Tag: anime

Kimetsu no Yaiba S3 – 2 [Yoriichi Type Zero]

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

Welcome back everyone, not only to a new season but to another season of Kimetsu no Yaiba! I was a bit harsh on the previous season, rightfully so I feel. While generally well produced, it felt like the season missed the mark emotionally. So the question going into this season is: Can it avoid the same? Lets dive in and find out!

After that spectacle of a pilot, Yaiba has decided to drastically slow things down. And you know what? That’s probably a good thing. As was said in the discord, the previous arc suffered from severe blueballing. It constantly set us up for some kind of emotional payoff, only to continue the fight again and again and again. This season seems to be trying to avoid that, setting up not only multiple fights with multiple Hashira but also investing us in the characters early. For instance this week we meet Kotetsu, a young Swordsmith child desperate to protect his families legacy. We learn about his home, what he holds dear, all that jazz. Nothing has really happened with it yet, mostly just pushing Tanjiro to train more. But that’s fine! If Yaiba wants to take it’s time with this stuff, I’m happy to let it. Just give me that payoff later.

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Dr. STONE S3 – 2 [Desire Is Noble]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dr.STONE

We’re back everyone! Welcome to the first (new show) post of the Spring season! I give to you Dr. STONE, what is in my mind the best series Weekly Shonen Jump has had in years. We have a lot to catch up on so lets dive right into it.

Right off the bat, Dr. STONE kicks off the season by asking what it is the drives science. Senku’s answer, as per the episodes title, is greed. Desire. The idea being that this greed, this desire to know more, do more, have more, is what drives us to discover and create new things. That it’s noble! Of course this is meant to endear us to Ryusui. To take what is arguably his worst character trait, his blinding greed for all things, and portray it as something positive. Personally? I’ve never thought it worked. Ryusui always came off as someone who only stuck with everyone else because Senku was the clear path to global domination. I mean, the dude is the smartest person alive and reinventing society every day. It doesn’t matter how greedy Ryusui is if he doesn’t have some way to accomplish it. Maybe this adaptation will help though.

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Wolf’s Rain – 15-20 [Recap x4/A Dream of an Oasis/Consciously] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday, Wolf's Rain

Welcome everyone to another (probably late) week of Wolf’s Rain! This week sees us through the aftermath of the castle explosion, a little vision quest to remind us of our goal, and a whoooooole lot of recap. Let’s dive into it!

First up, lets start with the recaps. I promise I won’t spend long here. These were, by and large, disappointing. That shouldn’t come as a big surprise, no one really likes recaps. But what bothers me is how easily these could have been much more interesting. Wolf’s Rain could have given us new perspectives on past events, recontextualized scenes by putting us in the heads of characters we normally don’t get into. We saw a bit of this in episode 18, where it let us watch from Hubb and Quent’s perspectives. We even got a few small new scenes to spice it up, such as getting confirmation Quent is the one who shot Kiba! Do this a bit with Tsume, Hige and Toboe’s episodes and maybe they could have been less of a waste of our time. As is though, I can’t recommend anyone ever bother with these.

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Vinland Saga S2 – 14 [Freedom]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Welcome everyone, to another episode of Vinland Saga! This episode is all about Arnheid, Gardar, and how they ended up here. Not much Thorfinn or Einar, but it’s still important for them to. So lets dive right into it!

The main thrust of this episode is Arnheid’s backstory and how Vinland Saga uses it to condemn violence. Not just “aggressive” violence, ala raiders and vikings, Vinland Saga has already made it very clear how it feels about those. Rather it’s condemning “defensive” violence, this idea of “proactive defense”, of going out and fighting unnecessary fighting fights. Of course this sounds a bit odd to us. Should we not defend ourselves against others? We also see in Sverkel’s story that simply waiting out the storm, the violence, isn’t necessarily the best option either. So what’s the proper response? What are you supposed to do when someone comes at you with the intent to kill, to steal? This is a question Vinland Saga is going to have to tackle, and one it probably will soon when Canute’s army shows up.

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Wolf’s Rain – 13/14 [Men’s Lament/The Fallen Keep] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday, Wolf's Rain

Welcome everyone, to the mid-way climax for Wolf’s Rain! This week sees all of our characters in one place first time since the show began. A lot happens, we have so much to talk about, so lets dive right into it!

Starting off, I want to take a moment to appreciate Wolf’s Rain’s music again. Episode 13, which we will get to in a moment, saw one of my favorite tracks so far, “Coração Selvagem” I believe, appear. This thing is a certifiable bob. The discordant rhythms, plucking guitar strings, beautiful vocals. Fantastic. And it works even better when played over the scene in question, as Hubb and Quinn are driving through the countryside. Great stuff and I’m quickly falling in love with this OST. On top of that, it also feels like Wolf’s Rain’s production is starting to kick back into gear. Everything just looked… better this week. Not just the action scenes, though we got those as well in episode 14, but the day to day stuff to. Hubb and Quinn in the car, Hubb’s backstory, etc. Maybe that’s just the mid-season climax effect, but it was nice!

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Vinland Saga S2 – 13 [Dark Clouds]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Welcome everyone, to the 2nd half of Vinland Saga Season 2! This episode marks the end of Thorfinn and Einar’s (mostly) idyllic life on the farm and the beginning of reality rearing its ugly head. As you might have guessed, this isn’t very good for them. Now without further ado, lets dive in!

Now as you might have guessed before now, slavery is kind of bad. Even when you have a “kind” master like Ketil, someone who lets you work your way to freedom and generally doesn’t treat you like shit, it still isn’t a very nice thing. We’ve seen it a lot with the retainers, and even in small moments like Arnheid and Einar not remembering what freedom feels like. This arc though, started by this episode, is all about diving into slavery proper. About tearing back that veil and showing us that, for all his power and wealth, Ketil is in the minority of slave owners. Most are just terrible people who use and abuse their slaves. And that’s what Gardar represents. He is that average slave striking back. The first creeping tendril of reality finding its way onto the paradise that was their life on the farm.

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Kaina and the Great Snow Sea Anime Review – 61/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Kaina and the Great Snow Sea, Reviews by Lenlo

CGI has had a bad rep in anime fandoms for a long time, and it isn’t undeserved. From Berserk (2016) to that bear in Golden Kamuy, studios typically aren’t very good at it. And why should they be? It’s generally a cost-saving measure. There are only two studio’s that really seems to care and invest in their CGI pipeline. The first is Studio Orange, the team responsible for Houseki no Kuni and the latest Trigun Stampede, the front-runners in the industry. The second, and the ones responsible for the topic of this review, is Polygon Pictures. And while not quite at the same level as Orange, it’s clear from this latest project that they are really trying. So without further ado I give to you, directed by Hiroaki Andou, created by Tsutomu Nihei with music by Kouta Yamamoto, Misaki Umase and Hiroyuki Sawano, Polygon Picture’s latest attempt: Kaina and the Great Snow Sea.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Kaina and the Great Snow Sea. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Kaina and the Great Snow Sea Anime Review – 61/100” →

Wolf’s Rain – 11/12 [Vanishing Point/Don’t Make Me Blue] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday, Wolf's Rain

Welcome all, to another week of Wolf’s Rain! Apologies for the delay, I had a tattoo appointment today and that took up most of my time. This is a big week for our villains, with lots of important drops, so lets dive right into it!

First up we have episode 11, “Vanishing Point”. This episode felt like it was all about the Nobles. Orkham, Darcia, and this new one named Jagara. Starting with Orkham, this really surprised me and I’m honestly not sure if I like it or not. The dude makes his first on-screen appearance and then just immediately dies. Does this demonstrate Jagara’s power, that she can so easily waltz into another Noble’s city and just end it? Yeah. But so would have simply letting Jagara replace Orkham in full. The Nobles are already terrifying. All this does is show us something we already knew, that they weren’t all necessarily friendly with each other. It just feels unnecessary to me to spend all that time setting Orkham up just to use him to prop up someone new that we are just now meeting. Even if they are our new primary antagonist.

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Vinland Saga S2 – 12 [For Lost Love]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Vinland Saga

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of season 2 of Vinland Saga! This week is more Olmar and Canute, but it connects deeply back to Thorfinn and his struggle. Some very interesting things to talk about this week, so lets dive in!

It should be obvious, both from the episode and that opening, that Olmar is the centerpiece this week. On the surface level, it’s all pretty straightforward. Olmar gets insulted, his pride is wounded, he starts a fight, Canute uses that as an excuse to take action against the farm, exactly as he planned. Of course it wasn’t perfect, Canute didn’t account for Thorgil, not him being there nor being strong enough to take down around 10 men. Seriously, what is it with dudes with “Thor” in their name? Luckily that doesn’t really matter to Canute, because no matter how strong Thorgil is. One man can’t beat an army, and that’s what Canute has. Ketil was screwed the moment Canute decided he wanted his farm. If anything this willingness to throw away the lives of his own men says more about Canute then it does Thorgil and Olmar.

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Wolf’s Rain – 9/10 [Misgivings/Moon’s Doom] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday, Wolf's Rain

Welcome back everyone, to another week of Wolf’s Rain! This week see’s return of Blue and the Hunter, Darcia makes a new friend, and the gang has a pest problem. Lots to talk about, so lets jump right in!

Before we get to deep into that though, I wanted to address some concerns regarding last weeks post. Namely, I think my concerns regarding Cheza were misunderstood. My fear was that Wolf’s Rain would treat her as a sort of McGuffin. That, based on her initial first impression, she would never become more. I wasn’t criticizing Wolf’s Rain, we had just met her after all, it would be ridiculous to do so. I even pointed out ways in which Wolf’s Rain had already started to avoid that. Rather I wanted to talk about what could happen in a lesser series. Something that I’ve seen anime screw up before, on this very website. So far though? Cheza isn’t bad. We haven’t seen enough to really judge her at all, I feel. At least until this week that is.

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