09-28-2018, 06:11 PM
Watched this impulsively on Netflix. It's Japanese anime about life in China, which was really confusing because they all speak Japanese but it's China and they all have Chinese names. This is three short vignettes about day to day life and growing up. The first is a melancholy remembrance of hometown noodles, an existential exploration of loss. The second is about an aging model who must redefine herself to stay in the industry and her loving sister. The third is about three elementary school chums facing their high school entrance exams, their future and a poignant romance. The anime is gorgeous, full of delicate moments of shimmering detail that only fresh anime can deliver. But the thing that got me was this didn't need to be anime. There were no giant robots, no anthropomorphic animals, no tentacled demons, not even any physics defying fight scenes. Each of these stories might have been better served in live action. And the three stories don't really connect. There's an end scene after the credits where all the characters are at the airport together but they don't interact. I suppose it's a statement about the youth facing the future. So this was good, very heartfelt, but I wouldn't really recommend it. Especially not to DOOM.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse