Author: Lenlo

Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – Pokemon Paldean Winds (78/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

So…would Pokemaniacs kill me if I said that I was more excited for this than the announcement of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet getting DLC? Pokemon: Paldean Winds is yet another short animated web series centered in the Pokemon universe, and to be honest, I’m really happy the Pokemon Company is allowing these to be made. All of them have been really good in their own ways, and even the weakest ones still have something to offer. So you can bet I was excited as all hell for Pokemon: Paldean Winds as soon as it was announced. Now that I’ve seen all of it, I do feel it could have done more with itself, but I’m still happy with what we got. Taking place before the events of the games, Paldean Winds centers on three students at Naranja Academy—Ohara, Aliquis, and Hohma—who are tasked by Director Clavell to make a video for incoming new students to show that the school is a great place to learn about Pokemon. But the three students are having trouble getting anything done on account of Ohara’s shyness, Aliquis being an arrogant prick, and Hohma getting too excited about whatever interests him.

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The Big O – 25/26 [The War of the Paradigm City/The Show Must Go On] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Big O, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to The Big O’s grand finale! This week was… The episodes were… This was a god damn trip alright. Even as I write this I’m not sure what happened, or even how I feel about it! So lets take a ride, working our way through the episodes together as I try to figure out exactly what I just watched.

First up is episode 25, “The War of the Paradigm City”. So much happened this episode, there were so many reveals, that I can’t even begin to try and hide them behind a break. So instead let’s just jump right in with the spoilers and start with what I think is the biggest twist of the episode: It’s all a god damn dome. The entire city, neigh the entire known setting of the show, is inside a dome. Or maybe it’s meant to be a sound stage or something, I don’t know. Point is, the sky is fake, stage lights are hanging from the ceiling, their world isn’t real. And of course leave it to Schwarzwald to be the one to discover it in his final moments possessing Big Duo. This is it. This is the final truth he was looking for the entire time, and its fucking everyone up.

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Migi & Dali – 12 [Upside-Down Woman]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Migi & Dali

Welcome all, to the penultimate episode of Migi & Dali! This is a rough one for me, where I liked most of it but I just can’t get a few niggling little details out of my head. Nothing too major, but still important enough to be worth talking about. So with that, lets dive into the episode!

So like I said, this episode was mixed for me. The core of it, the primary plot and events, all worked really well. Most everything involving the twins, Eiji, their relationship was good. How they came together as brothers, or Dali deciding his revenge against Reiko and Eiji would be to force him to live imperfectly rather than die a perfect death, that all worked. Considering those are all of the most important events of the episode, it would probably be safe to call this week a success. But… There are a few things I just can’t get out of my head. Details, the way certain scenes were executed that, despite being in an otherwise solid episode, bring the whole thing down for me. So before I gush about the rest of the good stuff, lets talk about those.

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Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 11

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Undead Unluck – 11 [Rio de Janeiro]

First up we once again have Undead Unluck. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, the series has been running on high ever since Spoil, maybe even Gina depending on how you look at it. And while this week is a bit of a slower one compared to previous, the rest of the season has slowed down a long with it. As for what actually happened, it’s a lot of setup for the next arc with a nice sprinkling of romantic progression. A lot of small moments with Andy and Fuko, from time on the beach to picking out nice outfits. It was really nice watching Andy help Fuko feel more confident in herself, pushing her to spread her wings a bit but not forcing her to far out of her comfort zone. Yeah some of the ecchi jokes still haven’t fully gone away, but they’re tinged with something a lot more… wholesome now I feel. That plus their conversation about what it means to be a negator, the options available to those like them and the desire to fight against the shit hand they’ve been dealt, made for an emotionally gripping episode. They’re finding their own reasons for what they do, which is going to be important if they want to fight God.  Beyond that we also met some of our villains for this new arc, Unrepair as well as three others.  We don’t know to much about them yet, but that’s fine, they will be more important. Later for now what’s important is that at least one seems like a dangerous match up even for Andy, meaning we have something to look forward to!

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 21 [Metamorphosis]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to… to the same fight we’ve been watching for a while. Oh god it just keeps going. And going. Why? Oh god he has another form. And his buddy showed up to help. At least Todo is doing something! Oh gosh. Well this is going to be a fun week to talk about, someone is going to get mad at me. So lets rip off the band aid and dive right into it!

So in case it wasn’t obvious, I’m tired. I left this episode feeling fatigued. We’ve been doing this same fight, this same conflict, for so many episodes now. Every time it’s about to come to a close new powers, new strategies, new allies, new ass pulls occur to keep it going just a little longer. I can accept a few, it’s the genre, have fun with it. But much like Wano and the current My Hero Academia arc dragged on, so too has this fight. There comes a point where it’s simply to much, where you want the fight to end and the story to move on. And right here, right now? Jujutsu Kaisen has reached that point. Because every time something cool happened, every time Todo appeared on screen, every time I had fun, I was then reminded we have the same fight to get back to.

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The Big O – 23/24 [Twisted Memories/The Big Fight] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Big O, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the penultimate week of The Big O! Only one more to go after this, and then the review, and then a break for New Years as I try to write… Jesus, 4 reviews? 5? Let me tell you, picking up this many shows was a mistake. I’m going to make it work though. Now without further delay, lets dive into the episodes!

First up is episode 23, “Twisted Memories”. It’s been clear for a while now that Big O has been laying the foundation for the finale. in fact I had thought it would have already started by now, but Big O has been feathering the breaks just enough to keep us waiting. Well no more! Because with this episode I can say with surety that the finale… Has truly begun! The first half is mostly checking in with everyone, letting us know where Angel, Dastun, Alex, and Roger all are, mentally and physically. Some of these aren’t that big, like Dastun trying to reconnect with Roger a bit since it’s all he can really do, or Angel slumming it with nowhere else to go. The second however half kicks things off proper with Dorothy’s kidnapping, as well as the return of an old friend.

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Migi & Dali – 11

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Migi & Dali

Welcome all, to another episode of Migi & Dali! This week we go full horror, completely abandoning any semblance of comedy to show just up screwed up this family is. And you know what? It’s pretty damn great. So without further ado, lets dive into it!

As I said, this episode dives head-first into horror, starting with Metry and Reiko’s backstory. It starts innocently enough, Metry worked for and idolized Reiko like a big sister, doing everything she could to make her proud. It was actually really sweet! However bit by bit everything started to go… wrong. Reiko is told she’s barren, unable to have children, so she convinces Metry to sleep with her husband in her place. To bear his children for her. Eventually the husband realizes what’s going and confesses he likes Metry more, to which it almost seems like Metry is doing it all on purpose to steal Reiko’s “perfect life”. Of course this is all from Reiko’s perspective, we can’t know how true all of this is, the woman is crazy. Classic unreliable narrator stuff. But we know one thing for certain: Metry did eventually get pregnant. But with triplets, not twins.

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Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 10

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Undead Unluck – 10 [Result]

Starting off, I really enjoyed this weeks Undead Unluck. It wasn’t a big action setpiece, though there was some, nor was it a huge character defining moment. Really all it does is show us exactly what is at stake in this story, what precisely the Union has been working to prevent that has forced them to operate the way they do. It’s just the way that Undead Unluck does it is so god damn good. Sure going through each quest, flying around the round table to focus in on who participated in each, that might have been a bit much and killed the pacing for the first half of the episode. I won’t dispute that, it definitely felt slow. But it was establishing something very important for the episodes climax: Just how important, and world affecting, these quests are, including both their rewards and their penalties. The elimination of all languages on Earth, excluding Negators? The addition of Galaxies to the universe, and all that comes along with that from myths too days of the week and aliens? Not to mention Ragnarok should they fail 2 more times. I don’t know about you, but for me this was where Undead Unluck really hooked me. Where the scope of the series got absolutely ridiculous, beyond just super powered people fighting for no reason. It also helps that David Productions are knocking it out of the park presentation wise. Seriously, I don’t know what Undead Unluck did to earn this kind of adaptation, but I’m glad it did.

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Dr. STONE New World P2 – 9 [First Dream]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dr.STONE

Welcome all, to another week of Dr. STONE! This one begins our epilogue, our journey into the next arc. Not a whole lot happens, mostly just check-ins and resets, but we do get one major plot reveal: Why-Man returns. What does this mean? Well lets jump in and find out!

Starting off, like I said this was a rather slow week. Lots of preparation for the next arc, walking us through reviving everyone and surviving on the island, you know, dotting i’s and crossing t’s. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t decent though. It was like we were speed running the first few episodes of Dr. STONE all over again. Identifying problems, unpetrifying people as they were needed, slowly expanding and rebuilding. It was a nice reminder of what everyone does and just how far we’ve come. Plus it gave us a chance to spend time with some of our new characters, the islanders now turned allies with Ibara out of the picture. The big one of course being Kirisame, who quickly sided with them after hearing what happened.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 20 [Right and Wrong, Part 3]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

You know, it’s episodes like this that really show just how much good direction can cover for a melting production. Because make no mistake, despite some well composed shots and good ideas, melt this episode of Jujutsu Kaisen did. From absolutely abysmal proportions to less and less detail on screen, seriously who needs faces, Jujutsu Kaisen is finally starting to feel the burn. Like usual, not all of the issues are their fault. Dimming and ghosting are just the price of doing business on TV in Japan, as much as it sucks I don’t blame MAPPA for that. Everything else though? From Todo T-Posing to victory too those absolutely terrible backgrounds inside the train? Those I do lay at MAPPA’s feet. And while there were some pretty cuts in places, for the most part the episode moved like I do when I first wake up in the morning: Poorly.

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