Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Kiznaiver – Episode 11

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Kiznaiver had another fairly strong episode this week, one that again demonstrated how this show is often much better at its small emotional and framing details than it is at the big narrative strokes. I frankly don’t care much about Sonozaki’s attempted coup here – it’s an okay place to take her sense of isolation, but it’s only going to get interesting once Katsuhira attempts to talk her down. It’s that communication that always becomes the key, and the way this fantastic director elevates such small moments into high drama. Chidori keeping a brace face on the phone, or Katsuhira admitting he’s not necessarily confident in his answers. Little gems all around.

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

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The Lost Village – Episode 12

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All great things must come to an end. All relentlessly weird things too, for that matter, and so we must at last bid The Lost Village adieu. I was surprised by this show plenty of times, but it ultimately developed its own strange kind of consistent rhythm. It was funny and ridiculous and regularly charming, an unexpected slice of the kind of comedy you almost never see in anime. I think this show’s creators had a lot of fun making it. I certainly had plenty of fun watching.

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

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Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 2

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Penguindrum’s second episode is a much easier twenty minutes than the first. Not only is it more of a fun, propulsive adventure than a tragic drama, it’s also just much less dense, more or less sticking to one straightforward narrative. The brothers must find the Penguindrum, and the Penguindrum is in the possession of Ringo Oginome… probably. And so they head off, tailing Ringo (a girl whose name is literally “apple”) as she goes about her fairly unusual day.

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One Piece – Volume 9

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One Piece’s ninth volume is titled simply “Tears.” It’s a thematically relevant choice, but it’s also about as clear an indication as you could hope for of the emotional trials to come. This volume is a harrowing journey, featuring One Piece’s greatest moments of character writing and most cathartic points of high drama so far. It’s an easy peak for the manga, a dramatic accomplishment any story would be proud of.

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Planetes – Episode 4

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Today’s Planetes episode was about how rich people are terrible and should probably be killed.

Well, there was a little more to it than that, but not much. This was one more classic office storyline, the episode where the head office’s son visits the branch and everyone has to kowtow and dance for him because nepotism is awesome. It’s a standard plot shell that was executed in a pretty routine manner – we learned that Hachi and the Control employee Claire were once an item, and Tanabe’s ultimate defense of the debris unit earned her some clearly plotted respect from Hachi, but in the end, this is the kind of episode you could see in basically any episodic drama or sitcom.

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Flying Witch – Episode 10

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Flying Witch stayed its easy breezy self this week, though I really liked how frontloading the humor in a constrained setting allowed the second half to feel that much more relaxed and rewarding. Nao also got to shine for once, which was nice. Her inability to perform complex cooking tasks like “cook an onion” and “hold on to a ball of meat” felt very relatable to my largely sandwich-based lifestyle. Hang in there, Nao. You don’t want to end up like me.

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

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Kiznaiver – Episode 10

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Kiznaiver got pretty exposition-happy this week, but fortunately the dull Kizna project material didn’t manage to overwhelm the strong personal stuff. Kiznaiver’s cast is established well enough that at this point, simply letting portions of the main group spend time together creates new texture through their evolving relationships. It’s a pretty crucial point for an interiority-happy character drama to achieve, so I’m glad Kiznaiver’s on schedule. The show remains messy, but a messy articulation of a great thing is still a lot of fun.

You can check out my full review over at ANN. I watched this one straight through, so NO NOTES FOR YOU.

Kiznaiver

The Lost Village – Episode 11

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We’re in the endgame now, and The Lost Village is doing its best to juggle the needs of an actual narrative with its own wilder inclinations. This episode managed that balance with relative grace; it wasn’t as consistently laugh-out-loud funny as some of the earlier episodes, but it actually did a lot of work to bring this story to a real conclusion. In fact, so much was resolved here that it seems likely the last couple episodes will be able to go big in a more satisfying way, bringing all the remaining story threads together. Let’s end this thing with a bang.

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

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One Piece – Volume 8

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The Baratie arc came to an end in this volume, concluding with as much dignity as it could muster. As before, a great deal of this volume’s weakness came down to the fact that Don Krieg is just not a particularly exciting opponent. Volume six deliberately undercut him by using him as a prop to build up a more threatening opponent, and volume seven dawdled through a series of fights with underwhelming underlings. Even Don Krieg’s theming isn’t particularly compelling – his main gimmicks are a focus on “military might” and his wide variety of weapons, neither of which serve to make him particularly threatening. Don Krieg is altogether pretty much a failure of an antagonist.

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Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 1

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So. Penguindrum. One of the thorniest, richest anime of recent years, a show that draws on classic tales and modern traumas to craft a story full of weird textural inferences and strangely poignant moments. Penguindrum is many things, but before anything else, it is a clear reflection of the style of Kunihiko Ikuhara. Ikuhara’s only directed three original anime over the past twenty years, and in spite of that, he is one of the most lauded and influential creators in the medium. He’s also as close as a medium as collaborative as anime can get to an auteur – famously difficult to work with, his shows share a common identity that mark them as indelibly his (even when they’re lifted by contributions from his often brilliant collaborators). Penguindrum exhibits all of his core qualities, so before I get into this show specifically, let’s talk a bit about what makes Ikuhara tick.

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