Category: Currently Watching:

The Big O – 11/12 [Daemonseed/Enemy is Another Big!] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Big O, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the almost half-way point of The Big O!  This week we kick off the Christmas season with a shockingly seasonal episode and begin the finale of Big O’s first season. We have a lot to talk about, so lets dive right in.

First up we have episode 11, “Daemonseed”. Overall, as a complete package, I quite liked this episode. It’s probably the stronger of the two we will be talking about this week. Centered on Christmas, I mean “Heaven’s Day”, it’s all about Dorothy, Roger, their relationship, religion, all the regular things that come up in normal Christmas episodes. But because of Big O’s setting, where no one has any memories from 40 years ago, it manages to do away with a lot of the usual “baggage” that comes with it. Suddenly Christmas songs passed down through holiday cards have a special meaning, presents become based in Paradigm City’s history pf charity and control, and Roger gets to be surly about it all. Add on Dorothy’s android existence, her struggle to understand not only what it means to be human but specific emotions like love, and you have something solid here.

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Migi & Dali – 5

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Migi & Dali

Welcome all, to what is easily the weirdest episode of Migi & Dali yet. Is that a good thing? Who knows! A lot happened this week, from finding the room they grew up in to being taken hostage. We have plenty to talk about so lets dive right into it.

Starting off, what in gods name did I just watch? Migi & Dali has always been a weird show, that’s part of why I love it. But this one was extra weird. Almost to weird in a few ways. I could take feeding Migi dog food, trapping him in a secret room, and general homicidal tendencies. But the whole baby thing? Being dressed up in a diaper and put in a crib, fed milk from a bottle, all the while trapped in a room with no way out? Or pulling down Migi’s pants to fondle and examine his ass while the family watches? Those were uncomfortably weird, and almost to much for me. And yet… When considered as parts of a whole, when I think back on the growing feeling of dread throughout the episode as we learned more about the Ichijo household, it sort of works.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 14 [Fluctuations]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to an incredibly late episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! Apologies for that, I was traveling this weekend only just got home. Trust me, I’m feeling this delay worse than you, my backlog is getting insane so this is a busy Monday. Anyways, schedule management aside, how about we dive right into the episode?!

Starting off, let’s talk production. This week was easily the jankiest yet. I’ve been talking about it for weeks, the slow decline, the MAPPA curse, the issues Jujutsu Kaisen is having behind the scenes. Well this is all of that starting to show in the final product. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some great cuts here. Jujutsu Kaisen hasn’t burned out completely, the team is still doing the best they can with the resources/time they have. But it’s undeniable that large portions of the episode move and look like they weren’t finished. And if you look on Twitter, sorry “X”, you’ll find loads of animators who worked on the episode talking about how troublesome it was. It’s kind of funny in a way. The episode with the most troubled animation yet has the power based specifically on animation.

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The Big O – 9/10 [Beck Comes Back/Winter Night Phantom] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Big O, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to week 5 of The Big O! This week sees the return of an old friend, Dorothy asking an important question and Dastun getting perhaps the artsiest episode yet all to himself! Is it any good? Well that’s what we’re here to talk about, so lets dive right into it.

Starting off we have episode 9, “Beck Comes Back”. As the name implies, this episode sees the return of Beck! And wouldn’t you know it, the guy looks great with a beard/goatee. Overall I felt this was a solid episode. It’s core is a pretty straight forward revenge plot from Beck, but Big O introduces a side narrative involving Dorothy, the kidnapped man and questions of identity that really filled out it for me. My biggest, and really only, gripe with the episode would have to be just how easily everyone believes Roger would kidnap someone. Seriously, Dastun of all people should at least know Roger would never do this. And he was called in to help resolve the kidnapping long after it had already occurred. It felt a bit weird to me is all, even with Mr. Wise backing it up. Still, it’s ultimately a very small nitpick.

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Migi & Dali – 4

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Migi & Dali

Welcome all, to another episode of Migi & Dali! This week is a weird one. I mean, they’ve all been weird, but this one especially so. Why? Well lets skip this preamble jump right into it, you should figure it out fast.

Starting off, this episode puts our leads, Migi & Dali, in a new environment: School. On it’s own this doesn’t change much. Their goal is still to discover the room they stayed in with their mother, to track down their killer. Where before they tried to make friends in scouts, now they have to do the same in school. What makes it interesting are the new challenges a structured placed like school brings. Now they are organized into classes, with little reason or ability to socialize with those outside of it. On top of that, these classes are organized by “intelligence”, and by that I mean performance on tests, something that their time as orphans has ill prepared them for. Combine that with all the new experiences school brings, from homework to romance, and there’s a lot of these twins to deal with.

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Dr. STONE New World P2 – 2 [The Medusa’s True Face]

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

Welcome all, to another episode of Dr. STONE! This one is a bit late, had a lot on my plate this weekend, but it’s ok now. This week sees the science kingdoms continued progress and the mystery of the islands shadowed ruler revealed. We have a lot to talk about, so lets dive into it!

Starting off, lets talk visuals. Dr. STONE has particularly cared about this. Oh the designs are nice, the linework, backgrounds and general style of the show is appealing, no one can deny that. However it’s never been what you would call “animated”. The characters have never moved much and the action we got was, generally, just bad. Dr. STONE has largely avoided this pitfall by just not having action. A smart move. Eventually however, someone is going to fight. Which is why it was such a surprise this week when it actually looked… decent? I still wouldn’t call it good, not in the same season as Jujutsu Kaisen, Frieren or Undead Unluck. But Kohaku’s spat with Moz was actually watchable. That’s nice! I don’t think anyone expected that, it feels like Dr. STONE is starting to figure that out. Hopefully it can maintain that going forward.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 13 [Red Scale]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! This episode is basically one big fight, no big narrative moments, no huge revelations (yet), just the meaty crunch of fists on faces. And you know what? It’s pretty good! Lets go ahead and jump on into why.

Starting off, let’s talk production. I’ve been critical of Jujutsu Kaisen for the past few episodes. Talking about melt, issues behind the scenes, all that jazz. And a lot of that is still present in this episode as well. Some closeups still look meh, the contrasting red and blue looks fantastic in wide shots but doesn’t translate well to many of the closeups, that sort of stuff. Basically there were a lot of good ideas, but some of the execution was off. Overall though… God this episode is stylistically beautiful. It’s rough at times, yes, but there was clearly a vision behind it all. The shading, the fluid animation, the dynamic action, the board, the freaking POV shots. If you break it down frame-by-frame you can nitpick the hell out of it. In motion though, this might be one of my favorite episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen, visually, in a while.

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The Big O – 7/8 [The Call from The Past/Missing Cat] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Big O, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back everyone, to week 4 of The Big O! Last week was a bit of a miss for me, neither episode was particularly great, though one still stood above the other. This week was much better however with two great episodes, one of which might be my favorite episode so far. We have a lot to talk about, so lets just jump right into it!

Getting started, first up is episode 7, “The Call from The Past”. This was a fun one. Nothing particularly deep, metaphorically at least, just Roger and Angel hanging out and getting to know each other a bit more. We learn about what her job really is, hunting down valuable memories for money, and we get hints towards something more there she isn’t yet ready to share. Those scars on her backs, suspiciously placed like someone had ripped the wings off of an angel. A little on the nose maybe, but it’s effective in catching my eye, in telling me “Just wait, there’s something there”. That’s good, Big O is promising us something more down the line, telling us to keep an eye on her and really pay attention to how she acts. This way, when it’s all inevitably revealed, it won’t feel like it came out of nowhere.

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Migi & Dali – 3 [Let’s Make Friends]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Migi & Dali

Welcome all, to week 3 of Migi & Dali! This week our lovable twins go outside, make some friends, case some houses and beat a child senseless. Did that sound like it escalated? Good, because that’s what the episode did. Without further ado, lets dive in!

Overall I thought this was a good episode, I’m continuing to enjoy Migi & Dali quite a bit. Something about its odd balance of comedy and unnerving horror, how it infuses every scene with this sense that something is wrong, just does it for me. Take this episode for instance. Ostensibly it’s about the twins trying, failing and then lucking into, making some friends. There’s some classic anime bullying, it’s par for the course. But when looked at through the larger lens of the series, something you’re forced to do as every episode starts and ends talking about the murder of their mother, it becomes much more… eerie. These kids don’t actually want friends, they want to sneak into houses to see if any match their memories. They aren’t naïve, they know about the bullying, they just don’t care because it’s a means to an end. It’s… creepy. I love it!

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Dr. STONE New World P2 – 1 [The Kingdom of Science’s Counter Attack!]

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

Welcome all, to the 2nd new show of Fall Season, Dr. STONE! This is the continuation of the same season I covered earlier in the year, finishing up the Treasure Island arc. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, and we have a lot to talk about, so lets jump right in!

Starting off, can I just make it clear how happy I am that Dr. STONE is back? I had missed its special brand of Problem -> Solution -> Problem -> Solution. Something about how Dr. STONE specifically does it is just so good, like one big Humanity Fuck Yeah story. If I had to guess, I’d wager a lot of why it works is down to how the series solves its problems. The science behind it, while not perfect we can all admit this is anime-ified, works conceptually. Stuff like making air pockets under water to properly pour liquids, or crafting oxygen tanks out of existing pieces of metal and pumping them up themselves. Realistically, we know they couldn’t do this. But the way Dr. STONE portrays it, the effort they put in, the way it’s explained… It just sort of works. And like any good hard-magic system, that’s rewarding.

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