Author Archives: Bobduh

Summer 2015 – First Half in Review

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The summer halfway point has arrived! As per long-hallowed tradition, the season halfway point is always celebrated with my first and only show ranking of the season, emphasizing the fundamental ridiculousness of lists through the double-stacked ridiculousness of listing shows that are only halfway over. This is perhaps (definitely) a meaningless exercise, but hey, it gives me a reasonably coherent topic to cover when shows are generally just sort of durdling around and gearing up for their final push. This season’s a bit unusual ranking-wise, in that as far as “actual real serious-business shows go,” it’s basically just Gatchaman Crowds insight versus an empty field. Classroom Crisis has its moments but is far too inconsistent to consider great, and everything else I’m watching falls somewhere into “enjoyable popcorn garbage.” Can you… rank… garbage?

Yeah, of course you can fucking rank garbage. I may be watching Prison School, but I’m certainly not watching Sky Wizards Academy, and there are damn good reasons for that. So let’s take a fine-tooth comb to this season’s pee jokes and snake-fucking and RUN THESE SHOWS DOWN.

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Paranoia Agent – Episode 5

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Paranoia Agent took a weird detour into fantasyland this week, offering an episode heavy on pratfalls and silly faces. This turned out… okay, I guess? It was definitely much weaker than Paranoia Agent’s usual material, and in no way leaned into the show’s usual strengths. As a one-off episode, I guess it was entertaining enough, but it still makes for an odd fit within a show that’s normally focused on such a specific and separate tone.

You can check out my episode writeup over at ANN, or my notes below.

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Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 6

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Welp, we’ve entered Local Girl and Alien Ruin Everything territory. Tsubasa’s a child, Gelsadra’s a terrifying force of faux-unity, and together they’re doing a pretty great job of making Japan the most fragile country imaginable. This episode basically hung around those two the entire time, as they attempted to put their plan of “making everyone happy” into action. Jou can’t be feeling good about this situation – CROWDS may be gone, but replacing the diet with constant popular votes is actually a far more dangerous system of forced horizontal engagement. I imagine things will begin falling apart more or less immediately.

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

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Classroom Crisis – Episode 6

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Classroom Crisis rallied back with an excellent episode this week, revealing Nagisa’s full past in an episode full of the small character moments that make even this show’s weakest episodes at least somewhat compelling. This is definitely a pretty lopsided show, but it’s the kind of lopsided I can get behind – its best elements are unique and very valuable, and it having a bunch of obvious failings along with them is just how it goes with a lot of anime. And second halves are generally more conflict-focused anyway, so there’s a fair chance Classroom Crisis will average out to a very solid show.

Here’s my full ANN writeup, and you can check out my notes below!

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Fragments of Horror – Review

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I reviewed some Junji Ito this week, his first horror stories in a fair number of years. And that kind of shows in the result – Ito’s work has always been strange, and often relied on horror ideas that other people wouldn’t necessarily find horrifying, but some of these stories are just flat bad. There are also some real hits though, and his visual style remains uniquely creepy throughout, so overall I had a good time with this collection. Manga short story collections are fun – I’d dearly love to get some Nickelodeon over here to review, but I’m sure the chances of that are basically next to nothing.

You can check out my full review over at ANN!

Fragments of Horror

Monogatari is a Disaster

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New article-essay thing! This one’s less of a thematic essay and more of a breakdown of why Monogatari is basically destined to be divisive, going into the various core elements that make it so weird and both repellent and appealing at the same time. It’s one of my favorite shows, but I completely understand why other people wouldn’t like it, or why other people who like it would have entirely different feelings on it even if we both “like Monogatari.” It’s quite a strange mess of a show, and that’s actually part of why I like it so much.

Anyway, I get to all that in the article. AND HERE IT IS:

Monogatari is a Disaster

Nisemonogatari

Summer 2015 – Week 5 in Review

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Nearing the halfway point again! And once again, I’m gonna keep things loose and flowing here for the week in review. When I’ve only got a couple episodes worth actually talking about, and I’m already covering one of them in great essay-sized blocks for ANN, I gotta do what I can to fill your Wednesdays with criticism and joy. So let’s run down all the random crap I’ve been watching, starting at the top with G-G-GATCHAMANNNN.

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Paranoia Agent – Episode 4

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The paranoia continues, this time visiting trusty Officer Hirukawa. This was less of a mood-focused episode than the last couple, but gave us a better look at the police chief’s philosophy, which was a nice tradeoff. I also just loved Hirukawa’s ridiculous face. This show has extremely expressive character designs in general, and Hirukawa’s among the best of them – his bulbous nose, beady eyes, and utterly untrustworthy grin make for a perfect cartoon face that can squash and stretch into all sorts of absurd expressions. Hurray for Hirukawa’s silly face.

You can check out my ANN writeup over here or my notes below!

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A Bride’s Story, Volume 4 – Review

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Time for A Bride’s Story! ANN already had reviews for the first three volumes of this one, so I’m picking up where Rebecca left off. Volume four is all about the twins Laila and Leily, whose irrepressible scampishness makes this the most comedy-heavy volume yet. That means Kaoru Mori doesn’t get to indulge in quite as many breathtaking full-page spreads as usual, but the volume’s still a lot of fun. A Bride’s Story is good, you should read A Bride’s Story.

You can check out my full review here!

A Bride's Story

Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 5

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This was a big one! Gatchaman basically crammed every idea it could think of relating its central themes to the election process into one jam-packed episode, and the result was stunning. As I say in my review, this episode could have felt busy or cynical, but the way the show made use of its characters very understandable motives to center each of their perspectives made it feel as poignant as it was dense. This is the way it is, but nobody’s happy about it. Idealists are used, pragmatists make cynical steps for the greater good, and relying on anything more than the base tides of public opinion will likely get you swept away. This was a stern dressing-down of everything Rui hoped for in the first season, and likely insight’s best episode yet.

Here’s my full review at ANN, and you can check out my notes below!

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