Author: Lenlo

2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-Bu – 5 [Stand By Me]

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

I’m skipping the intro today because, to be frank, I’m done with Volley-Bu. Not in that I am going to stop covering it, I’m riding this train to the end. But I’m done playing nice and expecting it to change because this episode pissed me off. Up until now Volley-Bu has just been lazy with its writing. Speeding through content, cutting corners, not properly setting things up, etc. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t actively terrible, just mediocre. But this week Volley-Bu has undercut one of its core emotional plot threads in the stupidest way possible. I said in the initial impressions post that exploring suicide and bullying was a brave, tough choice. And that if it could pull it off then Haijima would have a great story worth watching. Turns out though, the suicide was fake.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 17 [Kyoto Sister School Exchange 3]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome to Girl Power, sponsored by Jujutsu Kaisen! This week the production is back in force and the narrative is back on the interesting characters. So without further ado lets dive in!

This is an interesting week for Jujutsu Kaisen, and for Shonen in general, because its almost 100% female lead. Why is this special? Well to put it simply, most Shonen female characters are absolute trash, they are terribly written. Its clear that most Shonen authors either don’t know how, or are not interested in, writing female characters. So to get an episode where they are not only the spotlight, but the sole focus, was rather novel. It’s a bit sad though that they were all still restricted to only fighting each other. The “female empowerment”/Strong Women narrative gets a little smudged when they are locked in their own box, not allowed to fight the male characters. Hopefully that changes as the event progresses though. I would love to see Maki or Nobara actually get a shot against Toudou or perhaps the other Kyoto student.

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Dr.STONE S2 – 4 [Full Assault]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

And we are back with more Dr. STONE! This week we Chrome gets captured, Tsukasa reappears and Senku builds a car of all things. So without further ado lets dive in!

This week was a bit of a slow one for Dr. STONE as its a bit of a transitionary episode. No big emotional gutpunches, just setup for future conflict and reintroducing our main villains. It also wasn’t that great production wise as we can see from the CGI mechanics and the return of still, sliding objects. About the only thing Dr. STONE did do this week was further its narrative a bit through the reintroduction of Tsukasa. This marks the first time we have seen him since the start of season one. We’ve heard plenty from Hyoga and the others but he hasn’t had much presence. So the question becomes: Can Tsukasa earn his place as the antagonist of Dr. STONE?

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 3 [Wolf and Business Acumen] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back to another episode of Spice and Wolf! This week is all about the stonks as Lawrence and Holo talk market volatility, currency theory and the economic value of an apple. Confused? So was I, lets dive in.

Now it’s at this point that I have to admit something to you dear readers: I am not smart enough for this show. I don’t know economics, I didn’t go to business school, I can barely balance my bank account. I have a Computer Science degree for goodness sake, computers do my math for me. So when Lawrence and Holo starting discussing economic policy and warfare via coins I got a little lost. I had to actually rewatch some sections a bit to fully… not understand, but to truly “hear” it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I can’t predict where this silver coin plot thread is going at all because of it. But it can certainly be a bit of a chore at times to listen to. Luckily the back and forth between Lawrence and Holo is interesting enough, their play by play entertaining enough, to keep me engaged

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2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu – 4 [Higher, Faster, Stronger]

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

I’m a bit late on Volley-Bu this week, apologies for that. Between Jujutsu Kaisen and Dr. STONE releasing right next to it, Volley-Bu seems to be taking a back seat. But have no fear because I am in this for the long haul! All 12 episodes of it. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Production wise it was nice to see a return of the snappy direction. It’s not like Volley-Bu is well animated, the CGI volleyball barely even bounces half the time. But between the quick cuts, fast movement and good camera angles, Volley-Bu does a good job of tricking us into thinking its well animated. We can see examples of this early on in their training as Okuma, the rugby guy, joins in or later on in their match. It’s not perfect, a lot of the strikes still lack weight and the characters feel very stiff anytime the camera lingers on them to long on the court. Overall though this is a step up from last episode and a step in the right direction for the series. Lets hope it can keep it up for the next… 8 episodes!

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 16 [Kyoto Sister School Exchange 2]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Another week, another episode of Jujutsu Kaisen’s token tournament arc. I imagine it’s tough to follow up Yoshino’s arc, that was both emotional and hype. But I was hoping for something a bit more… poignant from Itadori’s return. Still, this week Toudou gained some depth and Panda got a backstory, so not all is lost. So without further ado lets dive in!

Production wise this week was an improvement from the last. Along with the fights being overall better choreographed, Jujutsu Kaisen also brought back some of the sakuga. It’s still a far cry from the series highs, but it makes for a decent time nonetheless. The continued use of the CGI environments for rotating camera shots is interesting, but the forest is proving to be a challenging location for it. Unlike the sewers or the highschool, a forest is a natural location. It doesn’t have the same rigid, geometric style to it as man-made locations. So when you start trying to render it in CGI, to rotate around it, the fake becomes very easy to spot. I think it has to do with the trees, their leaves and the general spread of color through the scenes. It’s not great, but Jujutsu Kaisen makes it work well enough.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 3 [Call from the Dead]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Welcome to week 3 of Dr. STONE! If you enjoyed last weeks emotional cliffhanger then boy do I have an episode for you. This week Chrome struts his stuff, Taiju gets punched in the face and Dr. STONE hits us with another tear-jerker of a climax. Without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off, I can’t get enough of how vibrant and colorful Dr. STONE is. The colors always pop, especially when it goes all in on the big emotional moments. Yet it never seems to lose that thick line work that I love. Obviously as we zoom out to wide shots the detail decreases. We also see some increased CGI for some of the more mechanical science bits back at the village. But when it’s important, Dr. STONE never fails to craft some stunning stills. Add on to that the improved animation we have seen and it looks as if the production is in a very healthy place. I can only hope this holds true, because every week I find myself looking forward to more Dr. STONE. It’s not the hypest or most action packed series this season, but its competing for the most heart.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 2 [Wolf and Distant Past] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to week 2 of Spice and Wolf! This week Lawrence and Holo have a sleep over at a church, get involved in shady deals and lie to a pastor. So without further ado, lets talk about these paragons of virtue!

Right off the bat, Spice and Wolf surprised me this week. You see, I’m typically not a fan of shows that are 90% talking. Hell, I don’t even like Re:Zero that much and that one at least has some murder. But some how, some way, Spice and Wolf did a good job of making its dialogue engaging. The back and forth between Lawrence and Holo was rather nice. Their constant one-upping of each other, of poking and prodding to figure each other out. I think a good portion of this is carried by Ami Koshimizu’s voice work as Holo. Her inflections and the way she speaks ride this line between smug and playful really well, pulling me along through the conversations. I especially like when she drops the playful bit and gets… maybe not sultry, but its a fitting word nonetheless.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 15 [Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event 1]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Everyone knows what time it is, its Jujutsu Kaisen time! I have an interesting week for you here. From Toudou making a friend to maybe, possibly, but not guaranteed, the beginning of the MAPPA melt. Don’t know what that is? Well read on and find out!

Starting off, what do I mean by “MAPPA meltdown”. Well if you were here when I blogged Dororo, review here, you have a pretty good idea. Its when Studio MAPPA falls apart production wise in the second half of the series. When their schedule and working conditions finally give out and the series can’t sustain itself anymore. I wonder this about Jujutsu Kaisen this week because it was… a bit rough, to put it kindly. Composites were all over the place, as if they were trying to replicate Ufotable’s CGI environment style, and general animation wasn’t what we were used to. There was some decent choreography between Itadori and Toudou yes, but outside that this is one of the worse looking Jujutsu Kaisen episodes. Hopefully this is just a one off before their big showcase, but I can’t help but be… hesitant.

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2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu – 3 [A Dog’s Perspective and a Giraffe’s Perspective]

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

Hello everyone, it’s time for more Volley-Bu! We got drama, we got time skips, and we maybe even have a little volley ball! I’m really not sure, I think maybe this is a sports show or something? Anyways, enough rambling, lets get into the episode!

Like usual the production isn’t anything to special. Some of the snappy directing is back, which is nice, but nothing on the level of the first episode. It’s becoming more and more clear to me that Volley-Bu really doesn’t have much going for it visually. There are more visually striking, more well animated or more stylistic anime across the season. Meanwhile Volley-Bu just sort of… exists. One nice thing it has going for it though are the accents. You watch anime for long enough and you start to crave something unique, yet familiar. For me that has come to be the “Country” accent. I don’t know where it’s appropriate to really place it, but we have heard it from Hokkaido to Fukui. Regardless where its from though I really enjoy how different it is to listen to. It’s a pleasing change of pace that even I can pick up on.

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