Spy X Family – 6 [The Friendship Scheme]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Welcome back everyone, to another week of SpyXFamily. This episode Yor struggles with her maternal feelings, Loid has a mental breakdown and Anya finally goes to school! Without further ado, lets dive in.

Starting off with the visuals, I am sad to say that this episode left something to be desired. Filled with a lot of still posing, sliding backgrounds and teleporting characters, it simply isn’t comparable to last weeks effort. This isn’t to say every episode has to be a sakuga fest, last week was a treat. On top of that SpyXFamily definitely tried to be smart with how it used its limitations. Anya teleporting around was used to emphasize cuteness while a lot of the still frames focused on the comedic facial reactions of the characters. This is all fine. I just think that some scenes, such as Yor saving Anya from the kidnappers for example, suffered from this more economic style of production. And that’s a shame.

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Dance Dance Danseur – 6 [Why Am I Doing Ballet?]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dance Dance Danseur

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of Dance Dance Danseur! This week we begin a new arc, Jumpei get’s chewed out and Luou becomes a tad more competitive. Interested? Then lets jump right in!

Starting off, lets talk about something I mentioned last week: Consequences. I said that I was annoyed that Jumpei hadn’t had any for that stunt he pulled on stage, and that I hoped they were coming. Well? Here they are. Much to my delight, despite how impressed Godai was by it, not everyone else was so happy. I doubt that the Moms pulling their kids out of the school will cause any lasting damage of course. The economic viability of the Godai school simply isn’t what Danseur is about. But that isn’t what I like about this either. What I like is that Jumpei is being forced to recognize the consequences of his actions. And as such, is seeking to not only rectify them but to ensure they don’t happen again. It’s a moment of possible character growth for him. One I’m glad to see Danseur picked up on.

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These – 31-33

by AidanAK47, posted in Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These

Well we are down to the second last post of this season…or at least I would say that but it’s been confirmed that we are getting another season of this so my job is once again far from over. Don’t take that to mean I dislike that this is continuing as four seasons is a massive rarity for most series and to see a show with the quality of Logh get it is well deserved. Moving on to the episodes It’s a bit odd to start with a staff officer giving a painting to a sickly man and a rather cryptic musing over how the officer was surprised at the lack of a pet in his room. I would say that this is a remark akin to “Grass is greener on the other side” as the sickly man claiming the officer as his ideal. So the remark about disabled individuals having pets who could do things that they could not is in reference to how the sickly man views the officer but fails to see that just like pets, there are restrictions to the freedoms given. As for Maries conversation with Reinhard, I feel she is giving Braunschweig far too much credit if she thinks he simply lost due to three things. He displayed incompetence in almost every area that it’s hard to even imagine how be could best Reinhard, in truth the only thing he succeeded at was pushing his subordinate to kill Kircheis which was mainly delagation. Though her assertion that an enemy was needed in order to grow a nation is a fascinating one. When you think about it this is similar to the idea of how competition helps to improve a product or service. If nothing threatens your position then you have no drive to improve and something which is a point of comparison. People have a tendency to place a group in an “other” category either by difference of opinion or status and part of what may drive a person is the desire to “Not be them” An enemy may be a good term for such a person or group and it’s an amusing concept to have something whose purpose is to prove you are above it. Nobody wants to lose or be beaten by something they have deemed counter to their core beliefs so it would be a curious thought that the strive for innovation and improvement be derived from a negative source.
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Now and Then, Here and There – 13 [Now and Then, Here and There]- Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

This is it everyone, we have made it to the end of Now and Then, Here and There. It’s been a wild ride, a tragic one to. Without further ado though I present to you, the final episode on this season of Throwback Thursday. And remember to vote on the next one in the poll at the end of this post! wink wink.

So yeah… the finale. I have to say that I was surprised. Now and Then ended on a much more hopeful note than I was expecting. I figured that it would go for the “Scare you straight” kind of ending. One where literally everyone dies and there is no happy ending. The kind that makes it painfully clear what happens if we make it this far down the path. Instead though what we got was much more bittersweet and hopeful. People still died, and we will talk about all of that, but it was mostly the old guard. The ones who were either complicit in the system or to deep in to be pulled back out again. Leaving all those looking for peace alive to build a future, for the most part. A sort of “It worked out in the end”, even with all the tragedy.

In some ways it was a bit more sudden than I was expecting, but for the most part it works. Now lets talk details!

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Spy X Family – 5 [Will They Pass or Fail]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Welcome everyone, to another episode of SpyXFamily! This week has everything. Action, wholesome family moments, a few jokes. It’s the perfect example of what an anime adaptation of an existing property could, and should, be. What do I mean? Well lets jump in and talk about it.

To say that SpyXFamily is getting a good adaptation would be an understatement. Kazuhiro Furuhashi and his team are going above and beyond this week, taking what was an otherwise pretty standard wholesome family chapter and turning it into an action-packed event. The whole sequence in the castle? With the balls, the quiz, the tower? That’s all anime original. The manga had the concept yes, the agents that got brought in and playing “Save the Princess” with Anya. But it only went so far as to knock over a table and call that a “prison”. The small fight with Yor was the only action the chapter had. So to see it expanded upon like this, to be turned into a sequence that can carry an episode, an excuse for absolutely fantastic animation? I think it just goes to show how dedicated this team are to making SpyXFamily a success.

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Dance Dance Danseur – 5 [I Can’t Die Now]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dance Dance Danseur

Ladies and gentleman, this episode of Dance Dance Danseur might just be my episode of the season. There’s so much love here and we have so little time to talk about it, so lets just jump right into it!

Obviously the first thing we need to talk about is that beautiful performance. Danseur really came out swinging this week with this rendition of Swan Lake. Not in terms of animation sadly, we haven’t gotten much 2D ballet work since Luou’s gym performance in episode 3. Instead MAPPA used CGI for all of those scenes this week, and it was painfully obvious. They stuck out like a sore thumb anytime Danseur switched to a wide shot with multiple characters and complex movement. It’s a shame, definitely the low point of the episode. But even with those, what stuck in my head after watching wasn’t the CGI models. Instead it was all of the beautifully lit and detailed still frames. The expressions on Jumpei, Miyako and Luou’s faces throughout, and prior to, the performance. Or the incredibly framed full-body posing with extreme lighting and camera angles. These were all fantastic.

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Now and Then, Here and There – 12 [This Bloody Earth]- Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the penultimate episode of Now and Then, Here and There! This week sees… well, it sees a lot. Bullets fly, people die and Hamdo re-enters the picture. Is it any good? Lets jump in and find out.

Overall I think this was an interesting week. It doesn’t add anything as a follow up to last weeks topic regarding abortion, children, pro-life etc, but I think that’s for the best. I stand by what I said last week, how I didn’t agree with its politics or what it was trying to say, so moving on was probably the best option. The worst thing to come out of that was how, thematically, it feels a little disjointed. But once you get into the episode and start experiencing what is happening I think the shift is negligible. Basically what I’m saying is: Now and Then had a small bump last week but we are now back on track and stuff is happening. So lets talk about this weeks tragedies.

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Spy X Family – 4 [The Prestigious School’s Interview]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

This is it everyone. This is, for me, the perfect episode of SpyXFamily. It had everything. Layered jokes, wholesome family moments, good animation. There was even a one-off episode “villain” to watch be defeated. My opening review is: I loved it. Now lets talk about why.

Last week I said I didn’t enjoy episode 3, for what I thought were pretty good reasons. The jokes were simple and flat, the episodes plot was largely toothless and the only engaging bit was the wholesome family moments. Well I am pleased to announce that, as expected, SpyXFamily fixes all of those in episode 4. First and foremost among those being: The jokes. The best way I can put it is that if last weeks jokes were bland, one-off, ham & cheese sandwich’s this weeks were multi-layered, multi-meat subs. Even when repeated there was enough going on that you found different flavors, different things to enjoy, each time they came up. Have I confused you with my weird sandwich metaphor? You blame the dinner I’m eating as I write this then. To help illustrate what I’m talking about though, lets break down one of the jokes after the break.

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Dance Dance Danseur – 4 [I Can Do Ballet Now]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dance Dance Danseur

Welcome back everyone, to another week of Dance Dance Danseur. This week we follow up with Luou on the bullying, Jumpei embraces ballet and the show becomes just a tad bit more Shounen. What does that mean? Read on to find out.

Right off the bat I want to, once again, praise Danseur for its visuals. The eyes still look off in wide shots sadly. I think the lines just do not look good without the proper tapering and details provided by the closeups. There was also an issue regarding Miyako’s tutu just being a static image moving across the screen rather than any kind of animation. But I find both of these to be ultimately small, almost irrelevant, issues. Neither of them changes how good the character movement is. Especially the legs! Oh how I love the legs in Danseur. The attention to detail on their form, the way the joints move, the careful way they must be posed and walk during a ballet… I find it beautiful. I haven’t been able to fill hunger for dance since the Princess Tutu Throwback Thursday series, so this has been a welcome find.

And as for the narrative? Well that was pretty damn good too.

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Now and Then, Here and There – 11 [Eve of Destruction]- Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to what is inevitably going to be a late post about Now and Then, Here and There! How do I know it will be late? Because I’m off traveling for work all day Thursday and I haven’t started writing this until Wednesday. So if I somehow manage to get it up on time make sure to tell me I did a good job. No please, Pavlov really works. Enough with the intro though, lets dive into the episode!

This week is a strong one. To lay it out in plain terms, this week was all about children and whether or not it is just to bring them in to a dying world. Now and Then poses this question to us through two different sets of characters: Lala and Sis, as well as Sara and Shu. With the answer to both of those being an unequivocal “yes”. On the surface, I think this is a pretty interesting question for the series. Especially when you look at how Now and Then has treated children, the future, prior to this in the show. As you dig deeper into it and look at the situations surrounding how Now and Then answers this question… It’s starts to get a little bit concerning. Even, dare I say it, a tad political. That’s right everyone, strap in, it’s time to talk abortion politics in anime.

This is gonna suck.

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