Author: Lenlo

End of Evangelion Anime Review – 86/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

During my previous review of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I criticised it for a lot of things. The tanked production value as the series ran on and Studio Gainax ran out of funding/time. Anno’s often insane direction or story, which sometimes made sense and sometimes didn’t. Most of all though, I criticised it for it’s ending, which effectively left Evangelion as a slightly disappointing unfinished product. But what would happen if Gainax… didn’t run out of time? If Anno had another chance after the original divisive ending? What if they just made two, completely new 40 minute episodes to replace it? Well ladies and gentleman, that’s how you get End of Evangelion. Is this finale to the fabled series a roar, to replace its previous whimper? Does it make any more sense than the TV finale? Will Shinji get in the damn robot? Let’s dive in and find out.

And one last thing! There will be spoilers so we can talk about the work in its entirety, both the TV series and End of Evangelion, no vagueness here. You have been warned.

(Disclaimer: I am working to make 50 the new “average”. 70 is not an average score people. 70 is above average. Carry on.) Continue reading “End of Evangelion Anime Review – 86/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 10 [Against Our Independent World!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Welcome all to another week of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Like the Runway de Waratte post, this one is going to be shorter, for very similar reasons. But where “more of the same” for Runway is a disappointment, for Eizouken its just a good time. So lets dive in!

As always, the animation and production of Eizouken is good, but this week I want to focus on something else. I want to focus on the meta aspect of it all, and how Eizouken cleverly uses its premise here. This latest episode actually gives me a perfect example of what I am talking about, ala how it visualize things. We see it when Doukemi, the sound club girl, is modifying the sound waves in time with the actual bell. Or when she is moving the sound waves around, layering and piecing them together. It’s a little choppy of course, it isn’t perfect. But I love the concept behind it and how Eizouken uses its premise and medium to depict it all. This isn’t the first time either, we have seen it throughout the series. This week just gave me a good chance to talk about it.

Continue reading “Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 10 [Against Our Independent World!]” →

Runway de Waratte – 9 [Rivals]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Hello everyone and welcome to another week of Runway de Waratte! Apologies, but this one is going to be a short one. I just don’t have much to say about what was a pretty meh episode. So without further ado, let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, I have to say, this was a very non-episode episode. What I mean by that is that Runway didn’t really do anything new or different this week. There was no meaningful reveal or change from what is already a pretty standard shounen formula. And that isn’t to say a standard formula is necessarily bad. Kimetsu no Yaiba was one of the most standard Shounen’s of last year, but I loved it because it was competent. Runway’s problem is that it goes for a similar formula, yet it has none of the competence that Yaiba did. The stakes are either low or non-existent and there is never any real concern that Ikuto will lose. Meanwhile as a character Ikuto is very bog-standard in his actions. So when I say that Runway gave us more of the same, I mean that you could have predicted it last week.

Continue reading “Runway de Waratte – 9 [Rivals]” →

Neon Genesis Evangelion Anime Review – 77/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

It’s not often that I get to review seminal works in a medium. I read and watch them often. Vagabond, Monster and Berserk are some of my favorite manga. Meanwhile Fullmetal Alchemist is perhaps the epitome of Shounen. But not once have I thought I could, and should, transcribe my thoughts about them into a single review. To boil down my feelings on them to a scant 4,000 or so words and a final, numerical score. Yet here I am having to do the same for a work arguably more important than any of the ones I mentioned previously. A work so universally known in the community that its like Japan’s Star Wars. I am of course talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion (Director’s Cut), directed by Hideaki Anno and made by the now fallen from grace Studio Gainax. With that, there is no point to dawdling anymore. Let’s dive in.

And one last thing! An End of Evangelion review will soon follow this. I am aware it completes the story, but this review is for the TV anime and that alone. I have not watched it yet. The movie will cover everything and how it completes the series as a whole. Also there will be spoilers so we can talk about the work in its entirety, minimal vagueness here. You have been warned.

(Disclaimer: I am working to make 50 the new “average”. 70 is not an average score people. 70 is above average. Carry on.) Continue reading “Neon Genesis Evangelion Anime Review – 77/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Neon Genesis Evangelion – 25/26 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

I had a lot of expectations going in to Neon Genesis Evangelion’s ending. After episode 24, I was sure that no matter what happened, it would at least be decent. We would learn about the Angels, Seele, the Scrolls. Maybe get a big fight with the Seele Eva Units mentioned before and complete some great character arcs. Sadly, only one of those things came true, at the expense of everything else. So how about we just jump in to what is going to be the most rant-style post I will ever make on this site, eh?

Right off the bat, I have to say, what the fuck did I just watch. Normally I go over each episode independently, but 25 and 26 together are just a joint “what the fuck”. It’s hard for me to even write coherent paragraphs here, because all I want to do is scream bullshit, but I will try my best. So first up, the good. This ending at least manages to tie up Shinji, Asuka and Rei’s characters. Not in a terribly satisfactory way mind you, as we basically sit through an hour of internal monologue from Shinji, but it does it. We see Shinji finally come to accept that he was pushing people away, self-attributing a lot of his worst traits. He believed that no one could accept him and in doing so turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy as he looked for one-side relationships like Kaworu. Everything else though…

Continue reading “Neon Genesis Evangelion – 25/26 – Throwback Thursday” →

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 9 [Aim for Comet A!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Every week I wonder how Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is going to top itself. And every week it finds a way, it finds some area to improve or some new facet to explore. That is no different this week as we learn a bit more about Kanamori and explore the wonderful world of “labor costs”. Riveting. Lets dive in!

Starting off, I just have to gush about the character animation throughout this episode. Specifically, I want to call attention to Asakusa at the end, both during the sound effects and her realization. These were just some beautiful long shots, like the one you can see below. Really showing off how expressive Eizouken can be. Simultaneously keeping her on model while exaggerating the movements just enough to keep it energetic. I want to credit this cut to Izumi Murakami, but so far I haven’t yet seen any sources confirming who worked on it. Meanwhile you also have the general aesthetic of scenes like the Kanamori flashback. Turning the world into this almost watercolor or marker scene. It’s the same style used whenever they are imagining something out in the world, yet now its being used as a flashback, and I love it. Chibi-Kanamori is just fantastic.

Continue reading “Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 9 [Aim for Comet A!]” →

Runway de Waratte – 8 [The Designer’s Capacity]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Another week, another dash of Runway de Waratte. However this week wasn’t actually that bad, as Ikuto is finally challenged, even if the pacing is a goddamn mess. So without further ado, lets jump into Runway!

Starting off, I want to talk about story structure for abit, because Runway failed miserably at it this week. You see, normally in a story you want to introduce a problem that challenges your character. One that forces them to grow, change and improve so as to tackle that problem. If you have an outside force, someone completely different, solve that problem then your lead character learns nothing. They don’t grow, they don’t change, they just exist and problems are solved for them. It leads to a terribly uncompelling narrative. Especially when you introduce said problem and then solve it in the same episode. No buildup, no challenge, no progression or rise and fall. Just “Here is a problem” and “Here is an easy solution”. Basically what I am trying to say diplomatically here is that Runway’s pacing this week was shit, and everyone knows it.

Continue reading “Runway de Waratte – 8 [The Designer’s Capacity]” →

Neon Genesis Evangelion – 23/24 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

Ladies and Gentlemen, things are starting to get weird, well weirder, as Neon Genesis Evangelion enters its endgame. I don’t even know what to write as an introduction to the post anymore, because anything I could say is a spoiler. So instead, how about we jump right into it?

Now I have talked about Evangelion’s production enough, so let’s dive right into episode 23, Tears. I want to say that this episode was pretty straight forward, but that seems like a mistake this far into the series. So instead I will say I liked it and think I understand what all went down. At the very least the first half is straight forward, focusing in on the fallout of the past few episodes. Whether that be Misato still grieving for Kaji or Asuka falling deeper and deeper into her depression. I thought Evangelion did good by its characters here, really giving their relationships weight by how they treat these revelations. Meanwhile Asuka’s failures continue to have consequences as she can’t even properly sync with her Eva Unit anymore. Losing the one thing that she had based her worth on. Nothing particularly complex here, but done well nonetheless.

Continue reading “Neon Genesis Evangelion – 23/24 – Throwback Thursday” →

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 8 [The Grand Shibahama Festival!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Welcome one and all to what is my favorite episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken yet. I laughed, I cried, and I all around loved it as 25 minutes felt like it went by in 5. So enough preamble, lets just jump into it.

Right off the bat, I have to admit, I legitimately teared up during Eizouken this week. I could feel the passion bleeding through the screen throughout the episode. But the part that really got me, that hit the hardest, was the Robot Club President. I loved his run through the campus, you could tell that this was the best day of his life. Both from the VA work of yelling out the OP to their anime to the ugly cries of joy under the costume. Terrify the neighborhood with spine-chilling Scary Halloween Costumes. It was simply infectious. It was a moment bought not through some grand battle or terrible stakes, no one was in danger here. Rather Eizouken created it through the combined passion and works of its characters. All of them pushing towards a singular goal that, even when at odds, they all loved. And it culminated both in the video and in this run.

Continue reading “Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 8 [The Grand Shibahama Festival!]” →

Runway de Waratte – 7 [Aura]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Runway de Waratte did it again, doing great with half the episode and falling apart in the 2nd. It’s a shame that a show can have such a compelling character in Chiyuki, and such a boring on in Itsuko. Still, no use whining without proof, lets dive in! And apologies for the wait, I was guesting on the r/anime awards livestream and that took up some time.

First up, the good, which is mostly Chiyuki. Seriously, Chiyuki is the best character in this show. Everything that is wrong with Itsuko is good with her and her story. We need only look at this episode for proof. Throughout the first half, Chiyuki actively faces challenges and discrimination. Runway doesn’t just tell us that short models have it tough, but actively shows us. With Hasegawa’s manager putting her down, the client putting her in the back, etc. We actively see her struggle to get work, passing out her card and doing her best to network. She brings multiple sized heels and sells herself based on the contents of the shot. All the while not being so proud as to whine about the work like the other models. None of this even really goes into her character, which is great.

Continue reading “Runway de Waratte – 7 [Aura]” →