Author: Lenlo

Tower of God – 6 [Position Selection]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Welcome all to the halfway point of the season for Tower of God! We finally get a bit of downtime here, as Bam recovers and we enter a… training arc? Exam arc? Who really knows, point is, its time to learn us some stuff! Lets dive in.

First up, lets talk adaptation and how Tower of God is doing production wise. Because for all that I enjoyed this week, there were a few cracks, as we adapted 7 full chapters. 7 chapters in a single episode. And the pacing is only going to get worse if we try to fit in all of season 1. Now I am sure this isn’t much of an issue for Anime-Only viewers. Maybe the episodes feel a bit fast, but nothing more. For those that know the source though, we can see just how much is being skipped or condensed. Credit where its due, they aren’t doing a horrible job. If they are going to cut things, they are mostly choosing well. But there are still scenes I wish we could have seen we didn’t. All because someone decided to fit 78 chapters into a single cour of anime.

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Princess Tutu – 13/14 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all to the end of the first season of Princess Tutu and the start of the second! A lot happened this week. Fakir confronted his fears, Kraehe competed for Mytho’s heart and Tutu made her feelings known. The only question is: Was it any good? The answer is yes, it was very good, and I really want to talk about it. So lets dive in!

Right off the bat we have episode 13, Swan Lake, the finale of Princess Tutu’s first season. And I have to say, I loved it. Princess Tutu managed to not necessarily resolve, but bring all of its character arcs to a head at once. Mytho made his own decision, choosing both Tutu and to face his emotions. Fakir faced his fears, fought through them, and in the end broke the sword he once broke Mytho’s heart with. Ahiru managed to make her feelings known and come to terms that she and Tutu are one and the same. Even Edel got a culminating arc, as she was responsible for saving them all in the end. It really impressed me how Princess Tutu managed to bring all of this together without any character feeling neglected. So strap in because we have a lot to talk about after the break.

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Princess Tutu – 11/12 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to the halfway point of Princess Tutu! It’s hard to believe, considering how this has all the makings of a finale. But considering Kraehe’s arc, Drosselmeyer’s position as the true villain and recent developments, it only makes sense. So let’s jump right into it!

Immediately, I want to talk music, because I love Princess Tutu’s. Yes, I know it primarily uses existing classical pieces that weren’t originally made for the show. But in my mind that makes it all the more impressive. Because Princess Tutu is able to take these hundreds of year old pieces, with their own histories and meanings, and make them work. Every time I recognize a piece, it fits. Every time I look one up I didn’t know, and read up on the work, it fits. An example of that this week is episode 12’s usage of “The Story of the Kalendar Prince” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Focusing on and using the inherent adventure of the piece and ascribing it to Fakir and Ahiru’s journey through the underground. I could go on, referencing pieces such as “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Tchaikovsky, but I think you get the point.

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Tower of God – 5 [The Crown’s Fate]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

This week on Tower of God we have it all folks. Waifus! Fights! And even exponential inexplicable MC power ups! What more could you ask for? A lot, actually, so lets jump right in to it.

Right off the bat, I am going to play the bad guy here and say the production was… lacking. Compared to last week, Tower of God’s animation here just felt weightless and floaty. All throughout the combat sequences people were getting thrown about with no sense of momentum. Soaring through the air, or striking with the force of a 4 year old. I’m not asking for the ground to shatter or anything like that. But some impact would be nice, you know? That isn’t to say it was all bad either. Hwaryun, the masked red-head, had some great full body character work. The shading on the body suit had it look awkward at times sure. But on the whole, she was the best animated part of the whole episode. Overall though, I would still call it a step down from previous weeks. Even if I like the visual style.

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Princess Tutu – 9/10 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Hello once again to week 5 of Throwback Thursday with Princess Tutu! I hope everyone is doing well, what with all this Corona Virus business floating around. I’d like to say if the world has you down, a cheerful little magical girl show could fix that. But what Princess Tutu covers this week, focusing in on Fakir and Rue, doesn’t really fit that bill. Still, thanks for reading, and lets jump right in!

Now, I want to talk about the structure of these two episodes, because we are doing something different this week. Instead of going through each episode independently, instead I want to focus on Fakir and Rue. Deep diving into them, who they are, where they where, etc. Because my initial impressions of these episodes were… not necessarily filler, but hardly plot focused. Very little in regards to the greater plot was really advanced. Instead Princess Tutu focused in on these two, for better or worse. I say that because some segments were fantastic, Fakir and Rue getting some growth is well deserved at this point. But there were also some rather dull or outright annoying segments such as the extended marriage jokes. And even if some of these elements tied back in at the end, it made for a less enjoyable experience. So with that done, lets talk about Rue!

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Tower of God – 4 [The Green April]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Come one, come all, to one of the few shows unaffected my Miss Rona, Tower of God! It’s nice to be covering a show that’s already mostly, if not completely, done. Gives me a sense of security in these oh so trying times. So without further ado, lets jump into it shall we?

Now I always start off talking about an episodes production, but Tower of God actually earned it this week. Everything from the animation to the music was impressive, really standing out from prior episodes. Of course I can nitpick small things, like Hatz sword having almost no weight. Or Lauroe being rather… floaty during the latter half of his scene. But those would be just that, nitpicks. Shibisu was incredibly expressive this week, with both full body and facial expression that were to die for. Telecom Animation have dialed in on who the comic relief character is and committed to him, full stop. And none of that is meant to downplay Takuya Eguchi’s vocal performance either, so lovably stupid. Meanwhile Anaak’s weapon and the sheer volume of stretching limbs and such were great. I’ve criticized Tower of God for this before, but credit where it’s due, the animation worked wonders.

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Fugou Keiji: Balance: UNLIMITED – 2 [Love can do a lot, money can do everything]

by Lenlo, posted in Fugou Keiji: Balance: UNLIMITED

Hello ladies and gentlemen to the first, and last, post of Fugou Keiji! It breaks my heart to say it this early, but we have news that this series is being indefinitely postponed. Due to the Coronavirus, after this week it’s going to be awhile until we get more snarky millionaire detectives. Until then though, we just have to make the best of it. So let’s jump in!

Right off the bat I have to say… I was a bit disappointed. This second episode wasn’t nearly as good as the first, for obvious reasons. It would seem that Fugou Keiji wants to be an actual, legitimate crime thriller, with a dusting of absurdity. From the start, this episode played it straight. Introducing us to a crime, scoping it and working it out, then busting it at the end. Meanwhile the first episode was 2 kids robbing a chocolate shop they thought was a jewelry store. All the while Kambe reroutes traffic and drives through the middle of a street without a care in the world. The energy between these two episode couldn’t have been more different. I still enjoyed some of the absurdity we got of course, Kambe is still fun. But it’s like Fugou Keiji was more subdued this week and that’s just a bit dull.

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Princess Tutu – 7/8 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Every week I go in to Princess Tutu expecting it to fall off, to finally disappoint me. And every week Princess Tutu manages to shut me up with another pair of good episodes. This week, we focus in on Fakir and Rue, Mytho stands up for himself and Drosselmeyer intervenes. Let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, I want to talk about how Princess Tutu is constantly surprising me. Specifically here I want to point out the pacing, and how quickly we are actually moving. Princess Tutu has managed to tell more story in 8 episodes than most shows do in a full 12. Even taking ones that I started off thinking were filler and turning them into full blown major plot reveals. And yet even with the amount covered, I don’t have any fear about the plot in the 2nd half. There is still plenty of content that could be covered, from Fakir or Rue centric episodes to Mytho’s past to confronting Drosselmeyer himself. It really is impressive how much compelling content Princess Tutu manages to stuff into straight-forward Magical Girl plot. So that said, let’s get into the episodes proper.

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Tower of God – 3 [The Correct Door]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Another week, another episode of Tower of God. This week we learn a bit more about Khun, take 2 more tests, and Rachel makes her return! I don’t have any clever one liners or puns for this opening bit, so how about we just jump right into it.

First up, let’s talk adaptation and production, because Tower of God was a mixed bag this week. As far as adaptation goes, I think it’s doing a good job. Cutting small things, reinventing scenes to work better animated vs Webtoon, etc. You can see this most clearly in the pacing, as we burn through the 3rd test. In what was originally almost 2 and a half chapters of dialogue, we instead get a much quicker 12 minute character focus on Khun. The original intent of the test is still there, just streamlined. Meanwhile animation wise Tower of God is much more spotty. While Mr.Neonbag (yes that is his name) had some nice physical animation, Anaak’s fight felt pretty weightless and stunted in places. I still enjoyed it, little was lost. But it wasn’t the opening spectacle I hoped for. Regardless, it was a good time visually, I love the artstyle.

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Tower of God – 2 [3/400 (Three Four-Hundredths)]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Welcome one and all to the beginning of the Spring 2020 season, and the first Tower of God post! This week we get into the story proper as Bam meets his crew, we get a small info dump, and the tests begin. Lets dive in!

Starting off, let’s talk about the art and animation. I mentioned it a little in the initial impressions post, but I actually really like Tower of God’s art style. The lines are inconsistent, fading in and out, though they are bit thinner than i’d like. However I still find it preferable to the almost to clean and perfect linework of most anime. Even though its produced digitally, it gives a very handmade feel to the whole production that pairs well with the effects work. In a way, Tower of God’s production is very similar to Mob Psycho 100’s, in that it tries to mimic the original author’s style. Similar to Mob Psycho this looser style should, in theory, give it more freedom when animating. So far though we haven’t really seen that, as Tower of God has been rather inconsistent. I can only hope it improves moving forward.

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