The Lost Village – Episode 10

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Welp, any fears that The Lost Village would get more coherent as it moved towards its conclusion were pretty much put to rest this week. The theme here seemed to be “let’s do every single reveal at once, thus rendering them all meaningless.” It was a bold and characteristically Lost Village tactic, and it worked like gangbusters – nothing here made sense, none of it had any impact, Mikage and Lovepon better sort this shit out. If The Lost Village doesn’t come down to a climactic battle between Lovepon and Koharun, I will be deeply disappointed.

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

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Goodnight Punpun – Volume 1

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Solanin is a story about young adulthood, written by Inio Asano at the point when he was experiencing the feelings he was transcribing. It’s a great story, but it is very much about that moment – that specific kind of freedom, that specific kind of fear. A Girl on the Shore is similarly concerned with the specific emotions of a listless, emotionally deadened adolescence, and that story ends when its exact emotional moment concludes.

Goodnight Punpun is a work that seems to be striving for true emotional universality. And so Goodnight Punpun is about a bird.

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Spring 2016 – Week 9 in Review

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Anime held pretty darn steady this week. In a season this strong, I’m not forced to watch shows that I have to pray for every week – the only inconsistent show I’m watching is Kiznaiver, and even that has established a really strong rhythm over the last several episodes. Concrete Revolutio had a very rich episode this week, and Flying Witch continued to make strong use of the magical cafe for fantasy and humor. Luluco was crap, but hey, Luluco’s been crap for a few weeks now, even that’s not a surprise. I’ve still got plenty (of Conrevo) to discuss though, so let’s start with the conclusion of Koichi’s whirlwind romance and RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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Gankutsuou – Episode 1

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There are a number of angles you could use to approach Gankutsuou. You could talk about the studio, Gonzo, although that conversation would end roughly where it begins – Gonzo have barely created a handful of noteworthy shows over their career, and Gankutsuou’s director isn’t particularly tied to that studio. You could talk about that director, Mahiro Maeda, whose career has spanned early Studio Ghibli, a variety of guest positions on shows as varied as Giant Robo and Kill la Kill, and who has seemingly joined many frustratingly talented creators at that great Studio Khara in the sky.

Or you could talk about the fact that Gankutsuou actually has source material.

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Flying Witch – Episode 8

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Flying Witch really made the most of its new setting this week, letting a sequence of unexpected cafe patrons import all the charm and whimsy an episode could need. I think the first sequence with the ladybugs must have been my favorite – the combination of Anzu’s nonplussed “oh yeah, they come here on dates a lot” and her mother’s greeting being returned with little wing-waves was just perfectly understated comedy material. But the vast majority of the material here landed well, so all I can really complain about are a couple moments of oversold jokes. Flying Witch is good stuff.

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

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Kiznaiver – Episode 8

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Kiznaiver’s eighth episode couldn’t match the ridiculous highs of the seventh, but I wasn’t really expecting it to. It was still a very respectable episode suffused with a strong sense of atmosphere, elevated by Kiznaiver’s reliably terrific direction and sound design. The show would be in classic territory if its writing were just a bit sharper, but as is, it’s still a very respectable character drama with a variety of noteworthy strengths. I continue to be thrilled with the prospect of this director having a long career ahead of him.

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

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The Lost Village – Episode 9

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The Lost Village continues to be hoeing the difficult road of simultaneously working as a weird self-destructive comedy and actual narrative, but I’d say it held the course pretty effectively this week. I was actually thinking Hayato was going to become something of the audience surrogate in the episode’s first half, and then suddenly his backstory knocked him straight over onto the Lovepon track. The unfortunate thing about horror mysteries is they eventually have to resolve, and making sense would only make The Lost Village worse, but I think its resolution is still keeping things funny enough to be a lot of fun. What a weird show this is.

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

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A Silent Voice, Volume 6 – Review

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A Silent Voice just continues to be intimate and painful and heartfelt and all that juicy feely-weely stuff that kills me every time. This sixth volume actually pulled one of my favorite dramatic tricks, something I maybe first fell in love with while watching Evangelion – drawing back from the overt narrative momentum in order to spend some time exploring each individual character, and giving their own internal world the time and respect it deserves. Shoya’s fall is a perfect moment to cut the drama short, and the results are as consistently enlightening as they are heartbreaking. A Silent Voice is the best manga I’m reading, and dear lord does the upcoming movie ever have a high ceiling.

You can check out my in-depth review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!

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Planetes – Episode 3

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Early on in this episode, Tanabe challenges Hachimaki on his dreams of finding love, asking “why are all your fantasies like something out of a comic book?” It’s a funny line coming from her, considering their usual relationship – while Hachi is fundamentally a dreamer, he buries that nature under years of defensive cynicism. Tanabe, on the other hand, is all optimism and love and roses – she might think she’s more practical and mature than her lazy teammate, but her confidence and drive lack the tempering of experience. She is in Optimism Stage One, optimism untested by the harshness of the adult vacuum. And in this episode, that optimism runs up against one more frank reality of adult living – the fact that everyone dies.

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Space Battleship Yamato 2199 – Episode 1

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I don’t really have any personal experience with Space Battleship Yamato, but that doesn’t mean I can’t acknowledge its influence. The original show came out in the mid-70s, and is credited for at least partially heralding a new anime boom, where shows specifically aimed at children were now joined by dramatic, long-form sci-fi epics courting an older audience. Its true influence might be somewhat disputed (Jonathan Clements, for example, theorizes its influence is so heralded partially because it happened to be in the right genre space to catch the eye of people writing the anime history books, a very reasonable critique), but it’s undeniable that many future creators were inspired by the adventures of the Yamato. Even Hideaki Anno states that the original Space Battleship Yamato is his favorite show, and the reason he initially pursued anime.

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