Author: Lenlo

Spy X Family – 7 [Operation Revenge on Desmond]

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

Welcome everyone, to a (very) late episode of SpyXFamily! Apologies for that, I had to finish the His and Her Circumstances review, checking it over until I was happy. Still, that’s done and ready to go up Thursday so it’s time for some good old family fun! So without further ado, lets dive into the episode.

Overall this was a pretty slow week for SpyXFamily, with neither episode really furthering anything plot wise. Instead they were just 2 cute, longform gag sequences. This is fine enough, it was certainly cute. But there was nothing really… noteworthy. Nothing particularly heartwarming nor narratively important enough to get invested in. I’m sure for most this is fine, I want to be painfully clear that this was still a fun episode. But I’ve heard some gripes from friends and colleagues about how they found it to be rather dull, and I can’t bring myself to disagree. Still, every now and then this kind of break from the serious stuff is good. You can’t keep your audience tense all of the time. So long as this doesn’t become the new status quo, I’m sure it’ll be alright.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 6 [Divine Tree 3 ~Dimple Is~]

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

Welcome everyone, to what is so far the best episode of the Fall 2022 anime season. You know how I was talking about hype, and how to much of it can hurt a season? Well this week is what happens when that promise of hype gets fulfilled. Mob Psycho absolutely nailed it this week, on every front. Now lets dive in and talk about how.

First up, the production. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. This looked gorgeous. Not just because of Dimple flying around shooting laser beams and beating the crap out of broccoli men, but also the facial expressions, body language and evocative storyboards. I’m talking stuff like the giant set of eyes looming behind Dimple as Mob leaves, or Dimple’s desperate cry as the battle rages on and on. There is an art to conveying emotion in a fight. Any Shounen, any anime at all really, can animate a fight well if they put their mind to it. It’s selling the audience on the conflict, on why the characters are fighting that makes it truly impactful. And that’s something I think Mob Psycho did incredibly well here. Dimple went from the arcs antagonist to it’s hero in the span of 8 minutes, and I loved every single one.

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His and Her Circumstances – 25/26 [A Story Different from Up to Now/14 Days, Part 6] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, His and Her Circumstances, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the grand finale of His and Her Circumstances. Well, I say grand, but it’s not, is it? Closer to a grand disappointment if anything. I cannot think of a more messy, disappointing finale to a series I’ve actually enjoyed than this. It’s almost impressive, if I wasn’t so absolutely livid. Why? Well lets dive in and talk about the “why”.

First up, the production. To call these episodes a mess would be a disservice to messes everywhere, it was downright trash. Oh there were some bits that looked nice, I’ll grant. The stark coloring in episode 25 lent very well to the horror vibes, while the rainbow patterning on Arima’s face really sold the internal strife. Aside from that however, both episodes were veritable power points, with episode 26, the bloody finale, not even having that. It’s like the episode never made it out of the storyboarding phase, complete with text on the screen in place of spoken dialogue and simplistic, black and white sketches for the characters. Some might try to defend this as “Unique” and “Artistic” but I just call it “Mismanagement” and “incomplete”. As someone who loved His and Her Circumstances production early on, this was a massive disappointment.

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Spy X Family – 6 [Uncle the Private Tutor]

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

Welcome everyone, to a late episode of SpyXFamily! You may have noticed a few things being late recently, well that’s just because a lot of reviews are comin up at the same time. Should be clear for next week hopefully. Anyways, delays aside lets jump into the episode!

First up, lets talk about the midterms. This was a pretty standard “Cute Anya” kind of adventure. And I don’t mean that negatively! Cute Anya adventures, when spaced out or paired with something a bit more substantive, are a great time. You need look no further than this very episode for an example of that. The core premise? Anya needs to do well on her exams. The larger narrative conflict at stake? Peace between the East and West, as if Anya fails then she’s well on her way to getting kicked out. This gives a lot more gravitas to something that, lets be frank, really wouldn’t be all that important otherwise. I mean, since when are 6 y/o’s tests of any meaningful important? The other really cool thing it does is actually show the progression of time in the series, as Anya’s school year is halfway done.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 5 [Divine Tree 2 ~Peace~]

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

Welcome everyone, to a very late episode of Mob Psycho 100! Apologies for the wait on this one, busy week of work and grad school has slowed me down and I prioritized Throwback Thursday going out on… well Thursday. Excuses aside though, let’s dive into this weeks episode!

As usual, lets start with the production. This is going to be a bit of a controversial statement, but I think Mob Psycho was rather subdued this week. It was good, obviously. I’m not saying it was bad, Mob Psycho’s baseline consistency is great and puts most shows highs to shame. It just hasn’t given us anything incredible yet. Nothing that has pushed or exceeded my expectations for the show. Maybe this is a consequence of hype though. How to much can lead to unattainable expectations, sort of like how the Chainsaw Man fandom is at war with itself right now over it’s own visual production (Which I’ve enjoyed so far, to be clear). For Mob Psycho, after 2 seasons of pushing that envelope I, and others, have come to expect that once again. Will we get it? Probably, eventually. But we haven’t yet, despite being beautiful otherwise.

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His and Her Circumstances – 22/23/24 [14 Days, Part 4/14 Days, Part 5/Recap] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, His and Her Circumstances, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the penultimate week of His and Her Circumstances! That’s right, we only have one more week before this is done and you get a final review. So if you have a series you want covered in Throwback Thursday, make sure to leave a comment so I can put it on the poll. Now without further ado, lets dive into the episodes!

First up, episode 22, “14 Days, Part 4”. This episode is all about them prepping for the upcoming play. And you know what? I need to say it. I have no idea how this is going to transition into a satisfactory finale. Between the prep there are some small scenes about Arima’s jealousy and personal issues, despite Miyazawa’s previous affirmations about their relationship, but it’s not thing particularly notable. And even if it was, this play doesn’t seem like a good way to address them what with it’s sci-fi themed subject matter and how Arima isn’t involved in it at all. In fact, it seems like Asaba is doing more to notice and address Arima’s issues than anyone else. But even he disappoints in just silently being there rather than any kind of… cathartic discussion, and also not having any actual arc of his own.

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Spy X Family – 4/5 [Yor’s Kitchen/Carry Out the Griffin Plan]

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

Hello everyone, and welcome back to SpyXFamily! Apologies for missing last week, had a bit of a family emergency. Don’t worry though, everything is going much better! Enough with real life problems though, let’s just dive right into our weekly anime.

Right off the bat, this is a bit of an odd (double) week for SpyXFamily. Both episodes have a singular, larger plot to them, like a normal episode should. But neither of these plots are enough to fill an entire episode on their own. So what do you do? Drag it out, or fill the space with something else? In this case, SpyXFamily has chosen the latter. Rather than drag out two perfectly paced stories, it instead added a miniature “filler” story to the end of each episode. As a sort of epilogue to these episodes, mini-sodes meant to show us small parts of these characters daily lives, this is fine. But for me, as someone who isn’t big on Slice of Life, they certainly weren’t my favorite of the things SpyXFamily has done. What I’m saying is, they were cute but lets not do them to often, you know?

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His and Her Circumstances – 20/21 [14 Days, Part 2/14 Days, Part 3] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, His and Her Circumstances, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another (late) week of His and Her Circumstances! There’s a fair amount to talk about this week, most of it concerning, but worth the time regardless. That warning given, lets dive into the episode!

Starting with the production, this week is actually an improvement. The same way being punched in the stomach is an improvement over being kicked in the balls. Sure, there are no more paper cutouts overlaid onto real life future, and things have progressed beyond sketches. But at the same time you can count the frames in most scenes, and most of the characters simply look… off. It’s like all of their designs and models got downscaled to 240p. They lack small details and proportions are off, making them look like completely different characters half the time. And with Anno gone the interesting and engaging direction that made these still screens actually work has left with him. It’s a shame really. Circumstances started off so strong visually, yet here it is falling apart like the very definition of production melt. At least the narrative can salvage it… right?

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 4 [Divine Tree 1 ~The Founder Appears~]

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

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Mob Psycho 100! Apologies for missing SpyXFamily last week, had a bit of a family emergency. But that’s all resolved and I’m back in the saddle now, so lets dive into this weeks best episode!

Starting off, Mob Psycho looked fantastic this week. It still hasn’t dropped the animation bomb we are all looking for, and for some that might be disappointing. But barring that, this episode was filled to the brim with great character animation incredible storyboards. Just look at Tome’s segment in the opening shots of the episode, how her whole body moves with her gestures, and how the other club members express their confusion with her. Or how the atmosphere of the episode slowly grew more and more oppressive and uncomfortable as it progressed, with the color green slowly invading each scene. Omnipresent, always watching, waiting as it took over the show and the characters within. It was tense, almost horror-esque, with it’s uncomfortable closeups, silent wide shots and stark lighting. Once again we learn that even without sakuga, Mob Psycho is one of the best visual experiences airing right now.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 3 [Getting Carried Away ~100%~]

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

Hello everyone and welcome back to Mob Psycho 100, the best show of the season! It’s a rather tame episode this week, but even tame a Mob Psycho episode is still one of the most solid things to air. Don’t believe me? Well lets jump in and see if I can’t convince you by the end of this post.

First up, what do I mean by “tame”? Simply that there weren’t any “big” moments. No grand sakuga showcase, no fight, nothing that we can point to and say “That looked incredible”. Instead what we got was simple, solid consistency. Everything from small scenes of character acting to expressive body language and engaging visual metaphors. The kind of things that fall by the wayside in a lot of series, because who is going to notice, right? But Mob Psycho is known both for its incredible highs and it’s consistently solid “lows”. So now that we’ve seen that solid “low”, when can we expect the high? And remember, I say low but that’s still wildly above average for TV anime. Back to the high, from what I’ve read we know that Hakuyu Go, from Season 2 Episode 5 fame, is working primarily on episode 8. So expect that to be huge.

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