Yakusoku no Neverland – 09-10[031145, 130146]

by AidanAK47, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Yakusoku no Neverland

I said it once, i said it twice, i likely said it more times than needed but that’s just how obvious that it’s become but these episodes truly are lacking content wise. I know this stance Has gonna tiresome for anyone taking the time to read this but it really does remain a problem for me who has to review each episode individually and find that I can fit an episode synopsis into a paragraph. When thinking about it I could fit it into a sentence. Kids decide that Norman will escape first and he attempts it only to find that there is an obstacle that they didn’t account for. The next episode being just Normans death(?) and the characters reaction to it. What am I really to say here?

Well I do like how Norman’s feelings are portrayed which getting water for Emma and just the pure terror and despair in his eyes but I did feel the scene went longer than it needed to. We didn’t need that long shot of Norman walking to the sink. That was just padding for time. As well as the long lingering shots when mom was checking her watch. I get the intent but it dragged longer than it needed to. So on to the rather odd explanation as to how Ray found out about the nature of the farm. I say many of us wouldn’t find it all the surprising if Ray found it out by himself just from investigating as he is the most meticulous of the group. Happy or not he is likely to begin to question the nature of the farm and it is fairly likely he would find out. Yet instead the reasoning they give for Ray finding out is due to him having memories from the time he was born. Yes, Ray can remember things from when he was barely a few months old, or even when he was a fetus. This is certainly one of the weirdest explanations they could have gone with. It’s also highly debatable if this is even possible considering that at the point of being born Ray’s facilities for retaining memory may not have even developed yet. Admittedly the children of the farms are super geniuses so genetic tampering may be in effect but it’s still rather odd if Ray could understand anything going on at the time and not dismiss it later as some childhood nightmare.

As for the episode focusing on Norman’s death, I admit this didn’t really affect me. I feel that being a manga reader has proven to be a detriment as many of the moments building tension or pushing for a emotional punchline tend to fall flat to me due to my knowledge of what is to happen. So having the characters all react hopelessly to Normans departure and Emma’s last ditch efforts to try and save Norman just didn’t really get a reaction out of me. I don’t feel that anything on screen was presented poorly but there is this overwhelming sense of just wanting it to get on with things. Of course there is the big question of what exactly happened with Norman as it wasn’t shown him getting killed. Hints are pointing heavily towards Norman not having died and instead being chosen for some other duty but really be it manga or otherwise I don’t have confirmation on that. If there is one thing I truly appreciate in this series it’s Isabella, I love the contrast between her utter ruthlessness in doing her job and an underlying current that she truly loves these kids.

Norman asking her whether she was truly happy and how much that question threw her off balance show that in this world humans like Isabella may have a disconnect in that they are so focused on staying alive that the notion of being happy is such an unknown concept. I never grow tired of Isabella while the main characters of the series I find myself growing increasingly disinterested in. Some efforts to develop them have been made such as the flashback to when Norman was sick but they just feel rather basic. I will give credit to the seemly flasefied depression that Emma and Ray displayed as it makes for a good ending hook to show they haven’t given up even when Isabella thinks she has won. But at this point I have grown tired of the planning and just want this escape plan to be carried out already.

Paranoia Agent – 8 [Happy Family Planning] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Paranoia Agent, Throwback Thursday

Hello and welcome to another weird week of Paranoia Agent! This time we have suicide pacts, gallows humor and some interesting filler content. Lets jump in!

As always, lets start with production. Paranoia Agent was… acceptable, is the best I can say. It was expressive when it wanted to be. But it simply doesn’t match up with some of the previous episodes. It used a lot still shots, which had some interesting direction, but didn’t wow me at all. Not a bad showing for a glorified filler episode, but that’s all this week was. A filler episode, with loose ties to the central plot. It was interesting, as we will dive into later, but at the moment it feels inconsequential. As if were the episode removed, the overarching plot would be the same. For such a plot driven, thematic series, that leaves me a little disappointed. After all, the only character really connected to the main series here is Kozuma, and even then only loosely. Yet still, this filler was richer than most other series.

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Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru – 21 [Goodbye, Beautiful World]

by Lenlo, posted in Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Another week, another set of Kaze Fui boys run the Ekiden. Today we have Yuki and Nico, from the older half of our group, running their hearts out. There’s family drama, crushed dreams and more emotions than I can handle. Lets jump in!

Sticking with my stereotypes, let’s start with production. There was some reused footage this week when Yuki was running down the hill. Taking some bends, as he swayed right and left, with only the backgrounds being different. I actually didn’t notice this at first, because of how engrossing the narrative is, and so I can’t dock it to much for it, but it is there. We also saw the return of the CGI that, when placed up against Yuki’s leg muscles flexing as he runs, only become more worthy of criticism. All that said though, direction continues to be Kaze Fui’s strong point. With multiple wide shots of the landscape, our characters small against the mountains of Hakone, drawing the eye. There was also some fantastic, expressive, facial animation on Jota with Kurahara. So all things considered, it wasn’t a bad week for Kaze Fui. Now, onto spoiler territory.

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Mob Psycho 100 S2 – 10 [Collision ~Power Type~]

by Lenlo, posted in Mob Psycho 100 II

Hello and welcome once more to Mob Psycho 100, the premier animation destination of the Winter 2019 season. This week we have some fantastic highs, questionable lows and a show of brotherly love to rival Run with the Wind. Lets jump in!

As always, let’s start with production. After some discussion on last episode in the comments, I resolved to try and look a bit more closely at some of Mob Psycho’s stills and group shots. From what I saw, I can understand the opinion that it doesn’t look great. However, in my personal opinion, I think it comes down to the style. BONES purposely chose to mimic ONE’s simple style, to allow for more consistent and expressive animation. Yes, some of the stills come off as iffy. However I think this one comes down to personal preference. As Mob Psycho looks like nothing else airing right now, and stands out from the pack because of it. It’s willing to go wildly off model for the sake of effect, putting the strengths of the medium first. Whatever costs it has, I am willing to pay them. Now onto spoilers!

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Dororo – 10 [The story of Tahomaru]

by Lenlo, posted in Dororo

Welcome to Dororo’s week of brotherly love! This episode, if the title wasn’t obvious, we look at Tahomaru and his relationship with various characters. Lets dive in!

Production wise, Dororo stepped it up a bit this week. As always, the direction and shot composition is it’s strong point. Doing a great job of conveying emotion. The surprise for me was the animation department, as Dororo really wanted to make a good impression for Tahomaru. His battle with the demon, along with the flowing of the water as it came down on them, was visually interesting. Take for instance the scene of Hyogo throwing the villagers to safety. It wasn’t huge, like Mob Psycho always goes, but it fit Dororo’s subtler style and stood out in the moment. Sure, it rarely wow’s me, but the landscapes are beautiful and do a good job of building up the world. Still, enough about Dororo’s animation, I talk on that every week. Onto the spoilers!

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Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai – 09

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

I, uh, wasn’t crazy about this episode of Kaguya-sama. As the end of the decade approaches, I’ve been thinking about my favorite anime of the last ten years, and I was originally hopeful that Kaguya would be able to hang with rom-coms like Ore Monogatari and Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun on that list. Unfortunately, the second half of the show (so far) hasn’t appealed to me like the first part did. My main gripe with this particular episode was that it pushed some of its characters outside their established behavioral boundaries. It never happened without justification, but some of the reasoning it provided felt inadequate, especially in the last of these three chapters. Since all three of them led into each other, with Kaguya’s sickness as the core focus, the whole package was kind of soured. Let me just skip to the third segment and explain what I mean here.

When Shirogane visits a sick-in-bed Kaguya, he discovers that she has transformed into a half-delirious infant (something he’d hoped to see during the Concentration game in part two). Her design is amended accordingly, with downturned eyes and two-tone irises, as opposed to the sharper, more colorful expression she typically wears. She’s on the floor, searching for fireworks in a mess of her own making, and has to be mothered back into bed by Hayasaka (who’s in disguise as a gaijin maid). Aoi Koga even does her best Konomi Kohara impression to give her character the same sense of innocence that Fujiwara carries. It’s actually Hayasaka who provides the explanation for Kaguya’s current state: since her mind is always working at full capacity, her ego is particularly vulnerable to her id during periods of illness. Yes, the show actually trots out Freud’s model of the psyche to explain a character’s sudden witlessness, but this isn’t immersion-breaking by itself. Kaguya-sama has been dropping psychological terms into its script since the beginning.

The real problem stems from the show’s attempt to have it both ways, with a sudden seriousness taking hold when Kaguya explains that she can only manipulate people to express her feelings. We get a clear look at the Shinomiya motto during this scene, which hangs ominously on the wall and instructs family members not to love or rely on anyone. This maxim can be glimpsed in the hallway leading to Kaguya’s room several times before her admission, so it’s nice that the show primed us for that moment, but given the infantilized version of her character on screen just minutes beforehand, the whole segment feels inappropriately sincere. Everything that follows (Kaguya’s dominant id pulling Shirogane into bed with her, then kicking him out when she wakes up in her right mind) feels like the usual anime rom-com bullshit. Kaguya’s past fantasy about the Shirogane family accepting her was a much funnier and less direct way of detailing her oppressive home life, for my money – everything to do with her sickness was all over the place.

Chapters one and two from this week didn’t hold much appeal for me, either. This writeup has already been negative enough, but for the sake of completion, I’ll say a few words about them. In the first segment, there was too much shouting for me. Fujiwara screaming about the kleptomaniac thunder god, Kaguya’s maniacal switching of the president’s phone battery (complete with off-tempo clock sounds for some reason), and Shirogane’s war cry as he pedaled his bike through the rain grated on my nerves before I ever got to the third chapter. It was too much intensity for too little payoff. As for the memory game in the middle, it was fine. Notably, we got to see Fujiwara at her most devious, utilizing multiple rigged decks of cards to win the honor of visiting a sick Kaguya. She’s played to win before (think back to the banned word game), but this was a new side of her that felt natural, especially given her sheepish reactions to being caught. Alright, I’m off my soapbox for this week.

Paranoia Agent – 6/7 [Fear of a Direct Hit/MHz] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Paranoia Agent, Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone to the catch up Paranoia Agent! First off, apologies for being late. Work was killer Thursday and really impacted writing this. No excuses though, on to the show! This week Paranoia Agent might as well have slipped LSD into my drink, because we get weird. Lets jump in!

Right off the bat, Paranoia Agent gets weird with these two episodes. Even from a production standpoint, there are a lot of interesting decisions made. For instance the use of the fish-eye lense when talking to Kozuka, even though its an animation, really nailed the tension for his character. There were also a number of message-filled decisions with some character actions. Such as when Maniwa and the Chief were discussing having run out of ideas, and it being time for new ones. The Chief’s box of matches is empty, while Maniwa’s modern lighter was filled up and ready to go. A clear symbolic message of who has good, right ideas, and a differing method. On top of all of this, Paranoia Agent got weird near the end of episode 7 with the Old Mans sequence. Painting a very clear picture of Maniwa’s degrading mental health. Fantastic stuff all around, really.

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Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru – 19/20 [The Moment of Release/Even If I Break]

by Lenlo, posted in Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Another day, another double feature catch up from my vacation, this time on Kaze Fui. This week we watch 5 of our 10 boys run the Ekiden, in one of the most emotional jogs I have ever witnessed. Lets jump in!

Right off the bat, I have to say, Kaze Fui made me tear up. I can’t say I outright cried, because I am emotionally dead. But Kaze Fui made a fantastic try and busting through that, in both episodes. Prince, Musa, Jota, Joji and Shindo all hit me in different ways, and really showed my earlier concerns were misplaced. I made mention in earlier posts that I had concerns about pacing, about how a single race could take up 4-5 episodes. I now see how. Each section has become a deeply personal exploration of a character who has been built up over 2 cours. This legwork, this built up story, is a rock solid foundation for this finale I find. I only have a single complaint of both episodes, which we will get to later. For now though, let’s dive into the episodes themselves.

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Dororo – 8/9 [The story of Saru/The story of the Mercilessness]

by Lenlo, posted in Dororo

Hello everyone, welcome back to Dororo! Thanks again for understanding about my vacation, as we head into this weeks double feature. This time Dororo makes a friend, we get their backstory and a ‘he’ turns out to be a ‘she’. Lets jump in!

As always, lets start off with the animation and actual production of these two episodes. Animation wise Dororo continues to be a series of highs and lows. Often during its fights, like with the giant centipede, it can look great. Smooth motion and clear choreography. Other times though, outside of these fights, it can be very limited and often just unappealing. This isn’t to say Dororo looks bad though, as its direction at least is always very good. It has a clear focus on its cinematography. This can be seen most obviously in this weeks episode 9, with little actual animation, but fantastic coloring and camera-work. It engages the eye in a very different way from say, Mob Psycho 100’s bombastic animation and almost blinding rainbow of colors. As I have described in previous posts, Dororo is an exercise in minimalism I feel. But now, onto actual spoilers!

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Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai – 08 [The Great Airship Robbery]

by SuperMario, posted in Finished Series: Action, Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai

Kotobuki pulls off another solid episode this week, as it surprises me in many ways. For the first time, the Kotobuki Squad faces a defeat, but by some incredible stretch they manage to get out of the situation magnificently. While the characters motion still feels awkward and off-putting at times – characters designs suffer the most when the show frames characters in profile, and when Johnny shows off his inhuman skills – Kotobuki more than makes up by its CG aerial combat craft, and exciting heist story this week. The episode represents the best the wild west tone of Kotobuki as a whole. It starts out pretty simple, our team has to protect “the golden fish” (noted that in Kotobuki’s world, real fish is as rare and precious as Swiss watch). The thieves, however, have a better idea. Instead of just stealing the fish, they hijack the Hagoromo ship, and demand Isao to resign or else they’d crash the ship to the town. Honestly I didn’t see that coming at all, and these enemies prove to be more and more formidable, almost army-like status.

But the plan to counterattack from our girls prove to be pretty entertaining, as well. This robbery is a chance to flesh out ship’s supporting casts, this time Johnny, who is revealed as a veteran shooter, and Ririko, who might or might not be Johnny’s ex-wife, that they claim back the ship with style (a bit over the top but hey, so do all the Western movies). The problem doesn’t stop there though, as the ship’s control is badly damaged and there’s explosions on board. Hence the Kotobuki has to fight a way to shoot the ship down safely before Isao’s air jets, for safety reason, destroy the ship themselves. While this episode is pretty thin on paper, we can still draw out two deeper plot threads going forward. First, it’s still unclear what the enemy’s objective is. It’s clear that they’re skilled, and they’re disciplined unlike normal air pirates. Second, while the rest of the team has their reasons to pilot (case in point this week, Reona wanted to protect the orphanage), Kirie doesn’t seem to have one. From what we know about her, she learned to flight from the old man and she loves to flight with all her heart. Is there any need for a reason to be up in the air at all?