Saikano is kind of a downer.
Reading it is not a pleasant experience, nor is watching it (even with the slightly sanitized ending), but it is an emotional experience. You need quite a bit of willing suspense of disbelief to get past the premise: the government picks a slow, klutzy Japanese girl to turn into an experimental weapon in a global war. Get past that, and it's a touching, gut punch of a love story/war drama about a lot of imperfect people trying to live their lives in a world being destroyed by a war.
If you thought regular teenage relationships were awkward, what are you supposed to do when your girlfriend stands you up on a date because she was on a mission where she sort of accidentally blew up an entire city? How do you write about that in your exchange diary?
The part about this work that hits hardest is that you can tell they're just two kids who wanted to fall in love and have a relationship. The world of adults is too busy fighting a pointless war of annihilation to even let them graduate from high school.
Nobody wins. And I want to punch the guy who just keeps saying, "It couldn't be helped," because it could, sir. It usually can. It takes money, supplies, and a lot of organization to fight a war. It's way easier to not fight, at least in the short run, especially when so much damage had already been done, but I digress . . .
SUB/DUB:
I advise you to watch in Japanese with English subtitles. (Also, have some tissues handy.) It's available in an inexpensive boxed set.
CONTENT RATING:
This one is rated M as a manga and definitely R as an anime. It's not one to watch with the kids, which is fine because you wouldn't want to explain why you're on that second tissue package or what exactly happened at the end, there. You may feel like you've been pummeled when you're done, but you won't regret the fictional journey. Probably.
OUR RATINGS:
J: -
K: b
Are there any anime you like that have ridiculous body counts? What makes a show where almost everybody dies worth watching in your opinion?
Friday, August 28, 2009
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2 comments:
Was this the one with the creepy guy with the hand thing that kept coming after the main male character? Or was that another horribly depressing manga?
I have no idea what you're talking about unless you're remembering that horror movie we saw part of when Dad was watching it years ago . . . Parasyte has a creepy hand thing, but it's attached, and I don't think you would have read it . . .
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