Tag: Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to another (late) week of His and Her Circumstances! There’s a fair amount to talk about this week, most of it concerning, but worth the time regardless. That warning given, lets dive into the episode!

Starting with the production, this week is actually an improvement. The same way being punched in the stomach is an improvement over being kicked in the balls. Sure, there are no more paper cutouts overlaid onto real life future, and things have progressed beyond sketches. But at the same time you can count the frames in most scenes, and most of the characters simply look… off. It’s like all of their designs and models got downscaled to 240p. They lack small details and proportions are off, making them look like completely different characters half the time. And with Anno gone the interesting and engaging direction that made these still screens actually work has left with him. It’s a shame really. Circumstances started off so strong visually, yet here it is falling apart like the very definition of production melt. At least the narrative can salvage it… right?

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 20/21 [14 Days, Part 2/14 Days, Part 3] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to what is a very important week for His and Her Circumstances. Why is it important you might ask? Because this week marks the departure of Hideaki Anno from the production, and the production then imploding upon itself. What does that mean? What does that look like? Let’s dive in and talk about that.

So, the production. Does it really look that bad? The answer: Yes. Yes it does. In fact it looks so bad that I almost didn’t believe it. I thought that this must just be for the opening recap, right? That’s why it’s literally sketches on paper taped to sticks being held in front of a camera, or live footage of the streets outside the production studio? But no, this was the entire episode. So the question becomes: What happened? Well the best I can figure, based on a small amount of research, is that this is the point where Anno simply left the production. Between recent (for the time) laws regarding anime production, pressure from the studio about removing sex scenes (Will get to that) and arguments with the original author, things were starting to fall apart. But the sad thing about it, to me? It wasn’t completely bad.

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 18/19 [Progress/14 Days, Part 1] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of His and Her Circumstances! This post was written on a deadline, and I don’t expect that to change with Mob Psycho airing on Wednesdays now. I will not apologize for my priorities damnit. My inevitable fall into being more and more late for the next few weeks aside though, this was a pretty interesting week for Circumstances so lets dive right into it.

Visually, Circumstances had some ups and downs this week. Animation wise there was really only one scene that stood out, it once again being Tsubasa. But god damn did that scene look good. Not only because it was well animated, but because of the details and expressions within it. The narrowing of the eyes, her face shattering apart, how Tsubasa’s mouth ripped open. It’s just beautiful. So if it looks so good, where are the downs? Well that’s just it. The rest of the episodes didn’t move at all. They are more like slideshows than animation. Yes, the creativity within those slide shows is great. Circumstances has some of the best visual metaphors and facial expressions I’ve seen in a long time, just look at Tsubaki’s rotating flip-board reaction faces for a perfectly example of minimalist animation. Even with that however, it’s becoming noticeable just how little Circumstances moves.

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 16/17 [Eternal Interspersions/His Return] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of His and Her Circumstances! I have an odd week for you this week as we cover 3 episodes! Though if I’m being honest, it’s really more like 1 and 1/2 because of recaps. Regardless of the why though, we have a lot of content to cover. So lets dive right in!

Jumping right into things, first up is episode 13, “The Subjectivity of Happiness”. This episode is the conclusion to Tsubasa’s family struggles, and my overall impression is that it was good. Circumstances gave us a lot to think about with Tsubasa, continuing to recontextualize her earlier bratty behavior and help us sympathize with her. What’s nice about it though is that it didn’t attempt to excuse said behavior however. Circumstances was very clear about how much of a selfish brat Tsubasa was, both then and during this arc. The way she treated her father, as well as the prospective step-mother, was incredibly rude. But it was also understandable. And I think that’s a really important thing when making characters act like complete assholes. At least if you want us to like them that is. It wasn’t perfect, there were some bumps along the way for sure. But it was good.

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 13/14/15 [The Subjectivity of Happiness/The Story So Far/What Can Be Seen Beyond that Voice] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome to the (almost) halfway point of His and Her Circumstances! This week sees us transition into a new arc, both for the show and the lead relationship. There’s a shocking amount to talk about this week so lets jump right into it!

Starting off, I need to gush a bit about how good Circumstances looked this week. It was mostly back-loaded into the 2nd half of episode 11, sure. But that 2nd half was an absolute joy. The eye catches, the expressiveness, the sheer amount of personality packed into each and every scene. From Tsubasa being a gremlin to Aya and Tsubaki being absolute terrors. That entire scene in the restaurant as they keep feeding Tsubasa more and more and more spoons. I’ve seen that scene, with no context, for years! And I never knew where it was from until today. It’s incredible how quickly Circumstances can go from well directed but barely animated to some of the best and most expressive character work I’ve ever seen. Makes me really concerned for just how far this show falls, based on what people have told me about the 2nd half.

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 11/11.5/12 [At the End of the First Semester/At the Beginning of Summer Break/The Location of Happiness] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome back everyone, to another week of His and Her Circumstances! This week covers some of the fallout from the teacher incident, as well as takes a look how the rest of the school is reacting to their relationship. A lot happens, so lets dive right into it!

First I want to give credit where its due, Circumstances looked good this week. Not just in it’s usual way of expressive but still models, though that was also true. I more mean that it moved really well this week. The 2nd half of episode 10 especially, with Miyazawa running around the school, looked fantastic. Circumstances has spent it’s entire runtime establishing this highly expressive and loose visual style, the way it says “fuck models” and just does what it wants. So when it starts doing that in even wilder ways, with Miyazawa turning into an Oni, her face going purple and growing fangs or the myriad of other ways she changes, it doesn’t feel out of place at all. Instead it just comes off like a special treat. A part of me wishes the rest of the show looked like this to, but I’ll take what I can get.

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 9/10 [Atonement for Postponed Debts/Everything Starts Now] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of His and Her Circumstances! I really need to stop putting off writing these until the night before, I’m gonna be late some day. Is that day today? I’ll find out when I post this. At least I spent it watching Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, that was a good time. Now onto the episodes!

Before we get into the episodes proper I want to take a moment to talk a bit about Circumstances production. You see, it occurred to me that some might find my handling of Circumstances unfair. That I constantly critique it’s more limited animation, yet always follow up by saying it’s fine. There’s a reason for that, and it’s rather simple: There is a difference between being “poorly” animated and “sparsely” animated. In the first, such as say… this seasons RWBY, the show moves but it does so poorly. Meanwhile in the second, Circumstances may not move much but it does a lot with the limited movement it has. Things happen on screen, characters express themselves, the editing and transition between stills do just as much to communicate with the audience as the pictures themselves. It’s using it’s limitations intelligently, rather than running headfirst into them. And that’s worthy of praise.

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 7/8 [Their Estrangement/Her Day/In a Grove of Blossoming Cherry Trees] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of His and Her Circumstances! This week was an odd one, and perhaps an indicator of things to come from what I’ve been told. There’s no better way to deal with that though than to just talk about. So lets dive in and do just that!

Starting off, the animation felt like it took a hit this week. There were a lot of reused scenes, stills, and overall minimal cost-saving animation practices. Oh don’t get me wrong, Circumstances was very clever about it! What we did get was well directed and story boarded to produce a specific effect or emotion. Take for instance the way it showed us the same scene twice, once from each of our leads perspectives. Showing us just how different they are and how they weren’t quite on the same page yet. Only for them to have the same response in the last of such scenes in the episode, showing how much closer they have become over it’s course. I’m not saying the editing didn’t have purpose, it very much did and when I understood it, I was impressed. But it’s a fact that it still wasn’t particularly interesting, visually at least.

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 5/5.5/6 [Days of Labyrinth/His Ambition/Your Voice That Changes Me] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another (probably late) week of His and Her Circumstances! This week we get into the weeds, as things start to happen and our leads start to truly get to know each other. Is it good? Is it trite? Can it cover in 4 episodes what took Kaguya-sama 3 seasons? Let’s jump in and find out!

Starting off, I feel the need to repeat just how good this show looks. Like seriously, His and Her Circumstances looks absolutely gorgeous. Not because of any high detail models/backgrounds or any kind of interesting art style. Both of those are actually pretty standard for the genre and era I feel. Rather, it’s just how consistently expressive Circumstances is. Whether it be clear and emotive facial expressions or clever visual metaphor’s, it never fails to communicate the emotions of a scene. And despite having so many still frames, it never feels like a static show. Instead all I can remember when thinking back on it are the edits and implied motion from said stills. I’ve been told multiple times, from multiple people, that it’s production falls apart in the latter half, so I don’t want to get to excited. But its hard not to when it looks this good.

Continue reading “His and Her Circumstances – 3/4 [His Circumstances/Her Difficult Problem] – Throwback Thursday” →