Author: Lenlo

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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Haibane Renmei – 12 [Bell Nuts/Passing of the Year Festival/Reconciliation] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to the penultimate episode of Haibane Renmei! Apologies for the wait on this one, I’ve been quite sick these past few days and didn’t get to write this early like I usually do. With my excuses out of the way lets dive into this weeks episode!

Starting off I think this was the first episode where I had a noticeable issue with Haibane Renmei’s visuals. Not across the board of course. The backgrounds are still nice and the colors, while largely washed out, still work to sell that almost ethereal nature of the Wall, halos and town. In fact I’m really only talking about one part in particular: Rakka’s face when she is talking to Midori. The way this shot is cut just… bothers me. Those 3 rapid frames as she reacts to Midori, the way it cuts between them is just… jarring. It took me completely out of the scene and the moment. I actually went back twice to see if I just blinked or something else went wrong. But no. Its just a really jarring scene. Is this a big deal? Not really but I had to complain about something before I gush.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 2 [Deep Sleep]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Hello and welcome to the Kimetsu no Yaiba movie Episode 2 of Kimetsu no Yaiba! That’s right, this week begins the movie retread. For those of you who have already seen it you won’t be getting anything new. And for those that haven’t? Lets dive in and talk about that.

Right off the bat you can tell that this is movie quality stuff. Not because of any of the big scenes mind you. Yaiba was always, and still is, pretty good about those. It’s more the consistency of it all. The small scenes that normally, in a TV anime at least, wouldn’t get animated. Stuff like Inosuke’s various snort effects, the various facial expressions or movement of background characters, etc. Of course the big things have their moments to though. I have issues with Ufotable’s CGI coming up in later episodes but god is this train pretty. The lighting, the tracking, the smoke, this is a good looking train! And Ufotable knows it, as you will quickly find out by the amount of full-model shots in the upcoming episodes. Whatever you think of the story, and I have qualms about it, you can’t deny that Yaiba is pretty.

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Eighty Six S2 – 3 [Glad to Be Here]

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

Hello everyone and welcome back to Eighty Six! I’ve been a bit positive lately, what with my coverage of Haibane Renmei and gushing over some recent productions. So it’s time to go back to being a bit of a curmudgeon and take shots at someone’s labor of love! Lets dive in.

Now I framed it humorously in the intro but I am legitimately disappointed in Eighty Six this week. From both a production and narrative perspective this episode feels like a step down. And you know what’s so surprising about it? This episode was both Directed and Storyboarded by Satsuki Takahashi, who did episodes 5 and 10 back in the first season. Those were good episodes with incredibly striking imagery! From Shin’s shot in the mirror in episode 5 to the scenic shots of episode 10, I praised them a lot! So it’s really disappointing to see him return this week and not get more of the same beauty. I can only assume the reason is the subject material he had to work with. Those two episodes were much stronger narratively and seemingly more focused in their goal. Meanwhile this episode felt… predictable. More so than Eighty Six usually is.

(Though I will say the CGI looked much better)

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Haibane Renmei – 11 [Parting/Darkness in the Heart/Irreplaceable Thing] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone and welcome to a very late post about Haibane Renmei! I don’t really have an excuse. To be frank I thought this episode was rather dull. Why? Well lets jump in and find out!

So like I said, I found this episode rather dull. It was primarily setup on Rakka’s end, giving her a time limit as well as setting the stakes for what is to come. It also did some work setting the tone but overall I think Haibane Renmei has kept the tone pretty consistent throughout its run so it was a little unnecessary. Overall this episode didn’t really tell us anything new or reframe anything we had already been told. That’s fine I suppose, more of the same with Haibane Renmei is still a decent character piece. And it’s not like every episode has to be some grand reveal, that’s just an unreasonable expectation. But what I can say is that this episode is never going to be my, or anyone’s, favorite out of the season. I just doesn’t have anything to set it apart and give it that “favorite” spark.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 1 [Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Hello everyone and welcome back to Kimetsu no Yaiba! Time for that classic Ufotable shounen spice. Before we get into anything though I have to make one thing clear: Yaiba is going to be lower priority for awhile since it’s just re-airing the movie split into episodes. I’m still going to cover it! But Eighty Six and Throwback Thursday will take precedence. The real Yaiba, for me, doesn’t start until December. That out of the way, its jump into it!

Of course the first thing we have to talk about are the visuals. This is what Yaiba is known for. And rightly so if you ask me. Ufotable’s effects driven presentation might not be my favorite, I think Heike is the best looking show of the season, but its still good. Kinda like a Marvel movie’s CGI-fest versus real props and miniatures, etc. One thing I do have to call it out for though is the composite. Sometimes its just so… painfully obvious that the character was added into the environment after the fact. Their visual styles, the CGI, the post-processing, they don’t fit together. Most of the time it’s fine enough. But in some of the darker scenes where light and shadow were really important it was very noticeable. Not a big problem, Yaiba is still pretty. But it’s there. And we will see more of it.

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86 – Eighty Six S2 – 2 [Its Too Late]

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

Welcome back everyone to another season of Eighty Six! If you’re reading this post you already know what you’re getting into so lets skip the preamble and jump right into it!

Right off the bat I want to, again, praise Director Toshimasa Ishii for Eighty Six’s visuals. The animation and compositing aren’t the best, Heike takes the cake in raw production values probably. But Eighty Six is making a fair go at the title for “Best Shot”. I just really love how it frames and cuts between scenes, imbuing meaning in even the smallest gestures. One of my favorites for the episode for example had to be around 7 minutes in. After being introduced to the now calm and peaceful daily lives of the 86’ers, something novel for them, we then get a short sequence of back shots. Fading between each of them as these days drag on into monotony, the music steady and unchanging but purposefully dull, without bite. It conveys what they are feeling really well! Now if only Eighty Six didn’t feel the need to verbalize it to.

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Haibane Renmei – 10 [Kuramori/Haibane of Abandoned Factory/Rakka’s Job] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all to a (late) episode of Haibane Renmei! This week is a bit slower compared to the last few but no less lighter. We got a lot of information dropped on us this week. So how about we jump right into it?

Compared to the last few episodes this week felt like setup rather than payoff. Like Haibane Renmei is gearing up for it’s final act. This isn’t a bad thing! Where the previous episodes gave us a lot of character growth and revelatory moments, Rakka in the well for example, this week is a lot more information focused. Answering a lot of questions I’ve had since the beginning of the series while asking a few more. But these new question’s aren’t really about the world at large, they aren’t meant to introduce new aspects or parts of the setting. Instead it feels like their purpose is to connect the dots. Pointing us towards the gaps in our knowledge, like the Renmei, the Haibane and the Sin-Bound, and promising to fill them in. So while there wasn’t a lot of forward progress this week I can clearly see the path being laid.

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