Undead Murder Farce – 13 [The Culprit’s Name]

Welcome all, to the grand finale! This is it, the final episode Undead Murder Farce! There’s a lot that needs wrapping up this week. Will the series manage it? Or will it continue to stumble right at the finish line? Lets dive in and find out!

Starting off, did Undead Murder Farce manage to fix its lackluster visual production by the end? Well to be honest, not really. We still got shitty green screen compositing, poorly lit night scenes generally dull movement. Those have been stables since the show first aired and they are still here now. One thing we did get though was a pretty damn good cave sequence. It only lasted for a minute, sure. But it feels like that scene was every ounce of creative energy the show had condensed into a single minute. It was legitimately pretty great. The use of line work and different colors for different characters, the use of negative space, bright reds for wounds and such. Add on to that some… creative, if a tad nonsensical, scenes like Carmilla’s and at least as far as finales go, Undead Murder Farce didn’t do half bad I don’t think.

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Undead Murder Farce – 12 [Where the River’s Flow Changes]

Welcome all, to a rather late episode of Undead Murder Farce! Sorry for that, I’ve been writing some reports and getting back into Path of Exile. Not the best excuse, but hey it’s fun. Enough about me though, lets talk about our current seasonal murder mystery!

Starting off, Undead Murder Farce continues with it’s questionable production this week. I know I harp on it every time, but I’m going to continue to do so until it stops being a problem. It’s just to dark, to hard to see anything, and they still haven’t figured it out. On top of that, what decent animation we did get in the fights was still kind of rough. The way Tsuguru used his environment was nice, but I can’t say it looked good. And that’s not even mentioning the power-point levels of editing that were the last few moments of the episode. Seriously, what was that zoom and pan shit? Is this a professional project or is it babies first production? It’s damn shame. Undead Murder Farce never looked great, but it’s fallen even from those mild heights recently.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 9 [Shibuya Incident – Gate, Open]

Welcome all, to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! This week is the climax of Gojo’s fight. We all know how this ends, so the real question is: How hype was it? Lets dive in and find out!

Starting off, lets give some praise for Jujutsu Kaisen’s animation team this week because that was great. Gojo got to go hard and show off exactly why he’s the fan favorite. Whether it be running around at the speed of sound killing some monsters or schooling some spirits in hand-to-hand, it was a great time. It’s a damn shame about the dimming though. I get it, it’s required by law, Porygon’s existence continues to affect anime to this day. Doesn’t change the fact that it made a couple of scenes look worse than they otherwise would have though. Still, at least fans have something to look forward to when the blu-rays come out. And it’s not like it ruined every scene either. To bring it back around to positivity, Jujutsu Kaisen’s focus on facial expressions this week was great. From Jogo to Geto to Gojo, I loved them all.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 8 [The Shibuya Incident]

Welcome all, to another episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! This week sees the villains show up, gives us our first fight of the arc, and lets Itadori show off a bit. Plenty to talk about, so lets jump right in!

Starting off, production wise this week wasn’t anything to great. It wasn’t bad, but it’s obvious Jujutsu Kaisen is saving the big stuff for later. Instead this week was mostly a rather standard display of Gojo’s power and a weird hallway CGI scene with Itadori. As awkward as it was at times though, I would still call it an improvement from Season 1’s poorly composited sewers and forests. Part of that is probably that the environment was a lot less ambitious, really just being two rectangular hallways side-by-side. But I think they’ve also just legitimately improved at it, full stop. The textures were better, they slowed the camera down and let the animation do most of the work. If anything the complexity of the Curse’s design was what held them back the most. Hopefully it continues to improve as we get further and further into the arc.

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Undead Murder Farce – 11 [Where the Wolves Dwell]

Welcome all, to another week of Undead Murder Farce! This week adds another layer to the murder mystery, we meet a bunch of werewolves, and Shizuku gets an actual episode all to herself. It’s good stuff! So lets dive in to it shall we?

Starting off lets get the obvious out of the way. The night time scenes still look like shit. This sucks. Especially when Undead Murder Farce actually had some decent nocturnal lighting near the end during Shizuku’s little investigation. It’s like the show is learning, just not fast enough to really matter. Putting that dead horse aside though, the most important thing about this episode to me was that it was all Shizuku. Tsuguru and Aya make small appearances, mostly to push them towards a reunion, but Shizuku gets the majority of the screen and it’s great. She’s really needed something separate form Tsuguru and Aya, some time to away to come into her own as a character, and that’s what we got here. Not only in terms of her limitations, she isn’t the brains of their group, but also in how she treats people outside of our main squad.

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Zom 100 Bucket List of the Dead – 7 [Truck Stop of the Dead]

Welcome all, to another episode of Zom 100! Enjoy it, because it’s two weeks before our next, and then another three after that I think. Man the production behind this show must be falling apart. That or they are putting a lot of care into it. Still, this is anime production, which do we really think it is? Enough with that though, on with the show!

So to be frank, part of what made this post take so long was just how dull I found this episode. As a metaphor for how soul crushing and downright abusive corporate life can be, how modern corporate values affect families, how many in positions of power do not actually deserve to be there, just the whole package about how corporate culture has sucked the joy out of life, it worked. That was all successful. No question. But as a piece of entertainment, as something that was meant to be enjoyable to watch and make me feel something? It just didn’t. There was some disgust, sure. And some small vindication at the end. But as a 23 minute experience? It was more depressing and unsatisfying than anything else. At least for me.

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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 7 [Evening Festival]

It’s here everyone, Jujutsu Kaisen’s Shibuya is beginning. The event that’s going to be talked about for the rest of the year, and will inevitably get me yelled at. Before we dive into that though we need to finish up with Mechamaru. Does he survive his meeting with Mahito? Or is he the first victim of this coming war? Let’s jump in and find out!

Starting off, at it’s core this episode looked good. We had a nice fight in the first half, filled with Evangelion references, an Itano Circus and lots of just really cool moments. It’s a shame about the dimming though. And the after-images that almost ruined a number of scenes, like Mahito running through the trees in various forms. I get it, the anti-seizure law is important and exists for a reason. But part of me wishes these studios would animate within the confines they know they will be able to air, so that edits after the fact don’t ruin it. Another part though doesn’t want to restrict them, so we can get the wildest shit imaginable. Either way though, I know one thing for sure: The Jujutsu Kaisen Blu-ray is going to be well worth it when it comes out. Get rid of aaaall that dimming.

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Undead Murder Farce – 10 [Misty Hollow]

Welcome all, to another episode of Undead Murder Farce! This week we discover who the werewolf is, get in a tussle and maybe just maybe suffer the consequences of our actions. What does that mean? Well read on and find out!

Starting off, this week we get some actually decent animation for the first time in a while! Now it’s not like Undead Murder Farce is some kind of mess, aside from the poor lighting it’s fine. But even during the climax of the Lupin arc there wasn’t much in the way of dynamic, interestin animation. This week however we got a whole sequence as Tsugaru and Shizuku chase after the werewolf, the fist fight, Shizuku trying to stab/shoot it, the waterfall. It felt like things were really starting to ramp up leading into the finale. Undead Murder Farce isn’t an action show, it doesn’t need to be action that gets animated. I’ll take basically anything. Action is just a straightforward easy thing to point at and go “Caveman brain see flashing colors!”. So yeah, that was nice!

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Fall 2023 Season Preview

Lenlo: It’s time for another season folks! A bit of a more relaxed one I think, no huge returns like Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach or Mushoku Tensei to take up everyone’s time. More like a bunch of small things for everyone to pick and choose their favorites and just relax, with a few sequels and standouts to spark some conversation. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some worth keeping an eye on however. Dr. STONE and Mahoutsukai no Yome both return to finish off their most recent arcs, while newcomers like Apothecary Diaries and Undead Unluck arrive to try and steal the show. Will they pull it off? We have no way to know just yet. One things for certain though, I’m going to be keeping an eye on them. Curious about what else is airing? Then read on, and see what else caught my eye this season! And if you think there’s something I missed? Make sure to put it in the poll below so everyone can know what you’re watching!

What will you be watching this Fall?

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Undead Murder Farce – 9 [Werewolf]

Welcome all, to another late episode of Undead Murder Farce! I’ll admit, I just sort of forgot that this episode aired. I just watched it last night, that’s how hectic things have been. Apologies for all the delays, life is busy at the moment, and I appreciate y’all sticking around. Now pity party aside, on with the episode!

Right off the bat, and I know I’ve been harping on this a lot but I swear to god it just keeps coming up, Undead Murder Farce has no idea how to handle darkness. That whole opening scene with the mob chasing someone through the night? You could barely tell what was going on half the time. When the lighting was good, whether from torchlight or burning buildings, the sequence looked good. Just skip to the end as the windmill burns down, there’s some great contrast in there. But the rest of the time? Good luck picking out details. It’s a shame, because Undead Murder Farce has the answer to these problems. Use dark blues instead of blacks, let the torch or moonlight extend farther, go for a more stylize/high contrast lighting. Any of these would help! But the show just refuses to use them.

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