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ultraericthered · 2 years

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Anime Update V2 22

Noragami Aragoto - Yato and Hiiro (Nora) went to rescue Ebisu from a situation he'd put himself in down in the underworld, and this part was great because Ebisu is quite the fun character, especially with Kent Williams as his dub voice. Unfortunately the other Gods of Fortune got implicated in a grave misdeed due to Ebisu's actions (including the Bryan Massay god who I keep forgetting is a thing). Hiyori's plotline, though, is a groaner since she's now losing her memory of Yato AGAIN, with the anime again neglecting to draw any parallels to the last arc of Season 1 where they used this plot device before. And this one high school boy who's totally not really Yato's dad takes advantage and forces a first kiss on her at the theme park.

Hunter x Hunter - The short but very engaging Heaven's Arena arc has begun.

1999 - Not too much different except that there's a comical scene with Gon and Killua involving Chocolate Robots, the girl working the elevator is more of a character and sounds like Arika Yumemia, the real high floor is a lot scarier, and Hisoka suddenly has red hair after having spent the entire Hunters Exam with blue hair. Also, what the "lie" that Wing told Gon and Killua about Nen was even supposed to be was totally lost on me, as his initial explaining of the techniques made a lot more sense. 2011 - Wing actually writing down the characters for what he was talking about and making the dinstinction between one "Nen" and the tecnhique he and Zushi use was very helpful in getting the point across. The higher floor was disappointingly less threatening than it was in the earlier anime, but 2011 Hisoka being true to form more threatening made up for it.

Fruits Basket - School is back in session with Haru and Momiji here!

2001 - Kyle Hebert as the Student Council President was very recognizable even back then, and Justin Cook still does great at Haru's two personalities, but good lord did Kimberly Grant not know how to emote as Momiji. And speaking of not emoting, the scene with Akito was meant to be terrifying and reflect the fear that both Tohru and Yuki had of him, but I did not feel that since Clad Cline's voice acting was just so laughably stiff and robotic - Aaron Dismuke as a much younger Akito had better delivery! Maybe it was just voice direction that told him to sound creepy and little else, since his final lines in the episode actually were well delivered and fittingly sinister.

2019 - Ah, THERE we go. The scene that played out with Tohru, Yuki, and Akito with Colleen Clinkenbeard voicing Akito was spine-tingling, viscerally unpleasant and disturbing, just as it needed to be. I'm so glad that Tohru pushed the bitch out of Yuki's way, and relieved she did it without suffering Akito's wrath in return! I also think this one ended at a slightly better place than where the first version rather abruptly stopped. The one part that I did not get in either was what Haru showed the Student Council President to prove that his two-toned hair was natural. Apparently it was his pubic hair, but how was I supposed to guess THAT? He could've just washed his hair!

Rozen Maiden - Watched the two-part OVA Overture, which takes place between the end of the first season and the start of the second, contains set-ups for what will be going down in that second season, and flashes back to the origin story of both Shinku and Suigintou, and why Suigintou became so obsessed with becoming Alice and getting to see her father again that she turned to a life of cruelty and homicidal madness. I felt so terrible for Suigintou before but this really made my heart break for her. Now I’m just wondering how in all that is holy is she still alive and why’s she now some sick girl’s guardian angel? I’m eager to find out more in the season to come!

Fate/Stay Night - Watched the Unlimited Blade Works movie, which adapts the Archer route of the novel and goes to very different places than the anime’s story did despite starting off the exact same way. What Archer’s deal was and what his mythical hero identity is were left unresolved in the anime, so I’m glad this film was made in order to finally give us answers. While part of me did miss the bonding between Shirou and Saber, having him and Rin get the bond, and putting a lot more emphasis on Rin in general, were very welcome. This movie also had a notably higher animation budget that the show and did many things better - the final battle was notably way more intense, the forming of the Holy Grail more nightmarishly displayed.

But not everything worked, mind you. Ilya got done majorly dirty with a gruesome, totally gratuitous and preventable death, while that piece of shit Shinji Matou overstayed his welcome as one of the main villains. Kirei, I hate to say since he is such a compelling antagonist, was even worse handled here, going the opposite route of the show in that his role ends up mattering too little and feels pointless (Shirou never learns that Kirei started that big fire and killed his father here!) Archer actually being an alternate future version of Shirou himself should’ve been huge, yet they reveal it in the most underwhelming way similar to how they did things on the show. And lastly, what was with Gilgamesh’s look in this? He keep straight hair and casual clothing the whole way through! So much for “the golden servant!”

Revolutionary Girl Utena - Mitsuru’s diary, pretty much all about Nanami and what he learned through stalking her all the time (even for events we never knew he was there for, ‘cause when Nanami was around, he was always there!) was used for a humorous recap episode of all Crazy Nanami Antics just as a light-hearted breather after the dark and heavy shit of the previous two episodes.

Love Live! Nijigasaki School Idol Club S2 - The next School Idol Festival was held and we even met some new characters, but anything that went on here paled in comparison to two major occurances: Nana outing herself as Setsuna Yuki to the school, and Lanzhu Zhong, voluntarily and without second-guessing at all, played a big role in saving the day. She may not agree with the unified idol performances of the Nijigasaki Club girls, but she still resepcts them.

MAR - Fight 2 of Round 2 was Nanashi VS Loco, which was fun and all, and I especially liked learning about how Loco has actually been de-aging herself every time she uses her special ARM, but I sorta knew how it would end given the precedent established with Jack’s fight back in Round 1 - Nanashi loses, though interestingly enough it’s only because he couldn’t go through with making a killing blow. Which is the total opposite of what we get with Dorothy in the third and final fight. That it starts with Dorothy laughing her ass off at her opponent’s threat to kill her set the expectation and boy did she not disappoint. It was pretty much a curb-stomp in Dorothy’s favor, with Dorothy creating the first casaulty of the War Games by having Toto devour that cowardly cloaked serial killer. She scary, but I loves her!

AMC: Akumada Drive - In the two-part event of the third and fourth episodes, Cat Boy has the Akudama hijack a subway train, fight back against security and the Executioners again, and try to avoid the quarantine/disinfectant zone in order to retrieve some “cargo” being held by Kanto. That “cargo” turning out to be the two children Brother and Sister, the former being the one who’d been controlling the cat and speaking through it. But what stood out the most in the whole thing was how adorable and funny Swindler is and just how perfectly Macy Anne Johnson voices her. Between this and Shikimori, she really deserves to be cast in more leading roles! Just as good is how unrecognizable Zeno Robinson continues to be as Brawler. Also, am beginning to suspect there’s more to “Kanto” than what the weird Bunny and Shark propaganda cartoons have been telling us....

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Code Geass: Akito the Exiled - Movie 3 was probably the best of them I’ve seen to date, even in spite of the offputing portrayal of Romani people at the very start. I was actually really into the further development we got from Akito- (not pronounced A-KEET-OH, thankfully!) and his psychopathic brother, and we even got Leila’s backstory and hints at something deeper, darker, and more Geass-driven going on with General Smilas. Of all entries in the anime section of the franchise, I really do feel these films get closest to getting down what the series should’ve been past the initial Lelouch of the Rebellion season - it feels like its own story playing out in this same larger world and I can both get behind the new central players AND get the chills with Lelouch (”Julius Kingsley”) showing up and using the same playbook as Zero, Shin revealing he’s figured out that “Julius” IS Zero, and Suzaku fighting with spin-kick moves and Lancelot. The one big waste of potential is that Lelouch and Suzaku do not go up against Akito and his allies, instead being regulated to an Evil VS Evil plot with Shin. If only this had been a larger series...

#Anime Update #Anime Update V2

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