Tag: Summer 2022

Isekai Ojisan – 6 [So They Threw Me into the Basement of a Freak Show…]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Isekai Ojisan

Welcome to another week of Iskeai Ojisan! A bit of a slow post on my part, grad school makes my schedule difficult. Don’t you worry though, I’m not stopping anytime soon! So without further ado lets just jump into this weeks episode.

In general I think this week was strictly fine. There were some decent, and not so decent, jokes. A bit of a lore dump and even some Uncle history dropped in. But those last two are more concerning than you might think. Because while they seem innocuous, to me they indicate that Ojisan is listing dangerously close to becoming that which it is mocking. Take last weeks joke about his “gift” from God being useless for instance. Turns out? It’s actually just as OP as any other “gift”, allowing him to use magic more quickly and at a level no one else can match. The supporting cast of women, previously lampooning Isekai casts? It’s just a harem now. Being thrown in jail, getting payback, and looking like a rapist? Well now this is just Shield Hero. Considering we are only halfway into the season, this makes me very concerned.

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RWBY: Ice Queendom – 8 [Where You Belong]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, RWBY: Ice Queendom

Welcome everyone, to another episode of RWBY: Ice Queendom! Much to my surprise, Queendom continues its trend of actually being kinda good. Not visually, that’s still an absolute dumpster fire. But narratively? I’m… I’m kind of invested. And every time I write that I have to stare at it in shock. Why? Let’s dive in and talk about it.

First up, let’s just completely skip animation. We both know it’s not good at this point. Queendom didn’t even give us a fight with the giant robot statue Nicholas this week, that’s how disappointing it was. So instead lets skip right to the story where Queendom totally surprised me. Remember last week when I said this was the final run and we were going to slowly work our way to Weiss? Well forget that. Because instead we just speed ran our way back to the Grimm, failed, and then got punted to an even lower nadir. A nadir so low in fact that I am actually entertaining the possibility that someone might actually die. It’s a low chance, don’t get me wrong. But the OG RWBY did it, and we’ve already broken from canon, so why can’t Queendom? Suffice to say, I’d be really impressed if it did.

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Yofukashi no Uta – 7 [Reproduce]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Yofukashi no Uta

Welcome everyone, to another episode of Yofulashi no Uta! I’m a bit late on this one, Path of Exile just released a new league and I wasted a day on that. Don’t worry though, the novelty will wear off soon and I’ll be right back on schedule. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, Yofukashi actually moved this week! And it looked good doing it! I know that comes off as a joke, but seriously. Yofukashi isn’t what I would call “animated”. It exists primarily as a set of stills with pretty backgrounds, snappy dialogue and bright color palettes. So to see it move like this was a treat. It had to sacrifice some detail in places to do it obviously, forgoing some of it’s signature style. But I think that’s totally fine for a one-off treat like this. And I do assume it will be one off unless Yofukashi uses this as an excuse to start bringing more action into the series. I wouldn’t be against that necessarily, but it would have to be well considered before being thrown in. What do I mean by that? Well lets talk spoilers after the break.

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Isekai Ojisan – 5 [That Reminds Me, I Almost Got Assassinated Once]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Isekai Ojisan

It’s back everyone, Isekai Ojisan is back! It’s been to weeks without the seasons premier comedy. And what happens on it’s first week back? Well… It falls a little flat if I can be honest. Lets dive in and talk about why.

So like I said, I’m pretty mixed on this weeks Ojisan. On the good side, the jokes were mostly fine. Baseball terminology being scary, Mabel’s return, the ring joke again, etc. Even a complete repeat of making a girl fall for him, with a melting sword/heart metaphor in the background, only to completely undercut it with his own stupidity. Making her go from rejecting him to thinking she was rejected herself. It’s all strictly fine. I wish that Ojisan had some more original material this week, stuff like the Youtube ad crisis was absolutely hilarious. But this isn’t the worst rut to be stuck in I suppose. Sadly however, these were not all of the jokes in the episode. In fact there was one in particular that kind of put me off the whole thing: The rape joke.

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RWBY Ice Queendom – 7 [Dreams Come Rued]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, RWBY: Ice Queendom

Welcome back everyone, to another episode of RWBY: Ice Queendom! This week is actually a good step up from the last, in basically every respect. It’s not perfect of course. But there’s a lot I liked about it, so lets jump right in and talk about it.

Starting off, the animation. Let’s not beat around the bush, Queendom has been suffering here for a while and this week isn’t any different. The CGI continues to stick out like a sore thumb and there are some scenes I can count the frames on one hand in. To say Queendom looks janky at times would be a compliment. But, and this is a big but, this week actually had some fun stuff as well. From small parts of the train fight, stuff like Jaune’s landing and Yang’s short combination, to all the tiny Weiss’s running around. It’s the most interesting and engaging animation that we’ve had since the opening 3 episodes dropped. Does that make it incredible? No, not really. But a drowning man at sea doesn’t complain when he finds a half-full water bottle floating by.

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Yofukashi no Uta – 6 [Might as Well Have Fun]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Yofukashi no Uta

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of Yofukashi no Uta! I’m a bit late for this one, sorry about that. Busy week plus I have that Welcome to the NHK review to write. Enough excuses though, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, this week was a mixed bag visually. Yofukashi had some really, really high highs, don’t get me wrong. Ko’s face reflecting in the lake, or his complete change in art style and heavy linework while dealing with Shirakawa were fantastic. I love those kind of striking scenes and hope we get more of it. But there’s also such as thing as “to much” and that’s what happened with the neon this week. The entire pool scene in the 2nd half was just that. To much blue, to pink, etc. It drowned out any other color and shading work done on the scene and made it a pain to look at any of the finer details. It matches Yofukashi’s aesthetic sure, but at the detriment of everything else. Hopefully this is a one off and they stick to more restrained amounts of color in the future.

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RWBY Ice Queendom – 6 [Do You Have a Plan?]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, RWBY: Ice Queendom

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point for RWBY: Ice Queendom! I’d say we have a lot to talk about, but if I’m being honest we really don’t. This was a pretty straight forward, and dare I say weak, episode for the show. Why is that? Well lets dive in and talk about it.

First up, Queendom looked pretty damn janky this episode. The closeups in the 2nd half were fine, Huke’s designs hold up when they aren’t moving. And a lot of the editing was snappy and creative as well. I loved hearing only one side of Yang’s conversation but cutting to the phone and back, making it clear a conversation was happening beyond just standing still. But the fights? The fights were bad. I’m talking full floaty CGI, bad composite, stiff movement bad. It’s funny that I’m critiquing a RWBY show for having CGI, I get that. However say what you will about the original RWBY , Rooster Teeth’s CGI has come a long way and looks way better than this. Combine that with it swapping between 2D and 3D and it stands out all the more. It’s disappointing to be honest. Where are my Nagata cuts?!

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Yofukashi no Uta – 5 [Well, That’s a Problem]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Yofukashi no Uta

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week of Yofukashi no Uta! This week sees a much needed shift in focus from our male lead, Ko, over to Nazuna. We get a peek into what her daily life is like, and how Ko’s introduction to her life is affecting her. Is it good? Is it interesting? Well let’s dive in and talk about it!

Starting off, this week Yofukashi introduced me to an idea that I can’t believe I hadn’t considered. Do you remember when I said that Ko was being forced to choose between day and night? Akira and Nazuna? And how Ko has seemingly chosen the night, but there’s a chance he could bring Akira over as well? Well the opening of this episode made me wonder, is Nazuna being given the same choice. We see just how alone and unfulfilling her days are. How late she sleeps in, how inconvenient it is, and how little the sun actually appears to bother her if she can wake up in it. So is there chance that instead of Ko being dragged into the night, into becoming a vampire, that Nazuna gets dragged into the day with him and Akira? It’s still to early to tell but I like that the option exists.

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RWBY Ice Queendom – 5 [Awaken in a Dream]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, RWBY: Ice Queendom

Welcome back everyone, to another week of RWBY: Ice Queendom! The story doesn’t progress much this week, but we do get a good look into how Weiss views a lot more of the characters. It feels like Queendom is really trying to set something up, but only time will tell if its any good. For now, lets jump in and talk about this weeks episode!

Starting off, I have something I need to get off my chest: Queendom’s editing is starting to get on my nerves. Not the rather boring shot composition or shot-reverse-shot dialogue, that’s disappointing but workable. No, I’m talking about the gallery style formatting where they place multiple shots within the same shot with only a thin black line separating them. Queendom occasionally did this in an intelligent way, like the time it used the edge of the fountain to separate the shots rather than a random black line. But most of the time it felt like I was watching a manga panel or something. It feels like an excuse to be lazy rather than storyboard out some interesting camera shots and block scenes properly. Maybe that’s just me being nitpicky, but it really has started to become noticeable.

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Yofukashi no Uta – 4 [Isn’t This a Tight Squeeze?]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Yofukashi no Uta

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Yofukashi no Uta! Just like with Isekai Ojisan, I would like to apologize for this being a bit late. Otakon is taking up a lot of my time this weekend so I’m getting these done when I can. As far as the episode goes, there’s a good amount to talk about so lets jump right into it!

Off the bat, the big thing I’m happy about with Yofukashi this week is Akira. Namely that she’s still around. I had a small fear that after her introduction, Akira would become relegated to the background. A reoccurring but ultimately unimportant character that only shows up for a chance of scenery. Instead, what Yofukashi gave me was hope. It spent this entire episode focused not on our MC, Kou, or our love interest, Nazuna, but on Akira and her relationship with the two. On her own issues, history and arc. And I couldn’t be happier! Because if you ask me? It seems like a really good arc. Lets talk details below break.

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