rampant thoughts

BANANA FISH — A shounen-ai film adapted from its fifty-year old source material, Banana fish — which was completed late last year — has certainly hit its wide range of audiences with a vast spectrum of themes, and of course, an uproar of mixed feelings.

Banana Fish, despite its odd name, doesn’t have anything to do with food at all. It circles around the life of an infamous gang leader — Ash Lynx — and his queer encounter with a Japanese photographer, Okumura Eiji. There, a series of webbed events leads to the revelation of an interconnected past, as well as intricate investigations; all centring on the mysterious drug known as ‘Banana Fish’.

What first struck me when I went headfirst into this anime is it’s clear-cut and fast-paced action. It doesn’t stick to a setting too long, and instead uses that to its advantage in building up a tower-like pile of tension. Banana Fish’s setting draws us in naturally — it possesses a type of hook and feeling that simply begs you to binge it.

With concrete and well-emphasised themes, I also can’t help but feel that they went a little over the top here. Sure, I definitely enjoyed the thorough exposition of extremely delicate topics, and the continuous showcasing of humanity’s awful nature; but there was something I really couldn’t overlook, and that was it’s evident and overused drama.

It’s no excuse that even with a single episode drawing me in, I felt much more inclined to binge this series as a whole. However, despite its evenly paced start, Banana Fish spins off chaotically, squeezing in swift, action-driven narratives and excruciatingly slow emotional scenes that messed up the plot as a whole. It got really irritating after binging the first half, not to mention the utter chaos present in its later episodes.

It’s pacing all over the pace by the second cour, the constant kidnappings and hostages not only ruined the overall impact, but also presented us with a bundle of overused and old troupes. It’s simply continuous situations where the separation of the main duo would lead to a time-ticking bomb of who would be recovered first. If it wasn’t Eiji that was captured, it would be Ash’s turn to be tormented. It’s a rinse-and-repeat formula that would eventually tire you out.

Adding on to the situation at hand, Banana Fish enjoys shifting its concentration from a heartfelt film to an action-packed anime where a mystery unfolds. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore the riveting emotions it presents, but the fact that the entire narrative was delayed or even pushed to being secondary really irritated me at times.

This anime could’ve incorporated both the heartbreaking feels and the compelling suspense into one major narrative, but instead, it’s broken up into two overarching ideas that takes its own form. It feels rigid and unpolished together, not to mention disconnected.

Banana Fish relishes in taking its own pace. A dark and dangerous revelation of the drug’s true nature densely packed at the beginning, the second half then diverts its attention to our main duo, with the original narrative almost forgotten and pushed to a hasty conclusion. I almost doubted its ability to completely wrap-up the entire series.

The characterisation on the other hand, felt unevenly distributed, yet well-done when closely dissected.

Ash’s backstory is not only heartbreaking, but it’s something that shapes him as a character and unveils his true emotions. It isn’t a definition of him, rather, it’s a interconnected tale that delivers a larger picture depicting his strength and personality. His development supported by his past, we get to see how far he has come and how truly broken he is inside. It’s a story of how people aren’t strong on the inside, no matter how tough they may seem. Banana Fish tells us just that.

Eiji, on the flip-side, presents us with the charm of wanting the power and initiative to help those he cares about. He’s innocent, timid and shy in the beginning, but as we began to see his growth as a character, Eiji becomes an irreplaceable part of the story that is the centre of Ash’s growth. He’s the direct opposite of Ash — strength in the heart, not on the outside.

With the beauty of Banana Fish’s carefully crafted relationships, we see how they grow and support one another. Eiji possesses a tough mind, whereas Ash exhibits his power through physical force. It’s one that isn’t meant to be, but the way they change due to each other’s influence is one of the strengths of this show.

Yut-Lung is an interesting character that reminds me of a child fixated on revenge. He’s someone that was ruined by vengeance, with too much overflowing emotions that ran with careless action. Portrayed in a way where he is more driven by anger than anything else, it brims with so much room for character development.

Sing was someone that is more of a follower than a leader. He’s flooded with a lot of moral dilemma and questions, so much that he doesn’t know who to trust anymore. Amongst the cast and second only to Ash, I’d say that he’s a character with much more inner conflict.

OVERALL, ignoring the ending which was completely uncalled for and simply there for its last attempt at tear-jerking, Banana Fish excels more on its complex characters than its actual narrative, the pacing being one of its major concerns. With more polishing and attention to larger details, this anime could’ve been so much better.

ratings =

setting & themes | 7

pacing & narrative | 5.5

characters | 8.5

overall | 7

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PERSONA 5 THE ANIMATION — With this adaptation finally coming to a closure after its last two episodes were released in March earlier this year, the real question finally dawns on us; has P5A lived up to all it’s long-awaited expectations?

An adaptation using a highly acclaimed game as its source material, it’s only natural that squeezing 100-120 hours of gameplay into a mere series of 26 episodes would be tough and difficult to capture perfectly. P5A circles around a group of high-schoolers that abruptly finds themselves in possession of supernatural abilities, and hence they embark on a quest to ‘steal’ others’ desires in hopes of changing this corrupt world.

Honestly speaking, I’ve never been fond of video game adaptations, as most of them fail to meet certain expectations that could’ve made the anime so much better. Sure, you could argue that it isn’t fair to justify the quality of an anime based on its original source material, but the feel and the sensation of watching it and playing it is almost the same. It’s no different in P5A.

With such detailed suspense and essence that Persona 5 possesses, it’s no surprise that rushing the entire P5A would prove to lose most of the allure from the original gameplay. P5A felt extremely, well, shallow and distant, and there’s almost nothing that really impacted me as a whole. Interactions, mystery and the overall feel of everything went down by significant levels, failing especially if you’ve never played the game before and went into the anime completely blind.

I didn’t go into this anime with any expectations, and I’m fairly glad I didn’t. The pacing was a mess all over — with poorly constructed scenes that had almost no connection at times, or too much delay between them. The winding time didn’t help at all — being interesting and all at first, but eventually felt more of an irritation at the later end.

Worst of all, it was the lack of coordination and proper planning that ruined this entire film. It tried inserting too many mysteries and questions further down the beginning, thereafter ignoring it as we proceeded on to answer the continuous problems the cast has encountered. Most of the foreshadowing proved to be either empty or discontinued, so it wasn’t even a sense of achievement I got from the last two episodes that wrapped up this show. P5A took too much effort in creating an overarching suspense which didn’t stay committed to its plot at all.

The anime only started to shove all the needed and required information in the last two episodes when it aired, and though it was both almost an hour long, it’s extremely sad to say that those episodes were the particular reasons why the ending was undoubtedly, both rushed and anticlimactic.

The characters, for the most part, was one of P5A’s most concerning flaws. Ren didn’t stand out to me at all as a leader material in any way, and Ann’s delusion of being objectified was ironically countered by A-1 pictures. Ryuji’s persona transformation was evidently hastily done and most of the others weren’t memorable to begin with. It would be different experiencing first-hand from the gameplay itself, but it’s anime counterpart presented the characters in such superficial manner that it eventually dawned on us that it was a game.

The animation as a whole tried copying it’s source’s counterpart, but turned out incredibly cringe-worthy and held little to none substance. I liked the character designs as a whole, but the horrible CGI was enough to render me speechless.

OVERALL, Persona 5 the animation was something that wasn’t amazing, but wasn’t horribly bad. It simply isn’t memorable enough to give me a lasting, concrete impression, though the image of background CGI would forever stay etched into my mind.

ratings =

theme & setting | 3

narrative | 4

characters | 4

overall | 5

thank you so much for reading through my review, and do drop by my blog xx

THE RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO — A highly acclaimed isekai proclaimed to be one defying the original ground rules, The rising of the shield hero, originally adapted from a 2013 light novel, has hit the 2019 charts with another of its antics.

Needless to say, I’ve never been a fan of isekai, as I believe that most of the anime topping its genre is almost always, downright generic. But this time? I gave The rising of the shield hero a shot, simply because of its ridiculously high ratings given by many, many online reviewers. Isekai definitely isn’t my cup of tea, but well, I tried.

This anime starts off in your typical, whisked-off-to-another-dimension setting. Your everyday, run-of-the-mill otaku, Naofumi is transported to another world after the discovery of an ancient book — and along with three others — a series of events turns him into a vengeful ‘hero’ left to fend for himself. It’s not your every day, fun-loving and adventurous isekai, that’s for sure.

What this anime does as an isekai that I can actually commend them for is its straightforward approach. It cuts most of the bull and the surprise at the start because well, the characters aren’t that uneducated to know that they’ve been transported to another world. Rising of the shield hero focuses directly on the problem, the set-up before anything else, and that really relieves my frustration by levels.

It’s not every day that we’re inclined to scratch our eyes out simply by listening to a character speak (at least, not for me), but this anime cultivates our hatred exceedingly well. Rising of the shield hero hits our anger points accurately; though Myne may be scheming, nothing about her is genuinely redeemable. I can rightly say that throughout the entirety of this anime, her appearance only furthered my appeal to dissect her on a cutting board.

See, that’s what it does immensely well — it makes us hate the antagonists we should despise, and scorn those that have committed sins. This anime’s viewpoint is clear-cut and executed adequately enough to allow us a view that causes us to loathe these annoying characters.

Despite that however, I can evidently say that this anime is flawed in many ways. The reason why it has lasted as long as it did? I’d say the interesting set-up was what made it key. But there’s that. There’s almost nothing more appealing in the later episodes.

Rising of the shield hero rushes its narrative and messes up it’s pacing, and though not evident, this anime could’ve blended into its genre perfectly, if not for the other nuisances that call themselves isekai. It’s not exactly generic however, it’s simply basic. This anime tries to build-up on problem after problem, action after action, sometimes so sudden that the viewer doesn’t have time to stop and think, ‘hey, what’s so interesting about this?’ It became increasingly evident after binging this series.

And honestly, after dissecting the plot and analysing the themes, Rising of the shield hero is one that completely misses its mark. Everything portrayed (or meant to be) is undeniably shallow. It does contain some dark concepts that drive the poorly written plot, but it’s only peeling at the edges, nothing is fleshed out carefully; the world, the characters, or even the main driving force. It’s pushed to cheap, betraying ideals that the protagonist himself doesn’t even possess and in all actuality, simply makes up the bulk of the raggedy plot.

In all retrospect, even the action scenes were poor excuses for character developments. There isn’t any scheme, any deeper meaning or significance to a fight, it’s simply dim-witted characters duking it out for you to understand that his power has increased. Tactics and wit pushed aside like the unnecessary things they are, it all boils down to whether he’s going to use his special powers to defeat his opponent. It’s frustrating to watch a show with increasing power levels, and it just reminds me of fairy tail, albeit worse.

If you came in anticipation for me to praise the characters, you’re dead wrong. Just like the lazy writing Rising of the shield hero exhibits, the one-dimensional characters are presented no differently. The three heroes there to support Naofumi’s growth, Raphtalia being the adorable raccoon she is and that’s it, Filo another loli to add to your already huge pile, and Myne being evil because well, she just is.

See, when we’re done with shallow characters, we’re done. In fact, it’s not even that huge of a problem to watch these miserable excuses of side characters prance around with their antics. It’s simply that the author doesn’t even try to develop them. They are who they are, and their actions can be justified because of that — is the mindset I’m absolutely not satisfied with.

But what irks me the most is Naofumi himself. He’s a character that’s not only heavily reliant on plot armour, but also one that doesn’t have anything to justify his actions for. His development stops at the first three episodes, and the show thereafter goes on to flesh out his ideals over and over. Naofumi is a character that’s essentially a hero or a villain depending on whether the author has an aching migraine, and when it suits him well. I really didn’t know what they were going for, but it certainly wasn’t well-done at all.

IN CONCLUSION, The rising of the shield hero is another generic anime disguised as something interesting at the start, but thereafter loses about eighty percent of its drive. It’s not memorable, nor is it actually well-written. Everything was a sorely casted arc, with boring characters at its base — but hey, there’s a cute raccoon girl that doesn’t have any depth, so why not watch it?

ratings =

setting & world building | 3

pacing & narrative | 4

characters | 2

overall | 4

thank you for reading my 101 guide on why i don’t watch isekai, and do check out my blog sometime xx

I WANT TO EAT YOUR PANCREAS — A melodramatic anime most well-known for its eye-catching title, it’s story centres around the relationships of two characters, both meeting on a chance encounter that changes their lives as a whole. It’s a simple sounding story, that eventually spirals down the dark road of over-the-top drama.

It’s really no surprise how we’ve all heard of this movie before; being well-known for its comedic title and all. I want to eat your pancreas isn’t simply just clickbait for audiences — this odd sentence is repeated again and again as a recurring detail that serves a purpose in many of the protagonists conversations. And strangely enough, there are many things centred around it too.

The bouncing steps, and wavering gazes that are constantly highlighted by the animation in this movie is extremely unique and beautiful. It shows how the characters are like and their differing personalities that result in extremely contrasting reactions — the little hop in every step, the shifting eye-contact every time someone looks at his direction. This show uses body language to signify the inner personalities of each character; a special way to do so.

So, I want to eat your pancreas spends its remaining time travelling with their odd protagonists, visiting places and allowing the two to grow closer as every scene brings us nearer and nearer to imminent death. (It’s not exactly a spoiler, since it’s basically revealed a minute into the show.)

But it’s there where the show falls apart. Albeit the allure of some of its scenes, I want to eat your pancreas abruptly fails in actually moving the story forward and instead, it goes back to square one. It’s a continuous repetition of scenes that never really mattered to the plot as a whole, much to my disappointment.

Yet what this show really missed was with its underdeveloped characters. Sakura, a girl suffering from an incurable disease, is exactly who she seems — a cheerful and upbeat student — whereas the main lead, whose name wasn’t even revealed until the very end, is the polar opposite. When Sakura felt like a plot device with no development whatsoever, our protagonist was a dull, normal student that eventually got influenced by her mirth. It felt like a one-sided, unbalanced conviction, where the female lead’s only purpose is to ‘transform’ the male lead in someone different.

It’s not only the characters, but also it’s loathsome dialogue that constantly felt pointless and unnecessary. We’d have sessions worth of people droning on and on about life choices and personality growth — without any nuanced actions to show for it. To top it off, the overall lack of actual internal dialogue was disappointing and felt like simple narration without substance. It took out male lead’s development to a standstill — there are only limits you can hit without internal dialogue.

And so moving on, the overall idea and death was so anticlimactic that I felt extremely betrayed — we all knew it was going to happen sometime, but letting it end like that practically screamed out, ‘hey, we’re in for the shock factor and horrified tears, so please do cry.’

On a happier note, (with the over-the-top melodrama aside), I want to eat your pancreas does hold some compelling life lessons — it’s the relationships, the choices and the people we meet that eventually changes us. Humans aren’t solidarity creatures, and this movie teaches us just that. That’s why it’s such a waste between all the melodrama that makes up ninety percent of the plot.

TO SUM IT UP, there are lines between narration and pure drama, but I want to eat your pancreas tried doing too many things that lead to eventual nothings. There’s only one credible character in there, and the rest are simply existing to induce cheap tears and additional tea for the extra drama. You could definitely do without this for a while.

ratings =

setting | 4

plot & pacing | 4

characters | 3

overall | 4

thank you for reading through and do drop by my blog for more reviews xx