Author: Lenlo

Dororo – 23 [The Story of the Demons]

by Lenlo, posted in Dororo

Welcome one and all to the penultimate episode of Dororo. We have brutality, we have drama, and we have a boatload of philosophy. Its everyone Game of Thrones Season 8 said it would be, but wasn’t. Is it too late to make that joke? Regardless, this was a good week for Dororo, so let’s jump in.

Starting off, I was iffy on the production this week at first. Some of the opening scenes were… off, like Hyakki’s horse just panning down the screen. But as the episode went on this became less and less of an issue. With Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru just dominating the screen. This is everything I wanted from their final showdown. Sure, the road was long and meandering to get here, but visually it was a treat spanning 4 different scenes. From the fields, to the riverbanks, up to the castle to the current finale. I loved it all. Sure, the other side scenes weren’t fantastic from a production standpoint, but they had a lot of story value. Acting as a sort of break between sections of the fight, so we don’t get tired of swords clashing over and over. Simply put, Dororo looked great this week, the story striking to as well.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba – 11 [Tsuzumi Mansion]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week we finally meet the rest of our leading group, find a new Demon and deal with some… odd tonal issues. Lets dive in!

Starting off, Zenitsu. I have to say, whatever Yaiba is planning with him, so far I am not impressed. The man was just so incredibly… annoying. Right off the bat I am not the favorite of this cowardly archetype. Yet Yaiba did what it does and dialed him up to 11. With the entire first half just being his whiny voice ad-nauseam. Simply put, Zenitsu was way over-done at the start of the episode. Really putting me off him. It’s sad to, because there are definite hints to more around his character. With Zenitsu splitting the food Tanjiro gave him, or actually fulfilling his role as a Demon Slayer when he could run at any time. Yaiba makes it clear there is more to him. Yet because of the opening 11 minutes, both his character and the episode as a whole, suffer.

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Serial Experiments Lain – 7 [Society] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Serial Experiments Lain, Throwback Thursday

Hello all and welcome to another episode of Serial Experiments Lain! Apologies for the lateness and brevity on this one, was/am feeling rather sick as this week wrapped up. Oddly enough, the addled state of mind may have helped me understand Lain better. As this week we get a lot of answers, the Knights become more active and the line between Reality and Wired gets even thinner. Lets dive in!

Starting once again with Production, Lain did a lot of interesting things this week. Not that Lain isn’t interesting normally, but it got really experimental with it this week. Specifically, I am talking about the homeless man and his VR headset. Lain tried a lot of different filters to this, experimenting with odd changes to the footage. Whether it be taking real life footage and applying some kind of filter over it or just screwing with reality. It was a lot of fun to look at, and I really enjoyed the homeless man, even if he wasn’t a lead character. Basically, we got to see a lot of the tech/Wired aspect of the show, and I thought that was good. Now though, onto the actual story content of the episode.

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One Punch Man S2 – 9 [The Ultimate Dilemma]

by Lenlo, posted in One Punch Man S2

Sigh, it was nice having a free week of no OPM. No disappointment, not falling opinion of an acclaimed manga series. Just free time and no post I had to write. Now we are back though, and JC Staff has once again screwed it up. So join me as this week we talk music.

For me, the biggest issue with this week was the choice of music. Simply put, OPM S2 not only doesn’t have any good original tracks, but it reuses the same ones to much. For example, the “emotional” music of this episode was used a ludicrous amount. Being thrown over every scene they could. One or two of these is fine, its a fine piece of music. But when played over and over and over, it loses all power. And that’s not even mentioning if the scene even fits the music in the first place. Really, the sound design has been horrible across the entire series. From punches, to VA work and now to music, the general quality of the sounds in OPM are simply disappointing.

Sadly, I am going to have to cut this one short here though. While there isn’t much to say beyond this, I feel bad for leaving such a short post. But I seem to have come down with something, and its making even writing coherent sentences now difficult. Hopefully it clears up tomorrow, and I can get Lain written up for you. Until then though, suffice to say, OPM S2 is still a dumpster fire and if your actually still watching it, I pity you. Its not worth your time and I promise you, its not going to get a good score here.

So, my shame at writing virtually nothing aside, I will see you next week!

Dororo – 22 [The Story of Nui]

by Lenlo, posted in Dororo

Another week, another episode of Dororo. This time we follow up with Nui, the mother, Hyakki falls off the deep-end and Tahomaru gets one up on his brother. Lets dive in!

Starting off, recently I have been skipping the production portion of these posts. 22 episodes in, you know what your getting at this point. However, recognition where its due, Dororo looked good this week. Outside the battles everything was a standard, acceptable quality. Nothing worth really getting hung up on. However I found Hyakkimaru’s scenes to be a treat. The fire and depiction of the flaming horse looked great. Everything was stylized and in general I found it a joy to look at. Someone clearly had a lot of fun with the almost liquid fire effects we saw, the wind, and the motion of Hyakki atop the horse. It makes it clear that, when MAPPA wants to, Dororo can standout and look good. It’s just not often that Dororo does so, nor is it particularly consistent. Now though, onto the story.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba – 10 [Together Forever]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba, where we finish up another little arc. This time we get a lot of monologues and some brutal deaths closed out by some wholesome Nezuko. Let’s dive in!

Like always, Yaiba looked nice this week. Some may complain about CGI and such, but I think Yaiba is pulling it off quite well. It’s still obvious but Ufotable is leaning into it. In particular I enjoy the smoke effects and such, they work without being to campy. However Yaiba’s big problem this week in my opinion were the monologues. They really hurt the pacing, cutting between moments of action. Combined with last week, it feels to me like they could have combined most of the two into one. Cutting out a lot of the spurious dialogue for the same net result. Because what surrounds it is good fun mostly, I can look past it for the most part. However it does show that Yaiba isn’t free of all the usual Shounen tropes. That said, onto the contentious meat of the episode.

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Serial Experiments Lain – 6 [Kids] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Serial Experiments Lain, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all, though its a day late and no longer Thursday, to the episode where Lain truly begins. I think. Really, I am not sure anymore, but this week Lain becomes a God, her room becomes a cave cave and dresses nice for once. Lets dive in!

Now normally I open these up with the production aspect, but you know what I think at this point. Lain is a very static show visually, that has more interesting shot composition and visuals than it does animation. Instead I want to ask a question about how every episode starts. That same street, that same line of “Present day, present time”. Is this supposed mean that Lain is occurring right now? Under our very noses, without society noticing? Grand events playing out while the wider world is unaware? Its the only explanation I can think of, at least that’s positive. Because Lain generally overlays a speech of some kind over it. Whatevers related to the episode. It could just be part of an extended OP, with no greater purpose. But that would be disappointing after what the series has shown thus far.

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Dororo – 21 [The story of breaking the cycle of suffering]

by Lenlo, posted in Dororo

Welcome all to what is the beginning of the end for Dororo. Tahomaru and Hyakki meet once more, war begins and things start to get complicated. Let’s dive in!

Starting off, production felt very lazy for the most part this week. The last 5-6 minutes or so was great. The fight was a lot of fun to look at. So much so that it almost seems to me that Tahomaru is the sign for good animation. Other than that though Dororo was just… boring. There were a lot of still pans and cutaways. Reused footage from previous episodes and odd framing. Similar to OPM Season 2 really, where faces would be cut off by the top of the screen. The only movement being the occasional hand gesture on a still screen. Had the last 5-6 minutes not happened, this episode would be a wash. As is, the only part really worth watching is that section. As everything else is setup that, really, we were already were aware of. Enough ribbing though, let’s get into the meat.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba – 9 [Temari Demon and Arrow Demon]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome one and all to what I would describe as the first concerning episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This time we have a lot of reused footage, a beautiful muscle bound woman and a fun fight. Lets dive in!

Starting off, repeating sequences aside, Production is the one area Yaiba had no issues in. It looks fantastic. Yeah, sure, the CGI was noticeable. You could tell when Tanjiro’s face became a static 3D model and such. But the actual movement in those sequences looked fantastic. Using the full environment, holding the shot as Tanjiro jumps off the wall and twists around the screen. It all looked very fluid, however noticeable the change in medium was. The water effects also continue to impress. The stark blue, and thick black lines really make it stand out beautifully on screen. All in all I loved it. Before jumping into spoilers this week though, I want to thank commenter Revokkin, for correcting me on Yaiba’s composer. As it turns out Go Shiina is also responsible for the music with Yuki Kaijura. So we have to thank them both for this great OST.

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Serial Experiments Lain – 5 [Distortion] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Serial Experiments Lain, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to perhaps the weirdest episode of Lain yet. This week we get preached at, Lain’s sister gets lobotomized and Lain herself becomes a National terrorist. Lets jump in!

Starting off, the production. Lain got, to put it simply, weird this week with the visuals. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it was definitely very striking. From the flashbacks (?) with Lain, to the Sister’s slow fall into the Wired. In some cases this was incredibly interesting. I loved some of the visuals at the end. With the Sister, and Lain herself staring into the monitor. Those were cool! In other cases though it was just weird and I couldn’t follow what was going on. This is mainly aimed at the flashbacks, which are my biggest problem with the episode. We will talk about those in detail later. Visually, they weren’t terribly complex. But they came from nowhere and were so disconnected with everything else going on, that they really confused me. Because of this, and their story beats, they really halted the pace of the series for me.

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