Author: Lenlo

Twelve Kingdoms – 25/26/27 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Throwback Thursday, Twelve Kingdoms

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and welcome to another post about Twelve Kingdoms! I know it’s a bit late-ish, but blame the holiday. This was a pretty eventful week for all 3 of our leads, so lets just jump right into it.

Starting off, I think I figured out the point of these three stories. The thread that connects them all, beyond simply being girls or their positions in society. Simply put, it’s understanding life in this world. Understanding what it is like to live in the kingdoms. None of them have every actually lived a day in these peoples shoes. Shoukei lived in a palace, and while Suzu worked she did so in equivalent luxury, immortal and free from the worlds woes. Meanwhile Nakajima was in constant conflict before being thrust into the highest rung of society. Each of these girls brings a unique perspective to this question, each with their own histories and motivations. It’s an unexpected, but welcome shift in the series and I can’t wait to see what Twelve Kingdoms does with it. Now, how about we talk specifics after the break?

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 8 [Boredom]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! Apologies for the wait, it’s been a busy weekend and all things considered, not much happened this episode. Still, without further ado, lets jump right into it!

What do I mean by “not much happened”? Simply that this week was more of a transition episode than anything else. It transitioned us from Gojo’s fight into the next arc, setting up conflicts and introducing the new “antagonists”. I put that in quotes because its fairly obvious that Toudou at least will become an ally later on. For now though, he serves as the big obstacle Fushiguro must overcome. Beyond that brief skirmish though, Jujutsu Kaisen mostly dedicates this week to character time. Expanding on our side characters and Gojo’s own conflict with the Jujutsu Conservatives. This is a good thing of course, not every week can be a high octane sakuga fest. Turning things up to 11 loses its appeal if you are always at it. It does mean though that, outside one or two cuts, there wasn’t any big animation to gush over.

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Twelve Kingdoms – 22/23/24 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Throwback Thursday, Twelve Kingdoms

Welcome back to my Twelve Kingdoms watch! This is an important week, as we finally return to Nakajima’s queenly story. This week see’s political intrigue, budding rebellion and… two new side stories? It’s a lot to talk about so lets dive right in!

Starting off, the side stories. I’m not yet sure how I feel about what Twelve Kingdoms is doing. Not in a negative way, of course. This isn’t the first time Twelve Kingdoms has gone off on a weird storytelling tangent. Our entire last arc was basically a self-contained history for a character that we probably won’t see again in the anime. No, I am sure Twelve Kingdoms will manage to balance these three stories well between each other. It’s more that I don’t yet understand what connects these stories, these three characters. 2 of them, Nakajima and Suzu, are Kaikyaku, that one makes sense. Meanwhile Suzu and Shoukei are both effectively peasants, or have inverted each others roles, etc. Similar also holds true for Shoukei and Nakajima, queen and fallen princess after all. But so far, these connections seem very nebulous. Only option is to wait and see, I suppose.

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Tian Guan Ci Fu – Animation Appreciation

by Lenlo, posted in Random Anime Recommendations, Special Articles

Welcome everyone, to round 2 of me making a fool of myself to talk about Chinese animation, this time featuring Tian Guan Ci Fu or Heaven’s Official Blessing. Just like the last series we talked about, Fog Hill, odds are you haven’t heard of it. And if you have then congratulations, you anime hipster you. Just like last time, this isn’t actually a review and is in no way meant to be taken as such. In fact the series is still airing right now, having just shown its 4th episode on Bilibili. Rather I just want to talk about its production and the cool things going on in the Chinese animation scene right now. So let’s just jump into that shall we? Directed by Haoling Li and made by studio Haoliners Animation League, this is Heaven’s Official Blessing!

So first up, who the hell is Haoling Li and Haoliners Animation League? Unlike Samsara Studio from my last post, these two have actually been around the block a few times. Haoliners is based in Shanghai, China, and according to their website was founded by Haoling Li in 2013. Prior to this, Haoling Li primarily worked as a storyboard artist on projects for Shanghai Television, though I was unable to find which ones. Meanwhile Haoliners is a different story, their earliest works being Lu Shi Dai and Man Tou Riji, the second co-produced with Studio Lan. Since then they have done steady work, airing consistently on Bilibili and QIY streaming platforms, slowly growing their staff. It wasn’t until 2018 that they achieved their “western debut” so to speak with their contribution to the anthology series Flavors of Youth.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 7 [Assault]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

This week on Jujutsu Kaisen we get punches, kicks, explooooooosions galore! That’s right its a low-narrative, high-hype week as Goto defeats a curse spirit with the power of theoretical math. Without further ado, lets dive in!

As I said, this week was pretty light on the story content. The whole thing was basically one big fight with a dash of narrative relevance at the end. I’m not complaining of course! I love hype fights, I’m self-proclaimed Shonen trash. It just means this weeks post is going to be a bit shorter since I can only gush about animation for so long. As for the narrative we did get, it’s mostly setup for the arc to come. We meet a new villain named Mahito, who many will recognize from the OP. Meanwhile Gojo gives us a hands on lecture on jujutsu domains, how they work, and just how powerful they can be. All in all it isn’t anything to incredible, but Jujutsu Kaisen did a fine job working it into/around the set piece fight for the week. So enough piddling around lets talk about that!

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Twelve Kingdoms – 19/20/21 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Throwback Thursday, Twelve Kingdoms

This is an important week for Twelve Kingdoms. It marks the completion of an arc and the (almost) halfway point of this watch. We have lies, deceit and murderous beasts, oh my! All that and more in this weeks three episodes. So without further ado, lets dive in.

Starting off, it’s always a bit dry, but lets talk production. Twelve Kingdoms is not a series known for its stellar animation. In fact, there are some episodes where it barely has any at all. However with the general quality of Twelve Kingdom’s direction, that just makes the big moments standout even more. The entire sequence with the Toutetsu inside the cave during episode 19 was simply great. Between that and the actual narrative of the episode, it felt like the whole thing went by in a flash. Similarly, Taiki’s transformation into a Kirin and his subsequent run in the night also looked great. Something about Twelve Kingdom’s art direction, whether it be the color palette or something else, really sells the otherworldly beauty of these creatures. I just wish these sorts of scenes weren’t so few and far between.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 6 [After Rain]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen is a lot of things, but this week what it is, is disappointing. Because for all that the villains step up to the plate, for all that the animation is on point, Jujutsu Kaisen did one thing wrong: It went back back on its cliffhanger. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Clickbait doom and gloom opening aside, Jujutsu Kaisen did a lot of things right this week. And first and foremost amongst those has to be the animation. Seriously, just click into the full article below to see a clip of it, but Jujutsu Kaisen looked good. Between the burning effects, the facial expressions and the body movements, the whole café scene worked really well. I will talk more about what it did for the villains in detail later. From purely a production standpoint though, I thought it was a great. Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t stop there though, it was very expressive and creative with some of its scenes. One of my favorites being the paper-craft Itadori scene we see later on, fluttering in the wind. It’s a small thing, but it was really cute and I liked it. It’s those kinds of inventive animations I want to see more of.

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Twelve Kingdoms – 16/17/18 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Throwback Thursday, Twelve Kingdoms

Welcome all to the halfway point of the next our of Twelve Kingdoms! This week sees the continuation of Taiki’s story along with both some interesting and not so interesting political plots. Without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off, I want to talk a bit about my feelings on this arc as a whole. Because so far, it feels like a side story. Having it be told to us/Nakajima through another character, when it has all already happened, makes it feel very disconnected from current events. It makes you wonder: How is this relevant to Nakajima? How will this effect the current Kei storyline? It’s entirely possible that by the end it weaves back in masterfully, and I have not yet passed judgement one way or another. But a comment from last week by user PhilippeO doesn’t give me much hope for that. It sounds more like his arc never truly gets completed, which only goes further to making it feel like this isn’t particularly relevant. For now we will have to wait and see. I can only hope Twelve Kingdoms proves me wrong.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 5 [Curse Womb Must Die -II-]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Alright Jujutsu Kaisen, you win this round. For all that I expected it, Jujutsu Kaisen managed to actually keep it’s promise from 2 episodes ago. However long or short it may last, someone has died. So how about we jump right in and talk about that?

Starting off with the non-spoilers, action! Animation! Production! Boring technical stuff, but I like getting animators names out there. Jujutsu Kaisen actually did an alright job here this week. The close quarters combat wasn’t as impressive as the first episode with Gojo, not even close. It often felt a bit… floaty, in that characters where static in movement as the background spun. An attempt to give motion without much actual animation, and it shows. But that doesn’t stop Norimoto Tokura and Shota Goshozono from giving us some pretty great effects work like in this clip here. I love the animation on the snake twisting through the air, or how it explodes into particles down it’s length. It was easily the most stunning shot of the episode and one I hope we see more of. I can only hope that this slow shift isn’t a sign of MAPPA’s production curse starting.

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Twelve Kingdoms – 13/14/15 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Throwback Thursday, Twelve Kingdoms

This is a big week for Twelve Kingdoms. We end an arc, get a recap and start a new arc all in 3 episodes. Sadly for all that I usually praise Twelve Kingdoms, this was a freakin mess. So lets just jump right into it!

Starting off, the production. Now you might think we have covered most aspects of Twelve Kingdoms production up until now. Animation, backgrounds, OST etc, what more is there to cover? Well the answer this week is art style, because Twelve Kingdoms couldn’t seem to figure out what the hell it wanted to look like in episode 13. I can’t tell if its because of the shifting lighting based on scenes, diffused lighting etc, or something else entirely. But it’s as if Twelve Kingdoms couldn’t figure out what it wanted to look like. There is the original style that I love, with sharper more angular faces and smaller eyes. But occasionally it would switch to this more… the best way to put it is “anime” style. Larger eyes, sharper faces, with less detail. This isn’t just me being insane, right? This happened? Either way the whole episode just felt… off.

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