Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash – Review

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Today I reviewed the season’s other trapped-in-a-fantasy-world show! Grimgar was great, in the end – the show had a wide variety of tiny issues, but none that could really substantially detract from the things it did well. It was lovely to see a show that actually treated one of these worlds as a living space, and treated the things people do there as actions with consequences. From what I’ve heard, a great deal of Grimgar’s merits came down to the excellence of its director, so I’m very eager to see whatever he does next. A great show is one thing, but a show that introduces me to a new artist to follow is even better.

You can check out my full review over at ANN!

Grimgar

Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 5

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Episode five opens with that repeated shot from Kyousuke’s bedside, as the wind blows from the outside world he can’t reach. It’s one of many visual touchstones that Madoka Magica works hard to establish and solidify, giving the show a strong internal vocabulary. The coming scene revels in another of Madoka’s big visual icons; the distinctive profile of Kyubey himself, as Sayaka agrees to make a deal.

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Spring 2016 – First Impressions, Part One

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Preview week has begun! The shows are already starting to pile up, and as usual, I’ve got a bunch of picks and unpicks and first impressions for your approval. The season has sadly not measured up to expectations so far, what with one of my top picks (Mayoiga) turning out to be so-bad-it’s-good and one of my speculative picks (Kumamiko) just turning out straight bad. But I’ve still already got several shows I’m planning to follow up on, and the deluge of shows has only just begun. There’s nothing out yet that I have high hopes of truly loving, but if you’re an action fan, both JoJo and My Hero Academia are sure to please!

Kumamiko

You can check out the full list of shows so far over at ANN, and as usual, I’m including individual links and grades for everything I’ve hit so far below the cut. Happy anime hunting!

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Dagashi Kashi – Episode 12

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Dagashi Kashi concludes with one more in a long series of pleasant but not particularly noteworthy slice of life vignettes, offering about as little of a real conclusion as you’d expect from a show about wasting time on summer break. There were some cute character moments here and there, some light sprinklings of fanservice, and a few final explanations of dagashi trivia to see us out. I suppose Dagashi Kashi ended up occupying my “pleasant fluff” slot this season, and as far as pleasant fluff goes, it did its job perfectly well. I liked the atmosphere this show created, and had a pretty good time throughout.

You can check out my last review over at ANN, or my very minor notes below!

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Texhnolyze – Episode 1

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Texhnolyze certainly has a reputation. The show comes courtesy of one of anime’s great creative supergroups; with a screenplay by Chiaka Konaka, character designs by Yoshitoshi ABe, and Yasuyuki Ueda on board as producer, it features the same core team that gave Serial Experiments Lain such a vivid personality. The three clearly had a strong relationship of some kind; Ueda was actually the producer who first hired ABe (they also worked together on Haibane Renmei), and Konaka and ABe were known as friends as well. Discounting the absence of Ryutaro Nakamura (who directed Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost Hound, and was intending to work on the never-released Despera with ABe and Konaka), you’ve got all the key players of one of the 00s great anime lineups.

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 4

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We all handle grief in different ways. For Madoka and Sayaka, Mami’s absence is like a stifling weight in this episode, pushing each of them in their own unhappy direction. They now know the truth about magical girls, and have some idea of the actual bargain they are making. But knowing the danger won’t be enough to save them from themselves.

The episode opens with Sayaka running from her grief, running to the boy who gives her some sense of stability. But he’s not there for her, and so she can’t escape. Shots of the hospital frame Sayaka as trapped within geometrically impossible rooms with nearly vertical vanishing points, emphasizing how unreal and alienating her world now feels. Like with the witch worlds, Shaft’s tendency towards stark, interpretive backgrounds fits here – in the wake of loss like this, you won’t necessarily recognize the world around you as a place you know. Shots on the elevator position Sayaka as trapped, as her melancholy leads her to blame the same old target – herself.

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Bokurano – Review

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I just learned Bokurano got picked up by Crunchyroll a few days ago, and burned it down for a streaming review pretty much as soon as I knew. Bokurano was already one of my shortlist shows, and it turned out to be even better than I’d hoped – a chilling and heartfelt series of character stories that doubles as a relentlessly paced scifi thriller. It’s really something how well this show brings its broad cast to life. Bokurano is very much a “me” show – like Monogatari and pretty much all of Urobuchi’s works, it posits that the world is a harsh place, but that only means we have to try all the harder to bring hope and charity to it ourselves. Shows like that kinda kill me, but it’s a good feeling.

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

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Winter 2016 – Week 12 in Review

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Most of this season’s anime came to a close this week, leaving just those two oft-compared highlights, Rakugo and Dagashi Kashi, to finish the season alone. ERASED pulled itself together to end with as much dignity as it could, given the circumstances of its villain, while Active Raid similarly felt hamstrung by its own weak antagonist. I almost feel tempted to write an article specifically about antagonists now, because the problems with both those shows were so specific and so centered on the ways they handled their villains. Though of course, that article would then end up spinning out into how an antagonist shouldn’t be something you design independently, and should instead reflect the core themes and conflicts of your narrative, and then we’re all the way back at storytelling step one again. Anyway. Some shows ended this week, some shows didn’t. Let’s crack those knuckles once more and RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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Parasyte, Part One – Review

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This week I went back and took a second look at Parasyte, which still holds up pretty well across its first half. In retrospect, it’s less my kind of show than I would have thought a year ago, but it’s still a fine horror-thriller with a lot of polish. The one glaring weakness is, of course, the music. Parasyte’s music sounds like the kind of noise a robot attempting to imitate the concept of human music would create – grating electronic brips and braps that shift jerkily in some uncanny approximation of tempo and melody. But hey, you can’t win ’em all.

You can check out my full review over at ANN!

One Piece – Volume 4

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One Piece’s fourth volume is action-packed from start to finish, wholly dedicated to the protracted battle between Usopp, his new friends, and the former Captain Kuro. And it’s all very fun stuff! There isn’t necessarily a continuous heightened level of tension throughout these chapters, but there’s certainly plenty of momentum, and no sense that anything is being dragged out. I’d worried in discussing the last volume that Usopp himself would be more aggravating than endearing, but whether it comes down to the speed of manga versus anime or the simple execution of his character, Usopp is actually turning out to be one of the highlights of the manga.

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