This'll be a short one I think
Had this one on hold for a good while and only just got around to watching it. I saw some scenes of the sword duels on youtube and I thought the way that they were depcited in the film was rather grounded compared to what I usually see. It kinda led me down the rabbit hole of weapon youtube for a while.
Anyway, this film takes place in the early 1800s during the Napoleonic wars and focuses on Armand d'Hubert and Gabriel Feraud and the rivalry/grudge spurred on by the latter after feeling his pride was wounded by the former.
I'll get my gripes with this film out of the way first I guess.
I think at times, especially in the last quarter, the movie slows down a bit too much. It may be that I feel this way since the gap between the penultimate and last duel is bigger than the others but the film enjoys stretching out it's scenic quiet moments. I think this is generally good rather than it is bad, I'll get to that later, but it does contribute to the slower pacing of the later parts of the film.
Another minor thing that bugs me is that d'Hubert speaks with what is distinctly an American accent despite everyone else having accents that fit the time period. Even with his lines doing well to reflect that he is indeed a military man of Europe in the 19th Century, his accent takes me out a bit.
That's all that really bothers me about the film. Other than that I think it's pretty good.
The direction of the film aims to provide a fitting ambience and for its scenes, lots of fairly long moments without a piece dialouge spoken and we are left to soak in the atmosphere.
I do appreciate these moments despite what I said earlier. Provides some really amazing shots and does a good job at building tension when necessary. One particular scene I love is during the 3rd duel of the film. We have a long shot of them walking towards the field before we get a closer look at them readying themselves only for d'Hubert to pause for a moment for a sneeze. Not exactly sure why but I appreciated that.
The duels in this movie are what really hooked me when I first discovered it. I love how real they feel, like they are fighting with weapons that can mortally wound you if they slip up and it really feels like that.
Movements tend to be careful and the duels themselves are rather swift and done in one good strike as they should be, since fighting whilst considerably injured would be fruitless. There is a duel where they do duel whilst injured but given the context it makes enough sense.
I enjoy how in the first duel of the film, the distinct difference in how the two combatants handle themselves is on full display. Feraud has his body to the side, providing less space to be hit whilst his opponent gives more of himself away with his wider stance.
There's also the contrast between their demeanours. Feraud is relatively lax, swinging his sword below him, letting down his guard, whilst his opponent is constantly on edge and tends to run about when engaged, keeping him defensive as he remains reluctant to attack until he starts panicking and flailing his sword around, leading to his defeat.
There's also the last duel of the film which was done with pistols. Appreciated the switch up and the duel itself was good. It greatly benefited from the film's tendency to build atmosphere with silence, as d'Hubert and Feraud were effectively hunting each other down in a forest. The long silence broken by the first gunshot made me jump a bit.
That's all the words I have for this film for the time being. Given how long it took me to finally watch it, I'd say it delivered fairly well, though pacing issue did make some parts feel less like a break between the duels and a tad bit more of a bore, given that I was mostly engaged with the two primary character's rivalry.
This is a unstructured summation of my thoughts on the first half of gopri that I have watched so far.
(Hover over gif for tldr, accidentally wrote too much.)
It's pretty goated to be honest. The main 3 cures have grown on me a ton, despite the squad of cures initially seeming kinda like a unfitting tetris piece. I don't know how else to describe it but that's how I felt about them at first but I've like them a lot now especially as a whole unit.
I respect the hell out of Haruka's drive to improve herself and aspire towards, despite how kinda silly it is if we are thinking realistically but it's admirable imo.
I like Minami's older sister vibe. She doesn't feel like the sole pillar of maturity and reliance in the same way that Reika from smile precure could be sometimes but more like, a shoulder to lean on you know? I also like how in that one episode it's shown she isn't capable of dealing with everything perfectly and can rely on her buddies if she must. Made me smile.
Kirara is pretty cool I like her. She seemed incredibly nonchalant and almost standoffish at first but I'm glad to see she got more comfortable around the others as time went on. I did like that she didn't immediately jump on board with being a precure and stuff, that was neat and makes complete sense given what we know about her at that point.
She hasn't been around for too long but Towa was pretty good mid season cure, especially as a villain turned good guy. I'd say I liked her turn around better than Cure bBeat's but not as much as Cure Passion's. I find the ojou-sama charicature dealing with the happenings of ordinary people a fun trope too, so that gave her some points as well.
Mascot characters have been pretty good, above average honestly. They thankfully annoying and though I thought they'd just kind be there all the time, I was pleasantly surprised to see them have a few episodes where they get some focus, all of which were pretty good.
Majority of the side characters are pretty solid too, you got Yui who is practically main character at this point. I like that the cures have a buddy who knows about what they have going on and supports them despite not being able to fight alongside them. Other side characters like Yuki and the donut girl are great and does an excellent job characterizing them. I hope more side characters get episodes where theyy are fleshed out a bit as the season goes on.
This seasons transformations are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good, I cannot state that enough. Easily my favourites from all the precure season I've watched so far. It's just perfect
Cgi usage for their signature attacks doesn't bother too much, I've seen a lot worse and it's implementation ain't too bad. Assumably due to that tho, We get some of the best fight scens I've seen in Precure. Not gonna act like every single one is a sakuga masterpiece but generally there seems to be more consideration towards fight choreography compared to other seasons and I appreciate that.
Opening is kinda goated ngl, probably not overtaking fresh's opening as my favourite but its's close.
Gopri has done good job at not making the audience feel like the plot is going nowhere, It's had pretty good pacing for Precure standards I'd say.
The villains have been pretty good so far. Again with the pacing, the plot doesn't give much time for them to start feeling utterly incompetent to the point of an eyeroll when they appear. By episode 10 one of the is already out of commision and thanks to Twilight's introduction and power creep, it helps them come off as more of a threat a little while longer, even if we know they're gonna lose in the back of our minds. With that being said tho, Lock stealing the girl's Keys and effectively winning the battle with cunning was genuinely kind of impressive and I'm curious to see how the plot continues from there, 3 of the squad unable to transform.
All in all I'm impressed with go princess so far and I hope it doesn't lose steam as it continues. yeah. This ended up being way longer than I expected lmao.
Probably one of my favourite horror stories along with penpal. I tend listen to horror stories because, for some reason, they help me sleep despite being what they are.
Anyway, Borrasca about a group of kids who live in what used to be a mining town and a mystery regarding certain happenings in the town that most the inhabitants seem almost ignorant or indifferent too.
I'd rather not spoil anything because the way this story is told and setup is great and does that thing I like where a lot of things you didn't think twice about are recontextualized once you finish it.
My favourite thing about Borrasca and the previously mentioned penpal is how grounded they feel, like this could be something that is going on somewhere in the world. In Borrasca the mystery revolving around the town is treated like a folktale or myth of sorts by our main characters at the beginning, as they are just kids at the start and you may be inclined to believe it's just that, but as the story develops the main characters grow it becomes more and more clear that there is something deeply wrong with this town and almost everyone is in on it. By the end the truth behind the myth of Borrasca is revealed and you are delivered probably one of the biggest gut punch like twists I've ever experienced.
It is genuinely painful to see the story conclude in the way it does, yet like I said, it feels grounded in reality and I don't mind myself a tragic ending.
There is a sequel which isn't bad at all but it's not really a horror story at that point but it is nice to have a slightly less depressing conclusion to the story. Though I prefer the 1st part in a vaccuum because it leaves me with a hole in my chest.
The version of Borrasca I listened to was from Dark Somnium who is one of my favourite horror story narrators and he and the people he worked with to make that rendition of Borrasca did an amazing job, I highly reccomend you listen to his version if you give Borrasca a try.
Just a warning though, there is a singular moment of sexual violence if you aren't into that but considering the context it does not take away form the story at all. Just a heads up.
Alright fellas, I'm gonna try my hardest to not gush over every aspect of this show I like. I'ts gonna be tough but forgive me if I end up doing so.
I started watching Heartcatch alongside Fresh Precure, after really getting into the series from Smile. All I knew about Heartcatch before watching it is that it's supposedly dark and that its the most popular precure by a decent margin.
That being said, I completely understand why and it deserves the praise it gets, even with the miniscule gripes that I'll get to later.
I suppose I'll start with discussing the artstyle of the show, since it's one of the things it stands out for compared to all other seasons, and then talk about the characters and other things.
I like the artsyle a lot and how stylized it is. Makes it perfect for exaggerated movements or expressions whilst not being too jarring or out of place, given how the characters normally look. I think the way the show looks also helps with quality of the animation, whether it be character acting or the action scenes. You can just tell that animators had fun being creative how some scenes where done.
Whilst on the animation of the show, I think the transformation scens for this season are super good. Like I'm just gonna leave it at that because if I describe what I like about them in detail, this will become a thesis. They simply just make me grin like an idiot whenever they happen.
Post-upload commentary:
Slipped my mind whilst typing but I like the way she looks with her glasses and it's a shame we only see her wear them once in a while.
