teamfreewill56-blog

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Like master and like student

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Upper Moons × Seven Deadly Sins ⋆.˚ ☾⭒.˚ inspired by ☆𖤓

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kny characters are surrounded with love as much as they're surrounded by tragedy. there is love in every nook and cranny in every shape or form. almost every single character is well loved by at least one other character

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I already have the Demon Slayer Infinity Castle movie in my calendar for September. So here’s a calm illustration before the chaos hits.

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It continues to be fun to be a fan of a mainstream phenomenon. It gives me strength when I am making a long trek home and am tired.

I got pretty frustrated on one of my Tokyo transfers today because those stations can be massive and unintuitive to navigate. There's a reason there has been a commercial for some kind of map service with a women trying to navigate an unfamiliar Japanese city and exclaiming in frustration that it's just like the Infinity Fortress before a door opens beneath her with the twang of a biwa and she falls in.

I got very close to my frustration threshold at that station, but then I finally found my platform and was rewarded with the sight of Akaza.

Refreshed, I shuffled down the platform closer to where would be a good spot to board the train, and there was the rest of the gang!

As I got on the train, it looked like Giyuu was looking in through the windows.

Anyway, hours later on one of my last trains home, it's crowded and I notice the man sitting in front of me has a keychain with a KnY logo. Given the shape, I suppose it is Tanjiro. After a few minutes, the couple hugging each other next to me happen to notice it too and guess back and forth whether it is Uzui or Tanjiro, they quote a Hinokami Kagura attack together, and he starts quizzing her on Breath techniques as she digs around her bag for a KnY item of her own that she feels certain she's carrying.

I, meanwhile, am feeling more and more restored by eavesdropping until they get off at their stop.

Not home yet, but at least now I'm sitting down next to the man with Tanjiro(?) keychain.

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standing up and blacking out for a few seconds is just transitioning from a cutscene to the actual gameplay

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rengoku kyojuro my beloved

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Unspoilery thoughts:

--There is nothing surprising about the storytelling. They took the manga and they Ufotable'ed all over it. In the best way. It was the manga content you already know, but with an Ufotable accent. It was Ufotable over-delivering on expectations of Ufotable.

--Filler content was minimal, and felt more like it drew the camera out further to show more of what's going on, or zoomed it or stayed longer on other scenes just to add a touch more depth. I really appreciated the little additional details; they were either a good read on manga canon or very simple crowd pleasers.

--And I really think those little details/additions will be more fun for you to notice than for me to point out, though some made me want to cheer

--Hayami Saori brings a new shade of angry depth to her performance, everybody else of course rocks it as usual

--The precious moments of brevity were very smoothly integrated

--So happy to see character designs of other Corp members who we met in Hashira Training get recognizably reused

--The Aimer song has so far grabbed me more than the LiSA song, but I have yet to listen to the full versions of either one

--I was so busy just satisfying my long-awaited curiosity that I did fully get emotionally swept into it. It felt more like analytically observing than watching. But I usually get more emotionally involved on the second viewing when I go into it with anticipation of the really good moments. So I'm going to watch it on IMAX on Monday. Really, really looking forward to the lightning battle and some certain stages of the Akaza battle, as well as many sweeping Mugenjo scenes.

--I bought and skimmed through the official pamphlet. They took literal years to do the rendering on the Mugenjo settings and of their major challenges was managing all the data. This was after completely tossing out the models used for the Power Harassment of the Lower Moons scene, because there just wasn't enough to worth with there. Also, it seems that hire-ups made the Mugenjo Trilogy decision pretty soon after Mugen Ressha opened. But anyway, their hard work totally shows.

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And They All Lived Happily Ever After, The End.  (Credit to @lunahras for thinking up that the Kakushi would throw the wildest parties and Murata would have no memory of them.)

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You almost hurt those people. I know you didn't mean to, but you have to be more careful. I know. You regret it. I know. It must be awful to be a demon. Niichan will keep trying to make you human again. I promise. Please, bear with it a little longer.

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Things that ran through my head while watching this episode:

--Dear Ufotable, why couldn't you had included the second half of this episode in your theatrical release? The One (1) time the Kamaboko boys all combine for one attack deserves cinematic treatment. I. Love. This. Scene. So. Much. They went for it so hard, and so obviously that they even had to poke a little fun at themselves in the Taisho Secret. Speaking of, I wish they would had given us more Taisho Secrets (or Stylish Scruffy Democracy) in Yuukaku-hen as opposed to just rehashing emotions that spoke well enough for themselves, as happens here with Tanjiro. I find it kind of funny how quickly the "To Be Continued" curtain fell as if to be like, "ok, yes, Tanjiro, we get it, time's up."

--Speaking of Taisho Secrets, I'm glad Ufotable has had fun breaking form since switching to FujiTV (and what did we ever do to deserve Butt-Chin Nezuko??), but I kind of miss the consistency of the first season's Taisho Secrets and manga panel BGs and limited movements like they're silly puppets. It makes the breaks in pattern more fun, like Inosuke & Zenitsu gulping in the BG while hearing that they may be in trouble with Shinobu, or cramming all nine Pillars in one Taisho Secret together so they can only move their mouths while stuck in their basic profile poses. Now there is no pattern, so getting a dramatic "no Taisho Secret today, too much drama!" thing is… not dramatic. Good thing they fixed that with Nezuko later doing the complete opposite by breaking the tension with a real Taisho Secret.

--Speaking of set forms and framing, while the animation for Gurenge is great for how it shows overall themes of the series and characters in relation to Tanjiro, this OP really says "this is the Yuukaku arc and this is what you're getting." One of my favorite details (I have a lot of favorite details) is how Uzui looks so relaxed and flamboyantly at ease when he's dodging obi, but doesn't show dramatic effort until he's dealing with Gyutaro's attacks.

--I… don't have strong feelings about the filler of the picnic in front of the grave, I do have feelings about it. I guess I fall more on the side of disliking this filler for how inconsistent the relationship feels between Tengen and his wives, like all that restraint they practice before relaxing because it's so ingrained in them to be subservient to their husband, but then Makio turns right around and calls Tengen out for being unfair. We've also never seen any jealousy between the wives, and however light-hearted, the inorganic way it came about with the cherry blossoms seems to take a nuance that Hinatsuru is the favorite and stretch it to a larger proportion than in the manga. That all being said, Makio sticking a bunch of petals in her hair with that "flirt with me too!" face is adorable. Speaking of flashbacks, I do like how Hinatsuru is the one to propose that they retire and live as normal people once they defeat an Upper Moon, as there needs to be a deciding point for when they'll move on. And the part about no hard feelings if they aren't all together? I love how bittersweet that is, and it feels very in the spirit of Hinatsuru to do that; I don't think it's that she's Tengen's favorite, but that she's the heart of this family. Makio looks to Hinatsuru when she feels conflicted, Suma turns to Hinatsuru first to celebrate their victory. They fact that she almost died would had stung the whole family is a way that doesn't just make them feel the hurt and loss, but feel like a tether has come loose.

--Ok so, I love Suma for being a simple bimbo, but I hope Tengen never feels like he's parenting her. I hope that when she's all "I wanna be a dragonfly" and he's like "that's a nice flashy dream" what he's actually thinking is "this woman is crazy and I am crazy about her."

--So for the amount of time that Hinatsuru was in active danger in Gyutaro's clutches, I feel like I could had watched this on at least double speed to emulate the actual pace at which the action took place. Tanjiro & Uzui just do so dang much thinking in such a quick span of time. BUT!!! Tanjiro, our boy, he's so full of good ideas!! Take advantage of being weak and not as carefully watched as the Pillar! Mix both your Breaths to make the best of them both!! Tanjiro has gone through so many levels of thinking and development over the course of this night that he's probably going to pick up from the conclusions he reached once he later wakes up and writes some letters: "Dear Tomioka-san, It's too bad I'm better suited to Hinokami Kagura and can never get very good at Water Breathing, otherwise my sword might not had broken this time. I got a letter from Haganezuka-san…" (and poor Giyuu would be like, "…what is the (future) Water Pillar talking about?")

--You know who I've missed? UROKODAKI. Urokodaki, it's so nice to see you again. T^T Those flashbacks to Tanjiro's training days are so cute. I missed how often Tanjiro flashed back to training with Urokodaki!

--But you know what's also nice? The fact that Tanjiro's not the only one who has worked his butt off to get stronger in the last four months. Look at all these boys, they've come so far since getting together at Kyogai's house. We know that Zenitsu's been polishing and polishing his one move, but Inosuke's been working hard too, ever since losing Rengoku-san! That's so endearing, for it's the first time in Inosuke's life he's ever gone through a loss that gave him a drive like this.

--It is so, so, so much fun seeing Inosuke being the one who is frazzled and Zenitsu being the cool leader. This is the hero of Legend of Zenitsu!! I'll bet that's how all his lines are written! And then when Inosuke gets the inspiration to focus on charging through the small opening in the middle of the obi, that's so satisfying because it's like the moment when someone breaks out of writer's block, and it's not that he can stop at that he thinks there's an opening, no, he makes up his mind to believe that there is!!

--Tee hee hee, Inosuke playing rugby with Daki's head and jumping out of the way of obi is so much fun---oh---wait---until it's not.

--Well… Inosuke's a goner. Uzui's dead. Zenitsu pulled the self-sacrificing push. Tanjiro's falling and apologizing for all his failures. Here ends my rewatch.

--FOR NOW!!!! THE THEATRICAL RELEASE DEBUTS ON SETSUBUN, BABY!! OUT WITH IN THE DEMON, IN WITH THE LUCK!! FEBRUARY 3RD!!! I'm so stoked--------a-a-a-nd with my work schedule I won't be able to watch it that day. T_T