Author Archives: Bobduh

Paranoia Agent – Episode 12

Posted on by

We had another stellar episode of Paranoia Agent this week, one that pulled together three of the show’s central characters, along with the private realities they’re each inhabiting, building up towards a dramatic faceoff with the demons they share. Mitsuhiro was an excellent choice of primary focus character for this sequence; his combined old-detective profession and willingness to go along with the fantasies of the younger generation mean he’s essentially the sole invested bridge character, the only person who can bring all these elements together. And it was also nice to bring Sagi back into the focus again; in contrast to Mitsuhiro’s conviction, she feels more overwhelmed than anyone by the events going on around her, meaning the scenes stuck in her head felt even more frightening than they would otherwise. Just one more great episode of a truly fantastic series.

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

Continue reading →

Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 12

Posted on by

G-G-G-GATCHAMANNNNN is over 🙁

I can’t really feel that sad, though. This was an excellent conclusion to an excellent series, tying up the show’s existing ideas and character journeys well while giving us a few final standout conversations to remember it by. That melancholy conversation between Tsubasa and Gelsadra in the first half had to be one of my favorite sequences of either season, and the actual battle with Hajime wasn’t far behind. The show really pulled out all the visual stops for that one – Hajime finally got to have a Big Damn Hero moment, and it was glorious. insight has challenged the messages of the first season and swept in more ideas besides, and its thoughts on group culture could not be more relevant to our modern world. Even if this show is aimed specifically at Japanese culture, anyone who uses the internet could probably learn something from this show’s example. HURRAY FOR LEARNING AND EMPATHY AND STUFF.

Anyway, you can check out my huge-ass review over at ANN, or my notes below!

Continue reading →

Classroom Crisis – Episode 13

Posted on by

Classroom Crisis comes to an ending with a fairly respectable final episode. I really liked how all the narrative/character/thematic pieces came together in this one – it felt very gracefully composed, which is honestly something this show has often struggled with. There were cute moments and fist-pump moments and some nice silly faces, and overall this finale didn’t quite manage to match the show’s best moments (namely the Nagisa-Kaito and Nagisa-Mizuki conversations from the last few episodes), but still ended things in solid fashion. Of course, it apparently couldn’t end without one more dip into stupid animeisms, so obviously the ending was set up as introducing a possible love triangle between three of the leads. Win some, lose some.

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

Continue reading →

Tsukimonogatari – Review

Posted on by

New Mononagatari arc! And this one… well, it sure is an Araragi arc. This was definitely one of the weakest arcs of the show so far – it did attempt to push Araragi’s narrative forward, but accomplished very little within its four episodes, and mainly spent time explaining a story that just didn’t have that much resonance to it. Araragi is far from my favorite Monogatari character, but he can still work well when he’s given the right companions to riff off of. Here, where most of his conversations were either with the straight-laced Kagenui or blank Yotsugi, that really wasn’t possible. The best part of this arc was the final confrontation with Tadatsuru, but that was a small consolation for an arc with little else to recommend it. Hopefully this fall’s arcs are more rewarding!

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my crazy pile of notes below! These notes actually start with notes from when I was first planning to watch this arc, but held off because I knew I’d do it for review, so the first episode has a mix of timestamp writeups from a while back and current notes!

Continue reading →

Summer 2015 – Week 12 in Review

Posted on by

The week in review has come again. We had a pretty serious bumper crop of episodes this week, with basically everything but Classroom Crisis offering one of its best episodes yet. Of course, “best” is a relative term this season, so when it comes to Monster Musume and Prison School, that really equates more to “most absurd/delirious/grotesque/bizarrely well-executed” – but that’s what I’m watching those shows for, so more of what they are definitely isn’t a bad thing. And on the “actually respectable show” front, both Gatchaman Crowds and Paranoia Agent seem to be ending as well as possible, with Gatchaman in particular really pulling things together beautifully this week. This has been a lousy season overall, but it’s looking like the few brave shows that made it to the finish line are going to let it end with some god damn dignity.

Continue reading →

The Intoxicating Lure of Idol Anime

Posted on by

No escaping it now, apparently. I’m stuck in idol hell, so I might as well document the whole process, to save future generations from this dire fate. This is a sprawling article, one that covers my experience at the Love Live! movie, my time spent with four separate idol anime, some thoughts on that whole Database, Database thing, and more besides. It’s a bit more of a personal reflection than the stuff I normally do, but I hope you enjoy it. This past year has definitely been quite a ride.

The Intoxicating Lure of Idol Anime

The Idolmaster

Paranoia Agent – Episode 11

Posted on by

Paranoia Agent isn’t quite winding down yet, but it is finally returning to its original core cast. This week we were introduced to one more viewpoint character, but Mrs. Ikari’s story ended up doubling as a visit back into the life of her husband, the former police chief Keichi Ikari. Keichi’s not doing so well, post-firing – he’s juggling several jobs and avoiding his home and generally feeling like a person that the world has passed by. I enjoyed both halves of this episode, though it couldn’t match the highlights of standouts like last week. But the Shonen Bat interview was an engaging device, and Keichi was given some welcome texture through the new perspective his wife provided. Another solid episode for Paranoia Agent.

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

Continue reading →

Turn A Gundam, Part Two – Review

Posted on by

As mentioned in this week in review post, I recently returned to Turn A Gundam, sweeping through the second half and thoroughly enjoying the process. I definitely had some central issues with these episodes – in particular, the moon setting and villains never managed to be half as engaging as the earlier material. But even though you’d think those would be major flaws, this half still felt overall more accomplished than the first. Part of that came down to the fact that the show had real momentum now; in the first half, far too many episodes were given over to episodic stories that didn’t amount to much (with Poe and Will Game’s narratives being the worst of them). Here, even though I wasn’t happy with every choice, things were moving almost all the time. Additionally, this second half also managed to build on and complicate the first half’s best characters, making almost all the dramatic clashes here feel weighted and satisfying. Overall, I’d definitely recommend Turn A Gundam to anyone looking for an easy, satisfying entrance into the Gundam franchise.

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

Continue reading →

Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 11

Posted on by

AW SHIT THIS EPISODE FUUUUUUU. I was a little worried about where insight would be going at the end of last week/beginning of this one, but man, this was a brutal answer. It’s an answer I’m surprised Hajime would come up with, since it requires an acknowledgment of many of the cynical elements of this season that I figure she’d want to reject. But Hajime’s not stupid, she’s just very reserved with her thoughts, so I guess it’d make sense that she could play this game as well.

Anyway, I already wrote up a storm about this one in my review and notes, so let’s get to it! My review is thataway, my notes are below!

Continue reading →

Classroom Crisis – Episode 12

Posted on by

Classroom Crisis spent this episode ramping up to a high-speed finale, strapping Nagisa into a jury-rigged X-2 ship just to give Iris a future opportunity to show off her stuff. The road there was enjoyable enough, though having Yuji come back as a newly unhinged villain didn’t do much for the series. Fortunately, this episode also gave Angelina a big opportunity to get mad and kick all kinds of ass, which is always a good time. It’s looking like Classroom Crisis will be ending respectably but not fantastically, which is a fine compromise for a show that’s been a series of compromises from the start.

You can check out my full review over at ANN. Notes below!

Continue reading →