Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 13 [Red Scale]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! This episode is basically one big fight, no big narrative moments, no huge revelations (yet), just the meaty crunch of fists on faces. And you know what? It’s pretty good! Lets go ahead and jump on into why.

Starting off, let’s talk production. I’ve been critical of Jujutsu Kaisen for the past few episodes. Talking about melt, issues behind the scenes, all that jazz. And a lot of that is still present in this episode as well. Some closeups still look meh, the contrasting red and blue looks fantastic in wide shots but doesn’t translate well to many of the closeups, that sort of stuff. Basically there were a lot of good ideas, but some of the execution was off. Overall though… God this episode is stylistically beautiful. It’s rough at times, yes, but there was clearly a vision behind it all. The shading, the fluid animation, the dynamic action, the board, the freaking POV shots. If you break it down frame-by-frame you can nitpick the hell out of it. In motion though, this might be one of my favorite episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen, visually, in a while.

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The Big O – 7/8 [The Call from The Past/Missing Cat] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome back everyone, to week 4 of The Big O! Last week was a bit of a miss for me, neither episode was particularly great, though one still stood above the other. This week was much better however with two great episodes, one of which might be my favorite episode so far. We have a lot to talk about, so lets just jump right into it!

Getting started, first up is episode 7, “The Call from The Past”. This was a fun one. Nothing particularly deep, metaphorically at least, just Roger and Angel hanging out and getting to know each other a bit more. We learn about what her job really is, hunting down valuable memories for money, and we get hints towards something more there she isn’t yet ready to share. Those scars on her backs, suspiciously placed like someone had ripped the wings off of an angel. A little on the nose maybe, but it’s effective in catching my eye, in telling me “Just wait, there’s something there”. That’s good, Big O is promising us something more down the line, telling us to keep an eye on her and really pay attention to how she acts. This way, when it’s all inevitably revealed, it won’t feel like it came out of nowhere.

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Migi & Dali – 3 [Let’s Make Friends]

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

Welcome all, to week 3 of Migi & Dali! This week our lovable twins go outside, make some friends, case some houses and beat a child senseless. Did that sound like it escalated? Good, because that’s what the episode did. Without further ado, lets dive in!

Overall I thought this was a good episode, I’m continuing to enjoy Migi & Dali quite a bit. Something about its odd balance of comedy and unnerving horror, how it infuses every scene with this sense that something is wrong, just does it for me. Take this episode for instance. Ostensibly it’s about the twins trying, failing and then lucking into, making some friends. There’s some classic anime bullying, it’s par for the course. But when looked at through the larger lens of the series, something you’re forced to do as every episode starts and ends talking about the murder of their mother, it becomes much more… eerie. These kids don’t actually want friends, they want to sneak into houses to see if any match their memories. They aren’t naïve, they know about the bullying, they just don’t care because it’s a means to an end. It’s… creepy. I love it!

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Dr. STONE New World P2 – 1 [The Kingdom of Science’s Counter Attack!]

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

Welcome all, to the 2nd new show of Fall Season, Dr. STONE! This is the continuation of the same season I covered earlier in the year, finishing up the Treasure Island arc. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, and we have a lot to talk about, so lets jump right in!

Starting off, can I just make it clear how happy I am that Dr. STONE is back? I had missed its special brand of Problem -> Solution -> Problem -> Solution. Something about how Dr. STONE specifically does it is just so good, like one big Humanity Fuck Yeah story. If I had to guess, I’d wager a lot of why it works is down to how the series solves its problems. The science behind it, while not perfect we can all admit this is anime-ified, works conceptually. Stuff like making air pockets under water to properly pour liquids, or crafting oxygen tanks out of existing pieces of metal and pumping them up themselves. Realistically, we know they couldn’t do this. But the way Dr. STONE portrays it, the effort they put in, the way it’s explained… It just sort of works. And like any good hard-magic system, that’s rewarding.

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Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 2

by Lenlo, posted in Weekly Summary

Hello everyone! Like I said in the last preview, I’m bringing back the weekly summary. These aren’t going to be anywhere near as in depth or long as my normal posts, just me rambling a bit about what else I’m watching this season. I’d wager each will be about a paragraph long. Still, my hope is that these will give everyone a place to talk about the rest of the shows this season. Some of these might have this opening blurb if I have anything to say, like if I have to take a break or something for travel, but most probably won’t. Anyways, announcement out of the way, lets go!

Frieren – 5 [Phantoms of the Dead]

This was a pretty cool episode, and alleviated a fair number of my fears after the big premier. Remember when I said I was concerned about the journey? That as much as I loved the show, I wasn’t 100% on it? Well that was because I was afraid it would become more of an “adventure” and that Frieren would lose sight of what made me love it, the way it examined the passage of time and what it means. Luckily though, that wasn’t the case! Already, one episode in on this journey, and we have a conversation about legacy, grief and how we remember our loved ones. Stuff like Fren saying she would be fine, only to have a harder time facing Heiter’s “ghost” than she thought was nice. Same for Freiren’s almost offended reaction to Himmel’s, as well as even his “ghost” telling her to shoot him. The monster’s own power backfired on it! On top of that we also meet Stark, Eisen’s protégé, like they are almost rebuilding the party they had all those years ago with the next generation. It’s cool, and I’m looking forward it.

To touch on Stark real quick, I’m not huge on him yet. Zenitsu from Kimetsu no Yaiba has made me really wary of “Coward” fighters. And I get that isn’t his thing, he’s not a coward he’s just untested, and even when faced with a dragon he still stood up to it. Plus his relation to Eisen, who has his own past about running away and regretting it, makes it pretty clear he will grow as they journey. He’s also not at all weak, having carved that channel in the mountain, so he won’t hold them back. So it’s not that I hate him, I don’t. I just don’t love him as much as I do Frieren yet, which I think is fair.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 12 [Dull Knife]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to another episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! This is a rough week I’m afraid. The melt is setting in, and as compelling as Nanami is as a character he can’t carry the episode on his back when he’s only around at the end. Curious what I mean? Well lets dive in and talk about it!

Like I said in the intro, this week was rough for Jujutsu Kaisen visually. Don’t get me wrong, it still had some good moments. Shunsuke Okubo, making his directorial debut, did the best they could with a failing production. From cool angles to a heavy focus on character faces, expression and heavy shading, he made some scenes pop. Just look at basically every scene Nanami was in for examples of that. On top of that, a lot of the VA work was top tier. But outside of those the way the actual characters moved was rough. They were choppy, static, felt like there was a lot of trouble keeping them on model and actually looking like the characters. In most shows, were this their consistent level of animation, it wouldn’t be a huge knock against them. But with Jujutsu Kaisen, which started very very strongly, this continual decline, along with news from behind the scenes, paints a grim picture of the future.

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The Big O – 5/6 [Bring Back My Ghost/A Legacy of Amadeus] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome all, to week 3 of The Big O! This week gives us another pair of Monster-Of-The-Week stories. One follows a ghosts quest for revenge, the other an androids memory of its father. Are they any good? Lets dive in and find out!

First up we have episode 5, “Bring Back My Ghost”. To cut right to it, I felt like this episode was the first real miss of Big O’s run. The core of the story is split between an old woman wanting to see her family for her birthday and a son, murdered by corrupt cops, out for revenge. On the one hand we have a mothers tale about bad people still loving their family, having wants, desires and feelings despite being ostensibly horrible people. Yet because we spent so little time with her, instead focusing on the son, it ended up feeling underbaked and ultimately toothless. Meanwhile on the other hand we have the sons story, which did little more than remind us how corrupt Paradigm City is, not telling us much more than that. And together? Well they don’t really fit together at all. That’s the problem.

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Migi & Dali – 2

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

Welcome all, to the first show of the new season: Migi & Dali! I loved this one so much I just had to cover it. It’s so weird and out there that it felt like the dark horse of the season. And so far, 2 episodes in, I’m feeling vindicated by that! So without further ado, lets jump in.

Starting off, Migi & Dali continues to have really solid direction. The use of music, the shot composition, scenes like the twins slithering around like snakes only to cut it all off, music and everything, for a gag as the door bursts open. It somehow manages to be comedic without losing that underlying creepiness that made me interested in it. All of the jokes are just presented in such an unnerving manner that, until the punchline hits, you can’t tell if they are even mean to be jokes or not. Setups are done such that they could easily be misunderstandings through the eyes of naïve children or nefarious secrets if played straight, making you unable to properly dismiss them. It’s like the show is outright telling you something is up so clearly that it almost wants you to call its bluff. Everything about it is just so clever like that!

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Fall 2023 Impressions: Hoshikuzu Telepath, Kawagoe Boys Sing, Whats Left?

by Lenlo, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Hoshikuzu Telepath

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Konohoshi Umika is a high-schooler who is very bad at communicating with others. Feeling almost like an alien trapped on Earth with nowhere to belong, one day she meets a girl who claims to be an actual alien!

Had this just stuck to the girl really really liking aliens then it could have been cute. Instead though Telepath decided to go full social ignoramus, missing even the most basic of social ques with an equally ridiculous secondary girl. This is like Bocchi the Rock all over again, except while both handle their subject of socially challenged kids poorly, one was at least spectacularly animated and produced. Don’t get me wrong, Telepath looks fine, better than a lot of things airing this season actually. But it’s also not the best. It also doesn’t help that while watching it I had to check multiple times to see how close we were to the end, making a 20 minute episode feel like an hour. Maybe I’m just not built for these social outcast shows where the outcasts are always depicted as cute girls with no actual issues and yuri-bait non-romance. Still, I’ve seen enough friends rave about it that I’m willing to accept this is a me thing more than anything else. After all, I praise Bocchi in this very post and I didn’t like that either. Probably just not my thing, if your looking for socially inept children interacting than you will probably have a good time here.
Potential: 5%

Kawagoe Boys Sing

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The story is about the Kawagoe School Boys Choir Club and their instructor, a former orchestra conductor named Haruo Hibiki. The club members’ personalities clash, but Haruo helps them grow together through singing, as they aim for the nationals of the Boys Choir contest.

Ok this might come across as rude, but no matter how good the singing is, the Engrish just completely ruins it for me. Were they singing in Japanese, or had actual English singers like the My Hero Academia Culture Festival, everything would be fine. But as a native English speaker, it makes all of the music sound discordant and amateurish. Pair that with a generally rather annoying teaching and a generic plot and I’m not really feeling any of it.
Potential: 0%

What”s Left

With that we come to the awkward point in the season where there are only 3 shows left to cover and none of them come out anytime soon. So what do we do? Dr. STONE I’m obviously going to be covering, I love it and I want to continue to give it love. But what about Dog Signal and Kusuriya? Well this is my plan. I’m going to wait until both are released, give them their own preview post, and then once all are out I’ll drop the seasonal awards. Between now and then though I’m going to continue the season as normal, posting about the shows I’m watching when I have the time to write them up. I’m also going to try and bring back the Weekly Update, just so y’all can see a bit of what I’m watching outside of my main coverage. Hope everyone enjoys that, I want to spread the content around a bit and this is the best way I can see to do that. Thanks for reading and see y’all throughout the season!

Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 11 [Seance]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to another late episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! Apologies for that, seasonal premiers are taking a lot of my writing time. I haven’t even started the Undead Murder Farce review yet! God damnit… Getting back to Jujutsu Kaisen, this week kicks off a few fights, lets a senpai show off and sees the return of one of our greatest villains. Is it any good? Lets dive in and find out!

First up, lets talk production. While Jujutsu Kaisen is still generally solid, this week some cracks have started to appear. From ridiculous close ups designed to obscure the action to some choppy movement, this was one rougher than most episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen. Combine that with MAPPA forcing animators to sign confidentiality agreements and looking for animators on twitter and the signs that production is falling apart are there. While we’re still getting some banger shots for now, seriously I don’t want to underplay how good things like Toji or Itadori’s spiderman shots were, I would not be surprised if Jujutsu Kaisen started to melt in the upcoming weeks. Hopefully that doesn’t happen, I think MAPPA has generally done a good job elevating Gege’s original work. But we can’t just ignore what’s going on in the industry I’m afraid.

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