The Borrower Arrietty is yet another movie from Studio Ghibli, and once again, a movie that doesn’t disappoint. The movie is based off of the fantasy novel “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton. This is also the directorial debut of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Ghibli’s youngest director at 37 years old. I give Yonebayashi-san a ton of credit sine he was able to pull off a Ghibli movie that both looks and feels like Miyazaki himself directed it. The art, tone, soundtrack, characters, and situations, are done so well that you notice and take in every little bit you can.

Not to take away from anything else, but one thing that really stands out above it all is the soundtrack. Usually when I watch an anime or animated film, I notice the art above everything else, but In Arrietty, the music was absolutely beautiful. It captures the mood so well that I could probably listen to the soundtrack alone, and re-experience every sensation of the movie as a whole.

The art is Ghibli art and there really isn’t much else to say. The characters stay on model, the frame rate is where it should be, the colors are vibrant and the animation quality is perfectly fine. One thing that truly stuck out in the art department was the background work. Now, Ghibli background art is almost always outstanding, but in this movie, I just blew me away, it’s like someone traveled to the most beautiful place in Japan and painted it in such a way that it was even more beautiful than the real thing.

Usually I focus on the artistic values of a film, but with this being a new director I paid close attention to technical details as well and yet I found nothing to complain about. The pacing is perfect, nothing really drags on. The editing is fine, nothing is too jumpy or over edited. The writing is on par with other Ghibli films, though the drama is a little weak and the characters are pretty shallow. Finally, the voice acting, to me, was fine. The emotions seemed accurately expressed, and the voices fit the characters well, though I have very limited knowledge of the Japanese language, so I can’t say for sure.

Finally, there is the overall entertainment value. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. To follow these little Borrowers (people about the size of a field mouse that borrow from humans to survive) through their struggle is fascinating. I’m very impressed that such a simple idea could be so interesting. Also, it’s never a bad idea to watch a Ghibli movie. Even if you don’t like some things, you can always find something for you, be it the music, art, story, or characters. I give The Borrower Arrietty a 9.9/10.

Think back to when you were 6 or 7 and your family sat around the TV watching all of those holiday specials. It was warm inside and being around your family made you feel loved and right at home. Watching Tokyo Godfathers revived these memories and provides a sweet, compelling Christmas story that makes you laugh and maybe even cry.It really feels like one of those movies that needs to play thirty times every holiday season.

I miss even more for the loss of Satoshi Kon now that I have seen Tokyo Godfathers. The amount of emotion and hard work he put into each of his works is obvious with movies such as Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress, but Tokyo Godfathers has charm all its own. The unlikely cast of characters, the outrageous situations, and the tender moments are a perfect combination for a holiday film. His directing is truly genius. Each camera angle, each line, everything has a reason, and not once do you get some pointless gag scene that no one cares about.

For those who don’t know, Tokyo Godfathers is a film about three people, homeless for various situations, who find an abandoned baby in a heap of trash. They then set out to find the baby’s parents and create a Christmas miracle. Already in a tough place in their own life, now they must find a way to take care of a newborn baby, while still taking care of each other. Can they accomplish this task or will everything fall apart around them?

Although the movie starts out a little slow, after about twenty minutes the movie picks up the pace giving you unexpected laughs, tears, and action to keep you at the edge of your seat. The jokes are wonderfully subtle, the emotion is well expressed in the art and voice acting, and the action scenes are thrillingly fun. I honestly can’t think of a single bad thing to say about this movie. I give Tokyo Godfathers a solid 9 out of 10.

Moshidora

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to manage a team of high school baseball players as if it were a business? No? Well... the creators of Moshidora did, but ignored it, giving you an anime that takes an interesting premise and wastes it on shounen spirit and boring melodrama.

The story is that of Minami Kawashima, an energetic high school student who is filling in as manager of her school's baseball team. What's the catch? There a two actually, the first being she hates baseball, and the second being she uses a book about managing businesses to manage the team.

I walked into this show hoping to see an interesting comparison between the management of a business and the management of a baseball team. To the shows credit, I did get a glimpse of this, as well as a scene or two that brought tears to my eyes. However, Moshidora spent a lot of time on character drama and the inner psychology of the main character, taking away from a really good premise. The premise seemed to be just another way to move the melodrama forward and explore a vast array of increasingly uninteresting characters.

I will be the first to admit that when I first finished the series, I gave it a few good words because it managed to pull me in and get me emotionally involved, but after thinking critically, I can only give the show its props for being able to sucker in a few tears.

From a technical standpoint, the show works. The art is smooth and colorful, the animation is well done although nothing special, and the sound/music is fitting, albeit not very memorable. The camera angles were standard, not confusing or overly artistic and everything fit just fine; it just wasn’t anything you haven’t seen before.

I can’t really say Moshidora is a terrible show, it just doesn’t do anything particularly well, nor does it do anything outstandingly bad. It managed to make me like it, at least for a little bit, and it will most likely do the same for you. If you don’t mind a bit of distracting drama and are interested in the odd take on managing a baseball team, this might be a show for you. I personally give Moshidora a 6 out of 10.