“QUOTE OF THE WEEK”
– Kenja no Mago’s “we’re totally not trying to copy Chika’s dance I swear” ED aired last week. This is why we can’t have nice things.
SEASONAL PRATTLE
Attack on Titan S3 part 2 (4)
Easily a franchise milestone in tonal acuity, WIT is more than highly effective in this recent showing – firmly in control of all of episode four’s structural levers and switches that ultimately paint a very visceral, cognitive landscape by credit roll. The notes of hopelessness and despair are quickly intoxicating as each well-paced narrative turn in favor of the titans smoothly solidifies humanity’s slimming odds of success – further enhanced by a keen vision that has a great grasp of scale and impact to drive home scenes that much harder. As applaudable as that is, the true prowess of this week takes no effort to discern: episode four’s conversations both tiny and grand play so well on a variety of emotional floors that it would be a complete disservice not to credit them here. From the rookie scout desperately coping with his likely death, all the way to Erwin’s heartfelt speech – there’s a variety of charged dialogue that’s both narratively purposely and magnetic to close the sale on this stellar episode. Very well done!
Kimetsu no Yaiba (7)
Further widening the valley between its writing chops and visual craft, Kimetsu no Yaiba presents another twenty minutes of bush league storytelling and at some points, outright dumb scripting. Aspects like Nezuko’s sudden martial arts skills, having her level of form and fluidity despite no indication of training (seriously, at what point did she learn to fight this well?), are almost as eyebrow-raising as the thick degree of stupidity provided by the whole “I can breathe in this swamp because I trained in thin air” bit, completely neglecting the fact that Tanjirou would still be filling his lungs up with the swamp’s substance nonetheless. If that wasn’t enough, episode seven’s closing half attempts to one-up its earlier nonsense, not only introducing Muzan in such an abrupt, tacked on fashion that his inclusion feels all too soon and highly manufactured (really, the next mission just so happens to position Tanjirou right around Muzan as easy as that?), but now Nezuko is magically able to walk and run around perfectly in control while sleeping? Are we just supposed to brush that detail under the rug as if she hasn’t been carried around up until this point? Nezuko is literally running around crowded streets, turning corners, stopping when needed, and even backpedaling to avoid a train all right in tune with Tanjirou and there’s no explanation in sight. Yup, you really thought this episode through Ufotable.
Kenja no Mago (6)
It’s like clockwork; Another round of tasteless comedy, static character development, and Kenja no Mago thinking that adding more stock effort nobodies will somehow cope for its defective writing. This week doesn’t even have the motor skills to gracefully introduce us to its uncompelling war setup, immediately dumping viewers into a narrative pool that was so brashly disjointed from our usual perspective, I had to double check to make sure I started the right episode. Post theme song, we would be back to our limp ways – with seemingly every other sequence resulting in at least three or more of Shin’s one-note classmates ending up in awe over him or outright swooning. Throw in a training exercise where Shin can effortlessly show off, add a handful of semi antagonistic, totally unremarkable students from a different academy being putting in their place, sprinkle in some blushy Sicily cuts reacting to Shin and voila, you have the “mediocre if you’re being charitable” showing that is episode six.
The Rising of the Shield Hero (19)
Not to be outdone by Kenja no Mago, Shield Hero was apparently determined to have arguably its worst outing yet – managing to whip up an episode so atrociously constructed that it’s actually making Kenja no Mago’s stale pizza crust writing look delicious by comparison. It’s honestly hard to fully portray the multiple, shoddy facets that came together to form the toilet water storytelling we received – given the Weekly Check-In’s concise format – but I can at least try to squeeze in the biggest two. First, episode 19’s inability to sell its emotional stakes is too outstanding not to get the biggest nod here, somehow finding ways time and time again to completely disrupt its own tension with a heap of inept character decisions and even worse combat consistency (“Meteor Shot” all by itself can break four of the Pope’s barriers in a row even with half the believers lending it mana? What?). Runner up and lastly, 19’s knack for plot conveniences is beyond exceptional. Not only is the Pope’s timely involvement in the grander scope of the narrative already deeply entrenched in this category, but the battle’s corresponding flow is essentially pushed through an assembly line of them, featuring everything from the Shadows pulling a totally unexplained last-minute save, to Naofumi picking easily the worst time of his life to shame his peers – stupidly allowing the Pope back into the fight and thus continuing this schlock for another week.
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