Beastars 2 – 03/04 [Changes / Entangled]

by SuperMario, posted in Beastars, Currently Watching:

Things escalate quickly for the last two episodes of Beastars, too quickly in fact that we are now moving from school settings to the Black market. Haru and Legosi’s relationship remains in the back seat so far, because this is Legosi’s own journey through and through.

Legosi’s investigation comes to a standstill where he’s pretty much sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong. First, he questions the carnivore members as he thinks they (including himself) are the main suspects for Tem’s murder. It’s one of the “taboos” that no one likes, and dares, mentioning so it doesn’t surprise me that the group members feel unsettling about it. He then encounters – or to put it more correctly, is ambushed – by the culprit and it confirms 2 things, at least for now: 1) Legosi IS NOT the killer 2) the killer is ridiculously strong, even with Legosi he beats our poor wolf to a pulp. Even then, Legosi manages to bite his neck, that means that whoever has that neck injury could be the main culprit, but I have a feeling that this sets up to be a misdirection.

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Horimiya – 4-5 [Everybody Loves Somebody/I Can’t Say It Out Loud]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Romance, Horimiya

This series wasn’t titled “Horimiya” for nothing, as the people whose names comprise that portmanteau are far and away its most interesting characters. Whenever they’re on screen, I’m engaged; whenever they aren’t, I’m thinking about what’s for dinner rather than attending to the show. Thankfully, this week’s episode kept them in focus for the majority of its runtime, but last week’s was so preoccupied with other characters that it gave me writer’s block (hence this double post). I kind of want to start complaining right off the bat, but in the interest of optimism, let’s avoid chronological coverage and jump straight to the three little words that bridged these two episodes.

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2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-Bu – 5 [Stand By Me]

by Lenlo, posted in 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

I’m skipping the intro today because, to be frank, I’m done with Volley-Bu. Not in that I am going to stop covering it, I’m riding this train to the end. But I’m done playing nice and expecting it to change because this episode pissed me off. Up until now Volley-Bu has just been lazy with its writing. Speeding through content, cutting corners, not properly setting things up, etc. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t actively terrible, just mediocre. But this week Volley-Bu has undercut one of its core emotional plot threads in the stupidest way possible. I said in the initial impressions post that exploring suicide and bullying was a brave, tough choice. And that if it could pull it off then Haijima would have a great story worth watching. Turns out though, the suicide was fake.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 17 [Kyoto Sister School Exchange 3]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome to Girl Power, sponsored by Jujutsu Kaisen! This week the production is back in force and the narrative is back on the interesting characters. So without further ado lets dive in!

This is an interesting week for Jujutsu Kaisen, and for Shonen in general, because its almost 100% female lead. Why is this special? Well to put it simply, most Shonen female characters are absolute trash, they are terribly written. Its clear that most Shonen authors either don’t know how, or are not interested in, writing female characters. So to get an episode where they are not only the spotlight, but the sole focus, was rather novel. It’s a bit sad though that they were all still restricted to only fighting each other. The “female empowerment”/Strong Women narrative gets a little smudged when they are locked in their own box, not allowed to fight the male characters. Hopefully that changes as the event progresses though. I would love to see Maki or Nobara actually get a shot against Toudou or perhaps the other Kyoto student.

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Dr.STONE S2 – 4 [Full Assault]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

And we are back with more Dr. STONE! This week we Chrome gets captured, Tsukasa reappears and Senku builds a car of all things. So without further ado lets dive in!

This week was a bit of a slow one for Dr. STONE as its a bit of a transitionary episode. No big emotional gutpunches, just setup for future conflict and reintroducing our main villains. It also wasn’t that great production wise as we can see from the CGI mechanics and the return of still, sliding objects. About the only thing Dr. STONE did do this week was further its narrative a bit through the reintroduction of Tsukasa. This marks the first time we have seen him since the start of season one. We’ve heard plenty from Hyoga and the others but he hasn’t had much presence. So the question becomes: Can Tsukasa earn his place as the antagonist of Dr. STONE?

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 3 [Wolf and Business Acumen] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back to another episode of Spice and Wolf! This week is all about the stonks as Lawrence and Holo talk market volatility, currency theory and the economic value of an apple. Confused? So was I, lets dive in.

Now it’s at this point that I have to admit something to you dear readers: I am not smart enough for this show. I don’t know economics, I didn’t go to business school, I can barely balance my bank account. I have a Computer Science degree for goodness sake, computers do my math for me. So when Lawrence and Holo starting discussing economic policy and warfare via coins I got a little lost. I had to actually rewatch some sections a bit to fully… not understand, but to truly “hear” it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I can’t predict where this silver coin plot thread is going at all because of it. But it can certainly be a bit of a chore at times to listen to. Luckily the back and forth between Lawrence and Holo is interesting enough, their play by play entertaining enough, to keep me engaged

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Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World 2 – 18 [The Day Betelgeuse Laughed]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World

They still aren’t using the opening, this is honestly quite amazing and we have another 30 minute episode that flies by like wind. Perhaps it’s due to the literal length of the Arc 4 that White Fox was pushed to allot more time to be able to get through it though in that case I wish they allot more to Arc 3 as that needed a bit more time to sort out some plot issues. So today we got a continuation of Emilia’s backstory while splicing in a bit of Beatrix’s and Ryuzu’s which is a bit of awkward placement as we now have two backstories to finish but I guess they thought we might need a small break from Emilia’s. I admit that this episode makes for a difficult thing to talk about as we mainly have a fight between Geuse and the two new arrivals. Regulus is a villain I can’t say much about as his general deal seems to be to act like a triggered social media user to each and every conversation. As a character there just doesn’t seem to be much to him but then again I could have said the same, and likely did say, about Geuse in Arc 3 and now that boy has layers. We even see him obtain an unseen hand from a box containing what I believe was a witch factor and can we just bask in the beautiful irony of a villain named Pandora forcing someone to open a box? Well ok if we are to be pedantic about it, Pandora’s box wasn’t actually a box but was a pithos but whatever.
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SK8 the Infinity – 04 [ADAM, The Matador of Love]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Sports, SK8 the Infinity

I think it’s safe to say that SK8 the Infinity has abandoned the mask it wore during its first two episodes. This is no longer an anime about having a rad time skateboarding with your bros – now it’s about settling beef with your bros, and I’m not talking about the burgers that Miya refused to eat at A&W. Everyone wants to start beef with ADAM, a bloodthirsty politician from a well-to-do family who channels his aggression through extreme skateboarding. This is such an insane premise that the only way to make it work is by leaning completely into the insanity, which this episode did without hesitation. And it worked! By the end, I was laughing at everything ADAM said and did, from skating uphill groin-first to villainously licking Reki’s blood off his cheek (framed with a Dutch angle, no less). I still miss the version of SK8 that we glimpsed two weeks ago, but at least this new model is demonstrating some knowledge of its own stupidity.

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Winter 2021 Summary – Week 4

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: Another week, another roundup of what we’re watching that isn’t getting dedicated posts. This time we’ve got two demon-themed shounen series, two anime that take periodic trips to the great outdoors, and two shows where vehicles are the main attractions. Can you spot which is which?

The Promised Neverland S2 – 04

Lenlo: So I will, as a manga reader, admit to being a little bit biased when I write this but: What the hell Neverland? What is this? Not only are you skipping the only good arcs/characters left in your story to fast track to the bad stuff, but you are undermining what good you had from the first season with Isabella. I can’t think of another series that has managed to kill my interest faster than this. I’ll keep watching just to see if the author can manage to not screw it up a second time in a row, but I have no faith that this is going to end up good.

Pui Pui Molcar – 01

Wooper: I just learned of this show’s existence and had to spread the good news. Pui Pui Molcar is a stop motion series of two minute episodes about guinea pigs that are cars. I repeat: this anime is about guinea pigs that are cars. Whether you find that adorable or stupid depends on how much of a joyless Scrooge you are, but even if you fall on the “adorable” side, this show is more charming than you can imagine. The colors are bright, the soundtrack is jammin’ (the melodica track in the first episode is a bonafide ode to optimism), and the squeaks of the cars are provided by actual guinea pigs. There’s not much more to Molcar than cuteness, though it does win some points for telling its stories without any dialogue (despite the guinea pigs’ human drivers). Here’s a link to the premiere on YouTube (the first of five available episodes), so you can see for yourself why it’s become a minor sensation in Japan.

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2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu – 4 [Higher, Faster, Stronger]

by Lenlo, posted in 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

I’m a bit late on Volley-Bu this week, apologies for that. Between Jujutsu Kaisen and Dr. STONE releasing right next to it, Volley-Bu seems to be taking a back seat. But have no fear because I am in this for the long haul! All 12 episodes of it. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Production wise it was nice to see a return of the snappy direction. It’s not like Volley-Bu is well animated, the CGI volleyball barely even bounces half the time. But between the quick cuts, fast movement and good camera angles, Volley-Bu does a good job of tricking us into thinking its well animated. We can see examples of this early on in their training as Okuma, the rugby guy, joins in or later on in their match. It’s not perfect, a lot of the strikes still lack weight and the characters feel very stiff anytime the camera lingers on them to long on the court. Overall though this is a step up from last episode and a step in the right direction for the series. Lets hope it can keep it up for the next… 8 episodes!

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