Category: Finished Series: Action

Black Lagoon – 5/6 [Eagle Hunting and Hunting Eagles/Moonlit Hunting Grounds] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to week 3 of Black Lagoon! This weeks is the conclusion of the Nazi painting story, filled with blood, anthems, and Revy being a bit upset over it all. Without further ado, lets dive in!

First up is episode 5, “Eagle Hunting and Hunting Eagles”. This picks up where we left off last time, Revy and Rock are in the U-Boat and Nazis are starting to come aboard. For the most part, it’s a lot of fighting over the painting, losing it to the Nazis, chasing after them, regular action stuff. And that’s all great! On top of that, this is the first episode that’s really impressed me with its animation. There’s still some aliasing issues in spots, either from being an early digital production or being upscaled to Blu-ray, but for the most part it’s good. I especially liked the water as Dutch and Benny were dodging some rockets. While the action takes up most of the episode, the real meat however comes in the quiet moments. More specifically, between Rock and Revy.

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Black Lagoon – 3/4 [Ring-Ding Ship Chase/Die Rückkehr des Adlers] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the 2nd week of Black Lagoon! This week we start to explore the wider world, expanding the setting and learning what kind of lives our leads live. There’s a fair bit to talk about this week so lets just dive right into it!

First up we have episode 3, “Ring-Ding Ship Chase”. Honestly this was a really chill episode for the most part, just exploring the group dynamic and introducing us to the city of Roanapur. And you know what? I really liked it. I said last week that Black Lagoon would have to search within its characters for story arcs, that it hadn’t set up anything larger with the intro, and that seems to be what it’s doing here. Black Lagoon is taking the time to show them interacting, getting to know each other, how Rock adapts to this new life. Sure, format wise it’s a random problem without much going on. But it serves as a quick and easy way to introduce us, and Rock, to Roanapur and its politics. It even manages to involve Balalaika, reinforcing her role in the story. That was cool!

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Black Lagoon – 1/2 [The Black Lagoon/Mangrove Heaven] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the next season of Throwback Thursday and the first post of Winter 2024! As you can see, we’re covering Black Lagoon! We have a fair amount to talk about, from initial impressions to where I think its going, so lets dive right into it! Oh and real quick, I apologize for this being late, it was a pretty hectic Thursday and I had my last tattoo session so typing was… hard. The entire arm hurts.

Since these episodes are a joint intro, lets cover them both together, “The Black Lagoon” and “Mangrove Heaven”. Right off the bat, and I need you to understand this is me being completely and totally honest… I would let Revy ruin my life. Sure it would only last maybe a month, and afterwards I’d have no idea where I was or how to get home, but it would be a good damn month. Oh right, I’m supposed to be talking about the episode. Overall I think Black Lagoon did a solid job with this introduction? Episode two wraps it up, but I think the way it justified/transitioned from that regular and dreary salaryman life to that of a mercenary was pretty good. I especially liked the color palette swap where everything suddenly got a lot more vibrant, it’s basically the same thing Zom 100 from last year did. Always effective!

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Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Review – 61/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Action, Jujutsu Kaisen, Reviews by Lenlo

Lets not beat around the bush, you know what Jujutsu Kaisen is. Animated by studio MAPPA, directed by Shouta Goshozono and originally created by Gege Akutami, Jujutsu Kaisen is one of Shounen Jump’s flagship series. Being the 3rd oldest currently printing series in the magazine behind only One Piece and My Hero Academia, it’s built up its fair share of fans. Many of whom proclaim that it “Changed Shounen forever”! Is that true? I don’t really know. So why do I bring it up, why is it relevant? Because this season adapts what is widely believed to be Jujutsu Kaisen’s biggest and best arc, its Marineford, its Cell Saga, the thing that will define it for years to come: Shibuya. And we’re going to talk about it! So without further ado, lets dive into this monumental season of Jujutsu Kaisen and see if it lives up to the hype.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1&2. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Review – 61/100” →

The Big O Review – 84/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Action, Reviews by Lenlo, The Big O, Throwback Thursday

In the 90’s there aired a now legendary TV show called Batman: The Animated Series. With its combination of film noir and art deco visual styles, it basically defined what Batman would look and sound like for decades to come. I bring this up because working on said legendary show was a little known studio you might have heard of by the name of Sunrise. They, with Kazuyoshi Katayama as Director and Chiaki Konaka of Serial Experiments Lain and Texhnolyze fame as Series Composition, would go on to create the cult classic mecha anime we are here to talk about today: The Big O. What would happen if you gave Bruce Wayne a giant robot? Or if Robin was a female android with a skill for witticisms? All animated by the studio known for their giant robots and written by a man with a penchant for… The weird. Lets dive in and find out.

Be warned, this review covers both seasons of The Big O and contains minor unmarked spoilers for both. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “The Big O Review – 84/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 23 [Shibuya Incident – Gate, Close]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to the finale of Jujutsu Kaisen season two! Not a whole lot to talk about this week, and I’m a bit preoccupied with all of the reviews, so lets just knock this out and get ready for the next season.

Getting right to it, this episode was… Fine? There’s nothing to egregious or incredible about it. You could tell the production was finally flagging as it relied heavily on chibi animation and still frames, with absolutely none of the character work of previous episodes. That’s not the worst thing, as even failing at the end here Jujutsu Kaisen still never fully fell apart. While I’ll never accept MAPPA’s treatment of animators and their poor scheduling, it’s clear those very same animators worked their asses off to ensure Jujutsu Kaisen finished. So when you talk about the highs, about how good this season was if you enjoyed it, don’t praise MAPPA. Because the studio did everything it could to fuck it up. Instead praise the animators, inbetweeners and myriad of support staff who made the terrible schedule work.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 22 [Metamorphosis, Part 2]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to the penultimate episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! This is… This is a rough week for me. If you’re a fan, if you don’t like it when I’m particularly negative about an episode or a series, it might be best if you look away. Because I’m about to rant. If that’s what you’re looking for though? Well then lets jump right in!

Getting right into it, I realized something as I watched this episode. Our heroes… Haven’t actually finished any of the villains. Mahito? Geto just absorbed him. Jogo? Sukuna burned him alive and then annihilated the entire district before fucking off and giving the body back to Itadori. Dagon? That’s Toji, who in turn killed himself to save Fushiguro. Choso and Geto? Both of them are still alive and kicking, though I suspect Choso is about to eat it next episode. Even Hanami was taken out by Gojo, the OP teacher figure of the series. Aside from some random sorcerers like the old man or luck boy, the villains all killed each other while our heroes ran around getting their asses kicked. Even now, as Jujutsu Kaisen brings in more and more characters, the entire cast gets defeated/frozen by them in an instant! It makes them all feel… So useless.

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The Big O – 25/26 [The War of the Paradigm City/The Show Must Go On] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome all, to The Big O’s grand finale! This week was… The episodes were… This was a god damn trip alright. Even as I write this I’m not sure what happened, or even how I feel about it! So lets take a ride, working our way through the episodes together as I try to figure out exactly what I just watched.

First up is episode 25, “The War of the Paradigm City”. So much happened this episode, there were so many reveals, that I can’t even begin to try and hide them behind a break. So instead let’s just jump right in with the spoilers and start with what I think is the biggest twist of the episode: It’s all a god damn dome. The entire city, neigh the entire known setting of the show, is inside a dome. Or maybe it’s meant to be a sound stage or something, I don’t know. Point is, the sky is fake, stage lights are hanging from the ceiling, their world isn’t real. And of course leave it to Schwarzwald to be the one to discover it in his final moments possessing Big Duo. This is it. This is the final truth he was looking for the entire time, and its fucking everyone up.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 21 [Metamorphosis]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to… to the same fight we’ve been watching for a while. Oh god it just keeps going. And going. Why? Oh god he has another form. And his buddy showed up to help. At least Todo is doing something! Oh gosh. Well this is going to be a fun week to talk about, someone is going to get mad at me. So lets rip off the band aid and dive right into it!

So in case it wasn’t obvious, I’m tired. I left this episode feeling fatigued. We’ve been doing this same fight, this same conflict, for so many episodes now. Every time it’s about to come to a close new powers, new strategies, new allies, new ass pulls occur to keep it going just a little longer. I can accept a few, it’s the genre, have fun with it. But much like Wano and the current My Hero Academia arc dragged on, so too has this fight. There comes a point where it’s simply to much, where you want the fight to end and the story to move on. And right here, right now? Jujutsu Kaisen has reached that point. Because every time something cool happened, every time Todo appeared on screen, every time I had fun, I was then reminded we have the same fight to get back to.

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The Big O – 23/24 [Twisted Memories/The Big Fight] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome all, to the penultimate week of The Big O! Only one more to go after this, and then the review, and then a break for New Years as I try to write… Jesus, 4 reviews? 5? Let me tell you, picking up this many shows was a mistake. I’m going to make it work though. Now without further delay, lets dive into the episodes!

First up is episode 23, “Twisted Memories”. It’s been clear for a while now that Big O has been laying the foundation for the finale. in fact I had thought it would have already started by now, but Big O has been feathering the breaks just enough to keep us waiting. Well no more! Because with this episode I can say with surety that the finale… Has truly begun! The first half is mostly checking in with everyone, letting us know where Angel, Dastun, Alex, and Roger all are, mentally and physically. Some of these aren’t that big, like Dastun trying to reconnect with Roger a bit since it’s all he can really do, or Angel slumming it with nowhere else to go. The second however half kicks things off proper with Dorothy’s kidnapping, as well as the return of an old friend.

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