Recently, Crunchyroll got in touch with me to ask if I could put together a review for Mari Okada’s directorial debut, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. Any long-time readers of the blog will know I’m a huge Okada fan, so of course I jumped on the opportunity to write about her magnificent film and how it deftly weaves narrative, theme, and aesthetic together to create a gorgeous emotional tapestry.
I don’t have as much time these days to watch anime, but the start of a new season is always so fresh with hope and excitement just at seeing new things we haven’t seen before, that I couldn’t resist checking out a few more shows than I actually expect to follow. So here’s a breakdown of what I watched, and what I thought!
Despair is a reality with which we must contend.
As you may or may not have heard, Crunchyroll brought the Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple film over the states as part of their Movie Night series. I was lucky enough to check it out, and I wrote up a review of the film with my thoughts! It’s no Heartcatch Precure movie, but few franchise films are so I can’t knock it that bad for being visually stunning while kind of flat narratively.
Putting words to that vague idea and (likely) wild claim that Hyouka might the best-directed TV anime of all time.
Yoshiyuki Tomino’s idiosyncrasies have rarely been so approachable, delightful, and altogether entertaining.
Something I think is very important to get right has been got rather wrong, in my estimation.
