October Media Favourites/Recommendations

Hi all!

Here's what I enjoyed watching in October:

Alice in Borderland

After how much I enjoyed Squid Game, I was left craving something similar, and had often seen Alice in Borderland brought up in such conversations. The series is originally a manga, but I opted to check out the Netflix drama adaptation.

AiB follows Ryohei Arisu and two of his friends as they find themselves in a suddenly seemingly empty Tokyo where they have to compete in a variety of games with their lives on the line, and eventually meet others who have, for whatever reason, been chosen to do the same.

I'm always curious to see a new take on how people might interact with one another in this kind of context, where trusting, relying on and helping others could cost you your life. AiB is at its best when exploring the psychologies of its characters in this way, or else when we're learning about their motivations for surviving the games, how their outlook on life is changing and what they hope to do when they return to the original Tokyo. Ultimately, though, this one was largely mindless fun -- the acting and writing could both get fairly stilted, and I did ultimately exponentially prefer Squid Game's take on the death game setup, though it might not be fair to compare. AiB is an adaptation, so the source material could be a lot stronger, and the story only truly seemed to be kicking into gear at the end of the season. A second has already been confirmed, and on the whole I found myself entertained enough that I'll more likely than not be watching it when it drops. I definitely think there's potential here, so while it's not an all-around recommendation from me, if it sounds like your kind of thing, consider giving the first episode a try. It's also definitely a more optimistic take on the death game genre if you're looking for that.

The Boy and the Beast

As part of my preparation for the Mirai video, I made sure to watch all of Mamoru Hosoda's films (save for Belle, which I'm hoping to see in a cinema if at all possible). I'd already checked The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars off the list earlier this year which left me with a final two. I went chronologically, which made The Boy and the Beast my last stop.

The Boy and the Beast begins with Ren (the titular boy) running away from his remaining family following the death of his mother, and being taken in by the beast Kumatetsu, who is in search of a disciple as part of the requirements for succeeding the highest position of power in the Beast Kingdom. In typical Hosoda fashion, the film explores how Kumatetsu, who is meant to be training Ren (now named Kyuta), ends up learning at least as much from him, and more generally from the experience of raising a child.

I have to say that this is probably my personal least favourite Hosoda film, though I by no means disliked it. My dissatisfaction primarily came from what felt like a slightly bloated storyline -- over the course of the two-hour film, we see Kyuta go from a child to an adult, and much of the film is spent on the tail-end of this time once much of Kyuta's development is already behind him. On the whole, the film seemed to spend time a lot of its screen-time on action scenes or advancing the plot, ultimately leaving me underwhelmed when it came to the character moments that should've packed more of a punch, as we hadn't spent enough time watching Kyuta and Kumatetsu's relationship develop to deliver on this. This especially stood out compared to Hosoda's other efforts, so while the film was a fun watch and worth checking out as part of Hosoda's wider catalogue, I don't feel it's one that's going to stay with me in the long-term.

Wolf Children

Fortunately, I feel very differently about the final entry to this list. I did watch The Boy and the Beast right off the back of Wolf Children which is a tough position to put any film in. Wolf Children similarly covers a huge swathe of its cast's lives -- following our focal character Hana, beginning with her university days and continuing right up to her children almost being at that age themselves. In this case, it makes perfect sense -- Hana's children are fathered by a man who has the ability to turn into a wolf, and after his tragic death, she is left to figure out how to raise the two of them alone, and help them find their respective places in the human and animal worlds.

I thought Wolf Children was stunning. Where it differs from the film that would follow is in how the focus is squarely on the time this family spend together, and on honouring the space Hana creates for her children to discover and accept who they are. The film is very uncluttered, yet densely emotional, and a true demonstration of one of Hosoda's greatest skills -- his ability to weave a tale that appears simple to the point of perhaps sounding boring on paper, yet is utterly riveting in its own way. Perhaps most beautiful is how the film explores the idea that, paradoxically, a huge part of successful parenting is coping with seeing your children off into adulthood themselves, letting them make their own decisions and ultimately go live their own lives. It's a deeply moving piece, easily my second favourite in Hosoda's catalogue and one of my new favourite films in general. This definitely is one I'd implore anybody to watch, if with a few tissues handy.

And now for YouTube videos:

Real Life Locations In Anime by AnimeRuss

Giovanni's Island - Hope, in a Time of Hopelessness by Beyond Ghibli

Point Break and the Soft Masculinity of Action Movies by Broey Deschanel

Disney's Mortal Sin by Caribou-kun

The Men Who Couldn't Stop Crying, and Other Unbearable Realities by Jacob Geller (Another banger from my favourite video essayist)

What Dinosaurs ACTUALLY Looked Like? by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

The 7 Flaws of Higurashi Sotsu by Ozzy II

Reminiscence ~ An Ashen Waltz (Remix) - The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles by sheddy (Adore this person's Ace Attorney remixes!)

The Manga that Makes You Better at Fighting by Super Eyepatch Wolf

And that's it for now! I'll be posting an update either this or next week on the next video so keep an eye out for that!