Category: Currently Watching:

Chainsaw Man – 3 [Meowy’s Whereabouts]

by AidanAK47, posted in Chainsaw Man, Currently Watching:

Chainsaw Tuesday has come and gone again and these week long waits are really starting to drag. Feels especially frustrating with an episode like this where the action just makes the minutes feel like seconds. It also makes my job difficult as episode content is sparse and straightforward with little for me to add. Still I can try and see how far I go with this post. Haters of CGI may be relieved to know that this action scene had considerably less of it but once again I reiterate that I am having a hard time distinguishing which from which. Also those concerned about source loyalty can rejoice as this is pretty much as loyal as you can get. Though I still have issues with Crunchyrolls translator using phases that make understanding the situation harder. I understand that you are underpaid but I would think it wouldn’t be too hard to consult maybe the manga translation to make your job easier. As another piece of advice for crunchyroll, maybe consider upgrading your servers? The third week in a row that Chainsaw Man managed to bring the site down which yeah, taking that into account this show might be doing rather well.
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Mob Psycho 100 III – 3 [Getting Carried Away ~100%~]

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

Hello everyone and welcome back to Mob Psycho 100, the best show of the season! It’s a rather tame episode this week, but even tame a Mob Psycho episode is still one of the most solid things to air. Don’t believe me? Well lets jump in and see if I can’t convince you by the end of this post.

First up, what do I mean by “tame”? Simply that there weren’t any “big” moments. No grand sakuga showcase, no fight, nothing that we can point to and say “That looked incredible”. Instead what we got was simple, solid consistency. Everything from small scenes of character acting to expressive body language and engaging visual metaphors. The kind of things that fall by the wayside in a lot of series, because who is going to notice, right? But Mob Psycho is known both for its incredible highs and it’s consistently solid “lows”. So now that we’ve seen that solid “low”, when can we expect the high? And remember, I say low but that’s still wildly above average for TV anime. Back to the high, from what I’ve read we know that Hakuyu Go, from Season 2 Episode 5 fame, is working primarily on episode 8. So expect that to be huge.

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His and Her Circumstances – 18/19 [Progress/14 Days, Part 1] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, His and Her Circumstances, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to what is a very important week for His and Her Circumstances. Why is it important you might ask? Because this week marks the departure of Hideaki Anno from the production, and the production then imploding upon itself. What does that mean? What does that look like? Let’s dive in and talk about that.

So, the production. Does it really look that bad? The answer: Yes. Yes it does. In fact it looks so bad that I almost didn’t believe it. I thought that this must just be for the opening recap, right? That’s why it’s literally sketches on paper taped to sticks being held in front of a camera, or live footage of the streets outside the production studio? But no, this was the entire episode. So the question becomes: What happened? Well the best I can figure, based on a small amount of research, is that this is the point where Anno simply left the production. Between recent (for the time) laws regarding anime production, pressure from the studio about removing sex scenes (Will get to that) and arguments with the original author, things were starting to fall apart. But the sad thing about it, to me? It wasn’t completely bad.

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Chainsaw Man – 2 [Arrival in Tokyo]

by AidanAK47, posted in Chainsaw Man, Currently Watching:

Enter week two of Chainsaw Tuesdays and we have a quieter episode this week with the primary focus being the introduction of our main cast. We are near the end of volume 1 of the manga though that did resort in the cutting of a scene. But before getting to that I would give an overall impression of this episode being good. We got some laughs and it set up things for the next. It did the job it was meant to do though that may not wow people still looking for Chainsaw Man to deliver the answer to the hype it’s gotten. I think crunchyroll’s translation continues to muck up a bit thus making jokes land not as well or muddy certain lines with greater implications. CGI haters can relax as we have a fully 2D episode…I think. I will go into that but my confidence in telling the difference has been put down a notch. Also for those interested Crunchyroll has announced that the English Dub of Chainsaw Man will be debuting next week on the 25th. Which kinda shoots my plans of covering it weekly with the two episode delay but I am curious as to whether this could lead to grabbing a more mainstream audience. Chainsaw Man so far has landed pretty well but I think it has an appeal that could extend even to non anime watchers, with the only detriment at the moment being its subtitle only release.

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Spy X Family P2 – 3 [A New Family Member]

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

Welcome everyone, to another week of SpyXFamily! This week is the true conclusion and epilogue to the 3-part opening terrorist arc, and you know what? They did a pretty damn good job wrapping everything up. From the scary terrorists to Anya wanting a dog, there’s even a neat little bow on top. So without further ado, lets dive in and talk about it!

Starting off, this episode was a bit weaker on the production side than the previous one. Part of that has to do with how little action there was, which to be clear is totally fine. This wasn’t an episode that needed action, instead leaning heavily on it’s character interaction and, day I say it, narrative to carry it through. However the action that was there, such as Yor kicking a car as well as Loid’s shootout with the dog, just didn’t live up to last episodes hype. Ultimately this isn’t a huge deal, SpyXFamily nailed all of the important bits. But it would be remiss of me to not mention dip in what is most likely going to be one of the best overall produced shows of the season. Enough with the nitpicking production details however, how was the rest of the episode?

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His and Her Circumstances – 16/17 [Eternal Interspersions/His Return] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, His and Her Circumstances, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another week of His and Her Circumstances! This post was written on a deadline, and I don’t expect that to change with Mob Psycho airing on Wednesdays now. I will not apologize for my priorities damnit. My inevitable fall into being more and more late for the next few weeks aside though, this was a pretty interesting week for Circumstances so lets dive right into it.

Visually, Circumstances had some ups and downs this week. Animation wise there was really only one scene that stood out, it once again being Tsubasa. But god damn did that scene look good. Not only because it was well animated, but because of the details and expressions within it. The narrowing of the eyes, her face shattering apart, how Tsubasa’s mouth ripped open. It’s just beautiful. So if it looks so good, where are the downs? Well that’s just it. The rest of the episodes didn’t move at all. They are more like slideshows than animation. Yes, the creativity within those slide shows is great. Circumstances has some of the best visual metaphors and facial expressions I’ve seen in a long time, just look at Tsubaki’s rotating flip-board reaction faces for a perfectly example of minimalist animation. Even with that however, it’s becoming noticeable just how little Circumstances moves.

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Mob Psycho 100 III – 2 [Yokai Hunter Amakusa Haruaki Appears! ~The Threat of a Hundred Demons!!~]

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to the premier show of the season, Mob Psycho 100 III! Some people might take issue with that considering some of the other big hitters airing, but this is my post not theirs so they can suck it. Enough with the rivalry though, lets dive into the episode proper!

Right off the bat, Mob Psycho continues to be one of the best looking shows of the season. The colors are bright and saturated, characters expressive, the movement dynamic. There’s no CG backdrops or janky crowds, just hand drawn goodness. Sure, it’s not polished and perfect. The lines aren’t neat and clean. But there’s a distinctly human element to it that I love. To paraphrase kVin, who often expresses the same feelings I have but with better words, it’s appealing in a way few things are and really fits what Mob Pyscho is going for. Combine that with the extensive use of eyecatches and this is some of the most visually engaging stuff I’ve watched this season. You could argue about Do It Yourself‘s expressive and polished visuals, or for Time Machine Blue‘s timeless minimalism. But for me? Mob Psycho is where it’s at.

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Chainsaw Man – 1 [Dog and Chainsaw]

by AidanAK47, posted in Chainsaw Man, Currently Watching:

Landing finally after all this time with anticipation high and does Chainsaw Man land like a superhero or splat like the other guys. To give early judgment, I would consider it a success as it did what a first episode should do. Would that match the hype built up for it? No, but quite frankly nothing would. This episode was beautiful, Ushio did fantastic on the soundtrack and direction was excellent. I am aware that the voices Denji and Makima are different from what people imagined and personally I did feel a degree of dissonance which may need more time to fade. I expect more of that when I check out the english dub of the series. True be told I planned to include a section for it in this post but sadly Cruchyroll is late with that dub despite it being completed. Still I feel the Japanese actors did well for what little I can do to judge their performances. We got a good opening with my personal favorite touch being the movie references as Fujimoto is a well known movie nut. A nice blend of well known and fairly obscure as well as seeing as we got Pulp Fiction and Big Lebowski alongside Jacob’s Ladder, Constantine and Killer Tomatoes of all things. This thing is likely a litmus test for how well you know your movies. Full disclosure, I failed having only caught the Goodbye Eri and Big Lebowski reference but I know you looked them up too.
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Spy X Family P2 – 2 [Disarm the Time Bomb]

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

Welcome back everyone, to a new season and the continuation of SpyXFamily! This is a fun, though serious, week for the show, one I can proudly say I enjoyed a fair bit. Maybe time was all I needed to get back SpyXFamily back into my good graces, who knows. Without further ado though, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, I love the more serious tone of this episode. The whole plot with stopping a terrorist threat? A spy, a dog and a little girl walk into a bomb before it blows up? I love it. This is SpyXFamily at it’s strongest for me. We get all the substance of Loid’s backstory and mission, his serious nature and the effects of war on simple people trying to live simple lives, while at the same time Anya and Yor fill the episode with levity and fun. Just enough that SpyXFamily doesn’t feel like a gritty war drama. What I’m saying is that this episode, in my opinion, perfectly balances SpyXFamily’s two halves and I really hope that we get more of that this season. This or more time at school, because it’s really hard to hate Anya episodes.

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His and Her Circumstances – 13/14/15 [The Subjectivity of Happiness/The Story So Far/What Can Be Seen Beyond that Voice] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, His and Her Circumstances, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of His and Her Circumstances! I have an odd week for you this week as we cover 3 episodes! Though if I’m being honest, it’s really more like 1 and 1/2 because of recaps. Regardless of the why though, we have a lot of content to cover. So lets dive right in!

Jumping right into things, first up is episode 13, “The Subjectivity of Happiness”. This episode is the conclusion to Tsubasa’s family struggles, and my overall impression is that it was good. Circumstances gave us a lot to think about with Tsubasa, continuing to recontextualize her earlier bratty behavior and help us sympathize with her. What’s nice about it though is that it didn’t attempt to excuse said behavior however. Circumstances was very clear about how much of a selfish brat Tsubasa was, both then and during this arc. The way she treated her father, as well as the prospective step-mother, was incredibly rude. But it was also understandable. And I think that’s a really important thing when making characters act like complete assholes. At least if you want us to like them that is. It wasn’t perfect, there were some bumps along the way for sure. But it was good.

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