summer 2015

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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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 →

Rule of Three Review: SCHOOL-LIVE – Episodes 2-3

Surviving high school just got a whole lot messier.

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Normally I try to keep these posts free of major spoilers, but there’s no real way to discuss this show without mentioning The Reveal that happens at the end of the first episode. If you have no clue what I’m talking about and don’t want to have it spoiled for you, then go sit through the first episode (available on Crunchyroll) and come back. Otherwise hit the jump for a story I sure didn’t see coming.

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My Love Story!! – Episode 16: “My Disciple”

At this point, My Love Story isn’t just setting the bar for rom-com excellence—it’s beating its own darn records.

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About halfway through this episode, when Takeo was agonizing over how he could get Yamato to understand she didn’t need to worry about him leaving her for someone else, I scribbled in my notes: “Takeo’s problem is he keeps talking about how people feel toward HIM rather than how HE feels toward Yamato.” It’s the kind of thought I’d usually have about a rom-com that would either never get addressed in-series, or get addressed indirectly 5-10 episodes down the line after Such Drama, Very Tears.

OreMono, though? OreMono tackles it head-on within 22 beautiful minutes.

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Rule of Three Review, Fantasy Digest: Rokka, Snow White with the Red Hair – Episodes 2-3

The magic is here in more ways in than one.

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Lush backgrounds, slowly building stories, ever-expanding casts, romantic (sub?)plots—all in a day’s work for a fantasy anime. Hit the jump for one Mesoamerican-inspired epic and one relaxing fairy tale.

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Rule of Three Review, High School Digest: Classroom☆Crisis, Charlotte

Class is in session. Er, sort of.

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To say these are two series that take place at high schools is technically true but also incredibly misleading. These are no realistic YA tales à la last season’s Sound! Euphonium or SNAFU. No, one is soft sci-fi series at a corporate engineering academy; the other, a supernatural School for (Slightly) Gifted Youngsters. Both have steady hands at the helm, and both have surprised me with their charms. Hit the jump to take a walk around the campuses and see if either is a good fit for you.

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Rule of Three Review: Chaos Dragon – Episodes 2-3

You hear that? It’s the sound of whatever critical reputation I may have had flying merrily out the window.

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Let’s get one thing straight: Chaos Dragon is not a good anime. It is a convoluted mess of fantasy rules, characters, powers, and political factions. A lot of those elements are at least kind of interesting and some are even pretty different from your usual fantasy fare, and if this series had had two cour instead of one, it might have been able to make all this work.

As it is, we’re having pro- and antagonists alike introduced in a flurry of special powers and absurdly complicated JRPG-style costumes, only to have them vanish again in 30 minutes or less. Similarly, important world-building details and sociopolitical schemes get explained in a blur of exposition that results in everything carrying about the same weight, which is to say, very little at all. (But hey, there is a dragon, and the writing is chaos, so give this one credit for truth in advertising at least.)

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Rule of Three Review, Boys’ Club Digest: Ushio & Tora, Rampo Kitan – Episodes 2-3

It’s all fun and games until someone gets turned into a chair.

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These two shows have exactly one thing in common, which is a male-dominated cast. Okay, two things: Both are pretty visually striking. Okay, three things: They both like to put damsels in distress, although even then the way they do it is pretty dramatically different. Past that, though, Ushitora and Rampo couldn’t be less similar, so it’s no wonder my reactions to the two are kinda disparate, too. Hit the jump to hang with the guys and see whose company is most welcome.

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