Author: Lenlo

Jujutsu Kaisen – 23 [The Origin of Blind Obedience 2]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome everyone to the penultimate episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! And this week I present to you: Megumi Fushiguro. That’s it. I don’t have anything clever here, this is Fushiguro’s episode and its pretty damn good. So lets dive into it.

As always lets start by first bitching about Jujutsu Kaisen’s production. Or at least that’s what I would say if it didn’t do a great job this week. Everything from the composite and choreography to even the CGI tracking shots were good. Whether it be the intensity of Gojo’s stare during Fushiguro’s flashback or Itadori running and spinning through the domain. It’s frankly amazing how much of a difference changing the environment you are tracking in can help. I’m sure you remember the forests of the tournament arc and just how… bad that looked. Of course part of that comes down to this room being a flat plane compared to complex foliage. But it’s not as if Park didn’t know what the environment would be like in each of these shots before planning them out. So let this be a lesson on using the right tool for the right scene.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 10 [Humanity’s Strongest Tag Team]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Ding dong the witch is dead… or someone is at least in this weeks episode of Dr. STONE! Lot’s to talk about, some new and some old, so lets dive into it.

As always I want to start with the production. Rather than talk about the combat being about as animated as it usually is though, lets talk about something positive: Lighting and shot direction. These are two of Dr. STONE’s biggest strengths and this episode continues that trend. Whether it be a beachside setting sun or Hyoga’s presence in the foreground of someone else’s shot, Dr. STONE had some great scenes this week. Seriously just look at some of these in the gallery above or the one-offs below. It’s amazing what even a diluted version of Boichi’s art-style can do. His thick and scratchy linework adding so much texture to the furs and outfits of the characters. I wish that Dr. STONE had kept up what it showed early with Homura. But at least it managed to hold onto the stills.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 9 [Wolf and the Shepherd’s Lamb]

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

We’re back with another week of Spice and Wolf. This week Holo get’s jealous, Lawrence makes some business connections and a new waifu enters the fray! Who will win? Find out this week on Throwback Thursday!

This episode picks up right where we left off last week and to be frank? It wasn’t really my speed. The first half of the episode was slow going and I understand why. Spice and Wolf is introducing us to Norah, letting us get to know her and priming us for the arc to come. This isn’t automatically a bad thing as Spice and Wolf is all about slow travel and interesting conversation. But Norah doesn’t really have the same charisma as Holo and her presence makes Holo clam up. Depriving us of some prime banter, though we do get some about halfway in. That said, getting us invested in Norah early is a good plan if she’s going to be important later on. But this time is an investment and if Norah’s story flops or isn’t used then I probably won’t remember this episode fondly.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 22 [The Origin of Blind Obedience]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome back to Jujutsu Kaisen! Last week was a contentious one going by the comments. And by contentious I mean people thought I was a tad harsh and may have missed the point of the episode. Well for those people I have good news, because I actually quite enjoyed this one! Surprising considering its 90% setup but it’s setup done well. So without further ado lets jump into Jujutsu Kaisen!

Like I said, this week is primarily setup for what is to come. It’s a lot of talking, wandering around and basically no fighting until the very last second. So the question becomes: Why do I think this is good setup compared to most anime? And the answer I have come up with is this: We still had interesting and meaningful character interaction, with history about Fushiguro specifically, that made it worth our time. Whether it be Fushiguro’s time in middle school or his more serious inner conflict about his sister, we learned more about who Fushiguro is. And these weren’t just random tidbits, info dumping his backstory for us. They were directly involved in the random B-plot of the episode and that made them feel… important. Even if they probably aren’t in the long run. It’s this sense of importance that makes this episode work for me.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 9 [To Destroy and to Save]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

It’s done, the war is over, peace has come to Dr. STONE! Or at least that’s what it wants you to think. With 2 episodes left something is yet to come. What it is, we will have to wait and find out. But as far as this week goes lets dive right in shall we?

Now normally I would start this section lamenting Dr. STONE’s action production. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Dr. STONE is not an action show and it shows. But you already know that by now so lets skip to the good stuff and talk Tsukasa! This was a good week for him as Dr. STONE acknowledged a lot of holes in Senku’s “Save everyone” argument. If you have limited fluid, who do you save? How do you feed them all in a stone world, etc. Tsukasa saw these problems and, with a decent amount of bias, took that terrible choice onto himself. He’s always ridden the line of a redeemable villain. This week cemented that for him. Most important of all though it took what was previously a “Fuck yeah action” finale and shifted it to a “Fuck yeah humanity” one. And you know I love those.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 8 [Wolf and Virtuous Scales] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Hello all and welcome back to another episode of Spice and Wolf! Sorry about this one being a bit late, but I just finished moving into my new home and I love it. Fios is a godsend. Switching back to Spice and Wolf though this a good week for us. Holo and Lawrence continue to deliver fantastic exchanges, meanwhile the pair finally leaves Pazzio for new pastures. What do they find? Read on to find out!

Starting with a basic overview, it looks like we are back to travelling and I’m glad for it. I would have liked a bit more of a notice of that fact though. The episode opens already on the road and in a new town, taking me a bit to realize we weren’t still in Pazzio. I figured it out eventually through context clues and dialogue of course. But jumping from one brick walled city to another with no in-between or notice could get very confusing very fast. As the only things to really delineate these towns from each other are the overhead views and the characters in them. That’s basically the only issue I have the with episode though. Spice and Wolf seems to struggle a bit with how to open but once it gets going it becomes rather capitating. Not the worst problem to have I suppose.

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2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu – 7/8/9

by Lenlo, posted in 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

I’m back baby, and with more bitching about Volley-Bu! As you can see from the title this post is a triple header. Why? Because I don’t have enough to write about 1 episode of this show, so its easier to do 3. Don’t worry, it’s still mostly going to be me complaining about it, so lets dive in!

Starting off, lets shove 3 episodes worth of production issues into a single 150 word paragraph. There’s a lot we could talk about here: The framing of shots is off, the CGI volleyballs look like crap, the character models move like they are in molasses, etc. There is the occasional moment of decent animation but by and large Volley-Bu looks like crap. But the single biggest production flaw to me right now has to be the sound design. I understand what Volley-Bu is going for here, it wants the hits to be impactful and the jumps to have momentum. Basically it wants the Hajime no Ippo treatment where everything sounds like a jet engine and it all just works. But Volley-Bu isn’t getting that. Instead its getting the Berserk 2016 treatment where it sounds like a blown out microphone and someone hitting pans together. And I hate it.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 21 [Jujutsu Koshien]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

I can’t lie, this was a weird week for Jujutsu Kaisen. Between the baseball, the comedy and the serious plot I had no idea what it was trying to accomplish. I don’t think Jujutsu Kaisen knows either to be frank. So without further ado lets dive in to the wacky world of cursed baseball.

As I said, this is tonally a very weird episode. Large portions of Jujutsu Kaisen were very comedy focused this week, and to great success I would say. Toudou getting hit in the face with a baseball and then the follow up gag of it being completely on purpose was hilarious. It was hands down the best joke not only of the episode but of the series as a whole. But interspersed between those jokes, between the baseball stat cards and fun scenes, we got… serious character flashbacks about abandonment? And philosophical talks between headmasters about whether or not Itadori should get to live? What? It felt like Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t have enough baseball content to fill a full episode with. That makes sense, no doubt the baseball was a single chapter in the manga. With an anime’s pacing though it makes for an awkward episode.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 8 [Final Battle]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

This is it ladies and gentleman, the culmination of Dr. STONE’s story, the big kahuna: The final battle. Ignore that we still have 3 episodes left, thats not important, because its time to RUUUUUUMBLE! Lets dive into it.

Right off the bat I have to say that this was a very rough episode. Both production and narrative wise Dr.STONE ran into a lot of problems. For production, the only part that felt “well made” was the opening sequence about the cave. Showing us how it got formed over time, how Senku ended up there and all that jazz was a great way to remind us of our roots. Of how far the series has come from the first episode. All without being a shot for shot recap that everyone would hate. After that though its like Dr. STONE forgot what the landscape was. Multiple times we were shown the open field in from of the cave. Only for the entire action sequence to forget this layout, add more men, more ground and some hills before reverting back to a flat plain. There was 0 locational consistency here.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 7 [Wolf and a Tail of Happiness] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to The Bachelorette Spice and Wolf, I’m your host Lenlo and this week Holo is super thirsty. That’s it, that’s the plot of this weeks episode. By I’ll be damned if their dialogue doesn’t make interesting so lets dive right into it.

Initially I was kind of confused by this episode. Not much was really happening and for some reason we were still in the same town as before. I I thought that Lawrence and Holo would be on the run or maybe leaving at least. You know, getting out of the town that thinks she’s demon possessed and all that. But no we just wake up munching on apples and go shopping as if half the town wouldn’t have heard about the wolf girl. It’s not as if the church isn’t still hunting her right? But as the episode went on and the dialoged evolved beyond pointless needling it started to draw me in. I realized that this week was more of a check in on what their relationship is like now, rather than jumping into a new plot thread. Not perfect but hey, I can enjoy thirsty wolf girl flirting.

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