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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Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 6

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Frieren – 10 [A Powerful Mage]

Ah here it is, here’s the Frieren going ham on some demons that I was looking for last week. Don’t get me wrong, last week was great, there’s just something cathartic about watching a villain get absolutely bodied. And when the entire episode is just buildup to that one moment? Walking us through Frieren’s relationship with her master, Flamme, and Flamme’s complete and utter hatred for demons? How they basically embarrass and belittle themselves as mages by hiding their Mana, typically a status symbol among mages and demons alike, just to shatter the pride of demons every chance they get? Frieren being so petty that she not only waits until the last moment to reveal her hand and crush Aura’s spirit, she also doesn’t even kill her herself? Instead telling her to end it LowTierGod style? It was all so very satisfying, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sure it wasn’t the visual spectacle last week was, and if that’s what you were looking for I understand being a bit let down. But for me, last week satisfied all of my “Pretty lights go brr” desires and while week covered my “Compelling characters and narrative go brr” desires. Learning why there are so few elves, the Demon King systematically eliminated them, or the individualism of the demons and how much they prize it, or Lugner’s utter disgust at figuring out what they were doing. It was a good episode, I enjoyed it a lot, as much as I enjoy watching Frieren struggle with the passage of time seeing her clown on some demons is fun to.

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The Big O – 13/14 [R・D/Roger the Wanderer] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome all, to the midway point of Big O! This week sees one season finish and another begin, a finale and a pilot, and let me tell you both are kind of weird. Not in a Migi & Dali way, more of a psychedelic Serial Experiments Lain way. Is that a good thing? Well lets dive in and find out.

First up is episode 13, “R・D”. The most frustrating thing about this episode is that it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. Seriously, if I had to wait 3 years for the next episode like viewers at the time did, instead of the 3 minutes I did today, I’d have gone insane. Really glad we can just skip straight to season 2 because Big O covers a lot in this episode. It feels like things are finally kicking into gear, like it’s finally ready to start tackling the central plot it has been setting up for the past 6 or so episodes, as well as finally diving into Roger as a character. I say “finally” because until now Big O has mostly looked at Roger externally, at his role in Paradigm City at large. But here it starts to explore him internally, and I like that.

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Migi & Dali – 6

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

Welcome all, to another episode of Migi & Dali! Last week was a weird one and this week even more so. Still even with that the episode had some stuff going for it, enough that I’m looking forward to next week. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, Jesus Christ is this show weird. It’s always been weird, but these past 2 weeks have been especially weird. And not in a good way. This week Migi & Dali doubles down on the weird baby stuff to an unsettling degree. In a way I get it. It’s very good at showing us just how screwed up this family is, as well as how important this room is to our protagonists. But Migi & Dali’s presentation of it feels… Kind of icky? Do we need Migi to go all in on it, to want to become the “perfect toddler”, to gleefully suck milk from a bottle or fake falling on his ass because a “toddler” doesn’t know how to walk? It’s all just very uncomfortable for me. As much as I enjoy the actual mystery part of the show, I’m glad this arc is over.

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Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 5

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Frieren – 8/9 [Frieren the Slayer/Aura the Guillotine]

Doubling up this week to try and get current with Frieren for these posts. Don’t want y’all waiting a week and not getting anything until the day the next episode comes out. Last weeks episode 8 was solid. The demons got outed and the conflict started in earnest, forcing Stark and Fern to face them on their own. Meanwhile Frieren fled the town to avoid being labeled a guard-killer, but it was pretty obvious she was heading out to deal with this Aura person. I’d say the best parts of this episode were two fold. The first was Lugners aggravation at geniuses and this idea that demons, despite accumulating experience and focusing on this one thing to the exclusion of all else, can still be outdone by beings they consider “lesser”. The other was the reveal of just how much Frieren hates demons, to the point of specifically teaching Fern a demon-killing version of offensive magic and being regarded as the person to kill the most demons in history. It makes her rematch with Qual earlier feel all the more personal. All in all, solid, had a good time.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 15 [Fluctuations, Part 2]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! This week is a fun one as Toji gets to go off and Sukuna finally makes his appearance! We have a lot to talk about so lets dive into it.

Starting off, lets talk production. Jujutsu Kaisen had a pretty rough time last episode, I don’t think anyone can deny that. So I was pretty nervous going into this episode. Luckily, as terrible as their scheduling and production appears to be behind the scenes, MAPPA pulled it together for this one. It looked great. Toji got to pop off. The only criticisms I have aren’t even MAPPA’s fault, it’s the TV station and their mandatory-by-law seizure prevention dimming and ghosting. That, more than anything else, is what held this episode back. Jujutsu Kaisen fans should look forward to the Blu-ray where that will all be gone. Animation aside, this was also one of the first episodes where I really noticed the OST. There were a lot of good tracks this week that fit their scenes well, from Toji to Sukuna’s arrival. To sum it up? Episode was a good time.

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