Tag Archives: Anime

.hack//Legend of the Twilight – Review

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Holy crap was this show bad. SUPER bad. Nearly entirely without merit, in fact. That didn’t stop me from good-naturedly trying to sift its dregs for even mild praise, but man, what a waste of time this turned out to be. This one basically just used the .hack universe as an excuse to be the stereotype of anime that people who don’t like anime apply to all anime. Silly episodic nonsense, incest, bobble-headed characters, gay panic jokes, a trite and ridiculous storyline, the whole nine yards. Please, please, please stay far away from this one.

Here’s my full review if you want to hear even more lurid tales of narrative failure. And you can check out my sad, resigned notes below!

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Growing Up is Hard to Do: Oregairu and Hachiman

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Alright, big ol’ essay time! This one’s all about Oregairu, and Hachiman more specifically. I could honestly write a piece about almost any of that show’s characters, but Hachiman sits at the center, and his issues are partially reflective of everyone’s. Where his attitude comes from, how it gets expressed, how Oregairu slowly drags him forward – we’re talking about ALL OF IT today. Let’s get right to it!

Growing Up is Hard to Do

Oregairu

Spring 2015 – Week 11 in Review

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The lack of BBB made for a noticeably lighter week this time, considering I’m only watching seven shows, but JoJo stepped up to the action plate with one of its all-time best and also most ridiculous episodes. Those two things aren’t necessarily the same, either – there were plenty of Stardust Crusaders episodes that, while they were certainly ridiculous, simply weren’t that exciting. No sense of danger, and more just wacky and nonsensical than “goddamnit JoJos that solution is ridiculous.” Here, like with the best of Battle Tendency, the absurdity came from the contrast between the heavy, consistent stakes and the wild, ridiculous execution and solutions. It…

Wait, hold on, JoJo’s gonna get its own section anyway. Alright, let’s get right to that then, and RUN ‘EM DOWN.

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Sound! Euphonium – Episode 11

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Things got tense this week as the show wound its way to Kousaka and Kaori’s trumpet rematch. We got a bunch of great scenes between almost all the big character pairs, some gorgeous outdoor shots and great use of lighting in general, and one more scene that was more romantically charged than anything in friggin’ Ore Monogatari!!, nevermind Nagato Yuki. Hell, this was more romantically charged than anything in Hyouka. It was practically more charged than anything in Spice and Wolf. This show isn’t fucking around, or maybe it is fucking around, and if it is that’s just a shame for the show itself. These characters deserve better than to be used as overt bait, especially considering how much the show otherwise respects them as people. Hopefully things will work out okay in the end.

Anyway, here’s my full post on the piece, that goes deep on plenty of the characters. And lots of notes below!

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Oregairu S2 – Episode 11

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This week, we finally got something that I’ve actually been hoping for for a while – a Hayato focus episode. Hayato’s a compelling character who’s very different from the majority of the cast, so it was nice to see him given some time in the spotlight. And I definitely made the most of it in my writeup – yeah, other stuff happened, but this was Hayato’s day goddamnit! Though I do somewhat regret not being able to also highlight Iroha’s top-tier trolling this time, from interrupting Yukino’s birthday part in order to ask her about rumors to doing that ridiculous slow motion arm-flip run towards Hachiman. Iroha is pretty good.

Here’s my Hayatotastic ANN review. Notes below!

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The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan – Episode 11

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Another surprisingly very good episode of Nagato Yuki-chan! This one even managed the noteworthy feat of respecting the huge shift of last week’s episode while giving the show a very steady path forward. The key here was the fact that all three of our protagonists reacted to Nagato’s shift in both understandable and reasonable fashion, not drawing out artificial drama but also making the most of the drama that does exist. Nagato’s behavior in particular was pretty heartbreaking, but her friends being both reasonable and anxious in their own ways worked very well. Where the hell did this show come from.

Here’s my full ANN post. Notes below!

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Sound! Euphonium – Episode 10

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Another extremely strong episode of Euphonium this week, though I know many people were understandably disappointed. Personally, I agree that the framing so far has seemed really supportive of some kind of romantic tension between Kumiko and Kousaka, but as long as the storytelling stays this good, I’m pretty fine with wherever this all goes. All I know is this episode made terrific use of all the character development so far, playing the characters against the main ideas in a way that felt natural and dramatically satisfying. Euphonium continues to impress.

Here’s my big ol’ episode post. And lots of notes below!

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Spring 2015 – Week 10 in Review

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Another very fine week in a very fine season. Oregairu and Euphonium both pulled off characteristically wonderful episodes this week, but the real surprises were JoJo and – I’m serious – Nagato Yuki. On the JoJo side, the Dio-Kakyoin fight managed to not only be exciting and entertaining, but genuinely beautiful. And on the Nagato Yuki side, an abrupt shift in tone resulted in an episode that was almost equally beautiful in its own way, slow-building and melancholy and just brimming with a compelling, deeply felt sense of atmosphere. Color me extremely surprised!

Alright, enough preamble. LET’S RUN ‘EM DOWN.

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Oregairu S2 – Episode 10

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We had a lighter episode this week, as the student council issues essentially worked themselves out now that the emotional issues tying all these characters down were cleared up. It was great to see the whole team working together again, with the scenes from the halfway point onward all demonstrating the stuff that was initially so appealing about this show. Hikki and Yukino have a great conversational dynamic, and Iroha’s become a pretty natural extension of the whole group. The characters are able to honestly express that they care about each other now, meaning it feels a lot less stifling just watching them interact. It’s just rewarding to spend time with these characters now.

Anyway. Here’s my more thorough thoughts on the key scenes, and you can find my notes below!

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The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan – Episode 10

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Aw shit, stuff actually happened this week! Like, BIG stuff! Not “this retroactively justifies me watching an entire season of a low quality slice of life” big, but certainly “wow, this episode was really rewarding for its own sake” big. The execution just really, really stepped up for this episode’s Big Shift, and the result was one of the more effectively moody episodes I’ve seen in a long time. Great work, Nagato Yuki team.

Alright, that’s enough beating around the big spoiler this week. Here’s my full ANN post, and you can check out (spoiler-filled, of course) notes below.

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