Author: Lenlo

Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 7

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Hey all! Real quick, I am aware that I am ludicrously late on both the 2023 Anime of the Year awards and the preview for the next season and some reviews. Don’t worry, I’m workin on them. I have just been… So ludicrously busy outside of the blog and it’s taking everything I have just to maintain what we have now. Hopefully things will calm down soon, but know that I haven’t forgotten about them, or you. Thanks! Now lets check out this week.

Dungeon Meshi- 8 [Raspberries/Grilled Meat]

Another absolutely great episode of Dungeon Meshi this week. Split down the middle between Marcille’s first meeting and budding friendship with Falin and a fight with an Undine, it had a perfect mix of emotional development and action for me. The flashback was great because, so far, Falin hasn’t really been a character. She’s someone we hear about through other peoples stories. And while this is no different, this one is more of a regular day-to-day for her. We get to see how she’s different from the other students, how she focuses more on life experiences and what she learns in the natural world than books. It’s that difference that makes her more specialized, but far more skilled at what she’s passionate about than Marcille’s broader skillset. It’s also just a really cute scene of the beginning of their friendship, and the detail that goes into the environment and ecosystem of this cave is simply brilliant. As for the second half, this looked fantastic. Incredibly expressive, Marcille getting her own 1v1 fight was cool too, from a visual standpoint I loved everything about it. Dungeon Meshi even managed to fit in food in an episode where they didn’t kill anything, cooking meat to help Marcille recover some blood. Just good shit all around, I continue to enjoy Dungeon Meshi a lot.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 7” →

Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics (77/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

(This review covers both seasons, not just the first one)

Fairy tales have always been a staple in our lives, whether because our parents read them to us, we learned about them in school, or saw the Disney movie versions. Everyone’s probably heard of at least one fairy tale, like Snow White or The Little Mermaid. Even other countries have their own fairy tales, or their own original spins on familiar ones. But what many don’t know is that often, the original sources are a lot darker and less kid-friendly than the interpretations we were exposed to. Such is the case of the fairy tales by the Brothers’ Grimm, who are famous for having much darker and more cynical versions of popular fairy tales. Of course, in the eighties, Japan had the bright idea to adapt some of Grimms’ fairy tales into an anime series, titled Grimm Masterpiece Theater in Japanese, retitled Grimms’ Fairy Tale Classics in English. If you can believe it, this was one of the first anime that Saban Entertainment dubbed and brought to America back in their heyday. It even got aired on Nick Jr of all things. I was born in 1993, so I never saw it growing up, but I became friends with many people who did grow up with it. But because of Saban’s tendency to never put stuff they license out on home video, or in some cases not completely, many episodes of this series were considered lost media until just a few years ago. Thanks to Discotek Media not only finally re-releasing this series on Blu-Ray, but even released the Japanese version with English subs. Curious, I bought both sets and wanted to see what this was all about.

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Black Lagoon – 13/14 [The Vampire Twins Comen/Bloodsport Fairytale] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to another week of Black Lagoon! This week marks the halfway point of this watch, as well as the beginning of a new season for Black Lagoon. We have plenty to talk about, so lets dive right into it!

First up we have episode 13, “The Vampire Twins Comen”. This episode introduces a new pair of villains for Black Lagoon and I have to say, my initial impression was… Iffy, if I’m being honest. I get what Black Lagoon is going for with these kids, Hansel and Gretel. A pair of sociopaths molded by the world, hurt by it, victims of it in every way who still have to be put down because of the horrible things they are now doing. Black Lagoon wants us to question just how at fault these kids are, and how our world can ruin a child innocence and turn people into monsters later in life. And we’ll talk about all of that, because that’s solid! But I think Black Lagoon takes it a step to far in its presentation of it all.

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Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 6

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

This was a good week for the season. I don’t think there was a single bad episode, from any show, across the board. Some were better than others sure, but I enjoyed every last one of these, and that’s a treat. Really happy with this week.

Shangri-La Frontier – 18 [Putting Feelings Into a Moment, Part 4]

Daaaamn, Shangri-La got hands this week. And by that I mean, for the first time since the premier, Shangri-La actually looks pretty damn good. Director Toshiyuki Kubooka and his team over at C2C went all out this week and it shows. Sunraku’s movements were fluid, the effects on Pencil and Katsu were awesome, and Wethermon and his crumbling armor looked absolutely incredible. And as if that weren’t enough? The actual content underneath those visuals was great too! I loved watchin Sunraku face this “unbeatable” mechanic head on, using all of his resources as he slowly figured it out, eventually timing all of his buffs and shit to maximize his parry chance. Dude basically solo’ed the encounter since the other two were dealing with the mount, Kirin. Is it convenient how all of these systems come together for his specific build? Obviously, yes. But that doesn’t make it any less fun, and Shangri-La executed on it perfectly such that it all worked anyways. Plus Wethermon’s line at the end about their brilliance was pretty great to. An all around fantastic end to Shangri-La’s best arc yet. I love these gamer assholes.

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Black Lagoon – 11/12 [Lock’n Load Revolution/Guerrillas in the Jungle] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to a late week of Black Lagoon! This has been a busy few days for me, so apologies for the delay and shortness of the post. I actually didn’t even get to watch the episodes until Wednesday night, and writing this got put off until Friday morning. Turns out everything is starting to ramp up around here. Still, the show must go on, so lets dive into the murky world of international terrorism, oh yeah!

First up, let’s talk about some production. Black Lagoon continues to run into this “Early digital animation era” problem of fidelity. I’m talking pixelated line work and choppy movement. It doesn’t happen often, this isn’t an “Every scene” sort of issue. But it definitely happens at least once an episode, and it’s noticeable. Additionally, this week the English dub also had some… interesting decisions. I’m of course talking about Shenhua and Leigharch. They sound great, their actors did a good job! But for Shenhua specifically, I can’t help but think it sounds… Kinda racist? It’s a heavily stereotypical Chinese accent done by a Canadian woman? I make no moral judgement, I’m not attacking anyone, in fact I absolutely adored her banter with Revy. Just… In the modern day, almost 20 years down the line, it looks, or in this case sounds… questionable. Still, the quality is good, gotta give’m that.

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Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 5

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Bucchigiri – 4 [Stop the War! Sometimes You Gotta Eat the Goya Chanpuru]

Bucchigiri is, once again, great. The over the top gang drama is just fun, I enjoy their ridiculousness and Arajin being just this regular guy trying to navigate the absurdity is fun. At the same time though, I really like how Bucchigiri is slowly working in these more serious plot points. Behind the gang drama we have Matakara trying to salvage his friendship and hold together the one thing his brother left for him before he was sent to Juvie. Behind Arajin’s obsession with Mahoro and Senya’s joy of fighting, we have Shindo’s gang causing trouble and a mysterious second Honki spirit influencing it all with a chosen champion, just like Senya. Bucchigiri started off as an extremely well produced joke and is slowly escalating into a, still extremely well produced, character drama. And I’m all for it! Once again, I’m looking forward to the next episode.

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Black Lagoon – 9/10 [Maid to Kill/The Unstoppable Chambermaid] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to another week of Black Lagoon! We’re almost done with the first season, only two episodes left. That means shit’s starting to go down, and I am here for all of it. So without further ado, lets dive into the episodes and my new wife favorite maid, Roberta.

Starting off, one big surprise was that I found myself gravitating back towards the English dub this week. If you remember, last week I said it was good but that I preferred the JP dub + English subs. And I thought that was the case when I started this pair of episodes! But about halfway through episode 9 I switched to English “Just to check” and never switched back. Something about Black Lagoon’s English dub keeps pulling me towards it, makes me want to watch the show that way. Maybe it’s because it’s good enough that I can focus on the action, rather than reading subtitles, without feeling like I’m losing out. Or the crews VA work and chemistry is just so good I can’t help it. Who knows, I’ll figure it out as I go. Whatever the case, I think I’m going to watch with the English dub moving forward.

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Guest Post: Unearthed Garbage with Firechick – Prima Doll (50/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

I normally don’t try to review an anime before it ends, as I prefer to watch it all the way through before sorting out my thoughts on it. But dear lord, Prima Doll as a show annoyed me so much that I honestly just couldn’t hold my feelings on it back any longer. Prima Doll is a new multimedia franchise created by the company Visual Arts/Key, who many will know as the people who created beloved visual novels such as Air, Kanon, Clannad, and Little Busters. They’re still making games to this day, and I remember watching the anime adaptations for Air, Kanon, and Clannad when they came out, and loving them, though if I were to watch them now, it’s likely my feelings on them will change. But lately Key has wanted to expand their horizons, and I can understand wanting to try something new…though multimedia franchises usually don’t fare well in this oversaturated market. Yet even by those standards, Prima Doll just absolutely screams shameless corporate artifice that’s only there to sell products, and literally nothing else.

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Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 4

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Bucchigiri – 3 [Love at First fight! The One and Only Quail in the World]

Bucchigiri continues to be stupid fun mixed with an evolving and escalating gang-war plotline in the background that is slowly taking over the show, in the best way possible. I get it, not everyone will enjoy some of the jokes, and even I find some of them distasteful. I could do without the recurring “I need to use the restroom” thing, that isn’t funny. But everything else, Ara’s relationship with Matakara and Senya, the slowly budding gang war as a third one starts to cause problems, the puns like “Debauchery” becoming “De Punchery”, and the over the top gang action is just… It’s fun ok? There’s no other way to put it, Bucchigiri is expressive and looks great every week, the characters are funny, Senya is adorable, there’s just enough action in the fights to scratch that “Shounen” itch, and it feels like nothing I’ve watched in a long time. It also helps that the OP and ED are probably the best of the season. Everything about it screams passion project, which isn’t something I can say for the other original airing this season, Metallic Rouge. I don’t know how MAPPA of all studios is pulling this off, but I’ll take it.

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Black Lagoon – 7/8 [Calm Down, Two Men/Rasta Blasta] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to another week of Throwback Thursday! This was a great week for Black Lagoon, I enjoyed both episodes quite a bit and I like where the show is going. This is also the English week, where we watch with English Dub just to see how it is. Hint hint, it ain’t bad! So without further ado, lets dive into the episodes.

Starting off, lets talk English dub. It’s good! There’s a bit of awkwardness there with the mouth movements, but that’s just an inherent problem with dubs and not Black Lagoon’s fault at all. As far as our leads, Revy and Rock, are concerned I quite liked them. I enjoyed the confidence Rock spoke with, as well as the anger and aggression in Revy. There were also a number of side characters, like the pimp who offered Revy a “job”, who I think absolutely nailed their roles. Ultimately I prefer the JP voices, there’s a difference in audio quality between the two I believe, and since I don’t speak Japanese there’s less to nitpick. If you prefer dub though, Black Lagoon is definitely very high on the list of “Good English dubs” in my opinion. I would not mind watching the rest of the series in English.

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