The Great Passage
a review by Benkei
a review by Benkei
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Story ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The anime shows the life of Majime, a seller who works at a publishing company, someone lost in life, without a purpose, and who has serious problems interacting with other people. By sheer coincidence, he happens to meet someone from the Dictionary department of his company, and he ends up catching their eyes. Now, he's tasked to work in this new dictionary, The Great Passage, a dictionary that will help people to connect, with the addition of new and modern words.
The story is good. I actually think it's cool how it all had a purpose "To create a dictionary" and the anime spends 11 episodes going at it, without deviating much and just talking about the whole process. I gotta say that this anime is somewhat "intelectual". There's no big things happening, it's all about people trying their best to convey the best meaning of words, to fight for their dictionary to come to fruition.
Personally, I especially liked the story because it showed me something that I'd never expect to watch, a story about a dictionary. But it really showed how they're so important to society, how meanings can change with time, how words can often be "shelved," and in general, it just gave me a newborn appreciation towards grammar in general.
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Art ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The art is good, it definitely has that aesthetic of the 2000s anime which I love so much. The lines aren't super detailed, but the movements are fluid, and there's a lot of care in the art department. The anime goes through more than a decade of their lives and you can see the passage of time by subtle changes in appearance. In general, I was very delighted with the art of this anime.
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Characters ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ There aren't that many characters in this anime, it's mostly Majime, his coworkers, and some side characters. Honestly, it's not a problem because the main focus is towards the "birth" of The Great Passage, almost as if the dictionary and everything that it means is the main character.
About the main character, Majime is really good. He can be frustrating at times, but you can see his passion and how much soul he's pouring on everything he does. Going through his journey is a delight.
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Soundtrack ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The soundtrack is normal. There wasn't any moment that I was turned off by the sounds of the anime. The opening is a bit all over the place in terms of sounds, but the ending really brings it home and general sounds are also well done. I felt immersed when I had to, so no complaints.
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Conclusion ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ If you're like me, you skip everything and read only the conclusion because you don't want to get spoiled with other themes. So I will try to be brief on this point:Try it. This anime is very intelectual-ish, and by that I mean it shines light in a part of society that most of us never thought about: dictionary making. With that said, I personally quite enjoyed it; it worked so well as an anime to lay down and relax after a long day. Just watching my guys and girls making a really good dictionary.11 out of 12 users liked this review
