My Hiei collectible (Review)

So, I haven't shared any of these for a few months, but on my YouTube channel, I've still been doing plenty of anime collectible reviews. The last one I shared on here was the one for Hisoka and I've gotten tons since and this is one I did after I did the Hisoka one, my one for Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho. It was great to be able to get him since he's another character from Yu Yu Hakusho and Hiei is still my favourite character in the whole series, and possibly my favourite Yoshihiro Togashi character of all time. Like I said, I've been able to get a lot more since the last one I shared, and I'll be showing them all on here for a while too and I'm excited for more of them coming soon to do reviews of those ones too. So, just for this one as a whole, this Hiei figure is possibly part of some set or something because it's not a Banpresto figure and looks different, but it still works well as a Hiei figure and one of him doing an awesome attack with The Dragon Of The Darkness Flame and so it's cool to have him and Yusuke together like this. Anyway, again, I was glad to get him when I did. And so, here it is and I hope you all like this.

From Up On Poppy Hill

So, guys, now we're moving onto a really high-up Studio Ghibli for me, From Up On Poppy Hill. This is another one I absolutely love. When I saw this for the first time, I really, really loved it and I rewatched it again recently and I still do. This is another very small stakes movie with people just kinda living their lives and do what they can in different situations. I think this is similar to something like Whisper Of The Heart where there's just people trying to live their lives with some complications in the way. Though, I guess this does have a bit more of a story to it. The film just has a huge amount of charm and likeability to it. The story is about a girl named Umi who lives with her sisters. Her mom is in college and her dad is dead. She goes to a school that has a clubhouse next to it that's going to be demolished and everyone wants to save it, especially the boys who use it a lot and Umi asks her friends to help fix it up to help. Not only that, but the main story outside of that is Umi meeting a boy named Shun and they both don't really like each other but begin to develop feelings for the other after a bit of time but that starts getting complicated after Umi shows him a picture of her dad and he realises that her dad might be his as well so now things are complicated because they think they could be siblings now. So, yeah, a part of this does sound like very typical teenage drama stuff that's been done a lot, but I think what helps make this so special for me is the pacing. Again, like I've said so much about this Ghibli movies already, this is another film that is so slow with its pacing and how long it spends on different scenes, even when the characters are doing absolutely nothing at all, and they still somehow manage to make this super charming, likeable, fun and incredibly engaging. But I think what I liked about the film the most is when the characters are discovering different pieces of information about their history because Umi and Shun are clearly trying to figure out what happened with Umi's dad and see what kind of relationship they really have and how they do a lot of that is done super well. And even the subplot with the clubhouse is really fun with how much time they spend on cleaning it up and also showing how much care they all have for it. And even in some scenes like when Umi, Shun and some classmate of theirs go to some place to talk to someone and all they do is just sit and wait, something about that alone is kinda engaging too. But I also like just general character stuff like when Umi and Shun are bonding and sorta figuring out what they want to do and so on. And all that stuff is great, but just how they go through the rest of the mundane stuff is just as great as it is in the other movies. And I think the ending couldn't have been done any better. Out of all the endings in these Studio Ghibli movies, this is one of the most satisfying because Umi and Shun and all the students manage to save the clubhouse by cleaning it and having one of the higher-ups come and he agrees to leave it alone and then Umi and Shun go to the docks and meet someone who knew Umi's dad and he reveals that Shun's dad was someone else who knew him and Umi's dad. Again, just really fantastically executed and really well presented too. It's also nice how even before that, Umi's mom came back and even explained it to her like that too. So, yeah, again, this film just has the same charm to it that so many other Ghibli films like Whisper Of The Heart and I love it for that. It has such a great way of doing everything it does and makes it so engaging and interesting to watch the whole thing. I think the dub in this is a good reason as to why that is because they all do great, especially Sarah Bolgar as Umi and Anton Yelchin as Shun. So, I'm not exactly sure if this would really appeal to everyone, but I do think you should check this out regardless because I do believe there's some really great stuff in this. So guys, that's my review of From Up On Poppy Hill. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.

Arrietty

So, for the last few Studio Ghibli movies I've reviewed, I've gone over ones that I've enjoyed to lesser degrees than some of other ones, but now we're back to ones that I love and think are some of my favourites, Arrietty. I know in most places, it's called The Secret World Of Arrietty, but, here, it's just Arrietty. Anyway, apparently this is based on some book that I really don't know anything about, so just judging this film on its own, I honestly love it. I feel like this is the same kinda movie as something like My Neighbour Totoro or Kiki's Delivery Service, as in I feel like it gives me the same kinda feels in a way. I feel like I've seen this kinda story before, but the way they do it is very likeable and very charming. The story is about a family of tiny people called Borrowers who live in a tiny house inside a normal house and try to live their lives by taking things from the normal house without ever being seen. One of the members of the family is a teenaged girl named Arrietty who's then spotted by a boy named Sho who's staying at the house for a while and he's really sick. They start to get along and they start to open up to each other but the maid of the house named Haru starts to suspect that they're around and tries to capture them so Arrietty and her family decide to try to move and Sho tries to help. So, unlike some of the past few Ghibli movies that felt like they had big stakes on the rest of the world and stuff like that, this one is definitely back to things being smaller scaled and more relaxed in a way, and you could say it really is small scaled given the premise and what they do. I really like how they shoot this film. It's the kinda thing you'd see in something like Toy Story or A Bug's Life where you follow small characters and so you see the world as massive like they do and I really love it for that. I love how they use common items as tools and the different ways they do all that is really creative. The film is also pretty fast paced. I mean, it's only an hour and a half long but they do a lot really quickly but I think they do it really well too and allow a lot of character moments in it too like showing the connection between Arrietty and Sho and how they get to the point where he's helping her. But I think they also do a great job at hateable characters too, and by that, I mean Haru, the maid of the house because she's constantly trying to catch Arrietty and her family and so she's doing all these things to them and it makes her extremely hateable and so it's extremely satisfying at the end when she fails and you see her be defeated. And, really, all that really helped make this one of my favourite Studio Ghibli movies because even though there's not really anything in this that's insane or masterfully done like other Ghibli movies, just the little things they do do just helps make these characters very likeable and enjoyable and I love how they show that by having the characters be incredibly smart about the situation and knowing what to do at any moment. I especially love how the ending is almost kinda bittersweet because, not only does Arrietty and her family move, but it's shown that Sho could die because of his illness so that's kinda left open at the end too even though he says he's going for an operation. But I still think they leave it open enough to see that there is hope for him anyway. So, yeah, even though this is a more smaller film, literally, I think everything they do in this made it very enjoyable and just very fun to watch. I also love the dub here and how genuine it is. There's actually two versions of this film's dub because there's the American one and the British one and I've only seen the British version, but I think they do an amazing job like Saoirse Ronan as Arrietty and Tom Holland as Sho. I was really surprised to see Tom Holland do a dub for a Ghibli movie, but he does an amazing job. And the rest do a great job too. So, again, this review probably wasn't the most insightful you'll ever see about this film, but it's still just a film I'm really happy I saw and these are my genuine thoughts on it. And, with what's in it, I still love this movie because they do so much that makes the film so likeable and I'm really happy to say this is one of my favourite Studio Ghibli movies. So, I would highly recommend checking this out if you're watching all the Studio Ghibli movies. So, yeah, guys, those are my thoughts on Arrietty. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.

Ponyo

So, out of all the Studio Ghibli movies out there, this one is probably one of the weirdest, Ponyo. And, when I say that, I mean in terms of the movie itself and also how I personally feel about it. I know a lot of people most likely absolutely love this film, but it's honestly just another very okay movie for me. Not bad, just very okay. I don't love this film, but I also don't hate it. You can tell from watching that this is meant to be a more kid friendly film than some other Ghibli movies. Though, and this is kinda the opposite of how I felt about the last few Ghibli movies. I recently rewatched the film to prepare for this review and I think I liked it a bit less than I did the first time. I mean, it's a very harmless film, like I said, but, I dunno, I just didn't really connect with this film at all like I did with a lot of other Ghibli movies. I'll get into that in a second, but, let's get into the story first. The story is about a small girl creature from the ocean that comes to the surface and begins to turn into a human. While there, she meets a small boy named Sosuke who names her Ponyo and Sosuke does everything he can to keep her around and he's also living with his mom who tries to help wherever she can while also doing her job. Not only that, but Ponyo's dad is furious about her leaving the ocean and so he constantly tries to get her back home, especially since her being on the surface is causing all sorts of damage like the sea going crazy and the moon is going to crash into the world. Yeah, this is something that's weird about the film, it starts off so small and simple, but then just becomes completely insane because there's then another element introduced that Ponyo being out of the sea could destroy the planet. But, I guess to be fair, this isn't really a film that was really meant to be taken seriously, I think it was just meant to be a fun small kid's adventure film because everything that happens feels like it's aimed for kids. The majority of the film is centred around watching Ponyo and Sosuke's friendship develop with Ponyo getting insanely over excited for everything and going crazy for it like whenever she eats ham and them getting into strange situations while Ponyo's dad is constantly trying to get her back. This is just kinda what I meant. I dunno, I just didn't really get into the film the way it wanted me too and I didn't really care much for the characters involved. I mean, I liked them, I guess, I just didn't particularly care that much, especially since I've seen this kinda story done before and I've enjoyed it more in other things like that. Again, yes, definitely a film that feels like it's aimed for children so it can get away with that, but in terms of something that would appeal to an older audience, I'm sure loads of people would like it fine, it's just something that doesn't appeal to me that much personally. But that's not to say the film doesn't have anything going for it when it comes to adults because it does because things like the animation is still clearly phenomenal and they did it in a way where the animation looks somewhat more simpler than other Ghibli movies but still look really great. Again, like some of these other Ghibli movies, I appreciate a lot of what they did and I do acknowledge that this is a good film, it's just not one that I think is spectacular and isn't something I think would appeal to everyone like a lot of other ones, but it is still a good film regardless and there are a lot of great aspects, especially the dubbing. They did a really great job with the dubbing for this like Noah Cyrus as Ponyo, Frankie Jonas as Sosuke, Liam Neeson as Ponyo's dad and Cate Blanchett as her mom. I think they all do a great job and how they do different parts of the film interestingly as well. So, this review was really short and probably sounded way too harsh, but I do see this as a good movie and I am glad I saw it. So, I do think you should see this if you're curious to check it out with the other Ghibli movies. So, yeah, guys, those are my thoughts on Ponyo. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.