Vinland Saga S2 – 8 [An Empty Man]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week of Vinland Saga! This week continues Einar and Thorfinn’s quest to grow wheat, as well as delving a bit further into how they both feel about this whole “slavery” thing. Sound fun? Good, cause it is. Now lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, a fun fact for everyone. The opening scene of this episode might feel like it comes out of nowhere to some, shoving us into the end of one of Thorfinn’s nightmares. What might surprise you to learn however is that this is the last moment of a 2 minute short released on Youtube, for free! From what I heard it was because they animated it but couldn’t figure out how to fit it into the episode. Whatever the reason, it’s a small bit of action and a longer look into exactly the kind of stuff Thorfinn dreams about. Becoming his old self again, how many families and people he killed for no reason, his usual sort of PTSD. I recommend you go take a look, I’ll link to it here for you!

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The Fire Hunter – 7 [Chance Encounter]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Fire Hunter

Welcome everyone, to another week of Fire Hunter! I’ll admit, I wasn’t looking forward to much to writing this post, as Fire Hunter has done little of praise recently. And that hasn’t changed this week either! But I can’t just not write whenever the episode bad. If I do that this season will take forever. So lets dive right in shall we?

Before I get to negative, I will give Fire Hunter some praise. This week sees our leads finally meet up and get together, and it’s great. Not just because there is some payoff in watching these two storylines intersect, but also because it cuts down on the number of black-screen cutaways. I can’t understate how much I hate these cutaways. Not only do they completely break the flow of the episode and ruin transitions, they are just downright lazy. So seeing those start to peter out as Touko and Koushi intersect, cutting down on the number of different groups, was really nice to see. Hopefully as Fire Hunter progresses these groups continue to intersect, until they become one smooth narrative.

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Kaina and the Great Snow Sea – 7 [Fortress Nation]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kaina and the Great Snow Sea

Note: Turns out, I forgot to hit post on this earlier this week. Um… Oops?

Welcome all, to another week of Kaina and the Great Snow Sea! This week sees our heroes explore Valghia, make some friends, and maybe even begin a resistance movement. How do they do it? Well lets dive in and find out!

Immediately, I need to say that Valghia as a location is just awesome. Everything about it, from its construction to the people, is just inspired. It looks so massive and monolithic from the outside, this enormous titan of a ship. Yet the inside is a rickety strung together mess of wood, filled with small crevices and barely holding rivets. It’s clear how the inside has slowly been built up over the years, as there’s no uniformity to plan to the layout. Just people building what they can where they can. And this is all reflected in the people as well! All of them survivors and refugees of other nations huddled together in the bowels of the ship, no true comradery or national identity among them. Just like the ship itself, the very nation of Valghia is this hastily constructed “thing” that could shatter at any moment. I love it.

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Wolf’s Rain – 1/2 [City of Howls/Toboe, Who Doesn’t Howl] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday, Wolf's Rain

Welcome everyone, to the next season of Throwback Thursday! This edition? The 2003 Studio Bones piece, Wolf’s Rain, directed by Tensai Okamura of Memories and Darker than Black fame. Is it any good? Or will it be the anime equivalent of Twilight? Lets dive in and find out!

Starting off, lets talk visuals. I really like how Wolf’s Rain looks! It’s very animated, lots of character movement and effects, snappy designs and cel animation. It’s all very… 90s. Like the last call of a dying breed, Wolf’s Rain feels like a show that doesn’t belong in the modern era. Which makes sense considering how much of its crew is made up of the Cowboy Bebop team, and fits the premise of the show well. Now I do have some concerns, as during my preparation for this season I learned about the 4 recap episodes (Which we will be skipping) as well as the finale being knocked back to the OVA (Which we will be watching). I’m curious just how long Wolf’s Rain can keep this kind of production up, what with SARS and all. Personally though? I really hope it can, because it looks great so far.

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Vinland Saga S2 – 7 [Iron Fist Ketil]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Welcome everyone, to another (late) post this week, this time for Vinland Saga! Turns out that when one post gets pushed back by a day or 2, so does everything else. Good thing I already have Wolf’s Rain done for tomorrow or else I’d be in a pickle. My struggle to consistently put out content aside, lets dive into the episode!

Getting into the episode, so far in Vinland Saga we’ve had 2 distinct worlds/stories. The first is, of course, Ketil’s farm where the focus in on Thorfinn, Einar, and building things up. The second though is the war front, with Canute, Thorkell, and a focus on death and destruction. These two stories have, so far, been completely separate and diametrically opposed. So why do I bring up the obvious? Because, slowly but surely, these two worlds are starting to intersect. Because this week Thorgil, Ketil’s elder son and the embodiment of everything Einar hates, of what Thorfinn used to be, has returned to the farm. And in just a single day he’s already begun to stoke not only Olmar’s dreams of going to war, but violence on the farm itself.

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The Fire Hunter – 6 [The Capital]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Fire Hunter

Hello everyone, and welcome to a (Very late) episode of Fire Hunter! Apologies for that, this was a busy weekend for me as I have to write another 5 page report. The joys of grad school. Still, the show must go on, and after this I have to write up a Wolf’s Rain post. So lets get right to it!

This episode I have a whole new nitpick for Fire Hunter’s visuals. Up until now I’ve largely harped on the animation and lack of detail, the sort of core issues that show up in every scene. This week though? This week I want to rage against the lighting. Because my god, it feels like some scenes were just… half finished. Just look at the buildings when Touko and co arrive in the capital for instance. Some of them stand brightly lit and beautiful, while their immediate next door neighbors look pitch black. Alternatively, look at when Akira the fire hunter collapsed from exhaustion in the house. She’s lit as if there isn’t a single light in the house, while her surroundings are bright. It feels like two different drawings with different understandings of the lighting forced into the same scene, with no work done to correct them.

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Kaina and the Great Snow Sea – 6 [Ririha in a Cage]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kaina and the Great Snow Sea

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of the season and another episode of Kaina and the Great Snow Sea! This is a bit of a slower week, even with Kaina’s pacing, and perhaps one of the chlllest rescue missions I’ve ever witnessed. But was it bad? Lets dive in and find out!

Starting off, like I said above, this was a bit of a slow week even by Kaina standards. That isn’t automatically a bad thing of course, if the content is interesting then what’s the problem, right? And there was definitely plenty of interesting stuff, as we saw Ririha’s rescue and our first up-close glimpse of Valghia. Toss in a few more small character moments, such as Ririha quietly whispering her thanks in the crate or her father thinking her dead and asking for her forgiveness, and you have a fine episode. Its just that, personally, I was hoping for something a bit more… impactful? Some kind of meeting between Kaina and the Admiral, or some other confrontation of sides. Something to set them against each other on a personal level beyond the Admiral just being a stereotypical sadistic bad-guy. So it wasn’t bad, just didn’t fully scratch that itch.

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Michiko & Hatchin Anime Review – 62/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Michiko e Hatchin, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

Found Family is one of my favorite themes across media. From Bridge Four in Sanderon’s Stormlight Archive to Tokyo Godfathers, possibly my single favorite animated movie of all time. Beautiful stories about coming together for who you are rather then who you were born to. It’s especially pervasive across anime, found in everything from action packed Shounen like One Piece to serious character dramas like Seirei no Moribito. And today, I’m here to talk to you about one more. An original series from the now defunct Studio Manglobe, and Sato Yamamato’s, since responsible for Yuri on Ice and The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, full length directorial debut, I give to you a Found Family story with a bit of Latin flair. That’s right, you clicked on the review already knowing what it was, so let’s dive right in to Michiko & Hatchin.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Michiko & Hatchin. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin Anime Review – 62/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Vinland Saga S2 – 6 [I Want a Horse]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Welcome back everyone, to another week of Vinland Saga! This week sees us return to Thorfinn and Einar as they continue their quest to build a farm. Doesn’t sound all that exciting right? Yet for me it was one of the most thematic and emotionally poignant episodes of the year so far. So without further ado, lets dive into it!

Right off the bat, from visual cues alone, you can see in how much better a place Thorfinn is. His hair is pulled back, allowing us to see his face, and his eyes shine with a depth they previously lacked. Thorfinn also walks straighter, with less of a hunch, and he overall seems much cleaner. On top of that, he’s also talking much more. A lot of it is softly-spoken sure, and he is still rather demure. But he’s much more willing to ask questions of people. And he even raises his voice when it’s just him and Einar working the farm, clearly feeling more comfortable expressing himself! All these small things come together to paint Thorfinn as a completely different person then he was when we last left him. It’s like he’s been born again almost, both literally and figuratively.

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The Fire Hunter – 5 [The Spider Child]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, The Fire Hunter

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week of Fire Hunter! I apologize for the delay, I was celebrating a friends birthday this weekend and so I wasn’t able to work on this until Monday. We have a lot to talk about this week, as a small glimmer of hope shines through Fire Hunter’s myriad of problems. So without further ado, lets dive into it!

Starting off, I’ve harped against Fire Hunter’s visuals for a while now. And while it continues to degrade and get worse and worse, this week I wanted to harp on something else: The pacing. More than the disappointing visuals and lackluster story presentation, I think the format of the episodes themselves are what’s holding Fire Hunter back. Simply put, Fire Hunter is killing itself with how it communicates to the viewer. Take the end of the episode as a prime example of this! A whale breaking the oceans surface behind the boat, this moment of monumental natural beauty in a dystopian world. But how do we lead into that? A stare down, ominous music, dogs growling, and a sudden, shitty cut. This should have been an easy slam dunk of a scene! Instead it falls on its face, like the rest of the episode.

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