Banana Fish – 17 [The Killers]

by Lenlo, posted in Banana Fish, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Ah, finally Banana Fish is back in form. This week we have murder, intrigue and a new terrifying character. Lets jump in!

With the hospital arc done, Banana Fish seems to have found its footing again this week. The hospital, while it had its moments, was largely dull compared to what came before. This new arc of cat and mouse however is much more interesting. With Ash being this unstoppable genius, having him on the back foot provides a much better story. Banana Fish can do a lot with it, especially considering it’s a much more personal one than the last. Add on to that Yut’s current story, and Eiji’s confusion as to where he stands, it gives Banana Fish a lot to work with. All it really needs is to make good use of Sing and all the characters will be moving in a good direction.

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Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 – 05 [Hellfire Valley]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Thunderbolt Fantasy

Now, things escalate pretty quickly. In a Thunderbolt Fantasy fashion, the moment Lang Wu Xiao gets a hand of the dragon’s horn and the formula, he double-crosses Gui Niao. But I can’t hate this guy, given his motive is purely because he cares for his partner Shang Bu Huan. The allied from the other side of the war is also bound to be broken very soon, as it’s clearly the Catching Fox is manipulating the Princess of Cruelty now. It’s one of the rare moments where we see Shang Bu Huan is vulnerable. It’s also one of the rare moments where we see the Princess of Cruelty having a conscience. The Monk’s words last episode clearly affects her and I would love to see her go through some sort of character arc. Now all that is just the beginning now that Shang Bu Huan has an antidote and is now “a hundred times more alive”.

But the absolute peak of this episode (and the whole season so far) is the battle of wits between our Gui Niao, Lang Wu Xiao and the one-wing dragon. It has everything that I want from Thunderbolt DNA, and then some: it has absurd dragon’s design, it has the sheer ridiculousness of the whole situation, it has campy quality, it has the grand visual spectacular and most of all, it has one of Gui Niao’s wittiest lines. Just imagine the ridiculousness of a giant fire-breathing dragon raises from below the ground (how on earth does he hide underground in the first place? To sleep? I think not), or that he’s powerful enough to speak human language (consider how there’s no human in the Wasteland of Spirits). This quality proves to be his fall from grace, as Gui Niao is an expert of deceiving everything by his words. It’s certainly charming as heck to see him politely asks the dragon for his horn (more than mocking based on his tone of speech), before runs like a maniac in a very quirky manner that only puppetry can produce, and finishes with a line: “doesn’t matter how nice you ask, anyone would be angry for that request”. Damn you, Gui Niao

Also only in a puppetry show that you can see a dragon throwing up flames that absurd. It mixes nicely between Thunderbolt’s trolly tone with how it takes itself seriously enough. If that isn’t eye-popping and ridiculous enough, we have the climax where Lang Wu Xiao has to sing (the fact the he admits his singing beyond hopeless make it way funnier, too) to attract the Dragon’s attention so that Gui Niao can set his favorite illusion trap. How the show transform for the usual two swordsmen fighting the monster into singing and talking while dodging wall of flame is nothing short of a stroke of genius. And don’t forget how Gui Niao isn’t in the least surprised when Lang Wu Xiao double-crosses him. Ridicule everyone has been his lifelong passion, so it’s only natural that he just gets used to people turning against him. I don’t care how Thunderbolt will go from here, as long as it maintains its quirky, campy nature like this dragon battle I’m more than happy to follow it everywhere.

Planetes – 5 & 6 [Fly Me to the Moon/The Lunar Flying Squirrels] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Ah Throwback Thursday, quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. Welcome to another 2 episodes of Planetes! This time we have suicide pacts, space ninja’s and incredible technological feats! Lets jump in!

So non-spoilers out of the way first, Planetes continues to impress me with it’s use of technology and physics. Really, every time it does it I love the series just a little bit more. Rotating a spaceship quickly to generate G-Force’s was brilliant. The detail of having a phone call from the moon be delayed because of distance? Fantastic. It’s the touches like these that really drive home how the series is in space. Without these details, the focus on technology, our characters could be anywhere. They could be in some random ship, or any other futuristic slum indistinguishable from all others. This is how you build a believable Science Fiction world. No info dumps, just repeated usage of the technology in the story. Leave it to the guy who writes Vinland Saga to be a stickler for the details I suppose.

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Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru – 5 [The Ones Not Chosen]

by Lenlo, posted in Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Hello and welcome to perhaps the most personal episode of Kaze Fui yet. This week we have the struggles of growing up, the reasons why we run and some great character details. Lets jump in!

Before I get into specifics, I want to talk about what Kaze Fui did this week that I simply loved. Kaze Fui is, quite successfully, spreading the love and attention of the characters. With such a large cast, it would be incredibly easy for some of them to fall by the wayside. For our characters to be nothing more than window dressing for our leads. But Kaze Fui manages to spend just enough time with them to make them all feel like their own people. It let’s them talk to each other, without our leads, giving them independence in the story. They resolve their own issue’s, like Shindo deciding he wants to run on his own. Kaze Fui even gives us consistent, if brief, glimpses into their private lives. Showing us their rooms or the different ways they sleep based on personality. Simply put, I love the characters portrayal.

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Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara – 04 [Cut it Out Granny!]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara

This episode marks an official appearance of Kohaku, and she is indeed brightens the screen and quickly becomes my favorite character out of this series. She’s both an interesting character in her own right (I love how she’s in merge between eccentric and act like an responsible adult), and she fits into the surrounding very well. For a show that has always been slow, she’s a necessary dynamite to blow things up a bit and drives the narrative as the series goes on. For instance, this week, because of her courage, Hitomi finally reveals to her club-mates that she comes from the future. While it’s an opportunity for the show to go all out emotionally, I don’t mind the understated way it addresses at all. Even the cast members don’t seem to be very taken aback by the reveal, which can gives of a bit strange. I really enjoy Kohaku’s little magic shown in this episode, as it feels magical, and what comes afterward, that everything blows up and everyone keeps reminding her of “don’t do anything that involve apologize letter” certainly give a smiles on my face.

There’s also some romantic potential here, chief among them Shou and Hitomi, while the other girl shows sign of one-sided crush to Shou. I’m not sure if it’s a good lake to fish since we know for certain how Hitomi is going to response. It’s pretty confirmed about the pair of glassed girl Kurumi and her underclassman Chigusa, and it’s interesting to note that Yuito shows some feeling towards Hitomi as he’s too shy to call her by her first name. While it’s P.A Works’s template that romance is bound to happen – which I’m not totally keen of – I will reserve my comment until I see how well they develop the romances at hands.

Many have noted the fact that Irozuku lacks punch. Indeed, apart from the fantastic moment at the end of episode 1, there’s little to no big payoff moments. Even in the “big moments” of this episode, namely when she reveals to her club members that she’s from the future & the magic train in the sky, are equally downplayed and mundane. Everything seems slow and understated, and to be fair Irozuku isn’t the best production when it comes to portrays subtle nuances, but it still maintains its own confident step forward. The issue with Hitomi for now is that she doesn’t has enough confident, or finding the true brilliance, in her magic. For Kohaku, she uses magic to bring smiles to people, so what will be the drive for Hitomi to fully embrace her magic?

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 4 [Mission: An Outside Work-ish Job]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Ah, another week another short relaxing dip into Honda-San. This week we have mandatory employee training, cults and a step in the right direction. Lets jump in!

So luckily, it looks like Honda-San took my advice and stepped back on the educational bits. This week it focused on taking a basic facet of a service position and magnified aspects of it. Most people in a service position have probably been through something like this. A mandatory, extremely awkward and boring, training seminar. Honda-San took this seminar this week and exaggerated all the worst, or weirdest parts. The teachers became cult leaders, with their masks. The apathetic employee’s forced to be there became humerus caricatures, and the tasks at hand were executed with gumption. Personally I thought it all worked quite well. Honda-San truly is at its best using grounded absurdist humor, instead of educational humor.

As far as the actual jokes, they still came at a slower pace than I would have liked, but largely worked. It setup my expectations with the first terrible smile, which I have seen at these kind of events. But then completely surprised me with the ridiculousness of the pretty ladies actions. The damn “oo ee oo ee” sound murdered me. It came from nowhere and was just unique. Honda-San also nailed some of the visual humor this week, with the “perfect” employee as seen in the image above. I do think it spent a bit to much time actually explaining the seminar though. This is something most people can grasp immediately I imagine, I don’t think the viewer needs to hear it spelled out. Hopefully Honda-San continues to move in this direction though.

So all in all, Honda-San was better this week. It was still just a bit to much on the educational side, and the 2nd Skit of the episode might as well not of been there it was so short. But for a 9 minute a week short comedy sketch, I still think Honda-San is worth your time. Watch it on the bus, or during lunch or something for a quick chuckle, and I would say its time well spent.

Apologies for the shortness of the post here this week, but there really isn’t much to talk about with a comedy skit like this. I would rather be succinct and to the point than waste your time with a 1000 word essay. Hope you enjoy, and see you next week!

Castlevania Season 2 Review – 73/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Reviews by Lenlo

According to much of the Western Anime community, this series wouldn’t be relevant for a site like this. Being made in the West by Americans, and English being its first language, many would disqualify it from the start. However I name them all fools for Castlevania, Directed by Sam Deats and Ryoichi Uchikoshi is clearly inspired by and modeled after Anime. Just like Avatar: The Last Airbender or the currently airing RWBY, let Castlevania stand as a testament that Anime can be produced beyond the borders of Japan. A damn good one at that.

Lets jump in, and beware of spoilers!

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SSSS.GRIDMAN – 04 [Suspicion]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, SSSS.GRIDMAN

Before discussing this week’s episode, I feel the need to mention the weekly voice drama (thanks a bunch for bringing it to my attention, Animosh) of GRIDMAN that provides more context and dare I say, more personality to the cast. As much as I like the current style of GRIDMAN, its strength is purely on the adept direction by Akira Amemiya and its solid visual craft where the dialogues are hardly relevant. As a result, by making these characters having an actual communication, it adds up a whole lot and helps explaining many of the loose threads in the anime. For example, listening to the audio drama, we learn that Rikka and Yuuta definitely had something going before the amnesia, that “ball game rally before summer” sounds like a perfect setting for a date if you ask me. These voice drama, along with the content of this week 4, also marks a shift in GRIDMAN’s perspective and now I come to suspect that Rikka is a crucial character that hold the emotional core in this anime. I mean, the voice drama of episode 4 (4.4) raises a red flag about Rikka’s life threat and based from what happened this week, I have very goods reason to believe that would be the case.

The main key to that plot thread lies in the relationship between Akane and Rikka. Granted, the main reason why Rikka approaches our girl in this episode is purely to confirm whether Yuuta is Gridman or not (and she fails miserably on that, but boy, did she try); but there’s hints about their already gone established friendship, and slowly Rikka comes to the realization that all the incidents happen around her. That might just be her hormone’s actin’ up (that everything revolves around her), but I come to suspect the core reason for Akane becoming a psychopath has something to do with her and Rikka. Talking about the Queen of Cruelty Akane (opps, lame references to another show I’m blogging), this week she decides to kills the V-bloggers boys because they keep pestering her (could it be a warming message for all the Youtubers out there?), and the way GRIDMAN displays her, by extreme dutch-angle shot, by her still acting nice but can’t hold back anymore when she’s alone, tells you pretty how unstable her feeling is. She isn’t merely killing people for fun, she kills them in the manner of farmers cropping up weeds.

As for our battle this week, things get even more crowded with the appearance of a new insectoid kaiju. This Kaiju succeeded on killing 3 of the boys, and on the verge of defeat our Gridman… until Anti interferes given he wanted to be the one who defeat Gridman. It’s interesting to note that Anti pretty much acts according to his principle, so he’s no longer an Akane’s puppet (the way Akane constantly throws her phone is amusing, too). On the other side of the battle, the Neon Genesis members, and Gridman himself, are freeze as soon as all of them entering the Junk (it’s overloaded – speaking about old machine, huh?). Their solution? Unplug the machine and load it up again (this sure brings back memories, but it’s also the fastest way to destroy your computer’s memory). Rikka’s quick decision sure brings a smile to my face. The Neon Genesis squad so far is a delight, they don’t harbor too much deep but they bounce off each other well, especially Samurai Calibur whose deadpan delivery goes well with the show’s emphasis on visual. I’m still down to see the other two members’ real power in the next few episodes.

Episode 4 also spends a healthy amount of time developing the high school romantic saga that involves a group date, a stalking and many more. Most prominent of all is the pair Yuuta and Rikka, as the last few episodes we see more of their chemistry from Rikka’s point of view, so it comes as a bit abrupt that in this episode we see Yuuta already fallen head over heels over Rikka (well, abrupt to me anyways). Yuuta still remains the most boring character out of this cast, but it’s fun and a bit cute to see how both him and Rikka are too dense to make any progress. Like how Max points out, it’s painful to see them trying to talk to each other. The offbeat tone still works wonder here. I very much enjoy the snarky comment from Yukka’s friends Namiko and Hass “who speaks like that these days?”, or Akane’s squid train pass card, which might or might not be relevant in the future. There’s still a lot to admire about GRIDMAN, even to the non-fan of its TOkusatsu homage and Gridman franchise like myself.

Banana Fish – 16 [Lo, the Poor Peacock]

by Lenlo, posted in Banana Fish, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Another week, another episode of Banana Fish. This time we have a quality escape, an expected murder and some odd comedy. Let’s dive in!

This week Banana Fish managed to, just barely straddle a very fine line. Being an escape attempt, Banana Fish had to make it both difficult, yet possible. I felt that Banana Fish straddled that line rather well. The security came off as competent, with good coverage, yet sabotaged from the inside by Dino. The fact that Ash and Co were routinely found and chased/captured really made the chase much more engaging than the guards also just barely missing them. Combine that with things like the infrared cameras giving Ash away and shutting down the elevator, and Banana Fish accomplished a good escape sequence. My only gripe is that, at parts, the felt out of place. I will get into more specifics on this later on, as quiet a few of the jokes worked and none were bad. It was just a matter of timing to me.

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Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai – 04[There is No Tomorrow for Rascal]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai

We are at the start of a new arc and thankfully Mai hasn’t been tossed aside like a used napkin with events from the previously arc leading to her and the main pretty much establishing a relationship. I say pretty much cause they agreed to go out twice so really it’s just a matter of our main making sure they arc ends with them officially going out. Sadly the topic of this arc being Laplace’s Demon, sadly the story has taken one of the most boring and routine routes of representing it. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a time loop. What could have been a decently original premise is unfortunately ruined by the fact that time loops have become rather common in current anime with me being able to name about five anime with time loops off the top of my head. (Sunday without god, Steins;Gate, Re;Zero, Haruhi and that magical girl anime you all know about.) It’s sad that with all the inventive ways they could have used the concept that this just feels uninspired as well as just not that interesting. The subject this time is that the girl that got her ass kicked somehow resets the day any time this boy confesses to her due to some thing with her friend liking the same guy.

Funny enough the time loop is broken effortlessly much to Sakutos despair as the loop ended in the worst possible way for him so he was counting on redoing it. The bad news is that the girl is pushing Sakuto to pretend to be her boyfriend to fend off the other guy and Sakuto doesn’t really have a choice because otherwise they could get stuck in another time loop. It’s particularly aggravating to have something get in the way of Sakuto and Mai when both are making good progress and here’s this girl barging in trying to steal the main heroine role. The saving grace here is that the character interactions are really fun and I don’t know what changed but the banter works a lot better than the previous arc. I also like that one of the girls I previously thought would be a future harem member for Sakuto actually is in love with Sakuto’s best friend. So I say his friend should just dump the obnoxious girl from the first episode and get together with kinky science girl.

The plot arc is a weak one but i admit to really warming up to the characters with Sakuto proving to still be a pretty fantastic lead. But props to Mai as well when she had a typical misunderstanding moment with walking in on Sakuto at the worst possible moment yet at episodes end she walks straight to his house to get an explanation of the situation. I was thinking there was going to be a long painful stretch with Mai acting cold to him over that so I greatly appreciate the girl cutting though the rom com nonsense and just getting to the heart of the matter.