Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – Ashita no Nadja (88/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

(According to MAL, this is my 570th completed anime!)

I say in a lot of my reviews that it often times doesn’t matter if a piece of media’s tropes and premises are cliche or overused, as these days, nothing is truly original anymore. There’s really nothing inherently wrong with cliches in and of themselves. It’s the execution that counts, and if you actually care about what you’re making and manage to create interesting characters and a solid, engaging premise, people will like it regardless of how cliche its premise is. After the end of the fourth Ojamajo Doremi season, Toei needed something to fill the timeslot up for the next year, and they decided, rather than another magical girl series, that they’d do a historical shoujo adventure instead, in line with stuff like Hello Sandybelle and Lady Georgie. That anime was Ashita no Nadja, which was an oddity in the year 2003, as by that time, according to Justin Sevakis’ article about the World Masterpiece Theater here, Japanese-produced shows that were set in Europe were going out of style. Which is honestly a shame, as even with the context Justin mentioned, a lot of these shows were quite amazing and made the most of what they were given. Nadja as a show is an original anime, not based on an existing property, making it even more of an oddity in 2003, and it did get admittedly low ratings from what I’ve heard, but the people who did stick around to watch it really liked it and have fond memories of it. I myself didn’t even know this show existed until I came across this review of it here on the site, and I did watch the first episode and liked it, but couldn’t finish it due to other obligations and because at the time of the blog post, the final quarter of the series didn’t get completed fansubs. This is no longer the case, thankfully, and I finally found time to watch this. And yeah, I agree, Ashita no Nadja has no business being this good and this well-written. More series should aspire to be like Nadja.

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Spring 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 4

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Weekly Summary

Dungeon Meshi – 18 [Shapeshifter]

To absolutely no ones surprise, Dungeon Meshi continues to be great. This week it brought us the classic Doppelganger encounter, but with the usual Dungeon Meshi twist. Not content with just one Doppelganger, we had nine, three for each of our cast members. And as if that wasn’t enough, each Doppelganger’s appearance was based on the mental image another party member had of that person, which Dungeon Meshi so helpfully drew in slightly different styles and details so a perceptive viewer could pick out the real one on their own. So for Laios? Each of Marcille, Chilchuck and Senshi view him as some brand of moron or weirdo, leading them to easily pick out his fakes. Meanwhile for the others we have poor attention to detail resulting in inaccurate clothing and tools, as well as a complete misunderstanding of magic resulting in a silly spell book. There’s a lot of good stuff in here, all of it leading to a fun finale where Laios figures out who the real ones are by their awareness of the dungeon around them, as well as how they talk. Of course Chilchuck wouldn’t sit on a box that might be a mimic, he hates them, and of course Senshi would never disrupt an ecosystem so carelessly by stealing and egg, and of course Marcille would be so stubborn as to not eat a humanoid egg even if it might save Falin. All of that culminating in Laios barking like a dog to face down a monster, only for Marcille to blow it up since she was completely dun with the situation, made for a fun episode. I’m not sure about this Ninja girl or why she’s following them, was she ordered to kill Marcille or something? I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to finding out. Dungeon Meshi hasn’t lead me astray yet, somehow staying fresh and fun for two whole cores, I’m not going to start doubting it now. Oh and one more thing, Laios barking was hilarious and exactly the kind of comedy I’ve come to expect from this utterly ridiculous show.

Continue reading “Spring 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 4” →

Nana – 1/2 [Prologue: Nana K. and Nana O./Love Friendship Nana K. and Shoji] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Nana, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the new season of Throwback Thursday! For the next few months we have Nana, the 2006 romance from Studio Madhouse! This is our first week so we have a lot to talk about, a lot of characters to meet, so lets dive right into it.

Starting off, lets talk visuals. To say Nana looks dated would be an understatement. I don’t know what it is with y’all but you keep picking series produced during that awkward age of animation between Cel and Digital, and they all suffer from that same visual fuzz that comes from upscaling for Blu-Ray. That’s not Nana’s fault, I actually think it looks pretty good so far. Different, the character designs are nice but very thin, and while I enjoy the wide range of emotions the characters have sometimes their faces almost look like Ascii emotes. Overall though, I like how they generally emote with their entire body, not just an awkward sweat drop or cartoonishly exaggerated face. I would say the most striking thing about Nana so far though are the outfits. They change every scene, always matching the characters personality, and it’s pretty cool.

Continue reading “Nana – 1/2 [Prologue: Nana K. and Nana O./Love Friendship Nana K. and Shoji] – Throwback Thursday” →

Ranger Reject – 4 [The Soldier With Love, Hibiki!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to another week of Ranger Reject. A lot happens this week, not all of it necessarily good, so lets skip the pleasantries and dive right into the episode!

Starting off, this was a really fast paced episode, and not necessarily in a good way. Ranger Reject covered a lot of ground, 5 entire chapters from what some friends have told me, and there were a lot of concepts in this episode that don’t feel like they got the attention they need or deserve. Take the Rangers and their power structure for instance. We get a small scene early on revealing their 2nd-in-Commands, as well as an introduction to the idea that the Rangers can be replaced and how little they care for each others lives. This was our chance to really dive into the internal politics of the Rangers, to show us they weren’t a unified force, using Suzukiri as our point-of-view character. Instead it’s a rather quick scene only showing us how ruthless they are, something we really already knew.

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Spring 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 3

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Weekly Summary

Lots of drops this week as we enter Week 3 for the Spring Season! Mostly just me cleaning house with a few of the lesser series of the season, nothing to extreme.

Dungeon Meshi – 17 [Harpy/Chimera]

Dungeon Meshi took a break for a few weeks there, letting other shows strut their stuff, but this week it returns with a vengeance for that first place spot. Seriously, what a great episode. From Shuro confronting Laios over the consequences of his actions, berating and criticizing him for the use of Black Magic and how blasé he is about everything, to Falin showing up and wrecking house. And holy crap, did she show up. Dungeon Meshi has always been very emotive, from facial expressions to how the characters move, it’s always been good at conveying emotion. But this week was… It was on another level. I can’t get over how incredible Falin’s new design is, from the feather coat and draconic torso to her new eyes and how her expressions can turn on a dime. One minute she’s almost cute, smiling and blushing as she crushes Maizuru’s skull beneath her foot, the next crying out for her brother as her true self takes control for but a moment. And the way the music tied it all together, just fantastic stuff. Not to mention the actual narrative of the episode, how Dungeon Meshi called Laios out for his hypocrisy regarding monsters after he had already gotten on Senshi for the same shit, or Shuro sticking to his word and reporting them to the authorities but still giving them an opportunity to escape should they succeed. All around one of the best episodes I’ve seen in a long time. If I had any complaint it would be that no one actually died, there was no cost to the conflict, which feels like a missed opportunity. I get it, resurrection is normal here, I don’t begrudge Dungeon Meshi bringing back all the important ones. But I would have liked if one or two had stayed dead, just to hammer home the situation and what Laios/Marcille have done here. Even with that though, a stellar episode, I swear I’ve watched it like 3 times. I’m hyped for where Dungeon Meshi is going.

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Black Lagoon Seasons 1&2 Review – 71/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Black Lagoon, Finished Series: Action, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

Dating back over 50 years, the legacy of Studio Madhouse is long and storied. From cultural touchstones like Death Note and Tatami Galaxy to old greats like Aim for the Ace and Treasure Island, they’re even responsible for modern epics such as last seasons Frieren. They’ve done a bit of everything, from sports and adventure to sci-fi and murder mysteries. Naturally, that also includes crime dramas, one of which we are here to talk about today. Originally created by Rei Hiroe, directed by Sunao Katabuchi and with music by Takayoshi Watanabe, Black Lagoon originally aired in 2006 where it was overshadowed (At least in my opinion) by a few of Madhouse’s other greats, like Nana and Hellsing Ultimate. One has to wonder, how does this mid-2000’s crime thriller stack up to the modern day? Well wonder no longer, because that’s what I’m here to answer. Now lets dive in!

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for *Black Lagoon Seasons 1&2. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Black Lagoon Seasons 1&2 Review – 71/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Ranger Reject – 3 [Our Evil Will Bloom, Someday]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to another week of Ranger Reject! I know, Black Lagoon isn’t out yet, I promise it should be out tomorrow. I have it done and written I’m just collecting screenshots and re-reading it now. My delays aside though, lets dive into our weekly Super Sentai show!

The episode picks up right where we left off, with Fighter D plotting to steal the Divine Artifacts. What’s surprising though is that Ranger Reject actually goes and does it right away. Seriously, I expected some kind of infiltration and intelligence gathering arc or something first. A delay of some kind where he gets to know Suzukiri better, learns about his enemies and formulates some kind of plan. But no, Ranger Reject says fuck it and has him march in the front door the next day. After all, because of the Sunday Showdown they already know when the Rangers won’t be home. So why not? Honestly, it’s kind of refreshing. Pacing was a bit fast, maybe could have been handled a bit better in spots, but it was memorable, kept the shows energy up, and was better than dragging it out for 3+ episodes. Good job!

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Spring 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 2

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Weekly Summary

Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night – 2 [Mei the Fangirl]

Jellyfish was fantastic this week. I’ll admit, early on I was a tad put off. Mei was such a fangirl, so obsessive and weird, that I really didn’t like her. And I feared that Jellyfish would somehow end up supporting her antics, justifying them or having Kano give in to her demands to get her working with them. Luckily, Jellyfish did nothing of the sort. It still made Mei sympathetic, but instead of excusing her obsession it instead sought to explain how she got there in the first place. How she was desperate for a friend, for acceptance, for some kind of human connection, and she found that in Kano, known as Nonoka at the time, by going to one of her fan events. It was the first time someone was genuine to her, accepted her hair color and mannerisms, even seemed to like her. Watchin Mei’s room slowly fill up with Nonoka merch, over taking the trophies and book, it was really sad but really effective. Jellfyfish didn’t excuse her behavior, only made us understand it. And by the end? She had walked it back a bit, coming to view Kano as her own person and not as her obsession. Meanwhile Kano came to realize that she can’t just deny her past, that while she may not want to continue it anymore, her work as Nonoko is still part of who she is and touched a number of people. I really liked that, it worked for me, and by the end I found myself enjoying the episode a lot.

Continue reading “Spring 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 2” →

Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – Jack Jeanne (87/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

Not many people know this, but visual novels, in spite of their seemingly limited gameplay and interface, are actually a more versatile medium than they’re usually given credit for. This is pretty common knowledge in Japan, where the medium of visual novels has been around since the eighties, but North America only ever had them through hard to find fan translations, with no official releases until the 2010s. But even with the genre’s renaissance in the US and people learning what they can be capable of, certain types of gamers are quick to dismiss visual novels as nothing more than either moe waifu porn games or digital picture books. Games such as Ace Attorney, Steins;Gate, Digimon Survive, AI: The Somnium Files, and everything in Visual Arts/Key’s library (Clannad, Air, Kanon, Little Busters, and so on) disprove this, but would you believe me if I told you that there’s such thing as a visual novel that also has rhythm game elements and was the brainchild of one Sui Ishida, the man who created Tokyo Ghoul and Choujin X? Ladies, gentleman, and everyone in-between, I introduce to you Jack Jeanne, one of many visual novels brought to the US by Aksys Games. I remember first seeing ads for the game in the Nintendo eShop while browsing through it, and the premise did intrigue me, but I initially had a bit of a hard time getting a hard copy. It took my dad showing me a random game store while on our trip to New York for me to find a copy, and I gotta say, I have him to thank for this, because Jack Jeanne is not only one of the best otome games in existence, it’s one of the best, most immersive visual novels period, barring a few flaws preventing it from achieving true greatness.

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Ranger Reject – 2 [Go! Fighter D!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to the first post of the Spring season and the first full-coverage show of 2024! That’s right, I enjoyed Ranger Reject so much that I wanted to promote it to full coverage. Will I be able to keep up with it? When I’m already behind on so much else? Probably not, but by god am I going to try. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

First up, lets take a closer look at Ranger Reject’s production. Visually, I still think it’s rather strong. Maybe it doesn’t move the best of the season, and the CGI we get isn’t as well utilized as say… Girls Band Cry. But I think Ranger Reject has a good understanding of color, pacing and posing. Stuff like Red Ranger’s “fight”, the showmanship of it, felt right out of a Super Sentai show, which makes sense considering its roots. My point though is that Ranger Reject is doing a good job of bringing that to animation, of not forgetting where it came from even as it seeks to deconstruct it a bit. Other than that, the OST is pretty hit or miss, often not fitting the scene it plays over. Which makes the OP being pretty great, definitely one of the best of the season, rather surprising.

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