Spring 2021 Summary – Week 11

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: We’re bringing back the pre-column author’s notes this week! Not for anything too exciting – just a heads up that there won’t be a recap post on June 21st, since that’s Summer 2021 Preview day. We’ll do a final Spring Summary on the 28th, though, before jumping straight into first impressions mode. Seasonal anime never stops running, and neither do we!

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song – 12

Helghast: What kind of super AI records in a 4:3 format and has an antique VHS overlay when recounting Vivy’s one hundred year journey? With that kind of tech, maybe it came to the conclusion that humanity has become stagnant and that AI should replace them to continue to evolve much like how children end up replacing their parents in the long term just with killer robots and apocalyptic imagery. Speaking of killer robots, that entire mission could not have gone more poorly for Vivy and her crew trying to take down the Archive. Everyone is dead and humanity got its ass kicked by hundreds of thousands satellites falling from the sky. I’m glad that Toak brought some rifles to the party and there were some awesome sequences, including a fight with the archive that bordered on abstract art.

Unlike Teppei’s other works of Re:Zero, there are no more retries. The autosave overwrote the timeline where Osamu is still alive and placed Vivy at the door of the final boss. At least Vivy finally has an answer to her question of what her heart is. I suspect it has something to do with her own desires and dreams of protecting those close to her and conveying those strong passions through her singing. With next week’s episode title being “Fluorite Eye’s Song,” I certainly hope that it will be a banger to close off a spectacular original show.

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86: Eighty Six – 10 [Thank You]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six

Welcome all to the penultimate episode of Eighty Six! For this season at least. This is an interesting week as from what I have been told this episode is almost entirely anime original. And yet despite basically being filler, its good. Like really good. So without further ado lets dive in! Oh and before I begin a reminder that I will be away on a business trip until Thursday, so no Nomad post until then. Sorry.

Anyways, on with the show! And what better place to start than with the production? Once again Eighty Six has some of the best editing and shot composition I have seen in ages. The way it takes everything from dull shot-reverse-shot dialogue scenes or simple travel montages and makes them visually engaging is a treat. From the way it emphasized the emotional distance between Shin and Raiden despite their physical closeness or the way Shin’s head turn and the water hitting the leaf were cut to the music. I shouldn’t be surprised by it anymore, Eighty Six has done this consistently from episode 1. However I can’t help but smile when I see editing like this. Toshimasa Ishii is doing a fantastic job with his full series directorial debut and I can’t wait to see more from him. Absolutely Kino.

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Spice and Wolf S2 – 7 [Wolf and Playful Days] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

It’s here, it’s here, a new arc of Spice and Wolf! And the post for it is just barely on time since this late still counts as Thursday! My lateness called out and my SEO goal of naming the show reached, lets jump into this weeks episode.

Starting off: Jesus Christ the flirting. There was so much of it! And it was good flirting to! There was more flirting in this one episode than the entirety of season 1! Or at least it felt that way. I’m honestly surprised with how much I enjoyed this weeks episode. I’m not usually into fluff. I find it boring or, dare I say, cringe. But there was something about Spice and Wolf’s, about Holo and Lawrence’s back and forth, that made it endearing. I’m not sure if it’s just how well written the dialogue was again or something else. Maybe I’ve just spent enough time with the couple in recent months that I’m invested. Whatever the case, for an episode all about lap pillows, hand kisses and not-so-subtle innuendo’s Spice and Wolf got a fair bit done this week.

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Megalo Box Nomad – 10 [Las derrotas pasadas son acompañadas por señales de buena suerte]

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

Hello all and welcome to another week of Megalo Box Nomad! This is late, I know, but I have a good reason. You see I will be out of the state for work starting Sunday and have been spending the week busily packing and prepping. This also means I will be unable post/writeup Nomad on Sunday as I won’t be able to watch it until Thursday. So yeah, expect this weekend and the week afters to be merged into one post before the final review. Sorry about that. Now on with the show!

And what batter place to begin than with exactly what I wanted to see from Nomad, the family stuff! So much family stuff this week. From Mac to Sachio, Joe to Yuri, the way Nomad managed to tie everything back into the 1st arc. This is exactly what I wanted from the series, up to and including minimal Rosco! While one reader might disagree with me on Rosco’s story overtaking Joe’s, I’m sure we can both agree that this episode benefited a lot from it’s family centric focus. And if I sound like I’m being purposefully vague here that would be because I am. I don’t wanna spoil non-watchers before the break but I also want to give a clear hook to make people read, oh the tightropes we walk. I’m rambling because I’m happy with the episode, I promise.

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Spring 2021 Summary – Week 10

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Bishounen Tanteidan – 5-6

Wooper: There was a reason I opted not to follow Bishounen Tanteidan on a weekly basis, and this hour of the series showcased it beautifully; for me, listening to this author’s dialogue is like overdosing on Ambien. All of his characters talk circuitously, and they don’t manage to generate intrigue in the process, either. Take episode 5, for instance – in its final minutes, all Doujima needs to do to expose Lai as a cheater is watch him carefully, since she knows he’s taking cues from an invisible man. Instead, we have to suffer through her internal monologue about concentrating all her thoughts on a single point, which leads her to realize that she has to look “at her own self” because she’s been accepted by her new friends, who she really wants to help by exposing Lai as a cheater. See how we looped around to where we started? This show is full of shit like that, and even when it’s not skipping Composition 101 to do donuts in the parking lot, it’s engaging in gab sessions about art that have nothing to do with the smaller stories it wants to tell (see episode 6). When even a windbag like me can’t appreciate your meandering script, you know something has gone sideways. Dropped.

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86: Eighty Six – 9 [Goodbye]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six

What an episode. Eighty Six has come a long way from classroom politics and shitty lakeside ecchi. While the other writers on this site might disagree, might thing Eighty Six weak, I can’t help but enjoy what its trying to do. So without further ado how about we dive in to that?

Now in an effort to be fair lets start with the only real negative I have this week: The CGI. Eighty Six tries really had to avoid the showing the CGI. It does everything in it’s power, from clever editing and shot composition to after effects like smoke, to avoid it. And most of the time this works! The Legion looks… fine in motion because the CGI sheen gives them an otherworldly/inhuman feel. That works to their benefit! Meanwhile the 86ers are largely stationary which makes compositing them into the shot much easier. But sometimes a crack slips through and when it does… it doesn’t look good. I’m of course talking about Undertaker’s big fight in the first half of the episode. Narratively I enjoyed it, and we’ll talk about that in a moment, but the mech fight felt like the worst part of the scene.

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Odd Taxi – 07/08 [Trick or Treat/Bless You]

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, Odd Taxi

Sorry everyone – I’ve been travelling (and can’t sleep in a face covering on a 9 hour flight T_T). Worse than that, I failed to acquire an Odokawa shirt (I found out there are “good” and “bad” Aloha shirts…I guess Odokawa has “bad” ones that apparently people get insulted if you ask them for).

I haven’t even seen the latest episode as I struggle to catch up, but let’s talk about the previous two!

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Spice and Wolf S2 – 6 [Wolf and the Trustworthy God] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back to another episode of Spice and Wolf Season 2, this week released on time! In this episode Lawrence and Fermi clash, Holo makes a choice and the arc finally concludes. Who wins? Read on to find out!

Now the question becomes: Where do I start? You see, my feelings on this arc are conflicted. It was a long and overall good ride to get here don’t get me wrong! I like the progress Lawrence made and the new stage his relationship with Holo has entered. But at the same time it feels like everything was resolved to… cleanly. There was no real confrontation with Fermi, no parting words. In fact it was largely skipped over via narration as if he never mattered at all. And in a way I suppose he didn’t. The primary conflict of the arc wasn’t with Fermi but within Lawrence himself and overall I think that’s fine. It does the job it needs to. Personally though I don’t feel wholly satisfied. Allow me to explain after the break.

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