[Manga Musings on Mondays] The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer – Review

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

 

A new week, a new Monday, a new Manga Review! Hello, dear sir/ma’am, it’s extremely gracious of you to take time out from your busy schedule to come check out this post. I am eternally grateful. Now, with the formalities all out of the way, let’s jump into this week’s review!

Today, we will be talking about Satoshi Mizukami’s seminal work, Hoshi no Samidare or The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer and how it parodies genre stereotypes while still being a highly thrilling and heartfelt story at its core. Let’s break it down.

 

THE PREMISE:

A talking lizard seeks a boy’s help to protect the princess, Lucifer, and save the world from the evil witch who intends to destroy earth by crushing it to bits using a hammer with a biscuit-shaped head.

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Arte – 05 [Inescapable Bond]

by Armitage, posted in Arte, Currently Watching:

 

To all readers, new and regular alike… Hi! Nice of you to join me as we discuss about the latest episode of Arte the arty Artisan. This time around, our ever-cheerful protagonist sharpens the kind of skills every artist, no matter how good, must develop in order to ensure their survival: marketing!

This week, we learn that Leo-san keeps a fast every Friday which makes Arte crave for that juicy steak even more. But she stays strong against her gluttonous desires and diligently goes about carrying out her errands. As she is returning back to Leo-san’s place, she catches a glimpse of a man heading out after having a heated argument with her teacher. Leo-san tells her that that man, Mr. Umbertino, comes around every so often to order paintings with very precise specifications but the money he pays for these orders doesn’t leave room for them to make any profits after all expenses are accounted for. Leo-san intends to negotiate with him regarding this but Arte offers to do it instead. After giving it some thought, Leo-san agrees to her proposal.

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Princess Tutu – 11/12 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Welcome to the halfway point of Princess Tutu! It’s hard to believe, considering how this has all the makings of a finale. But considering Kraehe’s arc, Drosselmeyer’s position as the true villain and recent developments, it only makes sense. So let’s jump right into it!

Immediately, I want to talk music, because I love Princess Tutu’s. Yes, I know it primarily uses existing classical pieces that weren’t originally made for the show. But in my mind that makes it all the more impressive. Because Princess Tutu is able to take these hundreds of year old pieces, with their own histories and meanings, and make them work. Every time I recognize a piece, it fits. Every time I look one up I didn’t know, and read up on the work, it fits. An example of that this week is episode 12’s usage of “The Story of the Kalendar Prince” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Focusing on and using the inherent adventure of the piece and ascribing it to Fakir and Ahiru’s journey through the underground. I could go on, referencing pieces such as “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Tchaikovsky, but I think you get the point.

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Tower of God – 5 [The Crown’s Fate]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

This week on Tower of God we have it all folks. Waifus! Fights! And even exponential inexplicable MC power ups! What more could you ask for? A lot, actually, so lets jump right in to it.

Right off the bat, I am going to play the bad guy here and say the production was… lacking. Compared to last week, Tower of God’s animation here just felt weightless and floaty. All throughout the combat sequences people were getting thrown about with no sense of momentum. Soaring through the air, or striking with the force of a 4 year old. I’m not asking for the ground to shatter or anything like that. But some impact would be nice, you know? That isn’t to say it was all bad either. Hwaryun, the masked red-head, had some great full body character work. The shading on the body suit had it look awkward at times sure. But on the whole, she was the best animated part of the whole episode. Overall though, I would still call it a step down from previous weeks. Even if I like the visual style.

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Spring 2020 Summary: Week 4

by SuperMario, posted in Weekly Summary

Mario: It’s the new week with the same hosts, the slice-of-slice devotee Mario and the isekai junkie Amun report on shows we’re still following, with more shows postponing and next season looks cloudier than ever. This week we see the last showings of Appare-Ranman and Houkago Teibou Nisshi before they hibernate, and some shows show signs of production issues, but it’s also a week where Hamefura proves to be our season’s favorite so far. Who could have predicted this at the start of the season? Well, color me surprise!

Hamefura – 04

Amun: This is possibly my anime of the season (although Kaguya is still this year’s heavyweight so far).  In the tale of the reincarnated benevolent villainess, Hamefura continually S.L.A.Y.S (steals lovers away, yes sir) as one by one, the unsuspecting enemies/interests of our hero/villain are conquered – despite Catarina being completely oblivious.  Any real tension of her actually being killed or banished is by now well dispelled (although I’m sure it’ll come back in the second half to great comedic effect).  Every week, a new excellence – this week was the battle for Maria’s home-cooked muffins.  If there’s one show that I really look forward to every week – it’s Hamefura.

Mario: My thought on Hamefura and our Catarina:

Tamayomi – 04

Mario: It’s hard when you see a TV production falling apart before your eyes. Tamayomi somehow avoids the delayed fate of many other shows, but at this rate it’s just a matter of time before they do. The quality in this episode is amateurish, with many off-model, cutting corners and inconsistencies in animation all over the place. The actual storyboard is fine, it’s just the melted animation that failed to hold things up and thus failed to leave any impact. Hopefully it avoids this pitfall later on, since there will be more baseball matches, and without sufficient production it’s gonna hurt the show a lot.

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[Manga Musings on Mondays] My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness – Review

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

Created by: Nagata Kabi

Chapters: 6

 

Welcome, friends and foes alike, to week 3 of Manga Musings on Mondays. This week I try to give my thoughts on Nagata Kabi’s critically lauded auto-biographical tale, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness. Let’s begin!

THE PREMISE:
A girl in her late-20s tries to come to terms with her sadness and inability to form human connections by developing acceptance for herself; weird, ugly, broken pieces and all.

 

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Arte – 04 [Courtesan]

by Armitage, posted in Arte, Currently Watching:

Welcome to another week of ‘Arte learns life-lessons while painting as a side business’. This week, we are reunited with the lovely Courtesan-san from back in episode 2, with whom Arte forms an unlikely friendship. Let’s break it all down.

Last week, we saw Arte developing feelings of romantic affection towards a man for the first time in her life, which made her feel a kind of pain she had been unfamiliar to all her life. She couldn’t understand her own emotions and this week too, she seems to be having a hard time dealing with them. Whenever Leo-san is anywhere near her or their bodies so much as brush up against each other, Arte finds herself stiffening up and overcome with an inability to process anything around her. Though, she still cherishes the moments when Leo-san appreciates her efforts in any way. She learns about a new method to improve the quality of the bread from the local baker and when Leo-san compliments her in his usual droll manner, it brings her real happiness, making her feel like the efforts she put in were worth it.
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Princess Tutu – 9/10 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Hello once again to week 5 of Throwback Thursday with Princess Tutu! I hope everyone is doing well, what with all this Corona Virus business floating around. I’d like to say if the world has you down, a cheerful little magical girl show could fix that. But what Princess Tutu covers this week, focusing in on Fakir and Rue, doesn’t really fit that bill. Still, thanks for reading, and lets jump right in!

Now, I want to talk about the structure of these two episodes, because we are doing something different this week. Instead of going through each episode independently, instead I want to focus on Fakir and Rue. Deep diving into them, who they are, where they where, etc. Because my initial impressions of these episodes were… not necessarily filler, but hardly plot focused. Very little in regards to the greater plot was really advanced. Instead Princess Tutu focused in on these two, for better or worse. I say that because some segments were fantastic, Fakir and Rue getting some growth is well deserved at this point. But there were also some rather dull or outright annoying segments such as the extended marriage jokes. And even if some of these elements tied back in at the end, it made for a less enjoyable experience. So with that done, lets talk about Rue!

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Tower of God – 4 [The Green April]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Come one, come all, to one of the few shows unaffected my Miss Rona, Tower of God! It’s nice to be covering a show that’s already mostly, if not completely, done. Gives me a sense of security in these oh so trying times. So without further ado, lets jump into it shall we?

Now I always start off talking about an episodes production, but Tower of God actually earned it this week. Everything from the animation to the music was impressive, really standing out from prior episodes. Of course I can nitpick small things, like Hatz sword having almost no weight. Or Lauroe being rather… floaty during the latter half of his scene. But those would be just that, nitpicks. Shibisu was incredibly expressive this week, with both full body and facial expression that were to die for. Telecom Animation have dialed in on who the comic relief character is and committed to him, full stop. And none of that is meant to downplay Takuya Eguchi’s vocal performance either, so lovably stupid. Meanwhile Anaak’s weapon and the sheer volume of stretching limbs and such were great. I’ve criticized Tower of God for this before, but credit where it’s due, the animation worked wonders.

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Yesterday wo Utatte – 03 [What Is Love?]

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

If Rikuo and Shinako were the main characters of episodes 1 and 2, respectively, then it’s only right that Haru got her turn with episode 3. I’d say this installment was the most laser focused so far, with Crow Girl being present in nearly every scene. Only the Rikuo and Shinako ‘sick with a cold’ bits distracted from Haru’s story this week, and they still fed into her failed movie date later in the episode. Honestly, those back-to-back colds gave me the impression that distant chapters were combined in order to achieve this timeline, but maybe late 90s manga just leaned on illness for everything. Either way, the show pulled it off thanks to its measured, dialogic storytelling – in Yesterday wo Utatte, everything falls into place if you put the characters’ conversations at the front of your mind.

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