Author: Lenlo

State of the Season: Fall 2021

by Lenlo, posted in State of the Season

Lenlo: It’s that time of the season again everyone! The time when we get all the writers together to fight about the best show of the season and complain about the worst. From Ousama Ranking and Heike to Taisho Otome Fairy Tail and Komi-san, we have quite the list of topics ahead of us. So without further ado, read on! And I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving and Christmas season.

P.S. I will be out this weekend attending ANYC so Eighty Six and Kimetsu no Yaiba will no doubt be late.

What show are you enjoying that you’re not reviewing?

Mario: Ousama Ranking and Komi-san. As we talk about the little prince and his shadow down below, I’ll say more about the latter. Komi-san’s adept direction elevates this gag-based material greatly. It knows when to amp up with the jokes but still allows the emotions to slip in. The comic timing and the text bubbles that explain the situation are spot on. It makes fun of the characters but never makes light of them.

Lenlo: Apart from older shows outside the season? Probably Sakugan and Doukichan. One of those because I like underground mystery adventures as much as the next guy. The other because office ladies.

Armitage: Ousama Ranking is the obvious answer here. I am ready to wax poetic about this show at any moment you let me but I am given an official opportunity to do so down under and so, guess you scroll over to the end to read that. Apart from our smol king, I would say Senpai ga Uzai has been especially charming week in, week out.

Amun: Annoying Senpai has been pretty good so far; World’s Best Assassin Isekai went all-in, which makes it better than expected; Kicked Out of the Brave Man’s party I praise below. And I love World Trigger irrationally.

Wooper: Ousama Ranking! It’s got a fantastical setting, an adventurous plot, lovable characters and powerful fight scenes – what’s not to love?

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 5 [Move Forward!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome everyone to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week is going to be a bit of a shorter post, we don’t have to much to talk about. I’ll do my best to cover everything that’s important though so lets dive into it!

Starting off, animation! And like usual Kimetsu no Yaiba fares pretty well here. I especially like the elemental effects. These things continue to be gorgeous, I absolutely love the Ukiyo-e style water and fire effects. The thick, contrasting lines of white and black within these bright colors sets them apart from everything else. And because of how heavily saturated the colors are I find myself not caring about the lack of detail such as shading or how they are composited. Maybe its just my love for heavy blacks, but I think it looks really good and reminds me of cel-shaded animation and games graphics. And on top of all of that the 3D camera work is actually really solid! At least… as long as you ignore the poop tentacles. Yes, you read that right. Poop tentacles. And they look just as ugly as they sound.

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The Vision of Escaflowne – 1/2 [Fateful Confession/The Girl From the Mystic Moon] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in The Vision of Escaflowne

Hello everyone and welcome to a new season of Throwback Thursday! This time, for those who weren’t already aware, we are watching The Vision of Escaflowne from the late, great Studio Sunrise! I say late, they are still making anime today but how much of it is any good. No seriously, how much, I don’t watch Gundam or Aikatsu. Anyways my bad jokes aside, lets dive into it!

And what better place to start than my old reliable, the visuals! Initial impressions: I quite like how Escaflowne looks. It has all the hallmarks of the cel-era of animation, as it should since it was made in the 90s. I’m talking heavy, saturated colors instead of the more modern pastels and the uneven linework you just don’t find in digital. On top of that it also makes use of heavy blacks in some of its more dramatic moments, a style I’ve loved since I first saw it in late 90’s comic books. And then we have the character designs! These people are long and angular, with sharp edges all over their outlines. I love it! It makes them feel so much older than a lot of modern series where the designs emphasize the softness of youth over the stiffness of age. So yeah, Escaflowne, right up my visual alley.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 4 [Insult]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! We had a bit of a break there, partly for the show and partly for me, but thats fine more time for Ufotable to work on the second half. Or maybe… maybe even to work on this half. Because if my suspicions are correct, this isn’t just a reprint of the movie. Not entirely at least. Lets dive in and talk about it!

Starting off, if I didn’t know any better I would say there were some new cuts in this episode. Stuff that wasn’t in the movie! Really Kimetsu no Yaiba? You’re going to spoil me? And indeed, going by this post from reddit user “eitherism” there was a good bit added. From the falling scene with the young man in Tanjiro’s dream to making his suicide a bit bloodier as well as moving some stuff around to better fit these new scenes. Of course not all of it is great. Yaiba is still cutting out the occasional character or exposition scene it seems and causing some continuity issues. But ignoring what are admittedly very small issues, Yaiba has added more than it took out. As someone who expected this to be nothing more than the movie cut up and re-aired, that’s kind of impressive.

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Eighty Six S2 – 6 [I Won’t Forget]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Eighty Six! This week we follow up on Lena, see her organize the defense of San Magnolia and have an all around good time! Or at least that’s what I would like to say. Instead we see even less of her this week. What happened in place of that? Lets dive in and talk about that.

First up though I need to give Eighty Six credit for this, the storyboarding is back baby. There were some really, really nice shots this week. Not much in the way of interesting cuts like we got last season sadly. But almost the entirety of Shin’s meeting with the general was just… really evocative. The way the sound cut out, the General’s dialogue fading away as Shin read between the lines and heard what they always did: Eighty Six. Expendable. The squad poofing away into the scrap metal with their names, clattering behind down behind him. This scene was probably the most engaged I’ve been with Eighty Six this entire season. This is the good shit! Now I just need Eighty Six to keep giving us this and less of the loli.

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Haibane Renmei Anime Review – 86/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Haibane Renmei, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

Yoshitoshi ABe is, or at least should be, a pretty recognizable name. You’ve no doubt seen his work and influence across many series while watching anime. From the illustrations for the original novels of Welcome to the N.H.K. and All You Need Is Kill to providing original character designs for the technological horror series Texhnolyze and Serial Experiments Lain. ABe’s art has a distinctive, gritty quality to it that you don’t often see in modern Moe-fied anime. And for me that begs the question: What kind of stories is he trying to tell with this art? Well it seems we have our answer. Directed by Tomokazu Tokoro, animated by the now defunct studio Radix and created/storyboarded by Yoshitoshi ABe I give to you Haibane Renmei. So without further ado let’s talk about some cute angel girls within a not-so-cute story.
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Eighty Six S2 – 5 [Even So]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Eighty Six! Apologies for the delay with this, I’ve been busy this Halloween and only got around to watching the episode. I hope you all had as much fun over the weekend as I did. So without further ado, lets dive into it!

First up how about some praise for Eighty Six? I haven’t given it much recently, and I certainly wont after this, but credit where its due: The robots look good, Eighty Six has seriously stepped up their mech game. As far as standard anime CGI goes I think these are some of the better mechs I’ve seen in a good while. Their movements were surprisingly fluid as they ran and bounced around the city in those extended shots and the compositing was, by and large, pretty good. I never felt taken out of the scene by a 3D mech standing on a 2D background nor by MS Paint fire and smoke effects. And on top of all of that Eighty Six still managed to work in some evocative shots and edits, such as glass flying by Shin’s face or his charge. So yeah, good job.

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Haibane Renmei – 13 [Reki’s World/Prayer/Epilogue] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to the finale of Haibane Renmei! We’ve made it through another season of Throwback Thursday and you know what that means: Time to vote for the next one. Like always you can find the poll at the end of this post. In the meantime though lets talk about about depression WOO!

So as far as my immediate impressions of the ending go I have to say that I am… satisfied. It didn’t go exactly as I thought it would, I figured it would be more bittersweet. One where Reki forgives herself but it’s to late for her Day of Flight. Or perhaps Rakka postpones her own so that Reki won’t feel alone here anymore. What we got instead was still good though. I feel that with this Haibane Renmei wrapped up and concluded everything important it introduced. We still don’t know much about the Factory or the Renmei and some questions remain unanswered true. But the crux of Haibane Renmei was always Reki and Rakka, and that feels properly handled. Haibane Renmei even addressed my concern about help being the only way out by instead making it about accepting help. That you needed the desire to change rather than stagnation.

So yeah, it was good. Now what about Reki?

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 3 [Should Have Been]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome everyone to episode 3 of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week we continue our rewatch of the movie in the long wait until December for new content. So without further ado lets dive in!

This week lets skip the production talk. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it, this is a movie, it looks good. I’ve also already mentioned the pacing issues. So instead lets go right to the crux of the episode: Dreams. I mentioned last week that this was a pretty clever way to explore the characters, and I stand by that. However that’s only true if Kimetsu no Yaiba chooses to engage those characters in that way. And sadly half our cast don’t get that kind of treatment. Both Inosuke and Zenitsu seem to have been relegated to comic relief in this arc and I think that’s a shame. This was the perfect opportunity to expand on both of their characters but Inosuke especially. The guy never talks about himself, he doesn’t really share his personal feelings, and the dream was the perfect opportunity to get around that. It’s a missed opportunity if you ask me.

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Eighty Six S2 – 4 [Welcome Back]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome to what is perhaps the dullest episode of Eighty Six yet! Think I’m exaggerating? Then you clearly haven’t watched the episode before reading this. And if you have but still disagree? Give me until the end of this post to prove it to you. So without further ado lets dive in!

Obviously the place we have to start is with Frederica. I know that this is becoming a weekly segment at this point but I have to get this out somewhere: She is the worst part of Eighty Six. From the blatant and pointless sexualization to taking over the conversations between the 86ers and making them about herself, she’s bringing down everything that made Eighty Six good. What’s worse though is that she also isn’t bringing anything new to the table to make up for what she’s ruining. A 10 year old waxing philosophical in her little “moe” voice about life and death, am I supposed to not laugh?! How am I supposed to take this whole knight and fallen kingdom plot seriously when it’s being delivered by fucking Moe Moe Kyun? And actually now that I mention it lets talk about this “Knight” plot because it’s incredibly lazy.

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