3-Gatsu no Lion Episode 1 – Oppressive Success

Presentation:

This is a Studio Shaft show, more specifically, it is credited with Shinbo’s name, so many “Shaftisms/Shinoisms” are on display here, such as a head-tilt, a print on a dress that is perfectly aligned regardless of the contours of clothes,rails and a city under construction, amongst others.

The real point here is that a lot of thought went into the construction of scenes here. Some of it is “just” stylistic touches, but some of it has meaning. Such as this sequence, where Rei travels to the Shogi Club, and he’s absolutely dwarfed by the architecture, he gets swallowed up by the environment. A lot of it has to do with pacing, which I’ll discuss soon enough.

Mekakucity Actors Episode 3 Notes – In the Land of the Blind, Keep Your Eyes Open

(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes’ page, but up to a couple every week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don’t know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)

So first we had a NEET getting too much attention from his genki-girl AI, and then we had his sister(?) who is sort of an airhead, who gets too much attention, and is an idol, even though she doesn’t wish to be, in order to support her family. The episodes of this series have too much dead time, too much dead chatter. I talked about it at length in my weekly overview for last week, but hey, we should finally get some tied plot with the “Colour Hood Gang” (that’s my name, not official), so let’s see where we’re going with this. I sure hope we’re getting somewhere.

Thoughts and Notes:

1) Attention is Everything:

1) Hm, with all those ridiculous poses and lines, Mekakucity Actors has more than its semblance of resemblance to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure! More to the point, huzzah! Continuity! Picking up where last episode ended!

Mekakucity Actors Episode 2 Notes – “You’re All Style and No Substance!” – Akiyuki Shinbou

(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes’ page, but up to a couple every week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don’t know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)

Real talk. Last episode had been pretty, and interesting, but also self-indulgent as all hell. However much you wanted to get us to understand Ene, this was just giving her more time than was necessary, for fun. Or perhaps because you didn’t have enough material, so you wanted to drag it along. As a result, regardless of whether Ene was loveable or annoying, very little actually happened last week.

And although that episode was filled with nearly non-stop chatter, very little of consequence was actually said.

We’ve got a big cast, and I suspect each episode will be quite different tonally. Well, an episode without Ene is bound to feel different, so let’s see what we’ve got on our hands.

Thoughts and Notes:

1) Meet Momo. Silly and Loveable. Our Idol!:

Mekakucity Actors Episode 1 Notes – Shinbo Presents: Clippy! Wait, What?!

(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes’ page, but up to a couple every week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don’t know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)

This is an interesting show for me, one of the shows I’m most interested and intrigued by, but have the least “hype” for, just because I have no idea what to expect, so I have nothing concrete to hope for. I don’t even know “genre”. I’m just going to watch it and see what it is.

Took 20 screenshots this episode. Mostly starring Ene-blue and Shinbo-Sky-Mustard.

Thoughts and Notes:

1) Shinbo being Shinbo (Shaft being Shaft):

1) Boy’s hair fluttering makes me think of Araragi from Monogatari. Gears of a clock as we talk of time-travel or repeating time-loops (I’m guessing) is an easy motif.