anime

GANGSTA. – Episode 6: “Thorn”

This week’s forecast: Cloudy with a chance of bigotry.

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Maaaan, but GANGSTA can be mighty bleak sometimes. I’m not complaining, mind you, as it does “pensive and faintly tragic” exceptionally well, but there were moments that were so quietly, matter-of-factly sad that the sky wasn’t the only thing that felt like crying. This really isn’t a show interested in making you want to go out and raise some hell in Ergastulum in the way that, say, Black Lagoon or Baccano did; it knows its world is deeply broken, and it makes that emphatically clear to its audience.

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Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 128-129

It’s ‘bout to get Sailor Moon SuperSurreal up in here.

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The comments after last week’s S finale were almost entirely about how divisive this new season is among fans, which oddly enough made me even MORE stoked to watch it. Where will I fall on the SuperScale? Will I enjoy this arc warts and all? Or despise it with the fires of a thousand suns?

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My Love Story!! – Episode 18: “My Birthday”

Sweet sixteen and never been kissed?

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I considered doing this entire post in nothing but reaction gifs, partly just to see if I could (writing exercise, y’all!) and partly because a series of squeeing, laughing, and blushing faces is a perfect summary of what “My Birthday” did to me.

I’ve said before that OreMono is more than “just” a cute rom-com—it has worthwhile things to say and it generally says them very well. But lest we forget, episodes like this are around to remind us that, at the end of the day, OreMono is still very much a cute rom-com, which means that outside of all its thoughtful gender role commentary and genre-defying story lines, it is, first and foremost, a show that wants to make you feel things. It wants to make you root for its couple, and it wants to make you laugh. And speaking purely in terms of those goals, this is one of OreMono’s best episodes to date.

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Snow White with the Red Hair: Episode 5 – “This Path”

All work and no play makes Snow White a sleepy girl.

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This seems to be the week where I start my posts by praising the production, so let’s go ahead and do that, because Snow White deserves plenty of accolades for what it’s managed to accomplish over five weeks. Successfully adapting a work is no easy task (although studio BONES has one of the better track records in that respect, despite some hit-and-miss anime-original endings), but having read this far into the manga, I can say with zero reservations that Director Ando and his creative team have not only produced an anime that surpasses the source material, but have done it in a way that makes it look darn near effortless.

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GANGSTA. – Episode 5: “Sanctions”

Consider my production complaints temporarily revoked.

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Hot damn, did this episode look good. Thanks to some fluid fight sequences, gorgeous shot selection, and snappy camera movement, “Sanctions” maintained tension and excitement without sacrificing coherency or thematic unity to do it. The scenes flowed from action to exposition more-or-less seamlessly, mixing the clash of swords into the background to remind us what was happening just off-screen, and even the music caught my ear in a good way thanks to a slow, jazzy piano number that merged the violence on-screen with the undercurrent of tragedy that’s present even during the show’s most high-octane moments.

So, yeah. I liked the look of this one a whole helluva lot.

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Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 126-127 (S Finale)

Well, whaddaya know. All this time, and it turns out the S stood for samsara.

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Unlike the past two seasons, where the villain was defeated and all loose ends wrapped up in a whiplash-inducing 22 minutes, this time around Sailor Moon takes a hefty chunk of time to give us a proper denouement. It’s arguably too much time, but if it means I get a chance to digest the finale and say long goodbyes to some friends, then I don’t much mind. Plus I can keep the recaps short and cram a season retrospective in at the very end, and that’s always a nice bonus, too.

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My Love Story!! – Episode 17: “My Christmas”

Add another episode to your Anime Club’s Holiday Party Watch List!

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I always find it kind of awkward when shows have holiday episodes nowhere near the actual holiday. Presumably the original manga for this one was first published around December as a nice little single-chapter seasonal story, but the anime doesn’t have that luxury, so here we are with August on the horizon and nary a Christmas tree in sight. Ah, well. It’s not as if Director Asaka could’ve skipped it, given that it features Actual Plot Points, so I’ll just have to shake off my sense of seasonal disconnect and do my best to talk about the episode as-is.

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Snow White with the Red Hair: Episode 4 – “From the Small Hand”

These anime characters keep handling their problems like reasonable adults. It’s very confusing.

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I was working on a short blurb for a compilation post and it ballooned into 500+ words, so I appear to have at least tentatively committed to blogging Snow White with the Red Hair this season, too. Surprise! Monday nights are a little hectic for me, but I’ll try to get these up within 24 hours of the original airing—Tuesday evening at the very latest. As always, I’ll let you know via Twitter if that ever changes.

Also as always, these posts assume you’ve seen the episode under discussion, so I’ll be mentioning specific plot points and character beats. Also, no manga spoilers in the comments, please! I’ve read a little bit but other readers haven’t, so let’s be courteous to them in our discussions. Thanks! Now hit the jump for lovely art and even lovelier people.

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GANGSTA. – Episode 4: “Noncomformist”

Brown and grey and read all over. Screenshot_2015-07-23-18-06-40 I keep wanting to talk to people about this show, so it looks like GANGSTA has made my episode blog schedule. FUNImation is still being delightfully unclear about its actual release date (their schedule says Sunday but the last two episodes have come out at various times on Wednesday), and since my mid-week schedule is already packed with My Love Story and Sailor Moon, I’m shooting for Saturday posts at this point. I’ll let you know via Twitter if that changes.

[EDIT: Thanks to some broadcasting delays, it looks like GANGSTA will in fact be a Sunday show from now on. Fingers crossed that doesn’t change again.]

For those just now coming in, I did a Premiere Post and a Rule of Three as well, so feel free to catch up on those before diving into this one. Also, as with all my episode posts, it’s assumed you’ve seen the episode under discussion. I haven’t read the manga, though, so there won’t be any spoilers for that, and I’d ask that commenters refrain from discussing anything in the manga (even “they left out X,” as they could work it in later) for the sake of both myself and other readers. Thanks! Now hit the jump for an Episode 4 rundown. Continue reading →

Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 124-125

I hope you brought your camping gear, ‘cause these episodes are IN TENTS.

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Wow, but this was a really good week for Sailor Moon. A slightly less good week for my emotions, but hey, when you’ve got two episodes stuffed with possessions, schemes, battles, “deaths,” tender reunions, redemptions, evil universes, and apocalyptic battles, it’s bound to be a bit trying on the ol’ FeelBox. (Only… don’t think too hard about the plot. Everything works great on a character- and engagement-level, but the sciency magic is mostly nonsense, a backdrop in front of which our protagonists can struggle. Just roll with it.)

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