Category: Finished Series: Action

Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 5 [Bright Red Sword]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome all, to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week is same as last week, as well as the week before: Combat! Lots… of combat. Some of it is good! Other bits not so much. What do I mean? Well lets dive into the episode and find out!

So the cool action. It exists! Unsurprisingly, Yaiba has a couple of pretty fun action sequences. There’s a combo move, Kanroji shows up and kills some demons, it’s a good time. Yet for some reason… I can’t help but feel like there’s less hype, less “Wow” factor, then Season 2. And I think it boils down to the location. The entertainment district was bright and colorful. It lent a sense of spectacle and hype to an already bright and colorful action sequence. Season 3 however takes place in a forest. A dark, ominous forest, with a sense of foreboding and danger. Yeah the atmosphere is more tense then Season 2, that’s true. But Yaiba isn’t a series that uses tense very well I feel. It’s a battle shounen, we aren’t going to be afraid. And it’s this difference in location that I think makes the action feel… not as fun?

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 5 [Bright Red Sword]” →

Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 4 [Thank You, Tokito]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome back all, to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week continues the fight, shows us just how large the power gap is, and tries to give us a ray of hope in Kanroji. Does it succeed? Let’s dive in and find out!

Starting off I want to give some credit where credit is due: The fish demon things actually don’t look to bad. Their models, and how they were composited into the scenes, was a bit rough at times sure. But the way they moved was actually really nice! I loved how the flopped around on screen, scrambling up walls and generally acting like uncoordinated fish. After the weirdness that was the Tentacle Train from the movie, I was worried that Yaiba would double down on that same sort of process. But it looks like Ufotable has genuinely learned and improved from their past works, and that’s pretty cool. It won’t be able to replace any of the real sword-based action, sure. But it makes me a bit less apprehensive about some of the CGI shots we saw in the OP and other marketing.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 4 [Thank You, Tokito]” →

Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 3 [A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome all to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This episode see’s things kick off as demons finally arrive! Are we in for another 10 episode long fight scene? Probably! Will it be any good? Let’s dive in and find out!

Before we get to deep into the action I need to get something off of my chest: Yaiba’s comedy sucks. This isn’t unexpected, it’s a battle shounen not a dedicated comedy manga. And even if it was, base level Japanese slapstick comedy really isn’t my thing. But my god did this stuff suck. Not just the structure of it, though repeating the same joke over and over again with funny chibi visuals certainly wasn’t going to help it, but the very jokes themselves sucked. What, having Haganezuka show up and repeat “Give it to me” and then being upset that was misunderstood is supposed to be funny? Or his weakness being tickling because he’s big and strong? None of this is funny! Thank god that we jumped into the action this week because if we hadn’t this would have been the worst episode so far.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 3 [A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago]” →

Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 2 [Yoriichi Type Zero]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome back everyone, not only to a new season but to another season of Kimetsu no Yaiba! I was a bit harsh on the previous season, rightfully so I feel. While generally well produced, it felt like the season missed the mark emotionally. So the question going into this season is: Can it avoid the same? Lets dive in and find out!

After that spectacle of a pilot, Yaiba has decided to drastically slow things down. And you know what? That’s probably a good thing. As was said in the discord, the previous arc suffered from severe blueballing. It constantly set us up for some kind of emotional payoff, only to continue the fight again and again and again. This season seems to be trying to avoid that, setting up not only multiple fights with multiple Hashira but also investing us in the characters early. For instance this week we meet Kotetsu, a young Swordsmith child desperate to protect his families legacy. We learn about his home, what he holds dear, all that jazz. Nothing has really happened with it yet, mostly just pushing Tanjiro to train more. But that’s fine! If Yaiba wants to take it’s time with this stuff, I’m happy to let it. Just give me that payoff later.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 2 [Yoriichi Type Zero]” →

Mob Psycho 100 S3 Anime Review – 85/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Action, Mob Psycho 100 III, Reviews by Lenlo

The year is 2016. My Hero Academia has just aired its first season, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is in the middle of my favorite season, and Yuri on Ice is enthralling the world with Cute Boys Figure Skating, among many others. It is a good year for anime. And in the middle of all of this is a new show from an a small studio, neither of which you have probably heard of. That show is Mob Psycho 100, that studio is Studio BONES, the director Yuzuru Tachikawa, and that previous line a joke. Please don’t crucify me. Fast forward 6 years to 2022 and Mob Psycho 100 is finally coming to an end. It feels rare for adaptations to actually get an ending these days. Most don’t even make it to a 2nd season. But Mob Psycho 100 has done just that. And it was glorious. Lets jump into it!

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Mob Psycho 100. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Mob Psycho 100 S3 Anime Review – 85/100” →

Chainsaw Man – 12 [Katana vs Chainsaw]

by AidanAK47, posted in Chainsaw Man, Currently Watching:

Thus it ends and while I have no complaints about the episode I must admit that I did have some dread for it ending knowing that it could be the end for a while. As of this moment there does not appear to be any news confirming a second season(If anything comes to light I will edit this sentence to highlight it) and my heart sinks. As stated before I believe that a continuation is not a matter of if but rather when. What form could it take though? I have heard people say that the next arc could make for a good movie and it is true that it could fit the format. Episodes have been going at a steady pace of three and a half chapters per episode. The next arc is 14 chapters long which would fit nicely into an hour and a half runtime. The next arc also happens to be a big fan favorite which some could call the best arc and I wouldn’t easily dismiss that statement. After all it does feature a character I hold a lot of fondness for who also happened to be teased at the end of this episode. Still I am not into the idea of mid season movies as it makes following a show from start to finish awkward. You can have a situation where you need knowledge to watch the movie before jumping to season 2 or an awkward thing where they end up chopping up the movie into episodes or in DB supers case, reanimating them but worse. A movie could solve the issue of Chainsaw Mans part 1 not quite fitting into a two cour show with it taking about 16/17 episodes to complete it. If Mappa intend to chase Demon Slayer success then a movie would be likely though that would be bad considering how long it takes for movies to become publicly available.(Do you have any idea how long I waited for those Fate/Heaven’s Feel movies?)
Continue reading “Chainsaw Man – 12 [Katana vs Chainsaw]” →

Mob Psycho 100 III – 12 [Confession ~The Future~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

This is it everyone, welcome to the grand finale of Mob Psycho 100. Not just of this arc, or this season, but of the entire show. There will be no season 4. No special. No movie. This is it. Lets dive into it.

Overall I thought this was a great finale. It’s all about Reigen and Mob, it was their episode, going so far as to even cut out Mob’s confession to Tsubomi so that it could focus on just them. A good decision I think! Their relationship is sort of the bedrock for the entire series. Mob came to Reigen to get help understanding himself and his powers, and ever since then its been a slow progression of coming to accept himself. For it to culminate in them both having a heart to heart talk, no more subtext just getting it all out in the open, was good. I think that ??? Mob got a bit shafted in his presentation, not going to lie. The sense of dread surrounding him was diminished compared to his earlier appearances like in Season 1. But Reigen’s run (Give me 100% Reigen cowards) made up for that.

Continue reading “Mob Psycho 100 III – 12 [Confession ~The Future~]” →

Chainsaw Man – 11 [Mission Start]

by AidanAK47, posted in Chainsaw Man, Currently Watching:

One more episode. Just one more episode and it’s finished for who knows how long. It’s funny to have something you have been looking forward to for a full year come to fruition. Course this isn’t the end of the story but it could be the end for now till we get that second season. Looking at things I feel the question of a second season isn’t a matter of if but rather when. For me I hope it’s soon if not just to get the rest of the story but also I feel that if Mappa continue to take on high profile projects then they could burn out their staff before season two comes, thus causing a decline in the quality we have not been seeing throughout this show. On that I must commend the staff for managing to keep this insane level of quality for an entire season. Most shows put their money shots in the first few episodes before the grind causes a animation downgrade halfway but Chainsaw Man remains the best animated show going.(Note that I have not watched Bleach or Mob Psycho and both those likely retain a high level of animation. Though due to bias I still put Chainsaw Man as king) Of course I don’t like that this is a contract which is likely taking away from many animators livelihoods. But well if we must have this as a necessary evil then I prefer this being animated over “I was a loser till I got isekaied into big boob land and now I get to flaunt my ego with powers that I in no way earned” show. It’s part of the reason I hope that the rumors of Mappa taking on One Punch Man season 3 prove false because after this these animators deserve a break and I don’t want them back till the rest up and be ready for Chainsaw Man season 2. I would like to believe that Mappa would be smart enough to not work their staff to death…I really really would like to believe that.
Continue reading “Chainsaw Man – 11 [Mission Start]” →

Mob Psycho 100 III – 11 [Mob 3 ~Trauma~]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100 III

Welcome everyone, to the penultimate episode of Mob Psycho 100! I apologize for this delay, I’m attending a wedding right now so writeups had to go on the backburner a bit. No idea when this will be out but I will try my best. Excuses aside though, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, lets talk about the only real problem with the episode first: Suzuki. I was not a fan of him in Season 2. I thought him very simple, very dull, and generally not a great foil for Mob. And that carries over to his portrayal here in Season 3 as well. I am predisposed to not enjoy him. And this becomes a pretty big problem when you consider just how much of this episode was about him. Suffice to say, I wasn’t particularly engaged with him. Yet despite that, I think Mob Psycho did a good job of correcting its past mistakes and making me care about him. It focused on his relationship with his son. His family. The things he gave up for his power. It was… surprisingly poignant, and brought a lot of depth to his character that I wasn’t expecting. So good job Mob Psycho!

Continue reading “Mob Psycho 100 III – 11 [Mob 3 ~Trauma~]” →

Chainsaw Man – 10 [Bruised and Battered]

by AidanAK47, posted in Chainsaw Man, Currently Watching:

Welcome to the time which brings great joy followed by the hollowness of fulfillment and no, I am not talking about Christmas. Another week, another episode of Chainsaw Man and another realization that we need to wait another week to see more. Along with the end of the season to come in just two more weeks where I am not sure where I will give my fix for Chainsaw related entertainment. Well those are worries for the future and considering Aki is meeting the future devil that could enlighten us on a solution to this particular predicament. Everything remains at a pretty high standard with an ending that for some reason reminds me of the music video for Take on Me with its blend of real footage and hand drawn. Prehaps some could do a meme edit inserting the song just to see how well it fits? This may be the last calm before the storm we get this season, so we might as well take it in.
Continue reading “Chainsaw Man – 10 [Bruised and Battered]” →