I rarely take the time to write reviews, so it has to be either very good or very bad.
I have loved most of what these guys have done in the past. Summer Wars is one of my favorite movies of all time, even though it gets mixed reviews. So I was hoping for another hit, especially considering the ratings...!
Visually? Wow.
Plot? Characters? Disaster. I would rather have watched this movie on silent.
A lot of the cute anime moments unique to this studio--that I have liked before--just made me cringe. Their unique tricks and trends fell hollow. Almost as if they assumed we watched all of their movies back to back, and would feel the impact of the cuteness or shyness without any emotion behind it.
The "death in the family" trope was done amazingly well in Summer Wars. The character was established, and their death was plot relevant and impactful. Here, it felt forced. Just to give the character an emotional background.
Spoilers:
And then, the huge narrative gap between her getting on U and becoming a singer. The HUGER narrative gap between her becoming a singer and her becoming famous with the help of her super genius tech friend who doubles as the comedic relief. I had to pause and rewind to make sure I didn't miss anything somehow, or to make sure my streaming service didn't glitch.
And why in that high tech environment can a character run around doing as they please? Just put a digital wall between him and the singer's stage! He isn't a hacker. In Summer Wars, the AI hacked the code with the help of the global math/dev community, which is how he broke the rules, plus it's an AI. But here we have a random kid doing what he wants, and the only defense are these incredibly hard to watch digital superheroes, and the punishment is simply exposing who he is...?
To be honest, I stopped watching halfway. Maybe some of these questions are answered in the second half, but I can't even finish this. I REALLY wanted to like it. Couldn't wait to watch it. And I think it could have worked, if done slightly differently. But to me, this was a huge failure, especially considering the massive wins that came before.
I have loved most of what these guys have done in the past. Summer Wars is one of my favorite movies of all time, even though it gets mixed reviews. So I was hoping for another hit, especially considering the ratings...!
Visually? Wow.
Plot? Characters? Disaster. I would rather have watched this movie on silent.
A lot of the cute anime moments unique to this studio--that I have liked before--just made me cringe. Their unique tricks and trends fell hollow. Almost as if they assumed we watched all of their movies back to back, and would feel the impact of the cuteness or shyness without any emotion behind it.
The "death in the family" trope was done amazingly well in Summer Wars. The character was established, and their death was plot relevant and impactful. Here, it felt forced. Just to give the character an emotional background.
Spoilers:
And then, the huge narrative gap between her getting on U and becoming a singer. The HUGER narrative gap between her becoming a singer and her becoming famous with the help of her super genius tech friend who doubles as the comedic relief. I had to pause and rewind to make sure I didn't miss anything somehow, or to make sure my streaming service didn't glitch.
And why in that high tech environment can a character run around doing as they please? Just put a digital wall between him and the singer's stage! He isn't a hacker. In Summer Wars, the AI hacked the code with the help of the global math/dev community, which is how he broke the rules, plus it's an AI. But here we have a random kid doing what he wants, and the only defense are these incredibly hard to watch digital superheroes, and the punishment is simply exposing who he is...?
To be honest, I stopped watching halfway. Maybe some of these questions are answered in the second half, but I can't even finish this. I REALLY wanted to like it. Couldn't wait to watch it. And I think it could have worked, if done slightly differently. But to me, this was a huge failure, especially considering the massive wins that came before.