Episode six of Hyouka is very nearly a bottle episode – an episode where every scene takes place within the same room. Episodes like this used to be born of budgetary necessity; nowadays, they’re more often used as an intentional dramatic gimmick, as in shows like Community or Breaking Bad. Of course, this episode isn’t really self-consciously trying to do some structural trick with that; this is Hyouka, it’s all about small moments, and even episodes that aren’t exactly bottle episodes generally use a sparse economy of settings. This show is about tiny events that are nonetheless important, and spaces that contain great import in spite of their everyday nature.
Tag Archives: Anime
Fall 2015 – Week 12 in Review
I don’t tend to enjoy writing negative stuff. If I can make some kind of upbeat game or challenge out of it, like I did when writing about Strike Witches or Dragonar Academy, it can be pretty okay – but when it’s just a grim reporting of disappointment and failure, continuing week after week, that’s just the saddest kind of writing. I like being enthusiastic about stuff, and sharing that enthusiasm with people, and lately it’s been feeling like my week in review posts are just too dang negative. But like all good critics, I’m going to remain confident the problem isn’t with me, it’s with the media. I’m just watching too many bad shows! I’ve got bad shows I’m watching on contract and bad shows I’m watching on faith and mediocre shows I’m watching for their occasional glimmers of greatness. If not for all these bad shows, everything would be fine.
So yeah, I’m looking forward to next season. The only show I’ll really be sad to see go is Owarimonogatari, and that one ended so well that I can’t even complain (plus hey, Kizu’s on its way). Other than that, this shambling collections of rejects and ne’er-do-wells can just shuffle on into the past, and we can embrace a whole new collection of anime hopes and dreams. Plus I’ll be posting my top ten shows of the year about a week from now, and it doesn’t really get more positive than that! This cloud shall pass, but for now, let’s take a somewhat skeptical look back at this week’s shows and RUN ‘EM DOWN.
Owarimonogatari – Episode 12
Owari is done and Owari is good. It honestly took until this episode for me to really feel that Owari was on par with second season, but yeah. It’s there. Maybe we didn’t get an entire Kaiki arc or Medusa Nadeko, but Sodachi’s story was wonderful, and these last two episodes have been overwhelmingly good. Such great conversations all through this episode, with characters ranging from Senjougahara to Kanbaru to even Yotsugi getting great little bits. Even Araragi was excellent in this arc, demonstrating some of the most consistent growth and true strength of character he’s displayed all show. This season was another triumph, and I now feel even more confident in Monogatari succeeding all the way to the ending. It continues to demonstrate why it’s one of my favorite shows.
You can check out my supersized review over here, or my notes down below!
Hyouka – Episode 5
Hyouka’s fifth episode opens with one more of the series’ most iconic sequences (directed and storyboarded by Yoshiji Kigami, in what would be his single largest contribution to the series – though he’s done plenty of other excellent work). Oreki and Satoshi head back from Chitanda’s in the rain, with Satoshi once again needling Oreki about his inconsistent actions. “You had your chance to escape,” he says, this time moving beyond “you’ve made a mistake relative to your persona” to “you really are interested in Chitanda, aren’t you?” And as the rain begins to stop, Oreki turns back to Satoshi, and for once doesn’t disagree.
The Perfect Insider – Episode 11
And so The Perfect Insider comes to an end. This episode was pretty much of a piece with the last one – more meaningless pseudo-philosophy from our resident pseudo-geniuses, more glum reflections on how this entire show has essentially been yanking my chain. There were definitely nice moments here, though – the whole thing looked perfectly nice (I’m still totally cool with this show’s subdued color palette), and the long conversation between Moe and Souhei was actually pretty great. But basically every Magata moment was a chore, and there were a lot of Magata moments. Congratulations, Perfect Insider. You really had me going there.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.
Hyouka – Episode 4
Episode four opens with another idyllic after-school scene. Classes are out, kids are leaving the gate, and Chitanda and Oreki are walking home in that classic sepia light.
It’s not a particularly climactic moment, but it’s reflective of something I find kinda generally interesting about Hyouka – in comparison to most shows, it feels like Hyouka uses shot transitions almost as “paragraph breaks.” A sequence of shots sets a scene, and then a couple jump transitions move into a conversation. Two characters reach some agreement in a conversation, and then the shots reset for their next engagement.
Beautiful Bones – Episode 11
Just let this show end. Let it end. Let it die. Set me free.
Here are some pictures of Hector. Hector is good. This show is bad.
Dragonar Academy – Review
Yeah yeah, laugh it up. Clearly I had so much fun reviewing Strike Witches’ first episode that I needed a full series dose of High Quality Anime. Dragonar Academy was roughly as terrible as you’d imagine it to be, possessing essentially no redeeming factors whatsoever. It earns the distinct honor of being the worst full series I’ve ever reviewed for ANN, beating out such luminaries as the Bayonetta movie, Looking Up at the Half-Moon, and .hack//Legend of the Twilight. Congratulations, Dragonar Academy. You are basically as bad as a show can be.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my despairing notes below.
Fall 2015 – Week 11 in Review
This week in anime wasn’t the best, I’m sad to say. My reliable favorites were reliable-to-great, but… well, there are only two of those. And everything else kinda let me down. I feel like I’ve more or less set myself up for disappointment this season – instead of accepting that it’s a bad season and relying wholly on backlist shows to get me through, I’ve basically just assumed a handful of shows are permanently in “dud episodes” and keep feeling disappointed when they consistently prove their dud episodes are actually just their normal episodes. It’s no way to live, frankly, and I don’t actually know if next season offers any escape – considering how tentative my excitement is for basically everything on my preview list, it seems pretty likely that Monogatari and Iron-Blooded Orphans will be next season’s best shows, too.
But I don’t mean to depress you. Even if this week’s shows were bad (and even when it comes to what I was reviewing for ANN, they were), that doesn’t mean I don’t have stuff to say about ’em. And hey, not every show tripped on its face – in fact, Owarimonogatari pulled off an episode that I’d probably count among the best of the year. So let’s put on a brave face, assume a stiff upper lip, and contort your muscles in any other way you feel appropriate as we RUN ‘EM DOWN.
Rokka, Episodes 1-4 – Review
I finally got my hands on one of those wacky Ponycan releases! Their packaging is indeed very strange, and it looks like I’m going to have to store it sideways above my shelf or something, but unfortunately the show itself wasn’t quite as interesting. Rokka has a great first episode, but man does it ever tumble after that. I wouldn’t even be against it shifting from action-adventure to slow-burning getting-to-know-you episodes in the abstract – that annoyed me the first time I watched it, but this time I knew what to expect. The real problem is that the actual dialogue is just so very, very bad. If you’re gonna make a character-focused fantasy piece, you really gotta sell those characters!
Anyway. You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!