Author: Lenlo

Megalo Box – 11 [A Deadmarch]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Incredible Megalo Box… Simply incredible. This week was perfect in every way but one, and at this point that one is easily overlooked. Let’s skip this preamble and jump right in!

Megalo Box had a lot going on this week as we see the culmination of a lot of characters big arcs. Starting off, lets go with Joes. The symbolism of his shoddy gear, which we only saw him wear back as Junk Dog, falling off through the fight was amazing. We saw that each time his gear fell off he took the lead in the fight, hitting Burroughs hard. It was a rather obvious, but still great, metaphor for Joe refusing to be/fighting back against “Junk Dog”. We saw that Joe didn’t want to throw this fight, but was content to stay “Junk Dog”. Atleast until Nanbu and Yuri/Sachio stepped in that is. What’s interesting to me is Yuri is Joe’s dividing line. Yuri is what separates Joe from Junk Dog, ever since their first fight which woke him up. I love everything about it.

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Steins;Gate 0 – 10 [Pandora of Provable Existence -Forbidden Cubicle-]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Steins;Gate 0

Welcome one and all to another week of Steins;Gate 0! This week we have fluffy, lovable dates, awkward fan service and terrible revelations. Lets jump in!

So overall this week felt mostly like a filler episode. I understand that some of the contents were necessary for relationship building and such. That it was a sort of “Calm before the storm” as things begin in earnest. That doesn’t change the fact that, outside of Okabe’s “date” with Maho, nothing much really mattered this episode. The contents ranged from lovable cute character moments to terribly awkward fan service, which I will get into in a moment. My hope is that this is the slowest Steins;Gate 0 gets. That after this, with Okabe outing himself to Maho and her revelations with the laptop, the central conflict will come back into play. We will have to wait and see. Now though, lets get into specifics.

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Megalo Box – 10 [The Die Is Cast]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Hello and welcome to another week of Megalo Box, with perhaps the best pre-finale hype episode ever. This week we have amazing music, fantastic language skills and lots of converging plot threads. Lets jump in!

First, numero uno, Megalo Box has the best soundtrack of this season. It’s simply fantastic. Pepe Iglesias’ theme was on for maybe 30 seconds and I already fell in love with it. It just oozes style and reminds me of Cowboy Bebop with the rhythm and what I believe is a trumpet. It also fits his character perfectly, with it providing a majority of Pepe’s characterisation this episode. It’s a shame he was taken out so quickly but we will get to that in just a moment. We also had Yuri’s theme this episode which was barely a piece of music, frankly. Hopefully Megalo Box has more in store for Yuri because so far its music has been on point. I mean, c’mon, just listen to this and this. Are they not the hypest tracks you’ve ever heard?

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Steins;Gate 0 – 9 [Pandora of Eternal Return -Pandora’s Box-]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Steins;Gate 0

Welcome, another week another dose of Steins;Gate 0. This week is a very relaxed, calm episode for the most part so we can wind down from last weeks tragic drama. Lets jump in!

This week was, compared to last, a slow one and that’s a good thing. The main plot with Amadeus is laid out and Okabe now has his motivation, so letting everything stew for a while should help us reconnect with all the characters. This episode really seemed like a general role call sort of thing. Here are the ones that matter, here’s all of our plot threads like Suzuha’s desperation and Kagari’s amnesia or Maho’s secrecy. It was a good change of pace after the packed drama of last week. Steins;Gate 0 also took the opportunity, the quiet moments, to explore Okabe’s mental condition and the general state of the world. Because of this not much actually happened, but it was a good check-in sort of episode before things no doubt really get going.

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Megalo Box – 8/9 [Deadline of the Dream/A Dead Flower Shall Never Bloom]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Hello again everyone and welcome to another (2) week(s) of Megalo Box! First off, apologies for missing last week. Was a bit hectic. Still, means we can cover the rest of the Mikio arc in a single post! Smaller victories! Lets jump in.

To start off, Megalo Box continues to stand out. The rough lineart, the style in every scene and the narrative are lovely. Mikio’s build up, backstory and motivations all made me enjoy him as a character. He was a complete toss-pot of a person, terrible dude, but as a villain I enjoyed him. I am a little annoyed that they are playing up his “pride”, a good loser, at the end with his respect towards Joe however. It just doesn’t fit his character to me. This man was willing to blackmail his opponent, run with AI Gear and inject himself with what can only be drugs all to steal the family company from his sister. These are not the actions of a “good man” and I hope Megalo Box doesn’t attempt to redeem him. Not all characters need to be “likeable”, and we already have Aragaki for this role.

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Steins;Gate 0 – 8 [Dual of Antinomy -Antinomic Dual-]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Steins;Gate 0

Hello everyone! Another week, another ridiculously pretentious episode name for Steins;Gate 0! This week we have suffering, lots and lots of suffering, spread around our characters liberally. Lets jump in!

So before we get into specifics, lets talk general notes. Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. It didn’t spend the whole time being a downer, sprinkling some amusing or hopeful moments in there. It showed us shots of Okabe’s life if he made another choice, making it clear he couldn’t keep on the way he has. Some would call it melodrama, and they wouldn’t be wrong, but for me it works here. Melodrama lives or dies based on how much the audience cares for its characters. And with how Steins;Gate 0 is formatted and its character focus, only the ones who care would make it this far, so I think it worked out. As a Steins;Gate fan, its character focused episodes like with all of the references to earlier episodes and events that I love the most.

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Steins;Gate 0 – 7 [Eclipse of Vibronic Transition -Vibronic Transition-]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Steins;Gate 0

Oh boy, Steins;Gate 0 was definitely a thing this week, whatever that means. This time we have clashing styles, interesting plot twists and one hell of a cliffhanger. Lets jump in!

To start off, lets get the obvious out of the way. Steins;Gate 0 is not an action series and it shows. The opening “combat” scenes of this episode were… weak, to be kind. Animation was stunted and in general it just wasn’t great. This isn’t unexpected though. Steins;Gate’s design/style doesn’t lend itself well to smooth, fluid fights. It has always been a series focused on its characters, not the action. That said, the actual narrative portion of the “combat” was pretty interesting. We have no idea who the leather-clad women is, though I have suspicions, and Mr.Braun’s entrance was both unexpected and exciting. I have always wanted to see more of his character, get a deeper look into our landlord ever since Steins;Gate, and we finally have the chance. And boy did this week spend a lot of time with him.

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Megalo Box – 7 [The Road to Death]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Hello everyone, and welcome to the most surprising episode of Megalo Box yet. This week we have family drama, Joe’s declining health and a shocker of an ending. Lets jump in!

So starting from the top, lets talk about this ending. I never thought Megalo Box would pull something like this, with its limited number of episodes. I assumed there would be a basic, linear progression of fights. With this however we now have 2 strong antagonists, or perhaps 2 protagonists. Its difficult to decide where Yuri fits into this, though Mikio’s place is clear. Regardless I am very impressed through brought Joe’s legal citizenship back into question. Mikio was already an interesting opponent, the rich boy with something to prove, but this blackmail really sells his “Anything to win” attitude. I am slightly disappointed that we didn’t get a fight, and might not get one next week, but based on the quality of previous fights, its not that big a loss. Fewer, higher quality fights with intense narrative weight like the inevitable Mikio fight will beat out Samejima any day.

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Steins;Gate 0 – 6 [Eclipse of Orbital Ordering -The Orbital Eclipse-]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Steins;Gate 0

Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls, Steins;Gate 0 has stomped the throttle and cut the breaks. Lets skip the intro and just get right to it. Early on I thought this episode was going to be slow, we were going to focus on our characters and relax a bit. I thought it would be drama free. Apparently however this was just the calm before the storm. Far earlier than I predicted, I was assuming ~episode 12, the shoe drops and our plot begins in earnest. I am so happy. This means, hopefully, that there are no more additional characters and that no more additional world building is necessary. For this shoe to drop, it means all of our relevant actors are in play. Now onto drama and theorizing!

First off, triggers. In the original Steins;Gate, as seen by the flashback, Mayurii’s watch stopping was the signal that she was about to die. However we know in this timeline that Mayurii lives. So the question becomes, who dies next episode? My money is on Maho. Shes gotten a lot of screen time, everyone loves her, and she clearly likes Okabe. Add to that the fact that Amadeus’ server gets shut off, and I think we have a new death-flag/dead friend combo. Maho also already had the foreshadowed stalkers/Dr.Reyes “mugging” incident, so the signs are already there. The only real hole to this I see is there is no D-Mail, so no easy time travel, at the moment. Killing off anyone here is a big commitment, taking them out of the series for awhile most likely. I legitimately cannot wait to see how this shakes out.

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Megalo Box – 6 [Until the Last Dog Dies]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Alright, Megalo Box was a series of highs and lows this week and I don’t want to waste time with a preamble. So this week, lets speed things up and just jump in!

To start off, the big showpiece of this week is the Aragaki vs Joe fight. We will get to its place in the story, its result and all that later. For now the elephant in the room is the quality of the fight and booooy, is that a mixed bag. To start off, the good. The music was, as always, good. It gave each round its own distinct feel. The final 30 seconds was also phenomenal. The rotating camera shot as Aragaki and Joe just hammer each other… Ive rewatched it more times than I can count. The weight, the rhythm, everything from the first two episodes is there in spades. This single shot managed to keep me excited for Megalo Box’s finale. Sadly, this shot was, animation wise, the only thing it had going for it.

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