Category: Currently Watching:

His and Her Circumstances – 1/2 [Her Circumstances/Their Secret] – Throwback Thursday

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to the start of His and Her Circumstances! We have a lot to talk about this week. Only 2 episodes in and it’s already moving at a mile a minute so lets just jump right in to our new season of Throwback Thursday!

Right off that bat I have to say, Circumstances look good. Not in any kind of unique way. We’ve seen this style and aesthetic all over the place, its the 90s and cel animation. And while I love both of those, they aren’t the reason I think Circumstances looks great. No, that honor belongs to the sheer creativity and expressiveness of the characters. The way they completely ignore their models to sell an emotion. Or that flipcard effect with showing Miyazawa’s inner thoughts and feelings vs what she shows to the public. Or the postcard memories, or the visual metaphors, or this or that, the list goes on! To make a long story short, Circumstances is animated gorgeously. It’s different from the modern “drowning in digital effects” of Ufotable sure, but that doesn’t make it bad. In fact, with how consistent and ubiquitous it is, I say this is better

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RWBY: Ice Queendom – 8 [Where You Belong]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, RWBY: Ice Queendom

Welcome everyone, to another episode of RWBY: Ice Queendom! Much to my surprise, Queendom continues its trend of actually being kinda good. Not visually, that’s still an absolute dumpster fire. But narratively? I’m… I’m kind of invested. And every time I write that I have to stare at it in shock. Why? Let’s dive in and talk about it.

First up, let’s just completely skip animation. We both know it’s not good at this point. Queendom didn’t even give us a fight with the giant robot statue Nicholas this week, that’s how disappointing it was. So instead lets skip right to the story where Queendom totally surprised me. Remember last week when I said this was the final run and we were going to slowly work our way to Weiss? Well forget that. Because instead we just speed ran our way back to the Grimm, failed, and then got punted to an even lower nadir. A nadir so low in fact that I am actually entertaining the possibility that someone might actually die. It’s a low chance, don’t get me wrong. But the OG RWBY did it, and we’ve already broken from canon, so why can’t Queendom? Suffice to say, I’d be really impressed if it did.

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DanMachi 4 – 04/05 [Mermaid/Argo Vesta]

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, DanMachi 4

Remember when I was wishing that Bell would fight someone other than the Minotaur?  I got my wish – Bell is now currently fighting…an overgrown bush?  It’s a pretty scary overgrown bush though, so all is not lost.  Let’s get into this pair of episodes, which had plenty of good points (and a few small flaws).

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Yofukashi no Uta – 7 [Reproduce]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Yofukashi no Uta

Welcome everyone, to another episode of Yofulashi no Uta! I’m a bit late on this one, Path of Exile just released a new league and I wasted a day on that. Don’t worry though, the novelty will wear off soon and I’ll be right back on schedule. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, Yofukashi actually moved this week! And it looked good doing it! I know that comes off as a joke, but seriously. Yofukashi isn’t what I would call “animated”. It exists primarily as a set of stills with pretty backgrounds, snappy dialogue and bright color palettes. So to see it move like this was a treat. It had to sacrifice some detail in places to do it obviously, forgoing some of it’s signature style. But I think that’s totally fine for a one-off treat like this. And I do assume it will be one off unless Yofukashi uses this as an excuse to start bringing more action into the series. I wouldn’t be against that necessarily, but it would have to be well considered before being thrown in. What do I mean by that? Well lets talk spoilers after the break.

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Isekai Ojisan – 5 [That Reminds Me, I Almost Got Assassinated Once]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Isekai Ojisan

It’s back everyone, Isekai Ojisan is back! It’s been to weeks without the seasons premier comedy. And what happens on it’s first week back? Well… It falls a little flat if I can be honest. Lets dive in and talk about why.

So like I said, I’m pretty mixed on this weeks Ojisan. On the good side, the jokes were mostly fine. Baseball terminology being scary, Mabel’s return, the ring joke again, etc. Even a complete repeat of making a girl fall for him, with a melting sword/heart metaphor in the background, only to completely undercut it with his own stupidity. Making her go from rejecting him to thinking she was rejected herself. It’s all strictly fine. I wish that Ojisan had some more original material this week, stuff like the Youtube ad crisis was absolutely hilarious. But this isn’t the worst rut to be stuck in I suppose. Sadly however, these were not all of the jokes in the episode. In fact there was one in particular that kind of put me off the whole thing: The rape joke.

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RWBY Ice Queendom – 7 [Dreams Come Rued]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, RWBY: Ice Queendom

Welcome back everyone, to another episode of RWBY: Ice Queendom! This week is actually a good step up from the last, in basically every respect. It’s not perfect of course. But there’s a lot I liked about it, so lets jump right in and talk about it.

Starting off, the animation. Let’s not beat around the bush, Queendom has been suffering here for a while and this week isn’t any different. The CGI continues to stick out like a sore thumb and there are some scenes I can count the frames on one hand in. To say Queendom looks janky at times would be a compliment. But, and this is a big but, this week actually had some fun stuff as well. From small parts of the train fight, stuff like Jaune’s landing and Yang’s short combination, to all the tiny Weiss’s running around. It’s the most interesting and engaging animation that we’ve had since the opening 3 episodes dropped. Does that make it incredible? No, not really. But a drowning man at sea doesn’t complain when he finds a half-full water bottle floating by.

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Yofukashi no Uta – 6 [Might as Well Have Fun]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Yofukashi no Uta

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of Yofukashi no Uta! I’m a bit late for this one, sorry about that. Busy week plus I have that Welcome to the NHK review to write. Enough excuses though, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, this week was a mixed bag visually. Yofukashi had some really, really high highs, don’t get me wrong. Ko’s face reflecting in the lake, or his complete change in art style and heavy linework while dealing with Shirakawa were fantastic. I love those kind of striking scenes and hope we get more of it. But there’s also such as thing as “to much” and that’s what happened with the neon this week. The entire pool scene in the 2nd half was just that. To much blue, to pink, etc. It drowned out any other color and shading work done on the scene and made it a pain to look at any of the finer details. It matches Yofukashi’s aesthetic sure, but at the detriment of everything else. Hopefully this is a one off and they stick to more restrained amounts of color in the future.

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Welcome to the NHK – 23/24 [Welcome To Misaki!Welcome to The NHK!] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday, Welcome to the NHK

Hello and welcome everyone, to the finale of Welcome to the NHK! We have a lot to talk about this week, some of it bad, most of it good. For those looking for the long and short of it leading into the final review? Good ending, good show, minor philosophical differences. And for those who want more? Well let’s jump right into it.

Visually there was some really good stuff in these two episodes. In fact, I dare say this finale is the best NHK has ever looked, with Tetsuya Takeuchi’s work in particular standing out. The way he, and others, brought these characters to life was just fantastic. I’m not just talking about bombastic over the top scenes like Sato running towards the cliff, though that was good. Rather it was all the smaller character moments, both before and after, that stood out to me. Sato and Misaki embracing in the snow. Misaki’s mother’s hair and clothing fluttering in a strong wind. The shock, grief, anguish and joy on their faces throughout both of the episodes. And all it pays off in spades! This really does feel like the end, and I think that’s important for a finale. Of course it was also all fantastically shot, as usual.

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RWBY Ice Queendom – 6 [Do You Have a Plan?]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, RWBY: Ice Queendom

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point for RWBY: Ice Queendom! I’d say we have a lot to talk about, but if I’m being honest we really don’t. This was a pretty straight forward, and dare I say weak, episode for the show. Why is that? Well lets dive in and talk about it.

First up, Queendom looked pretty damn janky this episode. The closeups in the 2nd half were fine, Huke’s designs hold up when they aren’t moving. And a lot of the editing was snappy and creative as well. I loved hearing only one side of Yang’s conversation but cutting to the phone and back, making it clear a conversation was happening beyond just standing still. But the fights? The fights were bad. I’m talking full floaty CGI, bad composite, stiff movement bad. It’s funny that I’m critiquing a RWBY show for having CGI, I get that. However say what you will about the original RWBY , Rooster Teeth’s CGI has come a long way and looks way better than this. Combine that with it swapping between 2D and 3D and it stands out all the more. It’s disappointing to be honest. Where are my Nagata cuts?!

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