Category: Finished Series: Action

Oh OPM, you never make it easy. Even in your finale, you can’t just let me love or hate you. You have to show some good animation besides terrible, good sound design beside horrific, good CGI alongside bad. It’s enough to make a man wanna scream. Lucky for you I suppose I get to write a review about you in full this week. If you thought Dororo was scathing, watch this. For now though, OPM S2, lets jump in.

Starting off, the production. This was a wild ride. Everything 2D was sub-par, disappointing even after episode 11’s showing with Garou. Meanwhile the CGI for Centichoro actually looked quite good! There were some moments where it seemed like it wasn’t fully rendered, but hey. This thing almost killed Murata just to draw it. I imagine making a CGI model for it wasn’t much easier, nor was rendering it. So kudo’s on that front at least JC Staff. Specifically, thank you Kenichiro Aoki, for doing your best to save this season. If nothing else, OPM S2 burned your name into my memory, for making a majority of the best scenes of it’s season. Sadly, even your heroic effort cannot save it. Because however good your scenes, almost everything surrounding it was just trash.

Continue reading “One Punch Man Season 2 – 12 [Cleaning Up the Disciple’s Mess]” →

I don’t understand it JC Staff. You make it so difficult for me to like you and by extension, OPM. I want to of course, every week there are these flashes of brilliance. These moments where I think “they understand. They care. They can do it”. And then in the very same episode, you manage to ruin it, in every aspect of production. This week you managed to impress me in so many ways, and then instantly destroy it a few minutes later. For instance, you manage to add your own spin on some scenes that were basic panels in the manga, like the above. Yet earlier in the same episode, say the tree branches pull of Garou for example, you manage to lessen it. Switching up the camera angle so there is less to animate. Weakening the scene. Long story short. you just leave me confused JC Staff.

Continue reading “One Punch Man Season 2 – 11 [Everyone’s Dignity]” →

Welcome one and all to a rather surprising week of One Punch Man Season 2! This week the animation was mostly fine, and interesting things happened, so let’s just jump right in!

Starting off, I rail against the series a lot, but credit where it’s due. The sections of the Garou fight done by Aoki look pretty slick. This man is carrying OPM on his back at this point it seems. As he is responsible for basically every well animated shot of the season. From Tank Top Master to pretty much every Garou shot, Aoki is our guy. He seemingly has fun with it all as well. The thick black lines, fun angle and dynamic camera make it much more of a treat than anything else seen in this episode. Just look at other cuts of the fight to see that for yourself, or Darkshines… shininess? Neither were particularly great, but for this series, they were on the upper end. I just hope that the 2 big finale fights coming up soon are given the same treatment.

Once again a short post, as OPM really speaks for itself I feel. Outside of Garou, there isn’t much to like. Saitama’s segments with King were fine, if blandly delivered. It’s a bit sad when a video game fight has better animation than some of your legitimate ones to. Darkshine also just came off a bit weird, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for being concerned about his design. He is made to be a caricature, every S-Class hero is. From the Samurai all the way to Genos. I don’t believe ONE intended to be offensive, and rather just wanted to portray the japanese stereotype for a black man. Regardless, having followed this manga for awhile, it doesn’t bother me much. All of the S-Class heroes get some development later on, but not in this season. Hell, maybe not in any season with how this one is shaping up.

Suffice to say, while the episode was decent, the series as a whole is still woefully disappointing in almost every department. Maybe Aoki can save the ending. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Sigh, it was nice having a free week of no OPM. No disappointment, not falling opinion of an acclaimed manga series. Just free time and no post I had to write. Now we are back though, and JC Staff has once again screwed it up. So join me as this week we talk music.

For me, the biggest issue with this week was the choice of music. Simply put, OPM S2 not only doesn’t have any good original tracks, but it reuses the same ones to much. For example, the “emotional” music of this episode was used a ludicrous amount. Being thrown over every scene they could. One or two of these is fine, its a fine piece of music. But when played over and over and over, it loses all power. And that’s not even mentioning if the scene even fits the music in the first place. Really, the sound design has been horrible across the entire series. From punches, to VA work and now to music, the general quality of the sounds in OPM are simply disappointing.

Sadly, I am going to have to cut this one short here though. While there isn’t much to say beyond this, I feel bad for leaving such a short post. But I seem to have come down with something, and its making even writing coherent sentences now difficult. Hopefully it clears up tomorrow, and I can get Lain written up for you. Until then though, suffice to say, OPM S2 is still a dumpster fire and if your actually still watching it, I pity you. Its not worth your time and I promise you, its not going to get a good score here.

So, my shame at writing virtually nothing aside, I will see you next week!