Tag: anime

Now and Then, Here and There – 6 [Disappearance in a Sandstorm] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of Now and Then, Here and There! We have a big week ahead of us, lots to talk about, and basically all of it is good. So without further ado lets dive in to what is my favorite episode yet!

This week was simultaneously nothing like what I expected it to be, yet everything I wanted. I figured we would get a rather standard invasion; some bad people would shoot some guns, and that most of it would be about Shu’s struggles. Instead we got what is, like I said above, without a doubt my favorite episode of Now and Then yet. For one, just look at some of the stunning visuals from it! Sara’s hair shining in the silver moonlight. The way it created edge highlights all across her face, drifting in the wind. Or how footsteps in the sand disappeared as they walked away. Showing that not only is there truly no way home, but also nothing to return to. Even the grainy, black and white, 1 frame per second way they shot the village sequence was great, though we will talk about why later.

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Eighty Six S2 – 12 [Handler One]

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

Welcome everyone to the big finale of Eighty Six! It took a long time to get here, damn near 3 months just for these last two episodes, but it’s finally happened. Does it wrap things up well? Do Lena and Shin finally meet? Is it worth the huge wait? Let’s jump in and find out!

So as far as endings go… I think Eighty Six actually did a good job. I know, I know, “Lenlo, you’ve ragged on Eighty Six for almost 6 months now, what do you mean its good?!”. Trust me, I was surprised to. But for all that I hate how we got here, hate the 9 episodes of mediocre journey, Eighty Six did the best it could to wrap up what it had. It called back to, and connected with, all the story beats that lead up to here. The 86ers finding something beyond war, finding acceptance in a new community, the whole thing with Eugene. A lot of this is augmented by some pretty stellar direction, and yeah if you think about it to hard its still meh. But emotionally? I think Eighty Six delivered on it’s ending. And you know how important endings are to me.

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Now and Then, Here and There – 5 [Murder] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! This week Hamdo see’s some action, Shu figure’s out we aren’t in Kansas anymore and Nabuca and co get sent on a vacation. Does any of that make sense? If not, read on, because we have a fair amount to talk about this week.

Starting off, my initial impression of the episode is… “Meh”. This feels like the most straight forward episode we have had yet, and is the first one I don’t feel enamored with. Not because it does anything wrong, Now and Then still has a reasonable standard of quality to it. Rather it’s because this is the first episode where we, the viewer, don’t learn anything new. Instead, Now and Then chooses to let the characters catch up with us. Because of this the episode largely feels transitionary. Like we are moving from the introductory phase of the story into something else. And in the long term, this is fine! I’ve long maintained that not every individual episode has to be a banger if it enables a banger story. It just means we have to wait and see what Now and Then does with this new direction.

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Eighty Six S2 – 11 [Shin]

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

Eighty Six has returned everyone! After 3 months everyone’s favorite genocide simulation has come back to finish what it started! I’d say I hope all of you went and rewatched some old episodes for a bit of a refresher, but doing that myself just reminded me how disappointing this season really was. Still, it’s time to bury the hatchet and see if Eighty Six can end on a high note. So lets jump into it!

First up, lets talk about just how good this episode looked. Like seriously, say what you want about the narrative, the Eighty Six team used those 3 months well. This episode looked gorgeous. From the editing to the coloring and animation, it’s like they saved all of their efforts since production started for this. Take Shin’s opening flashback for instance! I absolutely loved the use of foreground silhouettes layered over scenes in the background. The flat black morphing and flowing around the screen, exploding into nothing at the sound of the gunshot, the exaggerated mouth movements and use of negative space. And then we have stuff like the black bars constricting the scene tighter and tighter, Shin reaching out towards it. The story of how we got here may be mediocre but the visuals behind it certainly are not. And this is only the beginning of my visual praise!

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Now and Then, Here and There – 4 [Discord] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Now and Then, Here and There! This is normally where I say something snappy like, “You won’t believe how dark this week got”. Or maybe “This is the darkest week yet!”. But I’m pretty sure you all know this show better than I do, and that we can also get so much darker. So instead this week I’ll just say… Oh god. Now lets jump into it.

Once again I feel the need to point out just how bad the lightning in Now and Then is. I don’t do this to rag on the show, I’m… Ok enjoying might be the wrong word but lets go with it for now, I’m enjoying my time with it. But some shots are just so incredibly hard to see through, or just look like ass. Take the opening shot of the episode in Abelia’s room for instance. What is this diffused filter? Is it supposed to tell me its early morning or something? Everything just looks foggy. Meanwhile the nighttime hallways, like the lynching, are once again impossible to see in. Outside of the, admittedly gorgeous, wide background shots there simply isn’t any complexity or care put into how it shows on screen. And I think that’s a damn shame. Enough about lighting for the nth time though, onto story!

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Now and Then, Here and There – 3 [A Feast in the Dark] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to what is a very late episode of Now and Then, Here and There! The only excuse I have is Elden Ring which, in my defense, I have put 66 hours into since it came out. Such a great time. That said these posts wait for no man and have to get written eventually. So without further ado lets dive into the episode!

Starting off with a quick non-spoilery mention of the production: This week was largely fine. It seems this is going to be our standard level of animation for awhile. Episode 1 was probably an outlier to get us hooked in. That’s probably OK since Now and Then doesn’t seem like a particularly action heavy show, much more character, scene and atmosphere driven. However I do have one major bugbear that I’ve noticed across all 3 episodes: The backgrounds are way to dark. I get it, they want some stark contrast in lighting, and that does often look good. But more often than not it’s made scenes very difficult to actually see. Characters become hard to make out from the dark backgrounds, the slight differences in shade make it annoying to figure out what exactly we are looking at. They need to increase the contrast in their darks just a bit.

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Now and Then, Here and There – 2 [A Boy and a Mad King] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back everyone, to another (late) episode of Now and Then, Here and There! Hey, remember when everyone kept telling me in the comments to get ready, it’s going to get dark? Well that’s what happened this week, with no punches pulled. We have a lot to talk about with that so lets dive right into it!

Production-wise this episode was, sadly, not as strong as the first. And I don’t just mean in the animation department, though that was less consistent as well. I mean in the direction and shot-composition. Now to be clear, there are still a lot of great shots in Now and Then. Stuff like Hamdo’s interrogation with the cat or Shu’s fight with Nabuca, those were good! But I also feel like Now and Then’s limited style is starting to work against it a bit. It’s going for these very picturesque shots, with beautiful framing and backgrounds, only to linger on these really limited character designs for like… 20 seconds. It’s necessary for the pacing sure, really driving up the tension. But it’s also not very visually interesting, like with the final shot of Shu in the cell. All in all I would call it passable but slightly disappointing after last week.

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Now and Then, Here and There – 1 [A Girl Admiring The Sunset] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Now And Then, Here And There, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to another season of Throwback Thursday! We’ve been on a run of good shows recently, what with Haibane Renmei and The Vision of Escaflowne, so I’m hopeful Now and Then can keep that going. We have a lot to talk about so lets skip the rest of the preamble and jump right into it.

Starting with production, Now and Then looks alright. Color and design wise its pretty basic. Lots of flat colors with little in the way of complex lighting or color blending. Coming from The Vision of Escaflowne, a series released 3 years prior, that’s a bit of a step down. The same thing can be said for the character designs which, by and large, are lacking in complex details and linework. However for all that may sound like a criticism this does give Now and Then one very important benefit: It’s a lot easier to animate. And we can see that in just how much animation it actually has. Like seriously, the amount of small details in these shots, the expressiveness of each characters body and face, is great! I love how every motion is a full-body event. Hopefully it can keep this subtle movement going for its entire run.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 18 [No Matter How Many Lives]

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

Hello everyone and welcome to the final post about the second season of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This is going to be a shorter one since I’m prepping the final review but there’s still plenty to talk about. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off lets talk about my overall thoughts for the arc. As a whole I think Yaiba has everything it needs. All the basic beats, all the important core pieces of the narrative. An MC struggling against stronger and stronger foes, a few groupies with distinct personality traits, the mentor and a villain with a tragic backstory. Everything you need for a basic Shounen story is present in this season. So why then for the past few episodes now have I really only praised Yaiba’s production, which is indeed rather good. I’ll be answering this question more in depth in my final review but I can answer the spirit of the question now: The way Yaiba tells its story is very simple and straight forward, the most basic of Shounen tropes. And to prove my point I want to talk about the core of this weeks episode, the Demon’s backstory.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 17 [Never Give Up]

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

Welcome everyone to the penultimate episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba S2! I’ve heard some rumblings comparing this to the fabled Episode 19 of Season 1, and you know what? They aren’t to far off. So without further ado lets dive in!

For now lets start positive with the production. Because as anyone with eyes can see, this week was rather pretty. You could probably argue that Yaiba went a bit to heavy on the effects in places. It’s certainly not a style everyone will enjoy, especially not those who value subtle, realistic movement. But even those folks would have to agree that what Yaiba did this week was technically impressive. Nozomu Abe, Masayuki Kunihiro, and others really nailed the sense of 3D space. I especially liked the heavier linework you’ll see in Abe’s scene I linked below the break. If you’ve read me for any length of time, that shouldn’t surprise you. I love heavy line work. And Yaiba is one of the few series I can consistently get it in. My only real complaint production wise is the photoreal fire simulations don’t quite fit the rest of the scenes.

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