Tag: anime

Spice and Wolf S1 – 6 [Wolf and a Silent Farewell] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to the almost halfway point of Spice and Wolf season one! This week wraps up the arc as people get stabbed, Holo goes wild and Lawrence gets huge bill. So without further ado lets dive in and talk about “Wolf and a Silent Farewell”.

Starting off I want to take a moment to appreciate the OST of Spice and Wolf. Composer Yuuji Yoshino has a clear vision for how this series should sound and I didn’t realize until this week. They have chosen a few key instruments and centered the entire album around them. Take tracks such as “Hashiru” and “Zawazawa Suru” or “Satoki Hito Tachi”, all of which you can find here. The violin is a constant presence in each, tying all of them together and giving us a common sound throughout. But the way Spice and Wolf blends and leads into each track over the course of the episode is fantastic. I particularly enjoyed how the each song slowly ramped the energy of the scene up more and more until we got to the grand finale. It was an incredible example of what a good OST, fit to a scene, can do.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 19 [Black Flash]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

This is it, it’s here, Kimetsu no Yaiba Jujutsu Kaisen episode 19! I would call that a joke but Jujutsu Kaisen really tried to pull out all the stops this week. From big flashy fight sequences to some emotional moments, it tried. But does it succeed? Well lets talk about that.

Starting off, production was all over the place. The animation was incredible of course. From Itadori’s kick sequence to Hanami’s flowers and tree growth. It’s all very dynamic, moved well and looked great. The problem is that the composite was complete shit. More often than not the characters didn’t look like they belonged in the world. Whether it be the utterly terrible splashing water or CGI forest once again standing out, it was bad. Of special note is the running sequence atop Hanami’s branches which just feels like an inferior version of Yutaka Nakamura’s work on the first My Hero Academia movie which you can find here. I don’t want to criticize Keiichiro Watanabe to much. The vines/trees and the actual character animations are fucking incredible as you will see in the clip below. But they don’t fit together well, with Itadori’s run seeming to float above the environment.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 6 [Prison Break]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Wooo more Dr. STONE! This week Chrome channels the collective intelligence of the modern world to enact the most daring escape in 3 millennia. And the best part is that’s only slightly hyperbole. So without further ado lets dive in!

This was a big week for Chrome and Dr. STONE as a whole. It was effectively the culmination of Chrome’s story these past few cours. His final transformation from a “primitive” to a full on science user. No help, no Senku, just using what he had learned and his own ingenuity, and I really like how it was presented. Dr. STONE opened the episode by introducing Yo and using him to reestablish how different Chrome is from more “modern” people. After all, even as meat heads they have a modern education and know a basic amount of science. More than you would expect a “primitive” to know at any rate. But Dr. STONE uses this to remind us that science has no barriers, anyone can use it if they put their mind to it. Whether it be a modern day genius like Senku or a “simple primitive” like Chrome.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 5 [Wolf and Lovers’ Quarrel] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

We’re back with another episode of Spice and Wolf! This week Holo and Lawrence reunite and… not much else happens. Yet for some reason, I don’t mind it. So without further ado lets dive into it.

I typically try to start these posts off on a positive note, something to get us going. But since I can only think of one negative for this week, lets start there instead: The opening scene. I tried my best to follow it, I really did. But Spice and Wolf is going a mile a minute with these economic theories and plans to strong arm a King. I had to rewind and rewatch the segment a few times to really understand what they were saying. Part of that is because I’m just an idiot when it comes to economics but I do think they could have slowed it down a bit. What I caught across those rewatches though did make sense. The back and forth between Lawrence and Marlheit, basically haggling and threatening each other to free Holo, was good. I just wish I could follow it easier.

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2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-Bu – 6 [The Laughing King and Crybaby Jack]

by Lenlo, posted in 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

I know, I know, this Volley-Bu post is woefully late. In my defense however the episode was also dreadfully boring! I suppose boring is still an improvement on last week though huh? Without further ado, lets dive into this weeks rant on Volley-Bu!

Like I said, this week was a slight improvement from the last, mostly because it focused on someone else. As thankful as I am for that though, I don’t think this rival team introduction quite worked. The idea behind this episode is pretty sound. Volley-Bu is introducing us to the rival team relatively early so that we have time to get to know them. That they get a whole episode dedicated to them is actually pretty good! But the problem is that this came out of absolutely nowhere and wasn’t properly setup nor presented very well. Volley-Bu spends the entire episode hyper focused on Fukuho Tech, the new team, but it fails to present them through our leads eyes. We barely even see our leads reactions or thoughts about Fukuho Tech until right near the end. While it works for establishing them as characters, it fails to build much tension.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 18 [Sage]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

This is it, this is the week Jujutsu Kaisen kicks it into gear! At least I hope it is. Between Hanami breaking into school grounds, Gojou getting locked out and one last flashback it better be. So with all that to talk about lets skip the preamble and jump into it!

The big one, the most exciting bit, is that the raid is happening! I can’t tell you how happy I am to see these curses because the first half of this episode was everything wrong with this arc. Once again Jujutsu Kaisen is shoving in another backstory/fight combo for one of its side characters whom I don’t even remember the name of. I get why it’s doing it, Jujutsu Kaisen wants to establish everyone’s powers and motives before heading into this big conflict. That’s good practice, you want you audience to know these things. But you can’t just introduce 5 new characters, info-dump their entire personality, and then expect us to care when you launch into a huge conflict. You need smaller arcs focused on each that build up to this big event. And it’s not like Jujutsu Kaisen can’t do this, because it did so with Toudou.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 5 [STEAM GORILLA]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

This weeks sees the Senku 1 get both a name change and an upgrade! Meanwhile Chrome comes up with a plan of escape and Tsukasa begins to take action, all in this weeks episode of Pimp My Ride Dr. STONE! So without further ado, lets dive in!

First I want to talk about the slow shift in focus we’ve seen these last two episodes. I said in the seasonal preview that I was afraid this season of Dr. STONE would focus to much on the conflict and not enough on the science. And the next few episodes, 2 and 3, help alleviated that. We got a good focus on humanity, some scientific progress, the sort of thing you want out of Dr. STONE. But these past two episodes we are starting to see it slide back down the science slope. We’re starting to burn through science scenes, such as the quick upgrading of the Steam Gorilla with its new wheels and such, in favor of progressing the conflict more and more. My favorite bits like the humanity aren’t totally gone, and Senku got to showoff the paper shield a bit. Just not as much as I’d like.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 4 [Wolf and Her Helpless Partner] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back to Spice and Wolf everyone! This is a big week for the series, at least for me, as it completely breaks what expectations I had. So without further ado lets dive in!

Starting off, like I said, this isn’t what I expected Spice and Wolf to be. When I first heard/read about this show, when the other authors here described it to me, I figured it would be more Slice of Life-life. Either that or some kind of mercantile Kino’s Journey. Basically I expected the focus to be on following Holo and Lawrence around as they traveled the countryside. So imagine my surprise when not only have we not done much traveling, but that there is a legitimate plot! Back in my posts about episodes 1 and 2 I just wanted some one-offs surrounding the Church or Holo’s image. Individual stories to build up the world that has passed her by. Instead we get a fully-fledge plot about people kidnapping her for her control of the harvest and threatening to reveal her to the church, and I love it.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 17 [Kyoto Sister School Exchange 3]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome to Girl Power, sponsored by Jujutsu Kaisen! This week the production is back in force and the narrative is back on the interesting characters. So without further ado lets dive in!

This is an interesting week for Jujutsu Kaisen, and for Shonen in general, because its almost 100% female lead. Why is this special? Well to put it simply, most Shonen female characters are absolute trash, they are terribly written. Its clear that most Shonen authors either don’t know how, or are not interested in, writing female characters. So to get an episode where they are not only the spotlight, but the sole focus, was rather novel. It’s a bit sad though that they were all still restricted to only fighting each other. The “female empowerment”/Strong Women narrative gets a little smudged when they are locked in their own box, not allowed to fight the male characters. Hopefully that changes as the event progresses though. I would love to see Maki or Nobara actually get a shot against Toudou or perhaps the other Kyoto student.

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Dr.STONE S2 – 4 [Full Assault]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

And we are back with more Dr. STONE! This week we Chrome gets captured, Tsukasa reappears and Senku builds a car of all things. So without further ado lets dive in!

This week was a bit of a slow one for Dr. STONE as its a bit of a transitionary episode. No big emotional gutpunches, just setup for future conflict and reintroducing our main villains. It also wasn’t that great production wise as we can see from the CGI mechanics and the return of still, sliding objects. About the only thing Dr. STONE did do this week was further its narrative a bit through the reintroduction of Tsukasa. This marks the first time we have seen him since the start of season one. We’ve heard plenty from Hyoga and the others but he hasn’t had much presence. So the question becomes: Can Tsukasa earn his place as the antagonist of Dr. STONE?

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