Anime ReviewsContributors ⇢ steenajack
Contributor Report: steenajack

The following is a list of all ratings and reviews submitted by steenajack. The links below can be used to quickly scroll down to a specific title.

Animation Runner Kuromi (Jump to title)
- Overall: 6
- Violence Rating: 3
- Nudity Rating: 4
- Theological Themes: 1
- Other Negative Themes: 2
Origin: Spirits of the Past (Jump to title)
- Overall: 8
- Violence Rating: 4
- Nudity Rating: 2
- Theological Themes: 5
- Other Negative Themes: 2
Review Comments: Alright, I must say that this is one of the most gorgeously animated, well acted, and wonderfully executed movies I have ever seen. In my book, this would get at least a 9 out of 10 in epic. But, I forced myself to be objective and gave it an 8, because honestly this is something that would have to appeal to you in order for you to like it. I must state that I’m a HUGE Miyazaki fan, and this film reminded me eerily of his work Castle in the Sky. One thing that I liked about this movie was the moral portrayed: “You can’t try to relive the past, you can only move forward.” This message is portrayed very hopefully in that things may just be better in the present, despite the fact that everything is different from when you knew it. The only downside to this movie is the fact that it’s not for everyone. I watched this with both of my younger siblings and they were both "freaked” out by the “strange feel” of the film. “ It was okay…it was really freaky…and weird,” were my brother’s exact words. My sister just thought it was it was “okay”, but it was obviously not her thing. I, however, adored and savored every second of it. To add to that, my sibling and I are ALL Miyazaki fans. This is proof that peoples’ tastes vary in numerous ways, and while some may enjoy “Origin: Spirits of the Past” whole-heartedly, it may rub others the wrong way. Some may be too off put by the “creepiness”, others may see it as a “Castle in the Sky-rip-off”, and still others may just not like some of the CG-graphics used. All and all, no matter what opinions you may have, this movie was quite well done. This is why I shall recommend this film to fans of action, sci-fi, Miyazaki, and overall interesting and well-told stories.

Violence: The violence in this is mild. Nothing you wouldn’t see in a typical sci-fi action movie of this rating (TVPG). It’s your basic, bloodless, fantasy violence complete with explosions and superpowers. There is zero gore, ziltch blood, and zippo slashing. There are, however, creepy moments of people turning into trees. It’s a “tad” intense since these people appear to be going through a lot of stress, but it’s nothing you wouldn’t see in something like Justice League or Star Wars: the Clone Wars. There is also the appearance of a man who is “merged” with a tree (part of the forest), and he looks…kind of scary, I guess. Little, 5-year-old kids may be frightened by him, but in all honesty, I don’t think that this would be anything a 10-year old couldn’t handle. This movie would be simply PG if it were rated by the system.

Language: There are a few minor swears said throughout this movie. D’s and H’s are all I heard, and you could probably count the number of swears on your fingers.

Sexual Content: There is no actual on-screen sex of even innuendo of that sort of thing. There isn’t even any fan service (YAY!). The closest it would possibly come to this is when the main female character (Toola) is all wet and wearing a rather short (non fan service-y) medical gown-thing. The main male character (Agito) seems to “notice” briefly, blushes, and looks away to focus on something else. There is also a scene in which we see two female tree-spirits kind of “merge” together. It doesn’t even look remotely, they just sort of "mush" together into one person. This scene is obviously NOT meant to be sexual AT ALL, but I could see why someone would be “crept out” by seeing this in the commercials on promos. Really though, this scene is mostly harmless, and barely even worth mentioning at all.

Nudity: Aside from the fact that certain female characters wear clothing that could be deemed immodest (not fan service-y though), there are two female tree-spirits who have what I call U.N.S (Undetailed Nudity Syndrome). This nudity however is completely non-sexual and barely ever shown completely save for one scene, and even then it looks more artistic than anything. In this scene, they at first look like painted Greek statues, merged into a tree. It’s artistically detailed, but not scantily detailed (in other words you won’t see anything explicit.) You see them frozen like that for several seconds, and then they literally stretch out (looking like stretching ribbon people for a few seconds) then the “merging scene” happens while they are covered with leaves. This is possibly the worse it gets, and even then it’s not explicit or sexual in anyway. In all honesty, most magical-girl transformation sequences are worse than this, and this scene is practically harmless. Save for this scene, the rest of the movie is pretty clean nudity-wise.

Objectional Religious Content: I decided to give this a four out of ten, because there is a present environmentalist theme running through this. It’s no more than a Miyazaki film, so if you have no problems with his “themes” you’d be just fine here. Basically, the movie deals with man trying to negotiate a symbiotic peace with the apparently sentient forest. There are also at least four people (marked with white hair) who become “one” with the forest and achieve its “powers”. When these people die, they join the forest in a sort of “heaven” in which we get to see once in the film. At least 3 people get to go to this “heaven” and (spoiler) one gets to go back. Other than that, the series is free of any witchcraft and the like, even though there does seem to be a “spiritual air” to the forest.

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