Jujutsu Kaisen – 6 [After Rain]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen is a lot of things, but this week what it is, is disappointing. Because for all that the villains step up to the plate, for all that the animation is on point, Jujutsu Kaisen did one thing wrong: It went back back on its cliffhanger. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Clickbait doom and gloom opening aside, Jujutsu Kaisen did a lot of things right this week. And first and foremost amongst those has to be the animation. Seriously, just click into the full article below to see a clip of it, but Jujutsu Kaisen looked good. Between the burning effects, the facial expressions and the body movements, the whole café scene worked really well. I will talk more about what it did for the villains in detail later. From purely a production standpoint though, I thought it was a great. Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t stop there though, it was very expressive and creative with some of its scenes. One of my favorites being the paper-craft Itadori scene we see later on, fluttering in the wind. It’s a small thing, but it was really cute and I liked it. It’s those kinds of inventive animations I want to see more of.

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Akudama Drive – 05 [Dead Man Walking]

by SuperWooper, posted in Akudama Drive, Currently Watching:

It’s still too early to say if we’ll ever return to the sustained mayhem of Akudama Drive’s earliest offerings, but breathers like this episode aren’t so bad. Sure, the visuals might not be delivering in every single scene, but in terms of transitioning us into the show’s midgame, it did a fine job. There’s a departure and a new rivalry within the Akudama camp, and the Executioners are strengthening efforts to bring them in, putting the recently suspended Master and Pupil in a tough spot. Was there enough room for the show to say something meaningful about its characters during all this repositioning? I’d say no, but that’s certainly not for a lack of trying.

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Twelve Kingdoms – 16/17/18 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Throwback Thursday, Twelve Kingdoms

Welcome all to the halfway point of the next our of Twelve Kingdoms! This week sees the continuation of Taiki’s story along with both some interesting and not so interesting political plots. Without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off, I want to talk a bit about my feelings on this arc as a whole. Because so far, it feels like a side story. Having it be told to us/Nakajima through another character, when it has all already happened, makes it feel very disconnected from current events. It makes you wonder: How is this relevant to Nakajima? How will this effect the current Kei storyline? It’s entirely possible that by the end it weaves back in masterfully, and I have not yet passed judgement one way or another. But a comment from last week by user PhilippeO doesn’t give me much hope for that. It sounds more like his arc never truly gets completed, which only goes further to making it feel like this isn’t particularly relevant. For now we will have to wait and see. I can only hope Twelve Kingdoms proves me wrong.

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Fall 2020 Summary – Week 5

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: We’re down to just two writers for this week’s recap, which means we’re down a few shows, as well. Now that we’ve entered the second of this season’s three months, it’s only natural that anime will start to fall through the cracks. The State of the Season post is coming up, though (it may even replace next week’s summary), so it won’t be long until you hear from the whole crew on their midseason picks. Until then, Lenlo and I have got you covered.

Haikyu: To the Top Part 2! – 05

Lenlo: I said last week that as much as I love Nekoma, I want to get back to the Inzarizaki match. I still stand by that, I love Atsumu, but boy is it hard to not get hype about our boy Kenma. The relationship between him, Kuroo and Nekoma as a whole is always a treat. How they tease and respect each other, how Kenma fails or refuses to see his own growth (“guts”) etc. My only real complaint with the episode is that, outside a few of the big scenes, it once again looked kinda… eh? Production has definitely not been a strong suit for Haikyu this season. My only hope is that they are saving something big for the finale, because the narrative core is all there, it’s great. Furudate is a great writer. I just think the show deserves better than this sometimes.

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken – 05

Wooper: Boy, did this episode look good. The bulk of it was given to a continuous fight against Hadlar, first waged by Avan and then by Dai. It was chock-full of shounen staples, from the sensei who sacrifices his life to the villain undone by overconfidence, but watching such a slick reboot of a classic title makes it hard to find fault with its adherence to genre conventions. I’ll confess to being disappointed that Avan’s life-offering final attack wasn’t enough to end the battle – giving Dai the crushing blow smacks of protagonist worship – but Hadlar is a major antagonist, so killing him off this early wouldn’t fit the template that this series was instrumental in creating. Great animation and a sense of high stakes going forward are two reasons to love this episode, as well as some justification for Dai’s overpowered forehead (which is apparently called a Dragon Crest). Seeing what an effect that glowing mark had on Hadlar was an indirect promise of things to come – I’m hoping we get some adventuring and party building first, though.

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Taiso Samurai – 04 [Samurai Daughter]

by SuperWooper, posted in Currently Watching:, Taiso Samurai

Is Leo the stealth main character of Taiso Samurai? This episode certainly pointed in that direction, taking a prime opportunity for father-daughter bonding and making it a ninja-daughter pairing, instead. Once the Parent’s Day plot began to move toward center stage, I thought for sure that Leo would urge Jotaro to attend his little girl’s school event, but the show threw me for a loop and kept its lens on the freeloader until the end. I’m not displeased with the result, either, though I imagine that plenty of viewers are wondering where the gymnastics part of “gymnastics anime” wandered off to this week.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 5 [Curse Womb Must Die -II-]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Alright Jujutsu Kaisen, you win this round. For all that I expected it, Jujutsu Kaisen managed to actually keep it’s promise from 2 episodes ago. However long or short it may last, someone has died. So how about we jump right in and talk about that?

Starting off with the non-spoilers, action! Animation! Production! Boring technical stuff, but I like getting animators names out there. Jujutsu Kaisen actually did an alright job here this week. The close quarters combat wasn’t as impressive as the first episode with Gojo, not even close. It often felt a bit… floaty, in that characters where static in movement as the background spun. An attempt to give motion without much actual animation, and it shows. But that doesn’t stop Norimoto Tokura and Shota Goshozono from giving us some pretty great effects work like in this clip here. I love the animation on the snake twisting through the air, or how it explodes into particles down it’s length. It was easily the most stunning shot of the episode and one I hope we see more of. I can only hope that this slow shift isn’t a sign of MAPPA’s production curse starting.

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Akudama Drive – 04 [Speed]

by SuperWooper, posted in Akudama Drive, Currently Watching:

Here’s a curious case of an episode that’s just as action-packed as the first two, yet fails to bring the thrills of those earlier installments. The whole time I was watching the ‘Courier vs Kouhai’ and ‘Brawler vs Executioner’ fights, I was wondering when the show would do something new. It might have revealed some characters’ hidden abilities, or used its unique setting (aboard the Shinkansen) to give one combatant a surprise advantage over another. That didn’t happen, though, at least not to my satisfaction. I’ve got a couple theories about how that dissatisfied stew came to occupy my brain, but that’ll probably be it for this week. Speculating about the history of the Kanto vs. Kansai conflict would be fruitless, given our limited knowledge on the matter, and the main cast themselves are so static they might as well be Virgil Hawkins. So, let’s talk about what makes some anime fights better than others.

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Twelve Kingdoms – 13/14/15 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Throwback Thursday, Twelve Kingdoms

This is a big week for Twelve Kingdoms. We end an arc, get a recap and start a new arc all in 3 episodes. Sadly for all that I usually praise Twelve Kingdoms, this was a freakin mess. So lets just jump right into it!

Starting off, the production. Now you might think we have covered most aspects of Twelve Kingdoms production up until now. Animation, backgrounds, OST etc, what more is there to cover? Well the answer this week is art style, because Twelve Kingdoms couldn’t seem to figure out what the hell it wanted to look like in episode 13. I can’t tell if its because of the shifting lighting based on scenes, diffused lighting etc, or something else entirely. But it’s as if Twelve Kingdoms couldn’t figure out what it wanted to look like. There is the original style that I love, with sharper more angular faces and smaller eyes. But occasionally it would switch to this more… the best way to put it is “anime” style. Larger eyes, sharper faces, with less detail. This isn’t just me being insane, right? This happened? Either way the whole episode just felt… off.

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