Japanese Diary 20 - with reviews!

Watching Japanese anime and film is one of the more enjoyable parts of my studies - I try to do 30 minutes a day - and a sobering measure of how far I have to go to achieve even minimal real-life competence. Occasionally, it's true, I feel quite puffed up at being able to connect the subtitles with what people are actually saying on the screen, perhaps for the course of a few sentences; but if I want that puffing to be punctured with the skill of a fugu chef all I need do is close my eyes, and deprived of the subtitles I am reduced to imbecility.

Over the last couple of months my diet has consisted of: Steins;Gate, Death Note and Battle Royale - all of which I liked a lot. Steins;Gate and Death Note in particular were an interesting pairing, because a major aspect of both is the extremely complex - but very different - plotting. I'm not saying that this was a substitute for character development - that would be unfair - but it was certainly something the makers weren't afraid to put front and centre.

( Death Note )

( Steins;Gate )

( Battle Royale )