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.
It looks like Tatsuo Satou (the director of Kidou Senkan Nadesico, Uchuu no Stellvia, and Mouretsu Pirates) is directing this so yeah, I'm in. Also, Shuuichi Ikeda (aka CHAR) is narrating,... and then Akira Ishida (Athrun Zala among many other things) is one of the characters?! alright alright.
Anyways, not knowing anything about this coming in, this first ep was a lot of fun and Tatsuo Satou is a director who I like for the worldbuilding in their series and the balance of seriousness with good comedic timing so looking forward to the rest.
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.
Meteos for the DS. Never got the Disney sequel but the original was great and probably my most played DS game.
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.
Schwarzette’s bits are pretty cool. Funnels/bits are always cool though.
“I don’t want Mom… to become some evil magician!” Thanks for pointing out the Tempest parallels, Suletta.
I guess it wouldn’t be Gundam without a big freaking laser. Now with organ soundtrack (reminds me of Yamato 2202’s OST). And it’s always fun when Gundam does evil Haros.
Whenever I see Quod Erat Demonstrandum, I always think of Candide,… namely the Bernstein operetta adaptation. I’ve studied math in the past so I dunno why Candide pops into my head first, I guess squares are more common than the actual letters. QED kinda feels a little on-the-nose to be at the concluding steps of ideologically-based (well, ideology and revenge-based) plot but eh.
def one of my favs of the season.
mentioned last week how i liked tsubaki's confession scene and i like its continuation here. kvin from sakugablog has a twitter thread about this anime and mentions the weird way this show uses the traditional shoujo anime "sparkles" that float around the screen and act as transitions, using the beer from the beginning of the series of as an example. i liked how the tears were this episode's usage of the shoujo sparkles and in particular, there was that one tear that floated in front of the flashbacks.
how runa was animated throughout the dinner was really fun. my favorite bit was when akane was holding runa up and had her hand over her mouth to keep her quiet and runa is just hanging there.
doesn't feel like a show i should hold my breath for a s2 and things feel nicely tied up and full circle here, but it'd be a pleasant surprise. in any case, it'd be fun to see inori minase in more roles that use this voice (although i do like her usual asmr-y or lively genki voice roles).
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.