Zíza

Short but powerful. While it has been ten years since the Tōhoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami, for some it's as if time has stood still. Especially for those whose family members were never found. Even though life goes on throughout Japan as if nothing happened, because this country resting on four tectonic plates can't go long without a natural disaster, still 11 March 2011 is etched in their memories, as even this ordinary special proves.

As always, I commend the animation, it's really beautiful. The idea of incorporating the songs was also interesting, it sounded like an opening/ending for the beginning/end of the main character's life stages. The characters and their personalities were ok. So far so good, fine, not mediocre. But the script. Dear Lord, the script! Mr. Shinkai, please find someone else to write the scripts and stick to animating and directing, because you're just not very good at those scripts. Maybe the book is better, more coherent, makes more sense, but this was really bad. Weirdly disjointed, for a long time you're actually groping for what it's exactly about, and by the time it becomes somewhat clear, another theme has gotten mixed up in it. If it had been two different films, it would have been better. And then there was the ending! God, that ending! I haven't seen anything so stupid in a long time. [SPOILER] Three years of constant rain? And everyone's fine with it, especially things, their apartments that don't succumb to mold, corrosion, disrepair, the global order going under? Sure, after three years of rain, it would definitely be this sunny. Whoopee. [END SPOILER] And unfortunately I didn't enjoy watching it that much. I was actually kind of looking forward to it being over.

I liked this series better than the first. It felt more alive, more energetic somehow. I also found it much more suspenseful, I kept wanting more and more episodes; that wasn't the case with the first series, where I was perfectly fine waiting for the next day, or just leaving it aside for a few days. This series really intrigued me and I wanted to know what was going to happen next, I loved it. I'm not saying it has the best story in the world, in fact there you could find lots and lots of flaws, but the way it played out didn't leave much room for me to think about it while I was watching and ruin the experience. This was helped quite a bit by the fairly likable heroine returning from the last series, the beautiful animation, and the new character of the king. I could go on and on about what was wrong with it, or what I really liked about it, but I don't want to. I will say this, though: I really enjoyed it. It went by pretty quickly and I was just a little disappointed that L wasn't Jesus. :-D