The Week in Anime Winter 2015 #3 — Breaking Up

Week in Anime,

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Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso: Whoa. This week’s episode completely blew me away, especially coming from a series that has been largely nothing that great. I think this may be one of the extremely rare cases where I prefer childhood friend to the main girl. (Although piano girl is still best, obviously.) And childhood friend’s boyfriend was really fricking cool. She should totally dump the main character for her ex-boyfriend. I definitely would. Someone who would break up with you like that is too awesome to break up with. Continue reading The Week in Anime Winter 2015 #3 — Breaking Up →

Yuri Kuma Arashi 04 and 05 — Do it Again

Yuri Kuma Arashi,

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My favorite part of Ikuhara’s works is the use of repetition. We see it in episode 3, where Lulu keeps kicking her brother off a cliff and he brings her the honey. Or in all the episodes, with the Yuri Trial and the Kuma Shock. He does the same thing in Penguindrum, with the “Survival Strategy” scene, and in Utena with the spiral staircase and the car scenes.

What makes the repetition so effective is how he builds up your expectations, then inevitably twists them. My favorite example of this was in Mawaru Penguindrum, where Ringo got thrust into the survival strategy scene, dropped down the chute, and kicked herself out of it. We get a similar effect in episode four of Yurikuma when Ginko is caught in the trap after the bear shock. Continue reading Yuri Kuma Arashi 04 and 05 — Do it Again →