Author: Lenlo

Neon Genesis Evangelion – 21/22 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to this weeks episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, as presented by the History channel. This week we get into the history of one major character and multiple tertiary characters. Touching on everything from the origin of Angels to Asuka’s family! So without further ado, lets dive in.

Starting off, we have an infamous scene I want to look at this week. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it, it’s the elevator. And my opinion is… it’s not as bad as people joke. I understand what Anno was going for here, portraying the awkward silence between these two characters. Showing rather than telling, until eventually Asuka cracks, since Rei never would. That makes sense. However, it’s not near as brilliant as the supporters say, it serves its purpose. The issue though is that this was an incredibly dull 50 seconds of a mostly static image. Nothing really happened to break it up, excluding Asuna coughing once. There was no elevator music to keep someone even slightly invested. It just say there, until the viewer checked their stream/video to make sure it hadn’t froze. So from a narrative standpoint it works, but entertainmentwise it fails miserably.

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Runway de Waratte – 6 [Superiority and Inferiority]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Apologies for the wait everyone, but between cons and going rock climbing over the weekend, this got pushed back. Sadly though, I have to be honest, right out the gate, I wasn’t a fan of this weeks Runway de Waratte. As this week we have an idiotic fashion school competition, Itsuko being perfect and Chiyuki being the best part of the show. So without further ado, let’s just get into it.

Right off the bat, I want to talk about what I believe Runway’s biggest problem is, and that’s Itsuko. Supposedly, based on the OP and how the show opens, Chiyuki is our lead. Yet the focus is largely on Itsuko and his “struggles”, and it’s just not good. I don’t believe his struggles, his trials, I don’t believe that he overcomes them or that its difficult for him. We see time and again characters reference his living situation and how hard it is for him to do what he wants. But Runway never shows us this, we never see his challenge. He worries about money, but we never see him have to make tough choices with money. We hear about how difficult it is to design a dress, yet he got over it between episodes. The hardest Runway has ever been was the fashion show, and mostly for the assistant!

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken -7 [I Have To Do It For Myself!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

This was a pretty chill week for Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, as we focus more on our characters than the process. As this week gives us a glimpse into Mizusaki’s life, the continuing production of the Culture Festival movie and the best bathhouse ever. Lets dive in!

This week Eizouken mostly took a step back from the production side of things. Instead choosing to focus on one of our leads, Mizusaki. We got a look at her parents, her home life, her passion and how it all compares to Asakusa or Kanamori’s. For instance we saw about halfway through how Asakusa has to call her parents. How Mizusaki misinterprets that as control rather than concern. Which is rather interesting when you look at it because of how her own parents raise her. Giving Mizusaki free reign so long as she stays within their nice little box of a plan for her. Money, freedom, whatever she wants to do, so long as she becomes an actress. In a way, it’s more restrictive than Asakusa’s, and speaks a lot about how negligent Mizusaki’s parents are. Still, we know she has at least one positive figure in her life. Grandma!

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – 19/20 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

Well ladies and gentleman, there isn’t any easy way to say this, but strap in. This week of Neon Genesis Evangelion is going to be a long one, because shit went down. There is no other way to put that, so let’s just get right into it.

Starting off we need to talk about the production because Evangelion was very divisive on that this week. On one hand, 19’s animation and direction was fantastic. I loved how it paralleled shots from earlier in the series when Shinji left. Except this time he is more sure of himself, he has a real reason for it and is assertive on the matter. Meanwhile the movements of the EVA unit were bestial and organic, terrifyingly so. It was one of, if not the, best episode of the series so far. On the other hand though, 20 was very weird and often difficult to follow. I understand the point, Shinji was having a bit of an episode. However a lot of it was difficult to follow and often just outright weird. There were some interesting repeating motifs, such as the train that Toji saw, but overall it wasn’t great.

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 6 [Let’s Do Better Than Last Time!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Every week I wonder how Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken can top itself. What new approach it is going to take to the industry. How it is going to explore it through our three highschoolers. And this week, Eizouken does just that by dedicating an episode to Kanamori and her struggles in management. Without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off, this week had a big focus on the business side, making it basically Kanamori’s episode. And personally, I loved how Eizouken treated Kanamori here. I have said it before, but I like how the series gives the business aspect of the industry a fair shake through her. Showing us how she treats and looks after her team, the effort she puts into getting them what they need. Whether that be setting up meetings with the art club, getting them a PC, or just the day to day planning and management. Kanamori clearly works her ass off, as we see early on just when she falls asleep in the restaurant. Not to mention her presence in basically every scene of the episode. It helps the scenes where she does have to lay down the law feel justified, rather than just bitchy, which is important coming up.

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Runway de Waratte – 5 [Individual Styles]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Apologies for the wait everyone, but inspiration takes times, as Runway de Waratte taught us this week!

Runway starts off the week with Kokoro and Itsuko having a bit of a heart to heart. Talking about their dreams, why they want to become designers, etc etc. I actually think Runway does a decent job with Kokoro this week, as it jumps from that to Itsuko starting the competition, to getting Kokoro involved as well. And the way Runway got her involved was exactly what I wanted from the show. A look into the Modeling industry and how it practices. As we see that her agency is basically shutting down her dreams to keep her as a Model. Doing what is best for them, rather than what she wants, controlling her. Effectively locking her into a career because of how she was born. This is the kind of hard hitting look and critique of the fashion industry that could have made Runway great. Instead we get…

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – 17/18 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

There were a lot of directions Neon Genesis Evangelion could have gone this week. But I have to say, this one was one of the more unexpected ones. As this week we meet the Fourth Child, get another EVA unit and have Gendo destroy any chance of reconciling with Shinji. Sounds like a good time right? Let’s dive in!

Starting off, I want to give credit where credit is due. Evangelion had some fantastic English dub across these episodes. So much so I actually had to stop at the start of 18 to check that I wasn’t watching an English dub. They got legitimately full english speakers to deliver those lines, and I love that. I love the willingness to go the extra mile for just a few lines, when most anime would give us Engrish. And that isn’t to knock against Engrish much, it’s not their native language and they do what they can. Limitations of a localized production, I get that. It’s just when I do see the extra mile attempted, it’s something I think is worth pointing out. Evangelion could easily have just had Japanese there, and I wouldn’t have notice. Instead I got this, and it makes me happy. Now, onto the meat!

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 5 [An Iron Giant Appears!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken manages to pull yet another rabbit out of it’s hat this week. As we take a look at a dying genre, studio/client relations and yet again more animation techniques. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Starting off, I was expecting Eizouken to tackle a lot of things this week. However the final death kneel of a genre was not among them. It was and continues to be a very fascinating topic to look at actually, the waxing and waning of genre popularity. Go back a few decades and Mecha was the shit. Yet in modern times it has been subsumed by battle shounen and Isekai, and Eizouken takes a small look into why. How the world has changed around the industry, and how that affects the passions and interests of viewers. Those inspired by Mecha grew up to realize that such robots were impossible or impractical. Inspired by them, yet disillusioned by reality. Meanwhile, man has made it to the moon, we have the ISS. Space is no longer so mysterious, and so Mecha and Space Opera’s have fallen away. It’s tragic, in a way.

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Runway De Waratte – 4 [Young Talents]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Everyone, we are now 1/3rd of the way through Runway De Waratte and I have to say… It ain’t great. There might be a few issues, just a few I promise. Such as the family drama that starts and ends within 5 minutes. Or the genius rival, or maybe just everyone standing around like stiff cardboard. All that side though, it’s great! So let’s dive in.

Starting off, and I know it can get annoying with how often we talk about it, Runway’s Production. Now, sometimes, it can look alright. The fashion show last week made decent use of lighting and direction to focus in Chiyuki. Much like an actual fashion show would, with everything around her dimmed. Most of the time though, such as this week, everyone just looks…flat. Lifeless. Like stiff cardboard, stuck in the same positions across scenes. There is no life to them, they all stand straight backed and immovable. It reminds me of Irregular at Magic Highschool, except without the excuse of complex character designs. Where the only thing ever moving in many scenes are the mouths, which are disturbingly small. Simply put, Runway is not interesting or engaging to watch, visually, at all. There is no aesthetic draw to the series, and the narrative doesn’t help much either.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – 15/16 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

It only took 16 episodes, a couple of close calls and an odd recap, but Neon Genesis Evangelion has finally entered weird territory. There really is no other way to put it without getting into the nitty gritty. So let’s just jump straight into this weeks double feature.

Starting off we have Episode 15, Lies and Silence. This was largely a more Slice of Life style episode, really focusing in on Evangelion’s characters. The problem with this though is that without any major conflict, it really showed just how weak some of its characters are. Rei for instance was always and continues to be just lifeless. Devoid of almost any purpose or emotion behind what she does. I have suspicions for why this is that we will get into later. But regardless of if they are true or not, she simply isn’t particularly interesting nor can she hold a scene on her own. Similarly this week also shows us the worst parts of Asuka’s character and just how annoying she can be. Episode 16 continued this, with a tad more context yes, but she wasn’t particularly enjoyable to put up with.

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