recaps

Yurikuma Arashi Recap – Episode 3: “The Invisible Storm”

The moment of truth.

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Beforethoughts

I considered dragging out the tension like an extended drumroll (durarararara…), but instead, let’s spend the last half of the post talking references and the first half talking personal reaction, which is this: I’m sticking with Yurikuma Arashi. I wasn’t sure if I would last week, but this episode assuaged a lot of my fears and gave me hope (and some outright confirmation) that my initial readings of this show weren’t completely off the mark. There’s still plenty of time for Ikuhara to step on a land mine and blow this whole, crazy experiment to the Moon Kingdom, but it’s looking slightly less likely that that’s going to happen, at least.

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Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 71-72

Sailor Moon: Encouraging you to quit your crappy job since 1993!

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No week with an Ami episode can ever be a bad week. Throw in some villain redemption and a climax revolving (literally) around a black muthafuggin hole, and we got ourselves a recipe for a good old-fashioned Sailor Moon Romp.

So let’s get right to it.

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Yurikuma Arashi Recap – Episode 2: “I Will Never Forgive You”

Creepiest. Harem. Ever.

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Beforethoughts

I had the same relationship with Episode 2 of Yurikuma that I had with Episode 1: On my first viewing I felt deeply uncomfortable and incredibly wary about writing about it. But after some thought, a second viewing, and a little bit of online research, I became invested in the series again.

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Yurikuma Arashi Recap – Episode 1: “Never Back Down on Love”

From the director of Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena comes a show about magical bears, invisible storms, and some of the least subtle imagery in anime history.

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So I’d planned on doing weekly posts on Yurikuma Arashi this season, and as of right now that’s still happening. This first episode was concerning in a lot of ways, but also pretty darn fascinating, so it’s not as if I don’t have a lot to talk about. Besides, I’m a huge fan of Ikuhara’s past works (Utena is both a masterpiece and my all-time favorite anime, and I quite liked Penguindrum, for all its flaws), so he gets at least a few episodes to prove to me that he knows what he’s doing.

I really hope he knows what he’s doing.

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Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 67-68

It’s a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey kind of day in the Mooniverse.

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Okay, so I take back my earlier rant about how we’d have to wait 20 episodes to find out what’s going on with Chibiusa. The creative team didn’t string us along for very long at all, and we pretty much have all the gaps filled in at this point. Now all that’s left is for Usagi to take down the baddies, save the future, and rescue the Queen. Who is, um… herself. This probably won’t cause any gaping rifts in the space-time continuum. Probably.

But first: Dinosaurs?

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Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 65-66

Better late than never, no?

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Delayed SM post this week, courtesy of the hectic holiday season. (Note that I announce these delays in the Chirp-o-sphere, so if you ever notice something isn’t coming out when it’s supposed to, you can check there for more info.) It was a fun week, with some subtle plot bombs and slightly varied character dynamics—all good things, really—but in the interest of getting this out before the end of the weekend (I’m typing this during the, like, three-hour window between parties and chores), I’m going to unleash my little-used superpower: EXTREME BREVITY. Prepare yourself, Kakarot!

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Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 61-62

Huh. So apparently the “R” stands for “Rage-induced table-flipping.”

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These past couple weeks I’ve been merging my reactions with my recaps, and I actually like the way it flows better (it’s also helped me to keep these a little shorter and write them a little faster), so we’re going to try that for a while longer and see how it works out. If you’re not a fan of the new format, let me know and I’ll consider shifting back to the old way, but hopefully this works just fine.

And on that note—to the recaps! The angry, angry recaps.

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Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 59-60

And so as one Sailor Moon aRc ends, another begins…

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And no, we do NOT have time for a retrospective! There was FAR too much happening this week. So I’ll cover my reactions as we go, with my usual blend of exaggeration and irreverence. But don’t let my cheekiness fool you: I quite enjoyed both episodes this week, and I’m looking forward to telling you kids all about it.

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