Author Archives: Bobduh

Paranoia Agent – Episode 3

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Classic watch continues, with an episode that felt more impressive than emotionally resonant, as I go into in my piece. I suppose it’s just the kind of show this is, but I’m kind of worried about Paranoia Agent steering too far into cynical condemnation of its characters. This episode seemed to exist on the far side of that line from the first moments, where we got about as big of an “otaku are gross” moment as is humanly possible. I guess we’ll see where it goes!

Here’s my full piece over at ANN, and my notes are below!

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Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 4

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Gatchaman Crowds continues on its rich and engaging way, this time zooming in a bit to really focus on the naive idealism of Tsubasa and Gelsadra. They’re basically simple heroes in a world that’s far too complicated for them, and the clash between their beliefs and the more nuanced perspectives of everyone around them actually felt like an improvement over the first season’s “Hajime versus the world.” This second season is going really, really well.

You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, or see my more thorough and specific notes below!

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Classroom Crisis – Episode 4

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Classroom Crisis continues to be, well, whatever Classroom Crisis is. The show has rough edges, but a lot of great qualities, and an extremely strong thematic/emotional core. At this point I feel like the show itself is basically like its own protagonists – everyone’s counted it out, and nobody seems to be watching it, but damnit, there’s something worth rooting for there! Especially in this dire-ass season, it makes me sad Classroom Crisis seems to be somehow slipping through the cracks.

Anyway. This episode was fun. You can check out my full review over at ANN, or see more specific notes below!

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The Dream of Redemption in Haibane Renmei

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New essay is up! This one’s all about that fractured classic Haibane Renmei, full of rich ideas and held back by unfortunate technical issues completely outside its control. I enjoyed Haibane Renmei, but didn’t love it, and I go into all of that in my piece, so let’s get right to it!

The Dream of Redemption in Haibane Renmei

Haibane Renmei’s full of more detail than just one piece can really handle, though, so you can check out all my episodic notes below.

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Summer 2015 – Week 3 in Review

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Welp, there’s no way around it – this is probably the most underwhelming season since I started watching seasonally. Basically the only new show I’m legitimately enthusiastic about is Classroom Crisis, and even that’s just “hey, this is pretty okay, I hope it turns out well.” Aside from Gatchaman Crowds insight, there’s nothing this season on the level of the top three from either of the last two seasons, and things only get more dire in the midrange. This week I’m serving pink slips to both Rokka and Himouto-chan, leaving me with… four new shows I’m watching? Jeez.

Welp, always time for backlog! All this dropping will hopefully give me time to get through Love Live S2 in time for the movie (seeing it in theaters, YEP), and maybe even watch some old classics! If that happens, I’ll likely be adding those to this space, since hey, what else am I gonna talk about? Gotta write about something.

Anyway, let’s run this sad-sack collection down!

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Paranoia Agent – Episode 2

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Paranoia Agent continues, with an episode focused on a very special little boy. I didn’t find this one quite as knockout impressive as the first, but it was still an excellent episode, far above any expectations I apply to seasonal fare. I particularly like Paranoia Agent’s sound design – its use of incidental “music” really helps create both the sense of a living world and a continuous creeping dread. The episode’s other fear-tricks weren’t as effective, but the story’s still building a very nicely contained narrative full of linking ideas. This is a very confident work.

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

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Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episodes 1-3

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IT’S TIME. Aw shit yeah, I get to talk about Gatchaman again. This show was always one of the most fun and rewarding to cover weekly, and it’s certainly looking like season two will live up to that legacy – we’re already sharply interrogating all the conclusions and ideals of the first season, shifting Hajime’s role and prodding Rui’s ideals and generally making a mess of the idea that creating a Better World will be in any way convenient or simple. Shit’s tough! People are complicated, society’s a mess, you can’t just force people to be good. Rui’s getting the worst of it so far, but I don’t think this season will be easy for any of our heroes, and it’s already covered a tremendous amount of ground. BIRD, GO!

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

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The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan – Episodes 15-16

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Covered the last two Nagato Yuki-chans together, since Funimation’s “scheduling” is a bad joke. But it was just as well, since barely enough happened in these two episodes to cover one episode review, anyway. Nagato Yuki-chan was obviously a disappointment overall, but it at least gave us the very compelling disappearance arc, so I’m gonna consider that a partial win. Yeah, it was mostly a completely disposable will-they-or-won’t-they slice of life nothing, but hey, four episodes were good!

You can check out my mildly defeated review over at ANN, or read my extremely limited notes below!

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Classroom Crisis – Episodes 1-3

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More streaming reviews! This time we’re covering the summer season’s one reasonably-sized hopeful for me, Classroom Crisis. Honestly, even this show isn’t without its flaws (the third episode in particular was relentlessly unfunny, in spite of actually covering some pretty compelling narrative territory), but in a famine like this season, you take what sustenance you can get. There’s also plenty of good here, from the fun cast to the compelling core drama of dreams versus business realities, so I’m hoping the show leans on its strengths, and doesn’t just become a sort of genre-standard “underdog team wins the big game” sort of thing now that A-TEC are on the ropes. We’ll have to see where it goes!

You can check out my 1-3 post over at ANN, or see my episode three-specific notes below!

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Turn A Gundam, Part One – Review

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TURN A TURRRRNNNN. TURN A TURRRNNN. Sorry. That ridiculous opening song is has been stuck in my head for weeks.

Anyway! I got to review some good ol’ Gundam this time, and really enjoyed the experience. I’m told Turn A is often regarded as the best (or at least most accessible?) of the central/Tomino Gundam shows, and it certainly does have plenty to recommend itself. A compelling world, an engaging cast of characters, and lots of fun/silly ideas. It’s also marked by some really, deeply weird quirks of storytelling, but I’m told that’s just how Tomino rolls, and I’ve kinda gotten used to it. The weirdness of the telling means this isn’t nearly as emotionally strong of a ride as it could be, but it’s still a very enjoyable one.

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

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