Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Runway de Waratte – 6 [Superiority and Inferiority]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Apologies for the wait everyone, but between cons and going rock climbing over the weekend, this got pushed back. Sadly though, I have to be honest, right out the gate, I wasn’t a fan of this weeks Runway de Waratte. As this week we have an idiotic fashion school competition, Itsuko being perfect and Chiyuki being the best part of the show. So without further ado, let’s just get into it.

Right off the bat, I want to talk about what I believe Runway’s biggest problem is, and that’s Itsuko. Supposedly, based on the OP and how the show opens, Chiyuki is our lead. Yet the focus is largely on Itsuko and his “struggles”, and it’s just not good. I don’t believe his struggles, his trials, I don’t believe that he overcomes them or that its difficult for him. We see time and again characters reference his living situation and how hard it is for him to do what he wants. But Runway never shows us this, we never see his challenge. He worries about money, but we never see him have to make tough choices with money. We hear about how difficult it is to design a dress, yet he got over it between episodes. The hardest Runway has ever been was the fashion show, and mostly for the assistant!

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken -7 [I Have To Do It For Myself!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

This was a pretty chill week for Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, as we focus more on our characters than the process. As this week gives us a glimpse into Mizusaki’s life, the continuing production of the Culture Festival movie and the best bathhouse ever. Lets dive in!

This week Eizouken mostly took a step back from the production side of things. Instead choosing to focus on one of our leads, Mizusaki. We got a look at her parents, her home life, her passion and how it all compares to Asakusa or Kanamori’s. For instance we saw about halfway through how Asakusa has to call her parents. How Mizusaki misinterprets that as control rather than concern. Which is rather interesting when you look at it because of how her own parents raise her. Giving Mizusaki free reign so long as she stays within their nice little box of a plan for her. Money, freedom, whatever she wants to do, so long as she becomes an actress. In a way, it’s more restrictive than Asakusa’s, and speaks a lot about how negligent Mizusaki’s parents are. Still, we know she has at least one positive figure in her life. Grandma!

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 6 [Let’s Do Better Than Last Time!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Every week I wonder how Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken can top itself. What new approach it is going to take to the industry. How it is going to explore it through our three highschoolers. And this week, Eizouken does just that by dedicating an episode to Kanamori and her struggles in management. Without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off, this week had a big focus on the business side, making it basically Kanamori’s episode. And personally, I loved how Eizouken treated Kanamori here. I have said it before, but I like how the series gives the business aspect of the industry a fair shake through her. Showing us how she treats and looks after her team, the effort she puts into getting them what they need. Whether that be setting up meetings with the art club, getting them a PC, or just the day to day planning and management. Kanamori clearly works her ass off, as we see early on just when she falls asleep in the restaurant. Not to mention her presence in basically every scene of the episode. It helps the scenes where she does have to lay down the law feel justified, rather than just bitchy, which is important coming up.

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Runway de Waratte – 5 [Individual Styles]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Apologies for the wait everyone, but inspiration takes times, as Runway de Waratte taught us this week!

Runway starts off the week with Kokoro and Itsuko having a bit of a heart to heart. Talking about their dreams, why they want to become designers, etc etc. I actually think Runway does a decent job with Kokoro this week, as it jumps from that to Itsuko starting the competition, to getting Kokoro involved as well. And the way Runway got her involved was exactly what I wanted from the show. A look into the Modeling industry and how it practices. As we see that her agency is basically shutting down her dreams to keep her as a Model. Doing what is best for them, rather than what she wants, controlling her. Effectively locking her into a career because of how she was born. This is the kind of hard hitting look and critique of the fashion industry that could have made Runway great. Instead we get…

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 5 [An Iron Giant Appears!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken manages to pull yet another rabbit out of it’s hat this week. As we take a look at a dying genre, studio/client relations and yet again more animation techniques. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Starting off, I was expecting Eizouken to tackle a lot of things this week. However the final death kneel of a genre was not among them. It was and continues to be a very fascinating topic to look at actually, the waxing and waning of genre popularity. Go back a few decades and Mecha was the shit. Yet in modern times it has been subsumed by battle shounen and Isekai, and Eizouken takes a small look into why. How the world has changed around the industry, and how that affects the passions and interests of viewers. Those inspired by Mecha grew up to realize that such robots were impossible or impractical. Inspired by them, yet disillusioned by reality. Meanwhile, man has made it to the moon, we have the ISS. Space is no longer so mysterious, and so Mecha and Space Opera’s have fallen away. It’s tragic, in a way.

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Runway De Waratte – 4 [Young Talents]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Everyone, we are now 1/3rd of the way through Runway De Waratte and I have to say… It ain’t great. There might be a few issues, just a few I promise. Such as the family drama that starts and ends within 5 minutes. Or the genius rival, or maybe just everyone standing around like stiff cardboard. All that side though, it’s great! So let’s dive in.

Starting off, and I know it can get annoying with how often we talk about it, Runway’s Production. Now, sometimes, it can look alright. The fashion show last week made decent use of lighting and direction to focus in Chiyuki. Much like an actual fashion show would, with everything around her dimmed. Most of the time though, such as this week, everyone just looks…flat. Lifeless. Like stiff cardboard, stuck in the same positions across scenes. There is no life to them, they all stand straight backed and immovable. It reminds me of Irregular at Magic Highschool, except without the excuse of complex character designs. Where the only thing ever moving in many scenes are the mouths, which are disturbingly small. Simply put, Runway is not interesting or engaging to watch, visually, at all. There is no aesthetic draw to the series, and the narrative doesn’t help much either.

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 4 [Hold That Machete Tight!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

God damn, was Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken always this good? Or is Yuasa just on point this week? Because this was the best episode of anime so far in 2020 for me. I know, 26 days in is a bit earlier, but the heart wants what the heart wants. And right now the heart wants to dive in to some Eizouken!

Starting off, why exactly do I love this episode of Eizouken so much? Simply put, because it’s a reality check for everyone involved, viewers and characters, without losing the passion. Diving into the difficulties of making an anime, the compromises and tricks used to make something so difficult happen. There is actually a quote from Asakusa this episode that sums it up perfectly. “Less about finishing the project and more the outcome of passion crashing against compromise and resignation”. It’s like Yuasa and the team are pouring their heart out here about the truth of making anime. How you can have the best of intentions, the greatest passions, yet reality and time can limit you. Whether that be wanting to make every scene beautifully animated or colors or effects, etc. It’s a much more mature take than I was expecting based on Eizouken’s presentation.

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Runway de Waratte – 3 [Smile Down the Runway]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Welcome to another week of Runway de Waratte! This week is pretty straight forward, finishing up the fashion show and letting our leads get a win. The question then becomes, is it earned and how well is it set up? Well, let’s dive in and find out!

Starting off, I want to talk about Runway’s production this week, because I have issues. The big one is clearly the pacing, as we are going really fast. It feels like these last two could have been spread out among 3 episodes, to give things room to breathe. As my primary criticism with the series so far is how quickly our leads are moving up the rungs. Getting these “Victory” moments so quickly. I have actually heard a lot of dialogue was cut from the manga here, so that makes sense. Meanwhile the actual animation and such felt stiff. It’s not a big thing, as this isn’t an action series, but a lot of characters felt lifeless, and the direction didn’t help. Being pretty simple across the board. Sure, the actual walked looked nice as stills, but it didn’t manage to evoke any big emotions for such a big scene.

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 3 [Let’s Accomplish Something!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Another week, another fantastic episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! This week we continue to dive in to the technical side, as our crew begin to produce their first animated short. Learning about short cuts, time and business considerations, and just creative freedom. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off, this week Eizouken gives us our first major goal, the Budget Committee! It’s a nice and manageable one I think, a way to get the ball rolling, and lets Kanamori strut her stuff. As this first goal, with its set deadline, really lets the time/business aspect of anime production shine through. For instance I loved how Kanamori just broke down how much effort a 5 minute shot would be, at a simpel 12 fps. Resulting in a 3600 frame count, along with all the other overhead. While its pretty obvious, and something anyone could figure out, it’s also something anime fans ignore a lot I think. The sheer amount of effort that goes in to a production, the sheer number of drawings that have to be produced for a single minute of footage. And yes, there are shortcuts as Eizouken shows us, but its still work.

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Runway de Waratte – 2 [The Professional World]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Welcome to the second new series I am blogging this season, Runway de Waratte! A really odd choice for me all things considered, but it caught my interest and I figured why not branch out. This week continues the surprises as Runway backs up the progress a bit and shows us just how brutal the fashion industry is. Lets dive in!

Runway opened up answering a lot of questions/issues I had with the first episode. Such as how quickly it was moving, how they became professionals almost immediately, etc etc. I didn’t like how it seemingly skipped over all the hard work/amateur level stuff they could have done. So to see Tsumura’s age come in, how they won’t hire high schoolers and such, was nice. It sets up the end goal of the season, getting hired, and makes them actually work for stuff. Now I am still not sure what Chiyuki’s position in all of this is, as her father seems pretty adamant about not letting her model. He didn’t even lift her suspension until the 2nd half of the episode, but that’s also not terribly important I don’t think. No, the important thing is what Runway does from here.

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