Fruits Basket (2019) – 09 [Yuki Was My First Love]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Fruits Basket (2019)

I think I’m not alone when saying that these last two episodes of Fruits Basket aren’t their best material. With the announcement that Fruits Basket is going to have 3 seasons, I can understand why. Episode 8 for instance is where Fruits Basket padded out its material too thin, with all the familiar narrative beats that we already experienced in episode 5 (when Tohru went back to her relative), with a much lesser effect. Episode 9 has different issues, that is in the name of the newcomer Haru. Just to be frank Haru character isn’t that interesting. While I’m not going too far to say that he’s a reverse Kaguya, he does have some similar traits. The way his affection lies towards Yuki (as the episode title clearly shows) is… obsessive just like that of Kaguya, and I don’t think I need another character who involved in constant catfight with Kyou. His most distinctive trait seems to be light/dark Haru, where light Haru is a absent-minded, oddball Haru and dark Haru (triggered by Kyou) is a crazy, hot-tempered Haru, and sadly I don’t find either of these remotely interesting.

There’s one character development that Fruits Basket nails it about his character, however, and that is his flashback towards Yuki. As the original Zodiac tale goes, Haru had always felt shame about the story of Rat using him to finish first in the race, to the point that he harbors a hatred to Yuki, even without seeing him. When he meets Yuki for the first time (and exploded all his insecurity to him), he realizes that Yuki shares the same pain he does, to a larger extend. It fits what we know about Yuki’s character, and it’s sad to see him suffers that loneliness even when he was a kid.

Sadly, that’s the only highpoint I can give to this episode. “Repetitive” is the main issue I have here. At this point the chemistry between the lead trio is solid, but it needs to break its current status quo. There’s only so much if seeing them enjoying their everyday life with Tohru being happy of being housewife and the other two engage in a constant juvenile fights. Speaking of the former, I found the early scene where Tohru buying groceries alone while the two boys waiting outside, doing nothing extremely dated and overtly traditional, which reminds me again how old this source material is. Speaking of the latter, I grow a bit tired of Kyou and Yuki fighting nonsense. Tohru’s character doesn’t fare any better as despite she has a solid character arc, her behaviours, or more like, her humbleness and her oblivion towards others’ feelings, don’t do Fruits Basket much justice. I would love to see the show tries more than just maintaining its status quo.

Carole & Tuesday – 08 [All the Young Dudes]

by SuperMario, posted in Carole & Tuesday, Currently Watching:

A rather straightforward episode that details on the duo’s journey to American Idol Mars Brightest, this week feels like those competitive singing shows we normally watch on TV with a colorful set of oddballs. As such, this episode’s main appeal lies less in narrative strengths but more about music and the fun when these music redefy its singers’ traits. But let’s focus first on the (little) narrative this episode has. It’s obvious from day 1 that Carole & Tuesday will eventually face Angela in the final, a sort of showdown between fame vs rookie, artificial music vs genuine one. This episode makes one significant step into that direction, as Angela “acknowledges” the duo’s talent by flat-out says she dislikes their music. It’s fun to see Angela acts like a total jerk towards her new manager (subtlety about her bitchiness is out of the window but hey, it’s fun to watch) and I suppose she will have to go through a phase where she accepts this new hapless manager and deals with her “Mama” issue (who we find out in one of her pic was a man years ago). But that is for future development. For now, Angela will show her true power in the next episode.

I’m still a bit split on the way this Mars Brightest functions, as a nit-picking note. Choosing 8 talents out of thousands just based on single short performance isn’t credible, at all (there’s no way an actual musical contest work like that to begin with). What’s fun is that these 8 contestants do bring out their unique personality just based on their appearances alone. Add to that we have these songs and styles that constantly bring out different side of them, and well-composed music on top of it. Take the three performances this week, for example. Fire Brothers are old deaf twins but still manage to bring fire, quite literally, with their meTAL GROAning. The social network sensational Pyotr’s performance makes it clear that he’s serious about this contest, even if he normally brush it off. And finally, and most interestingly, OG Bulldog, appeared as ex-gangster, does a hybrid opera-rap that takes everyone, real listeners included, by surprise. The show smartly uses a typical hip-hop beat and lets it run wild before OG Bulldog sings the first verse. The weird hybrid makes it my favorite performance out of the four.

Unlike the audition stage in which the judges are too plain (Wooper pointed that out in his post), these three judges nail their assigned “roles”: a strict Catherine, a fashionable Benito and an AI judge Shakti (an interesting twist). I’m actually agree with the judge regarding Carole & Tuesday performance, that they are the plainest. And this is one of the many issues I have with the show so far. Not only the titular characters are the least development ones, they are given too much “special treatment” from the show, that their singing can win people over (it doesn’t with me. Too plain). There’s also Cybelle, one of the contestant, who has a yuri affection to Tuesday. I suppose she’s going to be some sort of the duo’s sidekick in the future. At this point, I’m pretty much loose hope that Carole & Tuesday as a ambitious show. It doesn’t have the aspiration that Shinichiro Watanabe usually brings, but taken as a popular mainstream show it’s still enjoyable week after week.

Sarazanmai – 08 [I Want to Connect, but We’ll Never Meet Again]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

In a way, this is an episode where Sarazanmai breaks many of its formula: it’s the first episode where it doesn’t feature any dance routine, it’s the episode when finally the cops meet our leads for the first time (with disastrous results), but for me these last two episodes is where Sarazanmai loses its steams a little. It brings many characters together for the bigger plots, with two main developments: Toi decided to part way in order to follow his brother, and Enta gets shot and presumably dead. Before going to details for each of them, I will address the details that I’m not fond of at the moment: the miçanga. Ikuhara loves to reveal the intriguing past his characters have for each other. This episode he uses the same trick as we eventually learn that Toi and Kazuki already met in the past – right where Toi decides to give up what he treasures the most at the time – soccer – in order to follow his brother. The issue I have with that is that it frames their chemistry as “fate”, and that somewhat negates the “connection’ theme Sarazanmai aims for.

But the miçanga thread also does one thing right: it brings Enta’s jealousy into forefront and jealousy is a “shade” I want to see more from this series. All he did last episode was out of jealousy with the amount of attention Kazuki has for Toi. Interesting, Enta spends the entirety of this episode with Toi’s brother Chikai, who doesn’t aware that Enta knows his brother. Chikai’s attitude towards Toi is unhealthy, to say the least, as he realizes Toi giving up his precious for him, yet kind of expect him to. Toi gave up his soccer path once, and now just when he makes friends, he’s forced to give them up. With Enta – Chikai scenes, we get to see more of Toi’s hidden emotions side.

But those scenes work for another purpose, in the name of Reo and Mabu and they go full-villain mode: Killing people on the street and brainwashing witnesses, which I’m not sure if I like it or not. Speaking of which, I’m not to sure how Reo’s “extracting” gun work. Why do some of them become a zombie kappa, other just die from the gunshot? That brings me to the cliffhanger where Enta was shot as he saves Kazuki. There’s subtle hint in the ED where we only see 2 shadows that could imply that Enta stays dead. I would definitely prefer it that way, although I won’t be surprised if it’s just a cop out. Fake death is something anime medium isn’t shy of, sadly. Speaking of positive, I quite like how Kazuki goes through some sort of a mood-swing regarding Entai. At this very stage he doesn’t really know how to feel about his friend’s betrayal, and hopefully he will learn a thing or two about Entai’s affection after this turn of event.

Serial Experiments Lain – 5 [Distortion] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Serial Experiments Lain, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to perhaps the weirdest episode of Lain yet. This week we get preached at, Lain’s sister gets lobotomized and Lain herself becomes a National terrorist. Lets jump in!

Starting off, the production. Lain got, to put it simply, weird this week with the visuals. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it was definitely very striking. From the flashbacks (?) with Lain, to the Sister’s slow fall into the Wired. In some cases this was incredibly interesting. I loved some of the visuals at the end. With the Sister, and Lain herself staring into the monitor. Those were cool! In other cases though it was just weird and I couldn’t follow what was going on. This is mainly aimed at the flashbacks, which are my biggest problem with the episode. We will talk about those in detail later. Visually, they weren’t terribly complex. But they came from nowhere and were so disconnected with everything else going on, that they really confused me. Because of this, and their story beats, they really halted the pace of the series for me.

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One Punch Man S2 – 8 [The Strong Ones Fight Back]

by Lenlo, posted in One Punch Man S2

Welcome one and all to another week of mediocrity, as OPM continues to flounder. This week OPM speeds up dialogue, almost blinds me with flash-fades and in general just disappoints me. So, that said, lets get into it! And fair warning, this is going to be a short one.

Now, I could rail against a lot of things this week. From the continued use of flash-fades, to the terrible impact or just covered up animation. However, I feel like a better way to spend our time, is to dial in on a specific issue each week. This week, I choose to rail OPM’s pacing, in both animation and dialogue. You see, OPM’s big issue in this department is it never gives anything room to breathe. It burns through dialogue and fights at light speed. It knows exactly where it wants to end, but to get there, it has decided to just hit the 2x speed button. An exaggeration on my part, slightly, but the point is made. Take this week for instance, ending on a dramatic cliff-hanger instead of the humorous one the manga did. As if they don’t know what kind of show OPM is.

Take for instance Snek and Max this episode, along with the monster conversion of the fighters. In the first, because OPM is speeding through dialogue, it removed a meaningful pause in their appearance with Suiryu. Where in the manga this appears as a “That’s a stupid question”, sort of reaction, here it’s an immediate “We are good guys”, sort of thing. Minor to some, perhaps, but it was a much more interesting scene in black and white. Meanwhile with the fighters, OPM really skipped over some of their dialogue, along with Suiryu’s musings. As if it was to eager to jump into the next fight. Season 1 used fights to fit between the comedy, with the comedy and absurdism as the punchline. OPM Season 2 though seems to be going for the other way around. Focusing on fights it doesn’t have the chops to pull off.

So basically, to finish off my complaint this week, OPM has no calm. Its either doing nothing, or trying to do everything. Early episodes had little happen. Sitting in one place with pointless conversations happening. Recent ones though are now burning through content at a rapid pace. I understand some of that is the sheer amount of fights going on this season. It’s a lot. But I could forgive cutting some of the less important ones short (though they are already pretty short) for the benefit of these more important scenes. All that said though, those aren’t the only issues. Join me next week, as I rage against sound design, and how CS:GO gun sound effects made their way in as bird monsters punching. See you then!

Sarazanmai – 05-07

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

Well, I’m back. After 2 weeks of summer breeze and rain like crazy in Cannes, along with films frenzy (I managed to watch 37 movies while I was there), now I’m back in the Down under with severed cold (and rain), jetlag and lots of anime to catch up. But enough of my vacation dairy, let’s get back to where Sarazanmai left off. While previous weeks I said that I felt Kazuki’s characteristic to be inconsistent, episode 5 does a magnificent job on exploring the complex chemistry he has towards his little brother Haruka. The tricky part of it is that it’s not merely one dominant feeling he has for his brother, but a whirlwind of conflicting emotions that tear him apart and that he still tries to make sense. First off, despite claiming at the end of episode 4 that he hates Haruka, the well runs much deeper than that. It starts with a realization that he isn’t blood-related to any member of his current family, thus lead to him feeling “the odd one out”. In Sarazanmai, the underlying theme is the thrive to connect to one another, and placing him as the “perfect stranger” makes sense.

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Dororo – 20 [The story of the Nue]

by Lenlo, posted in Dororo

Welcome one and all to the beginning of the end for Dororo. It’s a contentious week for me, as a weak villain goes from terrible to interesting, Hyakki gets angry and the Dororo gets plot armor. Let’s dive in!

Starting off, let’s talk production, as I actually felt good about Dororo this week. Animation wasn’t anything to special, but that has rarely been Dororo’s strong point. Instead it was the Direction that really stood out to me this week. Whether it be how Hyakkimaru was framed at the end of the episode, backlit by the sun, or the overlap between Hyakki and Saburota. The episodes message got across very well and lead to some pretty nice scenes, as you can see. Its a real step up from the mostly disappointing 2nd Cour. Like MAPPA is really stepping up and trying to finish strong. Story wise though, thats where I get conflicted about Dororo this week. As no matter how strong the visuals might be, if there isn’t any content behind it, it will just feel hollow. So that said, spoilers below.

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Fruits Basket (2019) – 06-08

by SuperWooper, posted in Currently Watching:, Fruits Basket (2019)

Here’s the second of two substitute posts this week. I’m a lot less enthusiastic about Fruits Basket than I am about Carole & Tuesday, though, especially after the former’s most recent episode, which was repetitive and tedious. Flashbacks and recap segments shouldn’t be condemned automatically, as animation is time-consuming and expensive to produce, but a franchise like Fruits Basket should be handled less delicately than it has been thus far. This is its second TV incarnation, for crying out loud – even if the manga had this much hand-wringing from Yuki and Kyou in these chapters, they could have cut some of it in the transition to TV. Their unceasing fixation on Tohru might be romantic in the eyes of young Japanese girls, but I’d label it amateurish, especially when their inner thoughts are so similar across episodes. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Hit the jump to read my take on these three installments of Fruits Basket (I sort of liked one of them!).

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Carole & Tuesday – 05-07 [Every Breath You Take/Life is a Carnival/Show Me the Way]

by SuperWooper, posted in Carole & Tuesday, Currently Watching:

Sorry for the delay in covering these episodes, folks. Mario has been overseas for a few weeks now, but he’ll be returning home soon to pick up the pen once more. In the meantime, I’m planning to blog these episodes of Carole (plus Fruits Basket 6-8 tomorrow) to lighten his workload a bit. Shinichiro Watanabe is one of my favorite anime directors, so I’m glad to have this opportunity – his Road Show Trilogy is comprised of three of my favorite TV series, and even his lesser works are packed with visual style and mood-enhancing music. Can the same be said of Carole & Tuesday in Wooper’s opinion? Read on to find out.

My biggest issue with the show so far lies with its two lead characters. We have a bit of interesting information about them: Carole was an orphan raised in a refugee camp who changes jobs as though they were clothes, and Tuesday is the runaway daughter of a politician. They became fast friends based on their love of music, and now they’re trying to make it in the big city. And… that’s about it. We’ve got a decently-realized Martian future on our hands here, but the show is content to place them on the outskirts of it, instead of right there in the thick of things. Think back to the major beats of these three episodes. The girls play a gig for 10 people, then play a festival for tens of thousands, and then try out for an American Idol knockoff called Mars Brightest.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba – 8 [The Smell of Enchanting Blood]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome, one and all, to another fantastic week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This time Muzan’s voice gets sexier, Yaiba gets trippy and Nezuko becomes the cutest little thing ever. Lets dive in!

Recently I have been skipping the visual aspect of Yaiba, because I gushed about it often. This week Yaiba managed to stand out beyond the norm though. It was simultaneously beautiful and horrifying, comedic and somber. The flower sequence at the start was beautiful, flowing across the screen like water. I would love to know how much of that was computer generated digital effects vs hand-drawn. Meanwhile, Muzan’s sequence in the alley with the woman was terrifying. Ufotable left nothing to the imagination with that, and as horrifying as it was, I couldn’t look away. I was enthralled with how they depicted a person literally melting. The only downside to the whole episode were 2, 3-4 sec sequences at most. Involving CGI walks that really exist only to save them time on the most minor of shots. It’s a nitpick, and one I will gladly ignore for everything else.

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