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Elena Crevello
Kotono Mitsuishi
Rikiya Koyama
Simu Liu

PEOPLE / 1 WORK

Elena Crevello

TV · 2015

Grace and Frankie

Dropped

Credit sources

www.themoviedb.org/tv/62320

PEOPLE / 6 WORKS

Kotono Mitsuishi

Also credited as 三石琴乃 · 琴ちゃん · 琴ちゃわん · Koto-chan · Koto-chawan

anime · 2018

ZOMBIE LAND SAGA

Dropped

I think this movie has only improved with time and seeing the end of the rebuilds. In a lot of ways this movie really solidifies the Eva canon as having patterns and repetition but constantly being retold. And it's fucking beautiful man. Ending the movie with "the world is ending" is fantastic but wait, it's not the end, we've got "this time I'll make you happy, no matter what." And like both are insane ways to end a movie and we've got both and the next episode preview. Civilizations peaked with the rebuilds.

anime · 2009

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance

this is recap art. it is recapping the first part of the show, but it transcends the anime movie recap format in a few ways. first obviously, it looks and sounds incredible. the blending of old and new is great and I think best seen in the sound design and soundtrack which perfectly combine old and new. so many iconic sounds and themes, but then some great new work, just works so well overall. what really puts it over the top is perfectly nailing the "next episode" stinger

anime · 2007

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

This is a real odd duck in the realm of anime compilation movies. The first part, Death is a recap of e1-24. And it's mostly by the book but I think it's worth noting that it's a very fast paced recap, with a number of flashbacks or flash forwards, and I think would be utterly incomprehensible to someone who has not watched the show. Which I respect! As a recap of a singularly Important anime there is a lot to recommend, there is a fair bit of redrawn or new animation and the TV show has never looked better. The other thing to note here the string quartet framing device, which is fantastic and makes me want to bump this up. I think what really hurts this as a film isn't the recap section, it's rebirth, the new section. Which is good! But is also just a preview of End of Evangelion. Which must have been so cool to people watching this in a Tokyo theater in the summer of 1995. Note: I'm pretty sure this should be listed as 1998 not 2026 but 🤷

anime · 1997

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth

anime · 1997

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion

anime · 1995

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Credit sources

PEOPLE / 1 WORK

Rikiya Koyama

Also credited as 小山力也 · Ricky

anime · 2018

Karakuri Circus

Dropped

Credit sources

anilist.co/anime/101336

PEOPLE / 2 WORKS

Simu Liu

Movies · 2024

Jackpot!

Oh boy, so this is a hard movie to review. It does a lot of things so, so well. For 2/3 of the movie you have these amazingly choregraphed fight scenes, certainly some of the best if not the best in the MCU. It manages to pull off both wuxia and Hong Kong action in the MCU and it fits! I also think the cast does well, Awkwafina's role is a little too Awkwafina for my tastes but the movie does a pretty good job of fitting this normie into a super powered situation. And I also want to call out the movie's tone which is remarkably well done, this is one of the more serious MCU movies and jokes are few and far between, but that helps them land better. Most of the punchlines are unexpected which makes them funnier than the constant quips in some MCU films. And yeah, going back to the action it's so so good for most of the film. There are a lot of fights, and they're just great. Also, I want to call out the Ben Kingsley bit for being just fantastic. Now for the mixed bag: I think the film's visual design is mostly very good. Things make sense and look good. However there are some things that don't hit. The film does have a nice visual distinction between Shang-Chi and his father's use of the rings (going to call these yellow and blue below). However many times his father's use looks very out of place. This is best seen in the first scene with the rings where they create a forcefield bubble. And there are a lot of moments like that where the blue ring powers look like MCU bullshit, not martial arts. And this is a shame because the film does manage to have plenty of moments with the blue rings showing them used as raw, brute force. Whereas when yellow are much more graceful. And this works well! It's just unfortunate they didn't stick to brute force vs elegance and added in all the lighting whip bullshit. On a similar note the ten rings goons are fine but the crossbows stood out as something stupid. They generally fire one or two shots in the 30? minute final battle and having them at all raises more of the "why don't they have guns?" question. They're fucking ninjas, they don't need energy crossbows. And on to the bad. The final act is a mess. On so many levels. First of all the big bad and his stuff look stupid and out of place for both MCU and wuxia. The dragon and the pixiu look fantastic, it's a shame they're fighting something that doesn't fit. The core problem here is that the action (Hong Kong and wuxia) that has propelled the film so well falls by the wayside. We've got the dumb crossbows, we've got the soul suckers, and then Shang-Chi, who propels the movie with his fists can't even use them. Even the narrative beats in the end make no sense. Shang-Chi shows his father he can master the rings (in a way that is never explained) and yet that is entirely pointless as narrative or character development as shortly after, in a much more important story beat his father passes them on to him to defeat the big monster. In no way is it shown that his father passes them on because of that mastery, it's just that he's dying. It's a real shame that the final act of the movie abandons what made the film exciting and fun in favor of upscaling the threats and becoming very generic MCU fighting the big bad (I have to imagine there are some shots from the final fight that look similar to Avengers 1's battle in New York). It's not all bad, the water magic in this fight is very cool, but that doesn't make up for how long and boring the sequence is as a whole. This movie excels, just excels when people are punching each other. I just wish the writers had realized that.

Movies · 2021

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Credit sources