Author: Lenlo

Planetes – 25 & 26 [The Lost/And the Days We Chance Upon] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Hello all and welcome to both the finale of Planetes and the first run of Throwback Thursday. This week we learn what became of Tanabe and Claire, Hachi and Hakim, and wrap everything up with a nice big bow. Lets jump in!

Starting off, I want to say I think Planetes closed out the series well. It managed to resolve almost every plot thread. Every character got some kind of resolution to their story, and yet not a single one of them died. That takes some talent to pull off. The big one that I thought had absolutely no reason to work, but did, was Tanabe and Hachi’s 2nd attempt at romance. I said before that their romance felt forced, that they simply weren’t compatible. Planetes managed to take their differences though and through their growth, have them reconcile those differences in a way that does fit together. Tanabe got brought down to Earth, losing some naivete, while Hachi got rid of his loner attitude. Both through well done, believable sequences.

Continue reading “Planetes – 25 & 26 [The Lost/And the Days We Chance Upon] – Throwback Thursday” →

Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru – 12 [Summer Prank]

by Lenlo, posted in Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Ah, the break is over, the New Year is here and Kaze Fui has returned once more! This week a few more of our boys get qualifying times, Kurahara loves his team and everyone goes camping! Lets dive in!

Starting off, I have to make it known how happy I am for our boys in black to be back. Kaze Fui is such an all around great production that it is no doubt my favorite of last season. This episode, its first one back, managed to touch on all the progress the group had made in the first cour. From Kurahara being a team player to everyone else leaning into their strengths with their running. The only real complaint I have about the episode are the terrible CGI models you see behind our runners. I am glad that none of the important characters got such treatment, but the difference between characters was very jarring. There was no way you couldn’t notice the CGI competitors in some of these shots, all with the same face and run cycle. Disappointing, but if that’s the worst Kaze Fui does, its pretty good.

Continue reading “Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru – 12 [Summer Prank]” →

Mob Psycho 100 II – 1 [Ripped Apart ~Someone Is Watching~]

by Lenlo, posted in Mob Psycho 100 II

Winter 2019 hype! The new season has begun, First Impressions are going up, and me? I’m writing about the second season of Mob Psycho 100, one of my favorite series of 2016. So everyone, lets dive in! Mob Mob Mob!

Right off the bat let me say I loved this premier. It hit a little bit of everything Mob Psycho is known for. Psychic Slice of Life, Shounen Battles, genuine emotion and expressive animation. Oh baby that animation. I will get to each of these later on, but I have to talk about this animation. Throughout this episode Mob Psycho impressed me. From the tiny details like Mob running into a door, to the big ones of the opening fight. The colors are bright, the simple designs allow the animators to do whatever they want, and Mob Psycho has no issue with completely changing the art style to fit the scene. Take for instance the sand drawing of Mob, being brushed away. That single shot had no conventional animation, yet it portrayed the emotions of the scene perfectly. God I love Studio Bones.

Continue reading “Mob Psycho 100 II – 1 [Ripped Apart ~Someone Is Watching~]” →

Planetes – 23 & 24 [Debris Cluster/Love] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to the penultimate week of Planetes, and the first Throwback Thursday in awhile to actually release on a Thursday! This week Planetes proves me wrong, executes a fantastic climax and makes me excited for the final week. Lets jump in!

First and foremost, credit to Tayo Jones in our comments section for calling me out on it, I was impatient and wrong. Planetes knocked it out of the park this week, regardless what I expected. I think that last week, with all the rigors of the holidays and what have you, I was simply impatient and not in a good place to enjoy Planetes. This week however, Planetes took everything it had built up for Hachimaki and Tanabe’s characters, their romance include, and just smashed it. Threw it on the ground, shattered it into a million pieces and said “And now, we put them back together, but better”. And I loved it. Hachi has been learning a lot about himself in recent episodes, so for Planetes to do the same for Tanabe? A rather static character up until now for the most part. Beautiful. But, let’s get into specifics.

Continue reading “Planetes – 23 & 24 [Debris Cluster/Love] – Throwback Thursday” →

Planetes – 21 & 22 [Tandem Mirror/Exposure] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone, to another exceedingly late post on Planetes. New Years and end of season reviews have me stretched a bit thin, but the Throwback Thursday train never stops. Lets dive in!

Once again, Planetes goes for one good episode, one iffy one. The first was great, as the plot finally started to move forward and the end-game arc took shape. The second however felt largely like filler, with very little of value going on, barely expanding on the previous episode, and mostly serving to give Hachimaki time to react. Simply put, I did not enjoy the second episode, because very little of consequence happened. It felt like a setup episode, coming right on the heels of the big reveal in the first episode. That said, the first episode was not without issues either. So without further ado, let’s head into that.

Continue reading “Planetes – 21 & 22 [Tandem Mirror/Exposure] – Throwback Thursday” →

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 12 [Merry Christmas, Mr. Bookstore/It’s Time to Close]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Welcome one and all to the final episode of Honda-San! It was a… well it was a rather short road to get here all things considered, so lets skip the preamble and jump right in!

I have to say, that Honda-San managed to drop its Christmas episode basically on Christmas, impresses me. It was impeccably timed and the content made all the better for it. Not only that, but the theme of closing naturally fits perfectly for the end of the season, year and holidays. All around, a good play by Honda-San here. It also managed to get a good number of laughs out of me, with the over the top reactions and good usage of foreigners. Simply put, it is an all around good episode to close on. That Honda-San managed to have its best episodes be its first and last confuses me to no end. But its better to go out with a bang than a whimper I suppose.

Continue reading “Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 12 [Merry Christmas, Mr. Bookstore/It’s Time to Close]” →

Banana Fish Anime Review – 67/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Banana Fish, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Reviews by Lenlo

Some days, I wonder what it is with America and anime about organized crime. Baccano!, 91 Days, Blood Blockade Battlefront, all set in America, all involving criminal underworlds. Today, I get to add another to that list in the form of Banana Fish. Much more grounded than the others, it’s story dates all the way back to the 80’s. The Vietnam war has recently come to a close, and Organized Crime is being forced to adapt to new times. Banana Fish takes this story and adapts it for the modern age, with smartphones and the Middle East. It attempts to touch on all these weighty subjects and conflicts, but in the end, can only manage a story about two young men, in over their heads.

Welcome to Banana Fish. Lets jump in.

Continue reading “Banana Fish Anime Review – 67/100” →

Banana Fish – 24 [The Catcher in the Rye]

by Lenlo, posted in Banana Fish, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Hello one and all, and welcome to the Finale of Banana Fish!

Starting off, let me say, I was surprised with the ending. I will keep the spoilers to a minimum above the ‘Read More’ line, but suffice to say Banana Fish successfully tricked me. I loved it. As far as the other 28 minutes of the episode go though… well, its up in the air. First, I want to direct you to this reddit post, which goes very deep into some symbolism and the dichotomy of Banana Fish. I disagree with it in some areas, but still a good read if you care about the series. Second, to get it out of the way now before I start tearing into specifics, I enjoyed this ending. I would say it was a net positive for Banana Fish. With all of its problems in the second half, at the least we got a definitive ending. Something becoming rarer and rarer these days.

Continue reading “Banana Fish – 24 [The Catcher in the Rye]” →

Planetes – 19 & 20 [Endings Are Always…/Tentative Steps] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Hello one and all, welcome to another week of Planetes. This time Planetes continues Hachi’s quest for the Van Braun, Tanabe holds out hope and Pilot Boi lets me down. Let’s dive in!

Net, I really enjoyed this week. Planetes is back in form. The romance was placed on the back burner in favor of another worldly theme, making the viewer ask questions. Maybe it’s just that Tanabe has gotten old, having remained a largely static character, at least when compared to Hachimaki, Claire and Hakim. Each of them have had arcs, have made major changes in their lives or had them thrust upon them. Meanwhile Tanabe is still in the exact same position, an EVA Debris Hauler. She is more of a bouncing board for other, more interesting, characters. So with them off on their own, her role is largely useless. Meanwhile Hachimaki is the most interesting he has ever been. With themes of sacrifice, giving your all and being selfish for the sake of your dreams. To be quite honest, I am loving it.

Continue reading “Planetes – 19 & 20 [Endings Are Always…/Tentative Steps] – Throwback Thursday” →

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 10 & 11 [An Outstanding Bookseller/Swapping Section Heads & The Alternate Honda-San/You Can Quit Your Job Whenever You Want]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Hello one and all, perhaps the most confusing production I am covering this season. This time Honda-San teaches us about publishes and dives into a world of demons and fantasy. Let’s dive in!

So to start off, I want to apologize for the lateness and doubling up of this post. Simply put, Honda-San isn’t very interesting to me anime. Not being a comedy sort of man, I was impressed when Honda-San got genuine chuckles out of me in the first few episodes. It was a very fresh, sort of blase comedy. The subject was soe mundane that anyone could relate to the situations. Simply put, Honda-San was unique in the beginning, and I think I was taken in by that. But this late in the season, the enthusiasm just isn’t there anymore. Episode 11 definitely brought some of that back, I quite enjoyed the unique premise. It really broke up the otherwise dull past few episodes. But was it enough to close out the season? I suppose we will have to see next week how it pans out. For now, onto the episodes.

Continue reading “Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 10 & 11 [An Outstanding Bookseller/Swapping Section Heads & The Alternate Honda-San/You Can Quit Your Job Whenever You Want]” →