Author Archives: Bobduh

Parasyte – Episode 19

Posted on by

Parasyte shifted into cop procedural mode this week, leading to a few scenes that were kind of accidentally hilarious in their genre-standardness. In spite of that silliness, it was definitely an easy watch, and it’s nice to see the show finally escaping from the slow, repetitive drama of its middle act. It’s weird for me of all people to be cheering for a show to toss away its character arc and thematic focus and instead simply revel in action and plot, but Parasyte’s character and theme stuff has just not been its strength. I’m happy that all resolved well in the end, but I’m even more happy to get on with the final act.

Here’s my full ANN writeup. Notes below!

Continue reading →

Rolling Girls – Episode 6

Posted on by

Rolling Girls’ second side-arc ends… reasonably, I guess. It’s hard to point to any one specific reason this arc didn’t really do anything for me emotionally, but it just didn’t seem deeply felt. The character arcs were all very obvious and standard, and there just weren’t enough small character moments to make this feel like its own story, and not just Rolling Girls riffing on an established template. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, and the fact that the show has clearly forfeited its animation highlights almost makes me wish it’d never misled us with them in the first place.

Anyway. My full ANN post is available here, and you can check out my kind of conflicted notes below.

Continue reading →

Winter 2015 – First Half in Review

Posted on by

Dear god, it’s somehow that time again. The time when we all get together to celebrate the cartoons we love by putting them in a meaningless ranking system that denies the very purpose of storytelling altogether. The halfway point rankings feel even more meaningless than usual this season, as the current season is both very good and also full of shows that I’m enjoying all around the same level, but trifling problems like that won’t stand in the way of tradition. Let’s run ’em down!

Continue reading →

Yuri Kuma Arashi – Episode 7

Posted on by

So Ginko really is a criminal-bear after all. I’m definitely a fan of how knowing she watched Sumika die (or “die”) complicates her character. It was a heartless act, and clearly reflective of how selfish her interpretation of love is, but it’s far from an irredeemable action. Ikuhara shows are full of characters with selfish or violent streaks that are nonetheless also full of humanity, and it wouldn’t be satisfying to see characters triumph if they didn’t start off in positions of great personal weakness. Ginko and Kureha each have their own forms of weakness, and with so much of Yuri Kuma’s worldbuilding secrets already revealed, I’m hoping the second half will spend some time building each of them back up. Let’s get to the gao gao.

Continue reading →

I’m Creating a Patreon!

Posted on by

Hey guys! Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming, but I just now established my Patreon, and figured you should probably know. The Patreon itself lays out what’s going on, but basically, if you’d like to support my work and help me both continue and get working on new projects, now there’s a way to do it! I appreciate any support you could offer, and either way I hope you continue to enjoy my work. Stay Justice, everyone!

Samurai Flamenco

Cross Game and My Father

Posted on by

I’ve never been much of a sports guy.

Shocking, I know. Somehow, my appreciation of boys kicking or throwing various projectiles could never quite match my love of writing, videogames, and Japanese cartoons. I stayed inside, I played Zelda, I chortled while talking about the “jocks” playing sportball. I was above all that.

Continue reading →

Log Horizon II – Episode 19

Posted on by

The kids are killing it! This week’s episode easily topped last week’s already great conversations, with Tohya’s feelings on his place in Elder Tale being sharply highlighted by the fatalistic philosophy of the Odyssey Knights. Grim revelations and big character shifts and at least four contrasting parties (the kids, the knights, the Minami faction, and Roe 2) made for a heavy and solidly rewarding episode. My writeup ran long without even really digging into a full contrast of Log Horizon’s competing philosophies on the value of gaming and validity of this world in a personal sense – this show is now competing directly on SAO’s turf, and that’s always an interesting conversation. Much that was built up was resolved this week, but I’m still excited to see whatever next episode brings. We might even get some actual animation!

Nah, just kidding. But there’s definitely plenty to look forward to anyway.

My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!

Continue reading →

Parasyte – Episode 18

Posted on by

And Tamiya’s story comes to an end. This episode was somewhat hampered by the aesthetic neutrality that’s weakened Parasyte all along, but its conclusion was strong enough narrative-wise that I couldn’t really complain about that. The anime is making me want to reread the manga – apparently we’re losing a lot of character texture, and the strongest thing here is the base material. But a great source adapted poorly can still be a pretty good show, and that’s where we’re at now.

My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!

Continue reading →

Winter 2015 – Week 5 in Review

Posted on by

Aw jeez, we’re nearing the halfway point already? This season and year are going way too fast, and all I’ve got to show for it is all this writing about cartoons. This was a fine week in anime, and it seems the various tiers for this season are pretty established at this point, even though it’s hard to directly compare many of the shows I’m watching. Maria the Virgin Witch is excellent, but shares almost nothing in common with most of my other shows. Shirobako is fantastic, but how do I compare what it does to something like Yuri Kuma Arashi? Fortunately, I’ve long since learned comparisons and evaluations are a sucker’s game – I’m happy just to enjoy the good in the many shows I’m watching.

Also next week I’m gonna rank them anyway because it’s tradition, but that’s besides the point. Let’s run ’em down!

Continue reading →

Yuri Kuma Arashi – Episode 6

Posted on by

Here we are again. Five episodes in, and we’ve finally got both Lulu and Ginko’s personalities solidly established. Lulu’s driven by guilt over her brother’s death to the point of self-sacrifice, making a martyr of herself and assuming Ginko’s goals as her own. Ginko is in lust with Kureha, driven by a combination of a desire to “return to the love she once gave her” and something that seems a good bit more carnal. In spite of the strength of her feelings, they don’t really seem driven by any kind of understanding of the current Kureha – she wants to possess her, yes, but this doesn’t seem much like the love Kureha has lost. Kureha herself is in all kinds of turmoil, with only her own conviction to trust in. With Ginko in a moment of possible vulnerability, we might finally be moving towards a moment of greater honesty for both of them. Let’s watch some bears!

Continue reading →