Let’s Decorate the Promised Flowers in the…errr… Maquia.

Posted by DiGiKerot in One shots at March 4, 2018 on 10:01 pm


I really loved this movie. Actually had trouble talking straight afterwards, honestly. Left me very emotional.

To elaborate, though, today saw the first screening of Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (as it’s being dubbed for it’s general UK release in a few months – as opposed it’s rather long winded full title of Let’s Decorate the Promised Flowers in the Farewell Morning, or Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana o Kazaru, or just Sayoasa for those who don’t go for movies with names the length of light novel titles) outside of Japan, at the Glasgow Film Theatre in Glasgow, and I went along to see it.
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Fireworks

Posted by DiGiKerot in One shots at October 15, 2017 on 11:30 pm


It was the final day of the Glasgow leg of Scotland Loves Anime today. I guess the interesting thing that played today was SHAFTs version of Fireworks, or to give it it’s full English title Fireworks, Should We See Them From The Side or The Bottom?

This is mostly a quick post just for me to splatter out a few quick thoughts about it without bombarding Twitter with tweets about a movie which is still largely unavailable for most to see. If you want the quick review, I liked it a lot, but feel free to ignore me posting here even more than usual. Honestly, I feel that I’d probably have needed to see the original TV movie to really write anything worthwhile about it anyway.
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Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution

Posted by DiGiKerot in One shots at October 15, 2017 on 12:43 am


You probably don’t want to see Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution if you’ve not seen the TV show.

I mean, you may not want to see the movie even if you have seen the TV show, but it will at least hold some degree of merit under those circumstances. It’s difficult to see any real value for those without that prior experience, though.
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The Night is Short, Walk on Girl

Posted by DiGiKerot in One shots at September 9, 2017 on 10:19 pm


I went to the UK premiere of Maasaki Yuasa’s most recent movie, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl in Glasgow this evening. It’s on general release here in the UK on the 4th of October, but the man himself was actually at this screening (along with, it turned out, producer Eunyoung Choi), so it seemed like it’d be worth the trip to see it early.
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SLA 2013: Fuse – Memoirs of a Hunter Girl

Posted by DiGiKerot in One shots at October 12, 2013 on 11:08 pm

I guess I’ll start this by saying that, should you be the sort of person who happens to live in the US, you can actually watch this whole movie on Hulu, of all places. Assuming, you know, you can stand the frequent, annoying advertisement breaks for products you probably don’t actually need.

Otherwise, I guess this was the first European screening of this movie, based on the novel by Kazuki Sakuraba (of Gosick fame), directed by Masayuki Miyaji (reminding me that I still haven’t seen Xam’d, not that I’m in a particular hurry, though I do own the BDs).

The movie, set just before Japan opened it borders to foreign commerce, follows Hamaji, a girl who goes through life living as a hunter in the mountains, equipped with a really peculiar looking gun. She’s summoned to the capital by her brother, a well-meaning, if somewhat dopey, wanna-be samurai, to help him hunt the last two Fuse – half-man, half-wolf creatures who live by devouring human souls – in the hope that he can claim the sizable bounties that have been placed on their heads, allowing him to actually make something of himself.

Now, guess who the handsome young man that Hamaji just happens to run into whilst arriving in the capital for the first time just happens to be? No, really, guess – unless you are being deliberately silly, you’re probably exactly right.

I don’t know, I have to admit, I’m having a hard time formulating a particularly strong feeling regarding Fuse. I actually really enjoyed it, but I’m a little mindful that I was told it was a smidgen on the tedious side before hand, so I went into it with expectations somewhat significantly lowered. I didn’t actually find it particularly tedious, if I’m honest, in so much as it didn’t have me checking my watch at frequent intervals or anything like that, and the narrative keeps a pretty brisk pace, even if what is happening isn’t necessarily the most exciting things in the world at all times. The animation is good enough, but there’s nothing there which will blow your mind either.

What I will say is that, whilst inspired by The Hakkenden, the movie certainly does show it’s light novel roots. It has a really silly climatic battle signposted only by the fact that it has it’s basis in The Hakkenden, and it’s full of the usual goofy light novel character archetypes in it’s supporting cast.

Not that’s there’s anything particularly wrong with that, but if you go into the movie expecting a weighty, substantial period piece to chew on, as opposed to pleasant piece of pulp with young-adult novel dramatics, you’ll probably be disappointed with it. Otherwise, yeah, it’s fine.