what i watched in 2024
Dec. 31st, 2024 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yallatechnically i'm finishing this in february but i started it at the end of december so don't even worry about it... anyway 2024 was kinda scarce for me in terms of media consumption i can't lie. especially compared to the past two years where i was involved in cinema classes soooo heavily, this year i had a JOB and my free days i kinda didn't feel like watching anything. SAD! well there are other years...
pokémon paldean winds - 8/10
i thought it was fun i thought it was sweet i thought nemona's cameo role as the #ACE was delicious i thought the noobs were cute.. in general i think the decision to set sv in school was rlly funny but also good like u know what middle/high school setting? i kinda like you! if i had a qualm it would be that the series is too short but like it's literally supposed to be a snapshot/overview esque type of series so it did what it set out to do.
pokémon twilight wings - 9/10
specifically the leon episode i kinda killed myself a little. when opal was like he seems like he Wants to lose... shaking my head..... all i can do really... i really do enjoy the semi-recent pokémon supplementary material but it really does make me go wahhhhhhh why wasn't this in the game proper..
basic instinct - 7/10
was it exploitative Yes was it misogynistic Yes was it even a little homophobic Yes but sharon stone really was so good in this. the main dude sucked dick and balls tho i was rooting for her to icepick him dead soooooo bad
the lion in winter - 8/10
i loveeeeeee messy family dynamix. also was blindsided by richard the lionheart being gay in a 1968 film like WHAT THE FUCK? really loved the failmarriage so much it was like woah... divorce speaks.... and then nothing even happens :head_shaking_vertically:
nimona - 5/10
gunbuster - 5/10
hated the fanservice so bad.. i can respect a genre hallmark but really... the time dilation was delicious tho i ate it deliciously. i just don't think 6 episodes was enough to tell a truly compelling story
kissable lips - 2/10
in march of this year the horrors of retail brought me to zb1/kim jiwoong which in turn brought me to SHITASS VAMPIRE BL THAT DIDN'T EVEN SLAY A LITTLE BIT. however kim jiwoong does indeed have a face
roommates of poongduck 304 - 5/10
ex machina - 4/10
bang brave bang bravern - 4/10
all men do is disappoint
the batman - 6/10
commie senses were tingling the entire time but i did have fun.
dead boy detectives - 6/10
ai no kusabi (2012) - 2/10
so bad it was almost laughable like the thing about ank is that it relies very heavily on a narration that's omniscient but also very personalized so any form of adaptation is sure to fall short unless you shuck every convention of visual media ever. like it just doesn't translate. that's why the original was a series of LIGHT NOVELS with ILLUSTRATIONS interspersed...... and it got canceled halfway through so it didn't even follow through with the entire story. at least the 90s ova managed to adapt (in broad strokes) the overall narrative of riki dramatically ironic fall from grace due to his pride. like it got the castration in there and everything.... which is the part that really mattered. guardian was like thematically relevant overall but without the ending it's just a whole lot of nothing so the 2012 half-adaptation added absolutely nothing. also it was just kinda ugly. 90s ova had all these gorgeous pillow shots in between riki having the worse time of his life but this one was just so cold and sterile and not slayful
challengers (2024) - 10/10
i need to watch this again so bad actually like the triangulation was triangulating so deliciously... soundtrack did exactly what it needed to do visual direction was solid DID ANYONE ELSE KILL THEMSELVES OVER THE WAY TASHI LOOKS BTWN PATART, HEAD TURNING FROM ONE TO THE OTHER, WHEN THEY'RE TALKING IN THE BEDROOM AND HOW IT'S THE SAME WHEN SHE'S WATCHING THEM PLAY FR AT THE END. TENNIS IS LOVE. and i love a love metaphor seriously....... light novel title voice does it still count as cheating if you're implicitly involved in a throuple?
she's all that - 5/10
torque - 5/10
jousting on motorbikes is crazy but that's all i got
wilde - 6/10
interview with the vampire (2022) s2 - 9/10
perfect television except i kinda hated the final episode and the direction they're trying to take the show wrt lestatisms but JACOB ANDERSON'S LDPDL WILL ALWAYS BE SO FUCKING FAMOUS FOREVER AND EVER. and i am always on claudia's side
the witch - 7/10
the last unicorn - 4/10
like if i'd watched this as a child maybe it would have mattered but i kinda didn't gaf.. sorryyyy
penelope (2006) - 6/10
splice (2009) - 5/10
even i could tell that the script was bad though which meant it was Baddfhajfhjfajf it should have gotten more freudian with it. i know that everyone was like This is freaky and weirdddddd and gross. and they were right. but the movie should have gotten more freudian with it like WHY SHOULDN'T I HAVE AN OEDIPUS (not electra kys) COMPLEX IN MY CREATURE FEATURE SCIFI HORROR? like if you're going to make it unnecessarily fucked up anyway then it should have had more on motherhood and the evil elsa's mom+elsa+dren dynamic. whatever
idolish7 (s1, s2, s3) - 10/10
actually killed myself with hammers 81407328141883 times over like i died and was also killed. i was going to get on that wave eventually because i love a bingoboard and i knew that kujo tenn had suzaku potential (cancer, self-absolution through martyrdom complex) but the BLowjob brothers forced my hand this year like Jae you would love it. i can't even remember if they baited me with triangles but as soon as trigger was introduced i started seeing like protractors and triangular rules in my mind like dude... it's kinda crazy how much i won even when i was losing. there are not one, not two, but THREEEEEEEE (3!!!) beautiful textual triangulations in this bad boy... it was really refreshing to get into a multimedia idol franchise that actually gaf about the Career and Idolhood bc like. love live dgaf. enstars dgaf. prsk has an idol unit but the bingoboard is both rudimentary and peripheral so it dgaf. even like idolmas and whatever where you play as a producer are fwik less about Being idols so much as they're about producing idols. like it's not about the epic highs and lows. the closest i've ever gotten to the idol franchise of my dreams b4 ainana was PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA and maybe THE HUNGER GAMES which is actually crazy butbfajdfbafdh. in terms of story/general pacing etc etc it was also solid like man this idol franchise is eating up a LOT of the competition without even breaking a sweat like it's obviously made with a lot of care and attention to detail.. the character arcs and overall plot are all done well like even putting idolness aside it's just a damn good story. anyway this was terrible. cut quote taken from re:vale's "our incomplete selves" which was like the killer to me personally. you will be hearing from me again
the cabin in the woods - 5/10
not familiar enough with horror tropes played straight so the subversion thereof was largely lost on me although i did enjoy the hq pulling strings thing.. but i wanted a shonen-type FUCK DESTINY ending so i wasn't pleased
dungeon meshi s1 - 8/10
really good. toward the end it was getting more studio trigger-y which was rlly nice. bc although i love a faithful adaptation, if it's going to be the Exact same thing i might as well just pick up the source material again yk? but i had fun and eagerly await next season <3
all-guy's mixer - 6/10
read and watched this year so even though this is about what i WATCHED i do feel i have to mention my feelings about the manga. which is that it's Okay but it puts something on the table and the something is crossdressing women. i do appreciate that unlike many of its siblings in the gender-bender genre, goukon is both down to earth and pretty chill or even Woke about the crossdressing but it's also kinda too chill like aish... can i get some real gender dynamics in here.... like i'm sure there are plenty of cis women who dress up as men for fun but i want TRANSGENDER SUBTEXT. MY FUCKING BAD. my main problem with goukon is that it's very like situational rather than narrative- or character-driven. which is par the course for a slice of life so it's not that it's doing anything Wrong necessarily but that it isn't doing much that appeals to me, personally. aside from women. like there's no character profiles no backstories no nothing.. i'm used to having to consider all things but it's like damn there's kinda jackshit to work with here... unless they're floating around somewhere but no one has translated them. which would make me kms. honestly i don't even care about the main couples atp i just need aokawa to throw the himejoshi a bone and make KARAHASHI real yesterday. in terms of the anime it's an average run-of-the-mill adaptation of a slice of life manga HOWEVER it added (or adapted from supplementary material i never had access to) some scenes and these scenes included coworkerisms btwn the rose bar staff so i have to give it an extra point. can't lie i skipped through most of it unless it had to do with FUJI tho
arcane s2 - 3/10
man. this sucked. the executive meddling fucked up the pacing soooooo badly it was really ridiculous but the killer is that i don't even think with good pacing it would have been particularly good. it might be confirmation bias but it is entirely possible that the entire narrative from the first season wrt class disparity was just a backdrop for the inevitable caitvi which was like man sure whatever diversity winnnnn i guess. i'm glad some of you are having fun like god forbid slash shippers have all the fun with horrible gay people fucking nasty. however that doesn't mean it's not killing me whenever i think about it like MAN I WAS INVESTED HERE. the needle drops were also awful like i love a good needle drop and non-diegetic tool of the medium but they were so obviously used as crutches for this season and it suckedddddd. beautiful visual direction once again i will always be mel medarda gay fan etc etc and i did enjoy the episode 7 time fuckery EKKO YOU COULD BE A HOMURA TO MEEEEEE but other than that i was really shaking my head the entire timekahjfdafja. the family dynamix were so good in s1 and in this season they were like. vehicles rather than anything meaningful to me. although that could be my rose-colored revisionism... who can say... but tl;dr i was not pleased
and the rewatches
revue starlight - 10/10
revue starlight really does so much for me personally wrt fourth walls and ideas of creation and being created and also yuri and perpetuity and good music so once again it's peak
revue starlight: the movie - 10/10
everything everywhere all at once - 10/10
upon a rewatch i can see where detractors are coming from but also i still dgaf it was perfect to me
sky high (2005) - 5/10
should have had more politicking "it's about high schoolers" it should have had more politicking
bocchi the rock - 7/10
really good gags still like it's just charming... one day i really will finish that teengirl divorce nijiryo....
revolutionary girl utena - 10/10
will always be both famous and the blueprint for all media in the world kinda like it really does have it all and do everything close to flawlessly. also really fun to watch with someone else bc i'm always like "hoo boy" and whoever i'm watching with starts getting rlly scared which is exactly how they should respond but it's like. heh
the adolescence of utena - 7/10
again would be really good as a separate movie divorced from the original series like it does try to condense everything that the series put on the table and it's beautiful. but watching it right after the show makes it seem like such a pathetic simulacrum like why is anthy whitewashed and touga the bus driver and wtf do cars have to do with this YOU JUST WANTED TO MAKE A MECHA ANIME. and again the constraints of time does it no favors due to the theme of cyclical occurrences etc it just doesn't work. but it really is gorgeous
free! eternal summer - 8/10
I DIED AND WAS KILLED. it's been likeeeee 7 or 8 years since i first watched free so i was very much looking forward to how it would affect me now that i'm old and washed-up and damn.. rin matsuoka is forever... his gap moe really is crazy like the first episode with him running that samezuka swim club like it's the fucking navy and then tearing up over the idea of swimming in a pool filled with cherry blossoms that his best friends lovingly prepared for him... I'M YOUR GAY FAN. s1 is just some sports anime but i think with the themes of stakes and the future at hand s2 introduces a much more compelling narrative, especially with sousuke... i think where free fumbles most is the conflict/resolution narratives. most subplots are introduced and resolved in the very same episode like i genuinely did not remember nagisa's 10-minute depressive episode bc it doesn't last or really get brought up after the fact so there's not much in terms of an overarching arc aside from haru future plans angsting, which is also put to rest with little fanfare but at the end of the day iwatobi's fate is to keep plodding along merrily... i think this lack of lingering hurts the narrative most but idk sometimes love really is the answer so i shan't complain TOO much. i think of all arcs sousuke's was best-handled or at the very least the most compelling to ME bc it's just like... well. some of us don't have professional careers despite everything but his crazy yuri-coded pursuit of rin in their last fucking year of high school in an attempt to know was so . and it doesn't actually fix anything but at the end love and friendship is still real...
going on a tangent about ships bc well it's free. we know it took up space in the bl market economy... but i think free is my platonic ideal of the boy-equivalent of kyoani cute girls doing cute things and having yuribait while doing these things. like there are bl characteristics to be sure and it's romantic and everything but at the end of the day i don't think any of these ships are real (aside from nagirei MY ENDGAME!!!!!) and i think that makoto is going to marry a woman. with that said i've finally come around to makoharu as a dynamic like. the quote on the cut is taken from the ending blurb of e10 and it was so fucking crazy to me like omfg all along it was about perpetuity.. it was about stability and the known waters and the unbroken egg... severely anti-endgame to me tho. also within the makoharurin triangulation mkhr is actually delicious.. the line where makoto admits wrt to swimming free with haru "*looking consideringly at haru and rin talking right after a race* maybe i was jealous of rin." but i just found/still kinda find makoto to be clapped in the face and hated the fans so i stayed away from it. in retrospect i probably would have hated harurin fans too but i tolerated it for the sake of my 1pick2pick LMFAO. i don't think hrrn is actually any closer to being an endgame than mkhr like they're friends who inspire each other and are in a sort of weird romantic situationship dynamic but ultimately it isn't going to go anywhere tangible. frankly i don't think any of these guys are going to end up together (not you nagirei i know you will get married fr one day i'm on ur side
and it hardly needs to be said but ofc the animation was gorgeous. the reason i first picked up free was bc i really wanted to see some beautiful water (crazy reason like dude) and kyoani never disappoints... like it kinda goes without saying that ofc the visuals will be good but well they really were good... also random but free did dream sequences sooo well. there were only like two of them but they're uncanny and disjointed and the washed out coloration drives home the sense of Wrongness like it's pretty obviously a dream to the viewer but it's just riveting to me. also the soundtrack was also solid i think once i made an arthur clenching fist meme using a screencap of haruka's clenched fist and it was like "when u're listening to feel my heart but remember no one will pay attention to the ost of free bc it's just a gaybait swimming anime" like tbh
pokémon: lucario and the mystery of mew - 6/10
this gave so much fuel to many edgy darkfic writers.. aura master ash.... theeeeee anime introduction of lucario... it also gave much fuel to ME when i was a wee lad formulating thinly-veiled self-ship fictions with ash ketchum bc the slayerism and badassery was rlly good. ofc i'm not about that life now but watching the movie felt like visiting an old friend like awwwww those are my pals. and i think the fish out of temporal water trope is always so heartbreaking like man.. nothing is as it was.... anyway i had fun!
maybe next year i will get into more...
pokémon paldean winds - 8/10
i thought it was fun i thought it was sweet i thought nemona's cameo role as the #ACE was delicious i thought the noobs were cute.. in general i think the decision to set sv in school was rlly funny but also good like u know what middle/high school setting? i kinda like you! if i had a qualm it would be that the series is too short but like it's literally supposed to be a snapshot/overview esque type of series so it did what it set out to do.
pokémon twilight wings - 9/10
specifically the leon episode i kinda killed myself a little. when opal was like he seems like he Wants to lose... shaking my head..... all i can do really... i really do enjoy the semi-recent pokémon supplementary material but it really does make me go wahhhhhhh why wasn't this in the game proper..
basic instinct - 7/10
was it exploitative Yes was it misogynistic Yes was it even a little homophobic Yes but sharon stone really was so good in this. the main dude sucked dick and balls tho i was rooting for her to icepick him dead soooooo bad
the lion in winter - 8/10
i loveeeeeee messy family dynamix. also was blindsided by richard the lionheart being gay in a 1968 film like WHAT THE FUCK? really loved the failmarriage so much it was like woah... divorce speaks.... and then nothing even happens :head_shaking_vertically:
nimona - 5/10
gunbuster - 5/10
hated the fanservice so bad.. i can respect a genre hallmark but really... the time dilation was delicious tho i ate it deliciously. i just don't think 6 episodes was enough to tell a truly compelling story
kissable lips - 2/10
in march of this year the horrors of retail brought me to zb1/kim jiwoong which in turn brought me to SHITASS VAMPIRE BL THAT DIDN'T EVEN SLAY A LITTLE BIT. however kim jiwoong does indeed have a face
roommates of poongduck 304 - 5/10
ex machina - 4/10
bang brave bang bravern - 4/10
all men do is disappoint
the batman - 6/10
commie senses were tingling the entire time but i did have fun.
dead boy detectives - 6/10
ai no kusabi (2012) - 2/10
so bad it was almost laughable like the thing about ank is that it relies very heavily on a narration that's omniscient but also very personalized so any form of adaptation is sure to fall short unless you shuck every convention of visual media ever. like it just doesn't translate. that's why the original was a series of LIGHT NOVELS with ILLUSTRATIONS interspersed...... and it got canceled halfway through so it didn't even follow through with the entire story. at least the 90s ova managed to adapt (in broad strokes) the overall narrative of riki dramatically ironic fall from grace due to his pride. like it got the castration in there and everything.... which is the part that really mattered. guardian was like thematically relevant overall but without the ending it's just a whole lot of nothing so the 2012 half-adaptation added absolutely nothing. also it was just kinda ugly. 90s ova had all these gorgeous pillow shots in between riki having the worse time of his life but this one was just so cold and sterile and not slayful
challengers (2024) - 10/10
i need to watch this again so bad actually like the triangulation was triangulating so deliciously... soundtrack did exactly what it needed to do visual direction was solid DID ANYONE ELSE KILL THEMSELVES OVER THE WAY TASHI LOOKS BTWN PATART, HEAD TURNING FROM ONE TO THE OTHER, WHEN THEY'RE TALKING IN THE BEDROOM AND HOW IT'S THE SAME WHEN SHE'S WATCHING THEM PLAY FR AT THE END. TENNIS IS LOVE. and i love a love metaphor seriously....... light novel title voice does it still count as cheating if you're implicitly involved in a throuple?
she's all that - 5/10
torque - 5/10
jousting on motorbikes is crazy but that's all i got
wilde - 6/10
interview with the vampire (2022) s2 - 9/10
perfect television except i kinda hated the final episode and the direction they're trying to take the show wrt lestatisms but JACOB ANDERSON'S LDPDL WILL ALWAYS BE SO FUCKING FAMOUS FOREVER AND EVER. and i am always on claudia's side
the witch - 7/10
the last unicorn - 4/10
like if i'd watched this as a child maybe it would have mattered but i kinda didn't gaf.. sorryyyy
penelope (2006) - 6/10
splice (2009) - 5/10
even i could tell that the script was bad though which meant it was Baddfhajfhjfajf it should have gotten more freudian with it. i know that everyone was like This is freaky and weirdddddd and gross. and they were right. but the movie should have gotten more freudian with it like WHY SHOULDN'T I HAVE AN OEDIPUS (not electra kys) COMPLEX IN MY CREATURE FEATURE SCIFI HORROR? like if you're going to make it unnecessarily fucked up anyway then it should have had more on motherhood and the evil elsa's mom+elsa+dren dynamic. whatever
idolish7 (s1, s2, s3) - 10/10
actually killed myself with hammers 81407328141883 times over like i died and was also killed. i was going to get on that wave eventually because i love a bingoboard and i knew that kujo tenn had suzaku potential (cancer, self-absolution through martyrdom complex) but the BLowjob brothers forced my hand this year like Jae you would love it. i can't even remember if they baited me with triangles but as soon as trigger was introduced i started seeing like protractors and triangular rules in my mind like dude... it's kinda crazy how much i won even when i was losing. there are not one, not two, but THREEEEEEEE (3!!!) beautiful textual triangulations in this bad boy... it was really refreshing to get into a multimedia idol franchise that actually gaf about the Career and Idolhood bc like. love live dgaf. enstars dgaf. prsk has an idol unit but the bingoboard is both rudimentary and peripheral so it dgaf. even like idolmas and whatever where you play as a producer are fwik less about Being idols so much as they're about producing idols. like it's not about the epic highs and lows. the closest i've ever gotten to the idol franchise of my dreams b4 ainana was PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA and maybe THE HUNGER GAMES which is actually crazy butbfajdfbafdh. in terms of story/general pacing etc etc it was also solid like man this idol franchise is eating up a LOT of the competition without even breaking a sweat like it's obviously made with a lot of care and attention to detail.. the character arcs and overall plot are all done well like even putting idolness aside it's just a damn good story. anyway this was terrible. cut quote taken from re:vale's "our incomplete selves" which was like the killer to me personally. you will be hearing from me again
the cabin in the woods - 5/10
not familiar enough with horror tropes played straight so the subversion thereof was largely lost on me although i did enjoy the hq pulling strings thing.. but i wanted a shonen-type FUCK DESTINY ending so i wasn't pleased
dungeon meshi s1 - 8/10
really good. toward the end it was getting more studio trigger-y which was rlly nice. bc although i love a faithful adaptation, if it's going to be the Exact same thing i might as well just pick up the source material again yk? but i had fun and eagerly await next season <3
all-guy's mixer - 6/10
read and watched this year so even though this is about what i WATCHED i do feel i have to mention my feelings about the manga. which is that it's Okay but it puts something on the table and the something is crossdressing women. i do appreciate that unlike many of its siblings in the gender-bender genre, goukon is both down to earth and pretty chill or even Woke about the crossdressing but it's also kinda too chill like aish... can i get some real gender dynamics in here.... like i'm sure there are plenty of cis women who dress up as men for fun but i want TRANSGENDER SUBTEXT. MY FUCKING BAD. my main problem with goukon is that it's very like situational rather than narrative- or character-driven. which is par the course for a slice of life so it's not that it's doing anything Wrong necessarily but that it isn't doing much that appeals to me, personally. aside from women. like there's no character profiles no backstories no nothing.. i'm used to having to consider all things but it's like damn there's kinda jackshit to work with here... unless they're floating around somewhere but no one has translated them. which would make me kms. honestly i don't even care about the main couples atp i just need aokawa to throw the himejoshi a bone and make KARAHASHI real yesterday. in terms of the anime it's an average run-of-the-mill adaptation of a slice of life manga HOWEVER it added (or adapted from supplementary material i never had access to) some scenes and these scenes included coworkerisms btwn the rose bar staff so i have to give it an extra point. can't lie i skipped through most of it unless it had to do with FUJI tho
arcane s2 - 3/10
man. this sucked. the executive meddling fucked up the pacing soooooo badly it was really ridiculous but the killer is that i don't even think with good pacing it would have been particularly good. it might be confirmation bias but it is entirely possible that the entire narrative from the first season wrt class disparity was just a backdrop for the inevitable caitvi which was like man sure whatever diversity winnnnn i guess. i'm glad some of you are having fun like god forbid slash shippers have all the fun with horrible gay people fucking nasty. however that doesn't mean it's not killing me whenever i think about it like MAN I WAS INVESTED HERE. the needle drops were also awful like i love a good needle drop and non-diegetic tool of the medium but they were so obviously used as crutches for this season and it suckedddddd. beautiful visual direction once again i will always be mel medarda gay fan etc etc and i did enjoy the episode 7 time fuckery EKKO YOU COULD BE A HOMURA TO MEEEEEE but other than that i was really shaking my head the entire timekahjfdafja. the family dynamix were so good in s1 and in this season they were like. vehicles rather than anything meaningful to me. although that could be my rose-colored revisionism... who can say... but tl;dr i was not pleased
and the rewatches
revue starlight - 10/10
revue starlight really does so much for me personally wrt fourth walls and ideas of creation and being created and also yuri and perpetuity and good music so once again it's peak
revue starlight: the movie - 10/10
everything everywhere all at once - 10/10
upon a rewatch i can see where detractors are coming from but also i still dgaf it was perfect to me
sky high (2005) - 5/10
should have had more politicking "it's about high schoolers" it should have had more politicking
bocchi the rock - 7/10
really good gags still like it's just charming... one day i really will finish that teengirl divorce nijiryo....
revolutionary girl utena - 10/10
will always be both famous and the blueprint for all media in the world kinda like it really does have it all and do everything close to flawlessly. also really fun to watch with someone else bc i'm always like "hoo boy" and whoever i'm watching with starts getting rlly scared which is exactly how they should respond but it's like. heh
the adolescence of utena - 7/10
again would be really good as a separate movie divorced from the original series like it does try to condense everything that the series put on the table and it's beautiful. but watching it right after the show makes it seem like such a pathetic simulacrum like why is anthy whitewashed and touga the bus driver and wtf do cars have to do with this YOU JUST WANTED TO MAKE A MECHA ANIME. and again the constraints of time does it no favors due to the theme of cyclical occurrences etc it just doesn't work. but it really is gorgeous
free! eternal summer - 8/10
I DIED AND WAS KILLED. it's been likeeeee 7 or 8 years since i first watched free so i was very much looking forward to how it would affect me now that i'm old and washed-up and damn.. rin matsuoka is forever... his gap moe really is crazy like the first episode with him running that samezuka swim club like it's the fucking navy and then tearing up over the idea of swimming in a pool filled with cherry blossoms that his best friends lovingly prepared for him... I'M YOUR GAY FAN. s1 is just some sports anime but i think with the themes of stakes and the future at hand s2 introduces a much more compelling narrative, especially with sousuke... i think where free fumbles most is the conflict/resolution narratives. most subplots are introduced and resolved in the very same episode like i genuinely did not remember nagisa's 10-minute depressive episode bc it doesn't last or really get brought up after the fact so there's not much in terms of an overarching arc aside from haru future plans angsting, which is also put to rest with little fanfare but at the end of the day iwatobi's fate is to keep plodding along merrily... i think this lack of lingering hurts the narrative most but idk sometimes love really is the answer so i shan't complain TOO much. i think of all arcs sousuke's was best-handled or at the very least the most compelling to ME bc it's just like... well. some of us don't have professional careers despite everything but his crazy yuri-coded pursuit of rin in their last fucking year of high school in an attempt to know was so . and it doesn't actually fix anything but at the end love and friendship is still real...
going on a tangent about ships bc well it's free. we know it took up space in the bl market economy... but i think free is my platonic ideal of the boy-equivalent of kyoani cute girls doing cute things and having yuribait while doing these things. like there are bl characteristics to be sure and it's romantic and everything but at the end of the day i don't think any of these ships are real (aside from nagirei MY ENDGAME!!!!!) and i think that makoto is going to marry a woman. with that said i've finally come around to makoharu as a dynamic like. the quote on the cut is taken from the ending blurb of e10 and it was so fucking crazy to me like omfg all along it was about perpetuity.. it was about stability and the known waters and the unbroken egg... severely anti-endgame to me tho. also within the makoharurin triangulation mkhr is actually delicious.. the line where makoto admits wrt to swimming free with haru "*looking consideringly at haru and rin talking right after a race* maybe i was jealous of rin." but i just found/still kinda find makoto to be clapped in the face and hated the fans so i stayed away from it. in retrospect i probably would have hated harurin fans too but i tolerated it for the sake of my 1pick2pick LMFAO. i don't think hrrn is actually any closer to being an endgame than mkhr like they're friends who inspire each other and are in a sort of weird romantic situationship dynamic but ultimately it isn't going to go anywhere tangible. frankly i don't think any of these guys are going to end up together (not you nagirei i know you will get married fr one day i'm on ur side
and it hardly needs to be said but ofc the animation was gorgeous. the reason i first picked up free was bc i really wanted to see some beautiful water (crazy reason like dude) and kyoani never disappoints... like it kinda goes without saying that ofc the visuals will be good but well they really were good... also random but free did dream sequences sooo well. there were only like two of them but they're uncanny and disjointed and the washed out coloration drives home the sense of Wrongness like it's pretty obviously a dream to the viewer but it's just riveting to me. also the soundtrack was also solid i think once i made an arthur clenching fist meme using a screencap of haruka's clenched fist and it was like "when u're listening to feel my heart but remember no one will pay attention to the ost of free bc it's just a gaybait swimming anime" like tbh
pokémon: lucario and the mystery of mew - 6/10
this gave so much fuel to many edgy darkfic writers.. aura master ash.... theeeeee anime introduction of lucario... it also gave much fuel to ME when i was a wee lad formulating thinly-veiled self-ship fictions with ash ketchum bc the slayerism and badassery was rlly good. ofc i'm not about that life now but watching the movie felt like visiting an old friend like awwwww those are my pals. and i think the fish out of temporal water trope is always so heartbreaking like man.. nothing is as it was.... anyway i had fun!
maybe next year i will get into more...
