Author: Lenlo

Michiko & Hatchin – 5/6 [The Saudade of Fools, Part 1/Part 2] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Michiko e Hatchin, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! This week is our first 2 parter, so we have a lot to talk about. From getting more of Michiko’s past to Hatchin going out on her own, it’s all inside. So lets dive right in!

First up we have episode 5, “The Saudade of Fools, Part 1”. This was a really interesting episode, and definitely my favorite of this week. We get loads and loads of backstory for Michiko, not only arriving at her home town but meeting who raised her, seeing how she met Hiroshi, and learning how she fell into a life of crime. All the while we see the knock on effects of these moments in the present as Michiko returns to town with Hatchin. I cannot understate, I really really liked this. Backstory is generally hard to do in anime, and is often just a forced flashback during a climactic moment. And while this was a flashback at times, it was done via Michiko revisiting those locations in the present and remembering them herself. They had in-narrative effect on her own emotional state, making them feel so much more purposeful.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 10 [Mob 2 ~Rival~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

Welcome everyone, to another week of Mob Psycho! This was an interesting week, a rather contentious one in fact. Looking around I seem to be the only person with a lukewarm impression of it. Why am I not super hyped? What could possibly have hurt it for me? Lets dive in and talk about it.

Starting off, this episode really isn’t what I was expecting. Now that doesn’t have to be a bad thing! Surprises can be very good in fact. If everything goes the way the audience suspects all the time, you will start to lose their interest. The issue here is more that Mob Psycho surprised me not by tackling something in a completely different way, but by avoiding it all together. What does that mean? Well we’ve known Mob was going to explode, it’s in the previews, the title of the show, it was obvious. The question was only ever why. I expected, and hoped, it would be because of Tsubomi. And that his final emotional hurdle would be dealing with rejection when he has faced acceptance by the rest of the cast across the season. I thought that would be really poignant. Instead? Instead he gets hit by a car.

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Spy X Family – 10 [The Underground Tennis Tournament: The Campbelldon]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Welcome back, to another episode of SpyxFamily! This is late, I know, I’m really slowing down this holiday season and I apologize for that. Lots of irons in the fire at the moment. Still, the show must go on, so lets dive into it!

First up, the animation. SpyxFamily is a very… inconsistently animated show. Some episodes look absolutely gorgeous, from how they are directed down to the individual cuts. I’m talking stuff like Yor running through town to the dog park with Bond. When it wants to, SpyxFamily can be one of the visually strongest anime of the season. But only when it wants to. The rest of the time it looks simply average, with nothing particularly impressive to catch the eye. Luckily for us this week they cared. Because these tennis shots look great. The direction it pretty standard, but the way Fiona and Loid move, the posing, the effects work on stuff like the rocket rackets, it all more than makes up for it. This isn’t the best looking SpyxFamily episode, not by a long shot. But it’s definitely a good one.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 9 [Mob 1 ~Moving~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

Welcome everyone, to the beginning of the end for Mob Psycho! That’s right, this episode is the start of the final arc in the series. A lot is getting set up and a lot is about to go down, so lets jump right into it!

So. The final arc. It’s core is exactly like I guessed, though I won’t act like it wasn’t obvious: Tsubomi is moving and Mob wants to ask her out and it clearly won’t go the way he want. Personally? I found the entire thing incredibly cute. I loved seeing just how much Mob had grown up, how he handles this sort of thing and how different he is compared to the 1st season. Just look at the soccer scenes for instance, taken straight from the first few episodes but now with an entirely different outcome. No longer is Mob the wallflower, the third wheel, that useless kid on your team no one cares about. Now he can contribute! He can reach out, ask for advice, talk to people. My little boy is all grown up! The only surprising part of it all is why Mob’s confession failed.

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Michiko & Hatchin – 3/4 [Like a Frantic Pinball/Stray Cat Milky Way] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Michiko e Hatchin, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! Last week was our introduction, so this week is our chance to see what the show is really like. Is it a buddy cop? A think piece? Some kind of tragedy? Lets dive in and find out!

Starting off though, I just want to once again praise Michiko & Hatchin’s backgrounds. These are, without question, the most impressive part of the production. Not just in their details, those are incredible, but in their variety and number as well. Even something as small as the Chinese noodle shop had, at least, 5 different backgrounds portraying it’s interior from various different angles. Each one covered in minute details like slightly discolored tiles, dents in the wall, rusted pipes, and chipped surfaces. Not to mention different colorings for day/night, lights on/off, etc. Now consider how many repeated locations we had across these two episodes, and multiply all of these backgrounds by that many locations. You begin to understand why I’m so impressed, right? While the animation isn’t perfect, and Hatchin’s design is a tad unappealing, the backgrounds carry the visuals on their back.

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Spy X Family – 9 [Nightfall]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Hello, and welcome to this weeks episode of SpyxFamily! This is an interesting week, as it introduces a whole new character to act as Yuri’s counterpart, just for Loid. Is she any good? Do the jokes land? Did something happen? Lets dive in and find out!

So starting off, overall I think this was a decent week for SpyxFamily. For the first time in a while we got an entire episode dedicated to a singular storyline, and I think it paid off. Sure, there was that extra bit after the ED, but that’s more like a cute excerpt to me, its fine. As for the storyline in question? The introduction of Fiona Frost! As far as introductions go, we’ve had a lot worse. Considering her character archetype, Yuri immediately comes to mind, as they share so much in common. She’s not perfect, and we will talk about why, but I think she has far more potential than Yuri did. Partly because this one isn’t incestuous, but also because she has more going on than just this love obsession. Or at least it feels like it.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 8 [Transmission 2 ~Encountering the Unknown~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

Welcome everyone, to this weeks (late) episode of Mob Psycho 100! I’m not going to apologize for this one, it aired on Thanksgiving and I just got home, you should have expected this. I will say however that I was looking forward to this the entire trip, and I’m glad to be back to watch it. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, we have to talk about the animation. This episode was storyboarded and directed by the absolute phenom that is Hakuyu Go, so right away you know it’s going to be beautiful. But instead of his usual explosive action set pieces, here we get to see his hand at character acting. And like kVin of Sakugablog fame says, it’s absolutely beautiful. The disorienting direction while lost in the forest, their unified individuality after finding the trail, the outrageous full-body character work present all throughout. And none of that even comes close to the trip and a half that is the ending sequence with Inukawa. While it wasn’t the kind of expressive explosion I was expecting from Hakuyu Go, it was certainly still one of the best and most visually memorable episodes of the season.

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Michiko & Hatchin – 1/2 [Farewell, Cruel Paradise!/The Brown Sugar Outlaw] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Michiko e Hatchin, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the next season of Throwback Thursday, Michiko & Hatchin! I hope you’re all having a great Thanksgiving. I hope I am, I’m writing this a few days in advance. We have a lot to talk about with this new series, and not a lot of time to do it, so lets jump right into it!

Starting off, lets talk production. I’m very split on how Michiko & Hatchin looks. The backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous, no question there. Whether it be the cheap “rich” inside of the priests house, with its fraying wallpaper contrasting the rich furniture, or the detailed and dirty city streets and all the graffiti present on the walls, it looks great. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a world so fully realized as this through just its background art alone. But the rest of the visuals… Something feels off. Michiko herself is fantastically animated at times, from the wind blowing through her hair as she rides her bike to her various gunfights. But something about Hatchin’s design, her face, the proportions, all feels off to me. Maybe I’ll get used to it with time and it won’t be an issue, but this early on there’s definitely something off putting about it.

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Spy X Family – 8 [Decipher the Perplexing Code]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Welcome everyone, to another week of Spy X Family! This is another pretty slow week all things considered, another pair of jokes without much going on. While rather cute in execution, I continue to want something a bit more from the series. I’m ready to have my heartstrings pulled again, you know? Anyways, without further ado lets jump into the episode, shall we?

So like I said, this week was another pair of gag episodes, with the first half being all about Anya exploring Loid’s job. This was cute! There were some fun gags in here, a cute Sherlock Holmes outfit, some spy shenanigans. As far as comedy goes, I think SpyXFamily nailed a lot of the jokes here. Perhaps my favorite was Yor’s imagination of taking Anya out and showing off her own job. Not working at the capital building, but being an assassin. The little ninja run, Anya’s smaller version of the outfit, the brightly colored blood. It was a great sequence, with some good action animation for Yor. Beyond that though? There wasn’t really anything of substance. Nothing narratively noteworthy or important. Just a bunch of amusing jokes for a wholesome episodic experience. Like I said last week, for some that’s going to be great. But I need something more.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 7 [Transmission 1 ~Winter Break~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

Welcome everyone, to what I hope is the latest Mob Psycho 100 post you will ever see. Sincere apologies for this. There was simply no motivation to write this week, for various family related reasons. Still, the show must go on. So lets see if I can get this out before the next episode!

Overall, this was a pretty simple episode. Much like SpyXFamily, Mob Psycho is giving us some much needed time to rest and destress after the big emotional rollercoaster that was the Divine Tree arc. However where SpyXFamily largely uses that time for Anya gags, which are still fun don’t get me wrong, Mob Psycho uses it to explore it’s cast of side-characters. In this case, the Telepathy Club. This is an interesting choice, as these guys really haven’t been relevant since the first season. They’ve been in the background, Tome appearing here and there. But they haven’t really been what one would call “characters”. So Mob Psycho picking them up and deciding that now was the time to change that is really interesting. The question becomes though: Is it time well spent?

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