Author: Lenlo

Mononoke Anime Review – 75/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Horror, Mononoke, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

I have reviewed a lot of odd shows recently. From Paranoia Agent to Serial Experiments Lain, they each had their own… je ne sais quoi, their own unique flavor. Keeping with that trend is Mononoke, a sort of Horror Anthology reminiscent of Tales From the Crypt or a Stephen King short stories collection. Though where those went for a more classic sort of horror, Mononoke aims more for a permeated dread. Working to bring horror from the actions of man, but basing it on traditional Japanese monsters. Like a sort of mix between Stephen King and Mushishi. Little jump-scare horror, with more slow built environmental and naturalist horror. How’s that for a sentence you thought you would never read, eh? Made by Toei, directed by Kenji Nakamura and spun-off from the final arc of Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, I believe Mononoke succeeds at just that.

So without further ado, let’s dive in. And make sure to stick around until the end to find out what series will next be featured on Throwback Thursday!

(Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers. Also, I am working to make 50 the new “average”. 70 is not an average score people. 70 is above average. Carry on.)

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Dr.STONE – 17 [A Hundred Nights and a Thousand Skies]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

I hate to say it so flat out like this, but I did not enjoy this week of Dr.STONE. From the focus on the overarching story to some issues on the actual presentation of it all. I found a lot of issues with this week, and it’s time to just dive into it.

Across the board, nothing in this episode of Dr.STONE really wowed me. The whole thing just felt rather dull. This isn’t unique to the anime of course, I wasn’t huge on this section of the manga either. But for me it highlights one of Dr.STONE’s biggest issues, that being the overarching story. We saw it when the series first started as well, with Tsukasa. A lot of the opening section as it sets everything up was just weak. The series really only coming into its own as we left Tsukasa behind and transitioned to Ishigami village. Focusing much more on the science and such. Here we are returning for a moment to the overarching story. However instead of focusing in on our leads, instead its backstory. Even for good stories, backstory is a pain, so for Dr.STONE’s dull main story? It’s a bit of a death kneel.

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Mononoke – 12 [Goblin Cat, Finale] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Mononoke, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to the finale of Mononoke, and the close of another season of Throwback Thursday. This week Mononoke pulls a strong finish, I ask you some questions, and we start a poll for the next run. Let’s get into it!

First up, the poll I mentioned for the next Throwback Thursday will be at the bottom of the post. Please check it out! If you want to suggest a series to go on the poll, just leave a comment and it will get added next time. Now, onto the episode. For me this really worked as a finale. Both narratively and visually. Narratively, Mononoke left a lot of the ending open ended. Normally this would be a sequel signal, but we all know Mononoke isn’t getting that. Here though it implies that there is more story, both before and after, the series. Which ties in well to its episodic nature. Visually as well, this week was just less cluttered than the last. The whole thing was more grounded in the murder mystery, and it paid off I think.

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Vinland Saga – 15 [After Yule]

by Lenlo, posted in Vinland Saga

Another week, another episode of Vinland Saga with a dash of murder and depression. This week, Thorfinn catches a rabbit, Ragnar gets into a fight and Canute becomes Best Girl. Let’s dive in!

Starting off, this week continues Vinland Saga’s theme on fathers and parents in general. As we start to really dive in to Canute’s character and circumstances. We see this in one of the opening scenes, as the Priest, Canute and Ragnar pray for the villagers Askeladd killed. With the Priest starting to doubt God. Without even getting into the religious themes, the focus here is clearly on Canute and his sort of dependence on God. The substitution of God as a loving father in place of Sweyn, the sort of unconditional love he apparently never grew up with. Combine that with Ragnar, Askeladd and Thorfinn and you now have enough different examples of fatherhood in the series to write an essay on it.

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Dr. STONE – 15/16 [The Culmination of Two Million Years/A Tale for the Ages]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

This week of Dr.STONE is a double feature, courtesy of my inability to write! Here we cover the conclusion of the Grand Bout, finish the Cure-All and then dive into the history of Ishigami village. So without further ado, since we have a lot to cover this week, let’s dive in.

Starting off, first an apology for missing last week. I simply had no inspiration for the episode. Nothing that I really cared to focus in on or write about. Episode 15 was just rather dull across the board for me, it was pretty dang straight forward. The fights/action for instance lacked impact, which makes sense considering it isn’t an action series. Unlike episode 14, there wasn’t really any sort of interesting science behind it. Meanwhile a number of the scenes in 15 just lacked the impact of the manga. Turning the page to some of Boichi’s best scenes. Take for instance the Cola scene with Gen, I don’t think it worked as well in the anime. Whether that be the sound effects or something else, I don’t know. But it, and others, simply didn’t stick with me. Resulting in no inspiration to really write about Dr.STONE.

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Mononoke – 11 [Goblin Cat, Part 2] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Mononoke, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to the penultimate week of Mononoke! Apologies for the lateness of this, life is busy busy right now, much like Mononoke itself. As this week we dive into the mystery at hand, our suspects start to talk and the series gets… weird. Let’s dive in!

Starting off, what do I mean by weird? Well personally, I wasn’t a fan of the direction and such this week, a first for the series. It actually went so hard on some scenes, that it started to feel obnoxious. What with both the audio and the visuals just hammering away at the senses, some scenes were unpleasant to watch. Don’t get me wrong, some were fantastic. Mononoke tried really hard to sell the horror aspect of the series. And it succeeded a number of times, more so than many other arcs. However in its effort to really finish, it comes off to strong. My big example of this for me were the “Don’t see, don’t hear, don’t speak” murals near the end, which while interesting just kinda slammed into you. Harsh cuts and sounds accompanying them and everything. I just think Mononoke needed to tone this down a bit.

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Vinland Saga – 14 [The Light of Dawn]

by Lenlo, posted in Vinland Saga

This is a big week for Vinland. One of the best episodes, not just of the season, but the year for me. So many things just came together to really nail it. As this week Askeladd makes us question who we are rooting for, and really throws the brutality of war in our face. Let’s just get right into it though.

Right off the bat, I think this episode looked fantastic. Wit really nailed the snow effects. Especially the wind blowing off the hills, flakes of snow scattering in the air. The lighting of the torches in the dark night, all of it really helped to fully realize and base the world. Which was very important for the actual contents of the episode. Vinland Saga also really upped the detail throughout the episode. Such as on the axes, characters faces or their hands. Really trying to ground it and push how real the characters are. I think Wit succeeds here, dialing in on the life of a peasant and focusing on them more than our leads. So that by the inevitable end of the episode, you are more connected and care more about them than our villainous leads. And boy, are our leads the villains this episode.

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Mononoke – 10 [Goblin Cat, Part 1] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Mononoke, Throwback Thursday

Hello all, apologies for the delay, and welcome to the final arc of Mononoke! This is perhaps the most unique one yet. As we skip forward to a modern era, set the entire thing in a single location, and have ourselves a murder mystery. So, lets dive in!

Right off the bat, as always, I loved Mononoke’s strong sense of direction. Yeah the episode was kind of slow, which considering its the start of a 3 episode arc makes sense. However in spite of the pacing, or perhaps because of, we got a lot of really interesting scenes and decisions out of it. For instance, I found the usage of mannequins for the crowds fantastic. As this is the greatest amount of people in any scene Mononoke has had to deal with. So the decision both makes it easy to put them on screen, justifies their lack of animation, and denotes how unimportant they are. It also lead to some, not quite funny but memorable, scenes involving the train. Such as when it grinds to a halt, all of the mannequins are thrown to the ground, etc etc. It was all really quite clever I think.

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Vinland Saga – 12/13 [The Land on the Far Bank/Child of a Hero]

by Lenlo, posted in Vinland Saga

Hello again everyone and welcome to a double feature for Vinland Saga. Apologies for the missed week, but even I am not totally immune to sickness. So this week we cover episodes 12 and 13. Where we learn quite a bit about Askeladd, Canute finds his voice and winter starts to turn. In we go!

Starting off, since its a 2 for 1 this week, let’s talk production. Across both the episodes, I thought the music was fantastic. Still very unique for most anime I feel. And they really accentuated each scene they were used in. I do think that it was a tad loud at times, though. Sometimes drowning out the conversation and such of the scene. Part of me thinks this was a conscious choice though, as Vinland Saga was putting a lot of effort into showing how much noise an army makes. With stomping boots and chatter and all that. Seemingly to setup the Ear’s little listening to the ground trick. But as a whole, while I really like the music, the volume mixing just felt a bit off. Over all though, the presentation was solid. Great presentation of armies and the changing of seasons and backgrounds. Onto the meat though!

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Dr.STONE – 14 [Master of Flame]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

And so begins the 2nd cour of Dr.STONE, complete with a whole new OP and everything. However for us, we are just picking up right where we left off. With Kinro’s fight, Senku’s science and an old friend returned. Let’s dive in!

In general I think this week was better than the last. Yes, the focus was still on the fights and yes this is still a Shounen. However it’s the manner, the focus of the fights, that differs. As last week was primarily on brawn and how it can be accentuated by Science. While this week Dr.STONE goes back to its roots and focuses entirely on science and teamwork. Of course before we can get to that, we have to talk about Kinro getting duped. I have to say, it was hard to write around knowing that would happen, and I am curious. What did you all think of the dupe? Was it setup fine and worked, or did it feel like a lazy contrivance to build tension? As Kinro has long been established as a bit of a rules lawyer. So while you read, please keep that in mind.

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