Author: Lenlo

Dororo – 2 [The Story of Bandai]

by Lenlo, posted in Dororo

Hello and welcome to show number two for me of the new season! Dororo is an interesting one, based on a 1960’s manga, with this being its second adaptation. This week we meet another demon, learn our leads name and that not all spirits are bad. Let’s dive in!

Visually, Dororo is sort of a mixed bag for me. One on hand, I love the older style it has going for it, and much of the lack of detail allows the animators to have some fun. On the other hand though, the feet are blobs, and everything is a green/brown. I also noticed some rather static scenes that, compared to the first episode, left me wanting. Overall though I think Dororo is good. We know from the first episode that when it wants to, it can look gorgeous. It’s just that this week was rather subdued, as our first intro to what the day to day for the series will be. With that done, now I can get to the actual meat of the episode.

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Mob Psycho 100 S2 – 2 [Urban Legends ~Encountering Rumors~]

by Lenlo, posted in Mob Psycho 100 II

Hello and welcome to the first outright perfect episode of anime of 2019! Mob Psycho 100 knocked it out of the park this week in every respect, so let’s just jump right in!

Right off the bat, Bones is out in full force animation wise. Everything about this episode, visually, was fantastic. Even in drab, rain-slick scenes they found a way to introduce color to a drab landscape. And that isn’t even mentioning the wholly unique perspectives or styles for animation. Take for instance the straight up street fighter/fighting game reference. Done entirely in Mob Psycho’s style, it was a fantastic gag. Then there was one of my favorite styles, which only appears in Mob Psycho, the paint on glass effects. For depicting other worldly spirits, I think it does a fantastic job of showing that etherealness. Add on to all of this the sheer amount of sakuga throughout the episode, from Dimple jumping between trees, to the flowing sludge of the monster spirit, and you have a feast for the eyes. 2 weeks in and Bones has already won Animation. Wow.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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