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- BirthdayJul 21, 2003
- Locationミ★Eden★彡
- JoinedMar 7, 2019
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May 15, 2026
I LOVE the overall presentation of this show. It is so refreshing. The long shots, the location shifts during dialogue scenes, and the consistently high information density had me completely absorbed, despite what some might consider boring subject matter. Same goes for the reserved, nuanced vocal performances and the subtleties of facial animation, everything is just so detailed. And what I find particularly impressive about that is that while the show doesn't exactly hold your hand, you also are NOT expected to notice everything at the pace that it's presented, and so irrespective of whether I was tired or alert when I watched an episode,
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I never felt like I missed a beat. I feel like that's a balance that every story struggles to find, but this show somehow just nails it on the head. There are just so many little things throughout this show's entire runtime that add to the experience when noticed, but that don't *need* to be noticed in order to come out with a solid grasp of the story's plot and themes.
The mysteries, too, are all immensely engaging and rewarding. Never at any point did I feel like I knew what was going to happen next, nor did it ever feel like I couldn't figure it out if I tried hard enough. The plot's focus on finding curiosity in generally mundane subjects is also uniquely refreshing. Something about it reminds you that life really does not have to be so serious or high-stakes—every dumb little thing can be determined worthy of our attention if we want. The overarching plotline is also straight genius. Covering an entire three years of high school through several small, relatively self-contained, dialogue-heavy mysteries gives the characters a lot of time to reflect and change over the course of the show, even when those changes aren't made excessively obvious. By the end, it genuinely felt like I had watched two people grow up, despite technically only seeing a very small fraction of that time.
That said, it does get to feel a bit *too* disconnected from itself at times, which I think largely stems from how it contradicts what one would expect from the season/cour format. For example, there's an arc shift mid-episode, in the last episode of the first season, which makes it impossible to come out of watching the first season feeling like you'd seen a coherent standalone piece. Then, the second season is split into two main arcs, but some of the characters featured in the OP for the season are *only present during the former arc*, and not the latter. This really threw me off because, following the standard logic, you would probably expect these characters to make a return at some point, but instead, they kinda just get removed from existence very abruptly once their associated mystery is wrapped up. --This all has me very curious what the novel is like, perhaps I'll give that a read someday.
Overall, I think this is a phenomenal work of storytelling very much worth your time and attention. I don't think this is quite Hyouka levels of masterpiece, but it's certainly up there.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 6, 2025
It's hard not to love a story this brilliantly crafted. In just 25 episodes, numerous characters with a variety of motivations shift in and out of the foreground, and all, for one reason or another, push the needle just a little further, influencing those that follow to do the same. This is a story about evolution, pursuit, movement, and what propels humankind to keep on. In that sense, its themes are universal and can be appreciated by just about anyone with a head on their shoulders. Highly recommend.
Avoiding spoilers, something I really enjoyed was how none of the characters are particularly portrayed as good or
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evil; they are all simply actors with their own convictions pursuing their own goals within their own means. Even Rafal, arguably the embodiment of the series' stated ideal, slowly gets twisted and shown from different angles throughout the story. This is, I believe, this story's greatest appeal: its level of nuance. Historical details, while somewhat embellished for dramatic effect, are well-handled, and the dynamic cast provides a whole host of varied perspectives on the ideas of the time. Every idea is challenged from different points of view, and critical thinking is stressed just as equally as the narrative stresses the importance of ideals. Somehow, while doing this, the narrative also avoids coming to a centrist conclusion, narrowly avoiding running into a horseshoe theory issue, while leaving things up in the air just enough to allow for a discussion of the entire spectrum of possible answers to any given question. One of the ways it accomplishes this is with flawed protagonists: every single character has some inconsistency, dogma, or selfish desire in their thinking, making it difficult to ever fully support everything any one of them says or does. On the side of the coin, none of the characters end up demonized; even the ruthless Nowak is given understandable motivations, and later on in the story, his character is used to place a heavy emphasis on selective knowledge and how our access to or lack of information influences our choices. All of this to say, this is by far the most philosophically nuanced show, let alone anime, I've seen in quite some time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 16, 2020
----- Got to see this in theaters, and I gotta say, it was stunning. I went in expecting Your Name and by the time the sweet interview with Makato Shinkai came on, I was super glad this wasn't the same thing. The visuals are pretty obvious, I don't think I need to explain that. The story is really well orchestrated, there were some parts where I though that it was repeating a little much or doing too many progression slideshows, but overall some really great direction. The characters are sOOooo good, I did not even think about side characters until they started popping up, and
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they were so much fun. Towards the end it kinda felt like a weird little family and I really appreciated that for whatever reason.
----- Now ima go on a bit of a tangent about what films like this mean for me and why I value this medium so much, so if you just wanted my review, this next part is just kinda personal experience. It's crazy how my perspective changes after watching something like this. I feel like I can hear in color and every little part of life is slightly more nuanced and interesting. That's the kinda thing i always point to when people ask why i like anime or related media. The feeling of seeing and hearing everything in everyday life as one big well orchestrated piece with stunning visuals and sound production, and the perception of so much additional depth and enjoyability to the most basic of things, such as the sound of cars passing the nearby street, or a busy street of vendors with the smells of fresh cooked food travelling through the crowds, or how big the world around me feels when it's raining, like everyone is somehow connected under common cloud cover or involved in the same unique moment. This movie reminded me once again of the reason I enjoy things, the way I see life, and how I was impacted by A Silent Voice quite a while ago. The strange, yet heartwarming feelings of life, and of the ways we choose to see it and live it. I know that technically has almost nothing to do with the movie or any of the things I've watched for that matter but more with me, and it prob influenced alot of my ratings on this list. But is that not the point? Our perception influences our opinions, just as they affect our mentality, and our lives. Weather you choose to see things like fulfilling of some kind of prophecy, like a pointless existence, like a meaningful story, or like a slow walk through hell, it's up to you, and that's just what this movie reminded me of, even through that's not at all what it was about.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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