Change Your Image
Brian Kendig
Reviews
Kareshi kanojo no jijou (1998)
Starts strong but falls apart
"His and Her Circumstances" starts out with an interesting premise: competitive-streak overachiever girl meets calm overachiever boy, and his academic prowess sparks her to want to ruin him; but gradually they learn to see each other - and themselves - for who they truly are, and they fall in love.
At its best, this series tells a tender lovestory. Early on, it focuses on the girl Yukino, showing the image she works to present to other people while giving insight as to *why* she behaves as she does - it's a mature character drama, giving surprisingly real motivations behind her actions. Arima, the boy, gets somewhat less attention from the script, but his levels of depth are also explored. When the two of them are together, there's lots of innocent blushing going on, and it's sweet to see.
And it's obvious the animators had fun with this series. Characters are drawn in all styles from realistic to chibi to fit the mood, and the animation is exaggerated and sometimes wild when called for. Visual humor abounds.
The problem, however, is that beyond the first few episodes, the series begins to fall apart. Far too much time in the beginning of most episodes is given to recapping the entire series up to that point; a whole episode and a half in the middle of the series is devoted to recapping again, and the second half of episode 24 (out of 26) is nothing but replays of recaps from earlier in the series as well as another run of the opening credits. The main characters become less important in the series, and later episodes focus on secondary characters and other people brought in to support the secondaries. The relationship between Yukino and Arima is never resolved; Arima himself doesn't appear very often towards the end. The final episode is a strange low-budget abstract thing which ends the series abruptly without tying up any loose ends.
It feels like, near the end, the production staff stopped making an effort; and that's just a shame.
Duck Dodgers (2003)
The future isn't as good as it was in 1953
Take Futurama's Captain Zapp Brannigan and Lieutenant Kif and put them up against Emperor Zurg from the animated Buzz Lightyear series, and you've got "Duck Dodgers." What were they thinking?! Daffy is too over-the-top smarmy, Porky's voice doesn't sound right (even though Bob Bergen is doing it -- maybe the editing is bad?), and Marvin has changed from a bumbling absentminded alien into a bellowing fleet
commander who's as malevolent as he is ineffective. You know the type; they're a dime a dozen these days.
Throw in an army of disposable robots to do Marvin's work for him, way more sexual innuendo than the original Warner Bros. cartoons ever had, lots of pointless dialogue EXPLAINING what's going on instead of SHOWING it, and weird character animation (some of it looks like it's straight out of 'Ren & Stimpy,' with the wild faces the characters make sometimes), and you come out with a series that's a pale shadow of the original. "The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries" did a fine job of putting familiar characters into fun new situations while keeping their personalities and their looks intact; why can't "Duck Dodgers?"
Let It Ride (1989)
My favorite movie
Mix a little spirituality and a little insanity in the form of Jay Trotter, a man who's not afraid of risking everything on a single bet... again and again, even as the stakes grow higher and higher. All he wants is to move up into a classier circle of people, but all their classiness is just an act, and in the end it's his fellow lowlifes who are rooting for him. This is my favorite movie, and I can't quite figure out why. Maybe it's the nutty characters he interacts with all through the movie? Maybe it's the forced calmness with which he places each bet? Maybe it's the guy at the betting window (my favorite character, and the actor plays Hagrid in 'Harry Potter')? This movie isn't perfect, nor does it try to be... but it's just lots of fun! And I still love the surprise ending.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Titan A.E. underwater
I was very surprised to find how many similarities this movie had to Titan A.E.: An awkward young man with a grunt job and not much of a life lives in the shadow of his long-past father, but a gift from his father and help from the father's close friend provides the only key to finding a new world. The young man joins an expedition with some ragtag specialists and guides (and befriends) them... but not everyone has the same agenda. Just like Titan A.E., the movie starts out with fast-paced action (though here the banter is snappier); but just like Titan A.E., midway through the movie the film takes a wrenching plot turn into predictability, and from there on in it's all one can do to ignore the plot holes. Still, it's pretty, the characters are likeable, and there are no furry animals to annoy the audience. The music here is unremarkable -- an area where Titan A.E wins easily.