Anohana Ending Rant

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ANOHANA!

Okay, so now that those who don’t mind spoilers or who have already seen the show are the only ones present, let’s talk about Anohana’s ending. I’m going to be perfectly honest; the ending started off perfectly. You know that scene where Menma left the notes for all of her friends, and they all started crying? That was absolutely fine! It was emotional, didn’t feel contrived or manipulative, and it did have me crying as well.

Then, suddenly, out of the blue, everyone could see Menma and all continually shouted about how much they cared about her. This is where my reaction turned from pure sadness to this:

They ruined it! I’m sorry, but this felt so contrived and out of left field to me! I know that a lot of people view this scene as the pinnacle of sorrow, an ending that pulls at your heartstrings and won’t ever let go. Well, the first part did! Menma should’ve just disappeared after everyone read the notes! It would’ve been a fantastic ending! The fact that everyone could suddenly see Menma right before she disappeared…it didn’t feel natural, it’s clichéd, contrived, and tried so very hard to manipulate your emotions that I felt like smashing my computer’s screen in. Now, normally, this wouldn’t bother me too much, but the reason why it angers me in this case is because it is the ending to a series that consistently dodged clichés, contrived moments, and made everything feel genuine. There were moments in the series where I felt like crying because of the hardships of these characters that I came to care for, and seeing them break down after all this emotional stress did cause me to shed a tear on multiple occasions. This ending, however, didn’t feel natural; it felt like the creators were trying to make the ending as happy as possible, which ironically misses the point of the show entirely.One of the show’s main themes is to accept the deaths of those you love and eventually move on, and forgive yourself for all the mistakes that you’ve made. The entire reason Menma came back in the first place was to help everyone move on by causing him or her to relive those harsh memories and get the group back together to help each other heal. If Menma had left without having everyone see her, then this would’ve made the theme appear a lot stronger and more relevant to the overall story. But, noooooooooooooooo; the show actually decided to take the easy route, which, might I remind you, it never did until now, and sugar coated the entire thing. It also caused the entire anime, which I was going to review as one of my new all-time favorites, to not make it into my top ten because of its unsatisfying ending. Call me a heartless and terrible person, but I just feel like the ending contradicted the entire show.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Just Finished Reading: Hollow City

HECK YEAH THIS BOOK WAS AWESOME!

It's rare for a sequel to be just as good as its predecessor, but my god this book accomplished it! Ransom Riggs, I may actually forgive you for the two-and-a-half-year wait for this book because it's obvious that you put a lot of time, love, care, and effort into making this fantastic sequel! I'm extremely excited for the third book and will eagerly await any other book that Ransom Riggs will write in the future!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Just Finished Reading: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

WARNING: There WILL be spoilers in this post, both for the book…and what I'll be reviewing on Sunday. Anyway, I need to get this off my chest.

So, I was going to keep this a secret because this series is my next review, but this facial expression sums up my feelings towards the second and final book:

This book was awful, which was such a disappointment because the first book was great. What the heck happened? While the first book was exciting, tense, and unique, this book was so boring. Nothing surprised me, there's practically no character development, the ending OH don't get me started on the ending, and when I finished it I felt like I wasted my time reading it. I felt cheated by this book. It had no point, and I just couldn't care less about it.

Now I'm going to talk about the ending. So, the entire point of the book was to get Anna back from Hell because she was trapped there after the events of the first book, right? So, everything happens because of that event, and you wanting to see Cas, the main character, get his girl. WELL SCREW THAT, BECAUSE THAT'S NOT HOW THE GODDAMN BOOK ENDS! IT LITERALLY ENDS WITH CAS DEFEATING THE MONSTER THAT WAS KEEPING ANNA HOSTAGE AND THEN CAS LEAVING HER BEHIND! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS ENTIRE BOOK IF IT'S NOT EVEN RESOLVED AT THE END?! IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE YOU CAN EVEN CONTINUE IT FROM WHERE IT ENDED! I feel as though the author decided to give me the middle finger and say, "Nope, this is the ending because it's unique, so what if you don't like it?" NO, THAT IS NOT HOW SOMETHING SHOULD END! This reminds me of the ending of Allegiant, even though I haven't read it due to that ending being spoiled for me; like I've been cheated. Like I wasted my time reading it. I know that a lot of people complain about how everything has a happy ending, and while I would like to see more bittersweet endings (emphasizing the BITTERSWEET), it is actually rather hard to pull off, therefore resulting in mostly happy endings. An ending has to be satisfying, like there was some sort of purpose as to why the book exists and why it ended that way. This is a perfect example of how a bittersweet ending did not satisfy and flat-out didn't work. 

So, yeah, this is my next review. Don't just automatically assume that I'm going to give the series a bad score, though, because I really liked the first book. Until then, I'll see you guys next time!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad