Category: Throwback Thursday

Princess Tutu – 7/8 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Every week I go in to Princess Tutu expecting it to fall off, to finally disappoint me. And every week Princess Tutu manages to shut me up with another pair of good episodes. This week, we focus in on Fakir and Rue, Mytho stands up for himself and Drosselmeyer intervenes. Let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, I want to talk about how Princess Tutu is constantly surprising me. Specifically here I want to point out the pacing, and how quickly we are actually moving. Princess Tutu has managed to tell more story in 8 episodes than most shows do in a full 12. Even taking ones that I started off thinking were filler and turning them into full blown major plot reveals. And yet even with the amount covered, I don’t have any fear about the plot in the 2nd half. There is still plenty of content that could be covered, from Fakir or Rue centric episodes to Mytho’s past to confronting Drosselmeyer himself. It really is impressive how much compelling content Princess Tutu manages to stuff into straight-forward Magical Girl plot. So that said, let’s get into the episodes proper.

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Princess Tutu – 5/6 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all to week 3 of Princess Tutu! A bit early this week, but that ain’t so bad. There’s a bit of a global emergency going on right this moment, but thats no reason to forget the little things. And this week Princess Tutu did a great job of distracting me from this crazy world with 2 more really good episodes. So without further ado, let’s dive in!

Starting off, I want to commend Princess Tutu for just how quickly it is moving. That might seem strange to some, considering how often I harp about pacing here, but let me explain. I was fully prepared for Princess Tutu to become an episodic monster of the week. Where every ep we recover a new heart shard and return to the status quo. Only really moving forward big plot points every 10 or so episodes. So when I mean Princess Tutu is moving unexpectedly fast, I mean that its moving at all. Because so far, every episode has not only had the episodic heart shard, but also noticeably advanced the plot. Whether it be Rue meeting Tutu, Fakir and Rue competing for Mytho, or just explaining Ahiru’s predicament a bit more. Every episode we have gotten more than I expected. And I really like that.

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Princess Tutu – 3/4 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to week 2 of Princess Tutu! This week continues Ahiru’s quest to save the prince in distress. Meanwhile we learn more about our possible villains, the world, and Ahiru’s ultimate fate! Ooooo spooky. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Once again I want to take a moment to talk about Princess Tutu’s production. Because so far, two weeks in a row, it has managed to surprised me. Everything from the animation to the direction fits the show to a T. From the expressive faces of the characters to its very formatting as if its a ballet taking place on stage. It’s clear that Junichi Satou put a lot of thought into not only the themes/story, but how to present that story as well. The only complaint I really have is that the big finale’s of each episode feel… lacking. Compared to the rest of the episode, they are very slow and plodding. A lot of care is put into some of the dance positions and the shot composition. But the action animation is always a bit of a letdown for how important the scenes are. Minor, but still.

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Princess Tutu – 1/2 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to another season of Throwback Thursday, now featuring Princess Tutu! This week we open on a rather straightforward magical girl plot, with dark implications and enough orchestral/theater implications to shake a stick at. Let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, I have to admit, Princess Tutu isn’t what I expected it to be. Starting this series, I was prepared for your stereotypical children’s magical girl show. Something along the lines of Precure. And while you can see a lot of Tutu’s influence in Precure, from designs and and all that, it actually feels like a much darker series. Because so far Princess Tutu has far more incommon with the old classics, things like the Nutcracker and Swan Lake, than it does the happy-go-lucky nature of modern magical girl shows. There are these sinister or tragic undertones throughout just these two episodes. And it’s this dichotomy between the childlike front on the tin vs its actual content that actually makes it rather engaging. Its similar in a way, though far less overt, to Puella Magi Madoka Magica. And considering I love that show, it’s a good sign.

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End of Evangelion Anime Review – 86/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

During my previous review of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I criticised it for a lot of things. The tanked production value as the series ran on and Studio Gainax ran out of funding/time. Anno’s often insane direction or story, which sometimes made sense and sometimes didn’t. Most of all though, I criticised it for it’s ending, which effectively left Evangelion as a slightly disappointing unfinished product. But what would happen if Gainax… didn’t run out of time? If Anno had another chance after the original divisive ending? What if they just made two, completely new 40 minute episodes to replace it? Well ladies and gentleman, that’s how you get End of Evangelion. Is this finale to the fabled series a roar, to replace its previous whimper? Does it make any more sense than the TV finale? Will Shinji get in the damn robot? Let’s dive in and find out.

And one last thing! There will be spoilers so we can talk about the work in its entirety, both the TV series and End of Evangelion, no vagueness here. You have been warned.

(Disclaimer: I am working to make 50 the new “average”. 70 is not an average score people. 70 is above average. Carry on.) Continue reading “End of Evangelion Anime Review – 86/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Neon Genesis Evangelion Anime Review – 77/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

It’s not often that I get to review seminal works in a medium. I read and watch them often. Vagabond, Monster and Berserk are some of my favorite manga. Meanwhile Fullmetal Alchemist is perhaps the epitome of Shounen. But not once have I thought I could, and should, transcribe my thoughts about them into a single review. To boil down my feelings on them to a scant 4,000 or so words and a final, numerical score. Yet here I am having to do the same for a work arguably more important than any of the ones I mentioned previously. A work so universally known in the community that its like Japan’s Star Wars. I am of course talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion (Director’s Cut), directed by Hideaki Anno and made by the now fallen from grace Studio Gainax. With that, there is no point to dawdling anymore. Let’s dive in.

And one last thing! An End of Evangelion review will soon follow this. I am aware it completes the story, but this review is for the TV anime and that alone. I have not watched it yet. The movie will cover everything and how it completes the series as a whole. Also there will be spoilers so we can talk about the work in its entirety, minimal vagueness here. You have been warned.

(Disclaimer: I am working to make 50 the new “average”. 70 is not an average score people. 70 is above average. Carry on.) Continue reading “Neon Genesis Evangelion Anime Review – 77/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Neon Genesis Evangelion – 25/26 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

I had a lot of expectations going in to Neon Genesis Evangelion’s ending. After episode 24, I was sure that no matter what happened, it would at least be decent. We would learn about the Angels, Seele, the Scrolls. Maybe get a big fight with the Seele Eva Units mentioned before and complete some great character arcs. Sadly, only one of those things came true, at the expense of everything else. So how about we just jump in to what is going to be the most rant-style post I will ever make on this site, eh?

Right off the bat, I have to say, what the fuck did I just watch. Normally I go over each episode independently, but 25 and 26 together are just a joint “what the fuck”. It’s hard for me to even write coherent paragraphs here, because all I want to do is scream bullshit, but I will try my best. So first up, the good. This ending at least manages to tie up Shinji, Asuka and Rei’s characters. Not in a terribly satisfactory way mind you, as we basically sit through an hour of internal monologue from Shinji, but it does it. We see Shinji finally come to accept that he was pushing people away, self-attributing a lot of his worst traits. He believed that no one could accept him and in doing so turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy as he looked for one-side relationships like Kaworu. Everything else though…

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – 23/24 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

Ladies and Gentlemen, things are starting to get weird, well weirder, as Neon Genesis Evangelion enters its endgame. I don’t even know what to write as an introduction to the post anymore, because anything I could say is a spoiler. So instead, how about we jump right into it?

Now I have talked about Evangelion’s production enough, so let’s dive right into episode 23, Tears. I want to say that this episode was pretty straight forward, but that seems like a mistake this far into the series. So instead I will say I liked it and think I understand what all went down. At the very least the first half is straight forward, focusing in on the fallout of the past few episodes. Whether that be Misato still grieving for Kaji or Asuka falling deeper and deeper into her depression. I thought Evangelion did good by its characters here, really giving their relationships weight by how they treat these revelations. Meanwhile Asuka’s failures continue to have consequences as she can’t even properly sync with her Eva Unit anymore. Losing the one thing that she had based her worth on. Nothing particularly complex here, but done well nonetheless.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – 21/22 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to this weeks episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, as presented by the History channel. This week we get into the history of one major character and multiple tertiary characters. Touching on everything from the origin of Angels to Asuka’s family! So without further ado, lets dive in.

Starting off, we have an infamous scene I want to look at this week. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it, it’s the elevator. And my opinion is… it’s not as bad as people joke. I understand what Anno was going for here, portraying the awkward silence between these two characters. Showing rather than telling, until eventually Asuka cracks, since Rei never would. That makes sense. However, it’s not near as brilliant as the supporters say, it serves its purpose. The issue though is that this was an incredibly dull 50 seconds of a mostly static image. Nothing really happened to break it up, excluding Asuna coughing once. There was no elevator music to keep someone even slightly invested. It just say there, until the viewer checked their stream/video to make sure it hadn’t froze. So from a narrative standpoint it works, but entertainmentwise it fails miserably.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – 19/20 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

Well ladies and gentleman, there isn’t any easy way to say this, but strap in. This week of Neon Genesis Evangelion is going to be a long one, because shit went down. There is no other way to put that, so let’s just get right into it.

Starting off we need to talk about the production because Evangelion was very divisive on that this week. On one hand, 19’s animation and direction was fantastic. I loved how it paralleled shots from earlier in the series when Shinji left. Except this time he is more sure of himself, he has a real reason for it and is assertive on the matter. Meanwhile the movements of the EVA unit were bestial and organic, terrifyingly so. It was one of, if not the, best episode of the series so far. On the other hand though, 20 was very weird and often difficult to follow. I understand the point, Shinji was having a bit of an episode. However a lot of it was difficult to follow and often just outright weird. There were some interesting repeating motifs, such as the train that Toji saw, but overall it wasn’t great.

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