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British Reviewer.

A different writer, a different director per episode it shows. We seem to have waited a long time for the second season of Severance. So much so, that I've largely forgotten what happened in the first season but despite this I'm still finding the experience of watching this season really rudderless.

My overriding memory of the first season is that I found it a bit dull until the last episode and then was wowed. Wowed and eager to watch the next season. Yet, I'm finding the chopping and changing of writer/director per episode isn't working for the continuity. None so more than Trojan Horse which felt a lot like filler. Especially after the excitement of the previous episode.

I'm beginning to wonder if there's an actual shortage of ideas behind Severance and it's actually a lot of hot air being given the big sell - which is perfectly ironical really for the corporate culture the show is supposedly lampooning.

British Reviewer.

What an awkward, intense film. The start is creepy and weird then it keeps cranking it up, culminating in a truly horrific finale. I didn't know if the horror would be so visceral because the first hour is nuanced.

My girlfriend, who wanted to watch the American version but I made her watch this one, went to bed at fifty-seven minutes. When I described the parts she missed we both agreed she'd made the right call in going to bed.

The director of Speak no Evil has done an incredible job here. I've been to southern Holland, well Venlo, and it was quite weird but how he made the flat, almost featureless landscape so sinister is very well done. Takes the meaning of getting stoned in The Netherlands to whole different level!

British Reviewer.

I suppose, if, like me you're in the middle of your Ghibli career (i.e. You've seen a few, mainly all the fantastical ones) then Mimi wo Sumaseba could seem quite humdrum in comparison.

It's an understated tale, with an odd choice of theme song for sure. Something of a teen romance with a little flight of fancy towards the end. I really, really wanted Lunar the cat (or was the cat named Moon?) to be more prominent in the tale. And, in fact, strangely for a Studio Ghibli film quite a few of the characters were irredeemably annoying. Even Susuke isn't that great.

All told, as someone who loves Studio Ghibli, has visited the studios in Tokyo and have watched the classics like Ponyo, Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke et al several times - I think it's safe to say this isn't the best offering by those totems of Japanese animation.