The lion looked pretty cute with a bow. Mb the 4D joke was partly because of the 3D animation (well, I guess the characters' anime world would be 3D to them too which makes more sense). That was a nice fuzzy ending to the episode (and the piano was nice too).
i guess it shouldn't be surprising that a skylander can't swim (although i guess sora has seen lakes before? skyland has lakes? do they float in the sky and i guess letters aren't mixed up for geographical figures like everything else in skyland. also the following scene answered my question already). why does tsubasa swim like salmon jumping from rivers? how do feathers and water work for non-waterfowl?
now ellee can even walk in water. sora getting thick outlines during the floating segment was fun animation-wise (also the beach ball hitting). the fish swimming weirdly half to the side not so much. minoton's shading looks better this ep though (and having watched a versailles on bara ep right before this, the sunrays looked vaguely dezaki-esque). sora got the newtype flash (similar sound effect too? i guess it's mb an intended reference?) when locating the watermelon.
the ocean added nice variety to the fight and it resting on the ocean was pretty fun (and also all the rarararararas). probably one of the best ranborg fights of this iteration thus far and plus the non-fight events like sora not being able to swim actually played into the fight which was nice. also i'm not quite sure what the mix palette does anymore hah.
I guess they're really sticking with Resonance for "kokoro no oto". I mean, "sound of the heart" or i dunno, something shorter to mash up the words like "heartsound" or something would help sub readers connect themes together like Yohane trying to find something fun only she can do and basically everything Mari said and this being Love Live and all, but eh,.. I guess resonance kinda half sorta works, oh well.
Yeah, I don't think trying to hide that you're a fairy really works for Ruby (but I guess that's half the point, unless maybe there's like Hakumei and Mikochi-sized wingless pepole too?!). Anyways, a nice character-growth episode today and prob my fav of this series so far. The afternoon and sparkly sea shots were pretty and so was the whole scene with the bridge shadows (which also helps visualize today's themes as an extra bonus).
Hah, I would recognize Mamoru Miyano's voice anywhere (well, almost. he's a little harder to pick out in his more subdued roles). Makoto Furukawa's voice I have more trouble with (like he was in Gundam NT, what?) but I guess he's pretty recognizable here.
It's fun seeing all the zombies in different getups, I kinda wonder what's with the guy in the sailor fuku. Kencho's speech kinda reminds me of some themes in recently airing anime... I guess the sun dimming as it passes by buildings and then coming out, the literal leaps of faith, the stripping off of formal clothes, and the helping hand were kinda,.. on the noise, but it was a fun and pretty sequence.
Susumu Hirasawa also did the OP and ED to Kon's Paprika and I haven't managed to find clips of him performing any of Paranoia Agent live, his live shows look like a trip with him performing with a laser controller
Not really sure what qualifies as underrated/overrated,.. BUT in terms of things I can find on YouTube and general sense of amount of discussion I've seen,.. I think the OPs get more attention than the EDs of these series when I've tended to like the EDs better
Seisenshi Dunbine's ED because power ballads are fun
Gundam IBO S1's ED feels James Bondy with the swung feel and the strings (incidentally Aria the Origination's OP Spirale, also great, kinda feels James Bondy to me but more for the chromaticism,.. ANYWAYS)
and yeah, this was a stacked season (with competition like Bocchi the Rock) but I think my favorite ED of that season was Do It Yourself's ED because of its ultimate comf (kinda gives me the same feel as Nichijou's first ED)
Could listen to Shuuchi Ikeda narration all day. Speaking of VAs, Mikako Komatsu is killing it and also noticed that she was also the MC in one of director Tatsuo Satou's previous series in Mouretsu Pirates (slightly more composed and less screamy role though, also I still need to watch the movie). Comedic timing is still on point and I loved the stingers revealing Azudora's health. The expression on the face of those ouroboros-y looking deep green rings are fun.
I liked the use of the newscast to clue us in on the timeframe. I kinda like the blurring of anime reality and fiction by not explicitly telling us that what was on screen was a movie (and I suppose John Adams is supposed to be a generic name in English but it made me think of the composers,.. then the president). The aspect ratio and the color palette of the beginning of the ED making it look like an older anime is kinda neat.
On a metanote, it seems like Shinobu isn't posting all of the episode discussion threads on this instance? Things like Shinigami Bocchan and Genjitsu no Yohane didn't make it over to this instance.
fantastic first episode. Coming in blind, I kinda wonder if there's gonna be more digs at work culture with the zombie parallels. As pointed out by KVin of SakugaBlog fame on twitter, the ZLM company is a pretty thinly-veiled reference to the studio OLM that BUG FILMS split off from (down to logo and office building). Seems like a lot of folks like the resignation scene but the other string of jokes I liked from this ep was that string of opposites in the MC's narration where he mentions the employees being moved to tears, or health being a priority. It kinda feels like a lot of ground and variety was covered with different sorts of shots with everything moving at a brisk pace which was kinda overwhelming (probably the point) but also really impressive and kinda exhilarating, the energy levels kinda didn't dip the whole 24 minutes.
Should rewatch (and reread) YKK one of these days, both are great and I think about the sort of mono no aware-related themes presented in them every now and then. Maybe it's a bit harder for me to separate YKK and Aria in my head because of the mentioned Choro Club OST overlap and the watercolor sort of look they both take on at times.... Although the post mentions layers with respect to Quiet Country Cafe, that actually brings to mind some of the bits of the first OVA series that I found the most memorable in
YKK first OVA series
the insert song bits that layer Alpha on top of various post-apocalyptic Yokohama scenery.
I really liked the transition from the dark, deserted town streets to the lighted ones with all the banners with it floating and flickering in the sky. Also that part with Aya recounting how she lost her body, with her glowing floating head and that figure emerging from the puddle of blood was great looking too. Those two scenes sold me on following this show this season.
I liked the look of the opening sequence, especially with Mashiro's little glowly light. Are pumpkin ghosts actual things? They look great in their costumes anyways. I guess overall the animation looked a bit more lively than the last couple weeks. The kids are trick-or-treating during the daytime though? Wait, is Pretty Holic a Precure thing in general? Because I remember it from Tropical Rouge i think... Not a big Battamonda fan but I liked his henshin into Cure Pumpkin (also now that I look his VA up, I did like KENN in Uchuu Kyoudai and it looks like he has a main role in iDOLISH which I've been meaning to get to...). Cure Majesty getting the baby treat and having to eat it when she turns back just raises more questions for me in terms of her mental age going back and forth... but also it was a pretty funny gag.