“As long as we collect enough parts, we can be put back together.” That’s the promise that Rutile makes to our protagonist Phos, while explaining the unique nature of their crystalline bodies. It’s a true statement, and a source of comfort for Land of the Lustrous’ stars, but its implications also speak to the fundamental question and hope of this entire narrative. “As long as we collect enough parts, we can be put back together” we tell ourselves, as the world chips at us, and our bodies betray us at every turn. We can be fixed. We can be remade. Perhaps, one day, we could even be whole.
Winter 2019 – Week 12 in Review
Aw shit you guys, the season’s over! It was all epic conclusions and goodbyes this week, as everything from Kemurikusa to Run with the Wind turned in their final assignments. The strengths or weaknesses of those final episodes were as diverse as the shows themselves; Kemurikusa attempted to switch gears for a genuine action spectacle, The Magnificent Kotobuki decided to hone in on all the things it does best, and Mob Psycho balanced its absurd animation feats with a lengthy and well-deserved epilogue. It’s been a pretty excellent anime season, and though some shows have had their ups and downs, I’m still astonished that both Mob Psycho and Run with the Wind were as consistently terrific as they turned out to be. Let’s run it all down in one last Winter 2019 Week in Review!
Why It Works: Revolutionary Girl Utena’s Ikuhara is Directing an Anime this Spring!
Today I wrote the necessary followup to last week’s Watanabe-focused article, this time exploring the career of the equally remarkable Kunihiko Ikuhara. It’s a pretty classic retrospective, focusing on both his themes and influences, with a solid shoutout to Junichi Sato for good measure. Let’s get to it!
Revolutionary Girl Utena’s Ikuhara is Directing an Anime this Spring!
Hugtto! Precure – Episode 7
Folks, I’m so happy to be watching another episode of Huggto! The show has been a total joy so far, constructed on a variety of stellar fundamental pillars, from Hana’s excellent performance as the heroine to its great sense of humor, along with both its generally appealing art design and its major directorial highlights. Huggto! has already offered some truly stunning cuts of action animation, with their signature appeals so far seeming to be their clear sense of scale and weight. You can really feel how massive and imposing these Precures’ enemies are, as well as the impact of their attacks, be it through the carefully animated struggle of their limbs to hold back some attack, or through the understanding of tempo and sound design that informs the often terrifying distance between when a Precure is knocked aside and when they actually hit the ground.
And outside those fight scenes, Huggto! has established a clear thematic thrust and a team of heroines worth rooting for. After last episode offered Homare’s proper introduction into the team’s everyday life, I’m guessing this one will be ramping up the threat of their foes, or perhaps even moving us towards our next Cure. I have no goddamn clue, frankly, but I’m excited regardless. Let’s check out some Precure!
Princess Tutu – Episode 22
As our divided heroes each grapple with the weight of their own destiny, Princess Tutu’s twenty-second episode opens on an image of stacked hallways lined with endless doors. “Once upon a time, there was a princess raised by loving parents. One day, the princess snuck by the guard at the gate and slipped out of the castle for the very first time. However, no matter how far she went, outside the castle, there was only an endless forest as black as pitch. Before she knew it, the princess ended up unable to either escape the forest or return to the castle. In that kingdom, the inside of the castle was the entire world.”
Bloom Into You – Episode 11
Alright folks, you know it’s time for Bloom Into You. As the season moves towards its endgame, we find ourselves approaching an inevitable clash between the rapidly diverging desires of Yuu and Touko. For Yuu, the last several episodes have seen her undergo a profound shift in how she views both Touko and herself. She can no longer affect the nonchalant, flirtatious person who once effortlessly sparred with Touko – having actually developed strong feelings for her senpai, she is now hyper-aware of Touko’s every movement, and increasingly unsatisfied with their romantic stasis. Meanwhile, challenges to Touko’s desire to replace her sister seem to have only hardened her own resolve. While misinterpreting Yuu’s newfound self-consciousness as a pushback against her own affection, she moves ever closer to fulfilling her sister’s role in the play, and thus completing her last wish. But what comes after she’s already done all the things her sister pursued? And will Yuu’s feelings even remain repressed that long? We’ve got plenty of thorny drama to look forward to as we explore another episode of this terrific show!
Winter 2019 – Week 11 in Review
Closing time is approaching, friends. With only one real week left in the winter season, all my seasonal contenders were wrapping things up for the endgame this week, offering a mix of climactic battles and shocking reveals and various other animated delights. The Magnificent Kotobuki sent like five hundred goddamn planes into the air to blow each other up, while Kemurikusa finally unveiled the true nature of its world, and Run with the Wind simply maintained its signature excellence. It was a week of winter 2019, in short, and I’m happy to move beyond the general vagueries and get down to the details with you all. Let’s run down one more week in anime!
Why It Works: Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe is Directing an Anime this Spring!
Today on Why It Works, I used the occasion of Carole & Tuesday’s upcoming release to talk about Watanabe’s work in a more general sense, highlighting the themes and narrative quirks that have remained consistent all through his many years as a director. I get the feeling my insistence his works are all a part of one cohesive statement might not tempt people who are just hoping for Bebop 2, but I gotta try! Regardless, I enjoyed looking and thinking back over Watanabe’s career, and now feel even more excited for his new show. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe is Directing an Anime this Spring!
Chihayafuru Part Two: The Movie
I’ll get the bad news out of the way right from the start: the second Chihayafuru film is not that great of an actual film. If I were giving it a formal review, I’d probably spend a fair amount of time talking about how its first act hangs on insubstantial drama, as well as its inability to maintain the manga’s tactical sports intrigue, which generally acts as a needed counterbalance to the story’s melodrama. I’d praise Mayu Matsuoka for absolutely killing it as Shinobu, but reflect that ultimately, in spite of doing its best to reconstitute the manga into a coherent three-film structure, it loses too much of the original’s appeal in the process. I’d conclude by summarizing it as not a great film in its own right, but a very fun lark for fans of the franchise, and a fascinating exercise in the difficulty of translating ongoing manga to discrete films.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s – Episode 2
Hello folks, and welcome to another friggin’ episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha! I’ve been having a lovely time with this series, and I hope you have as well – in addition to filling out an important gap in my history-of-anime knowledge, it’s also just been a very fun, aesthetically compelling show in its own right. It always bears repeating that few creative ideas truly come from nowhere – all creators are reprocessing and reflecting the works that inspired them, and thus engaging with Nanoha has naturally enriched my understanding of works like Madoka Magica, Symphogear, and modern interpretations of magical girl drama as a whole. And considering Wrong Every Time has not-so-subtly transformed into some kind of magical girl appreciation blog (shoutouts to Precure, Doremi, and Princess Tutu), it’s probably a good thing that I’m finally investigating one of the modern titans of the genre.
So far, the transition into Nanoha’s second season has come with a variety of aesthetic consequences. The shift from Akiyuki Shinbo to Keizo Kusakawa has been accompanied by a general consolidation of the Nanoha aesthetic, with fewer of the striking two-tone compositions Shinbo favors, but plenty of generally evocative symmetrical compositions. The show’s ostentatious post-processing work and focus on mechanical transformations remain intact, but the introduction of an antagonist who actually combines magic with physical strikes has lent the battles a newfound sense of physical weight, along with more animation flourishes. To be honest, that first episode fight was probably the best-composed battle of the franchise so far, and I’m excited to see Fate herself take the stage. Let’s dive into another episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha!