Texhnolyze certainly has a reputation. The show comes courtesy of one of anime’s great creative supergroups; with a screenplay by Chiaka Konaka, character designs by Yoshitoshi ABe, and Yasuyuki Ueda on board as producer, it features the same core team that gave Serial Experiments Lain such a vivid personality. The three clearly had a strong relationship of some kind; Ueda was actually the producer who first hired ABe (they also worked together on Haibane Renmei), and Konaka and ABe were known as friends as well. Discounting the absence of Ryutaro Nakamura (who directed Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost Hound, and was intending to work on the never-released Despera with ABe and Konaka), you’ve got all the key players of one of the 00s great anime lineups.
Category Archives: Episode Writeup
Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 4
We all handle grief in different ways. For Madoka and Sayaka, Mami’s absence is like a stifling weight in this episode, pushing each of them in their own unhappy direction. They now know the truth about magical girls, and have some idea of the actual bargain they are making. But knowing the danger won’t be enough to save them from themselves.
The episode opens with Sayaka running from her grief, running to the boy who gives her some sense of stability. But he’s not there for her, and so she can’t escape. Shots of the hospital frame Sayaka as trapped within geometrically impossible rooms with nearly vertical vanishing points, emphasizing how unreal and alienating her world now feels. Like with the witch worlds, Shaft’s tendency towards stark, interpretive backgrounds fits here – in the wake of loss like this, you won’t necessarily recognize the world around you as a place you know. Shots on the elevator position Sayaka as trapped, as her melancholy leads her to blame the same old target – herself.
One Piece – Volume 4
One Piece’s fourth volume is action-packed from start to finish, wholly dedicated to the protracted battle between Usopp, his new friends, and the former Captain Kuro. And it’s all very fun stuff! There isn’t necessarily a continuous heightened level of tension throughout these chapters, but there’s certainly plenty of momentum, and no sense that anything is being dragged out. I’d worried in discussing the last volume that Usopp himself would be more aggravating than endearing, but whether it comes down to the speed of manga versus anime or the simple execution of his character, Usopp is actually turning out to be one of the highlights of the manga.
Dagashi Kashi – Episode 11
This week’s episode of Dagashi Kashi sure was an episode of Dagashi Kashi. There is virtually nothing at all to critique in this show, given each episode is very nearly the same, they all have fairly low ambitions, and they all succeed and fail in very minor ways. The show sets itself a low bar and slowly rises over it every single week, occasionally disappointing by trying too hard to be funny, occasionally finding success by leaning into its character relationships. It is a very harmless show.
You can check out my full review at ANN, or my very minor notes below!
Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 3
Madoka Magica’s third episode opens with the reveal of Sayaka’s secret treasure, the one thing she might be willing to die for. Sayaka is a strong-willed and driven person, but Sayaka is also a teenager, and her secret reflects that; it’s a boy she happens to like. The late afternoon light sets a melancholy tone as we’re introduced to Sayaka’s crush, a boy who keeps smiling even though he’s bedridden, who turns away when he has to cry. It’s a very efficient bit of storytelling, and one more example of how Madoka embraces narrative minimalism and inference to make the most of its running time. We just get a brief conversation detailing the tone of their relationship, and then Sayaka’s “gift” sends her back into a memory, where she sees the passionate boy who inspired her love. Her gift is as cruel as Kyubey’s, and her revery seems like Madoka’s simplistic idealization of Mami; with a cut to her crush’s tears and then his crippled arm, we see that his smile is a mask. A destructive little tragedy in a minute and a half.
ERASED – Episode 12
ERASED finished with the remains of its dignity intact, forcing us to survive through just one final scene with Satoru’s supervillain nemesis before heading towards the end. Most of the show’s thematic threads were at least nodded to here, and there were a number of pretty scenes to counterbalance the weight of Yashiro’s ridiculousness. The show fell apart fairly close to the end, so it’s kind of ending on a low note, but in retrospect it’s obviously a reasonable production – it just hit its highs very early and its lows very late. In the end, the biggest lesson I find myself drawing from ERASED is to stop letting myself trust fans of source material. The fans always lie!
You can check out my review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
Active Raid – Episode 12
Active Raid is over! The show ended about as well as it could have – that is, it’s a mediocre show that will be forgotten in a week or two, but it tied its threads together and concluded with relative grace. The ultimate reveal of Mythos’ motivation was as underwhelming as you’d expect, but Mythos has always been the show’s weakest element, so what are you gonna do. I liked the banter between the Unit 8 leads, having that friggin’ Clippy app actually be evil was perfect, and the last fight was pretty okay. Not much point in yelling at a show for not being a very different one.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
A Girl on the Shore – Part One
“We used to wait / We used waste hours just walkin’ around / We used to wait / All those wasted lives in the wilderness downtown.”
Inio Asano certainly has a way with words. Or it might be better to say he has no way with them. His stories seem translucent, any wisp of authorial voice appearing only in the fringes of unvarnished naturalism. He gives his characters’ interiority the drama they believe it deserves, but any magic in his stories is the magic of the world as it is. Characters interrupt each other and start again, tossing out simple observations and losing their trains of thought. You can feel the wind blowing between the staggered refrains of his mixed-up kids.
Dagashi Kashi – Episode 10
Dagashi Kashi pulled off a strong episode this week, sticking largely to its slice of life comfort zone while also peppering its one core concept with lots of nice incidental gags. There were good Hotaru faces and nice interactions between the friends and plenty of dagashi shenanigans to be had. Dagashi Kashi doesn’t have to be flashy to succeed, and when it does work, it’s a very likable show. It’s not going to win any awards or break any hearts, but it’s a fun series that I’ve enjoyed my time with.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 2
Madoka Magica slows down in its second episode, as all that exposition stuff the first one avoided gets woven in with our formal introduction to Kyubey and Mami Tomoe. The episode is less overtly thrilling until its (tiro) finale, but that’s partially the point. There are consistent repeated shots and sequences here, from the moment Madoka turns before “waking up” to the various shots and full scenes used to represent her daily life. The show is establishing an initial sense of normalcy, and beyond that, how Madoka feels about her normalcy. This is a safe, pleasant, and relatively empty world – a world that demands little, but doesn’t offer Madoka much of an identity.