Now and Then, Here and There – 5 [Murder] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome everyone to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! This week Hamdo see’s some action, Shu figure’s out we aren’t in Kansas anymore and Nabuca and co get sent on a vacation. Does any of that make sense? If not, read on, because we have a fair amount to talk about this week.

Starting off, my initial impression of the episode is… “Meh”. This feels like the most straight forward episode we have had yet, and is the first one I don’t feel enamored with. Not because it does anything wrong, Now and Then still has a reasonable standard of quality to it. Rather it’s because this is the first episode where we, the viewer, don’t learn anything new. Instead, Now and Then chooses to let the characters catch up with us. Because of this the episode largely feels transitionary. Like we are moving from the introductory phase of the story into something else. And in the long term, this is fine! I’ve long maintained that not every individual episode has to be a banger if it enables a banger story. It just means we have to wait and see what Now and Then does with this new direction.

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Eighty Six S2 – 11 [Shin]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Eighty Six has returned everyone! After 3 months everyone’s favorite genocide simulation has come back to finish what it started! I’d say I hope all of you went and rewatched some old episodes for a bit of a refresher, but doing that myself just reminded me how disappointing this season really was. Still, it’s time to bury the hatchet and see if Eighty Six can end on a high note. So lets jump into it!

First up, lets talk about just how good this episode looked. Like seriously, say what you want about the narrative, the Eighty Six team used those 3 months well. This episode looked gorgeous. From the editing to the coloring and animation, it’s like they saved all of their efforts since production started for this. Take Shin’s opening flashback for instance! I absolutely loved the use of foreground silhouettes layered over scenes in the background. The flat black morphing and flowing around the screen, exploding into nothing at the sound of the gunshot, the exaggerated mouth movements and use of negative space. And then we have stuff like the black bars constricting the scene tighter and tighter, Shin reaching out towards it. The story of how we got here may be mediocre but the visuals behind it certainly are not. And this is only the beginning of my visual praise!

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Now and Then, Here and There – 4 [Discord] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Now and Then, Here and There! This is normally where I say something snappy like, “You won’t believe how dark this week got”. Or maybe “This is the darkest week yet!”. But I’m pretty sure you all know this show better than I do, and that we can also get so much darker. So instead this week I’ll just say… Oh god. Now lets jump into it.

Once again I feel the need to point out just how bad the lightning in Now and Then is. I don’t do this to rag on the show, I’m… Ok enjoying might be the wrong word but lets go with it for now, I’m enjoying my time with it. But some shots are just so incredibly hard to see through, or just look like ass. Take the opening shot of the episode in Abelia’s room for instance. What is this diffused filter? Is it supposed to tell me its early morning or something? Everything just looks foggy. Meanwhile the nighttime hallways, like the lynching, are once again impossible to see in. Outside of the, admittedly gorgeous, wide background shots there simply isn’t any complexity or care put into how it shows on screen. And I think that’s a damn shame. Enough about lighting for the nth time though, onto story!

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Now and Then, Here and There – 3 [A Feast in the Dark] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome everyone to what is a very late episode of Now and Then, Here and There! The only excuse I have is Elden Ring which, in my defense, I have put 66 hours into since it came out. Such a great time. That said these posts wait for no man and have to get written eventually. So without further ado lets dive into the episode!

Starting off with a quick non-spoilery mention of the production: This week was largely fine. It seems this is going to be our standard level of animation for awhile. Episode 1 was probably an outlier to get us hooked in. That’s probably OK since Now and Then doesn’t seem like a particularly action heavy show, much more character, scene and atmosphere driven. However I do have one major bugbear that I’ve noticed across all 3 episodes: The backgrounds are way to dark. I get it, they want some stark contrast in lighting, and that does often look good. But more often than not it’s made scenes very difficult to actually see. Characters become hard to make out from the dark backgrounds, the slight differences in shade make it annoying to figure out what exactly we are looking at. They need to increase the contrast in their darks just a bit.

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Ousama Ranking – 18/19 [Battle with Deities/Last Bastion]

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, Ousama Ranking

Why isn’t Ousama Ranking – for all its engaging characters, immersive world, and outstanding animation – the anime I want to watch first every week?  On paper, this show should be perfect – what’s my problem?  This week I think I’ve figured it out.  Let’s take a look!
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Now and Then, Here and There – 2 [A Boy and a Mad King] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome back everyone, to another (late) episode of Now and Then, Here and There! Hey, remember when everyone kept telling me in the comments to get ready, it’s going to get dark? Well that’s what happened this week, with no punches pulled. We have a lot to talk about with that so lets dive right into it!

Production-wise this episode was, sadly, not as strong as the first. And I don’t just mean in the animation department, though that was less consistent as well. I mean in the direction and shot-composition. Now to be clear, there are still a lot of great shots in Now and Then. Stuff like Hamdo’s interrogation with the cat or Shu’s fight with Nabuca, those were good! But I also feel like Now and Then’s limited style is starting to work against it a bit. It’s going for these very picturesque shots, with beautiful framing and backgrounds, only to linger on these really limited character designs for like… 20 seconds. It’s necessary for the pacing sure, really driving up the tension. But it’s also not very visually interesting, like with the final shot of Shu in the cell. All in all I would call it passable but slightly disappointing after last week.

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Fate/Grand Order: Final Singularity – The Grand Temple of Time: Solomon Anime Review – 50/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by AidanAK47

I truly wonder if Fate anime will come out ad infinitive just to force me out of retirement. Look I know full well that the reading audience of this blog likely hold little to zero interest in this movie and I truly don’t blame them for doing so. Even I, Fate fanatic that I am, held off on watching this for over a month and can express a degree of ambivalence towards it. As such I might as well admit that this isn’t so much a review but rather a diatribe I was inspired to write after sitting down to push myself though this movie through obligation. But I put my plea to the blogging court, is there truly anyone looking for a review of this movie? It’s a conclusion to a story which 5/7s of which is unadapted to anime and holds appeal mainly for those who spent two years playing a mobile gacha game or those that powered through 160 hours of writing. I can only really assume you are reading this out of some odd fascination with my drivel or an equal interest in this franchise of glorious highs and head to wall bashing lows. But with all things considered I at least need to make an effort to give some sort of opinion on this odd movie.
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Now and Then, Here and There – 1 [A Girl Admiring The Sunset] – Throwback Thursday

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

Welcome one and all to another season of Throwback Thursday! We’ve been on a run of good shows recently, what with Haibane Renmei and The Vision of Escaflowne, so I’m hopeful Now and Then can keep that going. We have a lot to talk about so lets skip the rest of the preamble and jump right into it.

Starting with production, Now and Then looks alright. Color and design wise its pretty basic. Lots of flat colors with little in the way of complex lighting or color blending. Coming from The Vision of Escaflowne, a series released 3 years prior, that’s a bit of a step down. The same thing can be said for the character designs which, by and large, are lacking in complex details and linework. However for all that may sound like a criticism this does give Now and Then one very important benefit: It’s a lot easier to animate. And we can see that in just how much animation it actually has. Like seriously, the amount of small details in these shots, the expressiveness of each characters body and face, is great! I love how every motion is a full-body event. Hopefully it can keep this subtle movement going for its entire run.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 Anime Review 68/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Action, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Reviews by Lenlo

Sequels are beautiful, dangerous things. More often than not you already know what to expect. Is it a series you enjoyed? Then it’s a guaranteed good time. And if it’s something you didn’t? Then you can skip it without having to worry about what could have been. Indeed, it’s rare that a sequel goes off and does it’s own thing, that it wildly changes from whatever formula made it successful before. Why would you when it can bring you the sort of success Kimetsu no Yaiba is experiencing right now? That’s right, Directed by Haruo Sotozaki and animated by studio Ufotable, Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen takes everything you loved about the first season and doubles down on it. Love the fights? The entire season is one big one. Love the visuals? I dare say this season has some of the best yet. And the narrative? We will get to that.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Kimetsu no Yaiba Seasons 1 and 2. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 Anime Review 68/100” →

Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 18 [No Matter How Many Lives]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Hello everyone and welcome to the final post about the second season of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This is going to be a shorter one since I’m prepping the final review but there’s still plenty to talk about. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off lets talk about my overall thoughts for the arc. As a whole I think Yaiba has everything it needs. All the basic beats, all the important core pieces of the narrative. An MC struggling against stronger and stronger foes, a few groupies with distinct personality traits, the mentor and a villain with a tragic backstory. Everything you need for a basic Shounen story is present in this season. So why then for the past few episodes now have I really only praised Yaiba’s production, which is indeed rather good. I’ll be answering this question more in depth in my final review but I can answer the spirit of the question now: The way Yaiba tells its story is very simple and straight forward, the most basic of Shounen tropes. And to prove my point I want to talk about the core of this weeks episode, the Demon’s backstory.

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