Category: Currently Watching:

Mob Psycho 100 III – 11 [Mob 3 ~Trauma~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

Welcome everyone, to the penultimate episode of Mob Psycho 100! I apologize for this delay, I’m attending a wedding right now so writeups had to go on the backburner a bit. No idea when this will be out but I will try my best. Excuses aside though, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, lets talk about the only real problem with the episode first: Suzuki. I was not a fan of him in Season 2. I thought him very simple, very dull, and generally not a great foil for Mob. And that carries over to his portrayal here in Season 3 as well. I am predisposed to not enjoy him. And this becomes a pretty big problem when you consider just how much of this episode was about him. Suffice to say, I wasn’t particularly engaged with him. Yet despite that, I think Mob Psycho did a good job of correcting its past mistakes and making me care about him. It focused on his relationship with his son. His family. The things he gave up for his power. It was… surprisingly poignant, and brought a lot of depth to his character that I wasn’t expecting. So good job Mob Psycho!

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Michiko & Hatchin – 7/8 [The Rain that Falls in Monotone/Black Noise and a Dope Game] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Michiko e Hatchin, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! This is going to be a weird week since I will be attending a wedding when this goes up. Maybe it will mean that this actually goes up on time this time though, who knows. Anyways, without further ado lets dive into the episodes!

Starting off, this week I want to take the opportunity to talk about Michiko & Hatchin’s OST. I haven’t had the opportunity to go through it in full yet, I tend to save that for the final review. But this week definitely served to bring it to my attention, with tracks like “Desencanto” and, I believe, “Gagorra“. Now for those of you who read my Megalo Box: Nomad review this should come as no surprise, but I absolutely love Latin music. There’s a rustic passion to it I feel, a beautiful simplicity that speaks to the heart that a lot of more modern, urban music just doesn’t for me. So tracks like this, or what little I heard of “Temporada das frutas” before I turned back to avoid spoilers, are right up my alley. Hopefully Michiko & Hatchin can keep delivering on them moving forward, because I love it.

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Chainsaw Man – 10 [Bruised and Battered]

by AidanAK47, posted in Chainsaw Man, Currently Watching:

Welcome to the time which brings great joy followed by the hollowness of fulfillment and no, I am not talking about Christmas. Another week, another episode of Chainsaw Man and another realization that we need to wait another week to see more. Along with the end of the season to come in just two more weeks where I am not sure where I will give my fix for Chainsaw related entertainment. Well those are worries for the future and considering Aki is meeting the future devil that could enlighten us on a solution to this particular predicament. Everything remains at a pretty high standard with an ending that for some reason reminds me of the music video for Take on Me with its blend of real footage and hand drawn. Prehaps some could do a meme edit inserting the song just to see how well it fits? This may be the last calm before the storm we get this season, so we might as well take it in.
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Spy X Family – 11 [The Unwavering Path]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Welcome everyone, to another episode of Spy x Family! This week is another example of the perfect Spy x Family episode experience. We got great action, incredible wholesomeness, poignant spy moments and fantastic animation. Despite my criticisms of some of the recent episodes, this is the stuff I watch this show for. So without further ado, lets dive into it.

Right off the bat, it’s obvious that this episode looked fantastic. Not just in it’s wild full-body movements during the tennis match, though those were great as well, but also the interesting camera angles used to frame them as well as the great effects work during Yor’s scene at the end. Touches like angling the shot through the sniper scope, closeups of the racket as we follow the balls path, etc etc. Simply put, this was one of, if not the most, visually engaging episodes Spy x Family has had across it’s 24 episode run up to this point. I know it’s not good to hope for this on every episode, it’s just an unreasonable demand. But god damn when Spy x Family wants to it becomes just as much a visual treat as Chainsaw Man and Mob Psycho this season.

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Michiko & Hatchin – 5/6 [The Saudade of Fools, Part 1/Part 2] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Michiko e Hatchin, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! This week is our first 2 parter, so we have a lot to talk about. From getting more of Michiko’s past to Hatchin going out on her own, it’s all inside. So lets dive right in!

First up we have episode 5, “The Saudade of Fools, Part 1”. This was a really interesting episode, and definitely my favorite of this week. We get loads and loads of backstory for Michiko, not only arriving at her home town but meeting who raised her, seeing how she met Hiroshi, and learning how she fell into a life of crime. All the while we see the knock on effects of these moments in the present as Michiko returns to town with Hatchin. I cannot understate, I really really liked this. Backstory is generally hard to do in anime, and is often just a forced flashback during a climactic moment. And while this was a flashback at times, it was done via Michiko revisiting those locations in the present and remembering them herself. They had in-narrative effect on her own emotional state, making them feel so much more purposeful.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 10 [Mob 2 ~Rival~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

Welcome everyone, to another week of Mob Psycho! This was an interesting week, a rather contentious one in fact. Looking around I seem to be the only person with a lukewarm impression of it. Why am I not super hyped? What could possibly have hurt it for me? Lets dive in and talk about it.

Starting off, this episode really isn’t what I was expecting. Now that doesn’t have to be a bad thing! Surprises can be very good in fact. If everything goes the way the audience suspects all the time, you will start to lose their interest. The issue here is more that Mob Psycho surprised me not by tackling something in a completely different way, but by avoiding it all together. What does that mean? Well we’ve known Mob was going to explode, it’s in the previews, the title of the show, it was obvious. The question was only ever why. I expected, and hoped, it would be because of Tsubomi. And that his final emotional hurdle would be dealing with rejection when he has faced acceptance by the rest of the cast across the season. I thought that would be really poignant. Instead? Instead he gets hit by a car.

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Chainsaw Man – 9 [From Kyoto]

by AidanAK47, posted in Chainsaw Man, Currently Watching:

I would say to avoid the episode preview for this week due to spoilers but by the time you see this that it would be too late. Though admittedly avoiding spoilers for this series has proven to be just as hard as expected. I knew that manga readers would have a hard time shutting up and efforts have been made (Like making a subreddit just for anime only fans) however It’s still egregious. I would say if you want to experience this blind I would say to go on complete social media and internet blackout. Well besides from your weekly post from yours truly of course. I ain’t joking by the way, don’t even touch youtube comments as I have seen bots posting ending spoilers in replies to every comment on an innocent Chainsaw Man video. We have people so committed to annoying people that they have created bots for it. Popularity can be a curse and while I understand they would be those attempting to deflate the level of hype surrounding Chainsaw Man, as even I think it’s gotten a bit out of hand, it’s still a dick move to ruin the experience for others. No matter what you always got the small few who ruin everything, before this was Attack on titan and even way before that was Death Note. I remember being spoiled on a certain twist and being gutted then. So for those who do it unintentionally I say maybe think twice before trying to refer to future events. For those spoiling for the laugh well…that says more about the value of your character than any insult ever could.
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Spy X Family – 10 [The Underground Tennis Tournament: The Campbelldon]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Welcome back, to another episode of SpyxFamily! This is late, I know, I’m really slowing down this holiday season and I apologize for that. Lots of irons in the fire at the moment. Still, the show must go on, so lets dive into it!

First up, the animation. SpyxFamily is a very… inconsistently animated show. Some episodes look absolutely gorgeous, from how they are directed down to the individual cuts. I’m talking stuff like Yor running through town to the dog park with Bond. When it wants to, SpyxFamily can be one of the visually strongest anime of the season. But only when it wants to. The rest of the time it looks simply average, with nothing particularly impressive to catch the eye. Luckily for us this week they cared. Because these tennis shots look great. The direction it pretty standard, but the way Fiona and Loid move, the posing, the effects work on stuff like the rocket rackets, it all more than makes up for it. This isn’t the best looking SpyxFamily episode, not by a long shot. But it’s definitely a good one.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 9 [Mob 1 ~Moving~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

Welcome everyone, to the beginning of the end for Mob Psycho! That’s right, this episode is the start of the final arc in the series. A lot is getting set up and a lot is about to go down, so lets jump right into it!

So. The final arc. It’s core is exactly like I guessed, though I won’t act like it wasn’t obvious: Tsubomi is moving and Mob wants to ask her out and it clearly won’t go the way he want. Personally? I found the entire thing incredibly cute. I loved seeing just how much Mob had grown up, how he handles this sort of thing and how different he is compared to the 1st season. Just look at the soccer scenes for instance, taken straight from the first few episodes but now with an entirely different outcome. No longer is Mob the wallflower, the third wheel, that useless kid on your team no one cares about. Now he can contribute! He can reach out, ask for advice, talk to people. My little boy is all grown up! The only surprising part of it all is why Mob’s confession failed.

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Michiko & Hatchin – 3/4 [Like a Frantic Pinball/Stray Cat Milky Way] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Michiko e Hatchin, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! Last week was our introduction, so this week is our chance to see what the show is really like. Is it a buddy cop? A think piece? Some kind of tragedy? Lets dive in and find out!

Starting off though, I just want to once again praise Michiko & Hatchin’s backgrounds. These are, without question, the most impressive part of the production. Not just in their details, those are incredible, but in their variety and number as well. Even something as small as the Chinese noodle shop had, at least, 5 different backgrounds portraying it’s interior from various different angles. Each one covered in minute details like slightly discolored tiles, dents in the wall, rusted pipes, and chipped surfaces. Not to mention different colorings for day/night, lights on/off, etc. Now consider how many repeated locations we had across these two episodes, and multiply all of these backgrounds by that many locations. You begin to understand why I’m so impressed, right? While the animation isn’t perfect, and Hatchin’s design is a tad unappealing, the backgrounds carry the visuals on their back.

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