Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 5 [Move Forward!]

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

Welcome everyone to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week is going to be a bit of a shorter post, we don’t have to much to talk about. I’ll do my best to cover everything that’s important though so lets dive into it!

Starting off, animation! And like usual Kimetsu no Yaiba fares pretty well here. I especially like the elemental effects. These things continue to be gorgeous, I absolutely love the Ukiyo-e style water and fire effects. The thick, contrasting lines of white and black within these bright colors sets them apart from everything else. And because of how heavily saturated the colors are I find myself not caring about the lack of detail such as shading or how they are composited. Maybe its just my love for heavy blacks, but I think it looks really good and reminds me of cel-shaded animation and games graphics. And on top of all of that the 3D camera work is actually really solid! At least… as long as you ignore the poop tentacles. Yes, you read that right. Poop tentacles. And they look just as ugly as they sound.

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Ousama Ranking – 05 [Intertwining Plots]

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, Ousama Ranking

I’ve been harder on Ousama Ranking than any other reviewer I’ve seen.  I’ve criticized, nitpicked, complained.  But it’s not out of spite – it’s out of love, because I can see the immense potential here.  So let me be the first to say – “Intertwining Plots” was absolutely fantastic.  It earned the highest compliment that I can give a seasonal episode: I watched it twice in a row.  This episode was everything I want out of this show – and more.  Let’s take a look!

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Heike Monogatari – 09

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Heike Monogatari

The year is 1184. Having fled Fukuhara to escape Genji troops, the Heike are forced to undergo several further relocations in order to avoid their pursuers. In the meantime, Go-Shirakawa returns to the capital and crowns a new Emperor in Antoku’s absence, thus undermining the Heike’s plan to return to their former influence. Go-Shirakawa is not without opposition in Kyoto, however; the Genji general Yoshinaka captures him in a bid to strengthen his control of the capital. Yoshinaka plans to launch an attack on his cousin Yoritomo and make himself head of the Genji, but Go-Shirakawa sends a messenger to alert his would-be victim of the plot. With this warning in mind, Yoritomo assigns his calculating half-brother Yoshitsune to attack the capital, resulting in Yoshinaka’s death. As this Genji infighting plays out, the Heike return to Fukuhara and make a stand at the Battle of Ichi-no-tani, but are outmaneuvered and forced to flee once more, their troops having been reduced to a mere 3000.

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The Vision of Escaflowne – 1/2 [Fateful Confession/The Girl From the Mystic Moon] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in The Vision of Escaflowne

Hello everyone and welcome to a new season of Throwback Thursday! This time, for those who weren’t already aware, we are watching The Vision of Escaflowne from the late, great Studio Sunrise! I say late, they are still making anime today but how much of it is any good. No seriously, how much, I don’t watch Gundam or Aikatsu. Anyways my bad jokes aside, lets dive into it!

And what better place to start than my old reliable, the visuals! Initial impressions: I quite like how Escaflowne looks. It has all the hallmarks of the cel-era of animation, as it should since it was made in the 90s. I’m talking heavy, saturated colors instead of the more modern pastels and the uneven linework you just don’t find in digital. On top of that it also makes use of heavy blacks in some of its more dramatic moments, a style I’ve loved since I first saw it in late 90’s comic books. And then we have the character designs! These people are long and angular, with sharp edges all over their outlines. I love it! It makes them feel so much older than a lot of modern series where the designs emphasize the softness of youth over the stiffness of age. So yeah, Escaflowne, right up my visual alley.

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Fall 2021 Summary – Week 5

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: Just me again this week. Our State of the Season post will replace this column next Tuesday, and it’s looking like a heated one – lots of conflicting opinions on the fall’s anime so far. I’ll be back on the 23rd with impressions of one or two new things, hopefully with a friend or two in tow.

PokeToon – 6-7

PokeToon is an anthology project consisting of short pieces set within different regions in the Pokemon universe. There’s tremendous variety between each episode’s art and animation styles, which is the sort of thing I love – all the more so when the perennially underrated Studio Colorido is involved. Their work on last year’s Twilight Wings established them as the go-to group for vignettes in this world, and they’ve only improved their batting average here, handling four of PokeToon’s seven episodes thus far. That includes episode 6, an adorably spooky tale about a girl who turns into a Gengar while exploring her school after dark. I found the story’s climax to be genuinely suspenseful, and then surprisingly emotional once the tension had been resolved, thanks to the age-old ‘character steps from darkness into light’ trick (bolstered by Colorido’s standout lighting, which is second only to KyoAni’s). Here’s a link to [I Became a Gengar?!] as part of a playlist with the earlier episodes. Be advised that it doesn’t contain the most recent one, a less impactful but still attractive story about a trio of boys who rescue an abandoned Snorunt. Its shorter runtime and limited animation make it one of the series’ minor offerings, but its art design, which borrows from felt and paper cutout animation, is worth seeking out if you like those styles.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 4 [Insult]

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

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! We had a bit of a break there, partly for the show and partly for me, but thats fine more time for Ufotable to work on the second half. Or maybe… maybe even to work on this half. Because if my suspicions are correct, this isn’t just a reprint of the movie. Not entirely at least. Lets dive in and talk about it!

Starting off, if I didn’t know any better I would say there were some new cuts in this episode. Stuff that wasn’t in the movie! Really Kimetsu no Yaiba? You’re going to spoil me? And indeed, going by this post from reddit user “eitherism” there was a good bit added. From the falling scene with the young man in Tanjiro’s dream to making his suicide a bit bloodier as well as moving some stuff around to better fit these new scenes. Of course not all of it is great. Yaiba is still cutting out the occasional character or exposition scene it seems and causing some continuity issues. But ignoring what are admittedly very small issues, Yaiba has added more than it took out. As someone who expected this to be nothing more than the movie cut up and re-aired, that’s kind of impressive.

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Eighty Six S2 – 6 [I Won’t Forget]

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

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Eighty Six! This week we follow up on Lena, see her organize the defense of San Magnolia and have an all around good time! Or at least that’s what I would like to say. Instead we see even less of her this week. What happened in place of that? Lets dive in and talk about that.

First up though I need to give Eighty Six credit for this, the storyboarding is back baby. There were some really, really nice shots this week. Not much in the way of interesting cuts like we got last season sadly. But almost the entirety of Shin’s meeting with the general was just… really evocative. The way the sound cut out, the General’s dialogue fading away as Shin read between the lines and heard what they always did: Eighty Six. Expendable. The squad poofing away into the scrap metal with their names, clattering behind down behind him. This scene was probably the most engaged I’ve been with Eighty Six this entire season. This is the good shit! Now I just need Eighty Six to keep giving us this and less of the loli.

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Ousama Ranking – 04 [First Trip]

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, Ousama Ranking

Alright, this week’s goal is to generate ZERO controversy with my post.  Just a nice, simple post saying how great this episode was, how I love the show, and how everything is hunky dory….well, that was the plan anyways.  Unfortunately, this week had some issues.  Looks like controversy’s back on the menu!

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Haibane Renmei Anime Review – 86/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Haibane Renmei, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

Yoshitoshi ABe is, or at least should be, a pretty recognizable name. You’ve no doubt seen his work and influence across many series while watching anime. From the illustrations for the original novels of Welcome to the N.H.K. and All You Need Is Kill to providing original character designs for the technological horror series Texhnolyze and Serial Experiments Lain. ABe’s art has a distinctive, gritty quality to it that you don’t often see in modern Moe-fied anime. And for me that begs the question: What kind of stories is he trying to tell with this art? Well it seems we have our answer. Directed by Tomokazu Tokoro, animated by the now defunct studio Radix and created/storyboarded by Yoshitoshi ABe I give to you Haibane Renmei. So without further ado let’s talk about some cute angel girls within a not-so-cute story.
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Heike Monogatari – 08

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Heike Monogatari

Biwa’s role in Heike Monogatari is a strange thing. Despite having been introduced as our main character, she’s operated mostly as an observer since the third episode, and with her recent banishment from the Taira clan, she’s less connected to the main story than ever. It seems clear that screenwriter Yoshida intends her to be the Tale of the Heike’s author, hence all the parallels to the white-haired lute priest, who has recited snippets of the poem as though it were already written. Divorced from the action as Biwa is, she’ll need to rely on her supernatural eyesight to compile the tale, which explains its inclusion as a character trait. Yoshida has all her bases covered, then, but it still feels odd for our one-time lead character to be such a tagalong. Biwa bookended this week’s episode in the first and last scenes, but apart from those appearances, she showed up just twice. I’d be quicker to criticize the show for this issue if its plot didn’t span 15 years of Japanese history (wherein most potential protagonists died partway through).

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