Author Archives: Bobduh

Paranoia Agent – Episode 8

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Paranoia Agent changed gears entirely this week, leaving Shonen Bat behind to tell a heartwarming story about suicide. This was definitely an unexpected choice, but the end result was wonderful – an almost self-contained vignette that basically established a small makeshift family, telling lots of great jokes in the process. It was witty and warm and endearingly awkward, pretty much nothing like Paranoia Agent as I’ve come to understand it. Apparently Satoshi Kon just had some loose ideas or something, and figured this was the place for them. Normally that’d be a problem narrative-wise, but this episode was so very good that I can’t complain, and Paranoia Agent’s spent so much time jumping between viewpoint characters already that it basically came off as a lighter but still vaguely coherent intermission piece. Fair enough, Paranoia Agent!

You can check out my full review at ANN, or my notes after the cut.

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Gatchaman Crowds Insight – Episode 8

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Things sure aren’t looking good for our heroes now. Gelsadra reigns supreme, Tsubasa refuses to listen to anyone, Rui has given up hope, and Hajime is still holding off on taking action. It’s depressing, frankly – this season’s overall been much heavier than the first one, and this was the heaviest episode yet. It was also a really good one, of course, and gave me plenty to talk about, but man. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing our heroes have fun again, hopefully, eventually? I guess we’ll have to see.

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

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Classroom Crisis – Episode 9

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Well, we finally hit Nagisa’s big “betrayal,” and it honestly felt kinda underwhelming. He didn’t actively help A-TEC, but his move here was more an incidental betrayal of convenience than a strong dramatic choice between friends and revenge. But I guess that’s somewhat reflective of Classroom Crisis’ fundamental strengths and weaknesses – it’s very strong when it comes to building these characters and putting them in a room together, but its ability to tell a tightly composed story isn’t the sharpest. I’d figured that was likely due to the need to add a bunch of nonsense anime diversions like the beach episode, but maybe this writer just isn’t as good with plotting as he is with writing people. Either way, this episode still worked nicely when it leaned into the show’s strengths, so I’m still fairly confident everything will turn out well in the end.

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

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Symphogear – Review

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To the surprise of no one, it turns out I wrote up a review for good ol’ Symphogear. This show was a trip and a half, and I hope I was able to convey some of that in my text. It’s a little weird “evaluating” a show like Symphogear – I mean, metric-based evaluation is always weird, because art doesn’t really work that way, but with a show like Symphogear it’s even more difficult than usual. Normally, I can sort of fudge the reality that the intersection of narrative storytelling and aesthetic execution can only really be discussed in, well, discussion-oriented terms, and vaguely declare that one show is “better at what it’s trying to do” (relative to my valuation of the merit of its inherent goals etc etc) than another. But Symphogear is good because its story is a mess, so it’s a bit tougher to judge.

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

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A Silent Voice, Volume 1 – Review

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And the manga reviews continue, this time with Oh God This Is So Uncomfortable Why Am I Reading This Why Do I Like Drama What Is Wrong With Me. A Silent Voice was one of the most teeth-clenchingly painful reads I’ve encountered lately, but that was only true because the story was told so damn well. The very strong dialogue paints characters in immediately humanizing strokes, making it all the more painful when awful stuff happens to them. Piercing character drama, why can’t I quit you.

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

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Summer 2015 – Week 8 in Review

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Ah crap it’s Wednesday. Things were actually looking pretty dire for the week in review this time, considering Gatchaman Crowds took the week off. That’s basically the only show I’m watching weekly that lends itself to more than a shrugging gladiatorial up-or-down thumb, so with that out of the picture, what could I even talk about? Could I really spin Prison School and Monster Musume into four paragraphs of discussion? Maybe I could… maybe I could just talk about my favorite lunches of the week? Actually that’s not the worst idea, but either way, my worries ended up being unfounded, because this week I watched the entire first season of SYMPHOGEAAAAAAR.

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Paranoia Agent – Episode 7

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Oh jeez what a surprise another phenomenal episode of Paranoia Agent. This show is so consistently excellent that it’s kind of a hassle to think of new ways to praise it – it possesses an absurd mastery of tone that’s expressed both through its visual language and disgustingly well-composed sound design, it’s got a distinct personality and clearly defined goals, and it occupies a thematic space that’s largely unchallenged by other television anime. The show remains a little emotionally distant, but I’ve come to expect that; at this point, I’m kind of getting the impression that Satoshi Kon doesn’t actually like people, but certainly finds them very interesting. Which is lucky for all of us, because dear god, he sure is a talented storyteller – I know he didn’t directly storyboard all of these episodes, but between the overall tonal consistency and stylistic echoes like his heroes consistently waking from maybe-dreams into maybe-realities, it’s clear he’s poured blood and sweat into this entire production. Keep it up, Paranoia Agent. You are a friggin’ marvel.

You can check out my full writeup here, or my episode notes below!

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Classroom Crisis – Episode 8

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Classroom Crisis had likely its best episode yet this week, using Kirishina’s school festival as an opportunity to contrast Kaito and Nagisa against both their past selves and the political interests they each theoretically represent. It was a very nuanced performance when you break it down, but it came off very lightly in practice, with the show once again riding on firmly constructed character relationships. It’s kind of sad that it seems like Classroom Crisis is somehow slipping through the cracks of this season – it’s an odd and occasionally awkward show, but it nails the best stuff a show can nail, the important character stuff that makes everything else worth caring about. It’s a very endearing production.

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

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Summer 2015 – Week 7 in Review

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Wednesday has come again, and with it one more entry in my increasingly less timely week in reviews. At this point, I’m watching an even four airing shows, which is probably the least since I started this tradition – but on the other hand, I’ve had School-Live, Gangsta, Snow White with the Red Hair, and Rokka all recommended to me with varying levels of enthusiasm, so clearly other people have found a bit more to love in this season. This week, I’ve largely been making up the difference with manga, which has made for a nice change of pace. But let’s hold off on that for now, and start by running down what episodic stuff I actually have seen!

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Paranoia Agent – Episode 6

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This was a bravura episode of Paranoia Agent. This show is all about creating a specific mood and revealing synchronicities in modern fears, and this episode did a better job of both of those than pretty much any episode before. Taeko’s story, the old woman’s testimony, and the gathering storm all played off each other to create a heavy, oppressive atmosphere that built to a triumphant peak drawing all of them together. At its best, this show feels like one long, ominous note, gathering in intensity, building and building up to that moment of release as Shonen Bat arrives. This is a damn good show.

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

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