Category: Currently Watching:

Vinland Saga S2 – 19 [War at Ketil’s Farm]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Welcome all, to another week of Vinland Saga! This week marks the beginning of the war, as Canute lands on the farm and battle is joined. Who will come out on top? Who will survive? Let’s jump in and find out!

So, the war. Thing aren’t looking good for Ketil. They are horribly outmatched, in both skill and equipment, and everyone worth their salt knows it. Snake, Thorgil, Thorfinn, Canute. Everyone who has actually seen battle knows that these farmers don’t stand a chance. Everyone that is, except for the farmers themselves. All idiots driven into a frenzy. Having their heritage and pride played off of, being convinced that their superior numbers will be able to overcome Canute’s battle-hardened elite. It’s sad really. These people are being led to their deaths for the glory of another. They have nothing to gain in all of this, they could probably sit back, let Canute take over and continue living their lives under new management. But as is often the case, the greed and ambition of greater men drive them to their slaughter.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 6 [Aren’t You Going to Become a Hashira?]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome all, to what I believe to be the half-way point for this season of Kimetsu no Yaiba! You know what to expect at this point, so lets cut the chatter and just dive right into it.

The main thing I want to talk about this week is flashbacks. On their own, flashbacks are fine. Not everything can happen in the now, especially not if it’s part of a characters backstory. So they aren’t intrinsically problematic. The issue though is how Yaiba uses, which is usually mid-fight. Again, this isn’t an automatic deal breaker. Stuff like the Hinokami Kagura flashback back in season 1 was fine. But if that was the high end for Yaiba’s flashbacks, then this week was the low end. Coming between all of the action, a sort of “Life flashing before your eyes” thing, it felt really out of place. Like a complete tone shift. I’m not even talking about the details yet, just it’s placement in the episode felt… rough. Yaiba really needs a new way to exposit, or to better set these this up before hand, because this wasn’t good.

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Vinland Saga S2 – 18 [The First Method]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Welcome all, to a (late) episode of Vinland Saga! This one was actually rather hard to write, for a variety of reasons. The episode was great but the contents… Well if you’ve seen it you know, and if you don’t then buck up because it’s about to get brutal. Without further ado, lets dive into the episode.

Like I said, this was a particularly brutal episode of Vinland Saga. Not because of some great big battle, or because a lot of people died. Rather it’s because of just how little Vinland Saga held back on something we’ve seen multiple times before in watered down ways: The beating of a slave. It’s happened a lot up until now, particularly with Gardar. And we’ve been largely disconnected from it, with it happening in the past, or just seeing the after-effects of it. But this episode… We not only watch it happen, it happens to a character we have become close to and come to care for, and in a particularly brutal way. There’s no remorse here, no trussing it up to look nice. It’s just a man beating a woman with a stick because of his own insecurities. And it hurts. And it should hurt. Because it’s not ok.

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Dr. STONE S3 6 – [Treasure Box]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dr.STONE

Welcome all, to another week of Dr. STONE. This is a a pretty straightforward week, so let’s make it quick and jump right in, shall we?

The big topic of this episode is Soyuz. Not the ship, the person. Don’t remember them? Well don’t worry, they are new, just introduced this week. Now is that so bad? No, it’s perfectly fine for Dr. STONE to introduce new characters, it did it with Ryusui and I’ve come to like him. The only weird thing about it with Soyuz is how he is introduced as having always been here, living in the village with everyone after being found on the beach while young. It’s a bit strange for none of our main cast to have asked why he doesn’t have a name before now, you know? That aside, he got a fair bit of focus for his introductory episode and I think he works. Only time will tell if he becomes likable or not.

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Wolf’s Rain – 27/28 [Where the Soul Goes/Gunshot of Remorse] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday, Wolf's Rain

Welcome all, to the penultimate week of Wolf’s Rain! This week we get into the OVA, the true ending of the series. Does it live up to the hype? Is it good? Or should it have maybe stayed incomplete? Well I won’t keep you waiting, I’ll just come out and say it’s pretty damn good. So without further ado lets dive into the episodes!

First up though, some praise for the production. Wolf’s Rain was generally pretty solid on this front. But after the opening few episodes it rarely “wow’ed” me. Well this OVA is making up for that in spades, because it was stunning. From beautiful effects work such as explosions and snow to incredibly detailed facial expressions such as Hubb and Quent, or the fur and muscles of the wolves as they ran. This is easily the best Wolf’s Rain has ever looked, and it’s sending quite the statement as far as finales go. Hopefully it can keep this up for the last 2 episodes. And of course the music has also been great, but I don’t want to look up specific tracks at the moment, so I’m just going to leave that with “Music sound good :D”. You’ll get more in the final review, I promise. For now, episodes!

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 5 [Bright Red Sword]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome all, to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week is same as last week, as well as the week before: Combat! Lots… of combat. Some of it is good! Other bits not so much. What do I mean? Well lets dive into the episode and find out!

So the cool action. It exists! Unsurprisingly, Yaiba has a couple of pretty fun action sequences. There’s a combo move, Kanroji shows up and kills some demons, it’s a good time. Yet for some reason… I can’t help but feel like there’s less hype, less “Wow” factor, then Season 2. And I think it boils down to the location. The entertainment district was bright and colorful. It lent a sense of spectacle and hype to an already bright and colorful action sequence. Season 3 however takes place in a forest. A dark, ominous forest, with a sense of foreboding and danger. Yeah the atmosphere is more tense then Season 2, that’s true. But Yaiba isn’t a series that uses tense very well I feel. It’s a battle shounen, we aren’t going to be afraid. And it’s this difference in location that I think makes the action feel… not as fun?

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Dr. STONE S3 4/5 – [Eye of Science/Science Ship Perseus]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dr.STONE

Welcome all, to an incredibly late double feature of Dr. STONE! I have no excuses, I just sort of forgot to watch last weeks. I’m sorry. But you don’t pay me so you aren’t my boss, so take that! Jokes aside, I do apologize for the delay on this. As the only writer left on this site, I have to keep the legacy going. So let’s get back on schedule!

Now before we get to deep into the episodes I want to start with my major apprehension about the season. What these two episodes opened my eyes to is just how much content there is in this arc and just how much Dr. STONE will have to cover this season. Not only do we have to do all this prep-work to get to the island, we then have the entire island story itself. With a short 11 episode season, so only 6 episodes left, I just don’t see how Dr. STONE can cover all of that. Which means that, more then likely, we’re going to get a cliff-hanger ending right as the main conflict starts. Will that end up fine in the long run after all the seasons are out and you can jump straight to the next one? Probably, sure. But in the now? I’m concerned.

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Wolf’s Rain – 25/26 [False Memories/Moonlight Crucible] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday, Wolf's Rain

Welcome all, to the grand finale of the original season of Wolf’s Rain! Don’t worry, this isn’t the end. We have 2 more weeks of Throwback Thursday as we cover the OVA as well. As I understand it that’s the intended ending. For now though we have a lot to talk about, so lets dive into the unofficial finale.

Starting off, lets talk setting. In broad strokes? It works. Wolf’s Rain has a great world with great characters. The overall aesthetic and feeling of the world fits well into this Vampire vs Werewolves (Vanhelsiiiiiiing) sort of classical conflict. My only gripe with it is that I feel like Wolf’s Rain is a tad to vague at times. I don’t need, nor even want, Wolf’s Rain to outright call Nobles vampires or anything. It doesn’t need to force itself to fit into preexisting ideas and words. But I would like it if things like the magic circles, the cults, or the prophecy, were better connected with the wider technological sci-fi setting. At times it feels like 2 separate systems, magic and technology, that don’t interact very well. Like how does the giant robot from episode 4 fit with the magic circle from episode 26. Personally? I don’t think it does.

To be clear, this isn’t a big deal. I have really enjoyed Wolf’s Rain, I have a lot of positive things to say about this weeks episodes and the series as a whole. The only reason I bring it up now is because as the conflict comes to a head, there are bits and pieces that feel… under utilized or poorly explained. And they only stand out because the actual experience of living in this world was communicated so well up until this point. I’ve bought into the day to day life these people have, and how the whole world is dying. Maybe some of this confusion is due to Wolf’s Rain having to rush this ending a bit, not yet knowing they were getting an OVA where it will all be more properly explored. I don’t know yet! If so I’ll find out next week.

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Vinland Saga S2 – 17 [The Road Home]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Welcome all, to another episode of Vinland Saga and the end of an arc! This was a tragic week, perhaps one of the most emotionally effecting episodes of the season, so we have a lot to talk about. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Of course the obvious place to start is with the centerpiece of the episode, Gardar and Arnheid. Taking up the entire 2nd half, plus being the subject of the 1st, this episode marks the end of their story. It’s a look back. On their life together, their family, their time apart. In one single sequence, completely independent of the rest of the arc, Vinland Saga manages to communicate the tragedy of their entire story. What was lost, how their own actions lead to it and changed them, their regrets and values. It was really beautiful, in a sad, tragic sort of way. The only reason it doesn’t sit as the best episode of the season for me is simply because I care more for Arnheid and Thorfinn than I do Gardar, and they have episodes more focused about them. As far as singular experiences though? This was incredible.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 4 [Thank You, Tokito]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome back all, to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week continues the fight, shows us just how large the power gap is, and tries to give us a ray of hope in Kanroji. Does it succeed? Let’s dive in and find out!

Starting off I want to give some credit where credit is due: The fish demon things actually don’t look to bad. Their models, and how they were composited into the scenes, was a bit rough at times sure. But the way they moved was actually really nice! I loved how the flopped around on screen, scrambling up walls and generally acting like uncoordinated fish. After the weirdness that was the Tentacle Train from the movie, I was worried that Yaiba would double down on that same sort of process. But it looks like Ufotable has genuinely learned and improved from their past works, and that’s pretty cool. It won’t be able to replace any of the real sword-based action, sure. But it makes me a bit less apprehensive about some of the CGI shots we saw in the OP and other marketing.

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