Tag: spring 2022

Dance Dance Danseur – 7 [Ah, I’m So Embarrassed]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dance Dance Danseur

Welcome back everyone, to another episode of Dance Dance Danseur. This week continues Jumpei’s journey of learning what ballet really is while Luou figures out the power of friendship! Or rivalry. Unsure which yet, to be honest. Regardless, lets jump into the episode!

Starting off I want to say that this was a very good looking episode. It didn’t have any big, flashy, explosive sequences like episode 5, true. However it did have a lot of incredibly solid character acting. Especially the Russian dancer! It’s very rare that an anime describes someone as “graceful” and then the animation actually backs that up. The way this guy moved was so smooth, it’s like he was animated on 1s rather than 2s. He certainly stood out compared to everyone else, that’s for sure. On top of that the scene of everyone doing pirouettes looked great as well. Obviously not to the same degree, aside from Luou who continues to be beautiful, but good nonetheless. I especially liked the focus on posture and axis for Jumpei, who has been struggling with the basics. More than anything though, I think this episode was directed beautifully.

Lets take a look at an example.
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Spy X Family – 6 [The Friendship Scheme]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Welcome back everyone, to another week of SpyXFamily. This episode Yor struggles with her maternal feelings, Loid has a mental breakdown and Anya finally goes to school! Without further ado, lets dive in.

Starting off with the visuals, I am sad to say that this episode left something to be desired. Filled with a lot of still posing, sliding backgrounds and teleporting characters, it simply isn’t comparable to last weeks effort. This isn’t to say every episode has to be a sakuga fest, last week was a treat. On top of that SpyXFamily definitely tried to be smart with how it used its limitations. Anya teleporting around was used to emphasize cuteness while a lot of the still frames focused on the comedic facial reactions of the characters. This is all fine. I just think that some scenes, such as Yor saving Anya from the kidnappers for example, suffered from this more economic style of production. And that’s a shame.

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Dance Dance Danseur – 6 [Why Am I Doing Ballet?]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dance Dance Danseur

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of Dance Dance Danseur! This week we begin a new arc, Jumpei get’s chewed out and Luou becomes a tad more competitive. Interested? Then lets jump right in!

Starting off, lets talk about something I mentioned last week: Consequences. I said that I was annoyed that Jumpei hadn’t had any for that stunt he pulled on stage, and that I hoped they were coming. Well? Here they are. Much to my delight, despite how impressed Godai was by it, not everyone else was so happy. I doubt that the Moms pulling their kids out of the school will cause any lasting damage of course. The economic viability of the Godai school simply isn’t what Danseur is about. But that isn’t what I like about this either. What I like is that Jumpei is being forced to recognize the consequences of his actions. And as such, is seeking to not only rectify them but to ensure they don’t happen again. It’s a moment of possible character growth for him. One I’m glad to see Danseur picked up on.

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Spy X Family – 5 [Will They Pass or Fail]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Welcome everyone, to another episode of SpyXFamily! This week has everything. Action, wholesome family moments, a few jokes. It’s the perfect example of what an anime adaptation of an existing property could, and should, be. What do I mean? Well lets jump in and talk about it.

To say that SpyXFamily is getting a good adaptation would be an understatement. Kazuhiro Furuhashi and his team are going above and beyond this week, taking what was an otherwise pretty standard wholesome family chapter and turning it into an action-packed event. The whole sequence in the castle? With the balls, the quiz, the tower? That’s all anime original. The manga had the concept yes, the agents that got brought in and playing “Save the Princess” with Anya. But it only went so far as to knock over a table and call that a “prison”. The small fight with Yor was the only action the chapter had. So to see it expanded upon like this, to be turned into a sequence that can carry an episode, an excuse for absolutely fantastic animation? I think it just goes to show how dedicated this team are to making SpyXFamily a success.

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Dance Dance Danseur – 5 [I Can’t Die Now]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dance Dance Danseur

Ladies and gentleman, this episode of Dance Dance Danseur might just be my episode of the season. There’s so much love here and we have so little time to talk about it, so lets just jump right into it!

Obviously the first thing we need to talk about is that beautiful performance. Danseur really came out swinging this week with this rendition of Swan Lake. Not in terms of animation sadly, we haven’t gotten much 2D ballet work since Luou’s gym performance in episode 3. Instead MAPPA used CGI for all of those scenes this week, and it was painfully obvious. They stuck out like a sore thumb anytime Danseur switched to a wide shot with multiple characters and complex movement. It’s a shame, definitely the low point of the episode. But even with those, what stuck in my head after watching wasn’t the CGI models. Instead it was all of the beautifully lit and detailed still frames. The expressions on Jumpei, Miyako and Luou’s faces throughout, and prior to, the performance. Or the incredibly framed full-body posing with extreme lighting and camera angles. These were all fantastic.

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Spy X Family – 4 [The Prestigious School’s Interview]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

This is it everyone. This is, for me, the perfect episode of SpyXFamily. It had everything. Layered jokes, wholesome family moments, good animation. There was even a one-off episode “villain” to watch be defeated. My opening review is: I loved it. Now lets talk about why.

Last week I said I didn’t enjoy episode 3, for what I thought were pretty good reasons. The jokes were simple and flat, the episodes plot was largely toothless and the only engaging bit was the wholesome family moments. Well I am pleased to announce that, as expected, SpyXFamily fixes all of those in episode 4. First and foremost among those being: The jokes. The best way I can put it is that if last weeks jokes were bland, one-off, ham & cheese sandwich’s this weeks were multi-layered, multi-meat subs. Even when repeated there was enough going on that you found different flavors, different things to enjoy, each time they came up. Have I confused you with my weird sandwich metaphor? You blame the dinner I’m eating as I write this then. To help illustrate what I’m talking about though, lets break down one of the jokes after the break.

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Dance Dance Danseur – 4 [I Can Do Ballet Now]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dance Dance Danseur

Welcome back everyone, to another week of Dance Dance Danseur. This week we follow up with Luou on the bullying, Jumpei embraces ballet and the show becomes just a tad bit more Shounen. What does that mean? Read on to find out.

Right off the bat I want to, once again, praise Danseur for its visuals. The eyes still look off in wide shots sadly. I think the lines just do not look good without the proper tapering and details provided by the closeups. There was also an issue regarding Miyako’s tutu just being a static image moving across the screen rather than any kind of animation. But I find both of these to be ultimately small, almost irrelevant, issues. Neither of them changes how good the character movement is. Especially the legs! Oh how I love the legs in Danseur. The attention to detail on their form, the way the joints move, the careful way they must be posed and walk during a ballet… I find it beautiful. I haven’t been able to fill hunger for dance since the Princess Tutu Throwback Thursday series, so this has been a welcome find.

And as for the narrative? Well that was pretty damn good too.

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Spy X Family – 3 [Prepare for the Interview]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Hello everyone and welcome to a (very late) episode of Spy X Family! Some of you might be wondering why this took so long. My answer? I actually struggled to write this post. The episode was just so milquetoast, I had very little positive, or negative, to say. Why? Well lets jump on in and see if I can explain.

The best way to explain it is this: I’m not a fan of slice of life. As a genre, I find it incredibly boring. Very little happens. And, regretfully, slice of life is kind of what Spy X Family gave us this week. It was just a normal day in their new lives. Yes, it was all very important. This episode established their family dynamic and overall relationships with each other. The whole thing was about them spending time with each other, that was the point. It’s necessary that this stuff is established now so that things to come make sense and flow naturally. To make a long story short: It has to happen. I acknowledge that. But it doesn’t change that I, by and large, found it boring. I’ve even prepared a few specifics after the break to help explain it.

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Dance Dance Danseur – 3 [What Does It Mean to Be Manly]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Dance Dance Danseur

Welcome everyone to week 3 of Dance Dance Danseur! This one is simultaneously the most interesting, and concerning, episode yet. Why? Well lets jump in and find out!

Now normally I start these posts talking about the production, but you know what Danseur looks like. It looks good! So instead lets skip straight into what happened this week: Bullying. Conceptually I rather like it. This episode went all in on Jumpei struggling with being “cool”, being “masculine”, and that’s exactly what I wanted from Danseur. Not just some glossed over “I dance, everyone is cool with it”, but an actual full on look as to why Jumpei feels this way. Why he’s concerned and insecure about it and why there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. And I got that! By the end, Jumpei has started down that road. He has begun to figure out that being a “man” isn’t about being a fighter or whatever. It’s about being true to yourself and your beliefs. The only concerning thing about it is how Danseur got there.

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Spy X Family – 2 [Secure a Wife]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Spy X Family

Right away I want to apologize for the lateness of this, Easter Weekend played havoc with my schedule. Excuses out of the way though, welcome to my 2nd show of the season, Spy X Family! This week continues the adventures of Anya and Loid as the search for the perfect wife to round out their dysfunctional little family. So without further ado, lets dive into it!

Before we get into all the good stuff Spy X Family gave us this week, and there’s a lot, I want to mention my only real negatives with the episode: Production. The show doesn’t look bad by any stretch of the imagination. There are much blander, much less animated series airing right now. However this is a step down from the first episode in my opinion. Part of that has to do with with darkness in Loid’s harbor scene. I harp on this a lot with Now and Then, Here and There as well. You have to light these things properly! The other issue though is that a lot of the models this episode felt… off? Not massively so, I want to be very clear when I say these are not huge problems. It’s just in places like the party scene Yor and Loid’s overall designs felt a tad stiff.

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