Tag Archives: Anime

Dagashi Kashi – Episode 10

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Dagashi Kashi pulled off a strong episode this week, sticking largely to its slice of life comfort zone while also peppering its one core concept with lots of nice incidental gags. There were good Hotaru faces and nice interactions between the friends and plenty of dagashi shenanigans to be had. Dagashi Kashi doesn’t have to be flashy to succeed, and when it does work, it’s a very likable show. It’s not going to win any awards or break any hearts, but it’s a fun series that I’ve enjoyed my time with.

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

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 2

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Madoka Magica slows down in its second episode, as all that exposition stuff the first one avoided gets woven in with our formal introduction to Kyubey and Mami Tomoe. The episode is less overtly thrilling until its (tiro) finale, but that’s partially the point. There are consistent repeated shots and sequences here, from the moment Madoka turns before “waking up” to the various shots and full scenes used to represent her daily life. The show is establishing an initial sense of normalcy, and beyond that, how Madoka feels about her normalcy. This is a safe, pleasant, and relatively empty world – a world that demands little, but doesn’t offer Madoka much of an identity.

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The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls, S1 – Review

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I apparently just can’t help myself with the dang idols, so I went back and took another look at Cinderella Girls. This show’s early material pretty much confirmed my first impression – the early episodes here are awkward, and the first major conflict kind of undercooked. On top of that, the aesthetic magic that made the original so unimpeachably solid is in large part missing here. Fortunately, the second half of this season pulls together fairly well, and at this point I already know the second season will be even more of an improvement. Cinderella Girls is a scrappy one, but it works out in the end

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

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Dagashi Kashi – Episode 9

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Editor: Woops! I apparently forgot to post this last week, so here it is.

And making it an even three for three, this week’s third episodic review show also had a pretty lousy episode. This one was lousy in a way I’ve come to expect from Dagashi Kashi, though – it tried to be funny the whole time, and Dagashi Kashi isn’t particularly funny, and so that didn’t turn out well. The show stretched what were essentially four simple jokes out across the four segments that composed the episode, making me feel as exhausted as Kokonotsu by the end. It’s kind of unfortunate when a show is so totally confident in a strength it just doesn’t possess.

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

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Active Raid – Episode 11

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Active Raid had a relatively successful but also kinda bland episode this week, moving its pieces towards the end without much flair or energy. But that’s kind of the deal here – Active Raid has very rarely been an actually good show, it’s basically always just been a reasonably competent one. I never mind watching it, but also never feel legitimately invested in it. The giant robot episode was quite good, most of Rin’s material has been excellent, and that episode focused on Miho was also solid – outside of that, it’s just kind of a thing you can watch. Hopefully next season offers enough legitimately strong contenders that something like Active Raid’s bare competence wouldn’t put it near the top of the pack.

You can check out my full review over at ANN. No notes this time, I just watched this episode straight through!

Active Raid

ERASED – Episode 11

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ERASED was definitely much better this week, though a performance like last episode isn’t something a show can really recover from. I get into it in my review, but ultimately, it feels like ERASED would have been better off just not having a serial killer at all. The cat and mouse stuff in both timelines is almost uniformly worse than the rest of the show’s material, and the show doesn’t actually need a killer for this story to work. But either way, this episode was relatively low-key and full of nice character moments, so it falls in the good column even if it also included a speech about murdering hamsters. You take what you can get.

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

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Winter 2016 – Week 10 in Review

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Well I guess some weeks have to be disasters. A couple of the shows I’m watching were fine this week, but there were some real terrible episodes in there, and one in particular… I don’t even know what to say. It’s pretty rare that a generally excellent show completely sets itself on fire just a few episodes before the end, but here we are. This is what we got. So let’s get right into it.

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Garzey’s Wing – Episode 1

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Why. Why would you have me watch this. What are you trying to prove.

I sit down after having watched the first episode of Garzey’s Wing and think “how should I write about this, in a tactical sense?” Not in the sense that I’m having difficulty thinking of an angle to take it from – in the sense that I want to write a piece that is just funny enough so that you people feel you’ve gotten your money’s worth, while not funny enough to tempt any of you assholes to pay for another one. This show is terrible.

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 1

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Note: it’s pretty much impossible to fully discuss Madoka without getting into some spoilers, so be aware that later events will occasionally be referenced in these writeups!

Considering its placement on my top shows list, it would not be presumptuous to say I’m probably a fan of Madoka Magica. I’ve watched the show several times, and enjoyed it more each time; I’ve written a rambling essay on its film sequel that only touched on the things I loved about the show proper. It seems perhaps slightly unwise to jump from a project as ambitious as Hyouka right into something I’m as attached to as Madoka, but this whole Wrong Every Time experiment has been a series of unwise decisions, so here we are. Let’s get right into it.

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ERASED – Episode 10

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Noooooo. Nooooooooo. Noooooo o o o o o ooo.

ERASED did it. It did the worst thing it could do, and it did it bad. Holy crap this episode. What a mess.

I’m so sad. This show was really good. Why would it do this.

noooooooo

review here, losing-it notes below

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