The movie is definitely satisfying on visuals and emotion, but the male protagonist was the epitome of awkwardness, like a meek little cream pastry. Basically, Shinji without the angst. A baby-face little simpering puppy. He creates all sorts of clumsy moments that just made me groan and fail to catch my breath in time to groan again. Buy a doormat, name him "Kenji"- there you go. It feels like I'm not so much watching a virtual reality more so a long-winded salute to Japanese family life, where WWII stories translate to Feudal era garble, there are a bunch of catty women need to be muzzled, one guy's a walking buddy cop comedy, and a shuffle pick of all the embarrassing relative archetypes we all know and (usually) love. It was an amusing niche of culture, even if I'm a neophyte about Japanese life. And of course, the film about families and wholesomeness has a cheerful, sugary ending. To think the world was saved by a Hanafuda master- let alone a high school teenage girl on a summer afternoon, sitting pretty at her granny's house, barefoot and in a sundress.
Slice of Life
The movie is definitely satisfying on visuals and emotion, but the male protagonist was the epitome of awkwardness, like a meek little cream pastry. Basically, Shinji without the angst. A baby-face little simpering puppy. He creates all sorts of clumsy moments that just made me groan and fail to catch my breath in time to groan again. Buy a doormat, name him "Kenji"- there you go. It feels like I'm not so much watching a virtual reality more so a long-winded salute to Japanese family life, where WWII stories translate to Feudal era garble, there are a bunch of catty women need to be muzzled, one guy's a walking buddy cop comedy, and a shuffle pick of all the embarrassing relative archetypes we all know and (usually) love. It was an amusing niche of culture, even if I'm a neophyte about Japanese life. And of course, the film about families and wholesomeness has a cheerful, sugary ending. To think the world was saved by a Hanafuda master- let alone a high school teenage girl on a summer afternoon, sitting pretty at her granny's house, barefoot and in a sundress.