Author: Lenlo

Tower of God – 12 [Underwater Hunt (Part Two)]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Welcome all to the penultimate episode of Tower of God! A lot of questionable decisions were made adaptation wise this week, some good, others not. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Once again we have to start with production, but not with animation this time. Rather, I want to talk about the direction and pacing of this episode, because god was it a mess. The constant cuts every minute to a different scene were jarring to say the least. I understand what they were trying to do. Tower of God wanted to portray all of theses events happening in tandem, and thats all well and good. However what works for a Webtoon across weeks/chapters won’t work for a single anime episode across 25 minutes. So while all of the cuts were in largely the same place, the pacing of the anime made it much harder to follow along. The moment I get settled into one scene, remember where we are and all that, we cut to another. I can only hope they tone it down for the finale next week.

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Princess Tutu – 25/26 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to the finale of our Princess Tutu watch! It’s been a long and surprising road for me. I thought this was going to be another bargain bin Mahou Shoujo. And here we are, an ending where the guy doesn’t get the girl, the heroine loses and the villain walks off without a care in the world. And I loved it. So let’s dive in! And remember, a poll for the next show to watch is at the bottom!

First up, lets talk animation and production, because this isn’t normally an area Princess Tutu excels in. It’s not bad by any means, Ahiru can be quite expressive when she wants to. But most of the time we are treated to stills and a more “postcard memories” treatment. While that’s a perfectly valid, and often times better, method I still want to give praise where it’s due. Because this week Princess Tutu had quite a bit of good animation. Most of it involved Mytho, from his flight on the petals to his combat with the Rave. But a fair a bit, and what I generally preferred, involved Ahiru. Her dances, how she flew about in the wind or got knocked around among crows. It was all unexpectedly polished and made for a great finale. I wish we had gotten more sooner, but in this case, the wait was worth it.

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Tower of God – 11 [Underwater Hunt (Part One)]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Last week I was rather harsh on Tower of God. Justifiably so I believe, but the fact is I heavily critiqued it for its adaptation. As a source reader, I still believe that it screwed up a fair number of important scenes. This week however I can happily say that Tower of God has brought it back. Both in terms of pacing, adaptation and in showing scenes that I previously believed had been cut. Yes, I could still nitpick plenty of small things. Endorsi not getting her new outfit, cutting small dialogue or changing the fights a bit. Except those are actually improvements this time. You see in the original Webtoon, this arc took up 18 long chapters, and often felt rather bloated. Some of this was simply poor pacing between scenes or long bits of dialogue. But large chunk of it is combat, which animation can naturally adapt faster.

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Princess Tutu – 23/24 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to the penultimate edition of my Princess Tutu watch. Everything comes to a head this week! As Fakir rescues Ahiru, Kraehe learns the truth about the Raven and Mytho succumbs to the blood. Will Ahiru get the happy ending she wants or will Drosselmeyer win in the end? Well its time to dive in and talk about it.

Starting off we have episode 23, Marionettes. In recent episodes Princess Tutu has been really focused on the more story based aspect of its setting. Going in on things like authorship of stories, the responsibilities and power authors have with their characters. When the focus is on Fakir this can be a rather uplifting and positive notion, as he doesn’t want to abuse this power. This week though we see the other side of this power in Drosselmeyer. Where Fakir doesn’t want to control or abuse, Drosselmeyer will only be satisfied with his story and his ending. He is all about control over the story and forcing it to fit his desires. Going so far as to stop the story entirely by taking Tutu out of it until she bows to his control. Simply put, he wants a tragic ending of his own design, without caring what his characters want.

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Tower of God – 10 [Beyond the Sadness]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Ladies and gentleman, this is a momentous week for Tower of God. Where last week was ups and downs, where it skipped a lot of content but ultimately got it across, this week… does not. In fact this week was so annoying to me as a source reader, I compiled a list of all the things I think it screwed up. So without further ado, it’s time for a little rant. And I promise there are some nice comments in there. Maybe.

First up, lets talk straight up cut content. Both Serena, the lady who gave Shibisu the knife, and Endorsi lost a lot here. Tower of God straight up removed conversations that were rather important to both their characters. On Serena’s side, she and Shibisu had a much longer conversation about Hoh, Bam and her feelings about it all. She doesn’t ever return to the story, so it isn’t a big loss. However it is part of how everyone see’s Bam, from someone outside the core trio. Meanwhile Endorsi lost a very important scene between her and Bam. One where Bam explains why he is so devoted to Rachel, and that continues to push Endorsi’s world view. It’s important to remember that she grew up in a cut throat environment. One where this kind of care and devotion was a weakness, showing why Bam is as impactful as he is.

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Princess Tutu – 21/22 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Ladies and Gentleman, this is the time when Princess Tutu starts to get weird. As this week we upend almost the entire story. Who is the main antagonist now? Protagonist? Are we even in the same story anymore? And the best part is, I still love it, so lets dive right in.

Right off the bat, before we get to far into the details, I want to say that things got weird. Princess Tutu turned the whole story on its head this week, all by simply changing the main antagonist. I am of course talking about Drosselmeyer and the Raven. You see, while Drosselmeyer has never exactly been a good force in Princess Tutu, he has never really hindered them either. All he wanted was a good story, a tragic one, and that coincided with Ahiru’s desire to save Mytho. So for the longest time he was this vaguely threatening neutral party, with the Raven being the main evil force. This week though, and Princess Tutu has built up to this well, he takes center stage and the Raven doesn’t even show up at all. Had there not been such a focus on fairy tale stories, i’d be annoyed. Instead, i’m excited.

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Tower of God – 9 -[The One-Horned Ogre]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

I won’t lie to you, Tower of God was rough this week. There were ups, there were downs, and I dare say some parts were even good. Shocker, I know. But all I can think of as I write this is how it could have been better. So without further ado, lets dive in and talk about that.

Animation wise, I am very split. I want to say that Tower of God overall looked better this week. Quant had more weight for instance, especially during his fight with Hatz. Meanwhile I will always enjoy the water-like effects of Shinsu. However at the same time Tower of God was also incredibly safe with how it handled everything. Every shot felt standard, neigh uninspired, like they were trying to get the base information across and nothing more. Just going through the motions of mimicking the original work. There was never a moment that I, as a viewer, went “woah, that was awesome”. It’s only when I step away and try to look at it like a “critic” (hard to type that without laughing), am able to nitpick some decent shots. Sadly, beyond its art direction, Tower of God is just not that well animated a show.

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Princess Tutu – 19/20 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to another week of Princess Tutu! This time we cover episodes 19 and 20, where we tackle “Love” in all it’s forms, across the entire cast. From Mytho and Fakir to Rue and Ahiru, none are safe, not even the side characters. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off we have episode 19, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Being named after one of the most famous plays William Shakespeare ever wrote, it’s connections should be obvious. Everything within this episode is a callback to the play in some form or another. From the overarching theme of love, loves lost and loves ignored, to the very names of our side characters: Hermia and Lysander. Were this a western work I would almost call it to on the nose, with how blatant these references are. However, and I don’t know Shakespeare’s prevalence in Japan, this depth and understanding of the work feels so unique for anime. Most of the time we get schlock like the recent *Boarding School Juliet*. Thing’s that take the base premise, toss it in a school setting, and call it a day. Yer Princess Tutu does so much with the original work, and I love it.

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Tower of God – 8 [Khun’s Strategy]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Hello all and welcome to another week of Tower of God! Apologies for the wait, been a busy few days, but not near as busy as our leads. As this week we see Team A’s test, Khun lay plans within plans, and Quant get publicly humiliated. So without further ado, lets jump in!

Starting off, the visuals. I always bring it up in some form or another, positively or negatively, so this shouldn’t surprise you. This week however I felt Tower of God was rather… lacking. The art style is still great, I love the inconsistent line work and bright colors. It still looks like nothing else really airing this season, what little is left. But as far as the animation goes? For what was seemingly an action packed episode, so much of it just felt flat and weightless. From Quant movements to the struggles of the Regulars, nothing really “wowed” me. There were some decent effects, like Quant after images, but the animation behind his movements did little to sell it sadly. About the only cut that I really liked was mid way through, at Khun’s “fall”. Beyond that though? Well, lets just hope they are saving their efforts for next week.

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Princess Tutu – 17/18 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

2 more episodes, and 8 more to go for Princess Tutu! This week on Throwback Thursday Princess Tutu returns to form in the most unexpected of ways. Meanwhile Rue and Mytho get some much needed conflict and my OTP takes another step forward. So lets jump right into it!

Starting off we have episode 17, Crime and Punishment. It’s been a long time since I started an episode so poorly, and loved it so much by the end. You see, at the beginning, I couldn’t stand Femio. Everything from his VA to his over the top nature felt out of place and fit Princess Tutu poorly. You need look no further than his interpretive dance, a perfect representation of my problems with modern at, for proof. Yet by the end of this very same dance, his place in the episode and the story became clear. Effectively lamp-shading both Kraehe and Mytho and the current state of their characters. I thought this episode was effectively going to be filler, to be honest. Yet like Princess Tutu is wont to do, by the end Femio fit in perfectly. So without further ado, lets talk specifics.

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