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i'm gonna talk about cartoons now

2023 dev 7

what's new with the site?

just a small update today, been too busy to make much progress lately:

i'll keep slowly adding reviews & padding out the site as i can ... there's always stuff to do~ oh, and while i have your attention, please remember to stay on top of the palestinian genocide, and if you are in the USA especially, remember to put the pressure on your reps, attend protests as you can, and keep showing support for the freedom & safety of your fellow man.

what's new with me?

now then. you may have surmised from the title of today's post, but: i've been dedicating an hour or so to watching cartoons lately, and i'd like to touch a bit on what we've seen so far. specifically, i'm watching anime with my partner every sunday evening. we started maybe a month or so ago, and it's been fun! i like anime, but i don't watch it very often ... so this has been a nice opportunity to check out some cool stuff i'd likely otherwise miss. ( my partner watches & has watched a lot of anime, by comparison, so she has lots of good shows to share! )

so far we've finished one show. can you guess what it was? i'll give you a hint: it's from the 80's, and it's a ghibli production. it's something i've wanted to watch forever, but thought was too obscure to find in english. ready for the answer?!?!

... it's sherlock hound!!!

this show was not actually as obscure as i once thought it was; in fact, after we finished watching it, i found out not only was there an offical english dub, but there was also a blu-ray release of the entire thing, AND a figma released in 2016 of the titular hound! just goes to show you how plugged into the anime scene i am. ha hah.

anyway ... i loved it. i really like sherlock holmes stories, and have historically been quite tolerant of any and all bizarre adaptions, but this one was genuinely just great. it was fun, goofy, and CUTE as hell. it's not accurate to the books ( obviously ), and it's been transformed into a more action-oriented serialized tv show sort of deal, but ... it was good. the design team could have tried harder for most of the Girl Characters, but everyone was treated nicely, and the main duo was wonderful. loved the voice acting, animation was well-done for the most part, soundtrack was charming ... 10 out of 10, wish it wasn't over, but soooo happy i finally got to see this, and also that it ended up being as delightful as it was.

next, we decided to watch porco rosso, a ghibli film neither of us had seen. it seemed right, to go from a ghibli show to a ghibli movie ...

but ... man ... i don't know. there's a reason people don't really talk about this one. it's an animated spectacle, as are all things coming from this studio, but ... the story is very bizarre. the plot is straightforward enough, but the way it carried itself and explored its themeing was somewhat ambling. it felt like it wasn't really sure what it wanted its message to be, exactly? our main character is a pig because of his behavior, and maybe changes at the end, but things were left so vague that i feel like i didn't get very much payoff, narratively speaking ... like, i LOVE vagueness in stories -- don't get me wrong -- but the ambiguity of the ending, plus how all-over-the-place the film presented itself was, meant that things felt sort of muddied by the time credits rolled. i get that our character learned his lesson that Girls Are Just Regular People, Actually, but ... what about reconciling with his childhood friend? did he learn to open up & be a better companion & ally ( a textual point of grief for him ), or did he just ... forget about it?

i'm just not sure i understood what was being conveyed ... but like i already said, it just felt like it needed more time to synchronize its story & themes. i had a decent time watching it regardless, though -- like i also already said, it's a beautiful showcase in ghibli's techniques & prowess, with gorgeous cinematics, character acting, set pieces & environments, and so on. it's just a pity that the setting & magical realism of the film were so intriguing, i really wish it was better ...

( what the hell was with the way the 17 year old supporting character was written, by the way, LOL. good god )

finally, i want to talk really quickly about what we're currently digging into: mushi-shi. it's a miraculous mid-2000's show and one of my partner's very favorites -- and at only four episodes in, i can see why. spectacular visuals, spacious pacing, really unique & compelling worldbuilding, and a very, very interesting main character. i'm hooked on how ginko is very obviously the star of the show, but the way he interacts with the world & its characters makes him feel almost like he's only orbiting it ... the main focus of every episode are the people whose lives are affected by the mushi, and ginko is simply the lens we get to see them through. but there's hints into who ginko is as a person ... they're just tangential to what's going on. it's fascinating!! i love it!

i've also gotten choked up watching literally every single episode, with true tears flowing on the fourth. and there are three full seasons of this thing. so. i don't know. i may die by the end of this viewing, but so far, i feel it will be worth it.

that's all i've got for today though. thank you so much for reading, as always, and i'll see you all later. if you celebrate hanukkah or christmas -- i hope your preparations are going well! and if you celebrate neither ... i'm sorry.