Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Paranoia Agent – Episode 11

Posted on by

Paranoia Agent isn’t quite winding down yet, but it is finally returning to its original core cast. This week we were introduced to one more viewpoint character, but Mrs. Ikari’s story ended up doubling as a visit back into the life of her husband, the former police chief Keichi Ikari. Keichi’s not doing so well, post-firing – he’s juggling several jobs and avoiding his home and generally feeling like a person that the world has passed by. I enjoyed both halves of this episode, though it couldn’t match the highlights of standouts like last week. But the Shonen Bat interview was an engaging device, and Keichi was given some welcome texture through the new perspective his wife provided. Another solid episode for Paranoia Agent.

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

Continue reading →

Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 11

Posted on by

AW SHIT THIS EPISODE FUUUUUUU. I was a little worried about where insight would be going at the end of last week/beginning of this one, but man, this was a brutal answer. It’s an answer I’m surprised Hajime would come up with, since it requires an acknowledgment of many of the cynical elements of this season that I figure she’d want to reject. But Hajime’s not stupid, she’s just very reserved with her thoughts, so I guess it’d make sense that she could play this game as well.

Anyway, I already wrote up a storm about this one in my review and notes, so let’s get to it! My review is thataway, my notes are below!

Continue reading →

Classroom Crisis – Episode 12

Posted on by

Classroom Crisis spent this episode ramping up to a high-speed finale, strapping Nagisa into a jury-rigged X-2 ship just to give Iris a future opportunity to show off her stuff. The road there was enjoyable enough, though having Yuji come back as a newly unhinged villain didn’t do much for the series. Fortunately, this episode also gave Angelina a big opportunity to get mad and kick all kinds of ass, which is always a good time. It’s looking like Classroom Crisis will be ending respectably but not fantastically, which is a fine compromise for a show that’s been a series of compromises from the start.

You can check out my full review over at ANN. Notes below!

Continue reading →

Paranoia Agent – Episode 10

Posted on by

Dear lord did Paranoia Agent ever rally back. After tossing off what was easily its weakest episode so far, Paranoia Agent apparently decided it was time to throw out a trump card, and so tossed off an episode that skewered the fuck out of anime production while simultaneously working as a self-contained/beautifully composed horror story and also indulging in some lovely new visual tricks besides. This was an episode I’d heard of – given the current existence of Shirobako, it was probably impossible for someone as weirdly embedded in the western anime subculture as me to avoid having heard of “the Paranoia Agent anime episode.” But even for all the unfortunate baggage I’d carried to this episode courtesy of smug old-school fans shitting on Shirobako (which is a goddamn masterpiece, and will easily outlive the scorn of naysayers), I was pretty blindsided by this episode’s unimpeachable quality. Great visuals, fantastic use of classic Kon-isms, and a biting, passionate take on the anime industry. Couple that with a larger frame that actually fits well into Paranoia Agent’s structure, and you’ve got an episode that easily earned its sterling reputation. Paranoia Agent does not fuck around.

You can check out my full review over at ANN (and I go kinda deep on this one, getting pretty specific in my praising of its various aesthetics tricks), or run down my episode notes below!

Continue reading →

Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 10

Posted on by

Gatchaman Crowds pulled a bunch of threads together this week in an episode that I felt had maybe the season’s first real missteps. The main issue was the handling of Rui’s arc – having X just talk Rui into feeling motivated again just felt way too simple, and Rui’s story felt poorly integrated with everything else that was going on. It made me think the story just kind of didn’t know what to do with Rui for a while, which is a disappointing thought. But there was also a whole bunch of great stuff in this episode, with my favorite parts concentrated in Millione and Rizumu’s choices. The two of them actually seem pretty alike in their assessment of humanity, but Millione embraces going with the flow for ratings, while Rizumu just uses it to make himself feel powerful. Cool guys, cool guys.

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

Continue reading →

Classroom Crisis – Episode 11

Posted on by

Classroom Crisis is back! After two straight episodes of tedious and emotionally sterile boardroom shenanigans, Classroom Crisis finally returned to what it’s actually good at – demonstrating remarkable humanity in the conversations between its lead characters. And jeez, was this episode’s big conversation ever a stunner. The cathartic reunion between Nagisa and Mizuki here honestly justifies the series for me pretty much single-handedly. Satisfying romance is one of those mystical white elephants of anime storytelling, and these two have all kinds of character-coherent and endearing chemistry. Couple that with the dramatic stakes of Nagisa being at his lowest point and Mizuki dragging him out of it, and you’ve got a scene that will pretty much permanently endear me to this series regardless of all its other (numerous) failings. Scenes like this are what I’m in fiction for – I built my first novel around a scene that was basically exactly like this, and I will probably be always be a sucker for “I know things are bad, but god damnit, I care about you. We can get through this together.” Nice work, Classroom Crisis. You got me.

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

Continue reading →

Paranoia Agent – Episode 9

Posted on by

We got another lighthearted episode of Paranoia Agent this week, though this one unfortunately wasn’t nearly as strong as the last. In fact, this was likely the weakest episode of the show so far – composed around a fairly weak structural conceit and full of stories that didn’t really amount to much, it clocked in a fair degree below the level of quality the show has set for itself. It did have its moments though, and I’ve heard the next couple episodes are excellent, so I’m not worried. They can’t all be winners.

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

Continue reading →

Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 9

Posted on by

SHIT IS FUCKED. Things are a total mess in Gatchamanland, and it will take more than Hajime wearing cute pigtails to sort all of this out. This was another solid episode in a very impressive sequel, and one that made me feel frankly a little awkward to cover, considering how charged the topics it’s dealing with are. Gatchaman is hot-off-the-presses commentary, its thoughts on the dangers of groupthink in more harmony-focused Japan equally relevant to modern online discourse. These conversations have essentially been turned radioactive by recent controversies – there are people looking to start witch hunts all over, and gamergate lurking in the background, eager to either pounce on targets or seize on comments as vindication of their pet issues. It is awesome that Gatchaman Crowds is so relevant to what’s going on this very second, but I sure hope writing these posts doesn’t get me killed.

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

Continue reading →

Classroom Crisis – Episode 10

Posted on by

This week’s Classroom Crisis was… an episode. For the second week straight, the show focused largely on Nagisa’s political dealings within the Kirishina Corporation, and for the second week straight, those dealings failed to have basically any emotional grounding or sense of coherent internal drama. Nagisa’s stuff here is really just “stuff happening” – it all exists to the side of the conflicts that either have some earned emotional weight or drive at the contrast between pragmatism and idealism (which is a conflict that’s itself largely confined to the conversations between Kaito and Nagisa, since the actual political stuff is way too simplistic to carry much meaning). This episode had one great conversation between Iris and Mizuki that reflected what the show is actually good at, but aside from that, this was a dreary wash.

But anyway. You can check out my breakdown over at ANN, or my notes below!

Continue reading →

Paranoia Agent – Episode 8

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading →