IMHO. 'Mary and the witch's flower'

I was just wondering if this is the future of anime. Just a couple of weeks after watching, I come across an article about the new generation of anime directors. How are they new if they are already in their pension age? Not to say they are too old for the industry, I am mostly worried not about them, but about who will come next.

I've heard Miyazaki approved of this work. And I want to believe it's true, because it's legit. After all, they've packed it with everything necessary: a clumsy girl and her protective friend plus a black cat who get into trouble, find courage to fight bubbly monsters, and a strong environmental context, protesting against human intervention into the affairs of Mother Nature.

Who was my favourite among them? Oh the cat broom keeper of course.

And all the adventures take place inside a fantasy world with surrealistic sculptures in the garden outside of the college of magic.

And a cosy small wooden house on a lonely island, which belongs to another witch. And cosy small houses must stand on lonely islands surrounded by water, if you ask me.

The voice actors did their job well, too, even though I don't know a single actor in the list except for Yuki Amami.

And all would be good if not for the song of Sekai no Owari in the end. I mean, magic in my mind is supposed to last till the very last moment. Izumi Inoue, Cecile Corbel and of course Joe Hisaishi coped well with this task, but this time I was not as happy with the choice of music.

On one hand, I didn't like such song as ending themes. On the other hand, if we are to put up with maitres leaving the stage, I guess this is not as bad as it could be. If I can get no more Miyazaki and Hisaishi, maybe I can get along with Yonebayashi, even if it means some Sekai no Owari. Meaning 'the end of the world', by the way. Prophetic, in a sense.

fits perfectly. today's impressions of sea

I do think that Japanese ambient is great

IMHO. 'Pride and Prejudice', book

Who knew I'd read this now that I am approximately 10 years older than an average Jane Austen reader? But I have a natural disdain for all things popular, even if they are popular only among people around me. So with my friends discussing which Mr Darcy was better in different screen versions of the book, I doubted I would ever lay my hands on it.

I only console myself with the fact that I now have the means and patience - which is not so completely unnecessary as it may seem, if you get what I mean - to read it.

So, it took me approximately 10 days to read it, though I was only reading when I had free time during my workday, which was very limited. Still it is a considerable amount of time, a larger half of it I'm sure taken by translating and memorising words such as 'covey' or 'complaisance'...

And when I finally came to the last chapters, I suddenly stumbled upon an interview with some specialist on English literature who explained me the revolutionary character of the book, which consists in the fact that the heroine being of a more humble origin marries a man of a higher position without turning out to be a secret child of some duke. And thank you, dear specialist, because if not for you hardly would I guess what exactly I have to admire in this book.

Really, the biggest thing for me to admire was the collection of word combinations that require three or four takes to grasp fully and are probably only second to Dickens among what I have read in the amount of time necessary for deciphering.

I heard people - and Wikipedia - call it a romance novel. If so, this is must be a very short romance, because rather than romance I got a considerable amount of pride and of prejudice, just as the title promises. The most passionate and eloquent scene lasted for one page out of 352, the one where Elizabeth refuses the offer. Other manifestations of love were explicitly contained in sentences like '[she] immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change', or 'he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do'.

Was it my mistake that among 352 pages what I was most eager to read was exactly how he expressed himself?

But even if it was, I didn't expect the book to have so few rewarding dialogues for the sake of so much indirect speech.

IMHO. 'BORDER' and 'CRISIS'

Both have Oguri Shun as the leading actor, the reason for me to watch these doramas. Of course I soon learned that both are based on novels by Kazuki Kaneshiro. And these are not the only common points.

music

I must confess, the best thing in 'Border' is MWAM's 'Evil Falls', and in 'Crisis' - 'I need your love'. Which is, at the same time, the best song in the album of Beverly, whose other songs are just your average soul ballads and single-use r'n'b tunes.

However, the difference is that 'Crisis' can boast Hiroyuki Sawano as one of the contributing composers, which surprised me, since I've never ever seen a dorama with a soundtrack I'd listen to even after watching, at least more than a couple of times. Instrumental theme which can be heard in every important moment is impressive (and for some reason I'm sure Origa's vocal is used in it), and the only vocal track by Yosh is really cool.

story and characters

He sometimes didn't even bother to change the characters' names, that writer, and corrupted politicians, high ranking officials covering the crimes of their children and secrets withing police itself continue to arise before our eyes. I think I cannot even distinguish now which case was in which dorama out of these two. The only difference, though, is that I enjoyed supporting characters more in 'Border', like the partner - a plain but straight and loyal man, and the two unusual hackers in black, and 'Jack of all trades' employed by the main character - they had that spice necessary for a character to grab attention. In 'Crisis', it seems, all those spices were gathered and distributed among the main characters rather than supporting, and that made them more likeable and interesting to follow.

acting
For some reason I guess nobody would really watch dramas like this for the sake of acting, hey? I could say they both are tolerable, though there wasn't much to act. Even tense scenes did not impress me much, but didn't disappoint either.
And I must especially praise the combat scenes. All actors who participated in fighting apparently trained a lot and did a good job, and the fight director was a good one. This is a trend I sometimes notice in Japanese movies, did they order a fight director from abroad and use him in turns for every new movie?

conclusion
There is only one more difference to mention. 'Border' was extremely green. Yes, green. Most scenes take part in half-darkness, and most of the screen is lit with weak green. It really gets on your nerves. If you told me to choose only one dorama to watch, it would be 'Crisis' - only for the fact that lighting of most places filmed is natural.
Oh, but there is one more common point to mention, too. Both doramas end in a way that makes it certain there is more to come. Whether it will come or not is for us to wait and see (and I'm not sure, since 'Crisis' is very new, and season 2 of 'Border' was announced for this year but even though it's August, I haven't yet heard of an exact date of airing).