Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 8 + Scott Pilgrim

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Undead Unluck – 8 [Victhor]

Woooo Undead Unluck continues to be one of my favorites, even managing to take my top spot this week. There was some jank near the end, sure, but by and large it all looked pretty good with some smart direction. A bit to much red for my taste, but hey they like the colors. As for the content, Shen got to be a badass, kicking around Spoil with Wukong’s mythical staff, before being bodied by Victor. Meanwhile Victor gets to show off the true power of Andy’s Undead ability, abusing it in ways Andy has either never thought to or just can’t. And to top it all off we continue to get these little tidbits about Undead Unlucks world. Things like days of the week not existing, mentions of a “decent lineup this time” whatever that means, all this talk of “rules”. It’s peak Shounen fun, and I enjoy it a lot. David Productions is doing a great job with the adaptation and there are a few more moments I’m really looking forward to seeing animated. Also I really appreciate putting all of Shen’s phrases in Chinese, it’s a nice touch.

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The Big O – 17/18 [Leviathan/The Greatest Villain] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Big O, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to another week of The Big O! This is a fun week, a week of villains. Both of my favorites make a return, with Schwarzwald and Beck getting one episode each. One is a serious discussion on the search for truth while the other is fun Super Sentai parody. Both are pretty good. So without further ado, lets dive into the episodes!

First up is episode 17, “Leviathan”. This is all Schwartzwald, his swansong. In a last ditch attempt to spread his message to the people of Paradigm City, Schwartzwald has printed his manifesto on leaflets and dropped from the sky everywhere he can. He tells people to search for the truth, to not avert their eyes or else they become worthless puppets to those keeping everything hidden. Likening our fear of the dark to a wider fear of the unknown, to the question of happy ignorance or painful truths. It’s nice! As what feel like effectively his last words, this manifesto encompasses Schwarzwald well. Both his desire for truth and natural journalistic curiosity as well as how it’s not all societally minded. There are a few lines in there about his own personal role in it all, like he’s trying to vindicate himself at the end, showing us it isn’t all altruistic.

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Migi & Dali – 8 [Two ≠ One]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Migi & Dali

Welcome all, to another episode of Migi & Dali! This week the twins split, one becoming two, each walking their own path. How will they manage without each other? Can they figure out who they are independent of their twin? And what about the murder of their mother? There’s a lot to talk about this week, so lets dive in!

This episode is all about Migi splitting from Dali entirely, the opening scene ending with Migi literally and figuratively shoving him into the darkness, consumed by revenge, while he walks out towards his newfound freedom. As silly and weird as Migi & Dali can be, that doesn’t stop it from having some fantastic visual metaphors. The way Migi & Dali portrayed his desire for freedom, how he took control of his life riding off into the rain with Shunpei dressed as the birds he loves so much, was great. For the first time he doesn’t have to be “Hitori” around someone, he can simply be “Migi”. And he looks so happy doing it. The fact this ascension ends with Dali’s fall, with the two who are one becoming two once more, was icing on the cake.

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Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 7

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Frieren – 11 [Winter in the Northern Lands]

This was a pretty chill episode of Frieren, which makes sense and is totally fine after the mid-season climax we got in the last 2 episodes. It was all about taking some time to enjoy life, get thanked by the people they saved, see the effects of their actions on those around them as the families finally get the bodies of their loved ones back. Oh and burgers, giant giant burgers. The most interesting thing about the episode I’d say was Kraft, the first elf we’ve met aside from Frieren. With him we get a completely different look at what it means to live for so long, as well as how nonchalant they are about it. Talking about not knowing each other, acting like the past 80 years was “recent news”, and talking about seeing each other again in a few centuries. It was kinda cool. The only thing that felt like a miss for me was their talk of praise, of being desperate for it and finding a way to get it. Kraft looks for it in his Goddess while Frieren got it from her adventuring friends, specifically Heiter. While it’s nice that she puts so much weight behind Heiter’s opinions, I don’t really vibe with this idea that we live our lives looking for praise from others. Maybe it’s just my perspective is different, as I generally only care about if I think something I do is good enough, and while praise from others is nice and affirming it’s not something I seek out. Because of that, Frieren lost me a bit here. Still even with that the passage of time, those 6 months as we slowly see them change in the montage like one by one praying at meals, was nice. Still a very well put together episode.

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The Big O – 15/16 [Negotiation with the Dead/Day of the Advent] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Big O, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to another (late) week of Big O! Apologies, lost track of time. This week we meet another android, rocks fall from the sky, and Rosewater finally takes center stage as our lead villain. Is it any good? Does Dorothy do cute robot girl things? And does Roger get to punch something? The answer to all of those is found inside! Here’s a hint though: The answer is yes. And apologies in advance if this one is a bit more rambly than normal, it’s a very busy week and I don’t have time to proofread it. Should be back to normal for next week.

First up we have episode 15, “Negotiation with the Dead”. This episode Big O starts to widen its vision a bit, bringing in the politics of Paradigm City and hinting at more of it’s dark secrets. Remember R. Dorothy, the red hood from Season 1? Well apparently those people she was murdering have memories of the past, memories belonging to former Senators of Paradigm City, the same Senators that were also killed during the terrorist episode. She was killing them to try and get rid of those memories, eliminating anyone that had them. However this episode we meet one such Senator who still lives, Roscoe Fitzgerald, who asks Roger to investigate this assassin for him. The catch? Roscoe still has all of his memories, he doesn’t have an alter ego, a normal person who inherited or found his memories. Why? Simple. Because he’s an android.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 17 [Thunderclap, Part 2]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to Jujutsu Kaisen’s swansong. One way or another this the beginning of the end for the season. Either it stays strong and Itadori saves everyone at the last moment or, much more likely, everything starts to fall apart, visually and narratively. We have a fair amount to talk about, so lets dive right into it!

Starting off lets just come out and say it, this was clearly meant to be an event episode. Something along the lines of Mob Psycho Season 2 episode 5, it was supposed to be a statement. And in a lot of ways, it was! This was one of the most ambitious episodes of the entire year, not just from Jujutsu Kaisen but anime in general. A star-studded cast of animators from Vincent Chansard and Hakuyu Go to Hironori Tanaka and Hayato Kurosaki, as well as many more, contributed to it. And unsurprisingly, that lead to some absolutely stunning cuts and incredibly evocative imagery. Sure it had some standard issues, like ghosting and dimming, but those are just what happen to TV anime, they aren’t MAPPA’s fault. But you know what is MAPPA’s fault? Everything else that held this episode back from being the event it was meant to be.

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Migi & Dali – 7

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Migi & Dali

Welcome all, to another week of Migi & Dali! This week Eiji’s past is investigated, a betrayal is discovered and Best Girl makes a surprising return. For those who have kept up with the series, you can probably figure out where this is going. So without further ado, lets dive in!

At the core of the episode we have Dali and his goal of getting information from Eiji. How is he going to do it? Become his friend? Sneak around his house again? Interrogate his friends? Seduce… him? That’s right, Dali’s plan is to bring back Sali and go full teasing-dom on Eiji to seduce him into spilling the beans. I get it, if I was ignorant of the truth I’d fall for Sali to, Dali makes a sexy dark haired femme fatale. And it’s not like Dali will won’t go to far of course, all he needs is to get him alone to try some hypnosis tricks on. This is nice, it feels like Migi & Dali is coming back to the kind of weird I enjoy, the stuff that isn’t fetishy but still situationally funny. And it’s the situation, the consequences of Sali’s return, that makes the episode fun.

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Guest Post: Unearthed Garbage with Firechick – Ongaku Shoujo (30/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

Lenlo:  Hey everyone, Lenlo here. Amun is taking a break for a while so I’m filling in as Firechick’s pack mule, bringing her latest review! Hope you enjoy, everything after this is all her.

Hooo boy. Strap yourselves in people, because I’m gonna go on a BIG rant.

Rating: 30/100

So I heard that an anime called Ongaku Shoujo was going to be made in 2018. Then I saw it was a 25-minute OVA before that, and I sat down to watch it. But I won’t lie, this OVA is really bad.

I mean, seriously. I’ve never seen something so absolutely insipid, vapid, and downright annoying. It’s basically about two girls, a shy blue-haired girl and a perky blonde haired girl, who run into each other thanks to singing, decide to become idols, and a lot of drama happens. That’s it. There’s absolutely nothing about its storyline that makes any effort to stand out, it doesn’t even try to make use of its potential or be interesting in any way. It’s just a cookie cutter cutesy idol drama anime with no substance to it at all. Many anime I’ve seen that were similar to this one happened to pull off the premise much better, and the ham-fisted drama near the end really didn’t endear me to it at all. It doesn’t help that the characters are bland, empty, and have no substance to them at all, and their voice actresses over-act to hell and back, and every single line that comes out of their mouth is hammy, screechy, high pitched, and downright grating on the ears, which is a shame because I know these actresses can put on MUCH better performances.

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Dr. STONE New World P2 – 3/4/5 [Deal Game, Test of Wit/Battle in Three Dimensions/Total War]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dr.STONE

Welcome all, to an incredibly late post! I had was traveling last weekend decided to just merge a few weeks of Dr. STONE together. It’s one of the harder shows to write for, especially with episodes like 2 weeks ago that are basically just one big scene, so its easier to just merge them. Anyways, without further ado lets dive into these episodes of Dr. STONE!

First up we have episode 3, “Deal Game, Test of Wit”, which centers largely around Moz. As it turns out, he knew, or suspected, Kohaku and co were intruders the entire time! So when Amaryllis fled after Ginro and Kohaku were petrified, he followed her all the way to their cave hideout. And of course, none of them really have the ability to actually beat Moz. So the question becomes: How the hell do they get out of this situation? Enter Gen. As far as episodes go, this was decent. While watching Gen talk someone down was fun, it’s not really what Dr. STONE is best at, you know? We got minimal science, lots of internal monologues and face zooms, it just wasn’t exciting. Everyone knew Moz wasn’t going to kill them, this isn’t the petrification beam, they can’t come back from that. So there wasn’t to much tension there.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 16 [Thunderclap]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to another episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! This week was a bit of a banger with 2 fights concluding and villains slowly getting taken off the board. One by one characters are going down leaving us to wonder who will be left by the end. There’s a fair bit to talk about so lets dive in!

Starting off, let’s talk production. As a whole, I would say this was one of Jujutsu Kaisen’s most memorable episodes. The Jogo vs Sukuna fight looked fantastic, heavily stylized in ways I imagine some might not like, but for me fantastic. I love it when animators are allowed to do whatever the hell they want with a scene, and that feels like exactly what we got here. As was mentioned by one of our readers in the discord, Kimjosh, this episode, as well as the Choso one, was apparently done outside of the usual production cycle. This means that, by my understanding at least, they were most likely started earlier and given more time than is usual. Regardless, the effect on the episode was obvious. Literally the only bad things I can say about it, visually, is that Jujutsu Kaisen was once again cursed by Japanese TV anti-seizure laws. Damn you Porygon, damn you…

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