Tag: anime

Kimetsu no Yaiba S4 – 1 [To Defeat Muzan Kibutsuji]

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

Welcome back everyone, to the 4th season of Kimetsu no Yaiba! It’s been a while. Gotta say, with a title like “Hashira Training Arc” I’m not that excited for this one. I’ve covered every other season of the show though, so I’ll be damned if I miss this one just because it’s lining up to be the worst entry yet. Anyways without further ado lets dive into a 45 minute double feature of an episode!

Diving into things, initial signs for this arc are… not good. As per the title, the whole thing is framed as one big training arc. We have no idea how many episodes this will be, 6? A full cour (12)? Two cour? No idea. The sad thing is that there is no right answer here either. It doesn’t matter how long the arc is if it’s nothing but Hashira training, that’s going to get old fast. The only good outcome for Kimetsu no Yaiba is if the title of the season is a lie and it covers far more than the training arc. Maybe it could cover some of the side stories or novels to fill out the season? I don’t know, the only thing I’m sure of is that if this entire season is just training arc, it’s going to suck.

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Ranger Reject – 5 [Fighter D, as a Part of ‘Ranger Force’]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Ranger Reject is back everyone! Sports may have stolen our episode from us last episode, but I think that breather did the series good because this episode was much better than the previous one. Not perfect, and we’ll talk about why, but it’s nice to see Ranger Reject back on the upswing. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

So starting off, Ranger Reject slowed down a lot this week it felt like. Last episode we covered 5 or 6 chapters I believe, and you could feel it in the episode. We sprinted through content that, if we’re being honest, needed much more time to explore. And it looks like that’s what we’re getting this week as Ranger Reject circles back around on Hibiki’s past, how he got here and what his plans were. In fact, the only major issue I see with the episode is the sheer size of the cast it’s introducing. We got like… 9 new characters this week, none of which I’m going to bother remembering until they actually do something. Not because of any stubbornness on my part, I just have no idea which ones will end up being interesting so it’s up to Ranger Reject to make them worth remembering.

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Nana – 3/4 [Nana K. and Shoji, Love’s Whereabouts/Nana K.’s Love, Nana O.’s Dream] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Nana, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to another (late) week of Throwback Thursday! In this weeks episodes we continue to dive into Nana’s past, seeing how she overcomes her trauma with Asano and eventually gets together with Shoji. We also get a peek into Ozaki’s past as well, a welcome change in my book. There’s a fair amount to talk about so lets jump right into it!

Lets kick things off right away with episode 3, “Nana K. and Shoji, Love’s Whereabouts”. We’re still in the flashback here, which was a tad unexpected to be honest. I’d have thought we would spread this out across the show but it looks like we’re frontloading the exposition. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, it frees up a lot of time in future episodes for other stuff. Nana just needs to avoid having even more flashbacks down the line. Getting back to the episode, this one is all about how Shoji and Nana get together, and overall it was… fine? Shoji and Nana finally get to talk candidly and Nana gets to confront her time with Asano directly by happening upon him in Tokyo, there’s plenty to do. But I have one big gripe with the episode: It’s treatment of men.

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Nana – 1/2 [Prologue: Nana K. and Nana O./Love Friendship Nana K. and Shoji] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Nana, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the new season of Throwback Thursday! For the next few months we have Nana, the 2006 romance from Studio Madhouse! This is our first week so we have a lot to talk about, a lot of characters to meet, so lets dive right into it.

Starting off, lets talk visuals. To say Nana looks dated would be an understatement. I don’t know what it is with y’all but you keep picking series produced during that awkward age of animation between Cel and Digital, and they all suffer from that same visual fuzz that comes from upscaling for Blu-Ray. That’s not Nana’s fault, I actually think it looks pretty good so far. Different, the character designs are nice but very thin, and while I enjoy the wide range of emotions the characters have sometimes their faces almost look like Ascii emotes. Overall though, I like how they generally emote with their entire body, not just an awkward sweat drop or cartoonishly exaggerated face. I would say the most striking thing about Nana so far though are the outfits. They change every scene, always matching the characters personality, and it’s pretty cool.

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Ranger Reject – 4 [The Soldier With Love, Hibiki!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to another week of Ranger Reject. A lot happens this week, not all of it necessarily good, so lets skip the pleasantries and dive right into the episode!

Starting off, this was a really fast paced episode, and not necessarily in a good way. Ranger Reject covered a lot of ground, 5 entire chapters from what some friends have told me, and there were a lot of concepts in this episode that don’t feel like they got the attention they need or deserve. Take the Rangers and their power structure for instance. We get a small scene early on revealing their 2nd-in-Commands, as well as an introduction to the idea that the Rangers can be replaced and how little they care for each others lives. This was our chance to really dive into the internal politics of the Rangers, to show us they weren’t a unified force, using Suzukiri as our point-of-view character. Instead it’s a rather quick scene only showing us how ruthless they are, something we really already knew.

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Black Lagoon Seasons 1&2 Review – 71/100 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Black Lagoon, Finished Series: Action, Reviews by Lenlo, Throwback Thursday

Dating back over 50 years, the legacy of Studio Madhouse is long and storied. From cultural touchstones like Death Note and Tatami Galaxy to old greats like Aim for the Ace and Treasure Island, they’re even responsible for modern epics such as last seasons Frieren. They’ve done a bit of everything, from sports and adventure to sci-fi and murder mysteries. Naturally, that also includes crime dramas, one of which we are here to talk about today. Originally created by Rei Hiroe, directed by Sunao Katabuchi and with music by Takayoshi Watanabe, Black Lagoon originally aired in 2006 where it was overshadowed (At least in my opinion) by a few of Madhouse’s other greats, like Nana and Hellsing Ultimate. One has to wonder, how does this mid-2000’s crime thriller stack up to the modern day? Well wonder no longer, because that’s what I’m here to answer. Now lets dive in!

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for *Black Lagoon Seasons 1&2. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Black Lagoon Seasons 1&2 Review – 71/100 – Throwback Thursday” →

Ranger Reject – 3 [Our Evil Will Bloom, Someday]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to another week of Ranger Reject! I know, Black Lagoon isn’t out yet, I promise it should be out tomorrow. I have it done and written I’m just collecting screenshots and re-reading it now. My delays aside though, lets dive into our weekly Super Sentai show!

The episode picks up right where we left off, with Fighter D plotting to steal the Divine Artifacts. What’s surprising though is that Ranger Reject actually goes and does it right away. Seriously, I expected some kind of infiltration and intelligence gathering arc or something first. A delay of some kind where he gets to know Suzukiri better, learns about his enemies and formulates some kind of plan. But no, Ranger Reject says fuck it and has him march in the front door the next day. After all, because of the Sunday Showdown they already know when the Rangers won’t be home. So why not? Honestly, it’s kind of refreshing. Pacing was a bit fast, maybe could have been handled a bit better in spots, but it was memorable, kept the shows energy up, and was better than dragging it out for 3+ episodes. Good job!

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Ranger Reject – 2 [Go! Fighter D!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to the first post of the Spring season and the first full-coverage show of 2024! That’s right, I enjoyed Ranger Reject so much that I wanted to promote it to full coverage. Will I be able to keep up with it? When I’m already behind on so much else? Probably not, but by god am I going to try. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

First up, lets take a closer look at Ranger Reject’s production. Visually, I still think it’s rather strong. Maybe it doesn’t move the best of the season, and the CGI we get isn’t as well utilized as say… Girls Band Cry. But I think Ranger Reject has a good understanding of color, pacing and posing. Stuff like Red Ranger’s “fight”, the showmanship of it, felt right out of a Super Sentai show, which makes sense considering its roots. My point though is that Ranger Reject is doing a good job of bringing that to animation, of not forgetting where it came from even as it seeks to deconstruct it a bit. Other than that, the OST is pretty hit or miss, often not fitting the scene it plays over. Which makes the OP being pretty great, definitely one of the best of the season, rather surprising.

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Black Lagoon – 23/24 [Snow White’s Payback/The Gunslingers] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the grand finale of Black Lagoon! While there is an OVA after this, I’ll be watching/writing about that separately on my own time if it warrants it. That means this is our last week for this season of Throwback Thursday. And you know what that means! At the bottom of this post you’ll find a poll for our next show. Go vote in it and pick what we watch together next! And if a show you like isn’t there, make sure to suggest it. Now, onto the episodes!

First up is the penultimate episode, “Snow White’s Payback”. I would say the main thrust of this episode was “escalation”. Balalaika escalated by killing as many Wasamine as she can, bombing buildings and shooting up offices in broad daylight. Yukio escalated by diving further into the criminal underworld, robbing a bank dressed up as a Russian to put the police on their scent. Even Rock, in some misplaced sense of justice, escalated by finally “committing” and putting himself on the line. He does it in the stupidest manner I can think of, directly insulting/asking Balalaika to spare Yukio and the rest of the Wasamine without any good reason for her to do so, but he still did. Sadly however, this scene is where the first issues with the finale start to come in.

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Black Lagoon – 21/22 [Two Father’s Little Soldier Girls/The Dark Tower] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Black Lagoon, Currently Watching:, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to what may be the best pair of Black Lagoon episodes… Ever, really. I love so much about these episodes, and they are so intertwined with each other that I’m going to forgo the usual format and tackle them together, as a single unit, because that’s what I think they are. So strap in, cause we have a lot to talk about this week! And remember, if you have a suggestion for our next season of Throwback Thursday, post it below! I’ll add it to the ballot after next weeks post.

Starting off, what a way to bookend a pair of episodes. Seriously, beautiful stuff. I’ve long said Balalaika is my favorite Black Lagoon character, and this bookend parallel with Yukio only cemented that. The flashback to her childhood, dreaming of becoming an Olympian to restore her families honor in the eyes of the Soviet Union? Winding up shipped off to war, scarred, watching her men die and killing others in return. Disgraced as the home they fought for falls apart, soldiers without a country, abandoned and forgotten. Burying her second in command then taking up the mantle once more, giving her men purpose where they had none, diving face first into this life for the sake of another. Even the episode title, “Two Father’s Little Soldier Girls”, is beautiful in context. And the best part of it all? The rest of the episode(s) live up to what this opening promised.

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