The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel–Movie Review

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3.5 Stars

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has a predictable story and a hokey ending but it is redeemed by a witty script and and outstanding cast.

The story features the adventures of a group of British retirees who for various reasons (mostly financial) decide to move to a luxurious retirement resort in India called “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”

Unfortunately the glowing portrayal of the hotel on its web site proves to be somewhat misleading. The feckless owner (Dev Patel) has depicted the hotel as he dreams it will be when he has it properly fixed up, but right now it is shabby and run-down with non-functional phones and erratic plumbing.

On the other hand the hotel is in India and that makes up for a lot.

(I think that India has a special place in the hearts and imaginations of the British. Of all the former colonies it is seen as the most exotic and romantic.)
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Hyouka–Anime Early Impressions

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Hyouka (“shave ice/snow cone”) got started late and I’m still not sure what I think of it. Usually after 3 episodes I have a pretty good idea (though I’m often disappointed when a good start trails off into a weak ending.) In this case I’m not at all sure where this is going. So far it seems like a combination of school detective story and slice-of-life, built around an epic face-off between the embodiments of willful negativity and genki moe.

Some have compared this to Kyoto Animation’s first big hit The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The comparison might work if you can imagine Haruhi as a demure pure-hearted ojou-sama who gets her way through innocent naive enthusiasm. Also imagine a Kyon who is even more depressed than the original and you are well on your way.

First the good news. When they really want to Kyoto Animation can do better animation than anyone else on a television budget. (I’m not saying that they are better than Studio Ghibli, but Studio Ghibli only does movies.) This time they really want to. My first thought was “this would be worth watching for the animation alone!” But realistically animation alone can’t carry a TV series; the writing and acting are even more important.
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Cultural Misunderstandings in Space Brothers

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The high point of Episode 5 of Space Brothers is Hibito’s appearance on an American talk show. The American host gives a short statement introducing the famous Japanese astronaut. Hibito walks on-stage and they shake hands. Then the host puts his hands in the gasshou position and bows.

This symbolizes veneration and is normally used for praying, not greeting.
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The Avengers–Movie Review

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3 Stars

The Avengers is the culmination of a series of movies based on Marvel Comics superheroes. (The official title seems to be “Marvel’s The Avengers” but I will only go so far to accommodate marketing lunacy.) The earlier movies were Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America.

If you have seen the earlier movies you can probably make a good guess about how much you will like this one. (I enjoyed the Iron Man movies and Captain America, didn’t think much of Thor and somehow missed out on the Hulk.) If you haven’t seen any of the movies this is probably not the place to start.

At the start of the movie Loki (Tom Hiddleston), otherwise known as “the smirking evil guy”, steals an unlimited power source called “the Tesseract.” He plans to trade it for a alien army that will make him the ruler of Earth.
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Update on Accel World

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Ani-nouto dings me for misjudging Kuroyukihime’s character in Accel World. And he’s probably right. Since I wrote my original post some things have happened that show her in quite a different light.

Which is a good thing. I greatly prefer it if a story isn’t too easy to predict. Accel World, while sticking to the basic framework of a shounen fighting anime, is showing an admirable amount of creativity. At this point it is one of my two favorite shows of the season. (The other is Kids on the Slope.)

And for those who dismissed Haruyuki as a whiny coward–he still has some self-esteem issues but he’s clearly starting to blossom into a true hero.

Fate/Zero Crosses Over into High Tragedy

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I guess Fate/Zero (Crunchyroll link) has been aiming for tragedy all along. (I certainly hope that nobody has been watching this and hoping for a happy ending!) But it wasn’t clear whether they fully understood the difference between “tragedy” and “bloody farce.”

The 16th episode lays these doubts to rest. This is tragedy, as the spoiler-laden excerpt below should make clear.

I think this illustrates the true power of hand-drawn animation as an art form. Imagine trying to do this scene with computer-generated animation. The idea is revolting. It would be obscene.

Could it be done with live actors? Yes, but they would have to be very good indeed for it to be as effective. And if you did the bloodier scenes as live action the result would be unbroadcastable. You probably couldn’t even show it in a movie theater.

(It would have to be the sort of theater that would show Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein. But that was pure farce. This would be much more disturbing.)

Hand-drawn animation at its best can convey the characters’ feelings more effectively than live action while preserving enough emotional distance to allow the audience to bear the unbearable.

(And no, I’m not going to show anything really bloody below. I’m not going for cheap thrills here.)
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Kids on the Slope–Anime Early Impressions

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Kids on the Slope (Crunchyroll link) has to be the classiest anime of the Spring 2012 season. (The Japanese title is Sakamichi no Aporon, “Apollo on the Hill Road.”)

Now I’m not saying that Kids is necessarily the best anime of the season. It’s far too early to make that call, and anyway right at this moment I’m leaning more toward Accel World.

But “best” is always a matter of taste. If you like high-minded coming-of-age stories like Honey and Clover and Nodame Cantabile then Kids may be just what you are looking for.
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Dusk Maiden of Amnesia–Anime Early Impressions

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Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (Japanese title: Tasogare Otome × Amnesia) (Crunchyroll link) is an interesting mixture. It is a Comedy/Horror/Mystery/Romance that maintains a delicate balance between the charming and the creepy.

The hero is Teiichi Niiya (Tsubasa Yonaga), a first-year student at a foreboding old middle school with numerous scary legends about an evil ghost who supposedly haunts the place. One day he gets lost in an empty building in an old part of the school and encounters the ghost.
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