Author: Lenlo

Dr.STONE – 4 [Fire the Smoke Signal]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Welcome all, to the climax of Dr.STONE’s opening prologue. A lot happens this week! We see a young Senku, Tsukasa catches up and perhaps the greatest change, Yuzuriha gets a haircut. Lets dive in!

Right off the bat, for as much as I enjoyed it narratively, visually Dr.STONE was pretty weak. The biggest example of this is Tsukasa’s run through the forest. With the ground and trees looking like they came from a completely different series. Tsukasa himself standing out against the background textures. It doesn’t help Dr.STONE that Kimetsu no Yaiba is airing in the same season either. Ufotable’s CGI landscapes are both better done, and better directed. Going for dynamic camera movements and effects such as fog to cover any iffy textures. Using a first person view to get around actually placing 2D characters into a 3d scene. Yes, its production tricks, but they are clever and result in a far better looking scene than we got here. Luckily, that was Dr.STONE’s worst offense this week. The rest resulting in a fun, if melodramatic, cliffhanger.

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Serial Experiments Lain 13 – [Ego] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Serial Experiments Lain, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to the finale of Serial Experiments Lain, perhaps the oddest of the series done for Throwback Thursday yet. This week Lain moves on, Arisu grows up and everyone just… goes back to normal. Lot’s going on, none of which I am qualified for, but let’s jump in.

Now before we get into the meat of the series, I want to talk about “enjoyment”. You see, I am not entirely sure that I “enjoyed” Lain. Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly interesting, and very evocative. Lain made me feel a lot of emotions throughout its run. Think about a lot of topics anime normally doesn’t. Yet, were they positive emotions? Was it… enjoyable? I don’t think it was, though I don’t think that’s necessary either. You don’t need to enjoy something for it to have value. For an extreme example, I never enjoyed textbooks, yet the information was valuable. I don’t enjoy many of my favorite moments in Berserk, because of their tragic nature. Yet they have value and cause me to feel emotions I normally don’t. For someone as unexpressive as myself, that’s an accomplishment. Enough about me though, onto the finale itself.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba – 16 [Letting Someone Else Go First]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome one and all to one of the more tragic episodes of Kimetsu no Yaiba. This week a Demon falls, Inosuke becomes a dating sim and Tanjiro makes googly eyes at someones mom. Let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, this week makes up for last in terms of production. Not even talking about the animation, which I enjoyed, this week Yaiba had some fantastic scenes. There were some legitimately beautiful shots, mostly near the end, but that doesn’t negate their effect. Narratively they don’t make the most sense, I have some niggling questions behind them. That Yaiba went for style over substance in some instances here. Now, considering that Yaiba is a fun Shounen romp, this isn’t a death sentence by any means. Rule of Cool has existed for decades, and it’s a rule I love. Kabaneri for instance existed on that rule. It is however the sort of thing that holds a series back. Keeping it as “good” instead of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood “Great” and “genre defining”. Still, hard to complain about getting something “good”.

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Dr.STONE – 3 [Weapons of Science]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Hello everyone, time for another day at the anime blogging grindstone. This week Tsukasa’s conflict comes to the fore, Yuzuriha wakes up and our team goes for a hike. Let’s get to it!

This week, Dr.STONE continued to make good use of Boichi’s original art. However we are starting to see some of the limitations of his style. Originally a hentai artist, Boichi’s style is rather exaggerated. After his years of work on Sun-Ken Rock, for men this results in veritable mountains of muscle. He clearly enjoys drawing that muscle as well, which you can see in Tsukasa. Turning them into rock solid titans. For his female characters however, he runs into a similar problem as Saber from Fate, though more exaggerated. With all of them looking the same, with the same proportions and similar doll-like faces. It makes for appealing manga stills with his exaggerated art. But an anime necessitates a lesser amount of detail, and this just ends up making Yuzuriha look… off, for me. Its not something that is going to change though. For better or worse.

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Serial Experiments Lain – 12 [Landscape] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Serial Experiments Lain, Throwback Thursday

Welcome, one and all, to the penultimate episode of Serial Experiments Lain! This is a weird one, yet I feel like I got it on some level. As Lain questions peoples perception, her place in the world, and Masami’s words, let’s just dive right in.

Starting off, I haven’t been bringing it up as much recently, but I want to draw attention to Lain’s production. This was a really good week visually, rivalling 8 even. The outstanding finish aside, which was incredibly fluid, the presentation of Lain’s house and Masami were great. Lain really nailed the atmosphere of the virtually abandoned home. The entire thing trashed and dirty, Mika sitting upstairs and droning on like a modem. It was incredibly creepy and disconcerting, with only simple stills and a locations history to really go by. Meanwhile, the aforementioned final scene was the episodes capstone. Really belying the fact that Lain is from the late 90’s. None of this is even mentioning the sound design. So yeah, I suppose the only thing to say is Lain had a good week production wise. Now let’s take a look at the story.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba – 15 [Mount Natagumo]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Another week, the start of another arc in Kimetsu no Yaiba. This week our trio start to grow, we meet some new villains and some old characters make a return. Hope your not afraid of spiders, cause we have whole host to get through. Lets go!

As far as production goes, I think this was one of Yaiba’s weakest weeks. Part of that is just that there wasn’t really any combat. There was some basic sword swinging, but no true fights. So there wasn’t anything for Yaiba to really go all in on. This isn’t to say it was bad, I still enjoy Yaiba’s artstyle. The thick black lines is right up my alley, helps make things pop and make it clear between objects. Yaiba also had some interesting CGI segments. From the first person walking through the mountain to Inosuke’s Beast Breathing. These were both interesting, thought obviously CGI, but Yaiba did a good job here I feel. CGI works well for detailed environments, its just character models that anime still seems to be lagging on. Still, enough about boring production. Lets get onto the actual story.

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Dr.STONE – 2 [King of the Stone World]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Hello everyone, it’s your friendly neighborhood Lenlo here. Ready for another season? Well you better be, cause this might be my favorite season of the year. Starting of course with Dr.Stone, a series I have followed since its first few chapters. So that said, open up your textbooks and let’s dive in!

Starting off, production. Now, I don’t mean this disparagingly, but Dr.Stone is not a fantastically animated show. It has it’s fun with facial and body expressions, don’t get me wrong. They are doing their best to adapt Boichi’s art after all, and the man is a master of the reaction face. But in terms of actual fluid animation, it’s a lot more still’s and sliding models than other hard hitters of the season. Such as Fire Force or Vinland (I love this show). Luckily, Dr.Stone isn’t really an action show, so this shouldn’t be a problem. The series focuses more on its backgrounds and its environment. Really selling this stone-age world they are living in now. With the Dr.Stone’s subject being on science and the rebuilding of civilization, I think its a good choice. I just hope the few setpieces there are end up getting the attention they need.

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Serial Experiments Lain – 10/11 [Love/Infornography] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Serial Experiments Lain, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to a 2 parter for Serial Experiments Lain! Apologies for missing last week. Between end of season reviews, first impressions and a boxing match, I was a bit busy. But we are back on track with some Lain weirdness, so lets dive right in!

Starting off, I once again was forced to appreciate how good Lain looks and sounds. It’s nothing flashing, like your modern sakuga showcases. Lain doesn’t show off the same way Mob Psycho or Attack on Titan do. With huge showcases from big name animators. Lain does much better with pointed imagery and interesting composition. So my eye roams the screen during the stills, and I don’t notice the lack of animation until it’s moved on. At the very least, it succeeds here more than Paranoia Agent did. The sound design also caught my attention. Specifically episode 11’s opening, with the sink and dishes, the dripping water. I don’t know what it stood out to me, such a simple thing. But I still remember it a week after watching the episode. I wonder what happened to get this kind of effect. Still, enough with production. Onto the madness!

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Kimetsu no Yaiba – 14 [The House with the Wisteria Family Crest]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba. This week we take a break as our trio get to know each other, have some dinner and meet best sister Nezuko. Let’s get into it!

Right off the bat, I am rather split on this episode. Both in terms of production/animation and the actual narrative of it. There are things I really like and things I don’t for both. For instance, Yaiba did a really good job with the hand-to-hand combat animation! That was a pretty sick combat, and it was a nice change of pace from the swords and demons. Something nice and mundane. However, Yaiba also really overused the “comedy” style for my this episode. With the blank faces and really simplistic art style. It’s not the comedy itself, that was hit or miss and I will get into that later. It’s just the style. It works better on some characters than others, clearly. With the simple dots for eyes and round heads. For the most part though, I want to call Yaiba a success this week.

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One Punch Man Season 2 Anime Review – 34/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Action, One Punch Man S2, Reviews by Lenlo

Often at the start of one of these reviews, I will wax philosophical about a series. Attempting to slowly draw you, the reader, in to whatever topic or anime I am discussing in that review. This time, none of that. This time, I have to come out and say from the beginning, that One Punch Man Season 2 is terrible. Though there are a few occasional gems throughout the series, thanks to one Kenichiro Aoki, most of the series is a mess. On every level. This review won’t even be comparing One Punch Man Season 2 to the original, as that is just unfair. Even if you didn’t like it, in terms of pure production, the first season was on the upper end. Sadly though, this 2nd Season can’t even stand up to the average show in it’s own season.

So all that said, lets get right into it.

(Disclaimer: 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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