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” →

Neon Genesis Evangelion – 25/26 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Throwback Thursday

I had a lot of expectations going in to Neon Genesis Evangelion’s ending. After episode 24, I was sure that no matter what happened, it would at least be decent. We would learn about the Angels, Seele, the Scrolls. Maybe get a big fight with the Seele Eva Units mentioned before and complete some great character arcs. Sadly, only one of those things came true, at the expense of everything else. So how about we just jump in to what is going to be the most rant-style post I will ever make on this site, eh?

Right off the bat, I have to say, what the fuck did I just watch. Normally I go over each episode independently, but 25 and 26 together are just a joint “what the fuck”. It’s hard for me to even write coherent paragraphs here, because all I want to do is scream bullshit, but I will try my best. So first up, the good. This ending at least manages to tie up Shinji, Asuka and Rei’s characters. Not in a terribly satisfactory way mind you, as we basically sit through an hour of internal monologue from Shinji, but it does it. We see Shinji finally come to accept that he was pushing people away, self-attributing a lot of his worst traits. He believed that no one could accept him and in doing so turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy as he looked for one-side relationships like Kaworu. Everything else though…

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In/Spectre – 07/08 [Preparing to Conquer Steel Lady/Fiction Spinner]

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, Kyoko Suiri

When I came to write about these past two episode of In/Spectre (Kyokō Suiri for you purists), I was afraid that I had actually missed 3 weeks of it – that much happens in these two episodes.

For a yokai show, In/Spectre has an insanely small cast – there were 3 (now 4) main characters that have dominated most of the season.  Normally you have several new ghosts per arc – Natsume’s Book of Friends (what I consider the gold standard of yokai shows), has several new side characters per episode.  In lieu of that, In/Spectre is doing an amazing job of the relationship development (Kuro, you lucky immortal, you).
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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 9 [Aim for Comet A!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Every week I wonder how Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is going to top itself. And every week it finds a way, it finds some area to improve or some new facet to explore. That is no different this week as we learn a bit more about Kanamori and explore the wonderful world of “labor costs”. Riveting. Lets dive in!

Starting off, I just have to gush about the character animation throughout this episode. Specifically, I want to call attention to Asakusa at the end, both during the sound effects and her realization. These were just some beautiful long shots, like the one you can see below. Really showing off how expressive Eizouken can be. Simultaneously keeping her on model while exaggerating the movements just enough to keep it energetic. I want to credit this cut to Izumi Murakami, but so far I haven’t yet seen any sources confirming who worked on it. Meanwhile you also have the general aesthetic of scenes like the Kanamori flashback. Turning the world into this almost watercolor or marker scene. It’s the same style used whenever they are imagining something out in the world, yet now its being used as a flashback, and I love it. Chibi-Kanamori is just fantastic.

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Magia Record – 09 [A World With Just Me]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Magia Record has been hit and miss so far, but I’m happy to say that the latest episode was pretty solid. In fact, it’s my second favorite episode from the show (the premiere still reigns). Magia  Record’s tackle on loneliness and the bond between this girl Sana and the Artificial Intelligence Ai are handled with nuance and its emotionally powerful. Considering how we barely know any of them prior to this episode, I can say the show did a pretty good job that I legitimately care about them as the credit rolls.

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Winter 2020 Summary: Week 9

by SuperMario, posted in Weekly Summary

Mario: It’s me and Wooper again contributing in this column for “less popular” shows this season. Many of them are falling apart as they wrap up, but that to be expected with any season. If we’re lucky, we have golden eggs but most of the time they are forgettable fluffs. Well, enough with metaphysical nonsense and let’s scroll down to see what this week has to offer.

RikeKoi – 10

Wooper: While watching this episode, I was surprised at its level of commitment to the characters’ academic presentations. We’ve only seen two Ikeda lab members pitch their research, which means we might spend the last two episodes watching the rest of the cast do the same. Before that, however, Himuro and Yukimura will have to work out the misunderstanding that threatens to drive a wedge between them (ruining not just their relationship, but their joint presentation). Yukimura giving a cortisol-lowering hug to Kanade just before her turn was an innocent gesture, but it’s a terrible betrayal in his partner’s mind. That plot is pretty stupid when you type it out, but I did pick up a hint of interest from Kanade, mostly based on her senpai’s unflapability. Girls do love confidence in men – could Himuro have detected something between the two that they’re both unaware of?

Somali to Mori no Kamisama – 08

Mario: I’ve come to realize that Somali the show fares much better when it focuses on the side characters instead of the main leads. The reason for that, I suppose, is that Somali and Golem’s chemistry is solid but has only one shade. By focusing on their relationship it becomes repetitive and gradually loses its impact. By examining other characters’ relationship towards the human race, or towards the person they love (like last week), the show draws out more context and dimensions to the central leads’ fondness for each other. This episode is entirely in flashback from a witch’s point of view, and that segment says so much about humanity’s frailness and skepticism when it comes to accepting other races. In addition to that, the witch’s world is gorgeously detailed and becomes my favorite setting out of this show. Somali’s looking good heading to the last stretch of its run.

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Dorohedoro – 08 [Welcome to Blue Night Land]

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

After last week’s grand slam, I was prepared for a more ordinary episode this time around. That’s pretty much what we received (by Dorohedoro’s standards, anyway), but the breakneck tempo that I complained of in mid-February returned here, forcing me to flex my neurons just to keep up with the story. Every major character barring Nikaido crossed a major speedbump in this episode, and they didn’t bother to hit the brakes first. Even without getting into the nitty gritty of the editing or direction, you can look at the four chapter titles placed throughout the episode’s run to see how many stories it was juggling. Since I’m such a big fan of Dorohedoro’s characters and setting, I wish the show would decrease its average scene count, and use the extra time to lengthen each of the ones that remain. There is an advantage to high-speed presentation, though – it creates hesitation in the mind of the viewer, which mirrors the confusion that Caiman must have experienced in the sorcerer’s realm this week.

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Runway de Waratte – 8 [The Designer’s Capacity]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Another week, another dash of Runway de Waratte. However this week wasn’t actually that bad, as Ikuto is finally challenged, even if the pacing is a goddamn mess. So without further ado, lets jump into Runway!

Starting off, I want to talk about story structure for abit, because Runway failed miserably at it this week. You see, normally in a story you want to introduce a problem that challenges your character. One that forces them to grow, change and improve so as to tackle that problem. If you have an outside force, someone completely different, solve that problem then your lead character learns nothing. They don’t grow, they don’t change, they just exist and problems are solved for them. It leads to a terribly uncompelling narrative. Especially when you introduce said problem and then solve it in the same episode. No buildup, no challenge, no progression or rise and fall. Just “Here is a problem” and “Here is an easy solution”. Basically what I am trying to say diplomatically here is that Runway’s pacing this week was shit, and everyone knows it.

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