In this corner of the world extended cut:

Justice League's extended cut was much better than the original, so it was nice to see anime get that treatment too with In This Corner of the World (and other corners).  The additional subplot about Suzu's whore friend was a little confusing -- apparently her husband once had a crush on Rin before ultimately getting with Suzu?  Or something?  It was so delicately touched upon, so euphamized, that it's hard to say what was going on at all.

But it remains a beautiful and tenderhearted movie.  The initial painting with the rabbits is perhaps the greatest work of art ever drawn.  They should hang it in the Louvre.  I love how all the bombs and rations and deaths and injuries didn't hurt as much or cut as deeply as mean words, nor did anything make up for them except nice words.  It turns out people would rather lose an arm than be hated.  Words are more powerful weapons than nuclear bombs.  Suzu would know since she experienced both and it was clear which affected her more.  In the same way, a kind word can be someone's treasure for life, it can be worth more than all the gold in Fort Knox to someone who's even starving.  There are so many lessons to be learned from this movie.  War is bad is the least of them.  There's so much more to the human spirit involved in this movie than 'war is bad.'

In This Corner of the World is not a tearjerker.  It's not like Grave of the Fireflies, it keeps humor and goodwill from beginning to end.  It isn't about the futility of life or the triumph of evil, but the beauty of life and the triumph of good.  Between the two I prefer In This Corner of the World.  I already know how evil everyone is, I want art to show how good we could instead be.  To light the way for future generations.

However, I'd prefer for my top anime rankings to move away from short oav's and movies and stick to long form stories with some meat on them.  The last thing I want to do is retire the 7 episode Planetarian for the sake of the 1 movie Corner of the World.  I want to switch out Planetarian for something much longer.  If there were some sort of 'short story hall of fame' In This Corner of the World would definitely qualify for that.

I watched Band of Brothers and it wasn't as good as The Pacific.  At least it had fewer girls in it, but even then the girls managed to betray and destroy good men's lives for absolutely no reason.  It was unbelievable that this hero from the 101st Airborne was getting divorced and losing everything from a wife who he couldn't possibly have mistreated because he had been on the front lines of the war for the last two years.  How do you do that to a man putting his life on the line for you?  Who does that?

Index GT 4 is mostly translated over at baka-tsuki.  That's clearly my next project, until Charles Murray's 'Facing Reality' comes out on the 18th, which I've already pre-ordered.

Oh, I also watched Wonder Woman 1984.  It wasn't bad like the critics said, but it was a little incoherent and nonsensical.  The original is miles better.