Arte – 12 [Apprentice]

by Armitage, posted in Arte, Currently Watching:

It’s finally here. After twelve whole weeks, we have reached the end of the journey for Arte, the apprentice who found her true worth. While this week was all about bittersweet goodbyes and characteristically unsentimental reunions, there were a few moments along the way which did offer some welcome surprises and earned payoffs.

Arte finishes all the portraits she was tasked to paint for the Falier family and gets a tsundere-ish compliment of approval from Lord Falier which meant that it was now time for her to head home. If she so desires, of course. Last week, Yuri offered her a full-time job with all expenses paid and he lets her know that that offer is still up for grabs. Katarina however expects that Arte would choose to return back to Florence and is forlorn and heartbroken at the prospect.
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Princess Tutu Anime Review – 91/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Romance, Princess Tutu, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

I am not a Mahou Shoujo fan. The first one I ever watched, like many, was the Sailor Moon dub while growing up. It was fine enough, but as I grew, I eventually came to just ignore and tune the genre out. It wasn’t for me, it was silly girl stuff. In recent years, having met new friends in the community and traded recommendations, I was reintroduced to it. Whether it be watching Hugtto Precure or Symphogear for the r/anime awards or Penguindrum via contract, it’s the most Mahou Shoujo I have seen in years. And I hated almost all of them. They were either so sweet they gave me diabetes or had their head stuck incredibly far up where the sun don’t shine. The last one I remember actually enjoying was Madoka Magica, which is hardly an accurate representation of the genre. And then came Princess Tutu.

On paper, going by its title and promotional art, I should hate Princess Tutu. Directed by Junichi Satou, the man behind 2018’s Hugtto Precure, and made by Studio Hal Film Maker, it looks like everything I should hate about the genre. And yet as I watched Princess Tutu, it became very clear to me that this was nothing of the sort. Everything from its direction like a ballet to its tragedy-soaked story and characters felt so much richer than any Mahou Shoujo I had seen before. So much so that I don’t mind spoiling where this review will go by saying right here at the top that Princess Tutu is the best Mahou Shoujo I have ever seen. So as someone who self-describes as “Shounen Trash” and is routinely dismissed as such, please listen when I say: stop reading and give Princess Tutu a shot. You may be surprised.

Without further ado, let’s talk details, and strap in because this is going to get wordy. Also fair warning this review will contain spoilers for Princess Tutu. So if you haven’t watched it… fix that.

(Disclaimer: I am working to make 50 the new “average”. 70 is not an average score people. 70 is above average. Carry on.) Continue reading “Princess Tutu Anime Review – 91/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Tower of God – 12 [Underwater Hunt (Part Two)]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Welcome all to the penultimate episode of Tower of God! A lot of questionable decisions were made adaptation wise this week, some good, others not. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Once again we have to start with production, but not with animation this time. Rather, I want to talk about the direction and pacing of this episode, because god was it a mess. The constant cuts every minute to a different scene were jarring to say the least. I understand what they were trying to do. Tower of God wanted to portray all of theses events happening in tandem, and thats all well and good. However what works for a Webtoon across weeks/chapters won’t work for a single anime episode across 25 minutes. So while all of the cuts were in largely the same place, the pacing of the anime made it much harder to follow along. The moment I get settled into one scene, remember where we are and all that, we cut to another. I can only hope they tone it down for the finale next week.

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Princess Tutu – 25/26 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to the finale of our Princess Tutu watch! It’s been a long and surprising road for me. I thought this was going to be another bargain bin Mahou Shoujo. And here we are, an ending where the guy doesn’t get the girl, the heroine loses and the villain walks off without a care in the world. And I loved it. So let’s dive in! And remember, a poll for the next show to watch is at the bottom!

First up, lets talk animation and production, because this isn’t normally an area Princess Tutu excels in. It’s not bad by any means, Ahiru can be quite expressive when she wants to. But most of the time we are treated to stills and a more “postcard memories” treatment. While that’s a perfectly valid, and often times better, method I still want to give praise where it’s due. Because this week Princess Tutu had quite a bit of good animation. Most of it involved Mytho, from his flight on the petals to his combat with the Rave. But a fair a bit, and what I generally preferred, involved Ahiru. Her dances, how she flew about in the wind or got knocked around among crows. It was all unexpectedly polished and made for a great finale. I wish we had gotten more sooner, but in this case, the wait was worth it.

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[Manga Musings on Mondays] Chi no Wadachi – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

Created by: Shuuzou Oshimi

Chapters: 75 (Ongoing)

 

Greetings and welcome to another Monday week and as usual, it brings with it another manga review! This time, I look at a manga which has been getting a lot of buzz around lately (yes yes, it was the Super Eyepatch Wolf video which made me interested in this in the first place) and for good reason. Chi no Wadachi or Trail of Blood is the latest work by the mangaka of Flowers of Evil so you can expect a lot of messed up psychological elements and the thrilling setup aims to provide just that, but does the overall execution deliver on the promise? Let’s find out!

 

THE PREMISE:

An overly caring mother goes to great lengths to protect his son’s happiness and to make sure that he never comes in harm’s way.


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Summer 2020 Season Preview

by SuperWooper, posted in Seasonal Previews

Lenlo: Time passes, leaves grow, allergy season fades and first world nations descend into civil war. Yet still my barber is closed due to COVID-19. Hard times, huh? He isn’t the only thing closed though, as studios continue to postpone series, with only 19 new anime airing this season, 6 of which are sequels. But oh, what big sequels they are. We have two of the biggest Isekai currently on the market, the return of literal fire fighters, and everyone’s favorite high school based romantic drama. Needless to say, just because there aren’t many series airing doesn’t mean we will be lacking for good choices. So strap in, as we here at Star Crossed Anime break down the 2020 Summer Season.

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What will you be watching this summer season?
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ALREADY AIRED

Great Pretender

Studio: Wit
Director: Hiro Kaburagi
Series composition: Ryouta Kosawa
Source: Original

Wooper: What if I told you that fansubbing isn’t dead? This Netflix Japan series made its way online at the start of June, and a whopping 10 episodes have been translated at the time of this writing. I’ve seen only two of them, but they were good enough to make me optimistic about the show’s expected run of 23 episodes. Actually, “good enough” is doing this thing a disservice, so let me rephrase; Great Pretender’s first pair of episodes was an unqualified success. From the hard bop jazz score to the multiple layers of its con artist-centered story, this is a series that never takes its foot off the “style” pedal. Director Hiro Kaburagi has attracted a bunch of the industry’s top talent to the project, including Yuusuke Takeda (of Eccentric Family fame) as art director and Gainax legend Yoshiyuki Sadamoto on character designs. This thing looks and sounds like an absolute dream, and the characters are all career criminals whose banter and one-upmanship give them undeniable personality. Honestly, Great Pretender is the whole package. It’s ten whole packages. And if you’re still on the fence about watching it for some reason, look for its OP and ED on YouTube (the latter of which is performed by Freddie fuckin’ Mercury), and prepare to groove harder than you’ve ever grooved before.

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Arte – 11 [The Faliers’ Portrait Painter]

by Armitage, posted in Arte, Currently Watching:

Hello and welcome to the penultimate episode of Arte, the artist who made best-girl Katarina cry. This week, a child pines for the attention of her newfound friend while the friend pines to see her employer back in Florence as the employer pines to have his apprentice with him again, which all makes for a whole lot of pining as Arte doubles down on its themes and presents a conflict which was yet unexplored to set up an exciting finale for the coming week.

After the emotionally cathartic episode we had last week, things were always going to shift one way or the other. So, while it did come as a surprise that the part of this story chronicling Arte’s (possibly) last days at Venice got shrouded by a somber melancholy, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. It’s kind of how in our lives when things are headed towards completion that we get overcome by memories and feelings which wouldn’t cross our minds on other ordinary days.

Endings just do that to us sometimes.
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Kaguya-sama S2 – 09-10

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai

Two weeks ago, I wrote that Kaguya-sama’s second season was stuck in an alternating pattern of great and mediocre episodes. Among the mediocre ones, there was a tendency to create five-minute plots to push the cast into strange modes of behavior (Shirogane’s glare disappearing), or repeatedly underline a character’s most obvious trait (Iino’s conservatism). Those trends were largely absent from episodes 9-10, however, having been replaced by a dedication to backstory and self-commentary that made this the series’ best one-two punch since the first season. Honestly, I enjoyed every one of the show’s seven most recent chapters, and “enjoy” is not a word I use lightly when discussing TV anime (most of which I watch out of obligation). So instead of ranking them in order of subjective excellence, I’m going to run them down in airing order, because I’ve got something complimentary to say about each one!

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Yesterday wo Utatte – 09-10

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Romance, Yesterday wo Utatte

I’m not the sort of person who chooses #teams while watching love triangle plots, but after this pair of episodes, if you put a gun to my head, I’d pick Haru. She’s received much less screen time than Shinako, but that only makes scenes like her hug with Rikuo on the apartment landing more rewarding. Their contrasting heights and levels of enthusiasm made for a great shot, and their follow-up conversation was one of the best the show has orchestrated in weeks. Even if we still don’t really understand why Haru likes this dude so much, she’s straightforward about her feelings! She keeps stopping by his apartment because, in her words, it’s “more fun than waiting” for him to contact her or reciprocate her crush. She’s clingy, but she’s also way more honest than either Rikuo or Shinako, who keep dancing around each other like teenagers (ironically, Haru is the only teenager among the three of them).

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Tower of God – 11 [Underwater Hunt (Part One)]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Last week I was rather harsh on Tower of God. Justifiably so I believe, but the fact is I heavily critiqued it for its adaptation. As a source reader, I still believe that it screwed up a fair number of important scenes. This week however I can happily say that Tower of God has brought it back. Both in terms of pacing, adaptation and in showing scenes that I previously believed had been cut. Yes, I could still nitpick plenty of small things. Endorsi not getting her new outfit, cutting small dialogue or changing the fights a bit. Except those are actually improvements this time. You see in the original Webtoon, this arc took up 18 long chapters, and often felt rather bloated. Some of this was simply poor pacing between scenes or long bits of dialogue. But large chunk of it is combat, which animation can naturally adapt faster.

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