Tag: winter 2021

Jujutsu Kaisen – 24 [Accomplices]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

This is it, the grand finale, the last episode of Jujutsu Kaisen… And its actually pretty good. We get some sakuga, there’s no cliffhangers and most important of all Nobara finally gets a moment to shine. I can’t believe my wish got fulfilled that quickly. So without further ado lets jump right into it!

And as always the first thing we need to talk about is the production. Some how, some way, MAPPA managed to make it through the season without melting. There were some warning signs in there and even this episode suffers a bit from poorly composited CGI trees. Beyond that ever returning bugbear though? It was pretty damn good. Keiichiro Watanabe makes a return with his cloth and effects animation on Nobara’s final blow. Meanwhile Seong-Hu Park once again proves himself a more proficient animator than he is director in the close quarters Itadori sequence. And it’s not as if the animation was restricted to just the action either. Tomiya’s work on Mahito during the board game was stellar, not to mention a few other scenes as well. As far as ending a season strong I think Jujutsu Kaisen did just that here.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 11 [Prologue of Dr. STONE]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

We did it everyone, we made it to the finale of Dr. STONE S2! It was a bumpy ride no doubt, but Senku and Tsukasa managed to finish strong. And with a season 3 already on the way the ride doesn’t stop here! So without further ado, lets jump into it.

First and foremost lets talk about what’s to come next, both in and out of the story. With a Season 3 already announced, Dr. STONE is about to really expand the scope of its story. From science vs strength, Naturalism vs Modernism, to more of a science fiction mystery about discovering the source of the petrification. For me this is nothing but a good thing as it is here that Dr. STONE really finds its stride. Not only do the conflicts change to better support the science focus, it also allows the series to explore a wider variety of science topics. For many though I can see this shift to being more adventure focused as a bad thing. We no longer have a main villain, a driving antagonistic force. But as a long time fan of the series I can only ask you give it a shot.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 10 [Humanity’s Strongest Tag Team]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Ding dong the witch is dead… or someone is at least in this weeks episode of Dr. STONE! Lot’s to talk about, some new and some old, so lets dive into it.

As always I want to start with the production. Rather than talk about the combat being about as animated as it usually is though, lets talk about something positive: Lighting and shot direction. These are two of Dr. STONE’s biggest strengths and this episode continues that trend. Whether it be a beachside setting sun or Hyoga’s presence in the foreground of someone else’s shot, Dr. STONE had some great scenes this week. Seriously just look at some of these in the gallery above or the one-offs below. It’s amazing what even a diluted version of Boichi’s art-style can do. His thick and scratchy linework adding so much texture to the furs and outfits of the characters. I wish that Dr. STONE had kept up what it showed early with Homura. But at least it managed to hold onto the stills.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 9 [To Destroy and to Save]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

It’s done, the war is over, peace has come to Dr. STONE! Or at least that’s what it wants you to think. With 2 episodes left something is yet to come. What it is, we will have to wait and find out. But as far as this week goes lets dive right in shall we?

Now normally I would start this section lamenting Dr. STONE’s action production. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Dr. STONE is not an action show and it shows. But you already know that by now so lets skip to the good stuff and talk Tsukasa! This was a good week for him as Dr. STONE acknowledged a lot of holes in Senku’s “Save everyone” argument. If you have limited fluid, who do you save? How do you feed them all in a stone world, etc. Tsukasa saw these problems and, with a decent amount of bias, took that terrible choice onto himself. He’s always ridden the line of a redeemable villain. This week cemented that for him. Most important of all though it took what was previously a “Fuck yeah action” finale and shifted it to a “Fuck yeah humanity” one. And you know I love those.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 21 [Jujutsu Koshien]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

I can’t lie, this was a weird week for Jujutsu Kaisen. Between the baseball, the comedy and the serious plot I had no idea what it was trying to accomplish. I don’t think Jujutsu Kaisen knows either to be frank. So without further ado lets dive in to the wacky world of cursed baseball.

As I said, this is tonally a very weird episode. Large portions of Jujutsu Kaisen were very comedy focused this week, and to great success I would say. Toudou getting hit in the face with a baseball and then the follow up gag of it being completely on purpose was hilarious. It was hands down the best joke not only of the episode but of the series as a whole. But interspersed between those jokes, between the baseball stat cards and fun scenes, we got… serious character flashbacks about abandonment? And philosophical talks between headmasters about whether or not Itadori should get to live? What? It felt like Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t have enough baseball content to fill a full episode with. That makes sense, no doubt the baseball was a single chapter in the manga. With an anime’s pacing though it makes for an awkward episode.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 7 [Secret Mission]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Yes, I know I’m late on this weeks Dr. STONE. In my defense work has gotten busy and I’m closing/moving into my new house this week, but the real issue is just not knowing what to write. This week of Dr. STONE was pretty straight forward all things considered. So lets leave all the flowery language and metaphors behind and just jump right into it.

I want to start by pointing out some clever directorial tricks I saw this week, starting with the languages. Dr. STONE isn’t the first anime have bilingual characters and it won’t be the last. But many anime struggle with how to portray this. Sometimes you get complete Engrish and other times they don’t even try at all, such as with Vinland Saga. But Dr. STONE was rather clever about it I think. It started in Engrish, established the conversation, before blending back into Japanese while still matching the mouth flaps the whole time. It’s a really simple trick but one I wish more anime would make use of. Beyond the languages, Dr. STONE also had some rather evocative shots this week. From Yuzuriha’s secret to Gen holding Lillian’s throat as he spoke with her voice. They did a good job of bringing emotion to a scene with limited animation.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 6 [Prison Break]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

Wooo more Dr. STONE! This week Chrome channels the collective intelligence of the modern world to enact the most daring escape in 3 millennia. And the best part is that’s only slightly hyperbole. So without further ado lets dive in!

This was a big week for Chrome and Dr. STONE as a whole. It was effectively the culmination of Chrome’s story these past few cours. His final transformation from a “primitive” to a full on science user. No help, no Senku, just using what he had learned and his own ingenuity, and I really like how it was presented. Dr. STONE opened the episode by introducing Yo and using him to reestablish how different Chrome is from more “modern” people. After all, even as meat heads they have a modern education and know a basic amount of science. More than you would expect a “primitive” to know at any rate. But Dr. STONE uses this to remind us that science has no barriers, anyone can use it if they put their mind to it. Whether it be a modern day genius like Senku or a “simple primitive” like Chrome.

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2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-Bu – 6 [The Laughing King and Crybaby Jack]

by Lenlo, posted in 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

I know, I know, this Volley-Bu post is woefully late. In my defense however the episode was also dreadfully boring! I suppose boring is still an improvement on last week though huh? Without further ado, lets dive into this weeks rant on Volley-Bu!

Like I said, this week was a slight improvement from the last, mostly because it focused on someone else. As thankful as I am for that though, I don’t think this rival team introduction quite worked. The idea behind this episode is pretty sound. Volley-Bu is introducing us to the rival team relatively early so that we have time to get to know them. That they get a whole episode dedicated to them is actually pretty good! But the problem is that this came out of absolutely nowhere and wasn’t properly setup nor presented very well. Volley-Bu spends the entire episode hyper focused on Fukuho Tech, the new team, but it fails to present them through our leads eyes. We barely even see our leads reactions or thoughts about Fukuho Tech until right near the end. While it works for establishing them as characters, it fails to build much tension.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 18 [Sage]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

This is it, this is the week Jujutsu Kaisen kicks it into gear! At least I hope it is. Between Hanami breaking into school grounds, Gojou getting locked out and one last flashback it better be. So with all that to talk about lets skip the preamble and jump into it!

The big one, the most exciting bit, is that the raid is happening! I can’t tell you how happy I am to see these curses because the first half of this episode was everything wrong with this arc. Once again Jujutsu Kaisen is shoving in another backstory/fight combo for one of its side characters whom I don’t even remember the name of. I get why it’s doing it, Jujutsu Kaisen wants to establish everyone’s powers and motives before heading into this big conflict. That’s good practice, you want you audience to know these things. But you can’t just introduce 5 new characters, info-dump their entire personality, and then expect us to care when you launch into a huge conflict. You need smaller arcs focused on each that build up to this big event. And it’s not like Jujutsu Kaisen can’t do this, because it did so with Toudou.

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Dr. STONE S2 – 5 [STEAM GORILLA]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

This weeks sees the Senku 1 get both a name change and an upgrade! Meanwhile Chrome comes up with a plan of escape and Tsukasa begins to take action, all in this weeks episode of Pimp My Ride Dr. STONE! So without further ado, lets dive in!

First I want to talk about the slow shift in focus we’ve seen these last two episodes. I said in the seasonal preview that I was afraid this season of Dr. STONE would focus to much on the conflict and not enough on the science. And the next few episodes, 2 and 3, help alleviated that. We got a good focus on humanity, some scientific progress, the sort of thing you want out of Dr. STONE. But these past two episodes we are starting to see it slide back down the science slope. We’re starting to burn through science scenes, such as the quick upgrading of the Steam Gorilla with its new wheels and such, in favor of progressing the conflict more and more. My favorite bits like the humanity aren’t totally gone, and Senku got to showoff the paper shield a bit. Just not as much as I’d like.

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