...what are you watching...

The Handmaiden kmovie! I thought this was a horror movie from the initial trailer, but it was more of a dark romance (erotic, psychological thriller says wiki, but don't read wiki because it's based on a book and wiki gives away much of the interesting plot points). Park Chan-wook is the director who is known for his movies, Snowpiercer and Oldboy. This has the same beautiful cinematography and unusual story elements as his prior works. A young woman helps a con artist woo a rich woman out of her inheritance while posing as her maid. Things don't go as planned as love and betrayal come into play. I thought the end was lovely. Warnings for mildly explicit lesbian sex scenes. ~8/10 rating~ for the lush visuals and original storytelling.



Boku Dake ga Inai Machi jmovie! (Erased) is the movie version of the manga that was also an anime series last year. So slimming down an 8 volume manga to 12 episode anime cut a little of the story's detail out, and slimming it down further to a 2 hour movie cuts even more out. The movie focuses on Satoru trying to figure out who is kidnapping and killing young girls in the past to prevent his mother's murder in the future. The anime was excellent at ending each episode at a cliffhanger. Much of that thrill is lost in the movie. The movie takes a different route at the end, and it pretty much pegs Satoru as a moron for confronting a killer on his own twice. ~5/10 rating~ not for changing the ending, but changing it so badly that you wonder why there are 18 years worth of murders unchanged by the time travel. It's terrible, so don't watch this.



Attack on Titan (and the End of the World) jmovies! are two movies based on the manga of the same name. While the anime followed the manga fairly closely, these live-action movies had to do some creative writing to get an incomplete story into the two movies. The first movie speeds through the re-introduction of the Titans to the walled country after 100 years of peace. It concludes with Eren being eaten and re-emerging as a Titan. The movie creates unnecessary conflict between Eren and Mikasa when Eren unintentionally leaves Mikasa behind during the first attack. After training, Eren meets Mikasa again only to find out that she blames him for what happened to her. The second movie starts with the military being suspicious of Eren. Another Titan saves him from the trial. We find that Shikishima (original movie character), an elite military figure, is also a Titan and wants to use the last remaning bomb to destroy the inner walls to see what the higher class people are hiding. Eren and his comrades oppose him and want to close the hole in the outer wall to protect the people. There were many plot points left hanging, so maybe they are planning another movie? The CGI and aerial footage were better than expected, but not great. ~6/10 rating~ warnings for excessive blood splatterings and weak story. Only watch this for the novelty.



Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku jmovie! the first of two movies based on the manga of the same name. The actors are perfectly cast in their roles, and their personalities and relationships are preserved. The production is lovely, too. This first movie covers the creation of the karuta club and the local tournament. ~9/10 rating~ The humor and tension from the original story translate well into the live-action film. Looking forward to the 2nd movie.

Chihayafuru S2 24-25! the end! Finally get to see some of Arata and Shinobu's match. Arata shows that despite Taichi's very nice personality, Arata also wins in the niceness department. I do like Kana's support of Taichi x Chihaya despite everything moving against that direction. ~10/10 rating~ for a well-written series with plenty of suspense and comedy for a show about a poetry card game. All the characters were great to watch. I'm glad Mizusawa won the team competition and took every class but class A. I wouldn't mind seeing another season.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 85-86! A quick, tender flashback moment between Kite and Gon x Killua before Kite is well, killed..at least decapitated. Netero and two other hunters show up. Excellent episode. Very sad they did not show Kite's weapon choice and fight...though I suppose they may show it later in a flashback. 86 is a relief as Biscuit returns to train Gon and Killua. There's a twinge of optimism and humor that was lacking in the last few episodes.

Shingeki no Kyojin 12-13! Surprisingly, Mikasa could not reach Titan-Eren. Armin is the one to talk him out of his slump, and gets him to seal the hole in the wall. Eren, Armin and now Erwin...tongue-twister in progress?

Shingeki no Kyojin 10-11! Armin finally stops being a wimp...The commander decides to use Eren's power to take control of Trost. I am still impressed by the way they animate the movement through the city.



Chihayafuru S2 22-23! An injured Chihaya naturally loses quickly to Shinobu, so the final game is Shinobu vs. Arata. 23 is about Taichi who actually shines through...for Chihaya's sake. Hope they show a little of Arata's game in the last episode...it'd be nice to see his personality.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 83-84! Gon, Killua and Kite continue to kill their way to the Queen. The other HxH arcs were more fun because the characters were having fun or they encountered fun companions, but so far, nobody is having a good time. While the ant arc is interesting in its own right, it's also a shame to see Gon slowly losing his innocence. The poor Hunter who did not die earlier gets his brain scrambled and tells the Ant Chimera, Pitou, all about Nen.

Kotonoha no Niwa (Garden of Words) jmovie! the newest work from Makoto Shinkai is about a young boy who skips school on rainy days to work sketch shoe designs in a local park. He meets a young woman who likewise skips work on rainy days. They bond during those rainy days. It's a tender unrequited love story. As with Shinkai's previous works, the animation is rich with color and detail. ~7/10 rating

Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo jmovie! It's been 14 years since the events in the 2nd movie and Shinji wakes up to the rest of the world 14 years older than him. Misato now leads a group against the Evas and NERV. There isn't enough logic in this universe that can accurately explain what actually goes on. Most of the character just react on emotion. They really need to fill Shinji (and the audience) in on what is going on. Anyway, Shinji plus Kaworu almost trigger a 4th impact. This movie had pretty entertaining visuals like the previous movie, but storywise, this movie wasn't as entertaining as the previous. ~7/10 rating

Man of Steel movie! I enjoyed the epic movie with the epic music and epic-ally hot actor. The dialogue was lacking, but forgivable. The style of storytelling was refreshing.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 82! Gon killing off a Chimera Ant without trying to talk to it is a bit out-of-character compared to his dealing with animal creatures and enemies in the past.

Shingeki no Kyojin 9! Surprisingly, this keeps getting better. Another group of soldiers are introduced, and they are actually more skilled than the characters they've shown so far...well, I guess up to now they've focused on the new cadets and their fears. Eren has some insight into what his father did to him while the army decides to execute him. The pacing of the show is quite entertaining and boy, do they know how to leave you with a cliffhander.

Chihayafuru S2 21! The individual matches start. Arata's parents are funny.

Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki jmovie! *weak spoilers ahead* A young girl, Hana, befriends a young man who attend a class she is in even though he is not a student. After a sweet romance with the man who reveals himself to be a werewolf, she is left with two adorable children, Ame and Yuki. The movie is about her struggles to raise them on her own. What happened to the werewolf? Well....weep, weep, that was a sad scene. Hana moves to the country so that she can raise her were-children. It's interesting how the children grow up and apart. ~9/10 rating~ for cute characters and nice production. .

Chihayafuru S2 19-20! If they had drawn out everything and lost, I would have kicked the screen. It was nice to see Taichi have a tiny bit of luck on his side...only to have Arata show up and take up Chihaya's attention.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 80-81! talk about depressing...well, it's obvious Gyro will be eaten (unfortunate name and all). His background story plus the death of the two characters from the past made for a dark episode.

Shingeki no Kyojin 6-8! Mikasa's story...and then hey, a Titan that will kill off other Titans...what a coincidence. Love how episode 8 played out. Despite the gruesome activities and ridiculous design of the Titans, this is one of the most original animes out there. The action is pretty awesome and the characters are growing on me...hope they all don't get eaten.

Shingeki no Kyojin 1-5! Attack on Titan...why do the translated titles not make sense? Attack the Titans or Attack of the Titans? This epic Bollywood remake of the opening song made me curious about the series.

+ original story
+/- gruesome violence
+ decent production

Quick impression~ Giant humanoid creatures, Titans, eat humans. The humans thought themselves to be safe within walled cities, but find that they aren't. Eren, a young boy, his adopted sister and another young boy from his district survive and join the military. While terribly violent and visually intriguing, I'm a little put off by the rudimentary technology used to fight the armored giants. Hopefully, they come up with something other than the ineffective guns, swords, and cannons. The way the soldiers fly through the air is pretty cool. Great cliffhanger regarding the main character in episode 5.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 78-79! The ant queen's servants start developing individual thought while hunting humans to feed the queen. Kite and gang head towards Neo-Green Life island still looking for signs of the chimera ants.

Chihayafuru S2 17-18! When will Chihaya not be totally baffled by her opponent in the first 15 minutes of all of her matches. It doesn't look very promising for the rest of her team, too.

The only two anime shows I'm watching....

Hunter x Hunter 2013 76-77! The ant arc starts. They couldn't have gotten a new theme song? Gon and Killua visuals made me sad. The main ant creature reminds me of a DBZ character. In these episodes Gon and Killua meet Kite who tells them stories about Ging, and they meet Kite's companions who are searching for a Chimera ant. The scene with the siblings who want to marry each other and the queen ant made me cringe at the predictableness and the change in tone of the series.

Chihayafuru S2 15-16! Mizusawa faces Fujisaki in the finals. Shinobu watches because of a prompt from Arata. And episode 16 is a flashback before they actually start the final match. The flashback episode had enough random comedic omakes in the beginning and end to be mildly entertaining.

Alrighty, finishing up on the last season before I post about the new season.



Magi 23-25! the end of season one. Another anime which veered off and gathered way too many random bad guys to fight the good guys in one huge battle for no reason. Ali baba's personality grated on my nerves throughout the series and Aladdin seemed to be 'powerless' at inconvenient times. And Sinbad wasn't as interesting as he should have been until the end. Morgiana was the only highlight of the show. Go girl power! ~6/10 rating~ They did show some interesting characters at the end, but it is unlikely that I will watch the next season.

Senyu. 13! the end of season one. Plot twist...the end. Not worth watching, but the first couple episodes were fun. It got dull when they tried to create a real plot. ~7/10 rating

Hunter x Hunter 2013 75! Love the massively positive attitude Gon has after getting his hand blown off. And the good guy viewpoint towards their opponents. After that, Gon, Killua and Biscuit win the Greed Island game....the end of that arc. One more arc to go. I wonder if they'll draw it out to an even 100 episodes?

Chihayafuru S2 13-14! It's a high tension match against the girls' team, but Mizusawa prevails.

Zetsuen no Tempest 24! the end. Destroying the tree of Genesis turned out to be not-so difficult when the sword of Exodus randomly appears. While the series started off dramatically and with great intrigue, somehow, the writers decided to make it a terrible romcom during the 2nd half. ~6/10 rating~ Yoshino and Mahiro had great potential, but all the characters around them turned out to be sad backup. Kochou no Yume...where have I heard that before...where is my xxxHOLiC artbook?


Minami-ke Tadaima 13! the end. allergies, Fujioka's kicking talents, fava beans, cherry blossom viewing...the end. While nothing new was discovered this season, it was still cute at times. ~7/10 rating


Hakkenden 12-13! the end of this season. 18 year old Shino is predictably very cute. Predictable episodes, but interesting nonetheless. There isn't much effort on the part of the characters to get anywhere plot-wise. I suppose bishie-eye-candy was enough.The first season was simply one-shot episodes to get all the characters introduced. ~7/10 rating~


Maoyuu Maou Yuusha 12! the end. Curing smallpox, discovery of gunpowder, can't really say what was going on in the human world, but wrapping things up seemed easy enough. The Demon King is able to get demons and humans thinking about living peacefully with one another. ~7/10 rating~ Great characters with an interesting plot, but way too much going on to follow everything they tried to bring into the story.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 73! Disappointed that Killua and Biscuit's fights were so short.

Chihayafuru S2 12! Against the girls' team...zzz...

Senyu. 12! there are now too many random characters stuffed into this 4 minute show. Glad there is only one episode left.

xxxHOLiC jdrama 4! Yuuko tells Doumeki that Watanuki and he should take the advice of rabid fangirls...or something to that effect. I always thought manga Doumeki was rather bland, but live-action Doumeki is pretty hot. I wish the writers gave Watanuki some more dialogue. He's been pretty stiff. Amewarashi looks cute.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 72 Gon trains while Tsezguerra distracts the bomber team!

Minami-ke Tadaima 12! new years, winter flab, kotatsu again, and demons

Hakkenden 11! Bishie drama at its best. Admittedly, I like the uniformed bishie the best.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha 11! Lots going on with war and currency, but hey, the Hero finds the wizard/witch and the Demon King. Wish they'd focus more on them rather than the politics.

Chihayafuru S2 11! Continuing the tournament, Chihaya's team pulls together. Arata is forbidden to watch them play and instead has to write a letter of apology. Gotta hand it to the mangaka for making each match different and exciting.

Senyu. 11! dodgeball and hagaren.

Zetsuen no Tempest 23! Everyone plans to attack the tree....It's a shame all the side characters are dull. The action and cliffhanger are good.