Author: Lenlo

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.

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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.

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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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