kalechipskid

Just finished shoving Yukikaze 2002 down my roomates throats and it ended with misty eyes. It's really one of the best. Gets better on every rewatch with all the little details they got in there. Just an autistic guy and his plane wife acting as tools of the government for 5 episodes as the world crumbles around them. The anime is a perfect combination of everything I love. The unique scifi concepts and killer dogfights of the original book are spliced together mangaka Yumi Tada's super stylish, emo character designs as well as deeply sensitive storytelling sensibilities, all with studio Gonzo's ageless fighter jet cg (it's from 2002 but it doesn't look it! I swear! it's mind boggling!!!) It's actually very interesting to see how the work is interpreted across mediums-- The book has a pulpier, macho energy to it with the characters coming off more like badboys, actively saying the Fuck word and even gasp having...s-sex (in Rei Fukai's case, I refuse to believe this). Rei, while still socially inept, is much more vocal in the book and his conversations with Jack have a sardonic bounce in comparison to the anime's almost mother-and-son dynamic. In the manga's case, it's Yumi Tada pouring her entire soul out. Rei's crudeness is replaced with what looks to be a case of dissociative depression and the stories focus much more heavily on the tragic pasts and how they shape the characters. I was surprised to see that Yumi Tada, besides being the character designer, was credited with writing the script for the first episode. You can see the Chouhei, you can see the Yumi, and you can see Gonzo pulling out the best of both.

The sound design is beyond stellar in it does wonders building suspense. The angles are twisty and showcase the planes beautifully while giving appropriate attention to the character's expressions as they dance through various emotions in quick succession. When music comes in it's either sparse and unnerving or a deep low rumble that pulls the emotions right out of you. God, it hasn't aged a day.
It's a story of people's attraction to war; their distance from it; the quick development of weaponry; the automation of war; the way people escape and cling; the relationship to yourself and those around you. The lines between alien and human melt over time and the heroes keep walking, trying to understand their place in the divide. Rei Fukai loves his alien fighter jet. His alien fighter jet loves him back. And so they fly off with a steady resolve where no one else has gone yet, in a beam of light where they've found their place at last.

An angel with no home, a soul with no future, an endless sky of stars a the railway that will take them to the end. Goodbyes are inevitable, but until then...
SOREKARA - end of a journey (the demo, that is) is out at last!
You can play it for free here 🌹

A touching story of starlight and ossans...you should give it a go....for me....for ossan!!

Started Tetsuji 28 go 2004 with my sister and it's been a startlingly good time. I say "startlingly" because the emotions running through the series are very strong, it deals with the complicated feelings of the Japanese people fresh out of WW2. Should a weapon as powerful as Tetsujin really exist in this world? What did it take to get here? Was it really all worth it..?
Most of the characters are manipulating each other and the war crimes committed by the cast are nothing to scoff at. Shotaro, the plucky boy detective himself, is called a child detective by everyone around him but still forced to pull the trigger. Tetsujin, the beast which actually shares a name with Shotaro, is a monsterous chunky boi who has some pretty generic powers by current mecha standards, but his impact feels incredibly real with the destruction he causes simply by existing. Even if he is being used for good, his steps create holes in the earth and his arms obliterate entire neighborhoods. Shotaro's frustration with Tetsujin ends up being a projection of his own self worth.
At the end of one of the arcs, the war criminal Dr.Franken seeks to reunite with his son, a corpse he twisted into a lumbering monster. Kenji, a friend to this monster and lover of peace, is horrified to see Shotaro block the way with his robot. At first it looks to be nothing more than petty cruelty. But the reality is that the two meeting would be the worst thing possible, and Shotaro knows that more than anyone present. The plan fails. The two meet. And in an act of love and tearful hatred, they end each others lives.
I was struck by this moment because Shotaro understood this better than anyone. His own father created a robot of destruction that should've never existed and named it after him. Shotaro and his robot are the same, and you see him referring to himself as a monster, something that should've never been born. If Shotaro met his father, what would he do? There was originally such a reverence for the man but at the story continues and his self-image muddies, that affection twists into something different entirely.
🤖 thank you yasuhiro imagawa for mai life