Ousama Ranking – 15/16/17

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, Ousama Ranking

There’s not an easy way to put this – I just haven’t been as into anime lately.  Aside from Yaiba which finished out this week (excellently, I might add) and Ousama Ranking, I find myself frequently falling behind or skipping through episodes I otherwise would have enjoyed.  Maybe I’m just getting old -maybe this just isn’t the best season.  No matter my complaints, Ousama Ranking’s latest trio of episodes – which have taken me so long to write about – are certainly doing their part to keep the flame alive.

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The Vision of Escaflowne Anime Review 79/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Reviews by Lenlo, The Vision of Escaflowne, Throwback Thursday

If you’re a fan of Mecha odds are you’ve heard of Shouji Kawamori. The man has done mechanical design for movies like Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell to a few Gundam Wing OVAs and even Eureka Seven. He’s been in the industry, working on robots, for over 40 years now. And in that time he’s come up with a few original series of his own! But of those only a few can truly be said to have been written by him. One is Aquarion. Another is Arjuna. And the last, and very first he ever did full composition for himself, is what we are here to talk about today. Directed by Kazuki Akane of Noein fame and animated by the studio defined by Mecha, Sunrise, I bring to you: The Vision of Escaflowne. Lets dive in.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for The Vision of Escaflowne. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “The Vision of Escaflowne Anime Review 79/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 17 [Never Give Up]

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

Welcome everyone to the penultimate episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba S2! I’ve heard some rumblings comparing this to the fabled Episode 19 of Season 1, and you know what? They aren’t to far off. So without further ado lets dive in!

For now lets start positive with the production. Because as anyone with eyes can see, this week was rather pretty. You could probably argue that Yaiba went a bit to heavy on the effects in places. It’s certainly not a style everyone will enjoy, especially not those who value subtle, realistic movement. But even those folks would have to agree that what Yaiba did this week was technically impressive. Nozomu Abe, Masayuki Kunihiro, and others really nailed the sense of 3D space. I especially liked the heavier linework you’ll see in Abe’s scene I linked below the break. If you’ve read me for any length of time, that shouldn’t surprise you. I love heavy line work. And Yaiba is one of the few series I can consistently get it in. My only real complaint production wise is the photoreal fire simulations don’t quite fit the rest of the scenes.

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The Vision of Escaflowne – 25/26 [Zone of Absolute Fortune/Eternal Love] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in The Vision of Escaflowne, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to the final episodes of The Vision of Escaflowne! This week is all about war, love, fate and all manner of other cheesy buzzwords. And a quick note, there is a poll at the end of the post for my next series. So without further ado lets dive in!

Starting off, for the last time, the visuals. For all the issues I might have with this ending, this is not one of them. These two episodes had some of the best cuts/animation of Escaflowne’s entire run. In particular I want to point at the final Guymelef between Van and you know who, keeping spoilers for after the break. This is the kind of giant robot fights I want to see. Giant monsters of metal that actually feel like they weight what they should. Sparks flying at every little scrape. The momentum of their blows carrying through their entire body. Yeah there were other good scenes, Dilandau continues to have fantastic faces. But this is what I wanted from Escaflowne’s finale more than any big battle scene. And it makes me happy that I got it.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 16 [Defeating an Upper Rank Demon]

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

Alright everyone its another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba so you know the drill. It’s time to talk pretty lights, simple fights and everyone’s favorite sleepy boy. So without further ado lets dive in!

Starting off some small praise to Yaiba. Visuals continue to look good. To follow up on my point last week about poor camera usage, I want to say the wide shots were some of my favorites this week. Seeing everything in motion together, the belts, the blades, the characters, is always the best for me. That said, there was one Uzui clip in particular that caught my eye. You’ll find it below the break but suffice to say I loved its entire aesthetic. The different colored lights, the sound of fireworks going off, the wide full body shot as he swings his blades. It’s all so in character for Uzui, so his style, yet it falls perfectly within what Ufotable like to do. I’m really glad they found a way to depict his Sound Breathing since they can’t give that proper elemental effects like Tanjiro and Zenitsu.

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The Vision of Escaflowne – 23/24 [Storm Premonition/Fateful Decision] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in The Vision of Escaflowne, Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone and welcome to the penultimate post on The Vision of Escaflowne! This is a big week. Escaflowne throws my words back in my face, Hitomi pulls off the unexpected and we finally enter the endgame. So without further ado lets dive into the episodes!

Starting off I need to wipe some egg of my face. Last week I had a lot to say about how Escaflowne handled Folken. That there were a lot of missed opportunities, that he should have had some one-on-one time with Hitomi, etc. I say that we need some time for the ramifications of Folken’s betrayal to run through the cast. That a decision like this warrants more than a quick one-off scene. And what happens? Just that! It’s nice in a way that Escaflowne recognized the same problems I did. That it knew it these things needed to happen and just did them in a different way. It actually gives me a good deal of hope for the finale. Because even if they weren’t done perfectly, they were done. And that means someone is paying attention to their story. Now onto the episodes!

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 15 [Gathering]

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

Welcome everyone to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! While last week was the quintessential Yaiba episode, this week is a bit more subdued. Not in the fight or anything like that, more in what you can expect from it. Interested? Then lets jump in! Once you find a site to watch the new episode come back and tune in. You can easily find a free site online, but does anyone know where to watch jackass forever movie?

Immediately I need to get something off my chest: I have issues with Yaiba, and by extension Ufotable’s, animation style. Oh its all technically very good, we can all see that. The lighting, the movements, the coloring, that’s all obviously good. But this week also shows a big issue of mine: The speed. So much of this weeks fight just moved to fast. We cut from camera to camera at lightning speed, the blurs and closeup shots, the overreliance on the 3D camera. I get it, we CAN move like this. But SHOULD we? The episode cut between so many different close ups so quickly it make it difficult to follow what was going on. I almost always found the wide shots, where we could see and follow the characters movements, to be more appealing. Does this mean Yaiba looked bad? No. But it was difficult to follow.

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The Vision of Escaflowne – 21/22 [Reaction of Fortune/The Black Winged Angel] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in The Vision of Escaflowne, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to another (late) post about The Vision of Escaflowne! Where last week was a great example of Escaflowne’smoment to moment storytelling, this week is one of the issues with that approach to narrative. What do I mean? Lets dive in and find out!

To start off, what do I mean by the weaknesses of this moment to moment approach? To put it simply: Escaflowne seems to be focusing on the episode to episode experience, on memorable highs, rather than fitting them into a coherent story. Take the transition between episode 20 into 21 for instance. Hitomi gives herself up to Zaibach for a cliffhanger ending only for that to be resolved almost immediately so that Escaflowne can jump to its next plot thread. It never follows these things through. Instead feeling like its written to jump from cliffhanger to cliffhanger. I want to be clear, Escaflowne is still a grand, fun show. I enjoy watching it. It’s just that because of this I don’t think its going to leave a lasting impression on me beyond “That was fun”.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 14 [Transformation]

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

Welcome to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba everyone! This week Nezuko discovers the power of family, Uzui shows us why he is the God of Festivals and we meet the true villain of the arc. Sound fun? Good. Then without further ado lets dive in!

Starting off I need to, as usual, praise Yaiba for looking good this week. Not just in the animation this time, though the blood blades, lighting and 3D camera work all looked good. Rather I want to praise it for something a lot of anime seem to ignore: Shot composition. There were some really good ones this week! I’m talking stuff like Daki sitting passively behind Uzui, always in the background after his entrance. Or the framing of her brother as he appears out of her back and takes up the whole frame. Uzui and the way he is suspended in the air while dodging blades and tossing out bombs. Yaiba usually looks good in movement, that’s what its known for. But I’m glad to see these slower, wider, epic shots like what we saw with the spider family last season make a return. They are the truly memorable ones.

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