ANI-MOVIES, *Josee, The Tiger And The Fish

Josee, The Tiger And The Fish was a short story written by Seiko Tanake which had previously been adapted into two live-action Japanese and Korean movies, so Bones director Kotaro Tamura helmed its first anime adaptation in 2020. This is a melodrama that shines a light on how the physically disabled are looked on by society, which is a subject long absent in anime, plus how they struggle in a world that wasn't designed for someone like them. This beautiful story gloriously demonstrates how life is very limited for in this position who still try to achieve their dreams.

Tsuneo is a college student working part-time in a scuba store hoping to get a scholarship to Mexico to witness a rare type of fish, but all this changes when he saves the life of the paraplegic Josee when her wheelchair gets out of control. Josee's grandmother hires him to act her caretaker, even though they don't get along at first, but eventually start to warm up to each other over time. Josee has spent her entire life without the use of her legs, and after her grandmother passes away, she finds that her choices in life have shrunk, so Tsuneo helps motivate her and make her more sociable, despite that Tsuneo still wants to go on his journey. Tsuneo once again has to save Josee from a car accident which leaves him with a broken leg that puts a stop to all his plans. Josee decides to face her fears and become a children's book illustrator but can't work up the courage to face Tsuneo after the accident. Fortunately, two of Tsuneo's work buddies help coerce them back together while he goes though physical rehabilitation. After finally getting out of the hospital, Tsuneo goes looking for Josee only to have to save her again on her runaway wheelchair where they finally confess their feelings. Tsuneo ultimately gets to take his trip to Mexico and reunites with Josee after his trip.

Many have compared this to other sympathetic anime romance films such as A Silent Voice and Ride Your Wave is it focuses on how a tragedy can bring people together despite their differences while also succeeding in their goals. The eventual romance between the two main characters is fairly obvious from the beginning, even with Josee putting up an angry front when they first start working together. The mixed message the film conveys of romance blooming in the face of detraction and does not try to hit you over the head with a heavy-handed result. The characters grow and become better than they were by the end of the film, plus Bones' animation is captivating. Whether you can view this and find it acceptable will vary between what anime films you've watched prior to this, but it is very wholesome even with some of the more noticeable dramatic cliches.

MISC. MANGA, *Xanadu

Anthropomorphics were huge in the indie comics market in the 80s largely due to all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wannabes, but out of all of them only one managed to establish what most people nowadays refer to as the "furry" genre. Xanadu started out as a 5-issue mini-series by Vicky Wyman in 1988 followed by a sequel mini-series, a color special, and its own fanzine. This was one of the few talking animal comics from the 80s that was entirely cast with anthropomorphic characters and was also a swashbuckling adventure in the spirit of Conan and Dungeons And Dragons. Borrowing traits from both European and Asian folklore, Xanadu begins as a recognizable sword and sorcery tale, but elements of Japanese mythology work their way into the plot. The late Vicky Wyman had a grand sense of romantic fantasy which translated into amazing comic art done in black and white which also leans into manga style.

Set in the magical land of Xanadu, the current Empress is Alicia, a unicorn ruler whose father Allynrud settled his empire after ceasing the quarreling Nobles who are mythical creatures and their adversaries the Freeborn who are the other anthropomorphic citizens. There are also the Domestique animals which take the place of regular animals such as ones for riding on instead of horses. Alicia's foxy handmaiden Fatima is carrying on a flirty relationship with the swaggering feline gentlemen thief Tabbe who keeps infiltrating the castle much to the chagrin of the griffen captain of the guard Plume who has plans of his own for who should be on the throne. Word of this reaches the neighboring kingdom of the Golden Realm run by golden dragons, so the high princess Kajiko arrives in Xanadu along with her younger brother Kinomon who will become one of Alicia's royal guards. Plume's treachery is revealed and he escapes, only to later bond himself with the spirit of the dark sorcerer Typhon which ultimately leads to his demise. The second mini-series shows most of Alicia's court going on a voyage to the Golden Realm but are sidetracked by pair of selfish kyryn and some pesky pirates. The color special acts a prequel set in the early days of the Golden Realm, so it's unusual that nearly half of the entire Xanadu comics run doesn't actually takes place in the empire it's named after.

Vicky Wyman didn't pull her punches when it came to having her animal people expressing their opinions and feelings which makes for a lot of passionate intrigue. Wyman's artwork had great details and unique screen tone backgrounds that are equal to even the most professional manga creators. Xanadu is a stand-alone testament to exactly how deep furry lore can go that shakes off the negative stereotypes that seem to plague the fandom.

ANI-MOVIES, *Origin: Spirits Of The Past

Origins: Spirits Of The Past was an original story written by former Ghibli animator Umanosuke Iida a few years before he died which was animated into an anime movie by Gonzo in 2006. Similar to numerous Ghibli projects, this film has an environmental theme to it that harkens back to Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind as well as Castle In The Sky. It's another post-apocalyptic epic, although not the bleak type you find in Fist Of The North Star or Mad Max. Gonzo executed this splendidly with their 3D animation with 2D artwork, even though some of the mechanics look somewhat shotty.

Set in the 24th Century, an experiment on the moon caused the entire surface to burst which showers the Earth with lunar debris, so now the surviving civilizations get by using a water bartering system in a world covered with the ever-growing Forest. Agito is a young citizen in Neutral City who spends his days collecting water and caring for his father Agashi who is slowly turning into a tree because he became enhanced by a strange race known as the Druids who imbued Agashi with super-strength to help settle their town. Agito finds a girl named Toola in a cryogenic pod who was placed there before the cataclysm, and she is welcomed into Neutral City. The neighboring nation of Ragna is an industrious country run by its military which their commander Shunack learns that Toola has been released and has the key to a special apparatus called the ESTOC that can supposedly help restore the world. Toola goes with Shunack to help them in their efforts, but Agito doesn't trust them, so he makes a detour to the heart of the Forest where the Druids dwell. Agito is quickly enhanced by the Druid spirits, and then the narrative skips over a sequence where he was captured by the Ragna forces to awaken with his hair now silver and with super-strength and endurance. Agito makes his way to the Ragna city to bring Toola back to Neutral City, but Shunack is having none of that and incapacitates Agito as he takes Toola to the ESTOC while the greedy enhanced commander also betrays the Ragna military. Shunack activates the ESTOC which is an entire mobile volcano which will in reality wipe out all life on Earth, although Agito stops the process by freeing Toola and Shunack accepts his fate.

Origin: Spirits Of The Past is an altogether rushed production with entire scenes left on the cutting room floor as the story shifts from one scene to another with no transition or explanation. The film should have been longer in order to fill in the deleted footage. Aside from the ecological metaphor, the movie carries a message of generational discrimination for those who want things to be they were in the past instead of working towards the future. The CGI effects are commendable, especially for the early 2000s, but Gonzo needed to liven up the character designs as you can see that they are reused models from other anime titles. The soundtrack is equally memorable with a mildly acceptable dub. As a thinly veiled tagalong to some earlier Ghibli films, it does make for a praiseworthy feature.

ANI-MOVIES, *To Every You I've Loved Before + To Me, The One Who Loved You

The double deal anime movies of To Every You I've Loved Before and To Me, The One Who Loved You was released in Japan in 2022 based on the two books that simultaneously came out from author Yomoji Otono. Each one of these sci-fi romance novels centered around the premise of parallel worlds, or multiverse for most MCU fans, where there's a reality for nearly every decision we make and its alternative folds out in another. The actual scientific terminology they use in it is profoundly wonky and could usually be brushed aside as the type of technobabble you would run into on Star Trek, but if you could figure out how the concept of time travel worked in Your Name then you shouldn't have too much trouble keeping up with it. The plot spans multiple worlds where things are mildly similar to only somewhat different, so nothing heavy like out of What If?. The two movies were produced by separate studios and directors, although both are easy to meld together into a single feature if you watch both, and there is no particular order to which one of them you would watch first, but we'll take the route that is a little easier to follow.

To Me, The One Who Loved You was directed by Kenichi Kasai and animated by TMS Entertainment. Koyomi was a normal boy who decided to live with his father Shodai after his parent's divorce who just happened to be working at an institute dedicated to Imaginary Science where they can transfer someone's consciousness into a version of themselves in a parallel world in a process called Parallel Shift. The dog of Koyomi's grandfather passed away and this causes the poor kid to cry which gets the attention of Shiori, the daughter of the institute's director Genko, so she uses what she knows about the Parallel Shift method and stuffs him in a capsule that takes him to a world where his grandpa's dog is still alive but his grandfather is the one who died. Koyomi spends a night in this world and then wakes up back in his own world where we later learn that his counterpart had transferred into his body. Shiori wants to go to a world where her parents are still married, but Genko stops them, so Shiori and Koyomi grow up to be friends, and of course fall in love. Years later, Shiori and Koyomi are shocked to learn that their parents are getting married which for them shoots down any plans they have for getting hitched in the future, even though they didn't know it's legal for stepsiblings to marry each other. In a panic, they Parallel Shift to a world where both their original parents aren't divorced, but Shiori gets hit by a car while she's there and upon Koyomi's return to his own world finds that Shiori is now brain dead. After sometime, Koyomi coordinates with Shodai and Genko that Shiori's spirit is stuck at the same street corner in every world they shift to and that it's possible to put her back in her body, and the young lad takes up his father's practice spending years learning all about Imaginary Science and working at the same institute, even though Shiori's body eventually gives out. Still researching Parallel Shifts, Koyomi gets an assistant in Kazune who knew him in high school even though he never noticed her. Kazune helps Koyomi in his efforts to relocate Shiori's ghost to reality where the two of them never met in an effort to untether her, and after looking into the chemical dynamics of beer Koyomi figures out how to achieve this concept called a Time Shift. A few decades later, Koyomi and Kazune are married with grandchildren of their own, but the elderly Koyomi has finally worked out the figures for a Time Shift. This results in Shiori finally being set free into a different reality, while Koyomi wondering why he left a note to himself to meet a street corner since neither of them are aware of their past lives.

To Every You I've Loved Before is the other side of the bridge of this story which was directed by Jun Matsumoto and animated by Tatsunoko. Picking up where the other installment left off, the elderly Koyomi figures out the ghostly form he encounters at the street corner was from a far-off Parallel Shift. Years earlier, the story jumps to the world that the previous Koyomi first went to where this Koyomi moved in with his mother after his parents divorced, although he still has a faint memory of shifting to the other Koyomi's world. Later in high school, Koyomi meets his world's version of Kazune and the two start a friendly rivalry, and eventually begin working at the Imaginary Science institute, as well as get married and have a child. There is some tension with their son nearly getting killed and an alternate Kazune dropping in on their reality because the son in her world didn't survive, as well the Kazune from the other movie's timeline interacting with theirs preparing her to help her Koyomi meet Shiori. The fated meeting happens, but the older Koyomi returns to his Kazune as she has been the one at his side all his life.

Comparing To Every You I've Loved Before and To Me, The One Who Loved You to each other is a tall order. Each one is its own distinct story that deal with similar characters but that took very separate paths in their lives. It is possible to watch To Me on its own without watching To Every You since there is a good deal of footage from the latter was already shown in the prior which makes To Every You ten minutes longer than To Me. Your mileage may vary between which film you see first, even though To Me does a better job of explaining the theory of Parallel Shift and we get a better view of Koyomi where he dedicates his life to free the spirit of his childhood sweetheart. With two different studios handling the production of their own film which is bound to another made it difficult to fill in all the gaps that the viewer will notice. It isn't as confusing as Tenet, but when watching both of these movies you have to accept that each one is its own story set in their own world but slightly similar, and there are times when these stories intersect. Overall, the joint production can resonate with anime fans, and it also fits non-otaku since there aren't any big tropes that usually go with the genre. Since both movies are sold together in the same Blu-ray pack, it's easy for any potential watchers to enjoy their purchase, although you might find it more fulfilling if you catch them on streaming first.

ANI-MOVIES, *Sing A Bit Of Harmony

Sing A Bit Of Harmony fills in the blank that has been drastically empty for the longest time in an anime, a genuine musical! There have been a few musical anime over the last few years like Belle and The Rose Of Versailles, but most of the time those have scenes involving a band performing music such as in The Colors Within. This film however breaks the standard and gives way to authentic musical numbers here and there. Yasuhiro Yoshiura directed and co-wrote this and has been in the industry for some time, although similar to his anime Time Of Eve, this movie centers around people's symbiosis with AI, so it's a sci-fi slice of life feature with musical cuts thrown in between. Toradora animators JC Staff crafted their own unique style for it with watercolor backgrounds and some CGI modeling.

Set in a somewhat advanced future, the industrious Hoshima company is working on their latest AI program headed up by single mother Mitsuko who secretly sends her experiment to her daughter Satomi's high school in the disguise of a robot girl named Shion. This new transfer student is immediately recognized by Satomi when she's first introduced to her class as the chipper girl starts singing and asking if she's happy. Satomi manages to keep this secret less than a day when four of her other classmates discover it but promise not to reveal it to anyone. Among the number of Shion's new circle of friends, Sadayuki and Aya are dating but are having a falling out, so Shion sings a sensitive song to help bring them back together, and later on sings a peppy tune to help wannabe judo student Thunder how to finally win a match. Satomi's relationship with her fellow conspirators seems to grow as Shion's efforts bring them closer together, especially with her former childhood friend Toma who she had a parting of ways with some years ago, and Satomi's efforts to help protect Toma's clubroom from being used as a vapor joint from soccer punks gave her a bad reputation as being a tattletale which lead to her being a slight outcast by the other students. Shion's main motivation is to make Satomi happy, even though that wasn't her original programming, but the spunky AI is determined to make Satomi's life similar to that of her favorite fairy tale anime where she's a "moon princess". Shion finally arranges to have Satomi and Toma reconcile just as the goons from Hoshima abduct Shion at the end of her big number. Now, Satomi, Mitsuko, and her friends plan to free Satomi from the Hoshima complex, so the rest of the film almost becomes a heist movie with Shion's friends manage to release Shion's AI into the internet. Satomi and Toma become closer, Mitsuko keeps her job, and Shion keeps watch on her friends via satellites.

Sing A Bit Of Harmony is an unconventional musical as the actual numbers are set up by a gleeful android who has no off switch when it comes to social etiquette and just starts spontaneously singing whenever she feels like it. Having a character randomly burst into song is different from a standard musical as the entire cast is operating on the same frequency where they all start singing when the story calls for it. Shion as an uninhibited AI with its own fresh perspective of the world whereas in most sci-fi stories she would be patient zero for a robot apocalypse, however in this movie she is a free-spirited child who has been looking out for Satomi for longer than anyone else truly realizes. Yasuhiro Yoshiura upbeat perspective of mankind's relationship with technology demonstrates how the two can have a balanced accord at least in an idealistic reality. The few musical numbers by Shion are performed equally excellent by both the Japanese and English dubs actresses. JC Staff effectively combines the look of high-tech with a sleepy countryside town that makes for a visually stunning experience. This is a family-friendly anime motion picture that isn't hard to get into making it accessible to even the hardest of anime skeptics.

ANI-MOVIES, *Lady Death: The Motion Picture

"Bad Girls" were a fad in American comics during the 90s that sparked semi-classics like Barb Wire and Warrior Nun Areala, but unlike the rest of them only Lady Death managed to have any real lasting power. Starting out as a character in Brian Pulido's Evil Ernie comic book series in 1991, Lady Death managed to get her own reoccurring title and even got her own action figure. Afterwards, the current publishers of Lady Death, Chaos Comics, arranged a deal with anime distributor ADV Films to release the company's first original animated project based on the character. Keep in mind, despite what a lot of people have claimed since then, this 2004 movie is not a genuine anime film as a majority of it was animated in Korea, even though quite a few Japanese animated productions also get a portion of their secondary work from there as well. Lady Death: The Motion Picture is reasonably well animated, although there are numerous cuts in the movie when you can tell that they just replay the same footage sometimes from a reversed angle just to pad out the film. The screenplay was written by none other than Robotech's own Carl Macek who had already fumbled previously in his less than successful Heavy Metal 2000, so a good portion of the dialogue is borderline hokey. Most of the reviews that this movie got when it first came out was by anime regulars, but the target audience of American comics fans didn't voice their opinion very much, another reason that The Motion Picture keep being confused for an anime. The limited animation and low production value didn't help either.

Mostly beginning in 15th Century Sweden, Hope is the daughter of the reckless lord Matthias who is in reality Lucifer. Hope is in love with Niccolo who gets drafted into Matthias' army, and all this military postering is spooking the locals which causes them to break into Matthias' castle just as he reveals his demonic self to Hope. Lucifer gets expunged to Hell, and Hope is burnt at the stake who gets tricked into giving up her faith as she also gets sent to Hell. Hope is taken to her daddy by his personal flunky Pagan and she finds that Niccolo and her mother's souls are being held captive at Lucifer's throne. She rejects her father's offers, and he casts her out into the wastelands where she meets Cremator, Lucifer's former weapons forger. Cremator spends the next few years training Hope to become a better fighter as she taps into her demonic powers which causes her hair and skin to turn completely white. Hope changes her name to Lady Death and assembles an army to rise against Lucifer. After getting a special sword to slay her daddy, Lady Death tries to remake the battle of Helm's Deep by attacking Lucifer's haunted castle which looks like Garamel's old place. Death has to kill Niccolo in order to send him to Heaven, and then eventually beheads Lucifer which of course causes the entire castle to crumble to the ground. Death's mother also ascends into Heaven, but Lucifer put a curse on her that she needs to kill all his remaining followers in Hell in order to be completely free of him which leaves the door open for a wretched sequel that never got made.

The movie took so long to come out that the publishing company that held the rights to the character at the time went out of business before the film was released. Original creator Brian Pulido had few liberties with the movie's script which rewrote much of Lady Death's motivations to being more of a heroine instead of a "bad girl" which in 90s terms was an anti-heroine. One major thing that was removed from the story was the character of Purgatori who was integeral to Lady Death's lore, which is like leaving Spider-Man out of a movie about Venom. Lady Death: The Motion Picture was a project that was already in too deep when the comic itself ran out of circulation to not finish the movie would've been a bigger loss for ADV Films, so they just completed the roughly animated production and sent it out on DVD. The film was a dud as at the time there wasn't any big market for original animated movies based on American comic books, a concept which would pick up later on in the decade by DC and Marvel. The sketchy animation, poor scripting, and absence of any real vitality meant that Lady Death: The Motion Picture was destined to end up in a landfill.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Boy And The Beast

The Boy And The Beast was Mamoru Hosoda's follow-up to Wolf Children which kept the themes of family and animal spirits. Hosoda's prior works would usually be retreads of his Digimon premise that he carried over to Summer Wars and later on Belle. Despite the title, The Boy And The Beast isn't a remake of Beauty And The Beast like Belle was, but is an original story written by Hosoda. This is a portal fantasy featuring an alternate reality that can be accessed from the real world. The film has a second act which seems to separate from the established plot even though it's a story about two different dimensions.

Ren is a 9-year-old whose mother just passed away and he runs away from her remaining family who want to take him in as his father divorced her some time ago and no one was able to reach him. Ren decides to run away and live on the street and encounters two hooded strangers, one of which asks if he wants to be their apprentice but give up on him. Ren follows the pair through a narrow alleyway that leads to a opposite realm called the Beast Kingdom where the people are animals, mostly mammals. The residents can shift into full beast mode if they need to, but usually to for situations when they need a little extra muscle. The stranger who talked to Ren is a bear-man named Kumatetsu who is one of two fighters decided to take the place of the kingdom's current lord who will ascend to becoming a god, even though the indecisive rabbit king is taking his sweet time making up his mind what he wants to be a god of. Kumatetsu's rival is Iozen, a more responsible swordsman with a seemingly loving family, while Kumatetsu is rough, unmannered, and sloppy without an apprentice. Ren catches up to Kumatetsu and agrees to be his student, even though the unruly grizzly is terrible at giving any kind of clear instructions. Ren eventually works out his own style of fighting by following his teacher's moves and mannerisms. Eight years pass by, and Ren has achieved his own fighting style, but one day finds his way back to the human world where he befriends a mousy girl named Kaede who teaches him to read. A few more visits to man's realm and Ren finds out his father is still alive and desperately searched for him after he first went missing. Ren decides to move back in with his father and leave the Beast Kingdom behind, but the final duel between Kumatetsu and Iozen happens just to be taking place as Ren returns there. Ultimately, Kumatetsu wins due to Ren cheering him on, but Iozen's older son Ichirohiko turns out to also be human and had a darkness growing inside him while living in the Beast Kingdom and uses this darkness to enhance his telekinetic powers that he also gained to stab Kumatetsu with his father's sword. Ichirohiko then disappears into the human realm with Ren following after him trying to stop his psychic rampage. Kaede stands by Ren while facing off against his opponent and gets a deus ex machina from Kumatetsu who as the acting lord had himself reincarnated as a flaming sword that Ren keeps inside himself which defeats Ichirohiko and cleanses him of his hatred. Ren stays back on Earth with Kumatetsu remaining in his heart.

The Boy And The Beast starts off with what you think will be a standard narrative about a boy training to be a fighter from his bear mentor in another world, but after the impending fight that the plot was building up to, the story branches off into a distinctly different direction as they padded out the rest of the movie with a surprise bad guy whose motivations just come out of nowhere. There was a great deal of potential in this anime movie in the beginning, but the split near the end drags the story down to a less than pointful route. As Studio Chizu's second film after Wolf Children, you can see an improvement over the three years it took to make this production, and Mamoru Hosoda's distinct perspective has a unique perspective to it, especially with the beast people. Many people were referring to Hosoda as the next Miyazaki, but Hosoda clearly has his own agenda in mind and doesn't seem to be trying to follow in anyone else's footsteps. This is a great anime film, but you might not be as invested once you see the entire film which reduces the replay value on it significantly.

Of Witches & Magical Girls: Madoka Magica

Up until 2011, the mahou shoujo, or "magical girl" genre was your standard fighting evil by moonlight while winning love by daylight action/fantasy/romance in anime and manga. Then the collected group of Ume Aoki, Gen Urobuchi, Akiyuki Shinbo, and Shaft branded Magical Quartet turned the volume up to eleven with the short 12-episode TV series, Puella Magi Magica Madoka. Up until this show came out, the standard magical girl schtick started out as good witches who helped out kids in the 70s, turning into little ladies who morph into older idol singers through the 80, but by the time the 90s came along Sailor Moon pushed magical girl into full blown superheroes. They usually fought for some long-lost civilization, the cosmic forces of the universe, and occasionally even got their orders directly from Heaven. When we get to the 2000s, magical girls were nearly up to messiah levels of importance. Shaft animated this premise of prepubescent protectors and showed how horrifying having all this power and responsibility on a teen girl's mind can be.

A quick rundown of the show as it opens up on a slightly futuristic modern-day Japan where middle schoolers Madoka and Sayaka meet a transfer student named Homura who seems very distant. They learn that Homura is really a magical girl with the mission of hunting down creepy monsters classified as witches, and she got this way from making a contract with the catlike creature Kyubey. Any girl wanting to be a magical one pledges themselves to exterminating witches in exchange for having any wish granted. A rival magical girl named Maki becomes friends with Madoka and Sayaka who she takes on some of her witch hunts, although Mami is soon slain by one. This motivates Sayaka to make a deal with Kyubey to become a magical girl herself so she can restore a boy she likes to health, although she loses her nerve when Kyubey reveals that all magical girls give up their souls in trade for having their wishes granted. If a magical girl doesn't kill witches and absorb their leftover spirit in a Grief Seed, then they can eventually turn into witches themselves. Homura knew this all along as she's from a different timeline and used her wish to save Madoka from ever becoming a magical girl in the first place, a mission she has failed on several attempts which she can reset herself in a new reality taking the place of the Homura in that timeline just after she comes out of a coma on each restart. Sayaka and another magical girl Kyoko are both killed in this crusade, and Homura has to fight an upcoming city-destroying witch labeled Walpurgisnacht from wrecking the whole town all on her own. Madoka forms a contract with Kyubey and wishes to become an all-powerful deity who wipes out witches from all points in human history. The universe is now rewritten with Madoka being the god of this new universe, with her former magical girl friends now fighting wraiths instead of witches.

The TV anime was repackaged in a pair of compilation films, along with an original sequel movie, plus several manga, video games, and a spinoff anime series titled Magica Record. Similar to the Fate franchise, Madoka Magica has become its own successful property among the annals of anime fans. Despite being largely inactive for the last decade, Madoka Magica shook the foundations of magical girl anime and brought about massive change throughout the genre. The mahou shoujo theme became much more mature, sometimes taking on a more military and realistic perspective and how teenagers battling horrific monsters can screw with their psyche. Madoka Magica also got the ball rolling on the whole time loop cliche in ways that Groundhog Day never even dreamed of. A good portion of modern isekai involves characters going back to a start point while living a new life in another world.

The plot for this show is fascinating. Basically, magical girls are hunting down former magical girls who've fallen into darkness and become witches, making the entire process a sinister cycle. The reason Kyubey is offering all this is because he's part of an alien race called the Incubators that use the specific energy given off by young human females during times of great emotions while connected to what they refer to as magic. The Incubators use this energy to bring syntropy into the universe to stop it from eventually dying from entropy which is a hand-wavy explanation as to where the magic actually comes from. The whole setup is one big ouroboros meant to generate good enough moody vibes to stabilize the universe, even if the wishes they grant ends up completely altering the fabric of their own reality. The Incubators pretty much treat magical girls like livestock intended to prevent the universe from burning out.

The theme of love becomes the major motivator for all the characters to eventually sell their souls to become magical girls. Sayaka did it because of her love for a boy, Kyoko does if for her family, Mami does it to overcome her loneliness, and Homura for her sapphic love for Madoka. Each wish was meant to be selfless, but the intention became selfish that can only conclude in despair. Madoka herself initially became a magical girl out of kindness because she wanted to save a dying cat, but because of Homura's time tripping Madoka's intentions are altered to care for her friends, family, and the people that she loves. The reason Madoka has the potential in ever timeline to become the most powerful magical girl and/or witch is her genuine empathy for everyone. The Incubators never took into account Madoka's compacity for love which greatly exceeded their concept of human emotions, so much so that it completely overwrote the reality of the entire universe. Love can be inverted as it can't exist without its opposite, jealousy. Jealousy takes hold of ration and reason which can lead to corruption. The talents of Magical Quartet knew this when they were developing this original concept.

Madoka Magica left a mark on fantasy anime that is still burning to this day and will have an impact for years to come. The field of animation was the perfect place to premiere this idea mixing in cute anime girls with dark surrealistic imagery that turn into Lovecraftian nightmares. For something that was originally intended to be a single TV season has branched out into one of the most enduring anime titles that is unlikely to be forgotten.

Devil Hunter Yohko's Words To Live By...

ANI-MOVIES, *King Of Thorn

Yuji Iwahara was a former video game graphic artist-turned manga creator who had some decent sales from his Chikyu Misaki title, but his next one of King Of Thorn roused enough attention that it was able to get its own anime movie in 2009 from Sunrise. It was directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama who also did The Big O and there is a grand scale of a terror-filled fairy tale. This story plays out like an old Playstation survival horror game such as Resident Evil or Parasite Eve, even though as it goes along you notice there's quite a variety of reality breaks going on in this. The science-fiction premise has an out-of-control plague, rampaging monsters, psychic battles, and possible global destruction, so there is quite a variety in store here. The death game genre has been used in Deadman Wonderland and Battle Royale, but King Of Thorn took this to a different level of weird.

A strange virus is sweeping across mankind called the Medusa strain which turns its victims to stone. A pharmaceutical company named Venus Gate plans to take 160 people and cryogenically freeze them until a cure is found. The patients wake up sometime later to which they think is at least a few years it's in reality only a few days with the entire facility been covered in thorns and inhabited by bloodthirsty beasts. The main character Kasumi is one of the small numbers to survive the first few monster attacks and tries to find out what happened to her twin sister Shizuku who was also supposed to be among the patients but is nowhere to be found. Within the remaining subjects are the special forces office Marco, the bipolar Katherine, and the young lad Tim who seems to think the entire situation they're in is like this video game he's addicted to which somehow give him insight into each hazardous situation they run into. The entire Venus Gate base is under the control of a malfunctioning computer called Alice that's tied into Shizuku who has inherited some reality-altering powers that was passed on from a child that she got from an asteroid that landed in Siberia. The thorns start to grow all over the place and change the base into a giant plant monster taking on the shape of a dragon that threatens to grow all over the Earth. Kasumi tries to free Shizuku, only to come to the realization that she was a copy of Kasumi after the original died just before Shizuku began to go all "Akira" on everything. The still living Kasumi stops her creator/sister and walks off with the now freed Tim to an uncertain future.

The drawn animation of the characters is very well done, but the majority of the monster animation is CGI back in the late 2000s when the art still hadn't solidified. A large flaw in the movie is that it took the main antagonist from the manga and left them completely out of the plot which is like leaving Darth Vader out of Star Wars. The film could've used a more central villain as it keeps shifting to flashbacks while trying to make sense of what is currently going on in the story. King Of Thorn plays out like a twisted children's story fused with a first-person shooter game. The movie operates on a sliding scale as some find the constant plot twists good while others take it a being just another glib action anime.