Great Pretender – 09-10 [Singapore Sky]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Great Pretender

We’ve reached the conclusion to Singapore Sky, my least favorite of Great Pretender’s three cases thus far. I love origin stories, so Los Angeles Connection’s task of integrating Makoto into Laurent’s gang of crooks was right up my alley, and the upcoming Snow of London is a breezy revenge tale with some nice Cynthia focus. ‘Singapore,’ by contrast, is the darkest of the three arcs, with war-torn backstories and active death drives, yet it also uses more narrative cogs than its cousins. Watching these last two episodes, I felt that Luis’s involvement pushed the story beyond its carrying capacity – but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of great moments in episodes 9 and 10. Let’s run them down (along with the not-so-great stuff) after the jump.

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Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World 2 – 04 [Parent and Child]

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

Let me introduce you to the best episode of the second season so far, if not one the best episodes in the series.(Episode 15 remains my top pick with 18 second but this is certainly up there) Re:Zero can sometimes be considered a deconstruction or subversion of the Isekai genre, I myself may have referred to it as such maybe if I look through my old posts, but the fact of the matter is that if it was so then it was subverting tropes that had not even been established yet. Re:Zero is actually one of the granddaddys of the Isekai Genre alongside what can be considered the real kickstarter, Mushoku Tensei(People often wrongly attribute Sword Art Online with the monicar and while the webnovel of that certainly came before Mushoku Tensei, the factors and tropes commonly associated with the genre as well as the popularisation of the concept that lead to many MANY imitators most definitely belongs to Mushoku Tensei. Which is getting an anime by the way.) That was a tangent but essentially in a way Re:Zero acts as a criticism of what the genre would become just by the fact that the tropes that defined it hadn’t been set so the author simply addressed what by accounts most Isekai should address. Namely that a person who is Isekaied to another world did in fact have a life that could affect others before being transported away.
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Fugou Keiji – 3 [The Sinews of War Are Infinite Money]

by Lenlo, posted in Fugou Keiji: Balance: UNLIMITED

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, Fugou Keiji has returned! It’s been a few months since we got our last dose of “billionaire solving problems with money”, I’m glad its back. So without further ado lets dive in and talk Japanese Batman!

First up though, a recap of what exactly Fugou Keiji is all about for those that have forgotten. The story centers around Daisuke Kanbe, a multi-billionaire with more money than god. In his quest to play detective he solves any and every problem with money. Need a car to chase a crook? Buy some random civilians car for 3x its worth and go. Need to bust into the penthouse of a building for some espionage? Just buy the building and shoot a rocket launcher at it since its now your property. Doing his best to rein Daisuke in is Haru Katou, a compassionate and former First Investigation Division detective, now relegated to grunt work. Together, with their mix of street smarts and raw monetary power, they will solve a myriad of crimes. And yes, Daisuke has his own AI Alfred. Caught up? Good, its time to talk new episode.

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Gunslinger Girl – 6 [Gelato (Ice Cream)] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Gunslinger Girl, Throwback Thursday

This week on Gunslinger Girl we finally dive into some plot, kill some terrorists and Henrietta gets some ice cream. What more could you ask for in a week? So without further ado lets dive in, and apologies for the delay, busy day.

Starting off I want to bring up Gunslinger Girls production again, as that was a big selling point initially. The animation in the first episode was fantastic, from the falling bullets to Henrietta’s movements. Sadly that hasn’t really carried through the rest of the episodes. It’s not terrible, but most of the time Gunslinger Girl lacks the same… oomph it had early on. However as if to offset that, this episode really upped the cinematography. The opening segment with the trains in particular caught my attention. Without a word, Gunslinger Girl managed to setup the bomb and the two trains fantastically. Heightening the tension, letting one pass but the bomb tick on before throwing another train coming from the opposite direction. Will this one pass? What about another? When will the bomb blow? It was a fantastic introduction to the episode and its plot.

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Deca-Dence – 04 [Transmission]

by Armitage, posted in Currently Watching:, Deca-Dence

After being disappointed with the colossal crap-pile that was episode 4 of GoHS, I really really needed Deca-Dence to come up with the goods to keep alive any remaining hopes of the summer season not becoming a collective letdown.

And… did it?

Of course! Of course it did.

In what was the series’ most narratively straightforward episode (though I am almost certain that that’s not going to become the norm) Deca-Dence offered some sweet Gadoll-slaying action, creepy monster designs, badass fighter girls and a ridiculous amount of sakuga. Continue reading “Deca-Dence – 04 [Transmission]” →

Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine – 1 [Master Thief vs. Lady Looter]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Lupin III - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

Welcome all to a very irregular segment for The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. Because of how small this season was, I wanted to fill in our coverage a bit, and thought it was a good opportunity to watch something that’s been on my list for awhile now. And heads up, this series is going to be irregular just as I watch it, so I hope you stick with me, as we watch some Lupin!

Right out the gate, my goodness was that an unexpected amount of titty. I always thought Lupin III was a more… childish show to be frank. An old classic detective show, something more in the Disney style. I assumed things like Goemon’s Spray of Blood being the black sheep of the series. Turns out that was just par for the course, as Fujiko Mine opens with incredible style. Lots of heavy shading and crosshatching, disguising CGI with said shading while at the same time keeping Lupin’s classic character design. The long story short is that Fujiko Mine looks good, like really good. I think Fujiko’s tits are a bit to large myself and show seems to really revel in that sexuality. However overall it visually looked fantastic. I can only hope it keeps this up moving forward because its a nice breath of fresh air in this current season.

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Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World 2 – 03 [The Long-Awaited Reunion]

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

Thus enters one of my top contenders for favorite Re:Zero character, Echidna, the witch of Greed and while she does not fill that Rem shaped hole in my heart, she certainly does make for a scene stealing character. Hopefully not to the extent that she takes Rem’s place in overshadowing the actual main heroine of the series but if we are to get more of her my only response can be “Yes, Please”. When one considers the witches of Re:Zero we can only base it on the only witch we know of, the Witch of Envy Satella, which does paint them in a nefarious light. To this point we have seen them as a calamitous enemy of the people and Echidna certainly does seem to wish to present the character of a wise fearful character. Indeed if that was all she was then that would be a typical if not boring development but instead we have a character who is far more playful and relatable. The best moment of the episode to me was her ready to play the exposition device for Subaru and a normal protagonist would have sat down and let her worldbuild to her heart’s content. Not Subaru, he just brushes her off by asking to go home and causes her to drop any semblance of the persona she put up to complain about how he is declining a meeting that others would kill to have. Showing that it isn’t so much that Subaru needs to talk to her but rather she wants to talk to him.
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The God of High School – 03 [wisdom/kingdom]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Action, The God of High School

After three episodes, The God of High School still has no intention of explaining why its martial arts tournament is of such earth-shattering consequence. Top Korean politicians are involved in its operation, the Pentagon is monitoring its progress, and now a religious cult is planning to hijack the tourney for its own gain. In all three of these opening scenes, the links between those organizations and the tournament itself have been purposefully vague, which has surely frustrated a portion of the series’ audience. Personally, though, I’m not sweating the details at this stage. The fights are still fun, the tone is still dumb, and the story is moving at a faster-than-average clip. That narrative speed may be pushing us toward the threshold of Big Reveals, or it might blow past the governments and cults without a reason for their appearance. Either way, GoH is the kind of show that doesn’t need to justify its detours – just its developments. And boy, were there a ton of the latter in this episode.

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