Anime ATM 108 My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Fun fact, the manga this anime was based on was my introduction into the subgenre of shoujo/josei isekai. This was either the first or one of the first plots I discovered with this sort of concept and I fell in love. That's why when I heard it was going to be adapted into an anime I was super excited. In fact, when I saw that it was airing during finals week, I was super tempted to watch it and forget all about my obligations, but I refrained. Instead I watched lots of clips on Youtube that people were posting. Honestly, that was both a good and bad decision. Good because I didn't just binge watch all of the episodes that were currently out and sacrifice my grades. Bad because lots of those clips just featured the highlights of the episodes and since I've already read the manga which covers everything in the anime so far, nothing was super novel. It was really nice to see all of the characters brought to life.

Overall, it was a pretty good adaptation. It's definitely got that otome game, shoujo sparkle flair to it. And if you turn your brain off of all the cringy parts or the fact that some of the lines in the show are just so that everyone gets a line in a scene or just so that nothing is ambiguous, it's a really nice show. But some parts are a little bit too self-explanatory or it's just to give a certain character more screen time. Also, since they're otome game characters, their backstories pretty much follow the cookie cutter otome game character's background story and character so there's no real surprises. What I'm saying is that it was a really nice and cutesy show, but there was no real spice. And as I was watching, i realized that you know what? It's okay to not be super over the top and have all these crazy subplots going on. Especially since the whole concept itself of an otaku girl being reincarnated into a game as the villainess instead of the heroine is pretty unexpected. That paired with the fact that Katarina is seriously Disney princess material; she's super kind, hardworking, pretty, ditsy to a fault, loyal, courageous and almost any other naturally attractive quality, makes it enjoyable to watch in and of itself.

Also, I should mention I watched 9 episodes in one day and then finished it off in the next day. It was that addictive. Honestly speaking I think the first episode was the best, but I think it was the best just because I had been anticipating watching it for so long. It's like when you're super hungry so your food tastes extra good, not necessarily because the food itself is out of this world. This isn't to take away anything at all from the anime. The concept of it is amazing. It's great sometimes to take a step away from this world and escape for a little while; especially with the state of the world today. It was nice to take a break from job searching. It's getting kind of exhausting trying to sell myself.

Second favorite episode might be episode 6 which was all about summer break. LOL even though I complain so much about things not having a plot, somehow I really liked that episode. But they're all good in their own way of course. Just some wholesome show with an accidental reverse harem :')

Anime ATM 103 Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll

It's Day ? of shelter-in-place and honestly I've been pretty busy with remote classes and other things to do around the house. No matter how much I clean, there's always more. And I've been baking a lot too which has been rewarding in its own way. I know for some people they're getting pretty antsy at home, but I think that this is fine. When I was brushing my teeth this morning I even thought that I could live on a space ship. Obviously that was just a fleeting thought and tremendously fantastical and mildly unrealistic due to my motion sickness, but it's kind of an amusing thought. Also, since I'm in two science fiction English Lit courses this quarter, I've had some time to think about the world that Violet Evergarden lives in a little bit more.

As we all know, I couldn't stop gushing about the first season. It was so beautiful and heart-wrenching and a roller coaster all around. The movie didn't disappoint; visually it was absolutely stunning. KyoAni did an amazing job with all of the transitions and dreamy time lapses, but you don't need me to tell you that, you already know it was breath-taking.

In terms of plot, it tells the story of Violet working as a Doll, but in this strange new capacity. She's been assigned to be the tutor of Isabella York, the daughter of one of the aristocracy for the 3 months before her debut. Originally Isabella is stand-offish and seems to not fit in with the other girls that go to her all-girls private academy. Don't worry, there's no cat-fighting or anything shallow like that going on. In fact all of the girls are really wholesome and lift one another up which we love. Violet ends up as her companion and confidante during these 3 months and they become close friends. It's left pretty open-ended, so you could argue that they were more like lovers than friends, but really I'll leave that up to your interpretation. Truly in my heart of hearts I'm hoping that Gilbert somehow miraculously returns and that Violet and Gilbert can live happily ever after, but I'm not sure if that'll ever happen. :(

At the end of the 3 months Isabella has become a "proper lady" for her debut. But, before Violet leaves, Isabella reveals her past as a commoner before, living with Taylor, a little girl she adopted as her own sister, who we've been getting glimpses of all along. And then we see precious baby Taylor getting the letter from Benedict.

Three years later we meet a little more grown up Taylor who's come to Violet's workplace to become a mail deliverer and deliver happiness to the public. It's very wholesome and a real bittersweet happily ever after in the way of Taylor and Isabella's "reunion" of sorts.

Oh, and Benedict appears a lot during the movie. I know I was talking to my friend E about the show and she really liked him haha.

The movie as a whole evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia for simpler times. I mean they write and deliver letters and the world seems to move a bit more slowly than nowadays. I know that this is just a romanticization and I should be glad for how much the world has advanced, but it seems really beautiful, the way that they live in the movie. The whole world is rebuilding and there's an air of revival with the war over and everyone building and progressing as Benedict notices during his mail route. And you can see obvious signs of progress with elevators, wide-spread electricity, the radio tower (that looks a lot like the Eiffel Tower?) and more cars, but it also seems rather different and exciting.

Overall, I think the movie is really beautiful. It's touching and there's an intimately human quality about it. All of the characters seems so comfy and familiar, especially if you watched the show. But, even if you haven't, I think that you can empathize a lot with each of the characters and appreciate the storytelling that makes it seem like you're walking in step with Taylor on her mail route or you're right there crying with Benedict as he delivers Taylor's letter. The movie lets you into an intimately human realm that you can empathize a lot with in a world that's somewhat familiar to ours that helps you to immerse yourself in the world KyoAni has brought to life.

Anime ATM 97 ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka

Okay so funny story, last year around this time S and I hung out and we started watching this anime together. We got to episode 3, but I had to leave so we promised to hang out another time to finish it. A year passes and we always say that we'll finish it sometime. Finally, in a whole other country over, we finish the anime. The only problem is that for episodes 4 and 5 we were pretty confused because we (mostly me with my goldfish brain) had forgotten everything that had occurred up until that point. 

It was refreshing to watch an anime with someone else instead of in my room at 3 am alone. There's a certain charm to be said about being able to predict plot twists and try to unpack the mystery with what clues we were given in discussions as we watched through the show. There were definitely a lot of moments where we were probably really annoying to S's roommate, but truly this is an underrated show. 

I'm also really grateful to S for introducing me to this show. I definitely wouldn't have picked it out for myself because I wasn't a huge fan of the art or the little summary blurb that we found on MAL. And I'm not particularly keen about political shows either. But this show was surprising. It kept me guessing and wanting to watch more even as I was fighting sleep after a long day of sightseeing in Vancouver. 

{Spoilers}

Alrighty, so this anime is definitely like a proverbial ball of tangled string that you have to unpack. There's a lot that's revealed later on that really takes your mind for a loop.

But basically the story takes place in a country that's made up of 13 states and each one has a different attribute. Like one of them looks like Hawaii, another one looks like Arizona, and yet another one is definitely modeled after Las Vegas. And it's pretty neat to travel to each of these regions individually. The world-building in this one is definitely underplayed by the plot, but it was a very nice detail that made it seem like a more authentic world even?

The actual plot follows the central governing place of this country which is the kingdom of Dowa. The whole place is ruled by a monarchy, but the current king is getting real old so the problem is do we let this 20-something kinda dumb kid rule? This is where our main man Jean Otus (yeah all of their names are pretty much weird) comes in. At first you're kind of confused like how does this guy tie into the whole plot? He's a pretty flippant dude who has a penchant for cigarettes which are a rare item in the story. He works as an inspector/auditor for ACCA which is the police force in this world. He goes around and audits each of the different sectors and he's ridiculously good at his job. Along the way though, things start to get weird. There's rumors floating around about a coupe. And you're not quite sure who to trust because at certain points it seems as though there're multiple coupes. 

The plot continues to thicken when it's revealed that Jean and his sister are actually the children of Dowa kingdom's second princess who was disowned. So everyone sees Jean as a better fit for the throne than Schwan who's the 20-something year old prince. Poor Jean is thrown into the coupe plan as a seeming intermediary between the people of the different districts who want to see a new kind of leader and ACCA who fears being disbanded if Schwan takes the throne. 

Obviously there's a lot more nuanced stuff going on, but I sincerely doubt I could succinctly give a suitable summary for all of the stuff that goes on. There's a whole lot of spying, a healthy amount of double-crossing, and of course some spicy plot twists. 

In the end though, Schwan turned out to be an alright dude and everyone was okay with him being king. And it turned out the coupe was only because the corrupt dude Lilium wanted to take over the government and make his district super profitable. It all wrapped up very nicely if I do say so myself.

Someone I want to give a quick little blurb about though, besides my main man Jean is Nino. Literally this man's backstory episode was the single most iconic backstory I have ever witnessed. So, this guy is...how do I even describe his relationship? He works for the second princess's (Jean's mom) knight/aide Abend because his father was indebted to Abend. His father and his job was, once the princess was disowned, was to continue to survey the second princess and her family and report back with pictures and documents to the king and Abend. So Nino's whole life has been devoted to the royal family because of his father's tie. And it's honestly so sweet because at no point does it seem like there's any resentment from Nino towards his father for living this kind of life and kind of forcing him to live this life too. He's such a pure soul. And the best part was, when Jean entered high school, Nino's father thought it would be brilliant for Nino to go to high school too to get a closer interaction with Jean and such. The catch? Nino had already graduated high school. He was 25(!!!) and re-entering high school. Give this man a round of applause for his service. 

Overall I think if you like mystery and a little bit of thinking this would be a good show to watch. There's also a lot of mention of bread if you're really into carbs like me. It had so many unexpected twists and turns. The character interactions are beautiful. Everything comes together in the end so nicely and it's really satisfying. There's honestly nothing more of this show I could ask for!

Anime ATM 96 March Comes In Like a Lion S2

You know, here's a funny story for you. I meant to start Boku no Hero Academia. I really meant to. Sincerely I had the page open on my computer and everything. But somehow one thing led to another (Netflix had the second season of 3-gatsu online) and then I ended up here. And along the way I reached nirvana. Just kidding! I just had an epiphany about how much I love these shows that are a blend of slice of life and a little bit of competitive spirit. It's like how I love Chihayafuru so much because of the romance aspect mixed in with everyone trying to become better at karuta. Same thing here, except because of Rei's origin story in terms of why he's so committed to shogi it lends itself more towards the exploration of what it truly means to be youthful and explores themes of family and security.

{Spoilers}

When I first started the second season, I'll be honest with you and say that it was mostly so I could just say that I finished the second season because I'm a completionist. And then when I started the season, I wasn't too thrilled. The pacing seemed a little bit off to me. It was kind of slow, and it didn't really engage me as I recall the first season having done to me. But somewhere along the line, I became so drawn into what was happening it was actually insane. I could feel my body tense as the show went on and I can't really tell you why. That was just my immediate reaction to the plot I guess?

Well I think first of all we should do a quick overview of the season. So, we start off with pretty much everyone from the cast of the first season. We've got our main boy Kiriyama Rei and his home away from home with the three Kawamoto sisters Akari, Hina, and Momo. Unfortunately this season didn't have as much of Momo much to my chagrin.

This season really explored themes of friendship and a more sensitive topic of bulying surrounding Hina. It was kind of an unexpected twist because when you look at Hina you see this really sweet and cheerful girl that wants everyone to get along. But because of her extremely steady moral compass, she ends up bullied for standing up for her friend Chiho. And it's a really humanizing arc that shows how bullying not only affects the victim. It affects the bully, the classroom, the families of those affected, and the teachers. The way that Rei's teacher heard Rei out and tried to explain why it was so hard to address the issue and how he got enraged at how Hina's homeroom teacher wasn't effectively addressing the problem really reflected how I felt inside about the issue. But at the same time it was a realistic portrayal of not really having the silver bullet solution to the problem. It was also really startling to see Hina's homeroom teacher becoming overwhelmed with anxiety to the point of collapse. I think we see teachers as somewhat of a teaching vessel and sometimes nothing more than a wealth of knowledge when in fact they're most definitely human too and affected by the situation just the same as wea re. And that was definitely a good reminder to treat people how you wish to be treated and to think about how consequential bullying really is. It broke my heart to see Hina visiting Chiho and to see how much she still struggled with making friends after what had happened to her.

The whole concept of showcasing bullying and how it truly affects everyone that's involved on a deeper level was really moving and powerful. I mean just seeing Akari's breakdown and how her heart broke for Hina and how she kept asking herself why Hina did what she did when she could've just kept silent and even wanting her to have kept silent really showed how her feelings were in turmoil. You can't help but root for Hina because her heart is so steadfast and she's not afraid to stand up for her beliefs, but seeing the aftermath and how shattered she felt at certain points like when they went on the class trip really makes your morals waver. This isn't to say that Hina didn't do the right thing, this is just to say that the mangaka did a truly brilliant job with this part.

A short aside for the episode with Rei and Souya. There was something satisfying about watching this episode. Maybe it was just because I like the rainy aesthetic. Maybe because a lot of it was just silence between the two. And it might have been because some of the mystery behind Souya was finally brought to light. But seeing the two on the train back home and ending up having to find shelter from the storm together was kind of heartwarming in a weird way. I dunno, watch the episode and tell me what you thought. Maybe I'm just crazy.

And an arc that doesn't really speak to my experience would be the epic match between our two favorite oldies. There's Shimada who we've already become familiar with as Rei's kind of mentor and our resident sickly boy who's got big dreams from the countryside still. And then we've got Yanagihara who's the oldest active Class A member that honestly came off as a joke when we first met him. We didn't know a whole lot about him until now. And now that we do know a little bit more about him, wow this guy's carrying a heavy burden. The imagery in this arc was so striking. To see this old man who's got to take so many medications and put on all of those pain-relief patches to play a match is a sobering thought. Maybe this is because usually in professional matches you think of a physical sport maybe where after a certain age you have to retire. Since this isn't the case with shogi, I guess you just don't think about the physical toll as much. But Yanagihara is honestly a real inspiration. All of the sashes that weigh him down as all of his friends stopped playing shogi, for him to continue playing not just for himself but also for all these friends as well, I can't even imagine the toll. And for him to come to the realization that although all of these sashes are somewhat burdens, that they're also something to have pride in and to embrace the heavy weight on his shoulders is really admirable. To love your friends that much and to carry on this legacy is something I can't yet relate to, but is definitely something to look forward to in the future I guess?

A real left fielder though was in the last episode where Rei visits his adoptive mother's house and they have this awkward relationship. It's not quite resentment, but I'm not convinced it's fondness either. It's kind of this weird limbo that was both awkward but heartwarming at the same time. The dream she had when he left and her perspective of how he grew up in their house was different from what we've seen from Kyouko, Ayumu or Rei's perspective and it was refreshing. But also sad don't get me wrong.

Overall, I felt like this season was definitely worth the watch. I wasn't disappointed by how things have turned out and progressed. If they make a third season I'll be looking for Hina and Rei's doki doki high school life together. There was so much depth and thought into the season and we've explored some exciting things throughout the show. You definitely don't have to know anything about shogi in order to fully enjoy the show. Yeah, so please if you have some time, try it out. It might seem a little slow, but it's a definite one for the soul and kokoro.

Anime ATM 94 3-gatsu no Lion {March Comes in like a Lion}

Oh man oh man. I sure didn't think I was going to be watching anime for a while. In fact I had pretty much given up on the idea that I would be watching any for a while, forever chained to my desk to study and make my parents proud and so on and so forth. But to my surprise, I found myself starting this quarter off with a bit of time on my hands. Throughout this time without anime I've been thinking about what exactly I should be watching. Lots of people had been recommending me Boku no Hero Academia and I'm sure it's wonderful. And lots of other anime and anime movies to watch. However, something just called me to watch this anime. It's sure been a while since I've watched a 22 episode anime. I mean sure it seems like I have with my blog post schedule, but in actuality it's been a minute. It felt really good to binge; it felt like I was going back to my roots as an avid anime enjoyer of sorts I guess. Haha, I don't want to say that it was honestly to fill a void in my heart at the moment...but it kinda was. I felt a little bit off-centered as I tend to feel at the beginning of most quarters or the start of something new in general. It's a little weird. But you came here for the Anime ATM not my rambling so:

{Spoilers, obviously}

Wow it's been so long since I've binged something and felt all of my feelings becoming an overwhelming barrage of thoughts and opinions that I documented throughout my time watching the anime. Perhaps I should journal it all down before starting my blog posts, but I kind of like how they're just a whirlwind of my thoughts as well.

A good place to start is always the "short" plot synopsis. So basically there's this boy named Kiriyama Rei and he's the fifth ever person to become a professional shogi player in middle school. On paper it seems like this amazing achievement until you unpack all the reasons why he became so great at this game. He actually has a lot of trauma from his parents dying at a young age, not having any relatives to take care of him, so he relies on his father's old shogi friend to take him in as his shogi apprentice and his foster son. His father's friend Kouda asked Kiriyama if he loved shogi more than anything, and to avoid getting put into an orphanage he lied and said yes. And all throughout the show you get glimpses of this little boy that's fighting for his life, doing anything he can to survive. And it's really sad when you think about this little boy that played shogi just to spend bonding time with his dad and ending up playing shogi as a way to survive. It doesn't make it any better that because of Kiriyama's intense shogi training that he surpasses Kouda's blood related children and makes their relationship even more strained. And it's not like Kiriyama doesn't feel bad about this. The real kicker is when he talks about how he broke that family. How he was the magpie's offspring that was born into the wrong nest and killed off the parents' real chicks. That was the real sinker right there. I can't even imagine how it would feel like to believe that you've ruined someone else's family for your own survival.

And it's this constant question to Kiriyama, at least for me, of if he actually really loves shogi or if this is the only way he can survive? Throughout the show he encounters so many different people who all have their lives impossibly entangled with shogi. All of these men are professional players that go through their troubles all linked to this strategic game. Some of them want to bring honor to the small towns they came from, others have dealt with physical ailments from the stress caused by the game, and others still are trying to keep their rankings to maintain face after all of these years of competition. It's hard to describe or encapsulate even in this limitless blog post that I'm writing, all of the stories that were told throughout these 22 episodes. Yes, most of it was focused around this lonely, broken boy Kiriyama, but it was also just beyond him. It was beyond shogi. It was honestly so many twists and turns and switch in tone from one of trauma and somber reality to happy and comedic times that I felt like I got whiplash from how fast it changed from one to the other. In fact, at times I felt like the transition between the two was too jarring, and I'm not sure if that was really the aim of the tone shifting so fast. However, it was definitely memorable.

I would compare this show to Your Lie in April in terms of how the trauma follows the main protagonist and weighs him down at times. This was definitely a lot more sad because Kiriyama was outcasted by his classmates in school and also had to deal with the eluded to trauma inflicted by his foster sister, but it was the same tone of pain caused by inescapable circumstances. It was also like Chihayafuru. There was of course the sports aspect of the show with the constant rounds of lots of jargon that I didn't understand. Don't expect to walk away from this show knowing how to be a professional shogi player (or maybe that's just me and you'll really walk away an expert) because they definitely don't give you step by step instructions on how everything works. They do give you lots of interesting strategies and even a cat illustrated book on all of the different pieces and shogi basics, but not a whole lot. Although maybe if you already know how to play chess it'd be easier to learn shogi? It was also like Chihayafuru in terms of the tournament style and sometimes how these competitions were portrayed with it not just being able the game, but also the training and camaraderie that surrounds the whole show, although perhaps less so in this show because there's no team aspect to it.

There is definitely something to be said about the motif of water throughout the show. I'm not really sure what to make of it. At times seeing the water appear during the rounds inside of Kiriyama's head it was almost suffocating. In fact, most of the time it was meant as a tool to convey how he couldn't breathe inside the round or how overwhelming it was. And they often did kind of random zoom ins of his beverages or of anyone's beverages really which was interesting. Not super sure why they did that. But I think these kinds of engaging scenes where it wasn't just shogi pieces on a board being moved around and losing me because I actually don't know anything about this game. Instead it was more of an atmospheric thing that allowed anyone to be enraptured by the tone of the show and what was going on. And this was much appreciated for someone with actually no idea how to play the game :')

As someone that is constantly found watching slice of life, I thought it was only fitting that I also talk about how I found the slice of life portion to be. Like I said above, sometimes the transition between the two sides of the show with the seriousness of shogi on the one hand and the domestic scenes of the Kawamoto household was too startling. There was no easy transition between the two, and maybe those sweet slice of life moments are meant as a chaser for the bitterness of Kiriyama's life. Like little splashes of sunlight to an otherwise gloomy day. And honestly some of these moments with Kiriyama at the Kawamoto's house were so heartwarming. Like when he was sick and they took him to their house to nurse back to health. And how he got to experience what it felt like to live in a really warm household just like a kotatsu. At the same time though, it wasn't completely unrealistic. The Kawamoto family welcomed him in, but it was definitely not a parasitic relationship with them just giving and giving without Kiriyama ever giving back. He gave them a welcome reprieve from some of the heavier stuff like dealing with the deaths in their family during Obon and someone to care for. And Kiriyama got to experience a warm family, although he was scared of breaking their family like he thought he did to his foster parents which is really sad. I wish I could go in there and talk some sense into that boy that what he was doing was perfectly fine and that he deserves to be loved too. I love all of their little moments together with the cats getting voiced as well hehe. And Momo is absolutely adorable with her child's innocence. Like when they were trying to come up with new product ideas for their traditional Japanese confectionery store and they really wanted to know what flavor she wanted as daifuku flavoring and she said gum. I couldn't stop laughing honestly.

Maybe I also felt like I resonated with the Kawamoto sisters because I have two younger sisters of my own. So it was kinda like a reflection of my own family? And seeing Akane's silent maturity and Hina's awkward moments as a middle school girl in love really reminds me of how my younger sister who's around the same age as Hina is going through that and how many parallels there are between the two of us.

Can you tell that I really enjoyed this anime? Haha while I did think that there were definitely some places where I felt like there was somewhat of a disconnect, overall it was an amazing experience. Hopefully I have time to watch the second season before I forget the characters and this story line. Ugh it's been a while since I've felt this way about an anime and it feels really good to be honest to watch something and feel on fire to review it. Yeah. So there's that. Obviously there's a lot to unpack from this anime like why it's called March Comes in Like a Lion (because it's a proverb apparently) or about his school life or his mental state or how wack his sister is. Yeah it's a lot. But that's all for now!

Anime ATM 93 Darling in the FRANXX

*screams into the abyss* Ok friends, buckle up. This was a 24 episode anime with an actual plot (disregarding the possibility of it having been a good or bad one). That means there's a lot to unpack here...but I'm also lazy. 

{Spoilers}

So this was on my to-watch list for a pretty long time. Honestly ever since it first aired. And at first it was getting a lot of attention what with Zero Two being best girl and things like that. But I honestly wasn't really convinced of the hype haha. What really got me intrigued was how people said that it was such a great anime with so much potential, but then fizzled out. Me, conscientiously knowing that I am easily influenced, tried not to take that to heart too much and to really develop my own opinion of the show.

For the first half I was so intrigued. I couldn't do homework. I couldn't move. I had to sit and watch. And so I spent the first half of the season glued to my desk as my workload piled up to the ceiling, enthralled. There were so many questions I had. What were these machines? Why did they call that monkey mask guy "Papa"? Where were their parents? What was this world? What's a klauxosaur? And so many more that I would pester V with as I watched. As with any anime with any sort of plot, these kinds of things are the stuff that are answered as the story unfolds. I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for the answers to all of these mysteries. And as I was given these tidbits I just became more and more enchanted by this really strange story. There's no other way to really describe this mecha, post-apocalyptic show that I haven't seen anything quite like.

The main premise is that there's a group of people known collectively as APE that rule the world without question. This world is Earth, but everyone lives inside these traveling mega cities called Plantations. Because these civilizations are powered by magma energy from the center of the Earth, klauxosaurs have risen from the depths of Earth in retaliation. And so there's this guy named Dr. Werner that invents these mecha called FRANXX that need to be operated by a male-female pair, modeled after the sexual reproductive organs of a flower. I don't really get the whole plant reference either, but just roll with it. And don't question the way that they pilot these mecha either please, it's definitely not meant for children this show. And then because so many of the older people have chosen immortality, they're unable to pilot the FRANXX because they've lost their reproductive functions. So they somehow grow tons of test tube children and inject them with a whole bunch of stuff and put them under tests so that they can pilot the FRANXX and protect the Plantations against the klauxosaurs. And what emerges from this is this really weird dichotomy that we definitely don't see in today's society. In the same way that we find child labor appalling, the thought of children fighting wars for us similarly raises this gut-wrenching feeling that probably comes from our instinctual desire to protect our children and our species. But here we see children fighting to protect the adults. It's this strange flip in roles that starts the ball rolling for a lot of interesting thoughts such as the role of adults as caretakers, and also looking at the main squad of children, Squad 13, how children can still form sympathy, emotions, compassion, and the plethora of other traits that make a person "human" without this mimicry of parents and adult role models that we all have.

And so, in short, the story follows a lot of what Squad 13 goes through and uses them as a frame of reference for how the war is going and all of the inner workings of this almost alien society. I'm getting pretty overwhelmed just thinking about all of the complexities and all of the interactions and all of the everything that goes on inside of the Plantation and what happened in the past to lead up to this, that to get a proper sense of it all I think we'd either have to sit down together for like 5+ hours to unpack absolutely everything we witnessed, or I'd have to make like a senior thesis on this show. I'm kinda down for the first option, but the latter I'll leave to some anime reviewing Youtube channel. I'm sure there's tons of videos out there.

I think one thing, setting aside the complexities of APE, that really struck me was the complex interactions between the characters. Take the relationship between Zero Two and Hiro. Looking back at their interactions as children, you can't help but root for their love. However, I think this is where some of the audience anger comes in because as time goes on, you start to see how unhealthy of a relationship they have. Not that I'm any sort of love expert or anything, but just looking at the ending and how they're together forever, like that's all and good. There's your fairy tale happily ever after, but with a twist. Because they're so reliant on each other that you can't see where one ends and the other begins, you know what I mean? In order to have a successful relationship you kind of need more of a dynamic of support rather than congealing through some alien technology and your minds into some kind of spiritual being together on a plane. I'm just saying, maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but looking at like Goro and Ichigo's relationship...it was a lot more healthy. Kinda. Not really. Uh, in short all of their relationships were kind of wack. Like if you look at Ikuno and her unrequited love for Ichigo. Or if you look at Ichigo's idolatry of Hiro since childhood and how that turned into love. Or if you look at how Kokoro chose Mitsuru (RIP his iconic hairstyle though) over her old partner. V and I had a short discussion towards the midpoint of the show on how wack all of these relationships are...and I don't even know how to form an opinion on all of this. I'm not really sure what sort of purpose all of these relationships served besides being a major point of drama and really upsetting me personally. Like all of those ships...yikes.

Another thing I found kind of interesting, (can you tell I'm kind of tired with dissecting human romantic relationships?) was the kind of commentary they gave about the environment. Maybe this is me reading too much into it as an environmental major, but something I really took away from this is humanity's destruction of Earth. The Earth was unable to sustain itself, turning into a desert with no way to harbor any life, because of humanity's incessant hunger for energy. And that led to them having to take extreme measures to protect humanity. This also points to humanity's folly, of retreating from problems rather than facing them head on. And how humanity was searching for the solution to immortality, rather than focusing on living fruitful, yet transient lives. I think we've all kind of contemplated whether living forever sounds like any fun, and I think from seeing Zorome's small arc where he encounters one of the adult's that've lived for who knows how long and how sad she was, how she didn't care about taste anymore, how her husband got joy through an experience machine. I think all of these things point to maybe how some of the beauty of humanity comes from the transient nature of our beings? That's just some more food for thought. I didn't mean for this to become super philosophical, and yet here we are.

In short, this was definitely an anime that gave me many thoughts on the story and also what the story was trying to tell me. Because it was so long, it was a lot of information to absorb and to process. At many points I actually unconsciously held my breath and clenched my hands because the show had me in the palm of its hand. There were just so many dimensions that were explored like humanity, the environment, interpersonal relationships, what it means to love someone, what kinds of things shaped these people into who they were. Anyone that watches this would have a different take on how things went down and whether this was a good show. I think it was good in the sense that it gave us a complete story, albeit a bit OP at some points. And there was so many good just moments created as well throughout. It was rushed at the end, and I think they really missed out on something special. Haha don't ask me how I think it should've ended because I'm not that creative, but I think the whole reincarnation thing and defeating the enemy (at least sorta) was a bit of a "here's your happy ending" and made you satisfied, but somehow...lacking something? Maybe I'm just asking for the impossible here...but I think this show started off with a lot of potential and so much mystery. I think it's worth the watch. Haha and not just because I'm sick of watching plotless anime to relieve my stress, but I genuinely think that it's a good thinking piece. I'm going to stop babbling now because I actually just word vomited all of my feels out just now...partly at least...and now I'm tired.

Exhibit 1 of how Ichigo is precious but frustrating (also her aesthetic and everyone's aesthetic in the first OP? forget about it I watched that thing through so many times because ugh the mood of it was so good??? actually the OP and ED every time were really solid and I really liked them)

Lowkeyyyy Goro was my favorite character plz dont @ me (his VA just really got me idk why and his character in general (i just really love the childhood friend and am always rooting for the underdog what can i say?))

Thought they were going to die so I started tearing up...

After this point I stopped taking screenshots because...I was just too enraptured by the story sorry (also because I watched the ending episodes in between my classes and just really wanted to enjoy)

Anime ATM 92 Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai

My eyeballs feel like they're about to fall out of my head. I binged the whole season of this show with minimal regrets. Hehe such is the life when your first class of the day is at 6 at night~

{Spoilers}

Wow. So, like most of my shows nowadays, this was recommended to me by V. He was pretty spot on with this one. It's probably the best or one of the best shows that aired this past season. I mean wow just look at that MAL score; it was fire. I can definitely see why it was such a hit. It was like if you took Chuunibyou (the show, not the syndrome itself) and used a different syndrome, in this case Adolescence/Puberty Syndrome and made a whole show about it. It's got this fantasy-like quality to it and such an excellent plot and pacing to go along with it that you just can't help but be captivated. So many parts stand out as poignant that it was hard to stop and screenshot...which is why I won't add any screenshots to this post. While I did take some, I feel like no standalone shot could really exemplify parts of the show that truly captivated me.

The basic premise of this show was around Adolescence Syndrome in which the person (in these scenarios either middle school or high school) deal with some traumatic experience and try to escape from it in some sort of way. This show incorporated a physics (and vaguely scientific?) explanation of what was going on thanks to Futaba, but the last time I took physics (and really basic physics at that) was 3 years ago so I won't even try to comment on that. But it was also a very cathartic show at the center. It focused on the stories of different girls and how Sakuta was able to help them kind of solve those problems that they faced, as well as be a general support system.

I think it's hard to really put Sakuta's character into words. He's kind of your stereotypical rebel character in that he doesn't care about what other people at school think of him, but he's got a heart of gold underneath that which guides him to meddle with the affairs of others. He's definitely your problem-solving protagonist. On the surface he seems kind of flippant, with some of his jokes coming off as crass, but you can definitely tell that underneath that is someone who genuinely cares about others and kind of uses his jokes to break down the barriers between himself and others.

Each of the arcs of the show follows a different girl and a struggle that she's going through. It goes through things like the harsh consequences of bullying, how to deal with the harshness of reality and the consequences of events that are unfavorable towards you, the inferiority you feel towards being compared to someone else, and the hatred you can feel towards yourself because of society. A lot of it is definitely more so social commentary on how people will often just be a follower and read the atmosphere around them rather than to fight against it which is why Sakuta's character really shines here. From the get-go when Mai is disappearing, he fights against the flow because it's hurting someone near to him, going above and beyond to make sure she isn't forgotten. And I think it's this noble part of his character which is really the most charming and the reason why the show is so enjoyable to watch.

Inside of the show, there's a lot to unpack. Like Shoko who could or could not be a real person. Or reasons why Sakuta's chest wound came to be in a sympathetic reaction to Kaede being bullied and him not being able to do anything. Or the dynamic between Mai and her sister and the nuances of that. All of these expose different parts of what it is to be human and how people interact with one another and that's one of the beautiful things about anime, is that it really displays all of these different aspects of the human condition and in so many numerous ways that there's bound to be some anime or some character or some scenario that you could relate to.

Honestly, you should definitely watch this. The pace is perfect. There's such a diversity of characters and some topics that I haven't seen covered in these ways. And it's obviously all beautifully drawn. And the ED that changes with each arc omg. Don't be deterred because it has bunny girl senpai in the title. I know. It sounds super sus. When V brought it up I thought it was going to be pure ecchi and definitely not something I would recommend anyone to watch. But it's actually such a clickbait title. It's not super all about the ecchi bunny girl. It's way more than that and so you shouldn't feel deterred by the title. Inside this series you'll find a really lovable cast and a gripping story.

Anime ATM 91 Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta

So we've moved back into the dorms and for some reason it feels more sad than when I first moved into these dorms for the year. Probably because I saw my family for such a long and uninterrupted period of time. That, plus the fact that I watched the Black Mirror movie made me both sad and scared at the same time. What better way to remedy this dual-negative feeling than to watch some shoujo?

{Spoilers, but not really because it's such a short shoujo series}

So first of all, this series is only 6 episodes with each episode being your standard 23 minutes. So that should already give you an idea of how easy it is to binge if you're like me hehe. And obviously you can't expect a whole lot in this 6 episodes, I mean you can only flesh out characters so much in this little amount of screen time, but what they do give you is pretty standard.

The basic story line goes something like this: there's a group of three boys in the Movie Club shooting their graduation film project and there's a group of three girls in the Art Club and there's mutual love between all three pairs. No love triangles here folks. All six of them are graduating soon. The story revolves mostly around one main couple: Haruki and Miou, our beautiful spring couple. As many high schoolers in shoujo are, these two are in mutual love, but are too awkward to realize. This story goes along with their gradual romantic relationship progression as well as an unexpected, but extremely foreshadowed twist. When Miou was small, she almost drowned in a river, only to be saved by someone. She can't remember who it was and she isn't allowed to meet him up until the last summer of high school. Delighted to finally meet this hero who saved her life, Miou ends up in front of the Serizawa family grave and meets the realization that the man who saved her was Haruki's older brother. This led to an immovable grief and guilt within Miou and she shut herself off from everyone. However, she is able to overcome this guilt through her friends' support and can finally face Haruki who was battling his own doubts as well.

I can't relate too much to this scenario, but if you're a younger sibling and you've got someone you really look up to, maybe this is something you're familiar with. You idolize your older sibling so much that you end up following what they do and end up cultivating a passion for something that questionable wasn't even of your own volition. Or that's how it'd be if you didn't get the whole story. And that's addressed in the series when prompted with the question "Why can't you have the same dream as your older sibling?" which is pretty valid. And I'll leave it at that because it's a solid stand-alone point.

You know though, their sibling relationship was super cute.

But once these individual characters have overcome these personal hurdles, it's time to graduate high school and embark on future endeavors. There's nothing quite as liberating and saddening as graduating high school. The tracks have been lifted and you're free to blaze new trails for yourself (in a very American exceptionalism and buying into the whole idea of moving westward because of manifest destiny ya know). And that leaves Haruki off to pursue film in America and Miou with her dreams lying in Japan. The two separate and if it wasn't your traditional shoujo you would have doubts of if they would stay together beyond these high school years. Hehe, but it is your traditional shoujo so of course after actualizing their dreams, they reunited and lived happily ever after.

asdfghjkl; this scene really got me. It's full of their dreams that have nothing to do with one another except for that small corner. But is that one feeling going to last those 7 years they're apart?

One thing I really enjoyed about the series was how serene it was. It had its ups and downs yes with the characters' emotions turning into a storm at some points, but those scenes where Miou and Haruki were sitting on the stairs and just sketching out ideas and illustrations side-by-side and other kind o mundane moments, there would be this serenity that would just be present in those moments. And it was really quite calming. I think as life gets more hectic, we tend to appreciate these moments more for their simplicity and presence rather than to be wowed by big things. Or maybe I'm just an old soul lol.

If you're looking for a short and sweet watch that isn't a waste of your time like other short series are, I think this could be a good fit. It's definitely a good fix for if you're craving that sweet shoujo feel and if you just want to reminisce on high school life and stuff like that. It's not anything super new or novel, but sometimes you just need that traditional shoujo stuff.

Anime ATM 86 Amagi Brilliant Park

Currently I'm sitting in my sister's bed with my dog at my feet after a long day of work. I meant to write this blog right after I got off from work, but I ended up falling asleep due to exhaustion. Manual labor is pretty tiring after all.

I was recommended this anime by V who said, in short, that this was a trip. That day I had tried to watch the gambling anime that's on Netflix, but uhhhhh let's just say it was wild and I probably will never finish that anime.

{Spoilers, but it's more about the comedy than the plot so you kinda already know what's up}

I think something that's really important when watching an anime in terms of how much the story impacts you is how relatable and how much it resonates with you. For V I think this anime really stood out to him. He said the MC was unique because of his narcissistic nature and the way he wouldn't take crap from anyone. Perhaps because V had already pointed it out to me I didn't find these things to be as standout as they maybe would've been had I already not been aware of these unique qualities of his. Then again V also said that he read a comment that said that the MC's name was Kanie because he was actually Kanye or something else ridiculous and nonsensical *smh*.

In general the general plot of banding together people for a greater purpose was well executed. Kanie was enlisted partially against his will and partially through bribery with Latifa's croquettes into becoming Amagi Brilliant Park's new manager. The goal was to get 500,000 guests through those gates, a feat that seemed near impossible at the start of the show. However, with a lot of teamwork, collaboration, sacrifice, and ingenuity, they were able to pull it off and save the park. From this bare bones summary, the show doesn't seem like anything special, but some things that set this show apart are the characters themselves and the fact that most of the cast members of the park are ~magical~. They're from this place called Maple Land that runs on Animus which is like people's fun I guess? It's kinda like the Monsters Inc./University university that runs off children's screams/laughs which is kind of creepy when you think about it...

Anyways, the characters are all really unique. Like V said, Kanie is definitely unique in that he's a narcissist and very pragmatic.

Sento, V's personal favorite, is kind of like if you took Violet from Violet Evergarden and mixed her with the girl from Nichijou that keeps whipping out her gun to shoot that guy she likes. Sometimes it's hard for her to understand people's feelings but she tries her best, even though Macaron and Tiramie are often times waaaay too rated M for mature, and she's very trigger happy. It's hard for her to convey her emotions as well, but she's honestly best girl for wanting the best for the park and for Latifa.

As for Latifa, she was too perfect. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like the frail, pure ohime-sama characters in general and since Latifa is the cookie cutter of that very description you can see why I don't prefer her character. Moffle, her uncle, on the other hand is great. He's a super cute mouse mascot, which makes me confused as to if he is blood related to Latifa or what, Maple Land lineage is wack, that sacrifices everything for Latifa and for Amagi Brilliant Park. What really got me going though was his backstory about Latifa's mom :(((( his true love. Something that makes Amagi Brilliant Park so iconic in terms of humor oftentimes is because of Tiramie and Macaron. They look like super cute characters like Moffle with their pink cat and sheep exteriors, but inside are perverted old men. This would've been a totally different show if they had super girly voices and acted like fairies like I had expected. Instead they were...very interesting.

I didn't know where to insert this kinda random thought I had, but the ED reminded me of the ED for K with Neko sleeping. In the same way there's kind of a lot of fan service. Heh. You've been warned!

Each of the episodes either showcased methods of how they improved the park to increase visitor count, or they were more filler episodes like when Kanie was too sick to go to school so Sento, Tiramie, Moffle, and Macaron each took turns impersonating him. In the way that Konosuba is a parody of "life in a new world" and Hinamatsuri is a parody of sci fi, Amagi Brilliant Park is a parody of the run of the mill show where people band together to save something (LOL I can't think of a more succinct way of putting it right now). Like the episode of how the fairies of Elementario had to bond in order to pass trials to shut down the castle's defenses through karaoke and DDR.

Or how in the last episode to make a PV, Sento and Tricen consulted everyone around the park on ways to improve the PV and make it more impactful and that PV turned into a viral sensation. That was actually the funniest episode. Kanie's reaction to Sento being so moved by this mish-mash PV was the best.

Overall, I'm glad they were able to save the park. It was a show that was full of a lot of comedic twists and turns that were quite unexpected. You're sure to find a character you relate to and have a lot of fun laughing at everyone's antics and being relieved with them when they find out they've saved the park. It's honestly a pretty moving anime if you let yourself get swept away in this Amaburi world. 

Also I should mention that KyoAni had a part in this and I love KyoAni. KyoAni has the Midas touch I swear.

Anime ATM 84 Fireworks {Uchiage Hanabi, Shita kara Miru ka? Yoko kara Miru ka?}

In July I had my first experience seeing an anime movie on the big screen. It was a memorable Tuesday night, in the car with my two high school friends in the seats in front of me, just making it to watch the movie in time with one of my friend's cousin who happens to go to the same uni as me. It's truly a small world.

{Spoilers}

And in the darkened ambiance of the movie theater I witnessed a movie that was probably thought of by someone on LSD. LOL well maybe not quite that, but that's the only way I can really explain it.

The reason I say it was created under the influence of drugs was because it was like a weird mashup of different time travel anime that my friends and I have watched (I say this because afterwards we had a long-winded talk about anime and the movie and how it was Steins Gate-esque (I can't say how true that is because I haven't watched that particular anime yet, but that's what all the guys were saying lol)), Spirited Away (because of that ghost train on the ocean), Free! (because swimming), Nagi no Asukara (because the girl's hair was a similar color and it was in a rural beachy environment), and Disney (because of the weird Cinderella sequence in the middle). You could probably liken it to tons more anime, but the point was it was so eerily familiar, but at the same time such a strange experience that no one really knew how to feel about it. We all just walked out kind of shook. You know what I really like though, that got me interested in the anime? The song they used for publicity. That song really does something for me. But everything other than that just seemed so bizarre.

It was basically just a bunch of misunderstandings and regrets between the two main characters and time travel to make everything more wack. At every point that the MC thought something could've gone better and resulted in a more pleasing outcome he just created an entirely new world in which that "what if" scenario became reality. However, along the way he realized that he couldn't keep running from the reality of the situation because it never felt like winning even if the fake realms held a more favorable outcome. So at the very end when the two of them are swimming in the water and looking at these wack fireworks in the sky, or maybe in the sea who even knows what was really going on, and she asks what kind of world they'll end up in next...you're left hanging. There's no real closure. What was I supposed to learn from that? That something can be visually beautiful and make absolutely no sense otherwise? Yep. That you can't run away from reality? Yep life's already taught me that one plenty of times. That morally there were a lot of questionable things in this anime but they were kind of brushed over because it was from the guy's perspective? Yep. I wonder how this would've turned out if it were told from the girl's POV. I honestly think it would've been more interesting and a more interesting twist. It's like in Haruhi Suzumiya how it would've been more interesting to see Haruhi's POV rather than Kyon's, but we weren't exactly given options to choose from now were we? Alas, what we were handed is what we've got and what I got did not leave me satisfied. It was pretty and that song gets me feeling some type of way whenever I blast it in my car, but I didn't feel like I truly enjoyed watching it.

Also this is so random but I had a life crisis when they started talking about if fireworks were circular or flat from the side. And then it messed with my mind more when he made those different worlds in which sometimes they were circular and sometimes they were flat. I wonder if that was symbolic for something. Like the side character guys who made a bet on whether they were flat or round. What was the point?

Overall, it's a fun watch I guess if you like things that end up ridiculously fantastical and have a grand mashup of a lot of things. I'm sure if you really wanted to there's a lot of things in this movie that you could analyze and unpack, but if that's what you're here for...lol idk where you got the impression that I could provide that kind of quality content for you.

{LOL there's obviously no screenshots since I saw this in theaters sorry}

Anime ATM 81 Violet Evergarden

Okay I want to premise this by saying that there are probably bomb analysis and theory videos out there that do a better job than I could ever dream of doing, but this is for me.

{Spoilers}

It's been a while since I've watched such a heart wrenching anime. Sure every now and then I'll go on a tangent about how relatable an anime was because a lot of the times yeah there's relatable content, but this is just on a whole other level. Honestly I've been hyped about this being released as an anime since that first OST came out. You know the one that everyone, and I mean everyone, made covers of? Yeah that one. I've been hyped since then and that was years ago. The only thing stopping me from watching it was school and the fact that I wanted to binge it all. And let me tell you that my heart was not ready. This review is going to be all over the place and I don't really care.

Can we first just start off with how beautiful everything was? Kyoani really outdid themselves. All of the textures that you could just feel through the screen with those rich colors and just everything about it really. It was all so fluid and with everything you could just see how beautiful everything in this world is in contrast to the nastiness of war.

I'm not really into war films all that much. I think that the only thing war really brings out is a lot of technology, useless or not you decide, and a lot of suffering. I think Violet Evergarden really showcased part of what it's like living through war and having to build everything up after that. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like in history class they focus a lot on the wars and all of the political stuff, the really macro view of everything, so much so that we kind of get desensitized to how devastating war is. Take for example the post office that Hodgins sets up. The reason he set that whole company up was because a lot of people still couldn't write but they needed some form of communication. One problem I kind of have with this whole postal communication thing is that they had advanced enough medicine to give Violet two prosthetic arms, but they didn't have anything else particularly advanced in the same way. Maybe my idea of medicine in the time period they are trying to portray is a bit remedial, but it just amazes me that they could build such advanced prosthetics, but still not be able to have a whole lot of other advances at the same time.

But continuing on with the building back of society after the war. Besides all of the infrastructure that everyone's working on like the transcontinental railroad to unite the northern and southern regions and everything everyone's doing in order to bring everything back to the status quo of business as usual, trying to recover from the war, you also see how broken everyone is. Everyone is touched in some way or the other by the war. Some of them have lost people they know, loved ones, or they've lost their homes or people just treat them differently. Like Hodgins said to Violet, everyone's burning. It's just so sad how terribly war strikes and even when it's over its impacts don't subside for a long time. Everyone is still left with the void left by things the war took from them.

And from all of this loss from the war come many different people. There are people that lost everything in the war and seek revenge, like the anti-peace factions. They lost everything and because of that they just wanted everyone else to suffer. And honestly since they went through all of that hardship, it's hard to blame them. Their lives must've looked so incredibly bleak. Same to the people who lost their family members in the war. At the beginning of the series I despised Dietfried. I thought he was such an ass for "gifting" Gilbert with Violet as if she were just a tool. And afterwards he only treated her with scorn and never saw her as more than a dog. But when she protected him from the anti-peace faction and he was able to see how she was able to voice her emotions and he was able to finally see how human she really was and how much she really cared for Gilbert, seeing how he started to let go of his resentment for her was cathartic. It's really easy to pawn off the blame on someone else in order to cope with unwanted emotions, which was what Dietfried did for so long, but he was able to find it in his heart to see Violet as someone who loved Gilbert just as much as he did, as an equal instead of a lesser war dog. I think these transformations from how the war twisted people and how they overcame all the burns that the war left them with is a beautiful thing. Especially for the main protagonist Violet.

I'm sure a lot of people have already analyzed her and come up with most of the symbolic things that make Violet such an interesting person, but bear with me here. In the beginning of the show she was extremely militant. When there's flashbacks of when Dietfried originally gave her to Gilbert she was seen as almost a rabid animal that was supposed to be used for as long as it was useful and then thrown away. Obviously Gilbert saw her as more than that, but as it was her personality wasn't allowed to grow into anything more than an unfeeling war machine. This is symbolically shown consistently throughout the show with her biting the maids hand when Gilbert first brought her to his home and later on when she first took off the gloves that covered her hands with her teeth. This animalistic and wild nature of hers starts to diminish as the series goes on and she's able to start experiencing lots of different human emotions on her assignments as an auto memory doll. Her lack of knowledge about regular humans is also captured in the fact that her arms are made of metal. That paired with her originally placid expression give off the feeling of an inhuman android. However, though her arms make her different from the average person, they're also the symbol of the ultimate sacrifice. Because of her upbringing to be more of a war tool and less of a person she didn't have the capacity, whether we're talking about verbalization or even mental preparation, to have feelings for another human being. If she was taught anything along the lines of sympathy and mercy it wouldn't have been possible for her to kill anyone. Instead she was taught to be cold and unfeeling. And despite that constant demeanor of an unfeeling tool lies the innate nature that humans have within them to protect the ones she love. When Gilbert was dying on the stairs of the base and her arm just came off and she tried to drag him with her teeth I was close to tears. She didn't even know what the phrase "I love you" meant, but she was so wholeheartedly devoted to Gilbert that she never gave up on trying to save him. She was in so much excruciating pain, but her love for him overcame that. He was the first person to ever show her kindness and treat her as more than just a tool. He was the first person she probably ever loved. The devotion she had for him and their whole relationship, while strained and broken due to the premise of the war, was so utterly compelling.

And while at first Violet was unable to understand what the phrase "I love you" meant, she sought out the meaning of it as an auto memory doll and was able to understand human emotions through it. I felt personally that the episodes were a little rushed. If it was even 15 episodes I think a lot of other things could be explained such as where Dietfried found her, or give us a better flow than just a new letter writing request every time. While it lent itself for a quick paced show that always kept me engaged, I wouldn't have minded more time in each place to get to know people more and to see a more drawn out evolution of Violet. I understand that this was probably more of the highlights of how each letter changed Violet in some way and opened up her emotional capacity to feel, however at the same time I also feel as if something is missing. Like in episode 5 all of a sudden Dietfried comes out of nowhere and goes "how could you write letter that bring people together when you've murdered so many people?" and while yeah that's true, it was also a little out of left field. It's things like that which kind of caught me off guard and left me desiring a little bit more at times. But back to the main thought (I pretend like this is organized, but mostly this is just a rant lol).

Throughout all of Violet's letter writing assignments she's able to experience different faucets of the human experience that she missed out on as she was trained to just kill people. She learned many things such as the delicate nature of words and how to read people's actions, words and emotions as well as the beauty of the bonds in between people and the different kinds of love that they share. Throughout a lot of these letter writings, V and I both felt extremely moved to the point of tears. I think it just depends on what kind of person you and and your own personal experiences, but just a lot of parts moved me to tears. Especially episode 10. There's just something really personal that happened to me that makes me really sad when I think about people losing their parents. It's probably because I'm so close to my parents that I feel this way, but just the whole thing of even when their parent is gone, that they're still looking out for them is so indescribably sweet. Oh my god I'm tearing up right now thinking about that episode. There's just a lot of scenes in Violet Evergarden that I don't think can be fully experience through words. It can only be evoked through sight, the motion and facial expressions these people make. And it's things like this that really get to Violet and in some ways educate her in all the ways humans are so complex. Another episode that got to me was episode 5. I'm a sucker for a good romance story as you could probably already tell. There was just something about this, although thinking about it right now is kind of disturbing thinking about a 14 year old girl marrying a guy that's 10 years older, that's so endearing. Like the love letters they send each other at first are so flowery and poetic, and utterly fake, and then with Violet and Cattleya's intervention they start sending letters to each other that are so real. And the kingdom reading them also starts to get super invested in the letters and relates to them a lot more when they're written by real people instead of by a Doll. It's something so small, but at the same time it's so sweet thinking about that sort of thing. Like how neither of them were perfect, but they were happy together.

There are a million little subtleties that I could've brought up if I had just jotted them down when I had the idea, but I like the idea of writing things organically anyways rather than having it be very structured like a regular school essay. I've done enough of those to know that they get the point across better and you don't necessarily need to have a certain feeling in order to write them, blog posts are different in that you want them to be organized, but I'd rather have the feeling be there rather than it be necessarily easy to read. But maybe that's just me. I guess if I have any more subtleties I'd like to add on I could just add a postscript with the day I add upon this.

Overall I'd say that this was an amazing watch. I don't know if it was so impressive because I just love Kyoani so much, or because I have a secret love for historical fiction, or because I love people overcoming struggles in times of difficulty, or I just love watching humans fight for humanity, or I just haven't watched an anime with a plot in a while. Maybe it's a combination of all of these things. Maybe it's how it makes my soul feel. It makes me feel happy and fulfilled and full and satisfied and warm when I see those warm market lights with Gilbert buying Violet the brooch that looks like his eyes or seeing those scenery shots or the OP or the ED or just all of it as a whole. Heck I might even rewatch it it was so good and I never rewatch things. It was just so amazing and I think the next project was introduced at the last episode? I could be wrong. But I'm here for it if it does happen. I pray for better pacing though. Other than that it was so incredibly beautiful. I was plunged into that world. I became more heartfelt and emotionally awakened alongside Violet. I have nothing but endless good things to say.

Also you can stop scrolling now because I watched the series on Netflix and it doesn't let you take screenshots. Haha sorry I just really like good quality and since I've got a Netflix account, why not take advantage of it right? Anyways y'all probably already know how beautiful it is smh so many people make gif sets of it.