Author: LightningBolt

Flying witch – 02

by LightningBolt, posted in Currently Watching:, Flying Witch

You know, I always have problem with the 3-act structure, where usually they imply that the story need to have a meaning and the main characters have to grow. While those incidents that change your life indeed happened, each people have 4 or 5 of them at most, and the remaining time between those incidents we function like those in slice-of-life series, where everything don’t seem to change and we stay the same as well. So for me, slice of life is a genre that I certainly appreciate. The main problem with slice of life series in not because nothing happens, but rather because they tend to repeat things that we already know or the cast is not endearing/ interesting enough for us to care. I’m happy to say that this is not the case for Flying witch. The show already demonstrated strong execution in both fronts. I enjoyed a touch magical realism and characters feel like real people, without all those annoying exaggerating gestures.

The episode splits into 2 parts, and we got introduced to a harbinger, the spirit (I guess) who brings summer to town there. The harbinger has quite an amusing character’s design. Chinatsu’s reaction towards the harbinger steals the show for me. The comic timing is great, and she also acts like someone her age, and not in moe-mode (This season does offer many strong 12-years-old-and-under female characters, with this show along with Kumamiko and 12-san). The flowers just bring a smile to my face all the time. The second half is also wonderful, with her dream is my favorite part. I love how she keep rambling that witch’s dreams are like a prophet, and right after that just plainly say “It’s all myth”. Bakke cooking scene is very endearing as well.

The thing I love from the show so far is there are still too much to explore from their world. Just by 2 episodes they already provide something new each time, yet never distract the atmosphere. The score used in the episode also fits nicely to enhance that atmosphere as well. You know a show is good when 20 minutes run almost effortlessly and I enjoyed every moments of the episode. The show certainly gives you a charming feeling, with beautiful winter-turns-summer background and if you don’t mind slow pacing and almost no conflict situations, you will enjoy Flying witch.

~SuperMario~

Mayoiga – 03

by LightningBolt, posted in Currently Watching:, Mayoiga

Out of the 3 shows that I’m covering this season, I actually worry about Mayoiga the most. Sure, so far Bungou Stray Dogs isn’t good, but at least I enjoyed its visual and know what to expect on it, same goes with Flying Witch and Flying Witch will be the more consistent show of this season here. But 3 episodes in, I’m still not sure how Mayoiga will play out, it can range from the more ambitious show to the more silly show, or perhaps will be a combination of both.

To the surprise of no one, Masaki returns this episode after allegedly “vanished” from last week, and she was protected by our main protagonist Mitsumune (to no surprise as well). I enjoyed the back and forth confrontation between the group. Each of them have a distinctive voice so it’s always fun to see them playing off each other, even most of these are way over the top. But at the same time, I hated their reactions. Many of them overreact over a small, nonsensical comment. The overreaction has sadly become anime-staple now so we just have to deal with it. It’s nice to see a bit of background info on some characters, since we won’t care about them unless we know them. Those moment, unfortunately, is so few and far between, because- uh… the series have to spend time for other stuffs I guess.

And that other stuff in this episode happens to be when everyone decides to group together and making food together. These scenes sadly drag the whole episode down, and out of it we won’t learn anything (even who was in the group), the only thing we learn is the variables of rock, paper, scissors – which are nice on its own but feel out of place with the rest of the series.

About the mystery, now we get a bit of new clues: the vegetables have been well-growth indicates that someone still take care of them, we have a prison cell in this village so I reckon the same occurrence has happened before. We also have a bear-claw shape, and a body at the end. Things now just begin to get crazy, but based on the shaky execution from the first 3 episodes, there is doubt if Mayoiga going to hit a home run.

~SuperMario~

Bungou Stray Dogs – 02

by LightningBolt, posted in Bungou Stray Dogs, Currently Watching:

Boy, this episode does highlight many of the show’s shortcomings. In a way, that is a good thing, because we now know what elements that DON’T work for the series.

First and the most jarring issue is the comedy. All the gags, from Atsushi considers himself to be useless, Dazai suicide’s obsession, Kunikida’s being constantly teased by Dazai, already feel dragging and wear out its welcome. Consider this is just second episode this is not a good sign. The dialogue in general is not great either, it either does not advance the story or flesh out the character, and mostly stays too long on its jokes. While a little comedy would definitely be welcomed, making the comedy the central focus is a wrong step for this series.

The second weakness of the show is the characters themselves and their relationship. The central relationship between Dazai and Atsushi, for example; have been done countless times before and this one so far doesn’t offer anything new on the table. This week we get introduced again a whole bunch of new characters. They are, like last week’s new characters at the end of the episode (which completely disappeared this week), feel like just a decoration of the show. Although they are based on real Japanese authors, for now all of them are just one-note, over the top and I get the feeling they’re just there for kicking, screaming and supporting the main characters. It seems like next week we going to get a whole bunch of new character as well, so I’m a little worry there.

Lastly, the plot in this episode is a step down from last week. It’s always a given that Atsushi will be a member of Armed Detective Agency, so giving an entire episode just to reach that again is a wasted and really slow the story down. The plot itself is ridiculous. So the Agency gave Atsushi a trial without him knowing it and he passed it because he used his body to shield the bomb. REALLY? How on earth is that a plausible action? I’m actually thinking of a line from Joker’s Game “Getting killed or commit suicide is the worst possible decision a spy can make”. It actually can apply very fittingly here.

But not everything from this episode is negative though. I still pretty much enjoy the direction of the show. The use of color-palate, for example, give me a strong atmosphere that I rarely find in other anime series. I also enjoy the production design of Bongou Stray Dogs, from last week’s Under the bridge at the beginning to the warehouse at the end, or the place where Atsushi wake up in the morning or the Agency office, each of the place have such rich personality and give them a very distinctive feel. Bungou Stray Dogs shines when they focus more on the characters, like when Atsushi talks to Dazai about him being left out, there were a sense of sadness in his speech; the show also shines when they deliver the supernatural twist to the story (which appeared none in this second episode). I still have hope for the show. Next week it seems like the story will get dark though, and I pretty much prefer the series to be dark than its current light-heart, so here hoping the for the show to pick itself up from this misstep episode.

~SuperMario~

Mayoiga – 02

by LightningBolt, posted in Currently Watching:, Mayoiga

 

Hello there; I am Mario and this is my first ever post here in this blog. I hope you guys gonna enjoy my posts. As my name might indicates, I’m a male so Aidan; don’t refer me as “them” anymore; will ya?

For this season I will be covering Mayoiga; Flying Witch and Bungou Stray Dogs; but for those of you who still confuse of which writers write a post; Aidan and me decided to put our signatures/trademarks/whatever… at the end of each post. Mine will be ~SuperMario~ (haha)

Back to Mayoiga though, now in the second episode; we have much better idea what they will go for and the premise shows a compelling hook. We have a lost village where previous occupants seem to be vanished; and two people from the tour have been disappeared. People begin to spirited away really feel like a natural progress of the story; but providing that Masaki was one of a few characters that we spent time the most so far; I have doubt that this is the last time we heard of her.

The episode also take time to explore the communication of a group with so many different personalities and different goals to begin with; especially when it comes to trusting each other and making a decision altogether. Their confrontation with the bus driver highlights those issues; where those people have very conflicting attitudes toward the way to treat the bus driver.  I expect in the next episodes the clash between those characters would get more intense and would become the main focus of this series.

With that said, I still can’t figure out the role of the bus driver in the story. Every moments connected to him feel forced. He is the only one who hadn’t properly introduced (we even don’t know his name); yet  he getting way too much screen time. He always seems like an exclusion of the group; yet the series keeps including him. He better has a more significant role in next episodes; but at least he did see something that made him change his mind; so it’s interesting to see how things play out. I just hope that he won’t reappear just so that he would be the first one to be killed off. Time will tell on that.

~SuperMario~

 

 

Your Lie in April – 04 & 05

by LightningBolt, posted in Currently Watching:, Your Lie in April

Episodes 4 and 5 of Your Lie in April were crucial ones in terms of how the series would develop. Episode 4 was a very important episode in the series as we see Kousei reintroduce himself to the music world after his mother’s death left him unable to play the piano. How the writers would handle this situation was extremely important. I was personally worried that Kousei’s and Kaori’s performance would go too smoothly, almost belittling Kousei’s trauma. Instead, the writers took a more agreeable path than that in which encouraging signs for Kousei’s progress were mixed with frustration and familiar problems that showed that he is definitely not out of the woods yet.

After the performance, we’re left with Kaori’s sudden collapse. I was immediately worried that this was going to be an extremely cheap use of melodrama to inject some drama into the show that would ultimately be completely negligible to the series as a whole, but we learn in episode 5 that this has been a recurring issue for Kaori and will almost definitely be a very important part of Your Lie in April going forward. The rest of episode 5 showed a stronger focus on the relationships within the show with some monologues from Tsubaki and Kousei as they ponder their feelings. Episode 5 ends with Kaori pushing Kousei to enter a piano competition, which will be another important step in Kousei’s progress overcoming his trauma.

The good from these two episodes is that the pacing and production values have remained very strong. Good pacing is always nice since it feels rather rare in the medium, and especially rare in the drama/romance genres. The show also managed to beat out my worst expectations that I detailed a little bit in the above paragraphs, relating to how Kousei’s accompaniment of Kaori would go and Kaori’s collapse. As for the bad… I really wasn’t a fan of the writers hanging the botched performance over Kousei’s head. I can understand Kousei being hard on himself, even if he was pushed into the performance. I think it would be a natural reaction. I was less understanding of Kaori bringing it up at the end of episode 5. At the end of the day, I think it was merely to get him to do the piano competition, continuing to try to help him overcome his issues, but I’m still iffy on hanging that over his head to get him to do it. This is also a good time to mention the sappy lines I forgot to mention last time. They’re back in full force, particularly during the monologues. The biggest issue with these lines is that they really just suck me out of the show. Nobody talks like that.

Overall I’d say the quality has remained fairly consistent through these five episodes. Kousei’s upcoming piano competition should be the next major event and it’ll be interesting to see how the writers choose to move along the plot from where we are now. Also, of course, it’ll be interesting to see how Kaori’s health develops going forward.

Your Lie in April – 02 & 03

by LightningBolt, posted in Currently Watching:, Your Lie in April

Your Lie in April has emerged as a bit of a nice surprise in this young season. The fairly popular noitaminA programming block has been pretty hit-and-miss of late, with some very good shows here and there but a much higher rate of complete duds compared to the block’s past. For this reason I approached Your Lie in April not so convinced that I was going to be a fan, despite a decent (though hardly groundbreaking) premise. Thankfully, through three episodes, the show has settled into a nice groove and has brought some pretty good drama and music to the table each week.

In episodes 2 and 3 of Your Lie in April we’ve gotten through character introductions and have seen beginnings of the various relationships present in the show. Our two leads, Kousei and Kaori, have gotten over their initial but shortlived hostility towards one another that stemmed from their meeting and have begun interacting on more friendly and deeper grounds. The writers didn’t waste much time in addressing Kousei’s trauma related to his piano playing and have faced it head-on in these episodes, ending with episode 3 having Kousei ready to accompany Kaori in her next performance. While there’s not much reason to believe Kousei’s over his trauma, it is refreshing that it hasn’t been dragged out as long as it could have (and as long as I was personally expecting) and that, whether things go smoothly during this performance or not, some kind of progress should be made in the next episode on this front, just as there was progress made in this latest episode. Perhaps this is one of the better aspects of Your Lie in April – there’s been consistent progress made in the story over all three episodes so far without a lot of the dragging out that plagues many stories, especially ones that touch on romance.

Not all is good in Your Lie in April, unfortunately. The main thing that sticks out to me as not being particularly well done is the comedy. While comedy is wildly subjective and difficult to critique without going to vague points, I do think the show’s comedy fails on most levels. In most comedic moments, the art style resorts to a more crude and simple style which tends to clash pretty strongly with the show’s normal highly detailed and well-done presentation. Most of the comedy also seems to be of the slapstick variety, which has never been a favorite of mine on a personal level. In episode 3 we had such moments like Kaori throwing a shoe at Kousei and giving him a heel drop at the end. Our female lead is quite the violent one. There are also a few other problems, though they aren’t very numerous and don’t detract too much from the experience. One such problem was the unnecessary “Friend A” thing thrown around so far. I immediately related it to the all-too-common character trope anime uses with lead characters who are super ordinary and live super normal lives. The thing is that Kousei isn’t that character. He’s already been through a lot as a person, he has a remarkable and outstanding talent, and, as mentioned in episode 3, he’s seen as a bit of a celebrity among musicians from his age group. I just don’t really understand where that whole “Friend A” thing came from that paints him as some forgettable background character.

Overall, Your Lie in April has been a pretty good watch through three weeks. I wouldn’t recommend it to the whole anime-watching world as of now, but I’m sure a lot of people would enjoy it so far. If you’re into drama/romance anime, then you might want to pick it up.