Yearly Archives: 2016

My Monster Secret, Volume 2 – Review

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My Monster Secret is some very solid comfort food. You’re not gonna be impressed by its character writing, you’re not gonna be shocked by its dramatic craft, you’re just gonna laugh and watch some stupid kids make funny mistakes. I’m frankly happy to see it being released now – I generally need a certain density of active manga releases to keep me satisfied, and with both A Silent Voice and Biscuit Hammer having ended, I was running low. My Monster Secret obviously can’t replace either of those shows, but I’m enjoying my time with it just the same.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my kinda useless chapter notes below!

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Summer 2016 – Week 7 in Review

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We’re in the settling now. Shows have established themselves and fallen into comfortable rhythms, massive narrative changeups are either far in the past or waiting in the last act, and most productions are just doing their best to pretend scheduling and creating twenty minutes of animation is just as easy the seventh time as it is the first or second. There are highs and lows, but they’re smaller bumps – Love Live has a somewhat weaker episode, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure tries on a new style hat, etcetera. These are the dog days of summer, where we’re all more concerned with the fact that global warming is now a lived reality than we are with which waifus most recently prevailed. But anime endures, and like a barnacle on that great cartoon vessel, so does the Week in Review. Let’s run ’em down.

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Mob Psycho 100 – Episode 6

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Ritsu got a focus episode this time, and what an episode it was. Ritsu’s feelings are even more intense and self-focused than Mob’s, and between that and his generally more analytical personality, I was getting mild Flowers of Evil vibes all through this one. I was also impressed with how well the show is making use of its secondary cast – I’d figured characters like the delinquent or body building dudes would just be one-off gags, but they’re actually turning into endearing people I want to see more of. Nice work, Mob Psycho!

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Kokoro Connect – Episode 1

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Kokoro Connect starts off with a somewhat uneven first episode. That doesn’t really come down to the production, or even the storytelling – the show has nice painted backgrounds that give everything something of a faded, nostalgic look, and the story moves quickly and gracefully into a compelling premise (suddenly we’re swapping bodies for no apparent reason!). The character designs are distinctive and expressive, and nothing really drags. As far as fundamental composition goes, this premiere is a very solid affair. The real issue here is based in the uneasy relationship between the show’s clear goals and its fundamental nature.

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Orange – Episode 7

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Holy shit Suwa thank you for being you. Suwa’s presence in this episode basically knocked Naho’s poor little romance drama into hyperdrive, as he confidently steered her and Kakeru through what would surely have been five episodes of material without him. Cheers to you, Suwa. If anyone can fix these mixed-up kids, you can.

Anyway. You can check out my full episode review over at ANN!

Orange

Why It Works: Emotional Distance in Orange

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Today I discuss Orange’s somewhat unique framing device, and the interesting way it colors our relationship with Orange’s characters. Some mild philosophy of the viewer shenanigans for your Saturday afternoon.

Why It Works: Emotional Distance in Orange

Orange

Nichijou – Episode 1

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Hey everybody! Today I’m embarking on a quick-thoughts journey through KyoAni’s most lauded comedy, Nichijou. Writeups for this one have been requested in the form of notes as opposed to full episodics, so this time you get all the nitty-gritty minithoughts and immediate reactions on everything as it’s going on. It might actually be best to read these alongside the episode itself, if you get the chance. Doing notes writeups would generally mean less content than the full articles (they’re much cheaper after all, meaning I can’t afford to spend many hours on them), but it turns out I had a million things to say about the first episode, so this one’s still a massive pile of writing all by itself. But enough preamble – let’s get right in to the first moments of Nichijou!

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Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 7

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Ikuhara just can’t escape the stage. All of his shows are heightened and ornamented, full of elaborate framing and moments where you’re not sure if what you’re seeing is real, imagined, or somewhere in between. Characters are lit by spotlights and accompanied by gusts of roses, treading through shimmering worlds of elaborate costume and ghastly betrayals. His stars live between the stage and the stands, often directly acknowledging the tenuous nature of their performance. The spotlight is cruel in its ephemeral gaze.

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Summer 2016 – First Half in Review

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It may be mid-August, but the summer anime season is convinced we still have half a summer to go. I appreciate that kind of optimism, and appreciate even more just how sunny this season has been in general. While this summer has lacked a character drama with the poignancy of Rakugo Shinju or a message show with the complexity and spirit of Concrete Revolutio, it’s made up for that by being stacked with shows that are just damn good entertainment. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Thunderbolt Fantasy are both excellent camp-action spectacles, Mob Psycho 100 is consistently elevated by solid writing and terrific execution, Love Live Sunshine is consolidating everything that is fun about Love Live, and Sweetness & Lightning is a consistent dose of heartwarming family moments. It seems silly to rank a set like that – they’re all so different, and all such positive experiences, that classifying them as “better or worse” than each other seems pointless and inherently jaded.

Of course, I’m gonna do it anyway. That’s what traditions are for! As usual, I’ll be ranking the summer’s shows for the first and only time here at the halfway point, where it should be inescapably obvious that any sort of ranking is an entirely meaningless gesture. Like a series that makes its point in the first season and then just sort of staggers on through mediocre renewals for a while, the halfway point season rankings will proudly continue. Let’s start at the top and RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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Lucky Star – Review

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My journey into Kyoto Animation’s history hit a rough patch this week, as my high hopes ran aground on the rocky shores of Lucky Star. Lucky Star is a long, tedious synthesis of everything I find unimpressive about anime comedy, so all I can say in the end is I’m glad I survived it, and at least now I can reference it confidently when discussing the studio. It was frankly somewhat strange to see such an unfunny comedy from a studio I generally point to as the one group who actually understand comedic timing; there were occasional successful gags, but the vast majority of Lucky Star is just a long, long, long expanse of absolutely nothing. But I survived. That is enough.

You can check out my megasized review over at ANN, or my increasingly desperate notes below!

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