[Fish Sandwich]

I watched this earlier today and immediately knew I wanted to open a post about it with this screencap, but this is also a movie that deliberately leaves a bitter aftertaste, so everything I tried to write after that was coming out weirdly sour. Thankfully, Toei was kind enough to wash that taste right the heck out in my time of need, so I can now come in here and say...

Yeah, it's pretty good, innit?

I guess my other problem was just that I might not have much to say about it? I can't hope to match Kurona's level of enthusiasm here, but this was just a really gripping film with some strong characterization and solid themes. (As a huge Horobi fan, it was especially satisfying.) I went in having heard ~just~ enough vague discussion beforehand to have an idea where things were going, and it was still exciting watching those twists and turns play out, even.

It maybe goes far enough with its dour tone that it won't be for everyone (Lyon's flawless English is the closest the film comes to having comedy), but even there, there's this meta notion that Aruto's unyielding kindness and optimism are just THAT crucial to this world that him being gone for a week causes everything to immediately descend into chaos, and I kind of love that? My favorite Zero-One things still definitely feature Zero-One, and this probably won't crack a list of my favorite V-Cinemas, but it was certainly something unique that was well worth the time. Looking forward to seeing how the second part of this duology puts this momentum to use.