Author: Lenlo

Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 6

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Frieren – 10 [A Powerful Mage]

Ah here it is, here’s the Frieren going ham on some demons that I was looking for last week. Don’t get me wrong, last week was great, there’s just something cathartic about watching a villain get absolutely bodied. And when the entire episode is just buildup to that one moment? Walking us through Frieren’s relationship with her master, Flamme, and Flamme’s complete and utter hatred for demons? How they basically embarrass and belittle themselves as mages by hiding their Mana, typically a status symbol among mages and demons alike, just to shatter the pride of demons every chance they get? Frieren being so petty that she not only waits until the last moment to reveal her hand and crush Aura’s spirit, she also doesn’t even kill her herself? Instead telling her to end it LowTierGod style? It was all so very satisfying, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sure it wasn’t the visual spectacle last week was, and if that’s what you were looking for I understand being a bit let down. But for me, last week satisfied all of my “Pretty lights go brr” desires and while week covered my “Compelling characters and narrative go brr” desires. Learning why there are so few elves, the Demon King systematically eliminated them, or the individualism of the demons and how much they prize it, or Lugner’s utter disgust at figuring out what they were doing. It was a good episode, I enjoyed it a lot, as much as I enjoy watching Frieren struggle with the passage of time seeing her clown on some demons is fun to.

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The Big O – 13/14 [R・D/Roger the Wanderer] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome all, to the midway point of Big O! This week sees one season finish and another begin, a finale and a pilot, and let me tell you both are kind of weird. Not in a Migi & Dali way, more of a psychedelic Serial Experiments Lain way. Is that a good thing? Well lets dive in and find out.

First up is episode 13, “R・D”. The most frustrating thing about this episode is that it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. Seriously, if I had to wait 3 years for the next episode like viewers at the time did, instead of the 3 minutes I did today, I’d have gone insane. Really glad we can just skip straight to season 2 because Big O covers a lot in this episode. It feels like things are finally kicking into gear, like it’s finally ready to start tackling the central plot it has been setting up for the past 6 or so episodes, as well as finally diving into Roger as a character. I say “finally” because until now Big O has mostly looked at Roger externally, at his role in Paradigm City at large. But here it starts to explore him internally, and I like that.

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Migi & Dali – 6

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

Welcome all, to another episode of Migi & Dali! Last week was a weird one and this week even more so. Still even with that the episode had some stuff going for it, enough that I’m looking forward to next week. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, Jesus Christ is this show weird. It’s always been weird, but these past 2 weeks have been especially weird. And not in a good way. This week Migi & Dali doubles down on the weird baby stuff to an unsettling degree. In a way I get it. It’s very good at showing us just how screwed up this family is, as well as how important this room is to our protagonists. But Migi & Dali’s presentation of it feels… Kind of icky? Do we need Migi to go all in on it, to want to become the “perfect toddler”, to gleefully suck milk from a bottle or fake falling on his ass because a “toddler” doesn’t know how to walk? It’s all just very uncomfortable for me. As much as I enjoy the actual mystery part of the show, I’m glad this arc is over.

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Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 5

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Frieren – 8/9 [Frieren the Slayer/Aura the Guillotine]

Doubling up this week to try and get current with Frieren for these posts. Don’t want y’all waiting a week and not getting anything until the day the next episode comes out. Last weeks episode 8 was solid. The demons got outed and the conflict started in earnest, forcing Stark and Fern to face them on their own. Meanwhile Frieren fled the town to avoid being labeled a guard-killer, but it was pretty obvious she was heading out to deal with this Aura person. I’d say the best parts of this episode were two fold. The first was Lugners aggravation at geniuses and this idea that demons, despite accumulating experience and focusing on this one thing to the exclusion of all else, can still be outdone by beings they consider “lesser”. The other was the reveal of just how much Frieren hates demons, to the point of specifically teaching Fern a demon-killing version of offensive magic and being regarded as the person to kill the most demons in history. It makes her rematch with Qual earlier feel all the more personal. All in all, solid, had a good time.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 15 [Fluctuations, Part 2]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! This week is a fun one as Toji gets to go off and Sukuna finally makes his appearance! We have a lot to talk about so lets dive into it.

Starting off, lets talk production. Jujutsu Kaisen had a pretty rough time last episode, I don’t think anyone can deny that. So I was pretty nervous going into this episode. Luckily, as terrible as their scheduling and production appears to be behind the scenes, MAPPA pulled it together for this one. It looked great. Toji got to pop off. The only criticisms I have aren’t even MAPPA’s fault, it’s the TV station and their mandatory-by-law seizure prevention dimming and ghosting. That, more than anything else, is what held this episode back. Jujutsu Kaisen fans should look forward to the Blu-ray where that will all be gone. Animation aside, this was also one of the first episodes where I really noticed the OST. There were a lot of good tracks this week that fit their scenes well, from Toji to Sukuna’s arrival. To sum it up? Episode was a good time.

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The Big O – 11/12 [Daemonseed/Enemy is Another Big!] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome all, to the almost half-way point of The Big O!  This week we kick off the Christmas season with a shockingly seasonal episode and begin the finale of Big O’s first season. We have a lot to talk about, so lets dive right in.

First up we have episode 11, “Daemonseed”. Overall, as a complete package, I quite liked this episode. It’s probably the stronger of the two we will be talking about this week. Centered on Christmas, I mean “Heaven’s Day”, it’s all about Dorothy, Roger, their relationship, religion, all the regular things that come up in normal Christmas episodes. But because of Big O’s setting, where no one has any memories from 40 years ago, it manages to do away with a lot of the usual “baggage” that comes with it. Suddenly Christmas songs passed down through holiday cards have a special meaning, presents become based in Paradigm City’s history pf charity and control, and Roger gets to be surly about it all. Add on Dorothy’s android existence, her struggle to understand not only what it means to be human but specific emotions like love, and you have something solid here.

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Migi & Dali – 5

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

Welcome all, to what is easily the weirdest episode of Migi & Dali yet. Is that a good thing? Who knows! A lot happened this week, from finding the room they grew up in to being taken hostage. We have plenty to talk about so lets dive right into it.

Starting off, what in gods name did I just watch? Migi & Dali has always been a weird show, that’s part of why I love it. But this one was extra weird. Almost to weird in a few ways. I could take feeding Migi dog food, trapping him in a secret room, and general homicidal tendencies. But the whole baby thing? Being dressed up in a diaper and put in a crib, fed milk from a bottle, all the while trapped in a room with no way out? Or pulling down Migi’s pants to fondle and examine his ass while the family watches? Those were uncomfortably weird, and almost to much for me. And yet… When considered as parts of a whole, when I think back on the growing feeling of dread throughout the episode as we learned more about the Ichijo household, it sort of works.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 14 [Fluctuations]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to an incredibly late episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! Apologies for that, I was traveling this weekend only just got home. Trust me, I’m feeling this delay worse than you, my backlog is getting insane so this is a busy Monday. Anyways, schedule management aside, how about we dive right into the episode?!

Starting off, let’s talk production. This week was easily the jankiest yet. I’ve been talking about it for weeks, the slow decline, the MAPPA curse, the issues Jujutsu Kaisen is having behind the scenes. Well this is all of that starting to show in the final product. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some great cuts here. Jujutsu Kaisen hasn’t burned out completely, the team is still doing the best they can with the resources/time they have. But it’s undeniable that large portions of the episode move and look like they weren’t finished. And if you look on Twitter, sorry “X”, you’ll find loads of animators who worked on the episode talking about how troublesome it was. It’s kind of funny in a way. The episode with the most troubled animation yet has the power based specifically on animation.

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Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 4

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Hello all! Apologies for any delay, both from this and anything else this weekend. I’m flying home to visit family and that’s not leaving me much time to finish all of these up. Should be back to our normal schedule by Monday!

Frieren – 7 [Like a Fairy Tale]

First up we have Frieren. Unsurprisingly, Frieren is still going strong. It wasn’t an action packed episode or anything, but it gave us another look back into her time with Himmel and, more specifically, her interactions with Demons. I thought this was really interesting. When it started, I expected it to be about Frieren being an old conservative grandma who couldn’t accept that times were changing. That, like how magic passed by the Demon Qual, society was progressing and passing by her. That these Demons did legitimately want piece, resulting in a Tiefling like scenario. I would have been cool with that, show us some flaws! It’s the pretty standard route to go after all, the world becoming more peaceful and such. Really progressive. Instead though Frieren doubles down. Yes Demons do suck, yes they are monsters that operate on a completely different value scale than us. That whole thing in the flashback? With the Demon child wanting to trade one child for another? Of only using the words “Mother” and “Father” because they know humans are emotional and won’t kill them if they do? Or what about Lugner blatantly looking around Graf’s son’s room to build a believable story about his own father being killed by humans to keep the negotiations going? It was all just presented so well, for an episode of basically nothing but talking it was some really good talking. Plus we have the promise of Frieren just going off in the next episode or two, so it’s not like the action isn’t coming up. So yeah. Shocker, another good Frieren episode.

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The Big O – 9/10 [Beck Comes Back/Winter Night Phantom] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome all, to week 5 of The Big O! This week sees the return of an old friend, Dorothy asking an important question and Dastun getting perhaps the artsiest episode yet all to himself! Is it any good? Well that’s what we’re here to talk about, so lets dive right into it.

Starting off we have episode 9, “Beck Comes Back”. As the name implies, this episode sees the return of Beck! And wouldn’t you know it, the guy looks great with a beard/goatee. Overall I felt this was a solid episode. It’s core is a pretty straight forward revenge plot from Beck, but Big O introduces a side narrative involving Dorothy, the kidnapped man and questions of identity that really filled out it for me. My biggest, and really only, gripe with the episode would have to be just how easily everyone believes Roger would kidnap someone. Seriously, Dastun of all people should at least know Roger would never do this. And he was called in to help resolve the kidnapping long after it had already occurred. It felt a bit weird to me is all, even with Mr. Wise backing it up. Still, it’s ultimately a very small nitpick.

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