Kiki's Delivery Service high rewatch/recap

Just rewatched this while high on edibles... wow, so many things I forgot or overlooked...

Recap:

That symbolism of Kiki on the bike with that guy... she's using her broom riding skills to help him make the tight corners... then they actually manage to start flying... at least until the propellers break off and they fall onto the grass...

Was it your magic that made us stay up?

I'm not sure. Anything's possible.

Kiki says she doesn't enjoy flying anymore... and gets depressed after she sees that guy's friends who she's still mad at... meanwhile the cat Jiji has a girlfriend now and has been spending time away from Kiki... and it seems like Kiki can no longer understand Jiji's talking anymore? Jiji is just meowing to her now...

Kiki realizes this... and then tests and realize she's losing her magic and can no longer fly.... she starts running up and down a hill trying to learn to fly again until she breaks her broom...

The Tale of Princess Kaguya recap

This movie is ... pure beauty...

Summary:

A girl born from a mystical bamboo tree... a bamboo cutter receives this forest spirit girl, as well as lots of gold and sacred-looking princess cloths from some glowing bamboo trees... the girl appeared to this man as a tiny beautiful princess, as shown in the cover... but then after he brought her home she transformed into a normal baby... except this baby grew extremely fast... she became friends with the local wood smith's children and played in the forest carefree, until her adopted parents decided it was time for her to move to a mansion in the capital and become a princess like how the dad first saw her as.

She doesn't like the strict boring life of a noble, and at her coming-of-age party where the dad introduced her to everyone behind a curtain (they weren't allowed to see her, but she could see all of them through her side of the curtain... some really weird tradition in that era I guess), she hears some other nobles making fun of her, wondering if she's even a real princess... She runs away back to the forest where she grew up, but the forest seems dead now compared to before. some stranger explains to her that it'll be winter soon... and that it won't be that lively again until spring. from then on she submits to her new strict lifestyle and becomes a proper princess.

Five noble rich men hear about her, and they all propose to her without having seen her face... they each describe a rare precious treasure they found that they compare her to. The girl then says she will make her decision only when they each bring her this "treasure" that they cherish so much...

Then I will be able to see in your heart... how you treasure me.

The dad commented that these treasures were just figures of speech, and they may not even exist... but she still is determined to see one of these treasures. The men all leave, some of them thinking this girl is now unattainable... but they want her even more now after hearing her voice and music... suddenly she takes her makeup off and becomes her normal self again, and asks to go out to see the spring sakura trees.

It's almost like... this girl who was born from the woods... hibernated as a noble princess through the dead

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works high session 2

Okay so... back after this long...

Episode 17

Kuzuki is telling Caster about his past and why he thinks of himself as not human... Rin and Shirou are about start executing their plan to get Saber back. Berserker, the 2nd ally servant they had available to help them, is gone now, and they are left with just Lancer on their side somehow... he's taking care of both Saber and Archer... the fake Assassin can't leave the temple so he's no problem.. (and the real Assassin is on Lancer's side anyway)..

Shirou can hold off Kuzuki, and Rin can take Caster down by sheer projectile spam... so Gil is now the biggest problem for them... but I suspect that Shirou will somehow be able to hold his own against Gil too by now... they want to defeat Caster to force Archer/Saber back to their side, and finally win the holy grail war... (see that's the real reason Lancer's master is letting him help them)

Caster: "Are all mages of this era so foolhardy? Now I understand why Archer deserted you."

Shirou: "Kuzuki can see that we have a plan up our sleeves, but he's letting Caster do things her way."

meanwhile, Lancer declares that he was forced to hold back against Archer last time...
Lancer: "working with that little lady, you probably would've been a match for Caster."
Archer: "I chose the option with the higher chance, however slight... Unfortunately, I am devoid of pride."
"If you have a hero's pride, cast it aside while you still can."
Lancer: "You've heard of my spear's special abilities, haven't you Archer?"
Archer: "Of course. It has a curse that reverses cause and effect. It's certainly fearsome, but unless you get close, it's nothing but a sharp stinger."
Lancer: "But spears can also be used like this..."
Gae Bolg, the spear whose curse kills with a single blow. When thrown, it is an anti-army Noble Phantasm. It strikes for the heart. Careful aim is crucial. In which case, taking the blow head on is the only way."

uh... not sure if that last part was translated right..
Archer projected Rho Aias to protect himself from the spear... but Lancer's spear is mightier than even the original Gungnir... looks like the spear somehow only hit Lancer's arm...

Archer then tells Lancer that he can feel Caster's watch gone away, suggesting that she's having some trouble right now... did he turn on Caster just now too?

Shirou is taking on Kuzuki.. but

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works high session 1

Watched the first 12 episodes like 6 months ago, but didn't start writing log posts for it until now. So far it's pretty much exactly the same story as the VN, except more animated. Some of the background and animation quality looks gorgeous. Now that I'm behind on the releases, I can watch the rest of this while high at my own pace.

This UBW series really is a great, faithful adaptation of the VN story... it has some new things added, but its storytelling style emulates the VN very well... While Fate/Zero was more like... Think of this in terms of Ryukishi07-style writing. Fate/Stay Night was the "question arc", and Fate/Zero was the "answer arc"... F/SN is designed to keep you in the dark about a lot of its plot details... mostly showing things from Shirou's perspective and teasing other perspectives once in a while... while F/Z was more about showing its story from multiple different perspectives, challenging the reader a lot less while still giving them a chance to figure the rest out on their own.


Episode 13

Archer is like the embodiment of Shirou taking his dad's old path (before he destroyed the holy grail)... the path of fighting to sacrificing a few to save the most people possible.
Archer ends up hating the human world after he becomes a heroic spirit...
"In the end, he continued to be betrayed by his ideal, even after death."

... omg this animation quality is phenomenal...

Archer: "Tohsaka Rin can believe in her own path right to the end."
Tohsaka asks him if he can...
Archer: "That question is meaningless. My "end" came and went long ago."

Rin plans to take on Caster herself. Her rule-breaker makes it too dangerous for Archer to fight her. She tells Archer to take care of Kuzuki..
Archer says that no mage is a match for Caster.. but Rin is confident she can take her down. She wants to save Saber and have Shirou rejoin the war.
meanwhile Shirou is already at Caster's hideout trying to save Saber.. not even fully healed from his wounds yet...

Rin: "If you didn't see his corpse, he's probably clinging to life somewhere."
Rin thinks Caster doesn't have a human shield now, and Kuzuki will be no match for Archer... so she'll be very easy to beat. Caster has more command spells left to get Saber to fight, and probably knows Shirou is there too...

Rin starts tossing tons of high powered gems at her... one of it gets passed her defenses to act as a distraction... wtf... Archer suddenly comes and knocks Rin down. He decides to ally with Caster?

"She's a woman who would tear apart her own younger brother to escape."
"Familiars that use dragon teeth as vessels are the hallmark of the King of Colchis's magecraft. His daughter, Princess Medea, was hailed as a witch without peer."
Archer asks Caster if she has enough spare mana to support another servant...
"The situation has changed. If Saber is under your control, isn't it only natural that I go over to the winning side?"

I sort of remember this from the VN I think? This was all part of Archer's plan to get back at his former self who cursed him with these ideals...

Rin loses Archer and is now helpless against the 3/4 of them.. Shirou then jumps in to save

Final thoughts/interpretation on Revolutionary Girl Utena's ending

The ending of this series has me so perplexed, and ever since seeing the movie's interpretation I've been even more confused... I've thought about it a lot more, and I think I've found a satisfactory answer that doesn't involve the movie's heavy implications towards everything just being a metaphor for Akio raping Anthy, cuz that's a cop-out answer lol

Anthy sealed Dios away by offering to take all of the pain that Dios was receiving from the world... "The Rose Bride takes the swords in place of the prince"... Dios became corrupted by no longer having any of the pain of being the world's prince, and instead he became "End of the World". He says he's no longer the prince that Anthy cared about, and yet, Anthy continues to take all the world's punishment in place of him... Since Anthy is continuing to suffer as a witch for Akio's sake, even though Akio no longer qualifies as her prince.. He feels that Anthy must enjoy being this way... that Anthy is letting him use her out of her own free will. So in that case, what is it that Akio could want?

Even though Anthy is the one who sealed away Dios and the power to revolutionize the world, it's clear that Akio and Anthy can not access this power on their own... They need a duelist who has reached duel of revolution. I theorized before that this restriction was Akio's or Anthy's doing.. maybe it's due to Anthy's subconcious effect on Dios's power, or maybe the "good" side of Dios placed this restriction on his power so that only a good and noble prince can use it... But anyway Akio and Anthy are able to show people a glimpse of eternity and manipulate them into dueling to make the Rose Gate appear. This is what Akio did with Utena when she was little.. he showed her "eternity", and that lead her to becoming a duelist.

Later in the series, Utena can no longer draw out the sword of Dios from Anthy, for reasons that are never explained... I think it's because Akio didn't want Utena to be the one to open the Rose Gate. He wanted to do it himself, using Utena's sword. He must have already tried and failed to open the Rose Gate using the sword of Dios, so he figured he needed another prince's sword. From then on, Anthy draws out the sword from Utena in all of her duels. In the final duel, it's Akio who draws out the sword from Utena, and doing this turns Utena into a princess... I guess that Akio taking Utena's sword boosted his own princely image, and made Utena take on the form of a princess (it doesn't need to have more meaning than that really)...

Revolutionary Girl Utena movie recap

The art design in this movie is gorgeous... it's like a masterpiece in visual storytelling. 

But... wow, this plot is so different. It's nothing at all like the show...
Whereas the show had a lot of subtle cryptic symbolism, this movie's symbolism is very blatant and over the top.

Recap:

The architecture of this school is all weird, like an Escher painting...

Utena has short hair, and wearing a more princely outfit... Juri, the fencing team captain, and student council member is referred to as the "prince" of the fencing team. Miki is described as a genius... Wakaba is showing Utena around the school, when suddenly she sees Touga up in a window and goes to see him. Apparently, they knew each other.

Touga says they made a promise to go to the planetarium together... Utena is surprised to see him here, and acts unfriendly toward him. She notices his ring, and assumes he's engaged.

This ring lead me to the academy. The mark of the rose.

Utena sees a white rose in the middle of a bunch of red roses, and it blooms very brightly just as she's looking at it... a ring pops out of it, with the mark of the rose, just like Touga has... suddenly, a giant staircase leading up to a platform in the sky... ontop of the platform is a rose garden... she meets Anthy there. Anthy looks a lot prettier in this.

Anthy introduces herself as the chairman's sister, and says that she is held captive by these roses... she sees the ring Utena is holding, and tries to take it from her... Saionji appears, asks Utena what she's doing with the Rose Bride... He explains how he owns the Rose Bride, and anyone who has the mark of the rose is a duelist, who is permitted to come to this square to duel for ownership of the Rose Bride..

Utena doesn't like how the Rose Bride is being treated, so she puts the ring on to duel him. She picks up a kendo stick to duel with. Anthy notices something about her... she jumps toward Utena to save her, kisses her, and then makes a sword appear from her chest for Utena to use. When Utena pulls it out, her hair grows long and she changes outfits. Anthy also changed to a different dress when she drew out the sword.

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 7 (finale)

This is the last "normal" episode before the final duel starts... the creepy side of the story clashes up with the normal slice of life school scenes.

Episode 37