Lurker > PrinceKaro

Pansage 6
Simisage 4
Pansear 6
Simisear 6
Panpour 5
Simipour 6
Shelmet 1
Accelgor 4
Heatmor 2
Oranguru 3
Passimian 8
Grookey 5
Thwackey 5
Rillaboom 5
Clobbopus 3
Grapploct 4
Kubfu 7
Urshifu 6
Zarude 5
Calyrex 6

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red sox 777 posted...

In that case, what about all the conservative counties of California? The will of the state legislature is not their will. Why shouldn't they get their own state?

Because unlike DC they actually have a voting representative in the legislature? What the hell are you even trying to argue.

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 262
Jona: 246
Inviso: 205
Karo: 197
Genny: 197
Red: 186
Charon: 167

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14. Welcome to the Space Show

Red: 6
Johnbobb: 8
Karo: 13
Inviso: 18
Genny: 22
Charon: 25
Jona: 27

Total: 119

Red: A trip with a spacedog complete with a trip to essentially planet doggo? Im sold. In all seriousness, I liked this movie a lot when they were building up the world on the moon and the planets and stuff, that type of world building always manages to hold my attention as our characters racked up a bunch of debt they couldnt possibly afford on their own. I was less enthusiastic with the climax of the movie, but thoroughly entertained with the world in space this movie decided to build up for us.

Johnbobb: This was such a fun time! Has a very strong Studio Ghibli feel to it, with imagination and creativity flowing out of even the smallest details. I'm sad to say I ended up falling asleep the first time through (due to work; no fault of the film itself) so I ended up seeing the first third and last third before seeing everything in the middle and could only imagine what insanity had happened in between until I rewatched it the next day. All the characters range from solid to great, with Natsuki in particular being a standout. There really wasn't much to dislike. Maybe a little long on the runtime, but I've watched shorter anime films here that felt a lot longer.

Karo: What It Is:
A group of children get whisked off by a talking dog alien and go on an adventure in deux ex machina.

What I Think:
It is one of the better 'ghibli lite' films that you see a lot of these days, a lot of the appeal is seeing all the crazy creatures and locations they encounter, which gives one an eye-of-a-child sense of wonder.
The film would have been better without the whole subplot about Mike Wazowski trying to feed wasabi to Galactus or whatever the fuck, all it does is serve to distract or interrupt the heart of the story.
It will never rank among the greats in the medium, but it is solid for what it is and at least kept me entertained throughout the whole movie.

Score: 75/100

Inviso: This was a fine movie, and it had a bunch of good parts to it, but it has the problem of being TOO imaginative for its own good. Any individual plot from this movie would have worked. Kids find a weird alien dog/superhero and help him, so they get to go to space? Okay, sure. Go with a nice story about kids exploring the universe and having character growth and change. That works fine, and I liked it. Or, have a story about how villain aliens come to Earth to abduct humans, rabbits, and wasabi, and a bunch of human kids find an alien dog to help them fight the bad guys. That also worked, and was fine. The problem is that these two stories got interlocked, and it feels like neither one was given proper focus. The actual PLOT plot fails because it relies a TON on information the audience doesnt get, and doesnt make sense. And that plot winds up detracting from the quality of the slice of life stuff. None of this implies the movie is terrible. Im still ranking it in a relatively high tier. It just could have been a lot better, in my opinion.

Genny: For a movie featuring a cast of predominantly children, Welcome to the Space Show is a lot more tolerable than it has any business being. Of the many coming of age films on this list, Space Show is middle of the road. Where it excels is its colorful cast of side characters of varying designs, backgrounds, and planetary origins. Not ten minutes pass where I'm not looking at some strange new creature and I love the world building involved in that creativity. Unfortunately where the movie drags is its overlong runtime, and focus on the human race. I understand why Natsuki and Amane needed more screentime than anyone else, but were any of the other children actually necessary? Did we need an eleven minute sidequest where the plot is sidelined so the side characters can get jobs so they can earn enough pods to get inside a space shuttle bound for home? That's a lot of sides I didn't need with my main course to be honest. (Before anyone points it out I realize the characters needed the temp job experience to realize what they each want to be when they grow up, but we really didn't need five kids in the first place) I think the entire movie should've been about Pochi instead.

Charon: This movie was saved until the end of our watching due to its length, and my perceived notion that it wasn't going to be very enjoyable. I will say that I liked it more than I thought I would but I still think this movie is at least 30 minutes longer than it needed to be. There's a lot of pointless filler in here, like when they all get a job, since that's immediately nullified by Natsuki's selling of snack food. The backstory of Pochi with the main villains isn't terribly interesting because it's barely elaborated on. Surprisingly though, I wasn't offended or annoyed by any of the characters despite them being all children! That's a pretty incredible feat for any film despite other shortcomings.

Jona: This movie is really charming with its fun design of aliens. The world of Welcome to the Space Show is definitely a sight to behold. The cast of kids are quite solid with Natsuki and Amane being the highlight with their relationship having a focus. The film could have had just those two being the only kids in the movie and I think it would have been better for it. At over 2 hours long, this is far too long for a movie thats aimed at kids and definitely starts to wear out its welcome.

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 256
Jona: 233
Inviso: 201
Karo: 196
Genny: 189
Red: 178
Charon: 156

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Karo: What It Is:
A scifi anthology movie featuring three segments based on short stories of Katsuhiro Otomo.

What I Think:
'Magnetic Rose' is by far the strongest segment, the incomparable Satoshi Kon was involved in this scene and it shows. The guy really likes his dream/illusion stories.
'Stink Bomb' is a stupid story about this guy who turns into a living chemical weapon that for some reason doesn't affect him and everyone's attempts to stop him are as inept as Trump trying to stop the coronavirus and I guess this is supposed to be funny or whatever.
'Cannon Fodder' had some potential with the world they had created, but it felt that by the end they had done just about nothing with it other than make some vague point about the futility of war, and I was disappointed greatly.
With such a large variation in the quality of the segments, I can't really recommend this movie as a whole. Maybe just watch the first part and call it good.

Score: 60/100

Jona: This is hard to rank due to this movie being three very different parts. The first part is just fantastic and has a great spooky atmosphere. The hallucinations are so fascinating to watch and the reveal of the fate of Heintzs daughter is quite emotional. The second part is a lighter affair despite all the deaths in it. Its a bit too long for the joke it makes but at the same time, its pretty funny seeing what length are gone to stop Nobuo. The music is pretty great in the segment too. The third one didnt do much for me story-wise but it looked good and I liked that it looked like it was one take. The movie as a whole is pretty enjoyable despite the contrast in segments.

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15. Memories

Johnbobb: 10
Inviso: 13
Red: 14
Genny: 17
Charon: 23
Karo: 24
Jona: 24

Total: 125

Johnbobb: Not sure how to rate this. A spectacular film, followed by a solid shorter film, followed by a dull shortest film. I kind of wish I could just rank Magnetic Rose by itself because GODDAMN that was just superb. Stink Bomb was a surprisingly funny story giving how incredibly dark it was, and Cannon Fodder was an unfortunately accurate title and put me to sleep the first time I watched it.

Inviso: I dont know where this film will end up in my overall ranking, as Im watching everything in chronological order. But let it be known that if this film winds up sagging in my rankings, it is entirely because of the existence of Cannon Fodder. Both Magnetic Rose and Stink Bomb are great, and honestly, the two of those make up about the total runtime of a standard, ninety-minute movie. I could rewatch Memories and JUST watch those two without missing anything. Cannon Fodder just feels like a last-minute addition, because anthology movies need at least three stories to really work as a decent anthology.

Brief breakdown of the stories though. Magnetic Rose is a GREAT sci-fi/horror film. I know it fits more in the vein of Ghost Ship, a film whose only real claim to fame is an awesome opening sequence. But I think Magnetic Rose does the whole haunted ship thing better, by humanizing the characters more. Its one ghost, manipulating two guys (and killing two others who are less important), and thats all you need. You have the goofball who falls in love with a ghost and becomes a willing sacrifice after spending most of the movie fucking around and being unsafe. And then you have the more grounded of the pairing, who gets introduced as a family man with guilty over his daughters death. All of this comes together in a great way with extremely good animation.

Stink Bomb is a bit lower brow, but its funnier than Magnetic Rose. Really, the whole film couldve been solved if either those guards from the first tunnel thought to yell HEY, DONT COME ANY CLOSER! the second they realized Nobuo was the cause of the gas, or if he fucking listened to his grandmother. But its still a fun story. Guy turned himself into a walking, deadly stink bomb, and the military CANT fucking control him. Their weapons are useless, and hes on a fucking mission from God to deliver some paperwork to his boss. It turns into a complete comedy of errors, right down to the ending. Its likeMagnetic Rose is the standard horror movie, and Stink Bomb is your horror comedy. Both work, just for different reasons.

Cannon Fodder sucks. The animation is shit, the story ranges from bland to nonexistent, and I just dont give a shit to waste anymore words on it.

Red: This is a tough one to rank because it really is 3 very different movies collected in one. The first is a rather horrifying sci-fi event of an apparently haunted spacecraft where everybody for all purposes essentially dies. Yes, lost in space is dead. But it absolutely keeps you interested on just what is going on and what fate awaits all our characters. The second is, year appropriately, a guy that becomes a literal walking deadly virus/gas spewing dude toxic to all around him. He is the worst at maintaining social distancing. His horrifying trip borders on being a comedy, and was also rather entertaining to me. The last was the dud of the group and kept this movie down for me, we know its a cannon based town, they fire at an unknown enemy. But there isnt much payoff here to really make me feel much of anything for it.

Genny: 1 >> 2 >>>>> 3. I will say this of Memories: Had the entire movie been just the Magnetic Rose short it would have landed in my top ten most certainly, which is why I'm not a huge fan of ranking anthology-type films, where the whole must be judged by the sum of its parts rather than the individual components that comprise it. Magnetic Rose is everything I love in the science fiction and thriller genres wrapped up in a concise 44-minute package and garnished with a lovely little bow of existential horror. The action and psychological mind games are reminiscent of Perfect Blue (which makes a lot of sense considering who wrote this short), but the general atmosphere is more like that of Cowboy Bebop- specifically Toys in the Attic. My favorite moment by far comes in retrospect: the moment when Zeintz fails to catch the music box figurine was some excellent foreshadowing to how Emily dies, and that haunting revelation that he contributed to her death by not setting realistic limitations for her is worthy of a chef's kiss.

I truly don't have much to say about the other two. Stink Bomb is fun, but lacks depth and emotional resonance, and Cannon Fodder is slow-paced and esoteric. I just felt bored with the latter and disappointed with the former. Stink Bomb's protagonist might be the most dimwitted lead character in anything I've watched since The Little Mermaid, but unlike Ariel his antics are at least entertaining until they overstay their welcome. After a certain point I just wished he'd stop succeeding at escaping death and/or detainment because it was no longer hilarious so much as tedious; and I still don't understand how he managed to get into that suit by the end. It's better than the last short of course, which I didn't understand at all and am more inclined to call pretentious than subtle.

Charon: I think if this was entered as Magnetic Rose only, I could have ranked this just a bit higher (it's still relatively short, but I truly feel it's masterfully done). The first episode is definitely the standout of the group. In a list that lacks horror and psychological tension, this was a much welcome surprise when I watched it. The visuals are enveloping and haunting and the story, while simple, is very concise and they do an immaculate job of drawing you in with such little time. The other two episodes would be the reason this drops down a bit, as I try to rank this based on the entire project as a whole rather than just one third of it. I mean Stink Bomb was fine, I guess. A bit Looney Tunes in nature I think. Cannon Fodder is just kind of... well, fodder. Nothing much happens and it isn't super interesting, despite the world at first capturing my attention. They don't really do anything with it. I never really understood the connection made the three episodes; I don't see anything that makes them a complete piece.

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Beastars

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Madoka Magica

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Uxie 5
Mesprit 7
Azelf 7
Kyurem 2
Nihilego 6
Buzzwole 1
Pheromosa 4
Xurkitree 3
Celesteela 4
Kartana 1
Guzzlord 1
Necrozma 3
Poipole 5
Naganadel 4
Stakataka 3
Blacephalon 4
Hatenna 4
Hattrem 7
Hatterene 6
Duraludon 2

Black Kyurem 2
White Kyurem 2
Dusk Mane Necrozma 4
Dawn Wings Necrozma 3
Ultra Necrozma 3

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 251
Jona: 224
Inviso: 199
Karo: 187
Genny: 187
Red: 177
Charon: 148

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16. Mary and the Witch's Flower

Genny: 12
Johnbobb: 13
Karo: 14
Charon: 19
Inviso: 20
Red: 26
Jona: 28

Total: 132

Genny: As the flagship film for a spiritual successor to Ghibli, Mary and the Witch's Flower falls just a bit short of achieving that gravitas. Judging it on its own merits however it is quite good. The story follows a well meaning protagonist that only wants to help but can't seem to do anything right, and that's relatable. Of course, that all changes after she follows an adorably animated feline duo and happens upon a flower that gives her an affinity to magic and broom-flying. Now for the first time in her life she's gifted at something and so she revels in it, and again I can relate to this. However because she's a child and a bit nave she doesn't know who she can trust and ends up endangering those dear to her.

That's where Mary ceases to be relatable to me, and the main gripe I have with the movie. She clearly begins to doubt Mistress Mumblechook, and while she's backed herself into a bit of a corner she has a different option than throwing Peter under the bus: use her extremely potent magical ability to escape, and yet she doesn't take it. Unsurprisingly Peter is put in peril as a direct result of her actions and while she admits this and apologizes for it, I still think it was a dick move. I suppose without that sequence of events we wouldn't have been able to experience my favorite segment of the movie (the menagerie of experimental animals and their subsequent escape), but the point still stands. Another counterpoint to Mary: who the heck would throw away the last fly-by-night bulb? Not me, no sir-ee!

Johnbobb: In this movie (that isn't Spirited Away) a young girl (not Chihiro, the young girl from Spirited Away), stumbles into a magical world (not the magical world from Spirited Away) where she, through luck and happenstance, joins a magical institution full of bizarre beings (not the magical bath house from Spirited Away) run by a mean-spirited old witch (not Yubaba, the mean-spirited witch from Spirited Away). The young girl has to then save a young boy who is transformed into an animal (not Haku, the young boy who transforms into a dragon in Spirited Away) and some other transformation victims (not her pig-transformed parents, like in Spirited Away) while also surviving the giant gelatinous monster (not No-Face, from Spirited Away) that is wreaking havoc on the magical world before she's able to return to her own. Anyway, good movie.

Karo: What It Is:
What might happen if Hayao Miyazaki binge watched the Harry Potter movies.

What I Think:
This is a decent film that feels like a sellout to ghibli nostalgia designed to make money. All the people seem like almost-analogues of various ghibli characters, even down to meticulously copying Miyazaki's art style.
But this is no Totoro or Kiki, very little about the movie is memorable despite trying way way too hard to be whimsical in the manner of the famous anime studio.
It is kind of disappointing that the first movie Yonebayashi makes after forming his own studio is basically just 'notice me, Miyazaki-senpai'. I mean, why did you even leave ghibli in the first place?

Score: 74/100

Charon: If you asked me to name the safest film on this list, it would definitely be this one. In what I think a lot feel is an attempt to capture the old Studio Ghibli magic, this film is good... good enough, for sure. The biggest issue with this film for me is that it could have and should have been so much greater. While I still like it and feel it's an easy rewatch, part of me looks within and sees the flaws that a good film has which prevent it from being great. There are things like the main characters; why should we really care about them? There's not a ton of backstory or drive behind them. We learn scarcely little about Mary; there's just no arc to her character. Peter is just some kid who insults the protagonist; why should we care about him and the rescue? But I think the biggest issue for me was the world building. It built up this fabulous world we never get to really learn about. Mary's trip through the school is simply that; we never get to see her applying anything or taking part in the learning. She just passes through, and it all seems so sudden and I can't help but feel disappointed there wasn't more interaction with this interesting place. It would have been an easy top 10 for me if it just corrected these flaws.

Inviso: Watching this movie, my first instinct was that this was a Ghibli film, but I knew Marnie was the last of the OG Ghibli movies. Upon further review, it seems like this is the spiritual successor to a Studio Ghibli film, due to previous staff working on it. And it feels like it. Butit feels like one of the AVERAGE Ghibli movies. You know, like your Totoro or Kiki, where its not a BAD movie, but its just nothing all that special compared to some of the top tier films. The main character starts out as pretty unlikable, but then this movie turns into a lesser of what Id consider Coraline (mostly because the villains arent QUITE evil enough, and have the traditional, Ghibli style of not QUITE being irredeemable). I mean, its still interesting to see a sinister witchcraft school, and the animation is fascinating in the Ghibli stylebut I just didnt come out of this movie feeling it was any kind of memorable.

Red: Honestly early on I thought Id enjoy this movie a lot more than I did, but it really fails to expand in any way on the world its trying to build or the characters it instills. Instead of discovering anything about magic whatsoever, our main character is always fully limited by flowers of plot convenience. The villains are outright evil except this is completely brushed off at the end when get half redeemed because this movie just plays too nice. Not to mention they seem in charge of a big school of magic that never seems to have any life at all. Everything in this movie is left shallow, leaving a sour taste where you just feel this movie failed to deliver on any character, plot, or concept.

Jona: A perfectly acceptable Studio Ghibli film that isnt Studio Ghibli. It doesnt do anything thats outside the box of Ghibli but it does them pretty well.

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 248
Jona: 212
Inviso: 195
Karo: 185
Genny: 183
Red: 167
Charon: 145

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17. The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl

Johnbobb: 2
Jona: 7
Karo: 19
Red: 22
Genny: 25
Charon: 29
Inviso: 31

Total: 135

Johnbobb: My biggest takeaway from this entire anime list is how much I absolutely adore the works of Masaaki Yuasa, a man I had never heard of a few months ago (funny enough, I had actually seen the Devilman Crybaby series he made, and just didn't realize it until after seeing his films in this list). His art style is sloppy and surreal and just entirely unique, and I fucking love it. I don't even know how to find the words to describe what a master this guy is. After seeing four of his films on this list, I'm completely sold on him as a filmmaker and really want to make it a point to see everything else he puts out. As for NISWOG, I don't even know where to begin. It's like a dozen different, wildly unique movies squeezed into one, with only a slight thread of narrative cohesion between them, and I honestly just didn't want it to end. The night is too short, as it were.

Jona: The premise of this seems like something youd find in a Hollywood film with a guy going through a bunch of wacky events to get the girl. However, this just goes the extra mile and then some when it comes to delivering on those wacky events. There are so many random, enjoyable events that happen throughout the film that its hard to to even start giving examples. The animation is great and help match the frantic nature of the movie. The main male characters role can be summed up as I hope Kohai notices me but its just funny seeing what lengths hell go to make that happen. The ending of the movie is also pretty nice and a good contrast to the rest of the movie. The movie really evokes the message of living life to its fullest. What a ride.

Karo: What It Is:
A young woman has a night on the town and consumes way too much alcohol while everyone catches the coronavirus.

What I Think:
This is a very strange movie that is on the very 'out there' side of Yuasa's offerings, there are so so many 'what the fuck' kind of scenes, which range from cute to downright unpleasant.
It is probably a bit better if watched while as drunk as the movie's director, though it isnt totally without some merit when sober as some scenes can be very touching.

Score: 66/100

Red: This is one of those weird in a not bad way movies. I think a few do this better, and sometimes this movie is just weird and not enjoyable, including a strange adventure through an outdoor way too much effort used book sale. Everything kind of comes together in the end, but portions of the movie definitely make you prone to wanting to tune out because they simply arent as interesting as it seems to think it is. In keeping with the times, everyone spreads a virus because of course.

Genny: Despite the name of this film being The Night is Short, Walk On Girl, the titular night seemed to last forever. This was the last of three movies (so far) that we've had to break up into two separate sittings, though the primary reason for this one being broken was not my tiredness (though it was a factor), but an issue that came from trying to rewind. Suffice it to say it restarted and we were like 45 minutes in so that was a wrap. But I digress. Shaking up the status quo, the plot of this film is essentially a senpai trying desperately to get his kouhai to notice him while various hijinks ensue. That's... the whole movie. There's not a lot of plot really, just a lot of hilarious situations. It's a fun, lighthearted and very dynamic movie, but its lack of a cohesive plot lands it in the bottom half of the four films by the same director on this list.

Charon: Fairly unique, but also a bit too "much" at times, this film is guilty of what I feel a good many of these movies without a traditional plotline with a crisis in it are; too much filler that doesn't mean anything. I did find some of the antics of the guy funny, but at the same time I feel like the movie wanted me to root for him to get with this girl that he's creepily stalked for ever how long. I mean, this guy is definitely a creeper. There are also two female characters I got mixed up in this film and I didn't really understand what was going on because of them has such a minor role before she's seemingly randomly thrust into a more prominent role as a love interest for a more critical character. It's an okay change of pace movie for a project I guess, but the weird randomness and strange male protagonist are a bit disconcerting.

Inviso: Despite the short runtime, there really isnt a lot of positivity I can muster towards this film otherwise. The plot is basically divided into three segments: thirty minutes about a night out drinking, thirty minutes about a school fair, and thirty minutes about a wide-spread cold virus. Calling this a plot is REALLY generous. The thing is, you have this creeper weirdo whose sole character trait is being a creeper weirdo, and the object of his affections is an unflappable girl with no personality traits whatsoever. And there are just badly-animated shenanigans throughout the whole movie, as the creeper tries to admit his love to a girl who doesnt show any real emotion to ANY event going on around her. Everything in this movie just gets so unnecessarily chaotic, and its really dumb and hard to follow.

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Beastars

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Madoka Magica

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 229
Jona: 202
Karo: 183
Inviso: 181
Genny: 175
Red: 162
Charon: 133

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18. Napping Princess

Charon: 14
Inviso: 15
Red: 15
Johnbobb: 21
Karo: 22
Genny: 23
Jona: 30

Total: 140

Charon: A cute movie with a unique idea of telling two stories at the same time. Both stories are interesting and it's fun to see how the characters in this dream world correspond with those from the outside world, since they were all created by the main character's father, it's his interpretation of these characters that's presented to the viewer. I will admit I was surprised that Ancien was actually his wife instead of Kokone the entire time, but at the same time I felt the end part of the movie got a little strange and perhaps didn't stay true to itself. It's like, at one point it's suggested other characters (the guy she was traveling with, Morio) can enter the dreams if they're both asleep. But later we see characters act like they're Kokone's dream and are from the outside world. I don't know, it got hard to follow at times but I still think it had a pretty strong narrative.

Inviso: This was a solid movie. It had the kind of old school, youthful adventure feel to it (complete with sinister corporate businessman villain) that you would find in an eighties movie, and I enjoyed that. I yelled at Kokone SO many times for making DUMB fucking decisions, but Ill give her a pass, because some of the things that happened in the movie reinforced her bizarre belief in a fantasy realm, so I cant really blame her for certain aspects of her stupidity. And honestly? For the MOST part, I found the shift between reality and dream sequences to be handled well. The dream sequences did a nice job of unfolding the backstory so it didnt feel like we were getting his with a boring, exposition dump.

Howeverthe LAST dream sequence was a bit much. You go into it and PARTS of it make sense. The villain getting his comeuppance for pulling some shady shit is fine. The problem is that going into that dream sequence, I had NO idea what ANY of the symbolism in the dream was supposed to represent. Suddenly, Kokone is captured and gets away, and her dad is piloting a mech to fight a colossus that was never REALLY explained well enough. And then we cut back to reality and Kokone just fell from a tower and her dad caught her and then a self-driving motorcycle shows up to pull a balloon underneath them and save the day. Its really weird because of just how LONG that dream sequence is, and it ultimately feels completely disconnected from the plot. Its not longer explaining the past, but fictionalizing the presentin a weird way that didnt make sense. Thats the one off-putting thing that sank this movie a bit in my estimation.

Red: Parallel worlds? Dream world with impact on the real world? Strange coincidence that just happens to coincide with the dream world with sleepwalking or something? The answer to which of these is happening is never quite all that clear. All so that a company can obtain a really good self-driving car system. Were also left where both worlds are consistently left half-resolved and it is consistently less than satisfying. The twist of the dream being her mother was kind of touching if still strange looking back on it. Also, bad call betting on a sure thing like the 2020 olympics happening. Bet they never saw that coming.

Johnbobb: I really wasn't sure how I was gonna feel about them doing a modern Japanese remake of The NeverEnding Story but giving Atreyu a motorcycle and making Falkor into a giant mech were brilliant creative decisions, bravo.

Karo: What It Is:
A young girl saves the world via narcolepsy.

What I Think:
This is another one of those weird 'almost ghibli' films that have popped up over the last decade and one of the less notable.
So whenever the protagonist falls asleep, she enters a parallel dimension, and uses this power to stop the latest ipad technology from falling into the hands of generic corporate goons.
There is just something missing from this film that I can't quite put my finger on. I want to think this film is charming but I don't. I want to be interested in the story but I'm not. I want the movie to be good but it isn't.

Score: 63/100

Genny: Part of me thinks Charon picked Napping Princess just to tease me for dozing off during so many of these movies, and I must say he chose a poor time to test my endurance with this one... That's not to say it's a bad movie, it's just not as exciting as some of the other films on this list despite its fantasy world sharing the runtime with the world grounded in reality. I did not like the narrative device toward the end of the film when it seemed like the two worlds were merging because it made things confusing and more difficult to follow, yet the movie does another confusing rug-pull only to debunk it and show the aftermath of what really happened which befuddled me even more.

Jona: I thought this was going to be a coming-of-age story but ended up with something different. I wish I got the coming-of-age story instead. It felt like they were setting up for one too with Kokone wondering where to go for college and what to do during summer vacation. That ends up being important though and ends up being about Kokones dreams and them happening in real life. The dreams are easily the best part of the movie with those scenes being quite imaginative. The shenanigans with Shijima Motors on the other hand wasnt exactly the most thrilling. The reveal of the fate of Kokones mother fell flat for me. I found the soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura to be fine and fitting but also somewhat distracting since I wasnt expecting Yoko Shimomura. Some creative stuff here but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

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Tepig 5
Pignite 2
Emboar 4
Minccino 10
Cinccino 10
Deerling 8
Sawsbuck 8
Emolga 9
Pawniard 2
Bisharp 1
Cobalion 7
Terrakion 4
Virizion 7
Komala 6
Skwovet 8
Greedent 5
Silicobra 3
Sandaconda 2
Milcery 4
Alcremie 8

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 226
Jona: 190
Karo: 179
Inviso: 178
Genny: 170
Red: 159
Charon: 129

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19. The Castle of Cagliostro

Jona: 4
Inviso: 14
Red: 16
Charon: 21
Karo: 25
Genny: 26
Johnbobb: 34

Total: 140

Jona: You can definitely see Miyazakis blueprints all over this with the environments, the plane scenes, Lady Clarisse looking exactly like Nausicaa and just how the movie feels with it being thrilling and fun. The characters are all likable but its definitely weird seeing how they are here compared to everything else in the Lupin III franchise. The animation is fantastic stuff with some amazing action scenes. This still really holds up well.

Inviso: I never really watched Lupin III that much when it aired onwas it Adult Swim? Adult Swim used to just show anime, if I recall correctly. That being said, I did NOT realize that Lupin III was as old as the late 70s. It does NOT look its age. I mean, we watched Nausicaa for the Ghibli ranking, which was half a decade later, and this movie looked, in my opinion, similar in animation quality. Or at least as similar as you could expect from a more comedy-oriented anime. All that being said, I really enjoyed this film. It was goofy and it was lively and it managed to put together a decent heist/mystery plot, all in the course of about a hundred minutes.

Lupin himself is a perfect example of the lovable rogue archetype, especially because he manages to pull of that fine line of being heroic, without being TOO heroic that his heroism feels unrealistic in comparison to his thievery. Its just interesting to watch a charming dude out-maneuver a hi-tech security system and an army of goons, regardless of how incompetent said goons may be. And compared to him, the Count is just the perfect example of a sleazy scumbag villain. Hes so clearly just trying to get power, and seeing him meet his end as a result of his own greed is just so satisfying. Oh! And giving Zenigata a hero moment by revealing the counterfeiting scam was a nice capper to give him some positives, even if Lupin escaped once again. This was just a really fun action/adventure movie, and it was really good to have such a good film so early in the list.

Red: You know this movie is old because its partially a quest to save a princess the main character apparently became infatuated with when she was, well, way too young. Once you look past the creepy part, its kind of a fun heist turned do-gooder movie to stop a villain with literal ninja guards from continuing to rule the world with his really good fake money. Granted, knowing its counterfeit that easy should mean everyone else knows it has no value either, but well that slide a bit for plot purposes.

Charon: While this film does show its age as it's pretty clearly from a larger body of work (even if I haven't ever watched it), it's still a charming older film in some ways. I thought the villain was pretty lame but I liked all the heroes here and I can understand how this property has such a great reputation and history associated with it. I wanted to like it more honestly, but perhaps I really am dead-set against falling in love with movies of a certain age. However I do respect the movie for the influence it had on the animation world, in terms of being an influencer and a career-starter for many of the most important names in animation of the last 50 years.

Karo: What It Is:
A film adaptation of the Lupin the Third series that is notable for being the directorial debut of one Hayao Miyazaki, and is often (incorrectly) attributed by people as the first Studio Ghibli film.

What I Think:
It is something that was very good for its time, as is often cited. But the key phrase here is 'for its time'.
The animation seems cheap compared to Miyazaki's other works, not to mention modern anime in general. The characters are one-note and dumb, none worse than the female lead who is basically just a simpering geisha blob who waits around crying for someone to save her badly-drawn ass.
For full enjoyment of this film you really need to like the Lupin characters (I don't), otherwise it is just a second-rate heist movie that nobody would give a shit about if it wasn't made by the director of Spirited Away.

Score 59/100

Genny: I grew up with Lupin the Third, so I was really excited to see Castle of Cagliostro for the first time only for vcharon and Netflix to double down and deal me the deadliest of low blows. The English dub for this, and I can't stress this enough, is terrible. I could get over the fact that none of the characters sound like how I imagine they should if only each and every one of them didn't refer to the man whose name is Arsne Lupin III as "Wolf" as though that's his name. Yes lupin is French for wolf, but that's not how language works: you don't translate proper nouns! That'd be like if I went to Japan and introduced myself as semiprecious gemstone instead of "Amber". Now that we've got that out of the way this movie was alright. It's got all the hijinks of your typical high-stakes Lupin adventure, and you can definitely see that early Miyazaki influence in the details such as backgrounds and facial expressions (especially that dog). That said the movie as a whole hasn't aged particularly well, particularly the female ideologies.

Johnbobb: This movie just didn't really make me feel any sort of way. The best thing I can really say about it is that, like with Mimic and Cronos for Guillermo del Toro, I can see how this led to Miyazaki's much better films down the line, even if I wasn't grabbed by this one personally. It's fun enough, and I'm sure it was great for its time, but I ultimately found it to be pretty forgettable.


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Beastars

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 211
Jona: 175
Inviso: 173
Karo: 173
Genny: 163
Red: 156
Charon: 127

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Madoka Magica

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20. Mind Game

Johnbobb: 1
Genny: 9
Jona: 11
Charon: 12
Inviso: 34
Red: 34
Karo: 40

Score: 141

Johnbobb: Wow. Edit: Holy shit this movie is so goddamn good holy fuck what the fuck was this why am I just now finding out about this goddamn goddamn fuck fuck this is so good

Genny: At the time I'm writing this (with only 4 films left on this list that I've yet to see) Mind Game has clenched the crown of funniest film on this list. I'll be honest, the art style was a huge deterrent for me initially with its sudden shifts between stylized cartoonish frames and those that were hyper realistic. I had almost written this one off completely, but I'm so glad it was included on this list because it was a freaking treasure trove of joy and laughter for me. The pacing is all over the place, but the movie reaches its zenith in the moments ensuing Nishi's death. Thereupon he's tortured with visions of his own death from multiple angles and in various artistic styles by yet another in a long list of shapeshifters that I adulate: Kami-Sama. The literal God is only in the film for about seven minutes, but he stole the show for me. Though Mind Game does lose a bit of steam after Nishi gets his second chance at life- and, might I add, I loved his redo- there are flashes of that same quick-paced brilliance throughout.

Jona: I definitely predict that this movie wont do well in this group but this really felt imaginative and fresh. Its just so insane, chaotic and unpredictable that I cant help but really like this movie. The soundtrack is great and the animation is amazing and can match the insanity that is on screen. It definitely can be too insane and uneven though although I also feel that its like that on purpose. What an experience.

Charon: In one of the strangest surprises to myself, this was really an enjoyable film. I had zero hope for this because as it became, it seemed to be full of nonsense and I did not like the art direction in some parts (thankfully they took it easy on that front, especially as the film progressed). This film is all of the place with action, comedy, drama and even horror here and there. I'm almost at a loss of words on how to really describe it or say why I liked it as much as I did. The cast is narrow which I think makes for strong characters and despite some of the perceived randomness and silliness, I think there's a deep story that's told here.

Inviso: I genuinely have no idea what the fuck was going on in this movie. Its likethe art style is pretty bad and everything is so chaotic and randombut it COULD have still worked. The movie feels like they had an idea, said idea only really worked for about thirty minutes, and then the writers decided lets throw everyone in the belly of a whale and just let em live theyre on a deserted island for a while. You have this AWESOME concept of a guy resurrecting himself by sheer force of will, and he uses that information to go on a badass car chase. And the whole Im not ready to die storyline just gets dropped for some weird, whale-based, slice-of-life story. Dont get me wrongonce theyre in the whale, I actually dont MIND the slice-of-life. Butthis whole movie is just so confusing and aimless. Its REALLY weird and such a wasted opportunity.

Red: A coward gets a second chance at life and just when you think maybe this is going to go somewhere everyone gets swallowed by a whale and weirdness ensues. Then more weirdness ensues. At a certain point I just kind of gave up on what was going on. At least it finally stopped with the weird looking faces from the beginning. Probably another movie with some deeper intended meaning that my brain just never felt invested in enough to care about.

Karo: What It Is:
Masaaki Yuasa's first movie, which is about being people being eaten by a whale. It otherwise defies description, and that is probably for the best.

What I Think:
Yuasa shows great inexperience as a director here, you can't just throw out random plot points to be weird and expect it to work in any way. His later movies have some structure to the story other than 'crazy shit happens for no reason', but this is just one giant mess in every measurable metric.
The animation is janky, unappealing and low budget, and contains some of the most disturbing animated facial expressions outside of Shark Tale. The characters are all a bunch of unrelatable fuckwads and I was actively rooting for the whale to win and digest them all.
You can't take a bunch of random images and call it a story. You can't take the scribbles of a lobotomized monkey and call it art. You can't take LSD and call it creativity. And you certainly can't take a lump of shit and call it a movie.

Score: 7/100

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Mudkip 4
Marshtomp 5
Swampert 5
Taillow 4
Swellow 4
Wingull 2
Pelipper 3
Makuhita 4
Hariyama 3
Castform 5
Kecleon 2
Spheal 5
Sealeo 4
Walrein 4
Clamperl 2
Huntail 4
Gorebyss 5
Regirock 4
Regice 5
Registeel 3
Regigigas 2
Regieleki 3
Regidrago 1

Mega Swampert 3

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1. ???
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???
5. ???
6. ???
7. ???
8. ???
9. ???
10. ???
11. ???
12. Liz and the Blue Bird
13. ???
14. ???
15. Colorful
16. Mirai
17. ???
18. Vampire Hunter D
19. ???
20. Giovanni's Island
21. ???
22. ???
23. Children of the Sea
24. ???
25. ???
26. The Fantastic Adventures of Unico
27. Angel's Egg
28. Miss Hokusai
29. In This Corner of the World
30. Phoenix 2772
31. Dead Leaves
32. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters
33. The Wonderland
34. Fireworks
35. Little Prince and the Eight Headed Dragon
36. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
37. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
38. Blood: the Last Vampire
39. Appleseed
40. ???

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 192
Jona: 166
Inviso: 159
Karo: 153
Genny: 152
Red: 142
Charon: 119

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21. Giovanni's Island

Jona: 3
Inviso: 9
Karo: 20
Johnbobb: 20
Charon: 28
Genny: 30
Red: 31

Total: 141

Jona: While I appreciated the subject matter of the 1985 adaptation of Night on the Galactic Railroad, the movie itself left a lot to be desired. I really like how well the themes and quotes are integrated here and how they relate to the history-based drama of Junpei and his family. It can be a bit too in-your-face about it though and there can be times where a quote is narrated and then immediately said by a character. The movie has its heartwarming moments but its also dramatic and really heavy. It can be heavy to the point of hopelessness of seeing the characters turn out well. The ending is poignant yet uplifting and really feels appropriate for the movie.

Inviso: I had to go back and check, because as I watched this movie, I was relatively certain that I hated Night on the Galactic Express when I watch it for the previous anime list. Yet, despite heavily referencing the book that movie was based upon, I never hated this movie. Referencing a completely DIFFERENT anime list, when we watched Grave of the Fireflies, I loved it for its emotional tone and because I find Japanese media discussing the end of World War II from a Japanese perspective to be fascinating. The same is true in this movie. Were viewing the world through a lens of two children who are stuck in a shitty situation after Japan lost the war, and Russia over their home. At first, theres some minor adaptation, and Junpei even develops a crush on a Russian girlbut things start to get much worse very quickly. The gets split apart, theyre forced to live in a concentration camp, and its just rough watching the impact on innocents. Im not sure if I prefer this to Fireflies though. This certainly has a happier ending, so thats gotta count for something. Still sad, butyou knowhappier. And it was very good and enjoyable film.

Karo: What It Is:
The story of two young boys who live on an island in WWII era Japan. This will end well, right?

What I Think:
Basically the russians take over the island at the end of the war, and horribly oppress the islanders. The protagonist befriends a young russian girl but they still get sent to concentration camps and a bunch of characters die randomly.
It is a decent movie that is not quite as depressing as Barefoot Gen (and a lot better made), but like most of these anime films about WWII it is too much a downer to ever want to see again.

Score: 65/100

Johnbobb: No, YOU'RE crying.

Charon: Just what I never wanted to see: another Galactic Railroad film. Thankfully this one only makes allusions to the apparently popular Japanese entity, because if I had to endure another of my #40 of the first projects I'm not sure I could handle it. This movie is still full of death though, thankfully without the cats this time. My biggest hangup with this movie revolves around the plotline for Junpei and Tanya. This was seemingly going to be the basis for the main part of the plot, yet it sort of gets abandoned halfway through and they instead go down a darker rabbit hole where we get a Weekend at Bernie's moment crossed with some Grave of the Fireflies. It's a poignant film, but as was the case in a few others like this on other projects, the death elements unsettled me but didn't quite move me as I wasn't really invested in the characters prior to their deaths.

Genny: Having nothing to do with the anime feature film of the same name, but everything to do with the book it's based on, Giovanni's Island only alludes to Night on the Galactic Railroad with the given names of two of the main characters and sprinkles of other references throughout. Unlike the other period piece/slice of life anime on this list I've seen, this one takes place just after the atomic bombing and begins right as Japan surrenders. It follows the subsequent Soviet occupation, and I've gotta say this is the most fascinating aspect of this film for me. I enjoyed watching Junpei's fear of the Russians progress into tolerance and acceptance, and his unease with Tanya blossom into friendship. After they are forced off their island the movie loses a bit of steam for me. Thereafter there's way too much focus on uncle Hideo, a character that rubbed me the wrong way even though he didn't do anything morally reprehensible. Kanta's death didn't hit me as hard as I feel like it was intended to as well because, despite enjoying many aspects of the film, I couldn't connect emotionally with any of the characters. The one moment I felt anything occurred when the Japanese school children, confined to the spare room, begin to sing the anthem the Russian children perform each morning and visa versa.

Red: Not quite as boring as the needlessly cat populated train it frequently makes reference to, this film is still pretty boring. Long periods of setup with questionable consequences are frequent and little payoff on anything until a couple people die while making outrageously bad decisions near the end. And then, despite nothing but bad stuff happening, everyone celebrates these events like they were sunshine and rainbows at the end.


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Beastars

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 191
Karo: 152
Jona: 148
Inviso: 147
Genny: 143
Red: 132
Charon: 112

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22. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Jona: 1
Genny: 19
Charon: 22
Inviso: 24
Johnbobb: 24
Red: 24
Karo: 36

Total: 150

Jona: As weird of a sequel to Ghost in the Shell sounds, this feels like a good companion piece to the original with this focusing on Batou and Togusa. While the original focused on the Majors identity, this deals with the concepts of how humanity gives life to things in their image. Its definitely a fascinating subject that really makes you think. If you found the first movie pretentious, boy do I have some bad news for you. The movie kinda doubles down on its thoughts with characters saying relatable quotes out of nowhere. I do think it kinda makes sense though since the characters brains are connected. Speaking of characters brains, the scenes of Batou and Togusa getting hacked are amazing and mindfucks. Really cool to see it from their perspective when we didnt get that in the first movie. This has a bunch of callbacks to the first movie which is nice to see. The big tourism scene with Kenji Kawai music doesnt exactly have the same impact here though considering the different subject matter. Is this as good as the first movie? No. It is still incredible though in its own right but also serves as a really interesting comparison and contrast to the first movie.

Genny: I know this will likely come as a complete shock to you all, but I didn't like Ghost in the Shell. It was far too cerebral for my tastes and what little action it contained was shrouded by an insane amount of philosophical dialogue. When it comes to Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, most of those trappings are avoided. Yes there's still philosophy regarding the nature of what it means to be human and at what point of technological augmentation one ceases to qualify, however this takes a backseat to some amazing action sequences and trippy sci-fi experiences. It's a lot more balanced than the previous film is all I'm saying, and therefore I prefer Innocence. Blasphemous, I know. I quite enjoyed the additions of Togusa, and Batou's basset hound to the cast of characters. I'm not sure which humanized him more.

Charon: Remarkably, I think this film is actually better than the first one from the other project. I think the story is easier to follow, even if sometimes I think it still is a bit convoluted and some of it goes over my head. The overarching plot is what I just find too complex and weird; like the best part of this film was Batou and Togusa at the mansion. I like the playing with time and memory that's done here but once we get to the end and Motoko shows back up inhabiting the body of one of the girls... it gets strange once again and I can't really wrap my head around what's going on. In short, GitS is somehow better when the main character is actually not around. Maybe I'd get it more if I watched the show, but without that context, this remains pretty weird to me. I want to like it, but I can't quite grasp some things.

Inviso: Its weird in retrospect to have both this and Appleseed from 2004 on this list, because watching them so close together made me feel like they were very similar in general concept, even if they had wildly differing tones. Im gonna be honestI dont even remember the first Ghost in the Shell. Looking back on my write-up from the first anime project we did in 2016, I seem to have a lot of similar thoughts as I did this time around: It reminds me of Blade Runner, I wish there was a more coherent narrative and less of the overwhelming philosophy aspect. If I recall correctly though, the original movie had a very defined motive: track down a terrorist or murderer or something. This time, theres a case involving malfunctioning androids, and its really unclear what the hell is going on with the investigation, until the VERY last minute, when everything is explained.

Its REALLY confusing, and even though GitS2 is very stylized, it made it difficult to follow and enjoy the film. Thats not to say it was all bad. Once I kinda turned my brain off and just started enjoying the imagery (because I wasnt understanding the story at all), it became easier to accept what was being offered.

Johnbobb: Biggest takeaway here is the music. That's some straight Nier: Automata shit and I'm here for it.

Red: There is a plot in this movie to distract you from the fact that at its core they are solving the case of some out of control killer sex dolls. The movie supplies some interesting moments in between with some crazy mindhacking and reality questioning, and the main duo are an enjoyable enough pair, but the overall movie never quite comes together on its own.

Karo: What It Is:
A followup to the classic anime movie, where there is an investigation into why sex robots are killing their owners.

What I Think:
Though we return to the incredible world created in the first movie, everything wonderful about the original is gone and replaced with pretentious psychobabble, early 2000's computer graphic tech demos, and copious amounts of weird mystic chanting.
Hey, did you hope that maybe we'd get to expand on Makoto's story from where it left off in the first movie? Haha, nope, she is completely absent other than a brief cameo near the end. I guess somebody thought it would be a great idea to take the best character from the original and cut her out completely except a few scenes in the body of some creepy geisha marionette.
In Japan this film is just called 'Innocence', which is just as well because to sully the name of a great movie with this bullshit is a travesty.

Score: 42/100

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Madoka Magica

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 191
Inviso: 146
Genny: 140
Karo: 138
Red: 130
Jona: 127
Charon: 110

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23. The Wonderland

Genny: 10
Charon: 10
Red: 17
Inviso: 22
Johnbobb: 30
Karo: 33
Jona: 39

Total: 161

Genny: Birthday Wonderland features the most subtle character development I've ever seen in a Bildungsroman tale. It's kind of a blink-and-you-might-miss-it sort of deal, as the main conflict that needs to be resolved factors only into the beginning of the film and after its conclusion. Our heroine Akane begins the film by sulking on her birthday, refusing to look at her phone because it only reminds her of a recent time when she spurned a friend over some dumb mean girl drama. She didn't really do anything when she could've easily stuck up for her, and I don't like the way that conflict is resolved, but the movie doesn't exactly focus on that anyway. All you need to know is that Akane's entire arc centers around being "braver". It's very vague, and if I'm being honest it lacks depth, but I enjoyed the movie nevertheless for its exquisite animation and colorful cast of side characters like Chii, Doropo, and Pipo (I desperately want my own Pipo or Doropo, and no I don't mean a plushie I mean an actual tiny flying magical humanoid so somebody indulge me). The film as a whole is reminiscent of Howl's Moving Castle, albeit an inferior version of it where the worldbuilding and general sense of fantastical whimsy is more appealing but the characterization is absent for the most part. Still I had a good time with this one.

Charon: A really neat, quirky take on a classic fairytale. Probably in the neighborhood of 100 times better than the Disney animation version, this feels like an alterated tale of Alice where the protagonist has some character and not just randomness incarnate. There is still plenty of charm to the world, with the various creatures and inhabitants of the land accessed through the ground. The character designs here are all very neat; I liked Hippocrates and Pipo and especially the designs for the story's villains. It's a classic feeling fairytale with some modern liberties and sensibilities taken to it, which is generally what I'm looking for in animation.

Red: For being an entire world hidden in a basement, it sure ended up boring. This gets points for the neat twist with the villains at the end, but the world itself outside perhaps some of the ending never really hits the most interesting of places. Most of the characters did grow on me a bit, but it feels like in a world that is obviously somewhat magical, were somehow shown the most boring places they could possibly come up with. I cant leave this writeup without mentioning the cats sleeping as a great gag though.

Inviso: Its funny that this movie is called The Wonderland, because to me, the main character feels about as bland and boring as Alice herself. And honestly, this movie goes on too long for the content it provides. It could EASILY have been half an hour shorter and not lost a damn thing along the way. Basically, Akane is an underdeveloped character who is kind of cowardly, but we dont get to know her well enough before the trip to Wonderland to notice any sort of transformation over the course of the movie. There isnt one, by the way. After building up this robotic bad guy all movie, Akane just rescues him with the power of love, a good fifteen minutes before the ending. And then the ending happens and its just really forced and rushed and stupid. It makes those first eighty minutes feel like they were just filler and padding that dont serve to better the actual plot of the film. At least Chii-chan was funny, as was Hippocrates. Those two are the saving graces by stealing the show from a dull protagonist.

Johnbobb: Blah. I'm burnt out on this very specific subgenre of anime. This definitely suffered from being the last one I watched on the list, but it's also one of the most recent, so that isn't totally unearned. While this movie certainly wasn't bad, it's just not something that hasn't been done hundreds of times, many of which did it better. The entire last half an hour is just such a predictable drag. There's aspects I enjoyed, like some of the characters and the giant bouncy sheep, but I also just don't really care.

Karo: What It Is:
Young people are spirited away to a fantastical world for the umpteenth time (and for at least the sixth time in this project alone).

What I Think:
This film flops around like a dying fish in a futile attempt to impart any sense of titular wonder for its fantasy world, and considering that this is the movie's big attraction that is a fatal flaw.
The story is so arbitrary and incomprehensible that the film's big plot twist has little effect, as few will be surprised that that writers stacked on more random bullshit when there is no coherence whatsoever to begin with.
Basically the story is that a prince doesnt want to take part in a royal ceremony because it might kill him, so a wizard turns the prince into a doll, and another wizard tries to change him back and turns him into General Grievous and he tries to destroy the source of all life in the world which would result in him dying anyway. Sigh.
Toss this all together with forgettable characters and embarrassing CGI that is absolutely not ok to be looking at in 2019, and you should take a hard pass on this pointless exercise in ghibli supermarket brand mediocrity.

Score: 51/100

Jona: More like Birthday BLUNDERland. ROLF! While the art can be great, the story and characters are just plain dull and take away the sense of wonder. Akanes a really terrible main character. Shes just so generic. They attempt to show what her character is like via an awkward scene where shes in school, but it doesnt amount to anything until the credits where it shows a picture. The climax of the movie acts like she went through some character development throughout her journey but its very poorly conveyed. The rest of the characters are just kinda there. The story is very generic with it just being about Akane saving the world and the events of the film dont feel like they flow naturally. Theres a twist in the story revolving the antagonists but it didnt utter any reaction from me. Probably the most interesting part of the movie is the implication of Akanes mother experiencing the journey before. The art of this movie really deserved better.

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Whismur 2
Loudred 2
Exploud 4
Buneary 8
Lopunny 10
Patrat 6
Watchog 5
Petilil 5
Lilligant 7
Maractus 5
Cubchoo 8
Beartic 5
Cryogonal 3
Druddigon 1
Pikipek 3
Trumbeak 3
Toucannon 4
Meltan 1
Melmetal 1
Cufant 5
Copperajah 4

Mega Lopunny 10

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 184
Inviso: 145
Karo: 128
Genny: 127
Red: 124
Jona: 111
Charon: 97

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24. Vampire Hunter D

Inviso: 16
Charon: 17
Karo: 18
Red: 19
Genny: 27
Jona: 33
Johnbobb: 38

Total: 168

Inviso: This was a reasonably enjoyable movie. I admit that this opening is gonna come across as lukewarm, because I do have some criticisms, but the fact that this had a coherent narrative, interesting enough characters, a cool lead, solid animationit makes the film stand out compared to some of the other earlier offerings from this list. Really, even my main complaint isnt necessarily the worst thing ever. I just feel like this story doesnt completely work as a solitary movie, or at least not an eighty-minute movie. Its rare that I would argue a movie is too SHORT, but I feel like you have some interesting characters and interesting plot twists (the face turns from Rei and Lamika, the Dhampir reveal of D, the Dracula reveal of D) that would just be served better in a longer form of narrative. As it stands, the end result is still acceptable, I just think it couldve been that much better.

Charon: Not as good as Bloodlust, but still fairly entertaining despite its age. It lacks the entertaining battles of the aforementioned film but it still has the same moody protagonist and dark world. The supporting cast is fairly interesting, though the main villain himself is kind of lacking, I do think Lamika and Rei are pretty neat. I'm still not certain D, as a piece of media, has ever really been properly adapted in the best possible way but I still always find these enjoyable.

Karo: What It Is:
Castlevania - the anime.

What I Think:
Even with the film's low budget it still manages to evoke the haunting atmosphere of its world of vampires and monsters perfectly, something its polished, commercialized sequel couldn't.
Yes, many of the characters look wonky and animation shortcuts are everywhere, but it is beautiful in its own strange way, and it is known as one of the old anime classics for a reason.

Score: 67/100

Red: Honestly, it really felt like weve seen this movie before, D is a half-vampire that, whenever in trouble, will inevitably be saved by his weird hand thing to cheat death and then kill whatever monster is currently trying to kill him. It happens a couple times that I recall. Meanwhile, surprise the girl that looks pretty human is in fact also part-human because of course the human looking girl raging against humans would be. The random quest to go kill what essentially is the head vampire here is entertaining enough to keep you entertained, if never extending this more shallow level of entertainment.

Genny: While not as polished as Bloodlust, which we watched first for some reason, Vampire Hunter D is still an experience. As I watched this shortly after coming off season 3 of Netflix's Castlevania I couldn't help but note the myriad of similarities between D and Alucard's backstories which prompted me to question who ripped off whom. I'm too lazy to look up the answer, but if you know please tell me. Anyway the action is quite good for someone who loves her some gratuitous violence and flashes of nudity in her horror. The plot and the characters might be paper thin, but dammit I enjoyed the ride.

Jona: Theres definitely a good atmosphere and some decent action along with some okay story moments but most of it is rather forgettable.

Johnbobb: Gratuitous panty shots mere moments in. Keep it classy, Vampire Hunter. Also is that the Nightmare on Elm Street theme? The whole movie just screams "low-budget 80s action anime" from the bad voice acting to the fight scenes that are primarily just closeups of still faces repeating. Nothing is worse than Larmica's face though. Giant forehead, tiny mouth. Fuckin hate those snake women.

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 170
Inviso: 137
Genny: 124
Karo: 122
Red: 119
Jona: 102
Charon: 90

every single person takes double digit outlier hits, possibly a first

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Genny: Just when I thought no movie on this list could possibly be worse than my #39, here comes this film which feels like a personal attack on me specifically. To understand why I had such a vitriolic reaction to Colorful, you'll have to know a bit about the darkest portion of my otherwise fairly fortunate life. When I was in middle school, I was very shy and very smart, and I was bullied for as much. The bullying was not so much physical as it was verbal, and it was only by a few peers, and the rest completely neglected me. I only had one true friend at this time as I was already beginning to drift away from the only other "best friend" I had at this point because she was more interested in boys than the many things we once had in common. Art (along with books and video games) was one of my few escapes from this harsh reality, and, if I'm being perfectly honest, I was having thoughts of jumping from high places far too often.

I'm sorry to digress, but getting back to Colorful, I hate it because the main character reminds me of all the worst aspects of myself when I was younger. However it doesn't stop there. Whenever I was forced to interact with other human beings at that age I always attempted to be polite if not kind, whereas Makoto goes out of his way to be cruel to most other people, particularly his literal guardian angel Purapura, and especially his own mother and his autistic-coded peer Shoko, who do their best to appease him and to befriend him respectively. He comes across as an irredeemable misogynist, and the only girl he's initially consistently nice to is the one he has a sexual interest in. To be honest, Hiroka is the woman in his life who deserves his compassion the least, not because she's promiscuous, but because she's so shallow and materialistic.

The "inspirational speech" he gives her toward the end of the film about people having many different colors is completely lost on me given the surface level interactions these two characters have had, all sans any real chemistry. It's also delivered in Greg Ayres's insufferable nasally tones which is possibly the worst casting choice ever made for a main character in any English dub to date. I loathe this protagonist, who reminds me so much of myself at that age, and yet is my antithesis to the point that I almost wish he was never given a second chance at life. So many better people did so much more to deserve one and yet are gone forever while this boy did little to nothing and yet remains. Whatever selfless acts he commits are too little, too late, and well beyond the point where I personally already abandoned any hope of him bettering himself. Sometimes life is truly unfair.

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25. Colorful

Inviso: 3
Red: 7
Karo: 15
Charon: 36
Johnbobb: 37
Jona: 38
Genny: 40

Total: 176

Inviso: Holy shit. Thank you, Karo. Thank you for running this list and introducing me to this movie. This was amazing. Absolutely amazing. At first, I wasnt sure what to expect, and I had this dread feeling like I was going to be grossed out for some reason. Dont know why, I just did. But theneverything about this was great. For starters, I figured out the big plot twist very early on, and it made it that much more enjoyable. Like, you have this guy acting like a jackass because he doesnt know what else to do, only for the world to slowly unveil itself, and he starts to learn some lessons, even though he doesnt exactly want to play nice in his home stay body. Really, the message of the film just works SO well. Its a Wonderful Life scenario, except instead of a world where Makoto didnt exist, its a world where the people who care about him know he tried to commit suicide.

Sure, there were some really uncomfortable moments (the near-assault on Shokoand the reveal of thehowever old she is Hiroka, being down with prostitution), but those just served to amplify the positive message of the film, particularly with the scenes towards the end when Makoto is able to comfort both of the above-mentioned girls by just being there for them when they needed someone to help them deal with their pain and fears. Its a REALLY powerful message, and Im SO glad that I got to watch it. However, and I say this having completed the full watch-through as of this sentence, ultimately, Colorful isnt QUITE impactful to maintain the number spot it held for MOST of this list. Its still extremely good, but just misses out on that top spot.

Red: Im not sure if this movie was ever trying to hide its twist that the main character was in his own body, but it was something I pretty much figured was going to be the case immediately. Still, coming to terms with his own life, making friends, and coming to an understanding with his family was an enjoyable ride. There is still one weird scene where Makoto essentially turns near rapist. That was a weird turn of events to take there that probably isnt handled properly with the rest of the film.

Karo: What It Is:
A soul that committed a great sin in his life gets a chance at redemption by inhabiting the body of a teen that committed suicide.

What I Think:
The concept of the film is its strongest point, and the story centers on the wayward soul trying to find out about the person he now is and why he did what he did. The big revelation at the end is both surprising and satisfying and works very well.
It is not without its flaws, the animation feels bland and lacking in that little spark of anime life, but this is still worth checking out.

Score: 73/100

Charon: I called the plot twist out loud as we were watching this one, to which Genny remarked it would be the dumbest direction the story could go in. I forget exactly what triggered my realization that was indeed where they were taking this film, but nevertheless I was correct in my guess. Honestly the film is nice looking and a part of me appreciates some of the nuanced characters but the protagonist is one of the most despicable characters I've come across in a long while, in terms of the lead character of a film. I mean this guy spends the entire film emotionally torturing his mother for something that is frankly not even his fucking business to begin with. At the same time he's obsessed with a girl that basically lives to commit these "sins" that his mother had just a few times, and who regretted it. To top it all off he nearly rapes a poor girl who was legitimately interested in him as a person, while he chastises her for being ugly. He's just deplorable, and rooting for him is literally impossible.

Johnbobb: Man, I was really digging this in the beginning. The lighthearted animation style and voice acting paired with the really heavy themes of depression and suicide caught me off guard and immediately pulled me in. To some extent, the heavy themes are handled pretty well, and the tone balance is impressive. Somewhere along the way though, it lost me. Maybe it was too long spent with Makoto being a nearly irredeemable shit to everyone. Maybe it was the tone shifting to become much sappier and a little preachy. Maybe it was the plot twist so obvious that it's bizarre to think they ever bothered trying to make it into a twist. The story had a lot of potential and just ultimately didn't use it the best they could have.

Jona: This is the movie I hated most on this list. It really tested my patience on how much I can bear with an unlikable main character. It takes far too long for Makoto to develop and I really felt bad for the family who tried their best to change for him and Makotos just ungrateful. Makotos development also feels unearned with that development happening just because he made a friend. Makotos trip with his friend felt like the movie was saying Fuck this. This movies now about trains. While I do feel bad for what happened to Makoto, the movie frames it so that it is someone else in Makotos body so it makes it hard to feel any sympathy for him despite the unsurprising twist. This movie is also far too long and isnt exactly engaging the whole way through. I feel that the themes of the movie were not portrayed well. Theres potential for something great here but the execution was just not there.

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Steins;Gate

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I did not say anything to Genny she is lying

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 158
Inviso: 115
Karo: 112
Genny: 109
Red: 101
Jona: 89
Charon: 79

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26. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

Charon: 13
Jona: 15
Genny: 24
Inviso: 26
Red: 29
Johnbobb: 33
Karo: 37

Total: 178

Charon: Dark and haunting, I think after seeing this that it shouldn't have been cut from the first list. This is a well-crafted, thoughtful film with a lot to say and a clever way of saying it. Alternate history films are always pretty interesting to me; to see a take on the real world that's inspired by events that you are familiar with in history but then spinning what happened after those events in a different direction always creates a lot of truly unique content. As far as the film itself goes, I liked the Red Riding Hood influence and the use of the actual, original story instead of the "good ending" one most Americans are more familiar with. I was pleased to see Henmi get his comeuppance in the end.

Jona: beginning of the movie is incredible and really sets you up for what the movie is about. The relationship between Fuse and Kei is interesting, especially everything thats going on in the background, and it leads to an ending thats quite intense. Jin-Roh has a slow and deliberate pace which both helps and hurts the film. Its not the most exciting movie but still really fascinating.

Genny: Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade had some exquisite action sequences and even contained some splices of horror, reminiscent of Perfect Blue. However with all its many twists and turns the plot got a little difficult to follow. Now maybe I'm just too dense for this kind of story of espionage and betrayal, but I could've been happier with less of that. Upon looking up the person who directed this I'm not surprised the plot was hard to follow, however I didn't find this one as cerebral or, if I'm being honest, as pretentious as the film on the previous anime ranking project.

Inviso: I dont know why, but this movie just didnt intrigue me. Like, I can see why it would be enjoyable. It has a solid plot, and the metaphor of wolves and humans, while hammered in SUPER HARD, is still handled well enough to make logical sense. There are decent twists and turns in the plot, namely that the terrorists ultimately dont matter, and the whole story winds up being a war between two factions of the police, each trying to fight for their own survival and/or supremacy. I will say that the plot is a little difficult to follow for these reasons though, as its hard to know who is betraying who, and for what purpose. Like, I know the main characters buddy sets him upbut Im not ENTIRELY sure why, or how said buddy just happened to be part of a secret organization of spiesor something? Anyway, the movie is okay. Nothing spectacular, but not terrible either. Just okay.

Red: Part of a slew of movies here with a phisophy of it being better to be pretty than having any actual substance. Action sequences are a mask for achieving any sort of interesting or even consistent plot. This one tries a bit harder than the rest, but at the end of the day actual characterization to anyone finishes shallow and its thrown in with some weird red riding hood parallel that never really hits a mark to any sort of satisfaction.

Johnbobb: There's a lot to love here, but I'm also not willing to say I loved it. The art is great, as is the music, dreary tone, heavy themes. It starts especially strong and ends especially strong, but really struggles with pacing for the bulk of the film. That paired with the heavyhandedness of the Little Red Riding Hood parallel keeps this from being the incredible classic it clealy wants to be.

Karo: What It Is:
Police and terrorists clash in an alternate universe Japan.

What I Think:
The world presented in this film is nowhere near as engrossing or entertaining as the one in Mamoru Oshii's most famous work, and the story plods on for what seems like an eternity before pretty much ending up right back where it started.
So Fuse is like this elite soldier/policeman who has a young terrorist girl blow herself up in front of him due to being unable to pull the trigger, and after a lot of boring police politics he ends up meeting the dead girl's (also terrorist) sister. He starts to care about her, but then he just ends up blowing her away randomly cause his boss said so and the movie ends on the touching note of Fuse will always be a good little bitch deep down and people cant really change. Yay.
After watching more of Oshii's work I am convinced that the aberration in his filmography is not Sky Crawlers, but rather Ghost in the Shell, and he is primarily a creator of dull pointless movies that think they are deeper than they really are. Such as this one.

Score: 40/100

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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

At least you didn't accidentally nominate the Season 6 Intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPdryw0ZXE8

It's not even funny bad. It's just...wrong, a disturbing aberration that should not exist.

what the flying fuck

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Yeah that is music video with clips from the intro visuals with the ending song dubbed over it

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Spearow 4
Fearow 3
Paras 3
Parasect 4
Venonat 4
Venomoth 4
Psyduck 5
Golduck 5
Mankey 4
Primeape 4
Doduo 2
Dodrio 4
Seel 6
Dewgong 6
Drowzee 1
Hypno 3
Goldeen 2
Seaking 5
Tauros 4
Lapras 6
Ditto 4

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Outlier:

Johnbobb: 151
Inviso: 115
Genny: 107
Karo: 101
Red: 98
Jona: 78
Charon: 66

things gettin out of hand here

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27. Dead Leaves

Johnbobb: 11
Jona: 17
Genny: 18
Charon: 22
Karo: 31
Inviso: 39
Red: 40

Total: 178

Johnbobb: At least one of you fuckers is gonna rate this thing in last place and while I kind of understand why you would do that I also want you to know that you are wrong and this shit is incredible.

Jona: This movie is crude and weird and unapologetic about it that I ended up liking this. Its definitely got a unique art style and some crazy action. This isnt the movie you watch for the story but its still interesting to find out what happened in Retro and Pandys past. Its only 52 minutes but its just so jam-packed that it doesnt end up feeling too short. What a wild ride.

Genny: My favorite part of Dead Leaves is when Pandy's inner dialogue resonates over the villain's outer monologue, hands down. There were many times I laughed out loud while watching this, but that crap had me rolling. Overall this was a quick romp of a film that was equal parts hilarious, erotic, and action-packed. It definitely seems like the kind of thing that would air on Adult Swim all night long on April Fool's Day or something. I don't have much else to say about it. Dead Leaves is just an experience you have to get firsthand.

Charon: Hectic and fun, this is how to properly do a movie with a shorter time length. The humor is unusually crude for anime, at least on this list anyway and the art style reminds me of something I can't quite put my finger on. I think to me it feels like a mix between JSR and TWEWY in terms of visual style; not sure why games were the first thing I thought of as I'm sure there's something animation based that's closer. The pace is so quick that it does get hard to keep up with at times, and there are a lot of minion characters that sort of wander in and out of the action and you wonder if they've been killed yet or not. Obviously the drill penis guy was the most memorable; it's hard to make side characters that are really interesting in a short amount of time I think. But the leads are entertaining and I enjoyed seeing them bounce all around taking out hundreds of enemies.

Karo: What It Is:
I have no fucking clue.

What I Think:
So basically we have a prison break at this bizarre space prison with these equally bizarre inmates and everything descends into profound strangeness.
Its departure from the usual art style typically found in anime is refreshing, but this short little movie is not really very good. Take away the audacious animation and there is really nothing much else to it but mindless rubbish that is anime equivalent of eating twenty twinkies for dinner.

Score: 52/100

Inviso: This was just painful to watch. The animation style looks awful (reminiscent of Panty & Stocking, but without any of the polish from however many years separate the two animations), and its all in service of a fuckton of unnecessary gross-out humor. And as much as I would never ever ever want to watch Sausage Party again, at least its gross-out humor was in conjunction with some semblance of a plot. In this movie, there is no plot. The characters wake up naked on Earth, go on a rampage, get sent to moon jail, have sex, break outSOMEHOW, then lead a rebellion to escape the prison, and it turns out that Mandy is like, the sister-mom of this big bad whose motivations are kinda generic and stupid. The end result is a ton of seizure-inducing battle sequences revolving around detestable characters, and nothing of value happens, even though I THINK were supposed to feel as though something DID. Yeah, no. Nope. No way for this movie.

Red: This was...not my type of movie, to say the least. Im not sure if it was trying to be funny or just intentionally gross or what, but when subject matter starts involving quite literal shit I pretty much draw the line of wishing I was watching anything else. Just never really got the idea of movies that feel they need to be intentionally crude to try to provide any sort of entertainment value. Like, yes, his drill is a penis, we got that 20 minutes ago it isnt any more interesting now than it was then. Endless attempts to I assume gross out the viewer just become increasingly stale. And again, literal shit is where my brain draws a line of not wanting to have to think about said subject matter.

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