Tag: anime

Haibane Renmei – 12 [Bell Nuts/Passing of the Year Festival/Reconciliation] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to the penultimate episode of Haibane Renmei! Apologies for the wait on this one, I’ve been quite sick these past few days and didn’t get to write this early like I usually do. With my excuses out of the way lets dive into this weeks episode!

Starting off I think this was the first episode where I had a noticeable issue with Haibane Renmei’s visuals. Not across the board of course. The backgrounds are still nice and the colors, while largely washed out, still work to sell that almost ethereal nature of the Wall, halos and town. In fact I’m really only talking about one part in particular: Rakka’s face when she is talking to Midori. The way this shot is cut just… bothers me. Those 3 rapid frames as she reacts to Midori, the way it cuts between them is just… jarring. It took me completely out of the scene and the moment. I actually went back twice to see if I just blinked or something else went wrong. But no. Its just a really jarring scene. Is this a big deal? Not really but I had to complain about something before I gush.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 2 [Deep Sleep]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Hello and welcome to the Kimetsu no Yaiba movie Episode 2 of Kimetsu no Yaiba! That’s right, this week begins the movie retread. For those of you who have already seen it you won’t be getting anything new. And for those that haven’t? Lets dive in and talk about that.

Right off the bat you can tell that this is movie quality stuff. Not because of any of the big scenes mind you. Yaiba was always, and still is, pretty good about those. It’s more the consistency of it all. The small scenes that normally, in a TV anime at least, wouldn’t get animated. Stuff like Inosuke’s various snort effects, the various facial expressions or movement of background characters, etc. Of course the big things have their moments to though. I have issues with Ufotable’s CGI coming up in later episodes but god is this train pretty. The lighting, the tracking, the smoke, this is a good looking train! And Ufotable knows it, as you will quickly find out by the amount of full-model shots in the upcoming episodes. Whatever you think of the story, and I have qualms about it, you can’t deny that Yaiba is pretty.

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Eighty Six S2 – 3 [Glad to Be Here]

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

Hello everyone and welcome back to Eighty Six! I’ve been a bit positive lately, what with my coverage of Haibane Renmei and gushing over some recent productions. So it’s time to go back to being a bit of a curmudgeon and take shots at someone’s labor of love! Lets dive in.

Now I framed it humorously in the intro but I am legitimately disappointed in Eighty Six this week. From both a production and narrative perspective this episode feels like a step down. And you know what’s so surprising about it? This episode was both Directed and Storyboarded by Satsuki Takahashi, who did episodes 5 and 10 back in the first season. Those were good episodes with incredibly striking imagery! From Shin’s shot in the mirror in episode 5 to the scenic shots of episode 10, I praised them a lot! So it’s really disappointing to see him return this week and not get more of the same beauty. I can only assume the reason is the subject material he had to work with. Those two episodes were much stronger narratively and seemingly more focused in their goal. Meanwhile this episode felt… predictable. More so than Eighty Six usually is.

(Though I will say the CGI looked much better)

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Haibane Renmei – 11 [Parting/Darkness in the Heart/Irreplaceable Thing] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone and welcome to a very late post about Haibane Renmei! I don’t really have an excuse. To be frank I thought this episode was rather dull. Why? Well lets jump in and find out!

So like I said, I found this episode rather dull. It was primarily setup on Rakka’s end, giving her a time limit as well as setting the stakes for what is to come. It also did some work setting the tone but overall I think Haibane Renmei has kept the tone pretty consistent throughout its run so it was a little unnecessary. Overall this episode didn’t really tell us anything new or reframe anything we had already been told. That’s fine I suppose, more of the same with Haibane Renmei is still a decent character piece. And it’s not like every episode has to be some grand reveal, that’s just an unreasonable expectation. But what I can say is that this episode is never going to be my, or anyone’s, favorite out of the season. I just doesn’t have anything to set it apart and give it that “favorite” spark.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 1 [Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku]

by Lenlo, posted in Kimetsu no Yaiba

Hello everyone and welcome back to Kimetsu no Yaiba! Time for that classic Ufotable shounen spice. Before we get into anything though I have to make one thing clear: Yaiba is going to be lower priority for awhile since it’s just re-airing the movie split into episodes. I’m still going to cover it! But Eighty Six and Throwback Thursday will take precedence. The real Yaiba, for me, doesn’t start until December. That out of the way, its jump into it!

Of course the first thing we have to talk about are the visuals. This is what Yaiba is known for. And rightly so if you ask me. Ufotable’s effects driven presentation might not be my favorite, I think Heike is the best looking show of the season, but its still good. Kinda like a Marvel movie’s CGI-fest versus real props and miniatures, etc. One thing I do have to call it out for though is the composite. Sometimes its just so… painfully obvious that the character was added into the environment after the fact. Their visual styles, the CGI, the post-processing, they don’t fit together. Most of the time it’s fine enough. But in some of the darker scenes where light and shadow were really important it was very noticeable. Not a big problem, Yaiba is still pretty. But it’s there. And we will see more of it.

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86 – Eighty Six S2 – 2 [Its Too Late]

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

Welcome back everyone to another season of Eighty Six! If you’re reading this post you already know what you’re getting into so lets skip the preamble and jump right into it!

Right off the bat I want to, again, praise Director Toshimasa Ishii for Eighty Six’s visuals. The animation and compositing aren’t the best, Heike takes the cake in raw production values probably. But Eighty Six is making a fair go at the title for “Best Shot”. I just really love how it frames and cuts between scenes, imbuing meaning in even the smallest gestures. One of my favorites for the episode for example had to be around 7 minutes in. After being introduced to the now calm and peaceful daily lives of the 86’ers, something novel for them, we then get a short sequence of back shots. Fading between each of them as these days drag on into monotony, the music steady and unchanging but purposefully dull, without bite. It conveys what they are feeling really well! Now if only Eighty Six didn’t feel the need to verbalize it to.

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Haibane Renmei – 10 [Kuramori/Haibane of Abandoned Factory/Rakka’s Job] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all to a (late) episode of Haibane Renmei! This week is a bit slower compared to the last few but no less lighter. We got a lot of information dropped on us this week. So how about we jump right into it?

Compared to the last few episodes this week felt like setup rather than payoff. Like Haibane Renmei is gearing up for it’s final act. This isn’t a bad thing! Where the previous episodes gave us a lot of character growth and revelatory moments, Rakka in the well for example, this week is a lot more information focused. Answering a lot of questions I’ve had since the beginning of the series while asking a few more. But these new question’s aren’t really about the world at large, they aren’t meant to introduce new aspects or parts of the setting. Instead it feels like their purpose is to connect the dots. Pointing us towards the gaps in our knowledge, like the Renmei, the Haibane and the Sin-Bound, and promising to fill them in. So while there wasn’t a lot of forward progress this week I can clearly see the path being laid.

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Haibane Renmei – 9 [Water Well/Rebirth/Riddle] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to another week of Haibane Renmei! This is a rather uplifting episode compared to the last few, a sort of breathe of fresh air. Rakka has an eye opening conversation while Reki takes her place at the bottom of the metaphorical well. What do either of those things mean? Read on and find out!

Before we get into all the narrative mumbo jumbo though I want start with some praise for the music. I haven’t talked about it much until now because I wanted a larger sample size. But at this point I can comfortably say that Kou Ootani has made something special. There’s a specific style to Haibane Renmei’s sound, one that’s almost reverent, riding that line of feeling almost religious. Yet Kou Ootani manages to create music that is both happy and sad, quiet and adventurous, hopeful and resigned, all the while keeping the same Haibane Renmei style. My only complaint with it is that occasionally the sound mixing appears to be off. For instance in this episode there were a few scenes where the music, though good, overpowered the dialogue. I’m unsure how much of this is just BD remastering vs original audio problems but they exist regardless.

Now lets head into the break so we can talk spoilers!

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Haibane Renmei – 8 [The Bird] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to another episode of Haibane Renmei! This week’s episode is one of the more unique ones, though the solo title alone probably gives that away. Is this a good thing? Bad? Lets dive in and find out!

First up, what do I mean by unique? What makes this episode different from the rest and how does the title factor in? Doing my best to explain it, I think it has to do with the episodes focus. Previous episodes of Haibane Renmei seemed structured in three acts, acts that corresponded to the three titles. And each of these acts felt like the progressed the episodes story in some way. A clear beginning, middle and end so to speak. Yet this episode, with only one title, feels almost… stagnant. Like it’s one long act. One where the last episode introduced us to Rakka’s depression, this episode carried it through and fully explored it by giving it the time it needed, and next episode will begin to resolve it. Or maybe I’m just letting the singular title get to me and seeing differences where none exist. I liked it regardless.

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Haibane Renmei – 7 [Scar/Illness/Arrival of Winter] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Haibane Renmei, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Haibane Renmei! This post accidentally got deleted so I had to rewrite it, so apologies for being slightly late. Last week was good but this one is even better. Rakka is figuring out her emotions, Reki is dropping lore and my emotions are being tugged all around. So without further ado lets dive in!

Right out of the gate I want to say that Haibane Renmei was really good this week. I was invested from beginning to end, hitting all the right spots. This was exactly what I was looking for. I loved how the episode didn’t try to speed-through anything. Rather, it kept the same slow pacing Haibane Renmei has always had but filled it with the material I’m really interested in. The episode focused on the aftermath of Kuu’s disappearance, not in a technical sense like I feared but an emotional sense. Giving us, and by extension the characters, time to process everything that happened and react while still moving everything forward. Using that time to show how they are different from each other and then explain those differences in ways that don’t just feel like info dumps. Which is great because Rakka had a lot going on this week.

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