Jeffinitely Parasyte

Anime Winter 2015 Week 11 Quick Reviews

Your Lie in April ★★★★½

Shirobako ★★★★☆

Parasyte ★★★★☆

Death Parade ★★★☆☆

Tokyo Ghoul ★★★☆☆

Your Lie In April Ep 22 ↳ “Spring Wind”

The lie in April is that it’s possible to watch Your Lie in April without your heart being torn to shreds

Shirobako Ep 23 ↳ “Table Flip Continued”

Shirobako executed its strongest comedy sequence yet, followed by its strongest dramatic moment which synced the audience’s emotions so perfectly to Aoi’s—despite the actual reveal being obvious to the audience for about half the episode.

Parasyte -the maxim- Ep 23 ↳ “Life and Oath”

Parasyte’s final battle surprised me by turning an impossible odds shounen boss fighting into a moral debate that returned to—but didn’t fulfill by any stretch—Parasyte’s initial promise.

Death Parade Ep 11 ↳ “Memento Mori”

Death Parade was decent, but muddled—a nice spectacle sequence, a predictable backstory reveal, and a nearly-impossible-to-parse-intended-meaning conclusion to a thread left hanging several weeks ago and untouched since.

Tokyo Ghoul Ep 23 ↳ “Deluge of Flowers”

Anime Winter ‘15 Week 10

Parasyte, Death Parade, and Shirobako all slowed down this week as they prepared for their final stretches.

Parasyte -the maxim- Ep 22 ↳ “Quiescence and Awakening”

Parasyte raced towards its climactic encounter and then slammed the breaks, effectively using its abrupt pace change to convey a sense of hollowness. It ended with threads dangling in the air in such a position that I have no clue how the show can fit them together, and I’m thrilled to see how it handles that challenge (though its shaky track record so far makes me nervous). I applaud the episode’s ability to convey hollowness, but ultimately found it lacking in entertainment value. ★★★☆☆

Death Parade Ep 10 ↳ “Story Teller”

Death Parade had its breaks slammed in last week’s ending-theme-consuming conclusion to the double-murderer two-parter. This week was all about slowing down and contrasting with the series’s earlier fan-favorite action-packed judgment episodes, and proved that the series can be emotionally informative without loud drama. ★★★½☆

Shirobako Ep 22 ↳ “Noa’s in Her Underwear”

Putting aside the extremely odd underwear-episode-title-bestowing scene, Shirobako continued to be its too-empathetic-for-this-world self, again forcing us to appreciate and understand characters that it so competently convinced us to revile only weeks ago. There weren’t really any connective thematic pushes this week, just characters bonding, learning, and growing as the “days since last disaster” counter started getting suspiciously high. As we head into next week’s new Shirobakalypse, it’s clear that the disaster episodes in this series only work well because of the character depth we see in these slow and peaceful episodes. ★★★★☆

Tokyo Ghoul Ep 22 (√A Ep 10) ↳ “Last Rain”

While other series slowly formed into pouncing poses, Tokyo Ghoul was already fully engaged climbing up the rising action hill this week. Engaging combat, satisfying rescues, and sorrowful goodbyes, all while furthering the series’ raison d’être of breaking down traditional naive understanding of good and evil in conflict. And, to top it off, the setup for next week promises even stronger doses of action and moral confilct. ★★★½☆

Ranking

★★★★☆ Shirobako

★★★½☆ Tokyo Ghoul

★★★½☆ Death Parade

And people keep asking why I love Parasyte…..