Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Now and Then, Here and There – 9 [In The Chasm] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! This week Lala Ru stumblse upon paradise, Hamdo escalates the situation and Shu learns that war is complicated. So without further ado, lets dive in!

This week Now and Then’s overarching theme really begins to unveil itself. What do I mean by that? Up until now, Now and Then has cast a wide net with its theming. We’ve seen how the older generations problems and actions can trickle down and effect the younger generations, perpetuating the troubles that came before. How war damages and brings down everyone, even those at the very top like Hamdo, benefiting no one. Even how it can destroy the land! And while all of these revolve around war in some way or another, I’ve been curious where Now and Then would choose to go with it. Would we get an idealistic, but ultimately naïve and hollow, happy ending? After this week, with the nuanced way Now and Then presents both sides of the argument, I don’t think we will. And I’m kinda excited for that.

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Now and Then, Here and There – 8 [Two Lone Souls] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! This is a big week for me. Not because the episode was pretty good, though that did help, but because something I’ve long awaited for finally happened. What was it? Well lets dive in and find out!

The big news of course is this: Lala Ru talked! And did stuff! And it was good! I know some think that I’ve been a tad harsh on her recently. That she’s supposed to be withdrawn and quiet after everything done to her by Hamdo and others. But this episode is proof of what I was saying before. About how you can animate and emote withdrawn or quiet characters without making them emotionless dolls. Just look at all of the subtle movements Lala Ru takes throughout the episode. Clutching on to Shu as they drive, the way her voice sounds when talking about her past or how she reacts to Shu’s proclamations. Just the fact that she responds when he asks her questions but not when talking about himself is, alone, a sign of her mental state. This episode is everything I wanted now that she was free of Hamdo.

And I loved it.

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Ousama Ranking Review – 83/100

by Amunchet, posted in Anime Reviews, Ousama Ranking, Reviews by Amunchet

I really wanted Ousama Ranking to be the next Odd Taxi.  Both started out fairly similar – neither had very much pre-season hype (Odd Taxi premise wasn’t even released till the first episode, and Ousama Ranking’s first episode aired after the rest of the season started).  If it had turned out to be a hidden classic, I would be two for two and my anime ego would grow uncontrollably.  But Ousama Ranking turned out to be more blockbuster than cult classic, with quite a few flaws along the way.  Let’s take a look!

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Now and Then, Here and There -7 [Night of Flight]- Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back everyone to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! There’s a lot of posts coming, what with the new season, so glad you were able to find this one. We have a fair bit to talk about this week so lets jump into it!

Starting off, and god do I hate to bring it up again but its just so obvious, the visuals. Now and Then is wildly inconsistent here. When properly framed, lit and contextualized, Now and Then looks gorgeous. Just look at Nabuca confronting Boo, Shu breaking the glass or Nabuca finding Shu at the end. All of these are beautiful shots! The background and foreground contrast nicely, I love the colors they use, it’s great! And yet in the exact same episode, right before some of these shots even, we get pitch blackness. I’m talking about Shu climbing out of the pit, or running through Hellywood, etc. This isn’t just darkness, it’s… advanced darkness. I literally cannot see a thing and that’s just not acceptable. I don’t know what happened with Now and Then, if it’s just my copy or what, but it could look something special if it fixed this.

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Ousama Ranking – SUPER WEEK FINAL [20-23]

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, Ousama Ranking

After a month off from writing about Ousama Ranking, I’m here to wrap up my Spring show.  How did our small king end up?  Will this kickstart a franchise or be just a pleasant show in a crappy season?  Before we look at the series as a whole, let’s examine these final four episodes – two of which were fantastic…and two of which were not.
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Now and Then, Here and There – 6 [Disappearance in a Sandstorm] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of Now and Then, Here and There! We have a big week ahead of us, lots to talk about, and basically all of it is good. So without further ado lets dive in to what is my favorite episode yet!

This week was simultaneously nothing like what I expected it to be, yet everything I wanted. I figured we would get a rather standard invasion; some bad people would shoot some guns, and that most of it would be about Shu’s struggles. Instead we got what is, like I said above, without a doubt my favorite episode of Now and Then yet. For one, just look at some of the stunning visuals from it! Sara’s hair shining in the silver moonlight. The way it created edge highlights all across her face, drifting in the wind. Or how footsteps in the sand disappeared as they walked away. Showing that not only is there truly no way home, but also nothing to return to. Even the grainy, black and white, 1 frame per second way they shot the village sequence was great, though we will talk about why later.

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86: Eighty Six S2 Anime Review 42/100

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Reviews by Lenlo

Sequels are always difficult to write reviews about. Usually, barring any major production or authorial changes, you can tell if you will like it just by your reaction to the first season. With minor shifts up or down for whatever the current content is about. My recent Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen review is evidence enough of that. But sometimes… sometimes you have the unfortunate case where a sequel falls short. Where for whatever reason, be it changes in production, writing staff or simply going on longer than it should, the series falls off. Animated at A-1 Pictures, directed by Toshimasa Ishii and originally created by Asato Asato, 86: Eighty Six Season 2 is, sadly, one such case. Why is that the case? What could have happened between season 1, something I enjoyed, and this to fall off as hard as it did? Well, lets jump in and talk about that.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Eighty Six Season 2. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “86: Eighty Six S2 Anime Review 42/100” →

Eighty Six S2 – 12 [Handler One]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Welcome everyone to the big finale of Eighty Six! It took a long time to get here, damn near 3 months just for these last two episodes, but it’s finally happened. Does it wrap things up well? Do Lena and Shin finally meet? Is it worth the huge wait? Let’s jump in and find out!

So as far as endings go… I think Eighty Six actually did a good job. I know, I know, “Lenlo, you’ve ragged on Eighty Six for almost 6 months now, what do you mean its good?!”. Trust me, I was surprised to. But for all that I hate how we got here, hate the 9 episodes of mediocre journey, Eighty Six did the best it could to wrap up what it had. It called back to, and connected with, all the story beats that lead up to here. The 86ers finding something beyond war, finding acceptance in a new community, the whole thing with Eugene. A lot of this is augmented by some pretty stellar direction, and yeah if you think about it to hard its still meh. But emotionally? I think Eighty Six delivered on it’s ending. And you know how important endings are to me.

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Now and Then, Here and There – 5 [Murder] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! This week Hamdo see’s some action, Shu figure’s out we aren’t in Kansas anymore and Nabuca and co get sent on a vacation. Does any of that make sense? If not, read on, because we have a fair amount to talk about this week.

Starting off, my initial impression of the episode is… “Meh”. This feels like the most straight forward episode we have had yet, and is the first one I don’t feel enamored with. Not because it does anything wrong, Now and Then still has a reasonable standard of quality to it. Rather it’s because this is the first episode where we, the viewer, don’t learn anything new. Instead, Now and Then chooses to let the characters catch up with us. Because of this the episode largely feels transitionary. Like we are moving from the introductory phase of the story into something else. And in the long term, this is fine! I’ve long maintained that not every individual episode has to be a banger if it enables a banger story. It just means we have to wait and see what Now and Then does with this new direction.

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Eighty Six S2 – 11 [Shin]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Eighty Six has returned everyone! After 3 months everyone’s favorite genocide simulation has come back to finish what it started! I’d say I hope all of you went and rewatched some old episodes for a bit of a refresher, but doing that myself just reminded me how disappointing this season really was. Still, it’s time to bury the hatchet and see if Eighty Six can end on a high note. So lets jump into it!

First up, lets talk about just how good this episode looked. Like seriously, say what you want about the narrative, the Eighty Six team used those 3 months well. This episode looked gorgeous. From the editing to the coloring and animation, it’s like they saved all of their efforts since production started for this. Take Shin’s opening flashback for instance! I absolutely loved the use of foreground silhouettes layered over scenes in the background. The flat black morphing and flowing around the screen, exploding into nothing at the sound of the gunshot, the exaggerated mouth movements and use of negative space. And then we have stuff like the black bars constricting the scene tighter and tighter, Shin reaching out towards it. The story of how we got here may be mediocre but the visuals behind it certainly are not. And this is only the beginning of my visual praise!

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