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Lots of drops this week as we enter Week 3 for the Spring Season! Mostly just me cleaning house with a few of the lesser series of the season, nothing to extreme.

Dungeon Meshi – 17 [Harpy/Chimera]

Dungeon Meshi took a break for a few weeks there, letting other shows strut their stuff, but this week it returns with a vengeance for that first place spot. Seriously, what a great episode. From Shuro confronting Laios over the consequences of his actions, berating and criticizing him for the use of Black Magic and how blasé he is about everything, to Falin showing up and wrecking house. And holy crap, did she show up. Dungeon Meshi has always been very emotive, from facial expressions to how the characters move, it’s always been good at conveying emotion. But this week was… It was on another level. I can’t get over how incredible Falin’s new design is, from the feather coat and draconic torso to her new eyes and how her expressions can turn on a dime. One minute she’s almost cute, smiling and blushing as she crushes Maizuru’s skull beneath her foot, the next crying out for her brother as her true self takes control for but a moment. And the way the music tied it all together, just fantastic stuff. Not to mention the actual narrative of the episode, how Dungeon Meshi called Laios out for his hypocrisy regarding monsters after he had already gotten on Senshi for the same shit, or Shuro sticking to his word and reporting them to the authorities but still giving them an opportunity to escape should they succeed. All around one of the best episodes I’ve seen in a long time. If I had any complaint it would be that no one actually died, there was no cost to the conflict, which feels like a missed opportunity. I get it, resurrection is normal here, I don’t begrudge Dungeon Meshi bringing back all the important ones. But I would have liked if one or two had stayed dead, just to hammer home the situation and what Laios/Marcille have done here. Even with that though, a stellar episode, I swear I’ve watched it like 3 times. I’m hyped for where Dungeon Meshi is going.

Continue reading “Spring 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 3” →

Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night – 2 [Mei the Fangirl]

Jellyfish was fantastic this week. I’ll admit, early on I was a tad put off. Mei was such a fangirl, so obsessive and weird, that I really didn’t like her. And I feared that Jellyfish would somehow end up supporting her antics, justifying them or having Kano give in to her demands to get her working with them. Luckily, Jellyfish did nothing of the sort. It still made Mei sympathetic, but instead of excusing her obsession it instead sought to explain how she got there in the first place. How she was desperate for a friend, for acceptance, for some kind of human connection, and she found that in Kano, known as Nonoka at the time, by going to one of her fan events. It was the first time someone was genuine to her, accepted her hair color and mannerisms, even seemed to like her. Watchin Mei’s room slowly fill up with Nonoka merch, over taking the trophies and book, it was really sad but really effective. Jellfyfish didn’t excuse her behavior, only made us understand it. And by the end? She had walked it back a bit, coming to view Kano as her own person and not as her obsession. Meanwhile Kano came to realize that she can’t just deny her past, that while she may not want to continue it anymore, her work as Nonoko is still part of who she is and touched a number of people. I really liked that, it worked for me, and by the end I found myself enjoying the episode a lot.

Continue reading “Spring 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 2” →

Hello all! This is a bit of an odd week, what with one season ending and another beginning. We’re mostly wrapping up what was left, with only Bucchigiri and Dungeon Meshi continuing to next week, but then we will start to get new shows as well. In the mean time, make sure to check out the First Impressions that are going up every day or so! Also, wanted to let everyone know, tomorrow I will be building a new PC from scratch. This means I have a metric shit ton of programs to reinstall on it, settings to update, data to move such as website backups, etc etc. What I’m saying is, if things get delayed a bit, that’s why. With any luck though it shouldn’t take too long and once I’m done I’ll have a shiny new box. Woo!

Bucchigiri – 11 [Unanswered Wishes! Sudden Crab Fried Rice]

Bucchigiri once again escalates the conflict as Matakara takes down Ken and Arajin finally steels himself to for the fight to come. Overall the episode worked? I really liked the buildup with Ken, both the flashbacks to Matakara’s brother, Mitsukuni, asking him to take care of Matakara as well as his first spoken words in the series being out of concern for others. Really drives home that he isn’t really a delinquent at all, just a man born in the wrong era. His fight with Matakara was cool too, I’m always a sucker for the indomitable human will and refusing to fall even while defeated. It’s a classic for a reason. As for Matakara, we see him fall further and further into the darkness, even absolutely brutalizing his old friend Zabu who tried to stop him from going to the fight. Easily the most brutal fight we’ve seen yet, if only because Matakara doesn’t hold back at all. Finally we get a bit more to the Senya/Ichiya backstory, which seems like it’s setting itself up as Ichiya being upset Senya was holding back on him and not giving him the true fight he desired. I wish Arajin and Senya had had this fight earlier, not only because Arajin not having Senya would have better justified him staying out of the conflict but also because him losing/reuniting with Senya in a single episode felt a tad fast. Still, the idea is solid enough, and the presentation is great, so I’m still enjoying it.

Continue reading “Spring 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 0 (?)” →

Dungeon Meshi – 13 [Red Dragon III/Good Medicine]

What is this, 3 weeks in a row? Dungeon Meshi has been killing it lately, and this episode is no exception. The first half was unexpectedly terrifying, “introducing” our new big bad and final goal, the Mad Magician who created the dungeon. This was a really cool twist, and something I think Dungeon Meshi setup well. Everything from the ghosts to the painting to the structure of the dungeon/castle itself feels obvious looking back, but it’s only with the Mad Mage’s arrival that I finally put together that this is the same castle. That some tragedy occurred and, in attempting to divert or undo it, the Mad Mage created this dungeon. Every ghost is a citizen of the kingdom, every monster or trap something created to keep out looters and ne’er-do-well’s. And should one of his bigger pets, like the dragon, get slain? Well he shows up to deal with the problem himself and set things back until he figures out how to save his king. Great stuff, really horrifying imagery, absolutely love all of that. As for the second half, it’s all about our team recovering and realizing they are in way over their head. Chilchuck’s inner conflict of not wanting to see his friends die, but expressing it as his own cowardice, and subsequent conversation with the white orc was really good. Also the white orcs design is great for a one-off, really hope we see more of her in the future. Anyways, it’s a nice way to reset, get them out of the dungeon, gather more allies, and dive back in for another run. All good shit. My only complaint is that Falin’s “kidnapping” feels like a “Your princess is in another castle” situation. Yeah, her getting resurrected alongside the dragon in the same body or whatever is cool, good use of resources/magic. But we literally just got/saved her, can we not spend some time with her before she disappears as a character again? Aside from that disappointment, I thought it was a fantastic episode. Really excited for the second cour.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 12” →

Hey all! Apologies for the delay on this. Can’t lie, I’ve been caught up playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 plus some grad school work. Hopefully things will relax around May, cause dear god am I busy haha. Anyways, here’s this weeks episodes!

Dungeon Meshi – 12 [Red Dragon II]

First up this week is, once again, Dungeon Meshi. While not as bombastic and action packed as last week, this was still a very emotional and well paced episode. The early tension around resurrecting Falin and Marcille’s “dark” magic, all the preparation putting together bones to make a skeleton, and then the climax of the ritual itself. It was all really good, a nice and satisfying way to wrap up the arc. Dungeon Meshi was even considerate enough to use the second half too cool us down. It spent a lot of time on their reunion and individual relationships with Falin. We got to see once again how protective Laios is of her, how similar the two are in their adventurous spirit and test for food and, most important, the one true OTP of Dungeon Meshi: Farcille! Their scenes were really cute, especially them cuddling in the bed and just talking. The bath stuff could have been a bit much, but Dungeon Meshi didn’t go overboard or do anything to fetishize it, they took a bath together nothing more, so I think it worked. As for what’s next? Well we’ve gotten some setup for Falin being empowered because she was resurrected using dragon flesh, as well as the crazy dark skinned elf from the paintings apparently following, and finally finding, them. Don’t know where those will go, but Dungeon Meshi has earned my trust by this point, I’m excited and looking forward to it. Just give me more Farcille and I’ll be happy, seriously.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 11” →