It's nice to take a break away from the griddy shlock anime that I usually partake in. I last saw this flick sometime around 2013 or 2014, so it's been a good decade and I'm pleasantly suprised with this.
Simple but pretty cool film. The snappy editing makes it a timeless work. I think this is what kinda made me wary to the whole concept of "internet of things".. not everything needs to be online dammit!
I sorta feel like Wabisuke's motivations are slightly misunderstood. He's surely an asshole, I can see that, but you sorta get the idea that he was always outcast by the other family members because he was an illigitimate sibling. There's also another layer the granny's reaction when he said he sold the AI to America... she got so mad at him when he said that, you could almost see the war flashbacks running through her head.
The animation in the film was... alright. The facial animations were easily the best part, especialy the long pauses during emotional sections. Simple but very effective. At the end of the picture, when MC was crunching numbers and going insane over it, oh man that was.. a little goofy outside of context but IN context it is really electrifying. But on that, it does make you ask some questions.... He insists that he's the runner up in a math competition, but he's able to break all these hashes on a whim? How good is the champion then? If all the other people beat the hash, why was his face and avatar the one that got shown on television? This poor kid went through so much in this film for no reason, and he still was able to fight through! I guess that's part of the point of the film. Fighting through challenges big and small, and not doing it alone. That's a great message for everyone!
The cyberspace parts of the film were easily the weakest(though I wasn't complaining.. hehehe), you know NFT heads are watching this and trying to make it real. The cyberpunk stuff really isn't the focus though is it? It's the community. It's being a steward of your community. It's showing up for every game. It's asking for help when you need it. It's lending a helping hand. It's leaning on your family. It's showing grattitude. It's being a friend. It's being there for your friends. It's all my fellas.
OR maybe it's that I stayed up way too late for this and need to go to sleep. gn.