Author: Lenlo

Tower of God – 7 [Lunch and Tag]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

This was a wild week for Tower of God. From cut content to changed scenes to crazy pacing, we are moving quick. So without further ado let’s jump in and talk Shinsu, Jahad and Best Girls!

Starting off, the pacing. Jesus Christ the pacing. I said from the beginning that the narrative would be tough if they tried for the whole first season. 78 chapters in 13 episodes is a ridiculous pace, and it looks like Tower of God is trying to meet that. As this week we burn through the position classes, cut entire magic system explanations and condense/change character moments. I’m sure many of the anime-only readers are noticing it to. After all, do we know what a Lighthouse is yet, or how it works beyond being a position? What about the floating cubes, why they use needles instead of swords or the entirety of Shinsu? I would be really interested to get an anime-only perspective on this. Because for me, at this point, I don’t see how you could be anything other than confused. At least they explained the Princesses well.

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Princess Tutu – 15/16 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Another week, another double feature of Princess Tutu! This week see’s the Raven start to make some moves, Fakir get ostracized and Mytho struggle internally. Does any of it work? Lets dive in and find out!

To start, these two episodes are perhaps the most disappointed I have been in Princess Tutu since we started. Everything about these two, or arguably 4, episodes were rough. The pacing is off, the content is either to rushed or to slow, and its rather repetitive. No doubt this is all tied back into how this 2nd season was originally aired. Rather than 13 full length episodes, it aired as 26 half-length episodes, and were cut up accordingly. This meant though that each half length episode required its own beginning, middle and end. So when you stitch the half length episodes together, you get this weird mess where it starts and ends twice. Compared to the mostly phenomenal pacing of the first cour, it’s a complete let down. I can only hope that Princess Tutu finds its dancing legs again soon, or else this 2nd cour will fall short.

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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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