Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Ping Pong – Episode 3

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Management: I know, this is highly irregular. I was just writing my usual week in review blurb for this episode and then just kept writing, so I guess I kind of accidentally wrote an episodic post. Apologies.

Not content to be impressive merely for its merits in writing, art design, and direction, this episode helped demonstrate that equally important to Ping Pong’s magic is its wonderful sound design. This should have been obvious, actually – after all, the first episode’s highlight was a scene where Wenge and his trainer tracked the course of a match through the sound of rackets alone. But this episode got even more ostentatious about this strength, opening with that beautiful crescendo of rackets and ping pong balls leading into the tournament qualifiers. The effectiveness of that moment is pretty much how it goes with Ping Pong – like with Tatami Galaxy, basically every quality I turn to and focus on is clever and creative and uniquely effective.

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Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei – Episode 2

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Management: I didn’t really intend this to be so brutal, but now that it’s finished and I’m looking over it… yeah. This one’s kinda merciless, and posting it makes me a little nervous. I don’t mean to directly attack anyone with this piece – it’s mainly about being aware of the subtext of media, and not letting things that appeal to our base needs trick us into bad attitudes. I wrote it both because I find the psychology of media interesting and because I think Mahouka is a perfect representation of some of media’s more questionable powers. If you like Mahouka, that’s totally cool, I’m not saying you’re wrong to enjoy it. If you’d rather have something more positive, please enjoy this delightful gif and check back next time.

There are a number of different ways to approach criticizing a text. You can criticize the beauty of the execution itself – how it obeys certain agreed-upon rules of aesthetic execution, and how it exists purely as an object to marvel at. You can try to put it in a given historical or social context, or explore the life of the creator to see what demons the text may be working to exorcise. You can isolate certain details, or try to fit the overarching structure into a certain aesthetic or psychological framework. You can talk about themes, both intended and unintended. You can work off your gut, your training, or some arbitrary ideal of perfect beauty.

Normally, I try to come to shows open to however they may strike me. If a show strikes me as entertaining, I’ll try to critique it as entertainment. If it strikes me as insightful, I’ll try to engage with its insight. All of this is deeply colored, of course, by my own priorities – I wouldn’t recommend myself as the premier source for critiques of action shows, for example. But Mahouka already seems like it will reward one specific, fairly compelling exploration, and so that’s what I’m probably going to focus on here.

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Sword Art Online – Episode 7

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You thought this would be some fancy concept writeup. BUT IT WAS ME, DIO!

Glad to be back covering this fairly silly show. Sorry it’s been a while – I’ve been busy with all sorts of crazy projects and essay stuff recently, so I haven’t had the time to sit down and Sword Art Online.

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Sekai Seifuku – Episode 12

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Sorry I’m so very late on this one – I decided to space out the finales of the three shows I’m writing essays for so that I’d actually have a first draft of each done before I checked out the finale of the next, and Sekai Seifuku unfortunately drew the short straw. That’s not its fault, though – of the three (Kill la Kill, Samurai Flamenco, and Sekai Seifuku), I’d say this is easily the best show, and I’m very excited to see it end. All of its ideas and characters have bounced off each other, exposed new reflections, and finally come together, and it’s looking like everything will end with the father who spurned his family and the little girl who accepted everyone into hers. A bright spot in a very lousy season, Sekai Seifuku has always maintained a great sense of wonder and magic buoyed by both a general atmosphere of melancholy and the sharp edges of the truths it’s toying with. I’ve come to really care about this family, and though the show itself is basically a living demonstration of how often families don’t work out, I’d like to see a happy ending for these characters.

So let’s conquer the world.

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Kill la Kill – Episode 24

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Well here we are. Allies gathered, enemies looming, stage set. It’s been a long and somewhat uneven ride for Kill la Kill, but it’s pretty much always held on to its core strength – an earnest and beautifully articulated love of pure spectacle. It’s generally kept things visually interesting in spite of anything approaching fluid animation, but this is the very last episode, so I’m guessing we’re actually gonna See Some Shit this time. I don’t expect this show to suddenly become a narrative masterpiece, but I’m perfectly happy to settle for twenty-three minutes of absurd visual excess. Let’s Kill la Kill.

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Sekai Seifuku – Episode 11

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Alright, very behind, but here I am. The last two weeks have done a tremendous amount of work in pulling this show’s threads together – family, identity, childhood, belief, it’s all lining up and it’s all working great. The Neverland the main characters have inhabited is falling apart under the disapproving gaze of Asuta’s father, and pretty much everyone is fighting back in their own way. Kate’s dream has powered Zvezda’s belief so far, and last episode featured each member of the team in turn sacrificing themselves in service of that belief. On the one hand, this was very generous of them, and demonstrated how much the members of this family care about each other. But on the other, none of them really had a choice – as the Chief glibly stated, he’s only done what promised the greatest chance of survival. All of these characters have been thrown away, but up until last week, Asuta didn’t realize this – he thought he still had power, thought he held the trump card of still being valued. That’s not the case anymore – he is a member of Zvezda through and through, reviled by the real world and given purpose only by the girl who believes he has value in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

Girls, actually. Renge also believes he has value, and unlike Asuta, Renge actually deserted a family that truly valued her. White Light may have lost its purpose and surrendered itself to power for power’s own sake, but it still had a job for White Robin. In abandoning that, Renge may have made the first act of willful rebellion against the defamilyzing status quo – she’s not a misfit, she’s a beacon. That’s interesting, but I honestly hope it’s not relevant – what would it say if the people this inhuman structure valued really were more valuable? Better to be valued by Kate, who sees purpose in everyone, than to be the favorite child of callous, unfeeling parents. Better Zvezda by far.

Alright, that’s enough rambling. I like this show, you guys. Let’s see where it goes next.

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Kill la Kill – Episode 23

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Jeez internet look at the time I am super sorry this is so late. I’ve been wasting time and money at Anime Boston all weekend, so I am embarrassingly behind on my cartoons – but that all ends RIGHT NOW. Kill la Kill’s been kind of a narrative mess in this second half, but last episode made a very intelligent choice that did a lot of work to address that – it gave Mako her awesome uniform back, meaning I don’t give a shit if KLK even has an ending at all. Last episode was the “everybody finally loves each other” fanservice-fest – this episode’s likely to be the “EVERYBODY’S A BADASS” one.

I don’t use the word “fanservice” in a necessarily pejorative sense, by the way. Normally it is a bad thing – I generally define fanservice as something added to please a certain audience demographic that either doesn’t aid or directly works against the show’s other goals. Which is why voyeuristic nudity is fanservice in a show that generally wants you to respect its characters as people, or why long shots of mechs are fanservice in a show that’s actually also trying to tell a well-paced story. Most people tend to define fanservice as sexy stuff in general, but I find that a far less useful definition – some shows actually do make great, purposeful use of sexuality (cough Monogatari cough), and I think limiting fanservice to sexual content kind of obscures the reason fanservice is considered bad storytelling in the first place.

But with Kill la Kill? The purpose is fanservice – what Kill la Kill is best at is pleasing the fans. It’s pure spectacle, and always at its best when it’s letting its visual aesthetic, sense of humor, and solid direction just go wild. I quite frankly don’t think Kill la Kill is a very good story, but I do think it’s a very distinctive spectacle, and Kill la Kill’s most impressive moments are often also its most indulgent ones.

So go nuts, Kill la Kill. Get stupid, get funny, get big. Do what you do best.

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Sword Art Online – Episode 6

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Part One: Captain

The witness flops over like a manatee in heels, hitting the pavement like a fish hitting an equally hard surface. Her body dissolves in moments, a grim reminder that in this city, even a corpse won’t talk for free. I look to my partner, but he’s already moving, that damn loose cannon out chasing our shadowy perp across the rooftops. “Take care of this,” he shouts, like I’m his goddamn desk jockey, not the commanding officer. And then he’s gone, Batmaning away like this is some fucking game.

Well, it is a game – but not like that kind of game. There’s no second chances in this city, and if you don’t play by the rules, it’s Game Over and a quick trip to the electro-helmet morgue. This is Sword Art Online, and if you didn’t know by now, let me tell you – it’s a serious game for grown-ups only. In this game, losing can kill.

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Sekai Seifuku – Episode 10

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CONQUEST TIME. Sorry I’m late on this one – I came down with some kind of terrible affliction this weekend, but I think my head is finally clear enough to work through the pain. I’m very excited for this episode – both the preview and the spoiler-happy internet have primed me to expect some crazy revelations, and last week’s episode already displayed the show’s themes coming together beautifully. Masks were flying off left and right, White Light and Zvezda each made their philosophy that much more clear, and Jimon once again demonstrated he’s still not quite comfortable with his new family, even as he deliberately spurns his old one. Jimon’s in the classic protagonist spot here – at the fulcrum of both the show’s two “families” and its ideas on family in general, he’s also the least aware of all the forces sparring around him. He’s the kid caught in the crossfire of a feud much larger than himself. And as the personal is the political in Sekai Seifuku, the squabbling parents hanging over his head might just fighting over the fate of the world itself.

Let’s get to it.

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Rough Notes Archive: Katanagatari

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Management: So, I’ve gotten a few requests here and there to post the rest of my Katanagatari notes – I actually did post pieces for episodes 1/2 and episode 3, along with a final essay, but I never posted the rest of my episodic notes. That was mainly because around episode 4, my notes started getting pretty shorthandy – I wasn’t really explaining my thoughts in an entertaining way, I was attempting to break the show down for myself as I was watching it. But people still seem interested in reading that sort of thing, so I’ve decided to post them anyway – just keep in mind this is much more bare-bones than the writeups tend to be, since it was originally only intended for me. If that still sounds interesting, read away!

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