list (and keep in mind, I still have NINETEEN more films to watch as of this write-up). Ultimately, the ONE thing that holds it back is that its just a LITTLE too cruel. Like, I get that thats the point, but there was just a LITTLE too much discomfort at times for me. Not enough that I wouldnt watch it again, or recommend it to my friendsbut enough to potentially rob it of the top spot.

Really though, almost everything else about this movie is great. I appreciate the fact that you establish your two main characters are the CLEAR shithead in need of redemption, and the designated woobie of the filmbut theyre more than that. Shoya certainly needs redemption, but its almost interesting to see him go from king bully to relentlessly picked on, to the point where he contemplates suicide. He tries a BIT too hard for redemption, but its also interesting to note that he struggles with this. He wants to make amends, but it only winds up blowing up in his face, testing his resolve. Thats interesting to me.

MEANWHILE though, Shoko is a fascinating character. On the surface, its HORRIBLE watching just how shabbily shes treated at the start of the movie, and that feeling only becomes worse when Naoka enters the picture and is incapable of behaving like a decent human being. And it would be so easy to just have her be this punching bag so the audience feels bad and slowly appreciates Shoya more for trying to help herbut then you realize that youre falling into the same trap as the majority of the other characters in the movie.

Shoko is deaf, and from minute one, we see that her deafness makes things difficult for those around her. And she KNOWS this. Shes so quiet and polite and kind and forgiving because she knows how difficult it is to adapt to HER. We see this in the school scene, we see this in scenes with her family, and we see this in JUST how hard Shoya tries to help and befriend her. None of this is her fault. She cannot help her disability. But as the film goes along, you realize that shes AWARE of how much trouble she causes just by existing. It doesnt help that Naoka is a fucking BITCH, but ultimately, everything leads to Shoko attempting suicide, because she thinks everyone will be happier if shes not around to make them miserable.

Shoya going the extra mile to save Shokos life is a great scene (he even politely takes his shoes off an everything), but it just sets the ball rolling for both of them, and their friends. It reveals that everyone has shit they deal with, and EVERYONE feels guilty about the things theyve done, and how their actions negatively impact others. That realization, and the affirmation that theyre all gonna work together to be betterits just, its a nice ending. And I appreciate that the ending comes without NEEDING to settle the lingering romantic leanings between Shoko and Shoya. This all just worked extremely well for me, and even as I write this, Im debating its placement once again. And my final solution, having finished the whole list, is that Im giving the nod to A Silent Voice. It just REALLY stuck with me long after I watched it, and Id definitely recommend it to anyone who asks.

Karo: What It Is:
A former bully tries to make amends to the deaf girl he tormented in grade school.

What I Think:
The characters are the heart of this movie, each has their flaws and quirks that make them feel real, and avoids all the overused tropes that are often seen in anime about schoolchildren.
It is a film as beautiful visually as it is emotionally, and it ranks as one of the best anime films ever made.

Score: 92/100

Genny: A Silent Voice is such a treat to watch, one I've indulged in three times now. There are so many subtle nuances I missed the first time around that every subsequent viewing feels like a new learning experience. The hand signals used throughout this beautifully animated film are factual JSL (Japanese Sign Language) gestures which differ greatly from those used in ASL. All the little details in Shoya's and Shoko's communication with each other and with other characters, while not critical to the understanding of the film as a whole, add so much more to the atmosphere that it's phenomenal. For example during the funeral scene shortly after Grandma Nishimiya passes away, a butterfly lands on Shoko and floats off. She gazes at her sister Yuzuru, hooks her pinky finger and bounces her hand twice, the JSL gesture for "grandmother", indicating that Ito Nishimiya 's soul has reincarnated and come to visit them one last time, and it's a poignant moment that's so esoteric it makes me want to watch through this entire series: https://youtu.be/PSqxz-OmT-E, just so I can watch A Silent Voice a fourth time and understand every word of the entire second language that is said without speaking.

On the subject of characters Shoya's transformation from a bullying brat of a child to a depressed, remorseful young adult is somehow endearing despite the fact that neither characterization is one I'm overly fond of. Shoko and Yuzuru are also quite sympathetic, and over the course of the film and found myself rooting for their happiness and success respectively. The supporting cast is stellar with the exception of one character, but I'll get to her in a moment. Shoya's mother is one of my favorite moms in anime: she's funny, hardworking, supportive, and doesn't take any of her son's crap regardless of his age, and Nagatsuki is the best friend I'd be happy to have: one that never gives up on you even despite your best efforts to isolate yourself. He's the fun extrovert every introvert needs to be brought out of their own shell. Those are the standouts and also the supporting cast members featured the most in the film, and the rest are all varying degrees of tolerable, aside from Naoka Ueno. I just flat out don't understand her characterization. On the one hand she wants things to go back to how they were in her childhood despite her and Shoya being objectively bad people back then, but on the other she wants to forget the actions that drove them apart in the first place in a delusional effort to become friends again. She can't have it both ways, and her misdirected rage at Shoko is the most confusing of all. I understand why she feels like Shoko came between her and Shoya, but is she really so ignorant as to assume the status quo would be restored if Shoko were out of the picture? Obviously Shoya befriended Shoko in an effort to better himself so of course he'd want nothing to do with his own checkered past which included Ueno; I just can't comprehend why the film treats Naoka as nearly as sympathetic as the main duo and shows her image alongside much more likable characters in the outro montage, and I think this sentiment is what holds the film back slightly for me.

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Red: Holy hell these kids are needlessly cruel. If there was a movie that pulled at your heart and made you want to go and strangle almost every single character, this is it. This is childhood cruelty unashamedly turned up to max. Once the childhood awfulness is passed by, we go on a journey of reformation rudely interrupted with near suicide caused by the characters failing to properly converse their feelings to each repeatedly in the most frustrating fahsion. Not perfect, but every character coming to terms with each other by the end was pretty great as well as the world opening back up for our main former jerk. Not only did this movie begin with and at multiple other times also attempt to crush my soul, everyone (somewhat) enjoying themselves at an amusement park when me, a person that loves theme parks and such, is stuck at home felt like a further knife to the gut. No impact on my ranking, just a reminder the world sucks while watching a movie about how horrible kids can be.

Charon: A cute love story between a bully and his former victim, with slices of intense and serious drama interwoven. I have to say the subject matter this film deals with is of the upmost seriousness and it handles it with a cast far, far, FAR more likable than a film that deals with a similar concept that's also on this list. I'll be floored if this isn't the preferred of the films, by the way. Though there are some characters I didn't care for much at all, this film was so well directed and written that it was able to capture my heart despite having some detestable participants to the story, which is somewhat rare for me since my enjoyment of a film largely hinges upon the cast. The main characters are so good though. I feel I could watch this again and again.

Johnbobb: FUCK YOU KARO. WHAT THE FUCK. WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU MAKE US WATCH THIS. GODDAMNIT.

Jona: The beginning does a great job at making you feel bad for Shoko and then Shouya. Shouyas quest for friendships, both old and new is quite the emotional journey. It feels hard for me to describe my liking of this movie other than that it succeeds at making me invested and emotional. I do have some complaints though. Shoko never really feels defined as a character if you separate her from her deafness. The movie ends at an awkward place but its understandable since the manga continues from there. Gotta wait until A Silent Voice 2: Silence Harder.

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Final Outlier:

Johnbobb: 390
Jona: 310
Inviso: 283
Genny: 268
Red: 253
Karo: 248
Charon: 215

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Wonderful. Even though I prefer Your Name I think this was the best possible ending.

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This is the second animated ranking project in a row where my #1 was tanked by one extreme outlier. The two films have the same score if you remove the top and bottom outlier I suppose, and it isn't as if I didn't like A Silent Voice but yeah. Kinda a bummer when you see someone else complain their #1s never win, then they do win and you lose once again. I'd be lying if I didn't say that behavior was a little bit annoying.
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Goddammit Red.

The biggest fault I have with A Silent Voice is that they didn't cut quite enough from the manga. They should have cut the pretty boy entirely when they cut (manga spoilers) the film creation subplot. Cuts were necessary due to how long the manga was, but they didn't go far enough for it to be near the top of my list.
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^Your Name was indeed robbed, but by the best burglar ever so I can't even be mad. Thank you for hosting this project Karo.

I'll read the write-ups later. For now please look forward to my top 3 characters list.

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profDEADPOOL posted...

The biggest fault I have with A Silent Voice is that they didn't cut quite enough from the manga. They should have cut the pretty boy entirely when they cut (manga spoilers) the film creation subplot. Cuts were necessary due to how long the manga was, but they didn't go far enough for it to be near the top of my list.

They definitely made some bad choices regarding which stuff to cut from the manga. I don't get why they would cut that subplot and still spend so much time on the side characters who now have no reason to be around. Would have been a much better movie if they'd cut most of that and kept more of the stuff with Shoko's family.
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I just noticed I've only watched Weathering With You from this list.

It was a very pretty movie with decent story and characters, but there are stretches that just made me feel sleepy

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For what it's worth, I do concur that Shoya is the best overall character from this project.
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So...Your Name. On the one hand I do rather like it, but for me personally it doesn't really enter into the upper echelon of anime films. What it boils down to is that I just don't like the final third or so of the movie. The movie starts off as this quirky romantic comedy with a weird body-swapping gimmick that is actually handled unbelievably well. It does a really good job introducing/developing the characters and expanding on their relationship even though they never actually meet and it's just great to watch. However then it turns really quickly into this desperate and dramatic fantasy, and it just doesn't really feel connected at all to me? It gives me some sort of tonal whiplash, it doesn't really play off of the strengths that were on display in the first half of the movie, and I didn't think it was particularly engaging in its own right either.

I don't necessarily know what I would do instead, but at a minimum I'm pretty sure I would have liked the movie much more if the second half were even just a standard boy-meets-girl romance. There's probably also a way to make the fantasy stuff work for me if you want to go that route, but off-hand I don't know what it is.

Anyways on another note, here's my order of the films I've seen in this project. Dashes indicate large gaps between the movies above and below them.

1. A Silent Voice
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2. In This Corner of the World
3. Your Name
4. The Night is Short, Walk on Girl
5. Ride Your Wave
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6. Maquia
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7. Colorful
8. The Boy and the Beast

I will say there's several from the first list that would have finished below Boy and the Beast. So while I wouldn't say I was a fan of it, there's definitely room to be worse.
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pyresword posted...

However then it turns really quickly into this desperate and dramatic fantasy, and it just doesn't really feel connected at all to me? It gives me some sort of tonal whiplash, it doesn't really play off of the strengths that were on display in the first half of the movie, and I didn't think it was particularly engaging in its own right either.

This is where it lost me. It pretty much drops everything it had been setting up at that point for newly created life-saving drama out of nowhere(How the fuck do you not know about a town destroyed by a fucking comet).

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Happy Pride Month! Look, I know we just barely missed the cut on that, but consider this an honorary pride month announcement.

For those not yet aware, the next film ranking will be LGBT films, hosted by me, in my first ranking as host! This will be a little different than most of the list rankings, as instead of this being a specific genre (horror, romcom, scifi), this list will be a bit of a wider subgenre focus, with any genre of movie applicable,with the determining factor being a film's focus on LGBT characters and culture. We've got dramas, romcoms, thrillers, biopics, documentaries, and more; a little something for everyone to love or hate.

The list is looking to be due October 10, 2020. This will be 3 month and 1 week from today, which will hopefully provide a nice time frame for viewing.

Without further ado, the list!

Glen or Glenda
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Midnight Cowboy
The Boys in the Band
Sunday Bloody Sunday
My Beautiful Laundrette
Paris is Burning
The Crying Game
Philadelphia
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Heavenly Creatures
The Birdcage
Bound
Chasing Amy
Ma Vie en Rose
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Boys Don't Cry
But I'm a Cheerleader
Mulholland Dr.
The Hours
Monster
Brokeback Mountain
Another Gay Movie
Milk
Patrik, Age 1.5
A Single Man
I Love You Phillip Morris
Bruno
Black Swan
Tomboy
Pariah
Blue is the Warmest Colour
Dallas Buyers Club
The Imitation Game
Tangerine
Moonlight
Thelma
Call Me By Your Name
Boy Erased
The Half of It

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