86: Eighty Six – 4 [Real Name]

Welcome back to another episode of Eighty Six! This week we see the fallout of the Liberal Arts student realizing that posting on social media doesn’t actually solve anything. Will she give up? Or try something new? Lets find out!

So starting off, lets talk about the fallout from last week. Because one thing that Eighty Six did that I really liked this week was to double down. I expected it to try and validate Lena, to try and reassure her “Oh don’t worry, you’re a good person”. You know, the regular anime bullshit. That doesn’t happen. Instead every single character just calls her an idiot. Her friend, for thinking she can actually make meaningful change. Her superior and uncle, for being naive and idiotic just like her father. Even the 86ers get in on it again at the end saying that even if she learns their names that this changes nothing. This is probably a small thing to be happy about, I know. But after the 2nd episode my expectations for Eighty Six were really really low. So I will take any pleasant surprise I can get.

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Megalo Box: Nomad – 5 [La tierra prometida respondió que el mesías no se quedará]

Another week another good episode of Nomad. It’s wild how a show ostensibly about boxing can be so good with so little actual boxing. But that’s just the nature of good character dramas huh? So without further ado lets jump into this weeks episode of Megalo Box: Nomad!

Starting off lets talk about the wonderous world of greyscale, because Nomad used a lot of it. Now I’m not inherently against greyscale. It can often be used to great effect in movies both new and old, 2019’s The Lighthouse for example. With proper or harsh lighting and no color to distract you it can add a lot of gravitas to a scene. In anime this is much more difficult though because you don’t inherently get any extra detail. You have to manually add it in and Nomad doesn’t. If that was my only problem however this wouldn’t be worth mentioning. Because in addition to this, the greyscale also robs Nomad of one of its greatest strengths: The coloring of its backgrounds. These backgrounds are often fantastic! But with over half the episode in greyscale we don’t get to see that this week. And I think that’s a damn shame.

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SSSS.Dynazenon – 05 [What’s Lover-Like Mean?]

Though SSSS.Dynazenon has lifted a number of elements from Gridman thus far, it wasn’t content to recreate that show’s fifth episode this week. Where its parent series put a spin on the stalwart ‘beach episode’ with a river rafting field trip, Dynazenon sent its characters to Tokyo Beach Land, a water park with an underground hot spring. With the power of both pool and onsen tropes at its disposal, you’d think this episode would be a massive hit, but it was my least favorite of the month. Let’s see if I can put into words why that was, exactly.

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Spice and Wolf S2 – OVA + 1 [Wolf and a Sudden Rift] – Throwback Thursday

I hope everyone enjoyed Spice and Wolf because it’s back for round 2. That’s right, this season of Throwback Thursday is staying on the foxy waifu train, its Spice and Wolf Season 2. And as a bit of a bonus I even through in the OVA. So without further ado lets jump right into it!

And right off the bat I want to say that this season of Spice and Wolf looks leagues better. Everyone is just so much more… emotive. Characters are moving, physically interacting and in general being more than the cardboard cutouts they were in Season 1. From Holo stroking her tail, bouncing off Lawrence and her face after getting drunk to Fermi, Lawrence and Mark gesturing and walking. The fact that it managed this without dropping the background quality or heavily modifying the designs is just the cherry on top. I have no idea why Spice and Wolf shifted to Studio Brain’s Base, response for this season’s To Your Eternity, or how they managed to keep the same staff. But between the OVA and this first episode I’m glad they did. The production was one of my few issues with the first season and this addresses that in every way.

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Fumetsu no Anata e – 03 [A Small Evolution]

I’m still withholding my assessment of Fumetsu no Anata e’s forest makeover, as it feels like this chapter won’t reach its climax for a while yet. There was plenty of action this week, capped with the rescue of a young girl bound for death, but it all segued so smoothly into the next plot point that my emotional receptors never woke up. There’s no time for catharsis when everyone is immediately recaptured and carted off to Hayase’s village. (There’s also no need for it when March proves herself to be the mildest human sacrifice in the practice’s history.) Even the payoff to the previous episode’s “Arigatou” scene landed kind of sideways, since Fushi saved March due to instinct rather than gratitude. He’s an extraordinary character in what is quickly becoming an ordinary adventure series, and I feel a bit of a disconnect there. That said, it’s probably in my best interest to let go of the reins and just be a passenger in Fumetsu’s wagon, at least until its protagonist grows enough to start shaping the story (rather than be shaped by it).

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86: Eighty Six – 3 [I Don’t Want to Die]

Welcome back to another week of Eighty Six! I was pretty critical last week as many of you noticed. Whether you agreed or disagreed though I think we can all agree that this week was better. If only for the clever directing. So without further ado, lets jump into it!

So, what do I mean by better? Basically that this week encapsulated all that is good, and bad, about Eighty Six. Take the Lena’s multiple conversations with the 86ers for example. This dialogue was tight and conveyed a lot of information about both sides. On the 86ers side we saw a lot of disagreement. Arguments about how to treat Lena, about whether or not they should bother talking to her, and a lot of underlying tension in their relationship with her. Some characters were accepting of her, others dismissive, others still indifferent to the whole thing. And we got to see it all play out through dialogue and character interaction rather than having it outright explained to us. Most of the time at least. What really makes this scene work though is how Eighty Six juxtaposes it with Lena’s side of the very same conversation.

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Spring 2021 Summary – Week 4

Super Cub – 03

Wooper: Is it just me, or did this episode feel like the conclusion to a three-part OVA? Koguma’s closing monologue neatly closed the book on her lonely Cub-less life without creating the need for a sequel. It was nicely-written, especially her reflection on how it felt to receive a classmate’s phone number versus a motorcycle license, but there wasn’t much of a “tsuzuku” vibe to it. And yet we know, thanks to the magic of the Internet, that there’s another main character who’ll be introduced at some point during the next two months. I’m looking forward to it, especially since she might be unfamiliar with motorbikes, giving Koguma a chance to pass on what she’s learned to a novice rider. That would be great for her self-esteem, which has grown bit by bit during Super Cub’s first “arc,” but is still miles behind where it could be. She doesn’t have the guts to claim use of the microwave at lunchtime, and she’s still hesitant to call Reiko a friend, even though they eat together every day at school. That timid personality continues to receive good visualization, since Koguma’s movements are slow and deliberate – I just wish the CG bike scenes would ride into the sunset and never return.

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song – 05

Helghast: Is Vivy going to have a different animated OP every week now? That transition from her concert to the opening just hits in such a smooth and delightful way. What is more pressing is the fact that their successful exploits within this timeline have only accelerated the evolution of AI to the point where the coming conflict of the future may be not too far off. The existence of the Metal Float that draws parallels from the Nation of Zero One in the Animatrix is proof of that. It does a good job in presenting itself as a pretty benign and well-intentioned place in serving humanity as shown by the cute little WALL-E robots. The little time that the show spends on them is enough to make me feel bad for what happens in the final minutes. Seeing M’s dream of tending to children being shattered by Vivy was heartbreaking to say the least. I think that seeing Vivy slowly realizing that she must destroy the dreams of other AIs in order to realize her dream of bringing happiness to everyone through her song is such an interesting theme going forth. Just how will the rest of the world react to the island of AIs actually preemptively wiping out the human attackers and what the hell did that virus do? There are so many ways that this can all end and that’s the fun thing about original shows. I just don’t know what’s going to happen next.

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Megalo Box: Nomad – 4 [Si la flor del alma florece, el amor no se perderá]

Hello once again, I am back with another episode of Megalo Box: Nomad! Apologies for the wait, I went to go and see Demon Slayer: Mugen Train this weekend and that sort of held me up. Eighty Six should also be coming out tomorrow for those looking for that. In the meantime though we have a lot to talk about with Nomad so lets get right to it!

Starting off let’s talk about the production troubles Nomad has. Just like the first season of Megalo Box, *Nomad’s fights don’t look good. Part of this of course is the weird upscaling, we’ve talked about that. But the other is that they just aren’t animated that well. A lot of the blows lack impact and characters move like stiff cardboard cutouts. In the first season this was a major hinderance, basically every episode was a big fight of some kind. But Nomad’s shift in focus is doing it a lot of favors here I think. The fights are no longer the important set pieces they were in season 1. Now they are closer to important character moments than action sequences. So as long as Nomad can nail the emotions of the scene, which it generally has, then the lackluster fights aren’t that big an issue. Hopefully it stays that way.

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