Author: Lenlo

Kokkoku – 3 [The Third Moment]

by Lenlo, posted in Kokkoku

Welcome to another episode of Kokkoku, the premier time based anime of the season. This week we have growing mysteries and intelligent villains. Lets jump in.

To start off, I want to talk about our main cast and the mystery surrounding them, as that seems to be the core of Kokkoku. Blood and family ties have come up often, both in regards to our heroes and the villains. Blood is what is used to activate the Stasis Stones, though we don’t yet know if it matters whose blood is used. It also appears that each member of our leading family has some sort of ability. The Grandfather is able to teleport short distances while Juri is able to expel people from Stasis. So far neither has been able to use the others abilities, though it is possible they might learn them in the future. If blood does matter however, I am curious what abilities the villains will develop, as they also have a stone and can enter the Stasis. Next up is the mysterious spirits.

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Mahoutsukai no Yome – 15 [There is no place like home]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Mahoutsukai no Yome

Welcome to another week of Mahoutsukai no Yome. This week continues Chise’s bad relationship with water, Elias’s with Fae and gives Silky a history. Lets jump in!

To start off, I want to talk about the best part of this episode, that being Silky’s history and alone time. For the longest time Silky was a pointless background character, and she largely still is. But now she is a character with a backstory and relationships outside of our leads. Silky’s solo time is spent well, with her cleaning the entire house and demonstrating her loneliness as time passes. Mahoutsukai even uses the chibi are they have been shoving down our throats in the perfect manner, since Silky cant talk. Mahoutsukai is much more successful at making me care about Silky here than say, Joel. Most likely because of the lack of speech, forcing the artists and the watched to pay more attention to Silky’s movements and expressions. It’s a great buildup to her backstory and the better half of the episode.

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Kokkoku – 2 [The Second Moment]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Kokkoku

Hello and welcome to the 2018 Winter season! This time, we have an interesting little time-based drama called Kokkoku. It has mystery, it has cults, it has dead-beat parents and apparent god-like beings. Lets jump in!

To start, a quick blurb about our characters. Personally, I like them so far. They are all flawed and imperfect people. From the hikikomori Uncle/Brother to the laid off father, these are people with problems. Emotional issues that, hopefully, will get resolved or at least get started down that path. For instance the Uncle is already starting an arc. He is first introduced as a game-focused otaku, upset when his game is turned off before he can save. But when unplugged, clearly cares for his family, he just doesn’t know what to do or where to go with his life. The father that when danger came to his family, however foolishly, resolved to only put himself in danger by going alone. I am hoping that throughout this series we see him, and others, grow more and more. Even if, technically, this entire series takes place in a single frame.

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Mahoutsukai no Yome – 13/14 [East, West, Homes Best]/[Looks breed love]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Mahoutsukai no Yome

Hello and welcome to the new year! New Year, a new Cour for Mahoutsukai no Yome, this time with slightly more plot. These past two weeks have been a bumpy ride of Mahoutsukai, with plenty to talk about. So let’s jump in!

To start off, the new OP is terrible. The music isn’t as good and the actual animation part is mostly just reused shots from the 1st cour. Initially I thought this was a placeholder, but episode 14 proved that wasn’t the case. Disappointing, considering the quality of the 1st OP. As far as animation and art goes everywhere else, it all looks good. There are some interesting bits like episode 14’s ending scene with Joel and Chise’s creation of the Fairy Ointment. Mahoutsukai continues to make the magic and lore surrounding it the most interesting part of its story. More so even than the characters or the non-existent overarching plot. From the looks of things though, the latter is starting to change.

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Mahoutsukai no Yome – 12 [Better to ask the way than go astray]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Mahoutsukai no Yome

Welcome to the end of Mahoutsukai’s first cour! Apologies for the lateness of this review. I had expected another to come out over Christmas and to simply do a double feature, but Mahoutsukai pulled on over on me! This week we finish up Chise’s wand, get to see Grandfather Nevin again and have an almost literal character rebirth. Lets jump in!

Mahoutsukai finishes up Chise’s wand arc this week with a bang, quite literally. Chise’s flight as a Phoenix was a great payoff. You can tell they put a lot of work into the scene, as she soars through the air and the lighting on her face and body changes. The sweeping Icelandic coastline and the fluffy cloudscape both stood out to me, really selling this whole “rebirth” theme Chise was rocking at the time. Sadly these shots came at the expense of others. Many of the shots of the Dragon Aerie were reused from previous episodes, and Lindel’s song simply didn’t have the magic it had last episode. Its a standout melody, but using the exact same version so soon after its first reveal? It simply wasn’t as special, especially compared to the use of the OP in Chise’s transformation right after it. All in all though, a decent job.

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Inuyashiki Review – 65/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Inuyashiki, Reviews by Lenlo

Do you know what the average age of an anime protagonist is? Neither do I, but I’d wager its in the upper teens. For obvious reasons, most anime focus on high school and have high school aged protagonists with similarly aged problems. Its not often that we get a good older main character, who has to deal with more adult issues such as Monster, Great Teacher Onizuka and Rakugo. Well, this season we can add another to this list. Even with its faults, Inuyashiki‘s characters remain strong and worth watching just for them.

Lets jump in!

To start, a quick synopsis. Inuyashiki focuses on well, Inuyashiki, a middle aged salaryman who feels useless and unloved by his family. One night, he heads to the park where he and a young man named Hiro Shishigami end up in an extra terrestrial hit and run. To cover their tracks the aliens rebuild them as cyborgs! These new bodies destroy their sense of humanity, and in the ensuing weeks the two must rediscover what it means to be human! Watch as their ideals clash and Japan pays the price! Onto the review!
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Inuyashiki – 11 [People of Earth]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Inuyashiki

Welcome everyone to the finale of Inuyashiki! Its been quite the roller coaster to get here, filled with sympathetic serial killers and interesting philosophical questions. So lets jump in, one last time!

To start off, I want to talk about Hiro, and his ending. I’ll get into the asteroid nonsense later, for now I want to focus on Hiro. As one of the main characters, arguably the one with the most screen time, Hiro deserved a good ending. For the most part I think he got it. His meeting with Ando, up to the Asteroid, showed what he really is. A scared child dealing with the existential question of humanity. At the end, all he wanted was to take care of those close to him, to spend time with them, to protect them. He protected Ando by dealing with his bullies, he protected Shiro by stealing money and by trying to end his war with the police. What he did was terrible, there are no excuses, but you can understand why. In his final meeting with Ando, he just wanted to spend time with his friend, not realizing or not accepting that his actions had destroyed that friendship. It’s beautiful and the complete opposite of Inuyashiki.

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Mahoutsukai no Yome – 11 [Lovers ever run before the clock]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Mahoutsukai no Yome

Welcome to another week of Mahoutsukai! Apologies for the lateness of this post. Mahoutsukai is difficult to write something meaningful about, and with Christmas right around the corner I have been rather busy. This week we have a continuation of Elias’s story, another step in Chise’s wand construction and more barely dressed elves! Lets jump in.

Picking up where we left off last week, Lindel continues with Elias’s story. Mahoutsukai did a lot right with this continued story. There was some comedy, without the use of chibi, with small things like Elias falling while skiing. There was some darkness, and interesting world bits, with Lindel trying to heal and Elias freaking everyone out. We even had a show of Elias learning as he uses the spruce to get them to safety! It all made for an enjoyable first half of the episode. It did still have issues however, such as the random chibi after Elias’s admitting to eating humans, or the odd opening shot of Elias in his home. I understand they wanted to show his lonliness, with Chise being off on her own adventure, but it just felt off. Overall though Elias’s story was a hit and framed Chise’s growth this episode well enough.

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Inuyashiki – 10 [People of Tokyo]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Inuyashiki

This was a momentous week for Inuyashiki, with lots of highs and single glaring low. We had terrible CGI, an emotional confrontation between our leads and a fantastic payoff for Inuyashiki. Lets jump in!

To start, lets get the big issue out of the way immediately, the PS2 era CGI. To quote reddit, the budget for this fight might as well have been “30 yen and a box of paperclips”. Everything before and after our two leads fight was great. Most of the fight itself however was disappointing. A lot of the scenes looked unfinished, the buildings had terrible resolutions and there was no impact between our characters and the world. It’s like they were flying through the old Superman game. The only part of the fight I thought was done well was the ending, with the satellite. The satellite not only up the ante and make for a great spectacle, it showed the difference of ours leads. Hiro used brute force, while Inuyashiki hid using the debris to get a meaningful strike in. It was a satisfying end to a mostly disappointing fight.

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Mahoutsukai no Yome – 10 [We Live and Learn]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Mahoutsukai no Yome

Welcome to week 10 of Mahoutsukai! Finally, oh so finally, we have are given some backstory on Elias! Our mysterious male(?) lead gets some explanation. We also get the start of a Chise only arc and finally some more information on Lindel. Lets jump in!

As the main focus of this weeks episode, naturally I have to talk about Elias first. Turns out, Elias has some form of amnesia, so we only get his story since coming to the human world. Told from Lindel’s perspective, is interesting to see how modern Elias differs from his old childlike version. He’s taller and acts more like a child, which both explains Lindel’s relationship with him more and has some genuine humor. Elias drinking the sea-water or shrinking to fit in the door were much better jokes than anything the Chibi are has given us. It also did a decent job of showing Elias a bit more animal than the man he is now. Like the zoom shot on Lindel’s neck as they eat their soup. All in all, not a jam packed backstory, but its more than we had before and I expect more to come soon.

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