Author Archives: Bobduh

My Hero Academia, Volume 2 – Review

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And we’re back to Shounen Jump, picking up the latest volume of My Hero Academia. The manga really kicked into high gear in this volume – nearly every chapter was studded with exciting fights and new power debuts, and even the quiet moments demonstrated a welcome grasp of pacing and understated character writing. My Hero Academia isn’t a story I’d point to as a great character piece (cough Silent Voice cough), but I really appreciate how its characters are given the right to be reasonable. These are talented kids who’ve worked hard, and they express that in every scene of congratulating their classmates for putting out a strong effort or recognizing the importance of a positive attitude over straightforward power. Couple that with the bulletproof visual execution, and My Hero Academia presents an immensely satisfying experience.

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

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Owarimonogatari – Episode 11

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And Shinobu Mail pulls out its first perfect episode. Well, I guess “perfect” is never really the right word for Monogatari. But seriously, this episode was incredible. The conversation between Kanbaru and Shinobu that consumed the second half was one of the best exchanges in the series so far, simultaneously acting as a great showpiece for both of their personalities and a strong reflection of the themes both in this arc specifically and the show overall. Monogatari is looking as strong as ever moving into the final stretch of Owari.

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

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Hyouka – Episode 2

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The light mysteries and other assorted treasures continue in Hyouka’s second episode. A month has passed since Oreki joined the classics club, and we feel the passage of that time. This episode opens with a sequence of lazy establishing shots, all of which emphasize the lovely but very specific color palette of Hyouka. Like Chuunibyou’s purple sunset colors, Amagi Brilliant Park’s bright pastels, and Euphonium’s deeper browns and greens, Hyouka has a very specific visual personality – auburn and yellow gold, the browning light of the late afternoon.

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The Perfect Insider – Episode 10

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Good lord was this episode ever silly. Perfect Insider’s mystery has always been silly, but this episode just completely leaned into its “reveals” as if it was expecting them to come off as either compelling or profound, and noooope. Like Souhei and Magata’s philosophy, it’s just total nonsense. I guess I got taken in on the long con by this show, but I don’t really mind – there were plenty of strong elements throughout (even this episode was very pretty), and I’d rather be optimistic about shows than not. Sometimes a show knows its characters are ridiculous, and sometimes it’s just as ridiculous as they are.

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

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Hyouka – Episode 1

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It’s interesting returning to a show like Hyouka after all this time away from it. Particularly given the unique circumstances of this return, and how different I am as a consumer now than I was then. Back when I first watched Hyouka, it was the second anime I’d ever watched as it was airing, with the first being Toradora several years before. I was just getting back into anime then, over the spring and summer of 2012 – playing through Katawa Shoujo that winter had prompted a renewed interest in anime-style media, and so I’d been catching up on shows like Madoka and Mawaru Penguindrum. Hyouka was less aggressive than those shows – in fact, its incredibly low-key execution first led to me dropping it only halfway through the first episode, before being convinced to continue by a friend with much better taste. And I watched through it, and I enjoyed it, and it became one of my favorite shows; but even then, I likely didn’t get out of the show what I’m guessing I’ll get now. Hyouka embodies KyoAni’s mastery of tiny moments – it is the studio, and anime itself by extension, at their best.

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Beautiful Bones – Episode 10

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Welp, this was definitely another episode of Beautiful Bones. I’m guessing I’m talking to myself at this point, because I can’t imagine anyone else has stuck with this show through ten tedious episodes. Not really sure what I can talk about even in that case, though. I went to a Get Up Kids concert on Tuesday – that was pretty great. I’d expected more of a balanced setlist covering their whole career, but I can’t really complain about them heavily favoring Four Minute Mile and Something to Write Home About, considering those are their big second wave emo hits. A good time overall.

Welp, looks like I’ve written enough words that people will assume are about Beautiful Bones. You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Fall 2015 – Week 10 in Review

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We’re approaching the end of the season, which at this point means we’re also approaching the end of the year. On a seasonal level, this means shows have really stopped pulling out too many surprises – Perfect Insider and One Punch Man demonstrated some welcome strengths over the last few weeks, but even they seem to be settling into a rhythm for the finales. And on an annual level, this means holy crap it’s time to do all that end-of-the-year nonsense! I’ve more or less settled on my top ten shows of the year, and am working my butt off to manage that list, weekly reviews, actual full show reviews, and regular current project articles for all you lovely people. It’s been an extremely busy week on basically all those fronts; I spent a great deal of last week barreling through way too many episodes of Black Lagoon, and this past weekend I also managed to sneak in the excellent When Marnie Was There. All those and many more attractions in this here week in review! Let’s RUN IT ALL DOWN!

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Forgiveness For When Marnie Was There

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It’s hard to forgive. As self-focused creatures, we want to believe in a just world, one that will repay our pain with some equal kindness or justice. When we are wronged by others, when we are abandoned or let down, we don’t want to simply accept that pain as the cost of engagement. We want others to understand how much they’ve hurt us, and to give us back the hurt they’ve caused. Forgiveness means acknowledging that things aren’t fair, and that sometimes we must give more than we take, and that embracing others in spite of pain is a constant wager of sacrifice, a road on which the friction of disappointment may one day wear down the strength of our love.

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Black Lagoon – Review

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Yep, I reviewed Black Lagoon. The whole damn thing, too – the first season, the Second Barrage, and even Roberta’s Blood Trail. No half measures here, I watched twenty-nine goddamn episodes of gunslinging and explosions. And how was it?

Eh, it was pretty okay. My initial feelings on the show weren’t substantially shifted by finishing it – the show’s attempts at seriousness were still both overwrought and deeply undercut by its absurd villains, and ultraviolence for its own sake remains Not My Thing. But the storytelling actually improved a fair bit in the show’s final third, which was a nice reward for my time. It certainly doesn’t mean I’d recommend the show, but I always appreciate how having to watch something I wouldn’t normally watch for review ends up establishing these interesting, unexpected media relationships.

Anyway. You can check out my megasized review over at ANN, or my many, many notes below!

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Owarimonogatari – Episode 10

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This was a reasonable episode of Owarimonogatari, notable mostly in that it succeeded in a way I think Monogatari rarely does – it went heavy on the pervert banter, and was actually really successfully funny for it. I think a lot of this came down to the fact that Araragi and Kanbaru’s relationship is a really solid one in spite of their perversions; they’re very comfortable with each other, and so there’s less of the gropiness and more trading barbs back and forth. But that wouldn’t work if the gags weren’t just inherently funny, and many of the individual lines this week were excellent. Or maybe I’m just always up for more jokes at light novels’ expense, who knows.

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

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