Review: Kiki’s Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便)

Posted by ranpha on 13th August 2008
Posted in: anime movies, anime review. Tagged: , , . 1 comment


Out main protagonist with her obligatory black cat that will curse you until the end of time.

Just like what I mentioned in my previous post, the second of the three Studio Ghibli movies that I will review here is Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. This reflects a change of mood from the darker Grave of The Fireflies, but which one of them is better? Read on for my take of the first Hayao Miyazaki movie reviewed here.

Story:-
Kiki, an apprentice witch has to go away from her home so that she can train her skills further. All she knows is flying with her broom Harry Potter-style, so she opened a delivery service at a big town near the sea. There she gets to hone her skills while meeting plenty of people during the course of her job.

Admittedly, the story in this movie is inferior to Grave of The Fireflies, but it is still decent. For what the story’s worth, just like Grave of The Fireflies, the movie has good pacing with excellent transitions between plots. Unfortunately, the ending is not as good as the one in Grave of The Fireflies, but then again Grave of The Fireflies’ ending is excellent and will be hard to match. This movie’s ending, by comparison is tame, filled with clichés and probably predictable too.

One thing Kiki’s Delivery Service has done better than Grave of The Fireflies is the character development part, which show how our main protagonist evolved as she faced and deal with obstacles during her job as a transporter/delivery girl. Despite of that, there are no strong/interesting characters in this movie, and that’s a shame.


We got to see a lot of flying here.

Character Design:-
It was not that different from the one in Grave of The Fireflies, if you ask me. The lack of black hairs here is forgiven because of the non-Japanese setting this movie is using.

Voice Acting:-
This movie is definitely inferior to Grave of The Fireflies in this aspect, because while voice acting in this movie is decent, it is a class lower than what you hear from Grave of The Fireflies. Plus, the performance of Kiki the main protagonist here is nowhere near the gig done by the awesome Setsuko from Grave of The Fireflies.


More flying here. Don’t blame her because that’s all she knows.

Music:-
Meanwhile, this movie trumps Grave of The Fireflies in this section. The OST and OP/ED themes in this movie are simply superior, and definitely a positive point for this movie. The OP theme in particular is very well done.


Meanwhile, while she is not flying, she is doing what we called in my country as “corner baring”. Hilarious really.

Animation/Direction:-
This movie matched Grave of The Fireflies when it comes to animation (probably remastered DVD source anyone?) and the same thing can also be said about fast-paced scenes. The little choreography this movie has is excellent, especially during the flying parts and the ending scenes.

Meanwhile Hayao Miyazaki’s directing is a little bit better than the one at Grave of The Fireflies, with good selection of camera angles during those aforementioned fast-paced scenes in the paragraph above, combined with his ability to emulate good control of the storyline the way Grave of The Fireflies’ director did.


This overadventurous old lady try to imagine herself flying like our protagonist.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. The inferior story is why Kiki’s Delivery Service scored less than Grave of The Fireflies. The last movie from Studio Ghibli that I will review here is Spirited Away, another work of Hayao Miyazaki. I heard a lot of good things about that one, so I will keep my hope up.


Forgiveness given for the lack of black hair in this Europe-like settings in the middle of 19th century.

Review: Grave Of The Fireflies (火垂るの墓)

Posted by ranpha on 10th August 2008
Posted in: anime movies, anime review. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment

 
She should have got a better ‘treatment’ in terms of character development.

This mini-review of Grave of the Fireflies will kick-start the first of the three Studio Ghibli movies I have always planned to see for a long time. After more than 100 posts across the span of 2 years, it is pretty shocking that I have not watched any of Ghibli’s movies yet while there are already three Makoto Shinkai titles here. This movie is not directed by Hayao Miyazaki, but it is still very good.

 
Meanwhile, he could do with a head that can do better decision making abilities.

Story:-
At the end of World War 2, two siblings loses their mother to an America air raid. From then on, they struggled in vain to survive their following days, dodging America’s bombings and also dealing with pesky relatives.

The story is excellent, which is the Studio Ghibli’s signature. It is very mature, emotional and heart-moving, but I have some reservations about some of the bizarre decisions taken by the main male protagonist (I blame him for his sister death, instead of the Americans or their aunt). The story flows very well with good pacing and it has a ‘fiery’ ending too, just look at the screenshot below. And the excellent ending in this movie is definitely one of the best I have ever seen in a Japanese anime. It was very unique because the sad ending like what this movie has will not be employed by the vast majority of anime out there.

Character developments did not match the quality of the story though, and that’s a shame. The main female protagonist could do better if she gets developed more. This becomes apparent to me when the movie shows flashbacks of events that I do not see from the time she lives in the abandoned bunker, after she has died. This actually is a sign of bad directing. The main male protagonist fared better, but not at the level I have expected.

 
The awesome ending of this movie, where the main female protagonist were amateurishly cremated by her own brother while fireflies circled the scene.

Character Design:-
The character design is unique and very well done. The hair is dark brown though for the siblings, instead of being just plain dark black for the majority of Japanese their age during World War 2. Although, if they already have hair-dye during that time, who am I to complain?

 
B-29 Superfortress, bombing Japan until…

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this movie is great, with the main female protagonist being outstanding. Definitely a positive point for this movie.

Music:-
The OST is good, but not so for the OP/ED themes.

 
…it looks like this.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this 1988 movie is surprisingly good, or is it just because I watched a remastered DVD? Anyway, it does well even in fast-paced scenes (in the case of this movie, involved a lot of running). No comment about the choreography because it did not apply here. Meanwhile the directing is good, with the exception of the flashback issue I mentioned above.

 
Meanwhile, this unidentified Japanese plane is kept hidden instead of fighting the Americans.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. The second movie from Studio Ghibli I will review next is Kiki’s Delivery Service, directed by Hayao Miyazaki himself. Comparison with Makoto Shinkai will be inevitable!


Despite being in the title of the movie, fireflies does not seem to play a main role here.

Review: Avatar – The Last AirBender

Posted by ranpha on 7th August 2008
Posted in: miscellaneous. Tagged: , . 4 comments


One of the two best characters in this series, Sokka and the main title protagonist, Avatar.

As mentioned in the last review, this entry will be special because it is the review of all 3 seasons of Nickelodeon’s Avatar – The Last Airbender instead of the typical Japanese anime I reviewed here most of the time. Japan could learn a thing or two from this series, of which will be explained more below. Comparisons will be inevitable of course.


The main protagonist, not even trying to save his comrades.

Story:-
Our hero Avatar Aang emerged from an iceberg where he was frozen for 100 years just to find out that the world is periled by the threats of the Fire Nation. Alongside the two siblings that freed him from the iceberg, he went ahead to a journey to save the world.

The story is not exactly a masterpiece, and it is safe to say that it is just a typical ‘saving the world from evil’ plot that you can see from many comparable titles, either from Japan or even America. The difference that sets this cartoon apart from others is that Nickelodeon is doing what Gainax has done to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and that will be the excellent presentation of a well-polished ‘ordinary’ storyline, aided with great pacing and character developments.

I will put my commentary about the directing here instead of the relevant section below, because the directors (it seems there are a few of them here) utilize good scripts (you should see some of the witty/humorous dialogues this cartoon has), innovative camera angles and managed to maintain good transitions between scenes. They are just some of the factors that contribute to the excellent presentation this cartoon has. With the exception of the first half of the 3rd season, this cartoon also has good pacing that allows the story to flow naturally from the start to the end. This is really apparent in the second season, which is the best from the three.


The best characters in this series, Prince Zuko and Sokka.

Characters’ development is where this cartoon really shines, especially with the major characters. Sokka and Prince Zuko are two characters that stand out from the rest, eclipsing even the main protagonist. You can see each and every character evolves from the start of the series until the end, aided by multiple development strategies used by storywriters and the directors, and this is one thing where Japan can learn from America. Not even Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann can touch this series when it comes to character developments.

For the weaknesses of this series, unlike Gainax, Nickelodeon did not really do anything to eliminate or moderate the clichés that can be associated with this genre. It (the clichés) is a double-edge sword, while it gives birth to excellent characters like Sokka and Prince Zuko, it also caused the storyline to become very predictable, filled with recycled scenes/plots that you can see being used in older but similar titles in this genre. This also affects the ending that becomes so predictable; you should be able to see what will happen even from midway of the first season.

Well, at least this cartoon does not have any emo characters here. That will always be a plus.


Our main antagonist with his followers. Also one of the best characters in this series.

Character Design:-
The character design in this cartoon is pretty decent. Influenced by Far East themes, but do not have many black hairs. This is forgivable though, because of the fantasy setting this cartoon has.


Our obligatory female companion for our world-saving hero.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this cartoon is excellent, with the main protagonist, Sokka and Prince Zuko being outstanding. My complaint will be directed towards average voices for many of the female characters, which do not match their output of their male counterparts.


Our obligatory funny sidekick. Also one of the best characters in this series.

Music:-
This cartoon does not really have themes, but the OST is somewhat decent though.


All world-saving heroes will need at least one pet that will help bail the hero and his companions when they are in a pinch. This is one of them. Fortunately, none of the pets speaks.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this cartoon is good even in fast-paced scenes, but I can’t help but notice that the quality seems to decrease as the series went on. It wasn’t anything serious though. For the choreography, this is the 2nd thing where Japan can learn from America for sure. The choreography in Avatar is simply out of this world, you won’t see any of the action scenes of this quality here in any of the Japanese anime out there, at least the ones that I have saw. One anime that may be similar to Avatar is Claymore, but they are not exactly close in quality. The concepts of nature elements in Avatar is simpler when compared to the nen system in Hunter X Hunter for example, but the execution is vastly superior, the action being more fluid, elaborate and very fast, plus the techniques are more realistic, intense and beautiful. And do not compare Avatar to Naruto, the difference is like heaven and hell.

My comments for the directing has already being addressed above.


No show will be complete without a recurring character that will make a complete joke of himself whenever he appears.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. America needs to come with more titles like this one. More Spongebob Squarepants will also be accepted.


One of the funniest scenes in this series (early in season 2), you have to watch it to understand.Some of the entries at Peter’s Evil Overlord List apply here.

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