#18.3.26

What a hypnotic experience this show was. I feel ill equipped to even describe it, just actually watching the show is a better way to feel it than I'm capable of ever describing. Yes a few narrative decisions here and there were losing me but the show's deft framing and direction beyond makes up for that and is one of the best showcases of visual storytelling that I've been witness to in years, it feels. This show belongs in the conversation for best anime of the 2020s and Souta Ueno is now an automatic "yeah I'll watch it" director for me. This is a possible 10 on a rewatch. I find that when shows operate in a given tonal space sometimes it'll have to work really hard to bring you back into that tonal space if you're watching weekly - because finishing an episode and having to wait a week is just a mental reset. Doesn't even matter what tonal space it is necessarily it just takes a good amount of effort to bring a viewer back in when a real-life week has passed. Despite this show airing over 11 weeks though it felt like one continuous moment to me. Each episode flowed into the next and its ability to bring you in is so effortless and powerful that I feel as though I never had that reset. In a sense I'm glad the show is over so I can reflect on the entire experience but I already want to watch it again for the first time. These are fully just unstructured ramblings at this point but. Fuck man. Never let anybody tell you anime used to be better back then or that if you've been watching long enough you'll eventually just run out of new experiences or anything of the sort. This is the type of experience that makes it all worth it.

It took a minute but I am now clear on the fact that the release format of this series is four "Acts" with each act consisting of 3 episodes. So Japanese cinema goers didn't pay to go watch a 24 minute episode they paid to watch 72 minutes, that makes way more sense. Also means we're only in Act 2 right now in terms of what's been released by ak-subs, but that also makes more sense than us having web video for this whole project before the theatrical releases were even done. It is interesting then that this gag spinoff will match the total length of the first season of anime and be about as long as all of Das Finale when those are said and done while also just releasing in the gap between df4 and df5, although it's obviously a cheaper production so like lol. But yeah that's the preamble done. Fun episode. I'm happy to know I'll get to keep watching it for a while longer.

Kana is very cute here. Like okay episode, I guess? Idk. I've said this in conversation with friends but don't actually remember if I typed it here - the grand revenge movie feels like something you do to make the narrative more exciting for the readers, but it feels out of sync with the realism of the setting. It's something Aqua the character would do but maybe not Aqua the person. This is generally a pointless distinction and you should generally follow the better narrative anyway but this show's attention to realism is enough a part of its identity that this change in direction is just odd. I've also really enjoyed the character of Aqua throughout the rest of the show but I think his shift into ultimate joker mode here just isn't done well. That's about where I'm at I guess. Next episode is an hour long special we've learned, so that's neat. I don't know how much manga is left after this - if we can fit another full TV season or if it'd be a movie instead, or hell if it even just ends here. We'll see, really.

I finally got someone to trade with me so I could evolve a shiny alpha Scizor, thus completing my shiny alpha Scyther line family <3

status quo shift up is decent

I love demon slayer I mean hunter