There’s a strange, uncomfortable disconnect at the heart of Ringo’s mission. Of course, you don’t really need to dig very far to find her actions uncomfortable – even within this episode’s first scene, what has up until now “confined” itself to mere obsessive stalking seems to take an even darker turn. Ringo murmurs breathily about “wedding night” and “our first night together” as the camera trawls across her blue-toned room, the undersea framing echoing both Himari’s room and the general visual language of “fate.” Given their current relationship and her past actions, it seems like Ringo is overtly fantasizing about sexually assaulting Tabuki. But Ringo’s feelings are even more tangled than that.
Planetes – Episode 10
Secrets abound in Planetes’ tenth episode. There is one secret we know of, and that is being consciously held by Tanabe – Mr. Gigalt’s failing health, which he asked Tanabe not to share with Hachi. There is one secret who even its holder isn’t aware of: Hachi’s shifting feelings for Tanabe, a truth he is unwilling to admit to himself. And there is one new secret, the secret of Yuri’s past, which is slowly unspooled across the course of one more melancholy adventure.
Planetarian – Episode 5
Planetarian ended in likely the most easy way to predict, but that’s not a bad thing – it was a tightly designed narrative and it rode to a satisfying and well-earned conclusion. I even got to be surprised by how well the show pulled off a legitimate action sequence, elevating through smart plotting and sound design what it couldn’t sell entirely through animation. Looks like I can finally say I’m a fan of a Key work!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my final notes below.
Summer 2016 – Week 5 in Review
Oh god how are we already nearing the halfway point what the fuck. Soon enough we’ll be past that and entering the final stretch and I can’t even imagine how I’m gonna handle Why It Works and preview week at the same time what the fuck have I done to my life. It’s all out of my hands. I can’t hold onto it anymore. It’s slipping away and I can’t write fast enough and I need to sleep but when I sleep I fall behind and then I wake up and it’s all there again and what am I going to DOOOO.
Hey guys! Wednesday again. You know the drill. LET’S RUN ‘EM DOWN.
Mob Psycho 100 – Episode 4
Mob Psycho was as consistent as ever this week, offering plenty of unique visual highlights while also further exploring the sad contradiction of Mob’s character. Mob’s insecurity is the heart of this series, and the fact that we now have a foil who basically represents everything Mob cannot be is a nice complement to that. Mob Psycho is just damn good entertainment – like Love Live, it’s the kind of high-quality popcorn I’d be happy to munch on every season.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
Shonen Hollywood, Season 2 – Review
Shonen Hollywood is back and, well, pretty much the same as ever. Same subdued character work, same cynical edge, same pretty-much-crap visual execution. If you’re one of the five or six other people who watched the first season, you know what to expect here. Shonen Hollywood is always a fun watch, and based on the end of this season, it looks like there may be even more coming down the pipe. Who knows what minor disappointments might next await our eternally disenchanted heroes!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
Orange – Episode 5
Orange continued to chart its steady course this week, although we did finally get to see the show somewhat engaging with its own time-travel conceit. I don’t have much interest in this show’s thoughts on time travel, but that interlude fortunately didn’t take up too much time, and the rest of this week was pure “oh my god Naho what are you doing oh no Naho don’t do that yes Naho more of that please NOOooo” goodness. This girl is going to kill me.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning
Everyone has heard that “doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of madness” cliche, but as a critic, I don’t always have the luxury of learning from experience. When I don’t think I’ll like something, I generally just stay away – I’m not a big fan of hatewatching, and feel that if you go into something expecting to dislike it, you’re not likely to learn anything from the experience. But when it comes to the Current Projects, sometimes my life is a sequence of touching a hot stove, burning my hand, hearing someone say “I’ll pay you fifty bucks to touch it again,” and then doing exactly that.
I’ve had difficulty getting into visual novels in the past. I started with Katawa Shoujo, which in retrospect probably gave me some unfortunate preconceptions about the medium at large. I know VN aficionados likely see Katawa Shoujo as an “entry level” piece, but it’s not a bad thing to possess qualities that makes your art accessible to a wider audience. And in Katawa Shoujo’s case, those qualities seem to be things like pacing, a believable interior voice, dialogue that sounds like human beings, and stories that respect the reader’s time and investment.
My experiences since then have been somewhat less positive.
Why It Works: The Rolling Hills of Morioh
Time for my second Crunchyroll column! This time I take a stab at JoJo, investigating its art design and love of horror classics and all that good stuff. Morioh is a wonderfully terrible place.
Why It Works: The Rolling Hills of Morioh
Wandering Son – Episode 4
Episode four opens with another perfect venue for body-related insecurity – swimming class. The light-filtered outlines that give Wandering Son such a storybook feel are here perfectly suited to evoking the summer heat, as Nitori watches Takatsuki fretting over his very visible body. But more than emphasizing the unhappiness we already know, this scene mostly serves to demonstrate that all of these students are struggling with the disappointments of their uncovered selves. Chi’s friend Momoko articulates this directly, as she bemoans her lack of “womanly” features while stuck between Chi and Takatsuki. And Takatsuki is isolated in the frame, positioned first as stuck in the spotlight above his laughing peers before he retreats to the only place he can, deep beneath the eyes of his classmates.