Category Archives: Episode Writeup

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan – Episodes 1-3

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And my second episode writeup of the season is up! This one’s a little less intense, because, well, Nagato Yuki-chan is a pretty derp show. Silly faces and eating turkey and hoping Haruhi doesn’t completely overwhelm everything. Kyon and Haruhi are already falling back into their old relationship pattern, so I guess it’s time for Nagato to fight back, but I can’t see current Nagato doing much but mope and accept things if Haruhi ends up Stealing Her Man. I’d honestly really prefer more cute near-relationship scenes than an overt drama triangle, but I guess we’ll see.

My full writeup is available here. Notes (such as they are for a show like Nagato Yuki-chan) below!

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Sound! Euphonium – Episodes 1-2

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Jeez, am I going to be able to do a full season of posts like this? I’m guessing tackling single episodes at a time will prompt me to switch to a more conventional breakdown style, but it was nice to do almost a tiny essay in the format of my KimiUso piece or whatnot for these episodes. I think I’m slowly getting better at achieving a balance of flow and analysis in the ANN pieces.

Oh, right, Euphonium. Euphonium is very good! Really liked these first two episodes, and since I didn’t cover it in the actual piece, I should say that I like the way is handling its establishment of a real ensemble so far. I don’t expect this to be Shirobako or anything, but it does seem like the show wants a bunch of characters to be recognizable people, and I also like that it’s taking pains to bring us in on basically the ground floor of this music group. Even though this really seems like Kumiko’s story, we need to be invested in the group if we’re going to believe in her eventual investment.

Here’s my full ANN writeup. Notes below!

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Yuri Kuma Arashi – Episode 12

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Well here we are, with bearly twenty more minutes of Yuri Kuma to go. I enjoyed a lot of what this show had to offer, and though I wish it were a bit more emotionally strong, it’s certainly offered plenty to talk about. Even if they did kill the best character goddamnit Ikuhara that’s not okay. Let’s see it end well!

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Rolling Girls – Episode 12

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Well, this was a garbage ending. It’s a real shame – I was actually looking forward to whatever theatrics Rolling Girls put together for its final episode, and then the finale ends up having zero animation and even less coherent plot. Friggin’ Log Horizon was more animated this week than Rolling Girls. And the plot ends in about as unsatisfying a way as it could, and the story just sort of falls over itself. How do situations like this even happen? It feels like professional writers should not write themselves into holes like this.

My full ANN post is available here. Incredulous notes below!

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Log Horizon II – Episode 25

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And so season two comes to an end. This was about as much of an “ending” as I expected – we got a variety of resolutions, but even more gestures towards future material that may or may not ever exist. The raid boss fight was a lot of fun, Kanami and Shiroe have really great interactions, and it was nice (if a little anticlimactic) to see Crusty’s perfectly okay. Overall, season two felt significantly stronger than the first, and though we definitely cashed in a lot of the show’s existing conflict-chips, I’m sure this author could think of all sorts of ways to continue the story. Here’s to hoping we actually get that season three one day.

My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!

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Parasyte – Episode 24

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And Parasyte finally ends, with an episode that sure was incredibly boring to write about. I’m pretty happy to see it over, honestly – it’s been something of a trial in this second half, doing a full day of work only to know I’ll have to come home and say something about a show that could never quite be as good as I wanted it to. Ah well. I’ve watched plenty of ultimately disappointing anime, I’m sure I’ll watch plenty more.

My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!

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Yuri Kuma Arashi – Episode 11

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The bears have returned! Lulu seems to be out of the picture for the time being, while Ginko has come back to devour Kureha. And Kureha has finally appeared before the bear court, who we now know are clearly here just to fuck with things in ways they find amusing, and adjust the rules whenever they feel like it. Will Kureha have to wager something to save Ginko, as Lulu and Ginko did in the past? Is love impossible without giving up something equally valuable? ONLY THE BEARS KNOW.

Let’s get to it!

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Log Horizon II – Episode 24

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A surprisingly excellent episode here at the tail end of Log Horizon II. The focus and production were just on a much higher level than usual, and Shiroe’s very understandable dilemma gave the whole thing a well-defined structure. Seeing the whole team work together was nice, seeing that team brought to life through some actual animation was even better, and in general the whole thing just worked, and moved the quest to go home in a fairly compelling direction.

My full ANN post is available here. Sadly no notes this week, as I actually watched this one on my house TV as opposed to my computer.

Log Horizon

Rolling Girls – Episode 11

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Welp, at least we’ll always have the fights. This episode really brought Rolling Girls’ narrative failings to the fore, with the busyness of this arc’s storytelling offering pretty much no emotional hooks whatsoever. But yeah. The fights! Plenty of fun fights this week, plenty of beautiful backgrounds, not an ounce of narrative sense. Ah well.

Here’s my full ANN post. Notes below!

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Parasyte – Episode 23

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The strongest Parasyte in a while this week, with both the action and themey-wemey sides of the show putting up strong performances. The Gotou fight was the most well-depicted one in a while (a long while, actually… hell, maybe ever? Parasyte hasn’t exactly had the most impressive fights), and the final Shinichi-Migi conversation was great on both a character and idea level. I really thought the show was just falling apart altogether a few episodes ago, but this post-police stakeout arc has been pretty solid. Nice to see!

My full ANN post is available here, and notes as always are below.

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