Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi

[cassiesheepgirl]

Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi
(a.k.a. Summer Days with Coo)

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I found myself semi writing this review in my head so I thought I'd actually put it down in words.

Story: 9/10

When I sat down to watch Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi, I wasn’t expecting to watch anything more than a nice little film about a boy having fun during his summer holidays by spending time with a Kappa. However, as the credits were rolling I was left pleasantly surprised at the hidden depth that the film had. Whilst Coo delivered plenty of light-hearted moments that not only make you smile, but also give you that nice little warm glow inside, which makes you feel like a child again, I also found that it also had some truly emotional parts within it that seem to be very effective at tugging at your heartstrings.

Coo also manages to offer a critique of some less favourable aspects of human nature and society, as well as showing just how fickle and changeable they can be. Portraying both the invasiveness of the mass media and the general public, as well as the cruelty of children to each other, it feels that essentially the central theme of Coo is acceptance, or maybe more accurately, the lack of acceptance for those that are different. Watching how the characters deal with and, at times, fail to manage with the pressure that they are under, makes you really engage with the characters and empathise with them. Having said that, there is enough of a jovial and cuter side of Coo that not only lightens the overall mood of the film, but also helps to develop the viewer’s relationship with the characters so that, by the end, you actually care about what happens to everyone. It is that which, I think, is really what makes the story of Coo so compelling.


Animation: 8/10

The animation in Coo is generally very well done. The visuals are beautiful, with some quite intricate scenery and a bright colour palette that helps to set the mood without looking gaudy. The character designs fit nicely with the story, the humans have a slightly more realistic look to them, as opposed to a more typical anime style; there are no unnatural hair colours or large sparkly eyes to be found. The character of Coo is also very nicely designed, and fits in well the tone of the film. On the one hand he is quite cute and adorable but, at the same time, he has an element of the grotesque about him.


Sound: 8/10

The sound design of Coo works very well with the film. There is little in the way of music, but the score that there is works very well at helping to emphasize the good-humoured nature of the film, making you appreciate the more relaxing times that Coo and Kouichi spend together, and building up the tense moments even further. The sound effects are used brilliantly, helping to make the atmosphere and environment seem more real without being too over the top or out of place.


Characters: 7/10

The characters in Coo are fairly well developed, and they play off well against each other. Coo is exceptionally naïve and optimistic, which may initially make him seem like his character is very 2-Dimensional, however his painful past does open up a deeper side of him that is distrusting, defeated and filled with fear and those aspects make him feel more real and far less flat. The Uehara family are all fairly typical characters; none have particularly outstanding or different personalities at all. With the light-hearted father, the kind and cautious mother, the energetic son who is friendly but gives into peer-pressure so he can fit in, and the bratty little daughter who is spoiled and generally quite irritating, you have a standard family unit. But that is not necessarily a bad thing since the film shows what happens when an extraordinary situation unfolds in a family’s life, it wouldn’t work anywhere near as well if the family in question were already out of the ordinary.

However, I think that one of the most interesting characters is Kikuchi, a girl at Kouichi’s school who is bullied. Through the film we learn a little about her background, which partly helps to explain why she suffers at school, but I don’t think her character was really developed to its full potential; it would have been nice to have learnt a little more about her, and explored the relationship between herself and Kouichi further.


Overall: 8.5/10

For a film, that at first glance, didn’t appear to offer much more than a couple of hours of light-hearted fun with a cute little kappa, I was definitely impressed at how much it delivered. If you want to sit down and watch something that is just a bit of mindless entertainment with some added cute water sprites, then this probably isn’t for you. However, if you want to try watching something that is fun and sweet, but that also has a decent amount of emotional depth behind it then I’d advise watching it, and hopefully you’ll be as pleasantly surprised by it as I was.

[Sheex]

*bursts from the shadows with a gaudy flash of smoke*

Hello again, Cassie. I hath read your review and I hath suggestions that thou may consider:

1) I'm noticing you have a tendency to write a lot of run-on sentences when trying to elaborate ideas. As an example:

Whilst Coo delivered plenty of light-hearted moments that not only make you smile, but also give you that nice little warm glow inside, which makes you feel like a child again, I also found that it also had some truly emotional parts within it that seem to be very effective at tugging at your heartstrings.


- Try to combine the concepts of "smile" and "make you glow inside." In turn, split the rest of the thought in two with a following sentence that says (not verbatim), "However, it also does this."
- Using you is fine on a limited scale, but try to keep the "you" references down to a minimum; I wouldn't use it unless it's directly needed to make a point. If you prohibit its use starting out, you'll eventually teach yourself the times when it sounds appropriate to use it and when it does not. Here I think it's justified, but with a maximum of one second person reference.

2) Try to cut down on the extra words by making your idea punctual. Flowery syntax is fine, but keep this in mind. Here's an example:

Your version: The visuals are beautiful, with some quite intricate scenery and a bright colour palette that helps to set the mood without looking gaudy.

My version: The visuals are beautiful, boasting intricate scenery and a bright colour palette that helps to set the mood without appearing overly gaudy.

Don't be afraid to use the dictionary when writing. Even the most proficient of writers referrence it; I'd say that's the sign of a good writer, actually. Experimenting with words in different contexts is how you develop an okay vocabulary into a great one, and a great one into a fantastic one. I'm still on great, and it's a process which I consider a very real evolution.

3) Don't bullet point your ideas. If you take a look at your characters section, it's not necessarily bad but it's kinda format-driven; character a is this, character b is that, and overall my impression is this. A review isn't just a list of ideas your thoughts, it's a melting pot of ideas - don't make concepts distinct, make them flow! Play around with your sentences and make them work for you; you're the author, and you're the one in control.

4) One last quip on punctuation and verbiage from the first sentence of your conclusion:

For a film, that at first glance, didn’t appear to offer much more than a couple of hours of light-hearted fun with a cute little kappa...

- Your commas at the beginning should read "For a film that, at first glace, didn't appear..." Always precede an extra, comma-inserted bit of information with the action word instead of putting it inside.
- Note your use of "offer much more" , "couple of hours" , "light-hearted fun' and "cute little kappa" all together. Focus on one of these points and place your descriptive emphasis on there; description is good as long as it's not excessive.

And that should do it! Good luck!

*throws smoke bomb at feet and vanishes into the solemn night breeze*

[cassiesheepgirl]

Thank you so much for the con crit :D I'll take it all on board, to try and improve.

What you're saying makes perfect sense (though you know that already hee hee) and they're things I hadn't particularly noticed, so thank you for pointing it out.

[VivisQueen]

Hi Cassie! I second everything Sheex said, but I would like to add some specific points to focus some of your edits. Sorry about the mass of information. Please take whatever you want from it/can digest, and discard the rest. Hope it's of some use. I think the most important stuff for now (just in case the detail is a bit much) is to watch your run-on sentences, make all your tenses consistent, and cut superfluous words/phrases.
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Story: 9/10

When I sat down to watch Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi, I wasn’t expecting to watch <--- you can cut 'to watch' because the sentence makes perfect sense without it. Being concise and cutting out superfluous words are one fundamental way of cleaning up your writing. It's like pruning the leafy crap so the beautiful flowery bits can come through anything more than a nice little film about a boy having fun during his summer holidays by spending time with a Kappa. However, as the credits were rolling <--- a great trick for cutting words is to avoid 'was' and 'were' and 'has' etc. So instead of 'were rolling' you could have just 'rolled'. Two words become one without loss of meaning I was left pleasantly surprised at the hidden depth that the film had <--- something about 'had' just seems kinda empty and passive - it's just not saying much. How about cutting on word count and rewriting to something like '... I was pleasantly surprised at the film's hidden depth' Whilst Coo delivered plenty of light-hearted moments that not only make <--- note that you have an instance of present tense, when you've been writing in past tense all along. However, since you're talking about something that could potentially happen i.e. it could potentially make an anime fan smile, you should use 'would not only make you smile' OR describe your own feelings, which is more effective, i.e. 'made me smile'. As you've written it, you're saying that the film is right this very moment making the reader smile, which can't be right. you smile, but also give you that nice little warm glow inside, which makes you feel like a child again(,) <--- this comma should be a full stop I also found that it also had some truly emotional parts within it that seem to be very effective at tugging at your heartstrings. <--- note the repetition of 'also' in this sentence. Remove one.

Coo also manages to offer a critique of some less favourable aspects of human nature and society, as well as showing just how fickle and changeable they can be. <--- if you think about it, the second part of the sentence is actually implied by the first part, so the 'as well' is not actually accurate. It's like me saying 'I gave my room a makeover as well as repainting the walls'. It'd be more accurate to say 'I gave my room a makeover, for example, by repainting the walls' OR 'I gave my room a makeover, which included repainting the walls'. So your sentence should read something like: 'Coo also manages to offer a critique of some less favourable aspects of human nature and society, including showing just how fickle and changeable humans can be. NOTE I changed 'they' to 'humans' because 'they' doesn't actually refer to anything in the first part of the sentence Portraying both the invasiveness of the mass media and the general public, as well as the cruelty of children to each other, it feels that essentially the central theme of Coo is acceptance, or maybe more accurately, the lack of acceptance for those that are different. Watching how the characters deal with and, at times, fail to manage with the pressure that they are under, makes you really engage with the characters and empathise with them. Having said that, there is enough of a jovial and cuter side of <--- remove the 'r' and 'enough of'. The former is a grammar problem, the second is just superfluous wordage. Then change 'side of' to 'side to' for grammar. It should read: there is a jovial and cute side to Coo...' ALTERNATIVELY: 'there is a cuter and more jovial side to Coo'Coo that not only lightens the overall mood of the film, but also helps to develop the viewer’s relationship with the characters so that, by the end, you actually care about what happens to everyone. <--- everything after 'characters' is superfluous really. You could say the exact same thing by writing 'develop the viewer's interest in the characters' and then not have all that stuff about caring what happens to everyone. However, the problem also is that saying there is a jovial and cute part to the film doesn't really explain how this develops the viewer's interest. Maybe you could make it clearer by talking about how the jovial parts helped to build YOUR interest, rather than talking about general viewers. It is that which, I think, is really what makes the story of Coo so compelling. <--- awkward final sentence. With the 'it is' and the 'is' and the interruption of the 'I think', you get a staggered, jarring kind of progression. You could rewrite to something like: 'I think this is what makes Coo's story so compelling.


Animation: 8/10

The animation in Coo is generally very well done. The visuals are beautiful, with some quite intricate scenery and a bright colour palette that helps to set the mood without looking gaudy. The character designs fit nicely with the story, the humans have a slightly more realistic look to them, as opposed to a more typical anime style; there are no unnatural hair colours or large sparkly eyes to be found. The character of Coo is also very nicely designed, and fits in well the tone of the film. On the one hand he is quite cute and adorable but, at the same time, he has an element of the grotesque about him. <--- just a general point here that, when you look closely, almost every sentence begins with 'The'. This has the result of making your prose sound repetitive. Not just because of 'The' but because the sentences generally follow the same kind of pattern. The subject is/has/looks like this. The subject did this. Etc etc. Mix up sentence structures as much as possible.


Sound: 8/10

The sound design of Coo works very well with the film. There is little in the way of music, but the score that there is works very well at helping to emphasize the good-humoured nature of the film, making you appreciate the more relaxing times that Coo and Kouichi spend together, and building up the tense moments even further. The sound effects are used brilliantly, helping to make the atmosphere and environment seem more real without being too over the top or out of place.


Characters: 7/10

The characters in Coo are fairly well developed, and they play off well against each other. Coo is exceptionally naïve and optimistic, which may initially make him seem like his character is very 2-Dimensional <--- it's probably more a stylistic thing, but if you can, just for the sake of visual consistency, I'd recommend avoiding numbers and writing them in words i.e. two-dimensional. Also, no need to capitalise, however his painful past does open up a deeper side of him that is distrusting, defeated and filled with fear and those aspects make him feel more real and far less flat. The Uehara family are all fairly typical characters; none have particularly outstanding or different personalities at all. With the light-hearted father, the kind and cautious mother, the energetic son who is friendly but gives into peer-pressure so he can fit in, and the bratty little daughter who is spoiled and generally quite irritating, you have a standard family unit. But that is not necessarily a bad thing since the film shows what happens when an extraordinary situation unfolds in a family’s life(,) <--- This should be a full stop it wouldn’t work anywhere near as well if the family in question were already out of the ordinary.

However, I think that one of the most interesting characters is Kikuchi, a girl at Kouichi’s school who is bullied. Through the film we <--- this general 'we' should be avoided, as should 'one'. When refering to someone, try to put it in the context of your own experience/opinion, or, if not, then try and say what it would be like for any individual viewer learn a little about her background, which partly helps to explain why she suffers at school, but I don’t think her character was really developed to its full potential(;) <--- just use a full stop instead it would have been nice to have learnt a little more about her, and explored the relationship between herself and Kouichi further.


Overall: 8.5/10

For a film, that at first glance, didn’t appear to offer much more than a couple of hours of light-hearted fun with a cute little kappa, I was definitely impressed at how much it delivered. If you want to sit down and watch something that is just a bit of mindless entertainment with some added cute water sprites, then this probably isn’t for you. However, if you want to try watching something that is fun and sweet, but that also has a decent amount of emotional depth behind it then I’d advise watching it, and hopefully you’ll be as pleasantly surprised by it as I was. <--- You just said that if someone wants something cute with emotional depth, then they should watch Coo. Why, then, do you go on to say you hope they'll be pleasantly surprised? The reason you were pleasantly surprised, for example, is because you were expecting something shallow.[/quote]

[cassiesheepgirl]

Thanks so much for the feedback Vivi. Picking out these bit was reaslly helpful :D (I'm also beginning to wonder if it makes me a really weird person to be THIS happy about getting concrit) I definately need to get into the habit of making it more personal (in the sense of talking about my own experience of watching it) - I think it's because the only writing I've done in the last few years has been essays for uni where it was drummed into us to not be personal. But definately all this feedback helps :D Thanks again.

[therik]

Originally Posted by cassiesheepgirl

I'm also beginning to wonder if it makes me a really weird person to be THIS happy about getting concrit

Nope. Concrit is purest joy :). Concrete, on the other hand... not so much.

After the sound and comprehensive jobs performed by Sheex and VivisQueen, I'm not even going to try and provide any grammar corrections of my own. It'd be akin to placing a pebble upon the Pyramid of Cheops...

However, I would say that Sheex's comment - "Don't be afraid to use the dictionary when writing" is a sublime piece of advice. Unfair though it may be, a reviewer is one whose opinions are judged as much on the quality of their writing as on the incisiveness of their analysis. Words impress.

~D

[VivisQueen]

Originally Posted by therik

However, I would say that Sheex's comment - "Don't be afraid to use the dictionary when writing" is a sublime piece of advice.

I just wanted to add here that, better than a dictionary, I'd recommend a thesaurus. Nothing like having a vast array of synonyms to choose from alongisde the definitions!