“QUOTE OF THE WEEK”
– A viewer walking immediately right back into Dororo’s warm arms after seventeen finished. It was that good.
SEASONAL PRATTLE
Carole & Tuesday (5)
What Carole & Tuesday is competent at; Crisp execution of subtle character dynamics, heartfelt music, and an overall high aptitude for the methodical unraveling of a story, are all present for this episode – slipping back into form after a less than desirable display last week. In an outing positioned around our leads’ first real performance, mood is absolutely vital. The viewer needs to be in the front row, basking in the low key aura of the venue, feeling its lack of attendance, and absorbing energy from the instruments down to the very lyrics itself. Carole and Tuesday are able to accomplish that here without a hitch – the casual vibe, choice of song, vision of the performance and much more, all gifted this episode with the specific keen touch that only new acts can deliver. For that, this latest entry is valuable, bright from the stance of entertainment and admirable in the larger scope of art. Highly looking forward to what’s next.
Attack on Titan S3 part 2 (3)
This third offering is another case of an accumulation of details creating something greater than the sum of its parts. Visceral cogs forged out of raw intimacy spin smoothly early on, encapsulating Marco’s headspace and the reality of his death with tight stitching and proper weight. Episode 3 would further rally from there, balancing the propulsive beats in Bertolt’s involvement and quieter informative ones masked in conversation. The results are yet another strong showing that presents enough gravity to keep you in your seat but also puts meat on the bone both for its narrative and key characters. A very fine one-two punch and treat.
Hitoribocchi no ○○ Seikatsu (6)
HitoriBocchi pushes on in its usual light-hearted ways with another episode that prioritizes its genre’s mechanical wants and needs above anything else. With that, we have a very sound emotional floor to work off of: Hitori herself acts as a firehose for this week’s particular batch of gentle beats as she works her screentime surrounding the haiku bits very well early on, and that energy would flow right over to the rest of the cast – especially Sensei and her corresponding misunderstandings that lent this episode a nice bit of comedic muscle all the way to credit roll. There’s not many curveballs in this series’ game, but there honestly doesn’t have to be. HitoriBocchi has proven to be very reasonable in what it does week in and week out, so if it can maintain its current status, it should be able to close out its second half to satisfaction.
.
Senryuu Shoujo (6)
Another warm showing from Senryuu Shoujo, one which offered a nice change of pace by involving Nanako and Eiji’s family with fine comedic grace. As welcomed as that angle was, the real highlight of this week was the fashion in which it nourished its gentle affection for its leads’ relationship; Plenty of well-timed pauses, cared for cuts, and a generally competent spread of visual and auditory reactions made this episode particularly enjoyable. Nicely done.
Kimetsu no Yaiba (6)
“But while Nezuko was asleep, I used hypnotic suggestion on her”
In an episode that deserves plenty of applause for its audio approach, nailing the timing and impact of various sound cues with ease and utilizing its bgm to wonderful effect – almost every other facet beyond that in this week’s Yaiba was poor, with the most egregious being its base writing as alluded to in the quote above. Six’s narrative was already short on textual power, fueled by a kidnapping concept that has scripting as narrow as a dollhouse’s hallway, but when we start lacing that with conveniently placed flashbacks containing crucial information that should’ve been delivered upfront, this work’s writing falls thoroughly below the mark into outright “bad” territory. Combine this with yet another thick dose of Tanjirou’s exposition during our fairly mediocre fight – consistently noting every failed slash as if the viewer would have no way to determine if his cut was too ”shallow” or not otherwise, and some pretty jarring visual choices that put a damper on this show’s greatest asset (its optics), and it’s hard to say what we received here was anywhere near good. It should go without saying, but Kimetsu no Yaiba needs to get it together and fast.
Miru Tights (1)
Miru Tights wasn’t nearly as bankrupt as its components on paper suggest, and actually, sort of passable in practice? With only four minutes to work with, its handicaps from a written perspective were obvious on entry – limiting the ceiling of a bunch of storytelling tenets that we tend to take for granted in full length shows. Be that as it may, Fumiaki Maruto is still able to establish a workable narrative baseline to pair with a brand of craftsmanship that’s well aware of the moods it needs to cultivate. Not too bad at all given what it wants to be.
Kenja no Mago (6)
If the quality of an anime were determined by how little effort it puts into sculpting even the most basic storytelling elements, then Kenja no Mago would be a lead candidate for AOTS. Everything outside of a handful of cuts for the last month has felt phoned in, and this latest fifth episode would prove to be allergic to breaking that streak. So here we are, another twenty minutes spent on Sicily still lacking even a liter of volume despite having an obnoxious amount of screen time at this point, Shin doing his best “In Another World With My Smartphone” impersonation in terms of character acting, and a level of scripting that as flavorful as Aquafina. It’s actually impressive that Silver Link is getting away with this.
If you enjoy this blog and would like to see more of them then please consider following Seasonal Prattle or using the sharing tools below to spread the word. Thank you!