Tag: Throwback Thursday

This is it everyone, we have made it to the end of Now and Then, Here and There. It’s been a wild ride, a tragic one to. Without further ado though I present to you, the final episode on this season of Throwback Thursday. And remember to vote on the next one in the poll at the end of this post! wink wink.

So yeah… the finale. I have to say that I was surprised. Now and Then ended on a much more hopeful note than I was expecting. I figured that it would go for the “Scare you straight” kind of ending. One where literally everyone dies and there is no happy ending. The kind that makes it painfully clear what happens if we make it this far down the path. Instead though what we got was much more bittersweet and hopeful. People still died, and we will talk about all of that, but it was mostly the old guard. The ones who were either complicit in the system or to deep in to be pulled back out again. Leaving all those looking for peace alive to build a future, for the most part. A sort of “It worked out in the end”, even with all the tragedy.

In some ways it was a bit more sudden than I was expecting, but for the most part it works. Now lets talk details!

Continue reading “Now and Then, Here and There – 13 [Now and Then, Here and There]- Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to the penultimate episode of Now and Then, Here and There! This week sees… well, it sees a lot. Bullets fly, people die and Hamdo re-enters the picture. Is it any good? Lets jump in and find out.

Overall I think this was an interesting week. It doesn’t add anything as a follow up to last weeks topic regarding abortion, children, pro-life etc, but I think that’s for the best. I stand by what I said last week, how I didn’t agree with its politics or what it was trying to say, so moving on was probably the best option. The worst thing to come out of that was how, thematically, it feels a little disjointed. But once you get into the episode and start experiencing what is happening I think the shift is negligible. Basically what I’m saying is: Now and Then had a small bump last week but we are now back on track and stuff is happening. So lets talk about this weeks tragedies.

Continue reading “Now and Then, Here and There – 12 [This Bloody Earth]- Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to what is inevitably going to be a late post about Now and Then, Here and There! How do I know it will be late? Because I’m off traveling for work all day Thursday and I haven’t started writing this until Wednesday. So if I somehow manage to get it up on time make sure to tell me I did a good job. No please, Pavlov really works. Enough with the intro though, lets dive into the episode!

This week is a strong one. To lay it out in plain terms, this week was all about children and whether or not it is just to bring them in to a dying world. Now and Then poses this question to us through two different sets of characters: Lala and Sis, as well as Sara and Shu. With the answer to both of those being an unequivocal “yes”. On the surface, I think this is a pretty interesting question for the series. Especially when you look at how Now and Then has treated children, the future, prior to this in the show. As you dig deeper into it and look at the situations surrounding how Now and Then answers this question… It’s starts to get a little bit concerning. Even, dare I say it, a tad political. That’s right everyone, strap in, it’s time to talk abortion politics in anime.

This is gonna suck.

Continue reading “Now and Then, Here and There – 11 [Eve of Destruction]- Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome back everybody, to another (late) week of Now and Then, Here and There! This week Hamdo starts to go on the offensive, Lala Ru gets found out and Sara finally returns to the screen. We have a lot to talk about so lets jump right in!

Off the bat, there were some cool set pieces this week. I was not prepared for Hellywood to take off into the air, not for the underground cave of water in the desert. Now and Then truly does have some great locations and scenery! On top of that, Hellywood also had some good animation behind its flight. A lot of work went into the detailing and selling us on the weight of the structure, plus the debris falling off of it. The weakest part was just the interior shots being largely stills with some shaking, but I don’t begrudge them those. Now and Then has never been a “sakuga” shown in my opinion, so it’s managed my expectations well there. All I ask is that it keep up this picturesque style of visuals for the last remaining episodes to come.

Continue reading “Now and Then, Here and There – 10 [Prelude to Chaos]- Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! This week Lala Ru stumblse upon paradise, Hamdo escalates the situation and Shu learns that war is complicated. So without further ado, lets dive in!

This week Now and Then’s overarching theme really begins to unveil itself. What do I mean by that? Up until now, Now and Then has cast a wide net with its theming. We’ve seen how the older generations problems and actions can trickle down and effect the younger generations, perpetuating the troubles that came before. How war damages and brings down everyone, even those at the very top like Hamdo, benefiting no one. Even how it can destroy the land! And while all of these revolve around war in some way or another, I’ve been curious where Now and Then would choose to go with it. Would we get an idealistic, but ultimately naïve and hollow, happy ending? After this week, with the nuanced way Now and Then presents both sides of the argument, I don’t think we will. And I’m kinda excited for that.

Continue reading “Now and Then, Here and There – 9 [In The Chasm] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of Now and Then, Here and There! This is a big week for me. Not because the episode was pretty good, though that did help, but because something I’ve long awaited for finally happened. What was it? Well lets dive in and find out!

The big news of course is this: Lala Ru talked! And did stuff! And it was good! I know some think that I’ve been a tad harsh on her recently. That she’s supposed to be withdrawn and quiet after everything done to her by Hamdo and others. But this episode is proof of what I was saying before. About how you can animate and emote withdrawn or quiet characters without making them emotionless dolls. Just look at all of the subtle movements Lala Ru takes throughout the episode. Clutching on to Shu as they drive, the way her voice sounds when talking about her past or how she reacts to Shu’s proclamations. Just the fact that she responds when he asks her questions but not when talking about himself is, alone, a sign of her mental state. This episode is everything I wanted now that she was free of Hamdo.

And I loved it.

Continue reading “Now and Then, Here and There – 8 [Two Lone Souls] – Throwback Thursday” →