Anime Diary #1

After about a year of barely consuming any media, aside from that of social media, I took it upon myself to find a decent website so I could get back into expanding my anime library. Once I did that, I decided to just pick stuff from the 80's to early 2010's since that was the stuff I grew up on. First watch of the day was Gosick by Hitoshi Nanba & Kazuki Sakuraba, and then I also decided to watch The Death Lullaby by Hiroshi Harada.

Gosick

So far, I've only watched the first episode. I'd say it has a pretty good setup and a fair amount of mystery to it, but I'll have to watch the rest of the series once I get a chance tomorrow.

The Death Lullaby

Yes, this is made by that Hiroshi Harada — the same guy who made Midori: Shoujou Tsubaki. I'd also like to take a minute to say that this short film was one of the longest 27 minutes of my life so far. I've already watched this film in the past, but I forgot the name before rewatching it; so, I decided to just stick with it anyway.

The film basically details the life of a schoolboy who is constantly bullied and antagonized for his protruding underbite, as well as the series of misfortunes the boy has had in his life thus far. I'd say it has a decent narrative and is very surreal, but, unfortunately, I believe those two things are the film's only good qualities. I'd give it a rating of higher than maybe 6.8/10 if it weren't for the attempted rape scene. As for the way the film is constructed, or as to why it was made, I vaguely recall reading somewhere online that Harada made the film as a form of protest to the construction of an airport which would destroy the local area. Again, I vaguely recall this information — I may have read the comment on YouTube before the video was taken down years ago. Overall, this one is definitely an acquired taste.

That being said, I'm going to try to expand my anime palette in the coming days so I can get more inspiration for my projects. I'm also going to try and start Gilgamesh, Trinity Blood, or Haibane Renmei tomorrow; depends on how I'm feeling once I get off work.

Much love! 💕