Cyberpunk Edgerunners Season 1

Cyberpunk Edgerunners Season 1 (Hiroyuki Imaishi, 2022)

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Anime, Sci-Fi, Action, Drama

Rating: AQ=8, AP=10 / Drooling

Scale O=4, Scale P=4, Scale Q=3, Scale R=3, Scale S=4

This show is vibrant, absorbing, strange, and wonderful. I love it. The animation is superb--some of the most beautiful images I've seen in a while. Studio Trigger is amazing. I don't run to watch the newest anime, but I have thoroughly enjoyed many series, especially Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Shamploo. Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a show about bounty hunters in a dismal/post-apocalyptic future where people are modifying their bodies with technology to become "better" and dreaming of getting out of their bleak existences. So it reminded me a lot of Blade Runner and also Judge Dredd.

I would watch this show again and again. Really enjoyed it.

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Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo (Mamoru Hosoda and Shin'ichirô Watanabe, 2004-2005)

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Rating as TV series: DSQ=11, SP=6 / Can't Get Enough

Scale A=4, Scale B=4, Scale C=3, Scale D=3, Scale E=3

Rating as Animation: AQ=10, AP=10 / Meant to Be

Scale O=4, Scale P=4, Scale Q=4, Scale R=4, Scale S=4

I adored this series and relished each episode. So much humor, mystery, stunning artistry, and great stories. The roller-coaster relationships between Jin, Mugen, and Fuu is fun to watch. And I loved feeling as though I was in Edo period Japan...and it was even more enjoyable when modern/futuristic moments found their way into the story. Beatboxing samurai? Baseball? Graffiti artists? So much fun.

Favorite episodes are probably: Akage ijin and Chimimôryô

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Cowboy Bebop, revisited

Cowboy Bebop Season 1 (Shinichiro Watanabe and others, 1998)

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Rating: DSQ=12, SP=7 / Decadence

Scale A=4, Scale B=4, Scale C=4, Scale D=3, Scale E=4

Anime, Action, Adventure, Science Fantasy, Western, Noir

Favorite episodes: This is tough, because I think they are all better as a whole, but I'd probably have to say "Speak Like A Child" and "Cowboy Funk"

Re-watching this series was great. It'd been over ten years and my first viewing missed a lot, of course. This show is just spectacular in all ways: the music, animation, story lines, characters, humor, mystery, setting... everything. A group of misfits--each with their own mysterious past--always seems to work as a set-up. I especially like Ed and Ein, this crazy data-duo.

I recommend watching the series in order and also in the original Japanese. Also, be prepared to binge!

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Mary and the Witch's Flower

Mary and the Witch's Flower ( Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Giles New, 2017)

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Rating: Q=7, P=6 / Can't Get Enough

Scale 1=4, Scale 2=3, Scale 3=3, Scale 4=3

Animated, Coming of Age, Magic, Fantasy, Adventure, Based on Book

I really enjoyed this film--such glorious animation for the first out of Studio Ponoc. I am certain that this new animation studio will be successful. I would have liked to watch it in the original Japanese, but I didn't have the option. This is a story in the vein of Harry Potter and Kiki's Delivery Service, but it does hold its own. A fun escape for all ages!

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