I’m back from New York City everyone! That was a fun trip. Got to see the city, hang out with some friends, go to a weeb convention and spend way to much money on food. Even got to see Pompo the Cinephile! Alright movie. But that isn’t what you’re here for, oh no. You want some Kimetsu no Yaiba! So lets dive into last weeks episode that I’m many days late on.
This was always my favorite part of the Yaiba movie. It has issues, especially in the TV format which we will talk about. But at it’s core this section is just unadulterated hype. It’s one big fight that they poured their everything into. From big fire and wind effects to flashy lighting and large CGI environments, this is everything Yaiba is good at. And we are only half way done with the fight! There are some issues, sure. The camera gets a little wild and Ufotable completely ignore the 180 degree rule making it a bit of a mess to follow. On top of that the CGI fire lion was a bit to much if you ask me. These are both relatively small complains though and by and large I think this scene shows us what Yaiba does best: Set piece battles.
Sadly though the movie visuals come at a cost: The pacing is an absolute mess. As a movie this worked fine, its the climax of the film! We go right from the train crashing to a crying demon into our finale. One big last fight hurrah! But as a TV… We just hop right into it. The momentum between weeks doesn’t carry over that well and the episode does nothing to prime us for the next big battle sequence. Its like… In the movie our blood is already pumping, right? We are hyped, we are ready to go, we get faked out thinking its over and BAM. But here? We have cooled down between episodes. We aren’t hyped or on the edge of our seats. Yaiba needed to prepare us again for Akaza’s introduction and, being a cut up movie, it couldn’t do that.
On top of that, and I thought this when watching the movie to, I just don’t care about Lower One. He probably has a name and I could probably look it up on the wiki, sure. But I don’t care enough to. I have no emotional connection to this demon. In fact I just watched him and his poop tentacles try to eat an entire train full of people! And yet Yaiba is giving him this sad moment. Am I supposed to… empathize with the demon? To feel sad for him despite how we have barely interacted at all? It just doesn’t work. Compare that to the spider demon family that wrapped up season 1 and the overarching themes of abuse and abandonment found there. Is it complicated? No, not at all. But it is evocative. And Lower One just didn’t have that.
That aside though, the Rengoku fight is undeniably fun. I’m not trying to shit on this episode, I enjoyed watching Rengoku and Akaza go at it. So while we don’t get to see much of who they are, just some banter between blows, it’s enough to tell us what their conflict is really about: Running away from death vs embracing it. And I love that shit. I mentioned it in another show, but the philosophical conflict of mortal vs immortal, whether it be a lover dying of old age while you never do or the difference in how those lives are lived, is one of my favorite concepts. Any piece of media that even tries to tackle that has my attention. And that’s kind of what Yaiba is doing here.
So yeah, short post this week because there isn’t that much to talk about, but I had fun. Yaiba continues to be on the simpler end of anime but its flashy. I like pretty lights and Yaiba hasn’t actively fucked enough up to take away from that for me. Hopefully as this arc ends and we start to move into the new content we can get something more properly paced for the TV. Something with a bit more narrative substance to go with Yaiba’s otherwise flashy visuals.
How exactly was Pompo The Cinephile, BTW? Do you plan on writing a review of it? What are your general thoughts on it? I plan on checking it out if it ever comes to theaters in my area.
Hmm… I could. I wasn’t planning on it but I could.
My general thoughts are that I wasn’t a big fan. It was a fun movie, I liked the premise. But the last third went a rather boring route imo (If you have read the source apparently they added an entire thing with banks and funding that wasn’t in the original? I don’t fully know what was added since I haven’t read it).
Everything regarding the filming of the movie was great! I loved all of that! But its such a small portion of the movie.
On top of that I also don’t agree with the message its seemingly trying to push. This whole idea of “Artists should die for their work”, of “If you were truly passionate you would kill yourself for it” is just… its wrong to me. I think thats an incredibly toxic, destructive attitude to take towards art and its not something I really want to see supported or spread. Especially not to young, aspiring artists.
So yeah tl;dr its a fun movie that I had problems with.
EDIT: OH But it was really really well shot. I can’t believe I forgot to mention this, Pompo looked fantastic. Some of the cuts were so brilliant, I love them. They maybe got a bit to ambitious animation wise in places but as far as editing goes it was beautiful. Not surprising for a movie about making movies tbh.
Of course you were not supposed to sympathise with Enmu. He was a pure evil prick. That’s the point.
Well thats the thing, the only “Pure evil” character Yaiba has introduced so far was Muzan. Every one else, at least among the named demons, have been portrayed as victims in some way. Damage people who were pulled in and used by Muzan.
We see it with the spider family, Tamaya, Nezuko, Susamaru, Kyogai and Yahaba, and we will see it with the upper ranks as well when that gets adapted. On top of that Yaiba also does its best, with the way its directed and presented, make us empathize with them. You cannot tell me that Enmu’s final scene wasn’t meant to be sad. He had the music, the slow burn, the “crying” everything. Yaiba wanted us to feel bad for him.
But it didn’t work. Because the amount of time we spend with each of these demons, and their individual quality of writing, varies greatly.
He was crying that he wasn’t able to kill more people and reach higher status among the demons. Many demon were victim, that is correct, but many are asshole in life and been a demon just let them unleash their true nature more.
Exactly! Maybe I didn’t phrase it correctly, but this is basically it. Enmu was a piece of shit. And Yaiba still tried to give him the sad emotional moment without giving us any reason to be sad for him.
Does that make sense as to my issue with how it was presented?
I think it was more from his point of view. In his kind he is the victim.