Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 249

‘Given’ Review -This Amateur Rock Band Drama Needs A Sequel

When the live-action remake of the Japanese manga/anime ‘Given’ was announced, fans were thrilled. And sure, there were many who were skeptical of whether it could match up to the standards of the anime version. Originally written and illustrated by Natsuki Kizu, ‘Given’ is a music themed story that follows the lives of four youngsters in an amateur rock-band. The musical number in the climax of the anime had given several viewers goosebumps (including me), not because the song was amazing, but because all the pent up feelings of the protagonist is finally voiced in a beautiful lyrical impromptu performance. The singer’s grief and catharsis is passed on to the viewer.

With only six episode in the live-action series, a lot of fun scenes and side stories do not find their place in the 2021 version directed by Miki Koichiro. The story primarily focuses on Ritsuka and Mafuyu, two strangers, who meet by the staircase of their school, the only thread binding them is their interest in music. So does the live-action remake come close to the magic of the anime? Well… let’s discuss the cast first.

Suzuki Jin as lead guitarist Uenoyama Ritsuka and Sanari as Satou Mafuyu are pretty perfect for their roles. Jin looks every bit the good-looking arrogant Ritsuka, and is able to emote both the hot-headed and soft-side of his characters with ease. Some fans have complained about how Sanari looks old for a high-school student, but funnily, the actor was only 18 at the time of shooting, making him the youngest member of the main cast and also the only one who is closest to the age of high-school student. Even though ‘Given’ is his debut role, Sanari plays the complex role of the shy emotionally scarred Satou with a lot of heart, and exudes the vulnerability of a teenager who has lost someone important. A much older Yanagi Shuntaro looks just fine as the child-like Haruki, who is the most easy-going member of the band. Only Inowaki Kai looked very out of place and miscast as Kaji Akihiko. While Akihiko’s personality in the manga/anime is passionate, intense and intimidating, Kai seems laid-back and harmless (and forgettable). Onodera Akira as Yuki also came across as a casting misfire.

Visually, ‘Given’ has a slightly retro vibe to it, as if it’s set in the late 90s or the early 2000s. Some of the camerawork is really good, especially a 360 degree shot in the first episode, where the screen pans in a circular motion between Ritsuka and Mafuyu, when the latter asks if he can get Guitar lessons. The scene perfectly symbolizes how their world is spinning out of their control. Each episode ends with a little cliff-hanger and a fun closing credit song titled ‘Strange Day’ by Panorama Panama Town. I loved the song, it really fits into the whole high-school rock band set up.

While the first five episode move fast, and stay largely loyal to the Manga, there are a few changes to tighten up the script more. It’s only during episode six, where the mood of the series dips a little, but manages to pick up in the final climactic minutes. The final Mafuyu song is not as hair-raising or emotional as the one in the anime version, so that comes as a slight disappointment, but the immediate scene post the song between the two leads washes it off.

The end feels a little abrupt, but will seem so only to those who have watched the anime version, where there are way more scenes. However, it actually makes for a more clean, sweet and optimistic ending than the Anime adaptation. If the makers decide not to continue to the series and we don’t get a season two, just this 6 episode show makes for a good standalone show by itself. However, a sequel would be very nice, because what has been served by director Miki Koichiro only feels like the beginning of something.

For a lot of fans, the re-watch value of this 2021 adaptation will not be as high as the anime version, but it’s worth a one-time watch. It’s a 7.5/10 for me.

Spellbound – Graphic Novel Review

Novels are way to escape reality, not just for readers, but also for writers themselves. It cannot be truer than in the case of Bishakh Som, who through the graphic novel format has found a way to re-live life the way they really saw it.

“Spellbound” is Som’s memoir, but with a twist, where the author’s life is recollected as Anjali, a cisgender Bengali-American woman. Anjali studied architecture in Harvard, but after her parent’s demise, she quits her job and begins work on a graphic novel, hoping to make it big, maybe even have a Pulitzer under her name.

For most part, Som’s story is engrossing. The artwork clean, colorful and engaging. The art style is a little like American cartoonist Raina Telgemeier, who has written/illustrated popular graphic novel titles like ‘Ghosts’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Guts’. So while the artwork has a childish charm to it, the story deals with grown-up themes that are serious and poignant. Anjali helplessly sees her parents’ health deteriorating in front of her eyes. Her mother who was once a bright teacher, loses her self to Alzheimer’s, failing to recall basic things, like draping a saree.

Anjali has some interesting and supportive friends, but the most memorable character is her cat Ampersand. Originally foisted on her without consent, the two grow up to be loving house-mates. Almost. After Ampersand, it’s her parents that may leave an impression on the readers. Despite moving around the world, they remain ‘Bengali’ by heart, and their love for fish is unparalleled. Too bad that their daughter doesn’t share the same enthusiasm.

For some sneaky reason, it feels like the author isn’t being too candid about their life. Sure, they talk about their career conundrums, sexual confusion, dealing with mixed feeling, but it fails to touch the reader as a memoir. It doesn’t have the raw emotional quotient of graphic memoirs like “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare, but maybe given the title (Spellbound), the reader automatically has their expectations up. The cover has Som and Anjali joyously doing a dance step, but nowhere in the novel do you find that easy elation.

Towards the end, things gets a little less interesting, with the tone turning whiny, condescending. Anjali at points feels like a patronising dinosaur, who looks down upon people around her, for the most trivial of reasons – like being glued to phone screens. Maybe I felt personally attacked as a reader, because almost 50% of the books I read these days are ebooks on the kindle app for phones. We are not all wasting away like zombies by staring at funny memes or GIFs on our phones all day long.

Anyway, ‘Spellbound’ is an interesting read, especially due to the artwork, and is all about navigating who you are, not just in terms of sexuality, but also as an artist, friend and family. It’s a 3/5 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – Abstract AF

Listen to Episode 43 for some free comics and graphic novels

‘Light on Me’ Review – Cute & Light

How does a gorgeous/studious teen boy not have a single friend his whole life? The makers of 2021 Korean show ‘Light on Me’ want us to believe that 18-year-old Woo Tae Kyung (Lee Sae Yon), who looks like a dessert, is a loner by choice, and is almost robot-like when it comes to social skills. Fine, the viewers shall play along.

Directed by Lee You Yeon, ‘Light on Me’ is set in an all boys high school and is adapted from a mobile game called “Saebit Boys High School Council”. Tae Kyung the protagonist decides to make some friends and with some advice from a teacher, he tries to join the student council. He soon befriends the near-perfect Shin Da On (Choe Chan Yi), who is nice to the point of being unreal. But their blooming friendship is frowned upon by Non Shin Woo (Kang Yoo Seok), who at first seems to hate Tae Kyung, but turns out, he is actually attracted to him. So we have a triangle, which sometimes appears to be a square, because there is an annoying girl Lee So Hee (Yang Seo Hun), who throws herself in the story, because she is quite obsessed with Shin Da On.

While all the other characters are believable and likable in their own ways, it’s Tae Kyung who comes across as a little unrealistic. On one hand, he is portrayed as someone who cannot understand regular emotions, on the other hand – it doesn’t take him too long to fall in love with the first person who is nice to him. Despite the flaws in character-writing, actor Lee Sea Yon is the heart of the show, like an adorable pet that everybody wants to take care of. Shin Da On is a more nuanced role, a people-pleaser who often puts his own feelings on the back-foot to maintain the aura of ‘Mr Perfect’. Non Shin Woo is the classic ‘Tsundre’, the Japanese term for characters who appear stern and cold on the outside, but are completely soft and sweet at heart. Most viewers will find themselves cheering for Non Shin Woo to end up with Tae Kyung. But the makers cleverly keep adding twists to confuse who will be the ‘end-game’.

Whoever likes fluffy, feel-good, light romances, will love ‘Light on Me’. There is minimal drama, most characters are pretty straight-forward about what is on their mind. A character called Nam Goong (Goo Wo Jin) serves as comic relief, he is comically flamboyant and perhaps loves himself the most. Some of his scenes were unnecessary, but he definitely adds a little bit of teen zing to the series and lightens up the atmosphere for everybody. Seo-Hyun Yang as Lee So Hee is there fine as the annoying self-important brat, who is relentless in her pursuit of the man she likes.

It’s nice how the makers do not over-complicate things by having multiple characters or side-stories. And they manage to keep up the intrigue till the very last episode. As a viewer, you are constantly wondering “who the Tae going to go for in the end????”. Choe Chan Yo who plays Shin Da On, eerily reminded me of RM, the rapper and leader of BTS, the boy-band. Kang Yoo Seok is endearing as Shin Woo.

The climax is cute, filled with sweet little romantic moments and tempered to please the audience. “Light on Me” is bright LGBTQ romance, with loving friendships and characters that learn from their mistakes. It ends like dessert, leaving the viewer with a satisfied smile. It’s a 7.5/10 from me.

Fun Fact: Choe Chan Yo and Goo Wo Jin were members of the same Korean Pop group called ‘The Man BLK’.

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Listen to episode 43 for some cool comic book recommendations.

‘May The Devil Take You’ Review – Overdone

Imagine paying a visit to the hospital to see your partner’s sick step-father and the old man ends up puking on your face. ‘Yuck’ probably doesn’t cut it. Well, that’s just one of the disgusting scenes in the 2018 horror movie “May The Devil Take You” and it takes place in the very first 15-20 minutes.

Directed and written by Timo Tjahjanto, this Indonesian horror flick has an interesting story, but the makers focus more on grossing the viewer out, than simply scaring them. It reminds one of “Drag Me To Hell” by famous horror director Sam Raini, which pretty much uses the same formula – disgust your viewer with creepy/ridiculous scenes. Well, let’s get to the plot – a young woman called Alfie (Chelsea Islan) goes to her father’s old villa to find some answers after he falls seriously ill. Her step-mom and three step-siblings also turn up at the isolated property the same night, in hopes of finding something that could help them financially. But none of them are ready for a deep dark secret that lives in the cursed house, where the patriarch Leslana (Ray Sahetapy) had made a sinister deal with the devil.

The cast does a pretty fantastic job in the acting department, but it’s the absurd exaggerated story-telling that soon starts testing the viewer’s patience. It’s hard to understand why Leslana has a villa in the middle of nowhere, or why the kids decide to waste an entire day doing nothing, after a traumatic night of supernatural events. Also, why does nobody have a phone charger?

Timo Tjahjanto uses ancient horror tropes, exaggerates them, and in the end, seasoned horror enthusiasts are just left laughing at some scenes that are meant to be serious and scary. Themes of Satanism, voodoo and the classic ‘devil’s bargain’ is used without any new twists. Towards the climax, things begin to drag for no reason and the movie could’ve ended 20 minutes earlier.

Chelsea Islan, the lead actor, for some reason kept reminding me of Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt. “She acts way better than Alia Bhatt!” pat came the reply from someone who was watching it with me, when I made the observation. Islan does to a pretty great job, so does Pevita Pearce, who plays her mean step-sister Maya. However, the cast cannot make up for the fallacies of the script.

It’s a 5/10 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – Abstract AF

Listen to Episode 39 For – 15 Horror Films You Might Want To Skip

Shershaah Review – Fine Story Marred by Drippy Dialogues

Anybody who grew up in the 1990s India is bound to remember the popular Pepsi slogan “yeh dil maange more” (“the heart wants more”). The phrase was also used as a victory signal by Captain Vikram Batra in the Kargil war when his men were tasked with capturing Point 5140. In the 2021 Bollywood movie “Shershaah”, actor Siddharth Malhotra who plays Captain Batra recreates the scene with aplomb, making the scene one of the high-points of the film. But such scenes are too few and far in between.

This biopic on the Kargil war-hero Batra is directed by Vishnuvardhan Kulasekaran and produced by Karan Johar. While the big-budget production value reflects on the screen, with stunning views of the snowy mountains where the India-Pakistan war was fought, unfortunately, Siddharth Malhotra, who looks every bit the part of a young dashing army officer, is just not able to stir up emotions in the viewer. This lack of catharsis is compounded by drippy dialogues, that sound like they’ve been copy-pasted from some old Bollywood handbook for script-writing.

The film starts off with an intriguing scene of Batra leading his men during the war, bullets raining everywhere, making it look like they are fighting a losing battle. Immediately, the makers shift the narrative to a childhood flashback, where Batra and his twin brother are playing ball in their neighborhood and get into trouble with some older boys. This little flashback scene to show how Batra wanted to serve his nation since he was a little boy was tepid and almost unnecessary. Especially since it’s placed after a heavy-duty gunfight.

The story-line flits between Batra’s life as a college student where he met the love of his life and his journey as a soldier in the Indian army. Kiara Advani as Batra’s onscreen girlfriend is sweet and pretty, reminding one of golden girl Hema Malini with her demure Punjabi girl look. To Siddharth Malhotra’s credit, he does a decent job, but he isn’t able to push the envelope and move the viewers. Again, one cannot complain enough about the lazy dialogue writing, which often pulls the mood down. At one point one wonders – “why didn’t the actors protest against their silly lines?”.

As far as the war-action is concerned, we get a lot of guns, grenades and fast-paced combat scenes. Since it’s all based on actual events, the scenes are engrossing, with army-men discussing battle strategies and maneuvers to outwit the enemy. The climax is over-dramatized to milk emotions, and might work on a lot of viewers. In the end, you cannot help but read up more about the real life hero that Captain Batra was, and perhaps that’s what matters.

Overall, “Shershaah” makes for a good one-time watch with the family, with good soundtrack and great cinematography. If only they had hired better dialogue writers. The viewer’s ‘dil maange more’ too.

It’s a 6/10 from me.

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Listen to episode 29 for some fun movie recommendations.

The House In The Cerulean Sea Review – Home Kind of Blue

Had someone asked me to read a book about a 40-year-old boring man who works as a ‘case-worker’, a job that entails inspecting orphanages for magical children, I would have laughed it off. If I have to read unreal stuff, it would be horror or dystopian fiction, not ‘feel-good’ fantasy stuff. However, a lot of people I know kept heaping praises on ‘The House in the Cerulean Sea’ by TJ Klune, including a very close friend. Had to see what the fuss was all about.

First published in March 2020, this book is about case-worker Linus Baker, who is sent to an island to inspect an orphanage run by Arthur Parnassus, home to 6 ‘dangerous’ magical children. Linus is to stay there for a month, write detailed reports and decide whether the house is safe for the kids. The agency only tells him that the assignment is ‘highly classified’ and doesn’t prepare him in the least bit about what he’s about to experience. So big surprises are in store for both the protagonist and the readers.

Written for both children and adults, it is easy to see why the book has gained a lot of favor among older readers. Linus is so ‘ordinary’, that most readers will find something or the other relatable about him. It could be the organized mundane life he leads, or the meticulous way in which he works, without making friends out of colleagues. Or it could be his lack of social life outside of work, or the way in which he worries about the extra little weight around his tummy, or how he gets paranoid over the smallest of things. Baker has little bits of all of us, making him adorable in his own queer way. Pun intended.

TJ Klune employs easy to read language, with descriptions just the right size for the reader to feel transported to the scene of action. So when Linus takes a train from his city to the mysterious island, it’s almost as if you are his co-passenger, staring out at the cerulean sea, as his destination gets closer. Gradually, Klune introduces each of the six children, extremely different from each other, in shape, size and magical abilities. Arthur Parnassus, the master of the orphanage, is a 45-year-old charming man, with some secrets of his own. But he treats the children like his own and will do anything in power to ensure they are not taken away from him.

I loved the book for most part, although I wish there were more Arthur-Linus scenes. And towards the end, when 75% of the story is done, the pace slows down a little, gets slightly soppy and feels like the author is going to give us a total Bollywood-like ending, where Linus reluctantly gets on a train and Arthur runs after him to confess his love. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen. TJ Klune gives us a sweet but believable ending and wins over the reader after shaking their trust for a few fleeting pages. The six children are the heart of the story and it’s hard to decide who I adored more. It perhaps has to be a tie between Talia the little lady garden gnome with a beard and Lucy who is supposed to be the devil himself. These two kids will win readers over with their morbid sense of humour.

‘The House In The Cerulean Sea’ is peppered with humor and moments where you will laugh out loud and confuse those around you. There are some incredible friendships in there and that’s really the strongest theme of the book – that complete strangers can become your family, if you allow them in. Linus himself has a slow change of character, and it’s like watching a flower slowly bloom, opening up its petals to the sunshine around it. For a 350+ pages novel, Klune does a fantastic job of weaving each character. A few more pages of Linus and Arthur would have been gold. Yes, I feel like I cannot say that enough. Linus has warmer interactions with the children than Arthur, so their romance doesn’t feel as smooth as it could’ve been.

It’s a 4/5 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – Abstract AF

Listen to Episode 43 for some free comics and graphic novels

10 Free Comics To Read on Kindle Unlimited

Buying comics and graphic novels can be hard on the pocket, so a digital subscription that gives you access to read them for practically free is a perfect solution to save money.

An annual Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscription costs about 25 dollars (at least in India) and lets readers to choose from thousands of titles to borrow and read for free. However, it can be a pain to look through them and find stuff worth reading. So in episode 43 of Abstract AF the podcast, we list out 10 fun comics and graphic novels that are free to read for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Listen in and do subscribe to our channel.

30 Days of Night Vol 2 – Review

When volume one of ’30 Days of Night’ by Steve Niles ended, as a reader you wonder “how could he possible continue this story?”. Because the climax offered a pretty conclusive end. However, volume two of this comic series turned out be better than its predecessor, with a new cop in the lead.

Perhaps the fact that there’s a solid back-story to the snowy town of Barrow helps in making the story more interesting, building an adequate sense of suspense over how the author will carry the narrative forward. So while volume one was all about carnage by vampires in the town of Barrow, where the sun doesn’t rise for 30 days. Volume two begins a few years after that dark event, where the townsfolk live in fear of reprisal, because the rest of the world doesn’t believe half the town was wiped out by blood-suckers.

Read: 30 Days of Night Volume 1 Review

The art-style is pretty much the same, blurry and not all that great to look at. But the story is tighter, even though there are some loopholes. A new cop comes to Barrow, in hopes to find out the truth behind his brother’s death, who was accused of murdering his wife and child before dying out in a huge fire in town. (That bodies of vampire victims were covered up in a fire in the earlier comics). The period of no sun is just around the corner and Barrow cops are all geared up to defend their land. Interestingly, a different pack of vampires decide its a good idea to go to Barrow and eat everybody up, so they don’t leave any eyewitnesses this time and also avenge the death of the fallen vampires. Two birds in one shot.

Just like last time around, there is ample action, a lot of blood and killings. Despite not looking like your modern slick comics, Steve Niles keeps the story fast, entertaining, without dwelling into any deeper philosophical questions or moral lessons. It’s an all out battle of blood and wits between vampires and humans, with very little time for emotional moments or drama. Some readers maybe left wanting more, but for some others it might just be the perfect entertaining vampire comic, with a dark mood and a very interesting cliffhanger.

While with the first volume you are made to think maybe it doesn’t need a sequel, with volume two, you NEED a sequel. It’s a 4/5 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – Abstract AF

Listen to Episode 39 For – 15 Horror Films You Might Want To Skip

30 Days of Night Vol 1 – Review

’30 Days of Night’ by Steve Miles and Ben Templesmith is a horror comic series that was first published in 2002. The year is noteworthy, because the story is about how a group of vampires find a cold region where the sun doesn’t come up for weeks, so that they can easily prey on people. Sound familiar? Reminds one of the super-popular book/movie series ‘The Twilight Saga’ by Stephenie Meyer. Although Meyer’s work wasn’t published until 2005 and she has never cited ’30 Days of Night’ as inspiration. She has mentioned ‘Pride & Prejudice’ and ‘Romeo & Juliet’ though, but how these classics inspired her to write about a sad young girl finding herself torn between a blood-sucking vampire and werewolf, is beyond logic.

Okay, maybe we are transgressing too much. Let’s talk about ’30 Days of Night’, which is actually nothing like Meyer’s work. The story is set in a fictional town called ‘Barrow’ in the freezing Alaska, which is an obscure little place unknown to most. But when an ambitious vampire learns about how the sun doesn’t come up in Barrow for at least 30 days between November and December, his pack decides that it would serve as the perfect place to openly feed upon its small population without fear of being burned to ashes. For the townsfolk, it’s all about survival from these human-eating unexpected invaders.

What will stand out the most to avid comic-book readers is the artwork, and not because it’s impressive. The art panels are very digitally drawn, but come across as awkward and incomplete, as if the artist just morphed or photo-shopped pictures of real people. It has a jarring effect, almost unsettling, which in some ways works well for the horror genre, but also kind of dilutes the joy of reading a comic.

The main protagonist is a cop called Eben Oleson, who some readers might confuse with another cop in the story, or maybe it was just me. The features of the main characters are not distinctive enough, so it’s hard to like anybody in particular. However, it’s the interesting fast-paced story that keep you intrigued enough till the last. Steve Miles spices up the plot with a lot of blood, violence, fear and despair, which will have you hooked to every page.

Towards the climax, the story becomes a little underwhelming. You have a very old-school Hollywood type heroic ending and it makes sense, because this was originally pitched as a movie script, but did not find any takers. It was only after the comic became a hit with horror enthusiasts and vampire-fiction gained popularity that ’30 Days of Night’ was adapted for the screen.

If it hadn’t been for the mediocre artwork, this might have scored more points, but it’s a 3.5/5 from me. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – Abstract AF

Listen to Episode 39 For – 15 Horror Films You Might Want To Skip

’30 Days of Night’ Vol 1 Review

’30 Days of Night’ by Steve Miles and Ben Templesmith is a horror comic series that was first published in 2002. The year is noteworthy, because the story is about how a group of vampires find a cold region where the sun doesn’t come up for weeks, so that they can easily prey on people. Sound familiar? Reminds one of the super-popular book/movie series ‘The Twilight Saga’ by Stephenie Meyer. Although Meyer’s work wasn’t published until 2005 and she has never cited ’30 Days of Night’ as inspiration. She has mentioned ‘Pride & Prejudice’ and ‘Romeo & Juliet’ though, but how these classics inspired her to write about a sad young girl finding herself torn between a blood-sucking vampire and werewolf, is beyond logic.

Okay, maybe we are transgressing too much. Let’s talk about ’30 Days of Night’, which is actually nothing like Meyer’s work. The story is set in a fictional town called ‘Barrow’ in the freezing Alaska, which is an obscure little place unknown to most. But when an ambitious vampire learns about how the sun doesn’t come up in Barrow for at least 30 days between November and December, his pack decides that it would serve as the perfect place to openly feed upon its small population without fear of being burned to ashes. For the townsfolk, it’s all about survival from these human-eating unexpected invaders.

What will stand out the most to avid comic-book readers is the artwork, and not because it’s impressive. The art panels are very digitally drawn, but come across as awkward and incomplete, as if the artist just morphed or photo-shopped pictures of real people. It has a jarring effect, almost unsettling, which in some ways works well for the horror genre, but also kind of dilutes the joy of reading a comic.

The main protagonist is a cop called Eben Oleson, who some readers might confuse with another cop in the story, or maybe it was just me. The features of the main characters are not distinctive enough, so it’s hard to like anybody in particular. However, it’s the interesting fast-paced story that keep you intrigued enough till the last. Steve Miles spices up the plot with a lot of blood, violence, fear and despair, which will have you hooked to every page.

Towards the climax, the story becomes a little underwhelming. You have a very old-school Hollywood type heroic ending and it makes sense, because this was originally pitched as a movie script, but did not find any takers. It was only after the comic became a hit with horror enthusiasts and vampire-fiction gained popularity that ’30 Days of Night’ was adapted for the screen.

If it hadn’t been for the mediocre artwork, this might have scored more points, but it’s a 3.5/5 from me. It’s definitely worth checking out.