Runway de Waratte – 10 [Must Not Lose]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Apologies for the wait on this one everyone, between Evangelion reviews and this virus, it’s been busy! As far as Runway de Waratte goes, this week was actually… surprisingly competent. Not perfect, the first half was a bit of a wash. But for once something Ikuto was involved in *didn’t suck*. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Like I said, the second half of Runway this week wasn’t half bad. Ikuto’s fashion show worked. The outfits, while clearly not my style, were interesting and his theme consistent. I could do without the various poorly thought out metaphors, or the constant “Mr.Perfect” praise. But compared to what I was expecting to come out of his fashion show, it all actually fit together. The way Runway spelled out the expected order of the countries and how clear his theme was worked. And the the finale on the minimalist outfit was an unexpected surprise. Had Runway built all of this up, the characters, the families, everything, it could have been phenomenal. As is it’s just this sorta bright spot in an otherwise lackluster series. Still, next week is Chiyuki so we may have something to look forward to there.

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Dorohedoro – 10 [Manju Terror]

by SuperWooper, posted in Dorohedoro, Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

Dorohedoro’s rampage continued this week, with sorcerous abductions, fungal transformations, and severed body parts aplenty. I managed to watch this episode twice before writing the post you’re reading now, so both its violence and its central mystery have had extra time to sink in. That mystery, of course, is the identity of the man inside Caiman, who was recognized as “Risu” by a fellow Cross-eye this week (just before his untimely death). After episode 9, I was convinced that the Caiman/Risu connection was less direct than that, but now we have evidence supporting the shared identity theory. There are other possibilities, of course – mistaken identity on the Cross-eye’s part, a fragment of Risu’s consciousness inhabiting someone else’s body – but I won’t dwell too intently on them. This show moves quickly enough that there’s always something new to consider (and in my case, to write about), so let’s get to it.

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Spring 2020 Season Preview

by SuperWooper, posted in Seasonal Previews

Wooper: It’s crunch time in Japan right now. Schools are closed as a measure against COVID-19, people are discontent with the lack of testing facilities for the virus, and the fate of the Tokyo Olympics remains uncertain. In times like these, people turn to entertainment to forget their troubles, and the spring anime season has over 40 potential distractions to choose from. Among them are a slew of popular sequels (including Kaguya-sama S2, which needs no elaboration), a Netflix-exclusive Trigger series with a 99% chance of getting fansubbed, the highest-profile manhwa adaptation ever, and a couple of promising detective shows. Even if we limited the preview to just those series, though, that wouldn’t cover all the good stuff in store for us beginning this April. You’re sure to find something interesting on the list, so read on and we’ll break down the upcoming season for you.

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What will you be watching from the Spring 2020 season?
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MIDDLING EXPECTATIONS

Kitsutsuki Tantei Dokoro

Studio: LIDENFILMS
Director: Shinpei Ezaki
Series composition: Taku Kishimoto
Source: Novel

Wooper: I have good news and bad news regarding this literary detective series. The good news is that it’s based on a novel, so it’s unlikely to get bogged down in delivering an otaku-friendly product. The bad news is that it’s being adapted by Taku Kishimoto, whose previous stab at detective fiction was Kabukichou Sherlock (a show I dropped midway through its interminable two cour run). Even before that, his mystery-centric scripts for Erased and Joker Game hobbled their respective stories. In spite of his involvement, however, I’m excited to try at least one episode of Kitsutsuki. The idea of an early 20th century poet opening a detective agency opens all kinds of doors for his character, and the PV’s aesthetic looks a lot like Concrete Revolutio. Making use of that comic book style to adapt a work of historical fiction is an intriguing decision, so I want to see whether it pans out, even with a saboteur like Kishimoto as head writer.

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End of Evangelion Anime Review – 86/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

During my previous review of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I criticised it for a lot of things. The tanked production value as the series ran on and Studio Gainax ran out of funding/time. Anno’s often insane direction or story, which sometimes made sense and sometimes didn’t. Most of all though, I criticised it for it’s ending, which effectively left Evangelion as a slightly disappointing unfinished product. But what would happen if Gainax… didn’t run out of time? If Anno had another chance after the original divisive ending? What if they just made two, completely new 40 minute episodes to replace it? Well ladies and gentleman, that’s how you get End of Evangelion. Is this finale to the fabled series a roar, to replace its previous whimper? Does it make any more sense than the TV finale? Will Shinji get in the damn robot? Let’s dive in and find out.

And one last thing! There will be spoilers so we can talk about the work in its entirety, both the TV series and End of Evangelion, no vagueness here. You have been warned.

(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 “End of Evangelion Anime Review – 86/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Chihayafuru S3 – 20-22

by SuperWooper, posted in Chihayafuru, Finished Series: Sports

It’s time for a Chihayafuru Super Post, to borrow a term from fellow blogger Amunchet. These episodes have been on the back burner for a couple weeks now, owing to my increasingly busy work schedule. The one that prompted me to push them onto my to do list, though, was number 20 (“May the Scarlet Kadsuras”). There was some sloppiness to its shot transitions that made it feel almost unfinished, which was discouraging as a longtime fan of the series. I’ll explain what I mean by that in a bit, as beyond the “Continue Reading” link I’ll be dedicating a few hundred words to each of these three episodes. The last two installments of the season ought to get their own posts, so I hope you’ll forgive this one-off cram session. Hit the jump for some conflicted thoughts on the final leg of Chihayafuru’s third season.

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Winter 2020 Summary: Week 10

by SuperMario, posted in Weekly Summary

22/7 – 09

Mario: 22/7’s attitude towards the idol industry is amusing. Cynical, but also accepting the fact that “being an idol is all about being exploited”, this attitude, plus the fact that they are willing to be manipulated by the orders of the Wall (yeah, the Wall is a massive jerk this week), make the cliffhanger very intriguing. How these girls deal with the new order will tell you exactly the ambition of this show. As for the main story this week, well, Ayaka is the main focus this week and as per 22/7’s standard, the flashback is way more interesting than the current event. In fact, except from taking open air onsen and eating hot pot, our girls do nothing. Ayaka’s flashback though, about her chemistry to her sisters is much more well-developed. Depending on how you look at the show, 22/7 is either smarter than it lets on, or blindfolded by how it does acknowledge the exploitation aspect of the idol industry, yet does nothing but accepting it.

ID:Invaded – 11

Wooper: I’ve got to hand it to whoever is handling series composition for this show: they’re bending over backwards to tie all of its illogical developments together. Every time Sakaido said “which must be why” during his fits of mid-sandstorm rationalization, I lost five IQ points. After every reference to Fukuda or Hondomachi’s brain holes giving them convenient mental functions, I took a shot. Every time John Walker was painted as a mastermind despite the impossibility of his influence, I fell deeper into an anime-imposed stupor. After half the episode, I was dumb, drunk, and drowsy – the perfect state of being to watch ID:Invaded. But hey, we learned John Walker’s true identity and saw Kiki wearing a bio-suit in a state of suspended animation! At least the show is playing its strongest cards at the appropriate time.

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Dorohedoro – 09 [Ah, Flower Smoke]

by SuperWooper, posted in Dorohedoro, Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

This episode was mildly confusing to me. Some of you might be surprised to read that, but it’s my belief that Dorohedoro should be presenting itself in a measured, straightforward manner. These weekly assaults of new plot points and ideas are great, but their greatness is sometimes in spite of that rapid clip. Take this episode, for example. Yaku and Baku have cool powers, and it’s appropriate that Shin and Noi get truly threatening antagonists. But what about our cleaner duo makes Yaku and Baku want them as partners, specifically? Even if the show provided that bit of info (and I don’t believe it did), it wasn’t sufficiently clear. And how about Noi’s stunted growth during her devil training? The last phase was only supposed to last one year, but Shin appeared to age much more than a year during that time. Even Risu’s recovery after getting blasted with smoke, while it makes perfect sense, doesn’t gel in the moment because the show’s focus shifts to Noi. I know Dorohedoro is on a journey to a particular stopping point in the manga, but damn, can’t it hold my hand for two minutes before moving to the next checkpoint?

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 10 [Against Our Independent World!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Welcome all to another week of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Like the Runway de Waratte post, this one is going to be shorter, for very similar reasons. But where “more of the same” for Runway is a disappointment, for Eizouken its just a good time. So lets dive in!

As always, the animation and production of Eizouken is good, but this week I want to focus on something else. I want to focus on the meta aspect of it all, and how Eizouken cleverly uses its premise here. This latest episode actually gives me a perfect example of what I am talking about, ala how it visualize things. We see it when Doukemi, the sound club girl, is modifying the sound waves in time with the actual bell. Or when she is moving the sound waves around, layering and piecing them together. It’s a little choppy of course, it isn’t perfect. But I love the concept behind it and how Eizouken uses its premise and medium to depict it all. This isn’t the first time either, we have seen it throughout the series. This week just gave me a good chance to talk about it.

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Runway de Waratte – 9 [Rivals]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Hello everyone and welcome to another week of Runway de Waratte! Apologies, but this one is going to be a short one. I just don’t have much to say about what was a pretty meh episode. So without further ado, let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, I have to say, this was a very non-episode episode. What I mean by that is that Runway didn’t really do anything new or different this week. There was no meaningful reveal or change from what is already a pretty standard shounen formula. And that isn’t to say a standard formula is necessarily bad. Kimetsu no Yaiba was one of the most standard Shounen’s of last year, but I loved it because it was competent. Runway’s problem is that it goes for a similar formula, yet it has none of the competence that Yaiba did. The stakes are either low or non-existent and there is never any real concern that Ikuto will lose. Meanwhile as a character Ikuto is very bog-standard in his actions. So when I say that Runway gave us more of the same, I mean that you could have predicted it last week.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion Anime Review – 77/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

It’s not often that I get to review seminal works in a medium. I read and watch them often. Vagabond, Monster and Berserk are some of my favorite manga. Meanwhile Fullmetal Alchemist is perhaps the epitome of Shounen. But not once have I thought I could, and should, transcribe my thoughts about them into a single review. To boil down my feelings on them to a scant 4,000 or so words and a final, numerical score. Yet here I am having to do the same for a work arguably more important than any of the ones I mentioned previously. A work so universally known in the community that its like Japan’s Star Wars. I am of course talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion (Director’s Cut), directed by Hideaki Anno and made by the now fallen from grace Studio Gainax. With that, there is no point to dawdling anymore. Let’s dive in.

And one last thing! An End of Evangelion review will soon follow this. I am aware it completes the story, but this review is for the TV anime and that alone. I have not watched it yet. The movie will cover everything and how it completes the series as a whole. Also there will be spoilers so we can talk about the work in its entirety, minimal vagueness here. You have been warned.

(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 “Neon Genesis Evangelion Anime Review – 77/100 – Throwback Thursday” →