So I've just seen Mamoru Oshii's "The Sky Crawlers" For those of you maybe unaware, Oshii is the god that saw fit to give us both Ghost In The Shell movies, the series, and the fan-fucking-tastic live-action "Avalon".

"The Sky Crawlers" ... what can I say?

It is, hands-down, the best and most intelligently written animated masterwork I've ever seen. As much as I love Miyazaki, his strength is in lovable characters and epic animated vistas; airships and moving castles and adorable chittering balls of soot.

Oshii's strength, on the other hand, is more like that of a novelist's; it's all quiet spaces, careful words, long silences, Big Deep Implications. His main characters are quiet loners--strong women, or noncommittal men, with glazed eyes and straight missions and few words. It's why I like them so much; they feel real and three-dimensional (even when they're cyborgs jumping nude off third-story buildings).

And then, every now and then, Oshii will drop a philosophical monologue at you: and it's to the point, and it's subtle, and it's meaningful (as opposed to, say, fun but ultimately empty meandering Wachowski BS).

So. Sky Crawlers.

What can I say?

Go rent it. Go do it right now. Don't go to rotten tomatoes to get a second opinion, don't go to Wikipedia to find out what it's about. Don't read anything about this movie, then go into it cold.

If you're like me, you will be blown away.

Unless you're one of these mountain-dew-hopped-up ultimate-frisby-playin' brosef bastards that can't comprehend an animated movie where people stand still for more than three seconds, think about things more complex than fart jokes, and do not associate with talking animals.

In which case allow me to address you in your native tongue DUDE BRO DUDE WTF MAN LULZ DUDE WOAH BEER FTW.

FUCK FUCK, FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK, FUCK FUCK.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-