Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 6

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Welp, we’ve entered Local Girl and Alien Ruin Everything territory. Tsubasa’s a child, Gelsadra’s a terrifying force of faux-unity, and together they’re doing a pretty great job of making Japan the most fragile country imaginable. This episode basically hung around those two the entire time, as they attempted to put their plan of “making everyone happy” into action. Jou can’t be feeling good about this situation – CROWDS may be gone, but replacing the diet with constant popular votes is actually a far more dangerous system of forced horizontal engagement. I imagine things will begin falling apart more or less immediately.

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

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Classroom Crisis – Episode 6

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Classroom Crisis rallied back with an excellent episode this week, revealing Nagisa’s full past in an episode full of the small character moments that make even this show’s weakest episodes at least somewhat compelling. This is definitely a pretty lopsided show, but it’s the kind of lopsided I can get behind – its best elements are unique and very valuable, and it having a bunch of obvious failings along with them is just how it goes with a lot of anime. And second halves are generally more conflict-focused anyway, so there’s a fair chance Classroom Crisis will average out to a very solid show.

Here’s my full ANN writeup, and you can check out my notes below!

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Paranoia Agent – Episode 4

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The paranoia continues, this time visiting trusty Officer Hirukawa. This was less of a mood-focused episode than the last couple, but gave us a better look at the police chief’s philosophy, which was a nice tradeoff. I also just loved Hirukawa’s ridiculous face. This show has extremely expressive character designs in general, and Hirukawa’s among the best of them – his bulbous nose, beady eyes, and utterly untrustworthy grin make for a perfect cartoon face that can squash and stretch into all sorts of absurd expressions. Hurray for Hirukawa’s silly face.

You can check out my ANN writeup over here or my notes below!

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Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 5

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This was a big one! Gatchaman basically crammed every idea it could think of relating its central themes to the election process into one jam-packed episode, and the result was stunning. As I say in my review, this episode could have felt busy or cynical, but the way the show made use of its characters very understandable motives to center each of their perspectives made it feel as poignant as it was dense. This is the way it is, but nobody’s happy about it. Idealists are used, pragmatists make cynical steps for the greater good, and relying on anything more than the base tides of public opinion will likely get you swept away. This was a stern dressing-down of everything Rui hoped for in the first season, and likely insight’s best episode yet.

Here’s my full review at ANN, and you can check out my notes below!

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Classroom Crisis – Episode 5

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Well, it was bound to happen. You can’t have a show with “classroom” in the title and avoid a derpy beach episode at some point, I suppose. And this episode certainly was Beach Episode As Fuck, which I used as an excuse to largely talk about how this show can sometimes feel at war with itself. It feels like the pitch for this show went “we can let you get away with this corporate struggle between simplistic but bold ideals and the necessities of business, but you’ll have to stick in at least one classroom setting, three ‘I’m not an old woman’ jokes, and a beach episode.” Hopefully the devil has now been paid his due, and Classroom Crisis can be strictly good from here on out.

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

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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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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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