Ni No Kuni

It had it all. Literally. All, and more, of the tropes I personally love. A love hexagon, magic and might, brothers at arms, the chosen one, "who did it" mystery, fish out of water, first love and so much more! Yet when all combined, it became an uninteresting bland mess. Plot drives the characters and not the other way around (the latter being story-writing 101). Just because I _wanted_ to love this so much, I'm giving it a higher score than it probably deserves.

Decent fantasy film for kids.

The story is poorly constructed and feels haphazard and elementary, but the lovely, dynamic animation transcends the telling to produce a few beautiful moments. Plus, it's neat to see a heroic character in a wheelchair.

This could have been pretty good, I'm a sucker for stories of friends who believably end up on opposite sites of a conflict, but unfortunately this movie doesn't live up to its promise and ends up being pretty generic.

Would have been way better if the first arc was dropped completely as it ruins the pacing of the second arc and destroys the emotional impact of the story because one of the main characters acts incredibly dumb. Somehow the movie also fails to enthrall the viewer with its magical world. Not a bad film, just unnecessarily bland.

More for kids than the kind of anime made for any age after all, and not the best take on the trope of the "normal kids sent to another universe". Some less appealing computer animation in battle scenes. I'm generous because I guess kids could like it still.

Oh, lots of potential in this story, but it doesn't do very well defining its rules, so even what I can call plot holes may not be- if only things were explained better. It plays fast and loose with its concept, and that's its weakness. As a story of two friends who are torn over how to protect the ones they are falling for- that in itself holds up well enough for concept.

Wildly generic and cheesy fantasy in the “portal to another world” (i.e. Narnia, Alice in Wonderland) mode, filtered through a Ghibli art style. It’s definitely not all that GOOD, and I’m probably overrating it even with my middling-positive score. But here’s the thing: I FUCKING LOVE GENERIC FANTASY

Surprising and charming. The story revolves around traveling back and forth between our own world and "another world". The duality between the two realities is very engaging. The drama kicks in when two best friends get to different conclusions about how the two worlds influence each other and while both of them want the best for everyone, they become bitter enemies, essentially due to a philosophical difference. Must watch it if you'd like a good anime or a children story with ethical dilemmas.