Pascoite gets bored and reviews anime, vol. 18 · 5:50pm Oct 5th, 2021
Land o' Goshen! On time this week! And freshly back from some literature wins at the county fair! (Though the number of entries was way down from usual this year.)
By chance, this week will knock out all the rest of the Satoshi Kon things I've seen, but there are more I still intend to watch. Featured items are Only Yesterday and Paranoia Agent, after the break.
Somehow, Only Yesterday flew under the radar for me when I was watching Ghibli films, and it's one that's even rather critically acclaimed. So I dove in, expecting good things.
Like some Ghibli movies, this one is really slow-paced, but it even takes on a more slice of life feel than most do. It's even confusing at first. We start out following a lady in her late twenties around as she prepares to take a vacation and endures her mother's entreaties to settle down and get married. Next thing you know, it shifts over to a young middle school girl, and it took me a little while to figure out they're the same person. The movie proceeds to jump back and forth between these time periods and show the parallel tension building over what Taeko wants to do with her life. It's certainly not unusual in the human experience for someone to come out of school thinking they have that figured out, then later on realizing they really don't.
Taeko has an unusual idea of what constitutes a vacation, as she wants to work on a farm out in the country that's owned by her older sister's in-laws. I forget whether she studied up on it beforehand or was already knowledgeable, but she arrives there as very well informed, and they're happy to have the help. The jumps to her past diminish a bit at this point, but various experiences she has there do prompt her memories again. The person who picks her up at the train station is a distant cousin whom she does vaguely remember, and they hit it off well. Though now not only is Taeko's mother pressuring her to get married, her sister's in-laws do too.
The original came out in the early '90s, though an official dub wasn't made until 2016, which got some big-name actors to do the voices. Like several Ghibli films (I remarked on this for Whisper of the Heart), there's not actually all that much plot, so it's hard to describe it and make it sound interesting, but I did find this to be a very charming movie. Some may find the slow pace boring, but it's a nice slice of life and coming of age story, one where Taeko has to go through two turning points in her life. It's even a bit educational, what with the detailed farming info on the unique crop they raise. Art and music were both up to Ghibli's standards.
Rating: very good.
Omoide Poro Poro (translates closer to "Memories Come Tumbling Down"), movie, relevant genres: slice of life, coming of age, romance, drama.
Paranoia Agent is the one TV series Satoshi Kon served as director of. It has his hallmark animation style (which I really like) and blend of fantasy and reality (which I also like, though it tends to take front seat over an actual plot). It starts out with Tsukiko, a character designer, under immense pressure to repeat the recent success she had with a dog character that became insanely popular. Unable to break through with anything, she starts to succumb to the pressure when something simultaneously good and bad happens: she gets attacked and beaten in the street by a young-ish looking guy on rollerblades wielding a bent baseball bat.
From there, the show takes on a mostly anthology feel. More and more people who need some sort of escape find it by getting beaten by this same assailant, whom the public have named "Li'l Slugger" in the dub ("Bat Boy" in the sub). Can't meet a deadline at work? Nobody expects you to when you're in the hospital, and even when you get out, they'll go easy on you. It can give you a respite from bullies, a break from school, maybe even blur out memories you'd rather forget... it gets to the point that people even hope to get attacked.
Some characters make repeat appearances and have unexpected connections. There is a continuous thread of the police trying to figure out who's doing it, and there are two detectives on the case, plus a private eye also trying to solve it on his own. The two most compelling arcs are... well, I don't want to spoil what the twist is with each and how it gets resolved. I'll just say the lady tutor and the high school girl have the most interesting stories, though they're also fairly brutal and even pretty graphic at times. This is a director who's not afraid to do that, as we'll see in the extra reviews today. When I reviewed Millennium Actress a couple volumes ago, there wasn't any such material in there. Of everything I've seen of his so far, that was the only one that isn't graphic at all.
Like pretty much everything I've seen of his, I found the ending disappointing. They're often just overly quickly resolved or stop short of making a point, and this one did have a rather pat ending. It comes full circle back to Tsukiko, and the reveal of what's actually happening wasn't bad per se, but it wasn't explored in the least, just put out there. It left the finale without much punch. Music was quirky and good, again as Kon's stuff usually is. I loved the opening theme (somewhat less after seeing a translation of the lyrics, though I do understand why they were done in a silly manner like that).
Rating: very good.
Moso Dairinin, 13 episodes, relevant genres: thriller, mystery, drama.
What else in in store? Some more Satoshi Kon stuff, among others.
Inuyashiki Last Hero (11 episodes)—this one had caught my eye anyway, but I didn't notice until I actually started watching that it's a MAPPA series. They routinely put out very good stuff, so that even an average one of theirs is pretty good, and... this one was at best average for them. Ichiro is somewhat distant from his family and looks a lot older than he is. He gets a severe health diagnosis, and while lamenting it in a park late one night, some random UFO crashes into him and kills him. It hastily rebuilds him but has little knowledge of what would be appropriate, and doesn't have many options anyway, so it makes him extremely powerful. A high school boy was there, too, and the same thing happens to him. The boy, Hiro, was already somewhat sociopathic, so he uses his newfound power in pretty terrible ways, while Ichiro tries to help people. There are few people in the world Hiro cares anything about, but oddly, one is a friend of his, and this boy doesn't like what Hiro is doing, so ends up allying himself with Ichiro. Of course the whole situation will lead to a confrontation between Hiro and Ichiro, and the battle scenes were decent enough. However, the further things go, the more cliched they get, to the point that about halfway through the series, you could easily predict all the beats it's going to hit from there on. It's also rather graphic with violence and sex, though in only one episode for the latter, and gets overly maudlin in places. Rating: good, relevant genres: sci-fi, drama.
Paprika! (movie)—the title refers to one of the characters' alter egos in the dream world. A brilliant but childlike scientist invents a device that allows someone to see another's dreams. The main application for that is to give them psychological help, but the device is still experimental at the moment. Production models can only show one person's dreams and only with consent, but the two prototypes have no restrictions. Chiba works at this facility, and she takes it upon herself to sneak the device out so she can get a head start with it, meeting clients to help them work through problems in their dreams as her Paprika persona. One of the people she's helping is a police detective. Several mishaps happen with the device, however (not through Chiba's use of it, though), leading the company chairman to put a stop to all work on it. It seems like he has an agenda, and I'll have to skip the details to save space and spoilers, but this leads to a cataclysmic blending of the dream and real worlds (no surprise for a Satoshi Kon film) that Chiba, the detective (Konakawa), and the scientists (Shima and Tokita) have to rectify. In true Kon fashion, it's a disorienting and fast-paced ride, and of everything I've seen of his, this one probably had the most concrete ending, with the possible exception of Millennium Actress. So not only is it a cool journey, but it actually comes to a conclusion that isn't rushed. For that matter, it was nice to see a romance angle that wasn't predicated on people being standard pictures of beauty. There's only one part that gets a bit toward explicit nudity, but even then, not much. Music and art are both great as usual for Kon—I love the opening theme. Rating: good, relevant genres: thriller, mystery, action.
Parasyte -the maxim- (Kiseiju, 24 episodes)—a race of aliens arrives on Earth with the goal of infecting humans and using them as food. Possessed humans lose their own identities and become very powerful, though something went wrong when one tried to hijack main character Shinichi. Instead of nesting in his brain and completely displacing his identity, the parasite is in his arm, and the two remain separate. At first, the alien tries to carry out its initial goals, but as it comes to respect Shinichi, it questions its purpose. Part of that stems from self-preservation, since Shinichi's intact brain compels other parasite-controlled people to attack him. The leader of the aliens also has a different view of things and starts to come around to the possibility of coexistence. Meanwhile, the police and military find out the truth of what's behind the strange murders and try to exterminate the aliens, though finding out who's possessed by one is a significant hurdle. There's kind of a romance B plot that's serviceable, but mostly it's about Shinichi questioning whether he's really any different from the aliens, and the two finding common ground. Indeed, his parasite isn't the only one to change over the course of the show. Shinichi becomes a lot more bitter about the nature of humanity. It's not a bad idea for a series, but something about it just didn't feel that compelling to me. It didn't do a lot to stand out above other similar types of shows. Rating: decent, relevant genres: thriller, action, drama, horror.
Patlabor: The Movie (movie)—I saw this very long ago and don't remember a lot about it. There are multiple movies, series, manga, etc., and they by design each follow their own continuity. The title is "patrol" and "labor" mashed together, which are the two main functions of the mechs that are common around Japan. Lots of Tokyo is undergoing a rebuilding/revitalization project, which means lots of the labor mechs around assisting in the construction. But some of the mechs start acting destructively without their operators' input. As time goes on, more and more do so, though one of the police squadrons seems unaffected. This was all orchestrated by someone who implanted a virus in the mechs at the point of manufacture, and the key that activates it was actually a rather clever touch. The police can't reliably try to counteract the virus, at least not in time to avoid a typhoon that's on its way to the city (the significance of which ties in to what the activation key is), and they can't destroy all the mechs, either, so the only solution is to keep the key from initializing the virus. And that means wreaking havoc on a pretty important construction site. When this came out, mecha anime wasn't such a saturated genre, so I liked it well enough. Today, it's probably just average. Rating: good, relevant genres: sci-fi, drama, action.
Perfect Blue (movie)—another Satoshi Kon film. I have mixed feelings about this one. It's a lot more sexually explicit than I'd like to see. Well, I should get into why. Main character Mima is part of a pop idol group, but in the ubiquitous way actors and singers think they need to branch out into doing the other, she quits her group to move into acting. At first, she just gets some bit parts that thrive only on the novelty of having a celebrity involved. She decides that she needs to diversify into doing roles that wouldn't fit her previously squeaky clean persona, which her manager doesn't particularly care about either way, but her coach Rumi, a former pop idol herself, advises her against. But Mima doesn't listen, and she takes some roles in very adult films and gradually lets photographers convince her to do shoots for adult magazines. It's not so much that these are plot points that bothered me on the explicitness side, more that they actually showed this, like close-ups of the full nude shots in the magazines. It takes a little while for Mima's career to take off, and she gets a bit jealous to see her former bandmates doing so well without her. She's also got a stalker who had followed her since she was still part of the group, and that's where the normal Kon blending of fantasy and reality starts coming in. Mima can no longer tell what's real life and what's her acting roles, someone seems to want her dead, and another version of her that doesn't like her choices says it's time to let her be the one in control. Plus a fan site of hers starts posting content supposedly from Mima herself, and while she hates everything it says, the public believes it's really her. Of all the Kon films, this is the one that's most effective at keeping the audience guessing. Like in Paprika! it's easy to tell what's dream and what's real. It still makes for a fantastical setting, but it's not confusing. This is, and to good effect. I was questioning right to the end whether Mima had gone nuts or if her perception of things was correct. I won't say which, but I did find the ending disappointing, which again is common for me with Kon's stuff. It was really pat, the last line just glibly glosses over what all the aftermath would have been, and with the reveal made, I don't see how numerous third parties couldn't have noticed what was going on. So overall I'd call this mostly really well done, but a throwaway denouement and overly sexually explicit for my tastes. Music was fine, and the art was great. Rating: good, relevant genres: thriller, horror, mystery, action.
Pilot Candidate (Megami Kohosei, 12 episodes + 1 OVA)—I haven't seen the OVA. The series is also known as The Candidate for Goddess. It's another in a long line of shows where only certain people are inherently able to pilot mechs, and in this case, the mechs are called Goddesses. Each one is a little different, and in a way, they're alive and have their own quirks. There's a training program to develop new pilots, and main character Zero is one of the trainees. An overwhelming alien force has destroyed most of humanity throughout the universe, and they have been pushed back to a single planet with the Goddesses as their only viable weapon. During an attack, Zero kind of stumbles into one of the mechs' cockpits, which normally have to be personalized to the pilot. But this mech immediately synchronizes well with him, and he helps fight off the enemy. This means one of two things: either he's physically/psychologically identical to the proper pilot for that mech, or the mech has such a preference for him that she reconfigured herself on the fly. Well, it's the latter, which is unheard of and makes the guy who's supposed to be piloting her understandably pissed. It was a great setup for a series, if close enough to many other ones seen since, but it went nowhere and got canceled, leaving the OVA to try wrapping things up hastily. It didn't do a good job, at least according to the critics. I do feel like it was probably also too slow-paced for its own good, focusing on another student's irrational animosity toward Zero and the minutiae of training, though that intrigue of the Goddesses having seeming intelligence and the one's affinity for Zero kept me engaged. Rating: good, relevant genres: sci-fi, action.
Seen any of these? Did I convince you to try any of them? I'd like to hear about it in the comments.
Last 10:
vol. 8 here
vol. 9 here
vol. 10 here
vol. 11 here
vol. 12 here
vol. 13 here
vol. 14 here
vol. 15 here
vol. 16 here
vol. 17 here
Paprika is definitely one of my favorite Satoshi Kon movies, alongside Millenium Actress. Glad you enjoyed it!
Inuyashiki Last Hero - Loved it, but I have to say it has possibly one of the most abrupt/contrived starts ever. Imperfect but enjoyable overall, if you can make it past Hiro’s first episode. Good gawd...
Paprika! - One of those long term “I should watch this one” that I never do.
Pilot Candidate - I recall watching part if not all of it, but “we” never connected. Can’t say why in particular because it was a while ago.
Keep ‘em comin’!
Perfect Blue was my introduction to Satoshi Kon, and I really enjoyed it. I consider it a classic now.
I remember watching Paranoia Agent! on at least two occasions. I think I wasn't prepared for it the first time, so it kinda flew by me as a big fat "meh", but the second time everything clicked and I appreciated it a lot more. Also, Yume no Shima Shinen Kouen is probably the single best opening song of any anime, at least that I've seen (although Sousei no Aquarion is certainly up there).
And while we're at it, let's not neglect Paprika's The Girl in Byakkoya. Gods, I love that song. The movie was quite excellent as well.
Damn. Now I really wanna watch some Satoshi Kon movies. What for you distract me so, ya dumb rock?
5592024
Inuyashiki also had really uneven pacing, and I got bored by Ichiro's repeated "oh woe is me" scenes. And yes, Hiro's first ep is a tough one. All I had mentioned about the series to a friend who hadn't seen it was that it surprised me how they referred to lots of real-world anime and manga properties, and as I was listing which ones, he remarked, "Yes, I've seen a clip of the home invasion scene." Apparently that's gone a bit viral.
I could definitely see Pilot Candidate not clicking with someone if they'd seen a better mech anime with a similar premise first. Like if you'd seen Neon Genesis Evangelion first, I think this would look derivative and a little mundane in comparison.
5592026
Yes, I did say I loved both of those opening themes. The lyrics to Paranoia Agent's have a real tonal disconnect, which is probably the point, but I'm happier just listening without being cognizant of them. I never looked up the lyrics to Paprika's, if indeed it has any. There's a slightly different version of it out there too that's maybe a little better. You can find the video on YT by looking under that specific title instead of just searching by the movie name.
Oh man, Paprika was great, such a mindfuck. :)
And is that what Paranoia Agent is about? How delightfully bizarre.
5592097
If you think Paprika! was a mindfuck, Perfect Blue is even more so.
I'd definitely recommend Paranoia Agent. As long as you don't mind a blah conclusion, it's a trippy journey getting there, and a couple of the arcs are rather dark.