/anime/ - Anime

I just finished Boku wa Mari no Naka (also known as Inside Mari) and I thought I should write down my thoughts on it here.
The basic premise is about a NEET who wakes up in the body of a girl he pretty much stalked for a while. The story takes a lot of crazy psychological twists and turns (as expected from a manga by Oshimi), and it definitely isn't your typical gender-bender story. The subject material is certainly heavy and deeply personal, but I think it is handled quite well for the most part. (Spoilers for the ending) I really expected Yori and Mari to end up together though… maybe I misunderstood something? But it's nice to see Mari's alright.
Let's talk about this manga and the rest of Oshimi's work:
Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil)
Chi no Wadachi (Blood on the Tracks)
Happiness
Okaeri Alice (Welcome Back, Alice)

kamS is some totally innocuous salaryman who lives in suburban Tokyo. He works in middle-management for some successful yet forgettable corporation. His co-workers would describe him as "pleasant", even though he doesn't really stand out from the crowd, and hardly ever speaks up during meetings. He is kind to his wife, but not affectionate. His children barely know who he is, but he always offers them a smile, a pat on the head, the occasional ice cream. His neighbors would never say a bad word about him. And late at night, a couple times a month, he tells his wife that he has to work late. But he doesn't stay at the office. Instead, he drives to a non-descript, run down shopping district late at night, parks his car, and walks to the unnumbered door between the appliance repair shop and the pet store. He takes out the key from his wallet, unlocks the door, walks up the three flight of steps to another door, and unlocks that. There, there is a desk, a chair, and a computer. He closes the door, sits, turns on the computer, and makes these works. He never tells anyone about them, and even he doesn't exactly know why he makes them. kamS is a mystery even to himself.

Really makes you think.

I like demon girls, magical girls and lesbians but this show is painfully unfunny. Am I missing something?

What are your oponions on this?
I think its one of the if not the most interesting anime in recent time.
The story focused around suicid and trauma is really intersting
The art style is also nice even though the animation is not as fluent as it could be.
I liked the first 10 episodes the eleventh was quite strange so I'm very interested about what they are going to do with the 12. and last episode

holy shit this show is just words words words words words words words from whats basically a midget supernatural cop

could captain goto kick your dad's ass

> big burly homosexual man
> special power is magical girl shit
> likes to get naked on every occasion
> in prison for sexual assault
> could easily escape but stays because it's easier to rape in jail
Is there some obscure Japanese cultural context missing that makes this character okay?

WHERE DO I WATCH GHIBLI FILMS WITHOUT SUBSCRIBING TO CRUNCHYROLL OR WHATEVER ELSE I CANT FIND SPIRITED AWAY ON WATCHCARTOONONLINE
also general ghibli thread maybe

It was a low quality show, but I felt the characters and plot points where more interesting than most other anime on the market. They are well developed, expressive, quirky, and with character flaws, which is something most writers can't even start to write. The storyboard artists and directors clearly tried to add visual nuance and symbolism to scenes as well (like the sun setting in the final meeting of the group as they're talking, characters having clearly distinguishable walks, etc), but the studio was clearly constrained by budget.

A lot of these details "didn't matter" when it came to greater plot or drama, but you can sometimes extrapolate quite a bit and that makes everything and everyone feel so "lived in". For example, in that shot that shows where Curran sleeps, you see that (1) she's renting out a storage room, is she broke? And (2) she barred the door with her greatsword because she doesn't trust her landlord. That's a lot of story from just a still! Or another example, when Nick AND the hostess block the loli from going closer to Zem, you can tell that how close Zem really is to the girls he hangs out with. He's shared his story with them, and has probably their trust and sympathy. It's possible they've done the same with him.

I also liked the persistent theming where everyone, including the bad guys, is at a point along their redemption arc. You have the early antagonists who told themselves that they were good people who were forced into a dead end of crime, which the Survivors are a counterpoint to because they actively avoided those dead ends by getting a damn job. Then the pattern's broken by the last antagonist who intentionally chose the dark side as an aspect of himself that he couldn't betray. That's actually a set up for what the Survivors have to get over in the next episode: they've avoided their downwards, but they haven't yet intentionally chosen what to pursue from there.

This show isn't something I can recommend to people because its animation is pretty mediocre, but for people like me who watch a lot of anime it does stand out. It's also standard fantasy instead of isekai which is sorely lacking.