#aoi has an assembly of great family & friends

[mmani-e]

Hello! After all this effort, behold:

DANGANRONPA DEMIX, THH EDITION!

Dr Demix 2

Finally got the talentswap designs I have for the THH characters one and done with! You can click through the read more section for some fun design insights. I'm intending on uploading a doc containing short lore bits about them eventually.

Kyoko Kirigiri - Ultimate Affluent Progeny

So Kyoko's design was both kinda simple, kinda not, wanted to give her a very fine and regal kinda attitude to her but not arrogant as that's very much Byakuya's thing. Her story is that she loves her dad more than the family business and her grandpa so she abandons detective work and just uses her brain to help her dad out.

Makoto Naegi - Ultimate Novelist

Makoto is a wonderful guy, just great all around. He loves writing children's books and happy stories. This is his main coping mechanism so he doesn't have to process any negative emotions he gets, the rest he can't process… well they go into a murderous psychopath alter.

Aoi Asahina - Ultimate Lucky Student

Shoujo protagonist Aoi. Cute, headstrong, affective, competitive, these are all the traits that make her fight for her friends and clash with Kyoko (and more often than not Byakuya) in the killing game, even when all hope seems lost… she pushes through, unafraid to let tears spill from her eyes for all those lost, but pushing all the same.

Byakuya Togami - Ultimate Detective

This one, I wanna go into more lore territory, cause I kinda memed around his last desc I gave him so here goes:

"A disgraced heir of the Togami household, Byakuya lost the competition that would've secured his riches. Disdainful and bitter, he sought out to get to the bottom of why he lost, uncovering a rabbit hole in the process. By the end, he proved his sibling a cheater, but it didn't matter because by the end as he found the sweet satisfaction of uncovering secrets and crushing liars and cheaters under the weight of their hubris far more satisfying than any inheritance."

Sayaka Maizono - Ultimate Spirit Medium

So Sayaka isn't a clairvoyant at all like Yasuhiro, in fact her entire skillset is completely different, first of all she is like an actual psychic, and I based her design off of the japanese Itako, quite loosely. Very interesting group, look it up, also she'll never use these powers in the killing game because I dunno how to even approach these rituals or what they look like or how to write them while remaining respectful, so she won't do it in a killing game for the express reason of her not having the right tools available and not wanting to disrespect her traditions.

Leon Kuwata - Ultimate Swimmer

I really wanna draw him again, all these characters again tbh, and I wanna show off the patterns on his wetsuit. It's a whole coral reef under there, that anemone and clownfish bit is only one part of a whole reef stretching his midline.

Sakura Ogami - Ultimate Programmer

Sakura has installed chips into her body to help optimize her body processes and also cause why not. As for the muscles, she's an Assembly programmer, the programs she's made can run on calculators she loves it.

Chihiro Fujisaki - Ultimate Martial Artist

Chihiro's design here with the two belts is an explicit nod to his preferred martial art - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so unlike Sakura in canon who'd be easy to imagine cracking someone's skull in half with a chop, Chihiro's approach is more crawling onto someone and bringing them down to the floor with grappling like an angry halfling monk. As for the belts themselves, on his head is his final junior belt, while around his waist is his current belt, he's not a black belt yet because he's still too young for it.

Celestia Ludenberg - Ultimate Baseball Star

Celestia actually isn't a legend in this AU, Taeko is. Celestia hates that and wants to start a baseball career going international, whatever the hell that means is up to her own definition, but she wants to be remembered forever as Celestia, not Taeko. Also extra sentence, but this is the SINGLE hardest design I've ever had to deal with here, I think in the future I'll be drawing all her little accessories and I have an alt costume for her I have in mind.

Hifumi Yamada - Ultimate Pop Star

So I changed Hifumi's story as I originally outlined in the OG post with him. He was friends with Aoi all his life, pretty much his only friend at all, and ever since he was little he had an obsession with writing songs, because he was obsessed with stuff like anime openings and was content to just keep the songs to himself. It wasn't till Aoi convinced him to share some of his songs that he started his journey to success, but bc he's not traditionally attractive, his first hits were literally just… his voice being played over other more attractive singers and it wasn't until very very recently that he even performed a song of his for the first time.

Toko Fukawa - Ultimate Fanfic Writer

So while Hifumi was clearly a Doujinshi but due to weird translation, ended up as fanfic creator, Touko is straight up a FF then Wattpad then AO3 girl, who would get obsessed with this really shitty, tripe manga that she didn't even like reading. It did however have super hot dudes in it, so she wrote good stories of those characters when she got frustrated with the actual authorial content - which was always.

Yasuhiro Hagakure - Ultimate Gambler

Quite LITERALLY the never stop gambling meme personified into a guy. He can lose 3 mil on slot machines but always comes out fine because it means if he keeps gambling he'll eventually run into his 1/3 and win giga millions, what he needs to pay off his debts. It isn't just with luck though either because his personality and lack of intelligence or understanding of most the rules of the games he plays means he'll never react the way he should when getting a good hand in poker or a bad draw in blackjack, so he wins those games almost always through just… stupidity.

Mukuro Ikusaba - Ultimate Biker

She's number 16 in her gang, and is easily the most loyal enforcer and taskman of the gang. She does anything she's told, to a grim and disciplined degree not typical for hooligan bike gangers, she doesn't really desire a seat as top dog of the gang though, after all she's got school to worry about, and her sister.

Mondo Owada - Ultimate Warlord

So his relationship and Kiyotaka's is gonna be interesting, because I don't want him to be exactly like Mukuro at all, who was just sort of an all-obsessed Yandere. It's more like he's always chafing under Taka, who is less than friendly with him in this AU, really the main way he even lets Taka boss him around is because he pays incredibly well and helps keep his gang members from devolving back into the unstructured, chaotic criminal life, the same that took his brother years ago.

Oh and yeah, he still looks like Guile, as he should.

Sparkling Justice - Ultimate Killer Killer

Yeah it's a reference to Killer Killer, sue me I love the manga. He has Hajirahara's ahoge, and I thought it'd be cute to also give him a mask just like the other Makoto from a Kodaka game series (Raincode.) Also, while Genocide jack stuffs all her scissors in her skirt, Makoto keeps a truth gun with "truth bullets" as his main weapon, the gun he stores inside the big book in the chibi of just Makoto, and the bullets kept on his person as the red buttons all over his body, which he pulls out when he needs to reload.

"Kiyotaka Ishimaru" - Ultimate Fashionista

Unlike Mukuro and Junko, Mondo absolutely cannot hide the fact that he acts nothing like Kiyotaka, though this is surprisingly fine to everyone else, because unlike Junko who plastered herself onto literally everything, Mondo always obfuscated himself from the public spotlight, at most showing only his suits while he hid his face behind something conveniently placed. Which played primarily to his vision of an ultimate fashionista, who was above everyone and catered to the rich and powerful.

Junko Enoshima - Ultimate Moral Compass

This was a fun one, I decided to let her have her red hair because I believe it to be the "natural" look of her hair, while attaching little clips of dyed hair to her buns as a replacement to keep her shape sorta and keep the strawberry blonde somwehere on her. Understand that while she is the "moral compass" she is still pretty deranged, and the only reason she focuses so much on keeping everyone on their best behavior is because it's endlessly entertaining to her to make her fellow moral committee members upset when she blatantly makes a mockery of the rules while still keeping kids on their best behavior to make a point.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru - Ultimate Fashionista and Tyrant, the Iron Hand of Despair

Taka's design I wanted to sort of focus on this sort of, holier-than-thou idea, where I wanted to make him look a lot fancier and upper-class than Junko does in his standard highschool fit compared to him. I wanted him to have an upper-crust sort of look

If you're reading this after reading this all, thanks! You're a wonderful person :) Signing off...

Mani

[deecotan]

an AU of an AU, where in zosan family AU, sora is still alive, divorced judge & took the kids with her, met zeff, married zeff, raised their kids together...and gains a new family member. basically a wholesome vinsmoke family AU!

[pinkhairedlily]

Chapter 11 - Student Council President Sakura / Graduation Chapter

SCPS AO3 | PREVIOUS CHAPTER

Youtube playlist for your reading accompaniment

They held a run-through of the graduation ceremony on the last day of class and technically the last day of the trio’s high school life. Unlike their first general assembly, Uchiha Sasuke was to deliver the graduation speech but not without great sulking from Haruno Sakura who landed a close second despite ranking first in their final exams.

And obviously, not without Sasuke trying to give up his speech privileges by campaigning instead for Sakura.

In the end, all three of them were granted speech slots – one for Sasuke as valedictorian, Sakura as student representative, and Naruto as the school’s first national MVP. It was this debacle that led the three of them to brainstorm in an empty AVR after the dry run.

“Done!” Sakura yelled like the diligent student she was. “Let me look at yours!”

Sasuke presented her a blank paper while saying, “It’s all prepared in my head”, and Naruto showed her his baseball doodles.

“Oh God, you’re all so hopeless.”

Then the electricity suddenly got cut off in the AVR. Sakura expected the boys to screech in surprise and cling to each other, but she only heard silence in the dark. She jumped in her seat when the doors opened with a loud bang, a confetti splash, and the lights coming back to life.

Sasuke and Naruto were still in front of her, holding two bouquets of irises and yellow roses. Behind them were the old and new student council members with other students holding a large banner saying Thank you, Student Council President Sakura!

She started to leave her seat to come to them, but they gestured for her to stay on her seat. In front of the room, the large monitor beeped and showed a compilation of videos.

Sukehiro Aoi, an alumni and currently an intern in an animation studio. “Hello, Ms. Pres. You once asked the body to submit a publication material for an event of the student council, and I sent mine through a dummy email with no expectations of winning. I wasn’t comfortable with the public seeing my art. I was afraid of the unsolicited remarks so sending it anonymously gave me some relief. You chose it however, and you knew how big a credit was to an artist. I was really scared when you were able to hunt me down just by my watermark, but my name in the info blast caught the attention of a school board member and referred me to this animation studio. It was the littlest thing, but you handed me my dream.”

Watanabe Kota was a year below them. He has a small frame, round thick glasses, and battled with face acne. “Ms. Pres! People never had much confidence in my physical appearance, so I don’t know what you saw in me when you asked me to take over the school radio. But here we are – we’re airing daily and we even produce documentaries and radio programs. Thank you for seeing what I didn’t.”

Ito Amanaya, a typical jock in the football team, muscular and came across as intimidating, but he had the gentlest cadence. “I was bullied by the same group that bullied your dynamic duo. When you ran them off, you also saved my life. Thank you, Haruno.”

Kimura Shinze, a classmate in third year, beautiful, popular, and the captain of the cheering squad. “Hope you’re having a great day, Ms. Pres. Remember that time when the class was guessing who were our crushes and I blurted out that it was a girl, you told me thank you for telling us. That was…a big deal to me. Thank you for that gesture.”

Himurata Aoi, president of the koto club. “Sakura, I know you had many people come up and confessed to you so when I did try, I was glad that you didn’t give me a bullshit reason like you’re not into girls. You turned me down because you have someone you already love. I am thankful for your honesty.”

The biology teacher, Takahashi Kande. “Student council, thank you for your mental health program. As a single father to twins, I don’t have the luxury of time to sit in a couch and sort out my issues. To be able to do that in my workplace during breaks is a heaven-sent gift. You saved me and my family. Thank you.”

Many more messages came on, from a classmate she lent spare change to, from a staff she helped clean, from countless students who she wasn’t aware she gave kindness to.

“Why….” She asked breathlessly.

“You’ve been beating yourself lately. We thought you needed some reminding,” Sasuke muttered, under his breath, the bouquet still in his hands. “You left some pretty big footprints, Ms. Pres.

“You might not have noticed,” Naruto jested. “But this is always innate and natural to you, isn’t it?”

“Why did you bother so much?” She was reduced to tears.

“It was Naruto’s idea.”

“Huh? You did all the compiling though!”

“Shut up, it was me,” yelled the current president.

“Thank you, everyone.”

--------------------------------

It was a weekend, but Sasuke requested Sakura and Naruto to meet him at the school gates. He only gave the time and place, and he knew well enough that they would be there – no questions asked.

They stood there, minutes earlier than planned, a first but nothing more unusual than homebody Sasuke asking them to go out on a weekend. Sakura wore an oversized rust shirt over a pair of muted cotton blue trousers tied with a brown leather belt and tan fisherman sandals, her long hair kept in one single braid at the back. Naruto probably expected a fancy lunch with his outfit – black silky long sleeves over gray pants and black loafers.

Sasuke, high on impulsive decisions, wore bright colors, a complete departure from his usual neutrals; mustard vest over a deep violet polo, baggy pants, off white converse, and a white fanny pack. “Well, we’re mostly dressed for comfort, except for that idiot beside you.”

“What do you mean dressed for comfort? I borrowed these loafers from my vice-captain and my feet aren’t used to them,” Naruto whined. “Besides, aren’t you taking us out to a five-star meal, Mr. Valedictorian?”

“Wow, what a way to show off.” Sakura pursed her lips in annoyance. “Don’t worry Naruto, I got your next café order.”

“Ah no. It was just something we heard from the grape vine.” Naruto scratched his head and carefully glanced at Sasuke. “Grumpy got his trust fund today.”

In bated breaths, they waited for him to respond with a scowl or a retort, but he just nodded. “Come on, we’ll miss the train.”

They traveled for three stations and disembarked on the fourth, Sasuke sandwiched in between the two, his shoulders pillows again to their heads and yet such burdens were light as cotton. The surfacing emotions since last week were taking hold of him, but he needed to pull through somehow because breaking down while commuting was one thing he did not really see doing.

“Word just got in. The house was turned over this morning,” Itachi told him over the phone.

“Impeccable timing when I’m also moving abroad next week.” Sasuke pulled out his Bleachers vinyl and anticipated another lonesome lull for the night.

“Do you miss the cream puffs?”

“Nothing comes close.”

“Hmm. I’ll pay for the rental fee of your car.”

In Itachi’s defense, while he was an afficionado of escapism, he also knew how to read between the lines. “Watch me get a Mercedes-Benz.”

“I have a good driving playlist.” This only meant math rock, and Sasuke wanted something to scream his lungs too.

“Don’t need one.”

“Treat your friends to dinner, okay? Gotta go.”

“We’re walking?!” Naruto almost limped out of the train. Sasuke took one look at his heels and saw that they were bruised red. He took off his converse and socks and gave them to him.

Sakura whipped out a small first-aid kit and covered the rash on Naruto’s heels. “Hey don’t look at me like that. Brought it just in case we’re going on a day survival tour. A camping would be nice too.”

“Did you scrub your feet, idiot?”

“You think so low of me grumpy. Of course – last week!”

With Naruto now comfortable, the three resumed walking on the unfamiliar residential area. Sasuke gestured for them to enter a bamboo forest on the far side of the main road. Hidden in the shadows of the clumped stalks were a small opening, the growth hampered and ground rid of grasses and weeds; many people have also chosen this shortcut, walked through the forest, did a little nature bathing, and emerged behind the bakery, still there, still standing, still operating.

Sasuke tapped on the large glass window cum counter on the front and bought three sets of cream puffs.

“Oh, it’s you,” the old baker greeted. “You brought your friends over? You always buy one set.”

Sasuke offered her a smile, briefly glancing to his periphery where Sakura was fussing with Naruto’s feet, and nodded as he accepted the paper bag. “It’s on the house, kid.”

“You brought us to stalk someone’s house?” Sakura dug in one paper bag, bit the puff in one bite, and with full mouth, she sighed. “This is heaven.”

“It’s our old family house, before the accident that is.” Sasuke also took out one puff and munched on it, ruminating on the sight before him, a two-story house with an imposing façade, his mom’s climbing hydrangea gone and cut by the new owners, beds of roses and daisies already withered, but the wisteria tree on the vacant lot beside continued to grow and shade what he supposed were the children’s rooms. It was in his third bite that he saw the tomato fruits he planted, alive and full with harvest. “Do you think my parents know?”

Naruto slid an arm across his shoulder and grinned sheepishly. “Then they would be happy ghosts or maybe they would voluntarily move away to give the new owners the opportunity to make it a happy a home like yours.

“What part are you gonna miss?” Sakura asked, halfway through her set of puffs.

“The sight of the wisteria before I sleep and after I wake up, and the sunlight in my parents’ room. My dad liked to make these suncatchers for my mom. The play of light was a good morning greeting, she said.”

“What’s your funniest memory?” Naruto sat on the grass, uncaring for the stains that would taint his good pair of pants.

“It was probably Christmas when I was seven, and Itachi had this big idea to bake a cake, but he swapped the sugar for the salt and we were wondering why it wouldn’t make a custard. Our parents still ate it, saying it was a very salty version of dark chocolate cake.”

“It was a good home,” Sakura patted the space between her and Naruto and Sasuke sat down cross-legged too, dipping his hand on the paper bag with the last cream puff.

“It was a good home,” Sasuke agreed as he bit into the last vestige of his family memory. He was suckling the powdered sugar off his fingers when he realized he was already crying, and the two were downright sobbing on his either side.

Such an embarrassing sight to see; he wondered what would the new owners feel if they looked out their windows this instant and saw three teenagers breaking down on the road across. It was honestly stupid and laughable to a point, considering how funny it was for grief to become lighter when someone else cried with him.

Naruto was sniffling so much that he had to offer his handkerchief to him. “I forgot to tell you guys. Hinata confessed to me during the cultural festival.”

“Oh my god. What did you say?” Sakura took a tissue out of her bag and dabbed her eyes. She flashed an apologetic look to Sasuke who already offered his hanky to Naruto’s fluids.

“Ah, what else? I had to reject her.” Naruto sneezed on Sasuke’s handkerchief again. “I told her I was in love with someone else.” He slyly glanced at his raven-haired friend and pursed his lips which Sakura quickly caught.

“Who is it?”

“Sasuke also likes someone.”

“Shut your mouth, blondie. Point is already moot. Besides, we’ve already been rejected.”

“Who are these people and why don’t I know them?” Sakura genuinely looked offended. “I could have vetted them!”

“Exactly why it was fortunate you didn’t meet them,” Sasuke said as an excuse though he pegged Sakura for not being that naïve. She, thankfully, let it go and gathered their trash. She dropped the bomb as she was brushing the grass blades from her trousers. “My parents are divorcing. Such a travesty not to have them show up on graduation day, and I thought I did a great job.”

The two, ever so sure, held onto her hands in case she was trembling again.

“Let’s get that five-star dinner,” Sasuke suggested, “and we need to rent a Mercedes-Benz.”

--------------------------------

Graduation Day

“Let’s welcome to the stage, class valedictorian, Uchiha Sasuke.” Kakashi was the officiating faculty today so she expected difficulty going through the event, but for some reason, he slipped into her mental back burner, no longer taking up room in her active consciousness. That was a good step, she smiled to herself. Her smile became wider as Sasuke got up the stage.

His fans club’s cheers were heard outside the auditorium, and the graduating class chuckled at the quick interruption. He cleared his throat and started his piece.

“Please get it on record that I was coerced to do this speech. Then again, I also had a hand on the turn of events that led me here today, in front of you. And it’s a little too on the nose, but I came to high school with a clear set of goals – have high grades and lead an uninteresting life. I accomplished the first one rather easily, and it’s a good metric for the future that’s upon us right now. Good grades land us good colleges. Good colleges land us good jobs. Good jobs land us good life.

But it’s not the sole benchmark as I have learned lately. You see, my second goal really missed the mark. Good life can also mean good friends, fun experiences, a caring environment, a complete family. If you ticked off each one, then that’s very notable. You have the four-leaf clover, and it’s a rare blessing. I only ticked off three, but that goes without any regret. If you only have one silver lining in your high school memory, then that makes us all the more human. And if there’s none, there is still is still a whole stretch of possibilities we can discover to find one. Thank you for your kind attention.”

Sakura was pretty sure she heard several sniffles across the student body. “The bastard delivered a good speech,” she muttered to herself.

“We would like to welcome our first national MVP, Uzumaki Naruto.”

Outside, the school band played the cheering anthem for his last national games. The cheerleaders also did a routine in tribute to him. That made him well up when he got to the podium.

“Wait oh my god, I’m tearing up so much.”

Sasuke grunted loudly and went back the stage to hand him a handkerchief which Naruto quickly used to wipe his snot.

“Thanks Sasuke. How can Kakashi-sensei let me follow after that rousing speech, and before Sakura too. It’s kinda evil.”

Laughter broke out.

“Well, this one’s a bare minimum. I didn’t have any goals or expectations, unlike genius grumpy over there. I just wanted to live my life like an ordinary boy. Someone said that how you spend your day is how you live your life so I did just that – ate ramen, slept in class because I am a growing kid, and played each arcade game until I won them. I also believe in serendipitous – thanks Sakura for this word, for the spelling and meaning – serendipitous coincidences. I just pitched and batted for former captain Haru one afternoon and now we landed in the national finals. I had loneliness for a friend, but now I’ve got all of you. And you know what else, the magic of working together. We wouldn’t have stepped foot in the nationals if it weren’t for your collective help. When we work towards a common goal, that also gives us common happiness, right? It’s infectious, a bouncing energy that gets thrown around and still makes it one piece. So wherever you will be after this, believe it!”

When Kakashi called her name next, she thought she was deaf, the noise around her collapsed in muted decibels. It took a minute before her fellow classmates shook her and motioned for her to quickly come up the stairs. Her silver-haired teacher looked so concerned in the shadows, but for what it was worth, she was civil and calm enough (at least in the matters concerning him) to nod at him in quiet exchange of assurance.

It was because she saw both of her parents at the side with a bouquet of roses. She struggled with the paper she brought with her although she had it memorized in her head; she even went through it flawlessly for three times last night. Tears blurred the words and the mere shock of the sight of their togetherness disabled her mental function to string coherent thoughts. She also started hyperventilating, her breaths coming faster than what her lungs could pump.

Then she felt Kakashi’s hand on her shoulder, a steady presence, and it reeled her back to reality. He tapped the mic and the feedback echoed. “Ah, Ms. Haruno had some technical issues. Again, let’s welcome former student council president, Sakura.”

Sasuke and Naruto in the front were almost standing, but she flashed them a smile as if to say she was okay now. “Hello, good day to our honorable guests and graduates. I think it’s safe to say that Sasuke and Naruto provided really good words of advice. So I have nothing more to offer, but to share my gratitude. Everyone was saying the student council did a good job in its programs, but it was actually the lot of you who made this possible – from your activity suggestions to participation and feedback. After all, you were the makers of your memories.

Earlier last week, my councilmates and friends reminded me how small actions go a long way – a smile, a wave across the hallway, a short exchange of good morning and see you soon, and I thought, aren’t we all just an accumulation of these small, little things? As such, it was what you think your insignificant moments were that pushed us to deliver you the best. It was the passing comment, the top-of-your-head tips, the interlude stories we hear during lunch breaks that allowed us to give you grand gestures and memories we hoped were worth keeping. And if we could start to use that perspective as well in our lives then maybe the uncertainties of a future wouldn’t be so heavy on us. We will face tomorrow with a lightness in being.

In behalf of the student council, thank you for allowing us to serve you.”

She bowed at a level where her torso was almost aligned at her hips, and she was confused with the lack of reaction. Sakura sighed, mulling over the deficiencies in her speech, but she straightened her back to a sight of a standing ovation and a thundering applause.

Then, she let her tears fall.

--------------------------------

“Why would you let Kakashi-sensei take the pic?” Sakura hissed at them.

“Just this one time, Sakura!” Naruto grinned.

“Sakura, you’re out of the frame,” Kakashi remarked. “Okay good. Say cheese.”

In spite of her recent heartbreak with him, she permitted herself to bask in fleeting cordiality. “Cheese.”

“Grumpyyyyyy.”

“Idiot blondie.”

Kakashi took three more shots and handed the camera to the trio. He almost turned away when Sakura caught his sleeve.

“Just one more,” she said. “With you.”

Sakura shifted to the front, almost kneeling with the camera angled for a selfie, her two friends beside her looking equally annoyed as the other, and Kakashi behind them, his hands on either head, smiling with his deceptively charming beauty mark.

It was the last picture of their high school life.

--------------------------------

The three were rushing through the airport crowd fifteen minutes before the immigration closes gates.

“Here!” Sakura slid a folder on the large pocket on Sasuke’s bag. “It includes your passport, your flight details, your valid IDs, your itinerary, and letters from us! Don’t forget our Friday video calls!”

“I can’t see. These tears are bullies,” Naruto said through tears. He was continuously wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

“And If I don’t get on my flight because you made us eat ramen for one last time and the orders took too long, I’m gonna have you cursed by a witch and a shaman!” Sasuke growled. The guards were starting to close the gates when a sobbing Naruto sprinted and basically tackled the guards on the floor.

“Sasuke come on, hurry up!”

“Drink your vitamins! And if you miss cream puffs, I’ll teach you how to make them.” Sakura was trying hard to keep pace with Sasuke’s brisk walking, but she ended up breathless anyway.

The three of them finally reached the immigration entrance, and Naruto was profusely apologizing to the guards for the interruption. Sasuke showed his documents, wheezing as they looked at it. They gave him a thumbs up and opened the gates.

The two were already slumped at the floor, waving without words, and exhausted from the clock race. Sasuke was almost through when he remembered something he forgot. He muttered a quick sorry, ran through the opening, and hugged his two friends.

“I’ll miss you.”

[recentanimenews]

10 Journeys Further Than the Universe

Today we bid farewell to A Place Further Than the Universe, perhaps the most emotionally poignant anime of the season, showing us a group of young girls embarking upon a tremendous undertaking together. Whether Antarctica represented an adventure, a job, an escape, or a reunion, their common destination, and the trials they underwent to reach it, brought them closer together and allowed them to learn something about themselves. Whether you enjoyed the anime because of its coming of age themes, its long journey, or its ensemble cast of friends, rest assured there are more destinations out there for you to discover. If you don’t want your journey to end just yet, here are 10 more anime of adventures, undertakings, and friendship!

SHIROBAKO

The story of 5 women who formed the animation club in their high school and each go on to work in the anime industry from different directions. Aoi works as a producer in an anime studio, introducing us to the ins and outs of how anime is made as she navigates the challenges of modern animation production. Like Space Brothers, Shirobako tackles both sides of the animation industry, introducing the aspirational elements of creating a work of art together along with the realities of budgets, demands from production committees, and time constraints that influence the final product. We’re also treated with multiple perspectives as her friends find work as traditional and CG artists, a voice actress, and a writer. Although their work doesn’t always bring them together, they share and support one another in their common dream to make anime.

Sound! Euphonium

The Kitauji high school concert band decided together that they would do their best to win a gold medal at the national championship. Not quite traveling to the bottom of the globe, but no less ambitious, especially since their school hasn’t even reached the qualifying tournament in recent years. Although the club only embark upon journeys to training camps and competitions, Sound! Euphonium is just a great exploration of its characters and their drive toward a common goal as A Place Further Than the Universe. Through the perspective of its nosy first-year Kumiko, we’re introduced to the unique personalities and motivations and its many members as they come into conflict and ultimately learn to work together. Sound! Euphonium takes a deep dive into the technical aspects of concert bands, from instruments to harmonization and we learn what goes into winning is more than many individually skilled players.

Space Brothers

Antarctica may be further from Japan than space, but what about the moon? Mars? Space Brothers tells the story not only of the Nanba’s brothers, but an extended cast of individuals whose dreams rest among the stars. This anime of space travel may have its head in the clouds, but is firmly rooted in scientific fact. Just as we were informed of the unique challenges of attempting to reach and reside in Antarctica, Space Brothers takes a deep dive into the application and training process for aspiring NASA astronauts, navigating politics and its meritocratic system to be chosen for a mission. The characters are diverse and charming and the content is fascinating, buoyed by their starry-eyed fascination with space travel. At its core, Space Brothers is every bit as aspirational as A Place Further Than the Universe, communicating the indescribable desire to venture into the great unknown.

March Comes in Like a Lion

Rei Kiriyama is on a long a lonesome journey to a distant island happiness. He doesn’t know where it is or how to reach it, but he’s sought it out for years through the dark, suffocating waters of depression. Rei is a kindred spirit with Shirase, a social misfit traumatized by the loss of his family early in his life. Although he tries to make it on his own, he encounters other characters along the way who help lighten the load. His self-proclaimed rival Nikaido and the Kawamoto sisters become emotional refuge that help keep his head above water and bring light into his life and he tries to discover his happy place in the world. Rei’s growth comes in learning to let other people in and, eventually, finding satisfaction in returning the compassion of others to find a new family for himself. Although his journey is introspective, it’s just as fraught as a quest to Antarctica and made easier by the support of friends.

Princess Nine

Ryo Hayakawa, daughter of one of Japan’s most famous ace pitchers, inherited her father's arm and is a local menace as the relief pitcher for all-men Wildcats sandlot team. Although she plans to dropout of high school to support her family shop, but she’s scouted by Keiko Himuro, chairwoman of the Kisaragi Girls High School, for an athletic scholarship. Keiko is assembling an all-woman baseball team that will be meant to compete in and win the male-dominated National High School Baseball Championship. The anime follows the formation of the team, called Princess Nine, and its ensuing competition with Ryo as the pitcher and team captain. This is a longer series where each member of the team has their own story, personal dramas, and ambitions to prove themselves by seeing Princess Nine win the championship.

FLIP FLAPPERS

A coming of age tale in magical girl form, Flip Flappers follows Cocona, a studious girl who has lived her life meeting the expectations of adults, who now faces the end of high school and a decision. How to live her life for herself. Suddenly, she’s spirited away by the rambunctious Papika, who wants Cocona to become her partner going on adventures in Pure Illusion, an ever-shifting imaginary world. Although initially resistant, she finds herself drawn Papika and her strange journey and starts playing along. As they explore unknown worlds, Cocona begins to discover more about herself and begins grasping her own desires for the future. Like A Place Further Than the Universe, Flip Flappers is about a wild, unreasonable adventure helps a high school girl overcome her fear of getting older and, in this case, finding love along the way.

One Piece

Although superficially similar in that they’re stories about a boat and a crew, One Piece is similar to A Place Further Than the Universe in its themes of pursuing one's dreams and coming together under a common cause. Where the girls seek to reach Antarctica, the Straw Hats aim to circumnavigate the globe. Each member of the crew has a wildly different dream that points them in a common direction, the Grand Line and the New World beyond it. With a crew of heavy hitters, One Piece is unique among shonen for making one of the primary elements of its power scaling simply their crew's ability to organize and function as a unit. The challenges they face take on the form of actual enemies in rival pirates and the world government, but the crew overcome them all by working together and believing in one another. The world of One Piece is populated by big dreamers and the villains are often who try to stop others from reaching them.

Love Live! Sunshine!!

The second part of the Love Live! franchise, Sunshine!! takes place in Uranohoshi Girls' Academy, a school that is soon to close its doors and merge with nearby Numazu High School due to lack of funding. Inspired by μ's, Chika Takami decides to put together her own idol group to compete in the Love Live school idol contest to support her school. The eventual group calls itself Aqours and soon discovers that competing on a national scale requires personality, inspiration, and hard work. The drama has a bit more candy coating than most of the other shows on the list, but it’s present and accounted for, including a disastrous previous attempt to develop an idol group for the school. It shares the same atmosphere of girls with different personalities sharing a dream and supporting one another.

Eureka Seven

Renton thinks he’s boarding the Gekko chasing after the love of his life, Eureka, but embarks on a journey into adulthood. Like Mari, he needed the presence of another to take that final step into the youthful adventure he had felt was beginning to slip from his grasp. Unfortunately, his journey is considerably more painful. Where Mari finds a core of support in her companions, Renton struggles to connect with anyone in the lonely world beyond the hole where he grew up. He fails to connect with Eureka and is hazed by the crew and its captain who resents him. The connections he forms with others often become twisted or break just as he comes to rely upon them. Eureka Seven is the story of a child pursuing a dream he doesn’t quite understand and learning to stand upon his own two feet before he finds the connection he seeks.

Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions

Like A Place Further Than the Universe, Chunibyo is a story about misfits and a coming of age story, but with a lighter and considerably more awkward take on the formula. Yuta, a former chuni, moves to a new school intent on starting over as a normal student, but is discovered by Rikka, who possesses “The Wicked Eye” and wants Yuta to unleash his hidden “Dark Flame Master” and help her discover “The Ethereal Horizon” to be reunited with her deceased father. This imaginary place becomes a metaphor for overcoming her grief and discovering a shared place of happiness somewhere between their personal eccentricities and the expectations of polite society. Their introspective journey is to find themselves and each other in a series that seeks to show us it’s ok to be a little strange. They’re also joined along the way by a few more weirdos.

Whether it's traveling the world, making it to nationals, creating something that is truly your own, or just growing up, each of these anime take us along on a wild ride of personal discovery made with the help of some good friends. Hopefully, these shows will keep the fire of discovery alive in your heart and spur you forward to even greater adventures. Are there any adventures you’ve taken that you’d like to share? Did any of these journeys inspire you? Let us know in the comments below!

---

Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[takenews-blog1]

'What A Wonderful Family! 2': Film Review | Hawaii International Film Festival 2017

New Post has been published on https://takenews.net/what-a-wonderful-family-2-film-review-hawaii-international-film-festival-2017/

'What A Wonderful Family! 2': Film Review | Hawaii International Film Festival 2017

As a former assistant director to Japanese cinema icon Yasujiro Ounces, Yoji Yamada has typically adopted and typically strayed from his mentor’s footsteps. His long-running Tora-san collection of romantic dramedies was an prolonged riff on the kind of populist cinema that Ounces shunned, however Yamada can also be the one director to aim remaking the postwar traditional Tokyo Story.

His 2013 homage Tokyo Household launched the characters and ensemble forged that type the idea for the contentious Hirata clan featured within the subsequent What A Great Household! collection. As this sequel to the 2016 authentic opens, the emotional rift that just about drove grandma Tomiko (Yoshiyuki Kazuko) to divorce her grumpy, typically intransigent husband Shuzo (Hashizume Isao) has lengthy been resolved (or buried).

Or perhaps not, as Tomiko prepares for some treasured private time on a visit to Scandinavia to view the aurora borealis together with her senior writing group. Shuzo, who hates the chilly, refuses to accompany her, preferring to stay behind at his eldest son Konosuke’s (Nishimura Masahiko) suburban Tokyo residence so he can play golf, drive round along with his mates and carouse on the native bar run by his fairly youthful good friend Kayo (Fubuki Jun). After Shuzo will get concerned in a minor visitors accident, Konosuke calls his youthful siblings Shigeko (Nakajima Tomoko) and Shoto (Tsumabuki Satoshi) over for a household assembly to persuade their dad to stop driving.

Predictably, Shuzo rejects their entreaty, saying plans to purchase a brand new hybrid as a substitute, and goes off in a huff to Kayo’s bar for a reunion with an old style good friend, declaring, “I’ll hold driving till I die.” The following morning, the household discovers that Shuzo’s good friend, whom he introduced residence from the bar the earlier night, has handed away through the evening. Instantly they flip to Shoto’s spouse Norkio (Yu Aoi), who’s a nurse, for steerage, however she’s unable to revive the person and it’s not lengthy earlier than the paramedics arrive, together with the cops asking uncomfortable questions concerning the visitor’s inadvertent loss of life.

The specter of a police investigation hanging over the household almost ideas the movie from gentle comedy over to grim melodrama, with grandpa Shuzo rising because the principal individual of curiosity. Yamada has one thing else on his thoughts, nevertheless, by bringing the specter of loss of life into the household circle, not not like the thematic points that involved Ounces. As Shuzo remembers his faculty days along with his deceased good friend, a widower with solely an estranged daughter who declines to rearrange his funeral, waves of memory and remorse overwhelm him, prompting the outdated codger to make a grandly compassionate gesture that would appear far past his ordinary petty issues.

Total, the sequel is distinguished by a melancholy, contemplative tone quite than an escalation of household crises, as within the authentic. As Yamada’s script, co-written with Hiramatsu Emiko, step by step reveals the extent of Shuzo’s grudging humanity, a clearer image of this typically argumentative Tokyo household emerges. Though this method could lack incident, it opens up the area for consideration of the problems associated to mortality that loom over the Hirata household elders and explores the attitudes of particular person relations towards their getting old dad and mom, a dynamic much like the preoccupations that Ounces demonstrated in his later profession.

Ultimately, it’s the funeral that brings everybody collectively, forcing a cessation of hostilities and reconsideration of everybody’s particular person, important function within the household. Yamada emphasizes their interconnectedness in his regularly compact digital camera compositions, arranging all the important gamers into deep-focus photographs that reveal each their affinities and hostilities towards each other. These typically inside scenes facilitate his rigorously balanced blocking, however typically lack the expansiveness inherent within the first movie, which favored a better number of places and exteriors.

Hashizume continues to steal almost each scene that Shuzo seems in, along with his overbearing method and loud opinions, utterly overshadowing Yoshiyuki, who performed a pivotal function because the put-upon spouse within the earlier movie, however doesn’t determine almost as prominently right here. Equally, the ensemble of second-generation Hiratas and their spouses are much less individualized now that the drama over Shoto’s awkward single standing has been resolved by his marriage to light Norkio.

Half three of the collection, due out in Japan subsequent yr, could reveal still-hidden layers of emotional connection among the many Hiratas, or it might simply as simply veer off into one other multifaceted home disaster.

Manufacturing company-distributor: Shochiku Forged: Yu Aoi, Hashizume Isao, Nishimura Masahiko, Yui Natsukawa, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Yoshiyuki Kazuko, Kanai Taizo, Nakajima Tomoko, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Fubuki Jun Director: Yoji Yamada Screenwriters: Hiramatsu Emiko, Yoji Yamada Producer: Fukuzawa Hiroshi Director of pictures: Chikamori Masahi Editor: Ishii Iwao Music: Joe Hisaishi Venue: Hawaii Worldwide Movie Pageant

113 minutes

[kapitanwingter]

Chapter 7 - Ganbaru, Tami!

"Ötvös Tamara reporting for duty ma'am!" I said as I saluted after entering the room.

Lili giggled and Emese said laughingly "At ease, soldier, this is not the navy".

I lowered my hand and stood there confusingly.

"Come, sit" she said.

I did so and took my hat off and put it on the desk around which we sat down. The Sun was almost down so Lili switched on the lights and I saw some documents on the table of different tanks, formations and also some boring paperwork like papers.

"First of all" started Emese "You're one of us, remember that. You're not obliged to act so formally all the time, right?" she smiled "I'll let the others thing whatever the heck they want, I believe you'll proove me right, I'm putting my trust in ya"

"I...I don't think you chose right.." I said while looking at my lap.

"Well nobody's forcing you" said Lili "But you know...you became a celebirity over just an afternoon. You did the Tas, right? Sensha-dou is not only about maps and tactics. What good Guderian would've been without knowing his tanks? You understood the soul of your tank, that's what matters to us, everyone else came here without knowing a thing about them including us so it was a long struggle for everybody yet you menaged to lead your crew to land a shot while moving. Not everybody can do that y'know"

"You girls praising me and all..."

"Anyhow I look at it we need a third commander in our forces "said Emese" and you just came barging in the door like a you-know-nothing and by the next day the girls under your command act like half pros - even though they are indeed talented - so give some credits to yourself" she winked.

"Thanks you two. But please don't raise me in such heights, we mustn't get arrogant" I said simlingly looking at them.

They nodded.

"Anyways" starte Emese "We I did not call you here solely to talk about our skills. there's that coming up again"

"That?" I asked.

"Annual national high school sensha-dou tournament" said Lili.

"Oh...I read about it"

"At any rate" continued the Captain "We're all set for it. Yeah yeah I asked for thirty tanks but we only need twenty whatevs...if you're doing something do it in the right way, right? We opening ceremony and the number drawing will be in three weeks and after that a match every sunday"

"Already?!" raised Lili her voice.

"Aye"

"Three weeks to prepare..." I said.

"We'll have to use our priviliges and take out the afternoons for training" said Lili.

"That's why the student council joined...at least one of the reasons..." said Emese in a very serious tone.

Lili and I looked at each other suspiciously.

Emese sighed "I'm gonna be frank with you guys, the sensha-dou club will be disbanded if we don't perform well"

"Outrageous!" said Lili.

"We just only joined!" I replied.

"How could they do this to us?!"

"Who dares do this to the best club?!"

"I'll go show them who to disba"

"Both of you please stay calm!" ordered us Emese.

We again looked at each other and then down on the ground.

"Nothing is lost yet" she calmed us "I said we need to perform well, that's all they care about. It could very well might be that we'll be against Kuromorimine on our first match but if we put up a good show and make them sweat they will regain their trust in us. This is the will of the MEXT [Japanese education ministry], not the school's since our club is state founded because of our great successes in the distant past. 'Hast thou became slothful' as I heard once. It would appear that we did"

A metaphorical black hood ascended on the room.

"Well girls" jumped up from her chair Emese "We've got work to do aren't we? We just have to show them once and they will believe us forever, are you with me?!"

"Yeah!!" we yelled.

  We decided that we will hold the strategy meetings with the tanks' commanders after we know our first opponent, every day after the club class. That's all we did to start to organize our situation. Said our goodbyes and called it a day finally. They went out the front door but I realized I left my phone in the tank so I headed there.

The great surprise - if I can call it that - happened then. The crew of Turul was sitting on or around her.

"So" asked Reiko as she jumped down from the hull "What up?"

"You girls waited for me..." I said as toughly as I could while trying to suprsess a tear drop.

"Of course" said Jitsuko"

"We'd follow our Commander to the edge and beyond" said Aoi.

"I'm so wreckt..." said Eimi "Let's go eat something"

I nodded

  Funny how we only had known each other for two days and we already acted like friends for decades. What they say about this sport could be true, it really does unite people through fighting against or with each other. Not only that but I've never met such people like them, even though I knew them little I felt like trusting them with my life. Could it be God who had us met this way? Was it fate which assembled the Turul crew? Even though I don't believe in magic sometimes I feel like overriding my beliefs. From time to time things seem too coincidential to be regarded like that. Maybe luck really does exist and I felt like exhausting it for the next years. That's a chance I took.

On the other hand due to my new lack of luck I could be ran over by a bus any time...

Oh well stuff happen. Stuff like how Aoi, Jitsuko and I didn't know a thing about this place. I mean I only arrived a couple of days ago and if I wasn't lazily laying in my bed I was busy with school stuff. I thought I could discover the city in the weekend but nope, sensha-dou happened - not that I'm complaining.

The others led us to some ramen restaurant. It turned out they had known each other. They attended the basketball club for a little while but with the exception of Fusako they all stopped because they didn't like it.

We get to know a lot of things about each other.

Eimi came from way up north from a little village and she has two little sisters who always caused trouble for her so she heard of this school and came alone. She lives near to my place under the same conditions. She is really into cars and she had been in the automotive club ever since she could join but stopped doing it because sensha-dou started to get her attention even more year by year and when she heard that this club was slowly disappearing she decided she would do her part in resurrecting this club. Even though she doesn't have a license the automotive club has their own racetrack at the other end of the ship so she could hone her skills there and if I do say so myself she is really talented at it. I know it because not only could she instantly figure out how the tank's handling works but I didn't even have to tell her about the shifting, she just looked at the engine specs and she knew what to do. Crazy...

Reiko comes from the north as well but not as much as Eimi. She lived in  a bigger town with her brother and family but they decided to move here because her father works in the government and they got this offer and took on the opportunity. She started a year later than Eimi in this school and she could continue her interest in shooting. When she first heard of the sensha-dou club it didn't interest her but when she witnessed the girls on the shooting range as she was wondering around the forest and she got very imperessed by the magnitude and colossality of the guns compared to her "puny little toothpick-shooter" as she put it. Sadly she couldn't stop her elective halfway in the school year but it led her to be our shooter for which I am very happy.

Fusako comes from the same prefecture as Reiko though she lived in a smaller village and unlike the girl before her family decided as a whole to move here aboard the ship. She didn't like it at first but got very impressed by the life on the sea so eventually she grow into loving this school. At home she had done riding and even though rarely but in Choshi she can still continue doing it. As I mentioned the last three girls had known each other before we all met due to the "basketball incident". Eimi and Reiko really felt embarrassed and humiliated after the first training session - though it wasn't the case and despite them because of her height Fusako really menaged in the club and achieved some great things in the national league with the team but eventually got bored of basketball and looked for sensha-dou.

About Jitsuko and Aoi it's not easy to speak separately. They come from the same town from the west and been classmates ever since they started school. They have similar interests - video games and animes - though in different genres. Their personality is similar as well though Ji is more enthusiastic and open even though she's a little bit introverted, and Aoi is more neutral and thorough with her opinions. Maybe the main things they differ is their looks but we can clearly see why they are good friends.

Ji came here with her family the same way as Fusako and Aoi's case is more similar to mine, she was sent here from her old school because you see their previous school closed due to financial problems so she had the same choice as me and of course she'd choose the place her best friend had chosen before here. Ji decided to come this school before the previous school decided to go bankrupt and convinced her family but fate decided Aoi would come here as well. Aoi spends a lot of time at Jitsuko's house and with her family because her's stayed west. She lives in a different part of town than me and Eimi.

Our evening there went by like this. It was a traditional ramen restaurant so we just sat next to each other on high chairs. We told stories, spoke of ourselves, criticised each other and laughed at or with each other. This was really needed especially early on, I think we needed to become as close to each other as possible and it was a right start to go with.

Sunday's afternoon practice was coming up so we all went home from there. I don't know about the others but I wanted to sleep some. I needed to get up early, I promised Saki I'd watch their waterpolo training before heading to sensha-dou class. I'm quite interested in waterpolo as well - sadly not as much as in sensha-dou.

I headed home in the dark but yet calming streets which was like walking on the street of Budapest while some kind of Japanese festival was happening.

Suddenly the entire place shook a bit. An earthquake? I was walking near the edge of the ship and I saw the scenery suddenly started to move. Departure, huh. I stood there watching as the ship slowly left the harbor and the townspeople were watching it from docks. Some people gathered on the deck as well. Slowly I started to smell even more saltiness in the air as the ocean was calling us.

Well I passed the point of no return. Onto home to see what tomorrow holds for me.

[takenews-blog1]

'What A Wonderful Family! 2': Film Review | Hawaii International Film Festival 2017

New Post has been published on https://takenews.net/what-a-wonderful-family-2-film-review-hawaii-international-film-festival-2017/

'What A Wonderful Family! 2': Film Review | Hawaii International Film Festival 2017

As a former assistant director to Japanese cinema icon Yasujiro Ounces, Yoji Yamada has typically adopted and typically strayed from his mentor’s footsteps. His long-running Tora-san collection of romantic dramedies was an prolonged riff on the kind of populist cinema that Ounces shunned, however Yamada can also be the one director to aim remaking the postwar traditional Tokyo Story.

His 2013 homage Tokyo Household launched the characters and ensemble forged that type the idea for the contentious Hirata clan featured within the subsequent What A Great Household! collection. As this sequel to the 2016 authentic opens, the emotional rift that just about drove grandma Tomiko (Yoshiyuki Kazuko) to divorce her grumpy, typically intransigent husband Shuzo (Hashizume Isao) has lengthy been resolved (or buried).

Or perhaps not, as Tomiko prepares for some treasured private time on a visit to Scandinavia to view the aurora borealis together with her senior writing group. Shuzo, who hates the chilly, refuses to accompany her, preferring to stay behind at his eldest son Konosuke’s (Nishimura Masahiko) suburban Tokyo residence so he can play golf, drive round along with his mates and carouse on the native bar run by his fairly youthful good friend Kayo (Fubuki Jun). After Shuzo will get concerned in a minor visitors accident, Konosuke calls his youthful siblings Shigeko (Nakajima Tomoko) and Shoto (Tsumabuki Satoshi) over for a household assembly to persuade their dad to stop driving.

Predictably, Shuzo rejects their entreaty, saying plans to purchase a brand new hybrid as a substitute, and goes off in a huff to Kayo’s bar for a reunion with an old style good friend, declaring, “I’ll hold driving till I die.” The following morning, the household discovers that Shuzo’s good friend, whom he introduced residence from the bar the earlier night, has handed away through the evening. Instantly they flip to Shoto’s spouse Norkio (Yu Aoi), who’s a nurse, for steerage, however she’s unable to revive the person and it’s not lengthy earlier than the paramedics arrive, together with the cops asking uncomfortable questions concerning the visitor’s inadvertent loss of life.

The specter of a police investigation hanging over the household almost ideas the movie from gentle comedy over to grim melodrama, with grandpa Shuzo rising because the principal individual of curiosity. Yamada has one thing else on his thoughts, nevertheless, by bringing the specter of loss of life into the household circle, not not like the thematic points that involved Ounces. As Shuzo remembers his faculty days along with his deceased good friend, a widower with solely an estranged daughter who declines to rearrange his funeral, waves of memory and remorse overwhelm him, prompting the outdated codger to make a grandly compassionate gesture that would appear far past his ordinary petty issues.

Total, the sequel is distinguished by a melancholy, contemplative tone quite than an escalation of household crises, as within the authentic. As Yamada’s script, co-written with Hiramatsu Emiko, step by step reveals the extent of Shuzo’s grudging humanity, a clearer image of this typically argumentative Tokyo household emerges. Though this method could lack incident, it opens up the area for consideration of the problems associated to mortality that loom over the Hirata household elders and explores the attitudes of particular person relations towards their getting old dad and mom, a dynamic much like the preoccupations that Ounces demonstrated in his later profession.

Ultimately, it’s the funeral that brings everybody collectively, forcing a cessation of hostilities and reconsideration of everybody’s particular person, important function within the household. Yamada emphasizes their interconnectedness in his regularly compact digital camera compositions, arranging all the important gamers into deep-focus photographs that reveal each their affinities and hostilities towards each other. These typically inside scenes facilitate his rigorously balanced blocking, however typically lack the expansiveness inherent within the first movie, which favored a better number of places and exteriors.

Hashizume continues to steal almost each scene that Shuzo seems in, along with his overbearing method and loud opinions, utterly overshadowing Yoshiyuki, who performed a pivotal function because the put-upon spouse within the earlier movie, however doesn’t determine almost as prominently right here. Equally, the ensemble of second-generation Hiratas and their spouses are much less individualized now that the drama over Shoto’s awkward single standing has been resolved by his marriage to light Norkio.

Half three of the collection, due out in Japan subsequent yr, could reveal still-hidden layers of emotional connection among the many Hiratas, or it might simply as simply veer off into one other multifaceted home disaster.

Manufacturing company-distributor: Shochiku Forged: Yu Aoi, Hashizume Isao, Nishimura Masahiko, Yui Natsukawa, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Yoshiyuki Kazuko, Kanai Taizo, Nakajima Tomoko, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Fubuki Jun Director: Yoji Yamada Screenwriters: Hiramatsu Emiko, Yoji Yamada Producer: Fukuzawa Hiroshi Director of pictures: Chikamori Masahi Editor: Ishii Iwao Music: Joe Hisaishi Venue: Hawaii Worldwide Movie Pageant

113 minutes