Author: Lenlo

Planetes – 3 & 4 [Return Trajectory / Part of the Job] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Hello one and all and welcome to another week of Throwback Thursday, with Planetes! This week I am trying something a bit new, running 2 episodes instead of 1, to try and cover more ground. Let me know what you think, and lets jump in!

So far, my favorite aspect of Planetes is its singular focus each week. Instead of marginally moving forward some greater plot every episode, Planetes has a singular theme each episode. The themes for these two weeks were clearly Mortality/Death and Privilege, financial privilege at least. Naturally, I am gonna talk about these episodes in order so don’t worry, we will get to both. Planetes also continues it’s trend fantastic visual representation of space. This time we got liquids! Little balls of soda floating in the air, waiting to be picked. I love fluid dynamics, it’s always visually interesting, and space just makes it more so. For an example of how good looking water can affect a series, just go watch Garden of Words. I swear Makoto Shinkai has a fetish for it. That done, onto specifics!

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Kaze Fui Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru – 4 [Shadows That Don’t Fade]

by Lenlo, posted in Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Welcome one and all to Week 4 of Kaze Fui! This week we get some backstory, loads of friendship, and hints to old problems. Lets jump in!

In general, I once again enjoyed Kaze Fui. It manages a nice balance between the high emotions of Kurahara’s struggles and the light hearted interactions of the other dorm mates. In fact, I am quite happy with how much attention Kaze Fui is putting on the rest of the dorm cast. Seeing Akane with his friends, acting sociable and not just as a shut in, or Yuki and Masa eating lunch together helps reinforce them as people with their own lives away from Kurahara. It also makes them feel more important as characters, so their presence and opinions actually matter overall, instead of just how they affect our lead. Really, every episode that goes by I fall more and more in love with this cast of goofy college students. And I have no idea how Kaze Fui is making that happen.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 3 [A Battle Without Honor or Humanity / Lost in Manga]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Hello and welcome to week 3 of Honda-San! This time around we have real people, more customers and an official best girl! Lets jump in!

This week Honda-San dived a bit farther into the business side of things, showing us both the sales-people and the horror of pushy Japanese businessmen. Despite how bland business can often be in anime, Honda-San did a good job with it here. There was a good balance between actual educational content and humor I found. For instance I had no idea that the little pamphlets and additional cards and such were made by the salespeople. Yet Honda-San still found time for humor in all of this with Pest-Mask being this cute manager girl and then a terrifying section chief. I have no idea how Honda-San managed to make a mask representing death for a couple centuries a cute girl, but it did.

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Banana Fish – 15 [The Garden of Eden]

by Lenlo, posted in Banana Fish, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Welcome one and all to perhaps the weirdest episode of Banana Fish yet. This week we have Eiji stepping up to the plate, Dino returns and Ash… puts on a show? Lets jump in!

So startin off, this current arc of Banana Fish is in my opinion starting to drag. With Arthur dealt with and Ash basically shut down, yet very little focus on Eiji, it feels slow compared to the pacing of the first half. I am just not as interested in what is going on with this current arc, because the only character in true danger is Ash, who has plot armor. Shorter’s capture worked because he didn’t have the title of main character. Another problem with this episode is the comedy, and how it just didn’t work this week. With the story starting to drag a bit, the comedy stops being a tension breaker and becomes filler. There is a specific instance of that this week, involving a song and candy bars, which I will get to later. For now, just know that I loathed it.

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Planetes – 2 [Like a Dream] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to week 2 of Throwback Thursday, as we continue our dive into Planetes! This week we have a focused character story, some fun humor and lots of beautiful scenery. Lets jump in!

So starting off, Planetes continues to look fantastic. From the motion of the characters, to the colors and details in every scene. Even the lighting out in space is on point, with just their helmets to light the way. The sound design also adds to scenes. For example, the “Workin on a Railroad” whistle at the start of the episode. It’s a memorable tune, one that immediately sets how casual an event this is for them. Yet them being in space takes what is normal for us, just going to work, and makes it amazing. I think the blase attitude that Planetes character’s often take toward spell really help sell it. In other series it would be played up, “Ooo were in space”. But like Cowboy Bebop before it, to these characters it’s their day to day so why would it be amazing? Speaking of characters, a lot went on.

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Kaze Ga Tsukyoku Fuiteiru – 3 [A Single Flower]

by Lenlo, posted in Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Hello and welcome to week 3 of Kaze Fui! This time our boys start running, Kurahara meets someone from his past and poor Akane ups and dies. Lets jump in!

So general stuff first, Kaze Fui continues to look just beautiful. The running animation really is nice, and its unique for each runner. From Kurahara’s perfect stride to Akane’s zombie-like walk. Clearly someone at Production I.G. likes walk cycles. Then there was the wind effects, like Kurahara’s hair or clothes as he ran quickly. Our boy looks beautiful! The thin line work also helps the characters fit in on the screen instead of feeling like they were just superimposed onto a background. This week we also learned that they only have 10 months to prepare for the Ekiden and I have to say, that is a bit ridiculous. A 20km run after 10 months of training? For goodness sake, just his goal of a 16 min 5k, which is basically 3 miles, is ridiculous! After 4 months I can barely do 3 8 minute miles. Just seems unrealistic.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san – 2 [Let Me Introduce My Crazy Colleagues in This Bookstore!]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Ladies, Gentlemen and everyone in between, I welcome you to the 2nd episode of Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San, the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. Lets jump in!

Considering Honda-San’s material, I am not even going to bother with spoilers. It’s a comedy short, deal with it. These posts will also be a little shorter than my normal ones, simply because Honda-San is a short. So that out of the way, I have to say, god I love this series. It’s the sort of grounded absurdist humor that just clicks with me. The jokes are short and sweet in the minute, and then manage to wrap around together at the end for a single theme. It helps that Honda-San runs at a mile a goddamn minute, throwing jokes every sentence. If one misses, you barely have a moment to process it before the next comes flying in. It’s the sort of comedy the Simpsons employed before it went downhill in Season 8.

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Banana Fish – 14 [Tender is the Night]

by Lenlo, posted in Banana Fish, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Welcome to an all new episode of Banana Fish! This time with a new OP, ED and progressed plot points. Lets jump in!

So before I get into spoilers, let’s talk about the new OP and ED. The OP is Freedom by Blue Encount, while the ED is Red by Survive Said The Prophet. Personally, I am not to fond of the new OP. It’s good, but unlike the first one Found & Lost also by Survive Said The Prophet, it just doesn’t captivate me. It’s something I am going to listen to once, say its neat, then skip each episode. Meanwhile the 2nd ED hits me just as hard as the first, Prayer X by King Gnu. It’s different no doubt, and Prayer X is still probably my favorite ED of the year, but it works. Maybe its just Blue Encount, as to me their song feels more like generic rock while the others feel more unique. Either way, Banana Fish is doing good on the music front.

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Planetes – 1 [Outside the Atmosphere] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Hello and welcome to the start of a new series I am calling Throwback Thursday. Basically, each season or so I will be selecting an older anime. One that might have passed under people’s radar, and blogging it as I would any normal seasonal series. The hope is to give some older anime the recognition they deserve. The flagship anime for this series is, as you can see, Planetes! Lets jump in!

So, not surprising at all really, I enjoyed this first episode of Planetes more than almost anything from the current season. Everything about it is… different. Being made in 2003, I can hardly call Planetes “old”. But there is a clear difference between it and modern anime. There are no huge moe eyes, the backgrounds are detailed and everything is properly proportioned. Planetes is exactly what Megalo Box was trying to emulate and bring back in the previous season. Being made by Sunrise, who are doing DOUBLE DECKER this season and worked on Cowboy Bebop: Knockin on Heavens Door right before this, it’s no surprise it looks so good. Really, there are a lot of things I like about Planete’s art and animation that I will get into specifics past the spoiler tag for. Suffice to say, I missed this kind of anime and am glad I started this segment.

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Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru – 2 [The Ogre’s Arrival]

by Lenlo, posted in Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Welcome one and all to the Fall 2018 season. For the rare few new ones, I am Lenlo, and one of the shows I will be covering this time will be Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru or Run With The Wind. Lets jump in!

So some general things I didn’t mention in the first impressions. Just like Welcome to the Ballroom, Kaze Fui has a style I personally really like. It goes for the realistic body size/proportions but isn’t afraid to bend and flex from that for the sake of expression and interesting visuals. Maybe I just have a thing for tall and lean character models, but Production I.G. has a style I like. Maybe its the expressiveness of the characters, the tiny pupils instead of the now modern anime moe blog eyes, that helps. Regardless, Kaze Fui looks good and I expect it to look good in motion to. After all, if an anime about running didn’t have good running animation, there wouldn’t be much point would there?

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