The Venture Bros S2E4 "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II"
Watching this episode, I can see the randumz and the middle schooler transgressiveness of the early aughts, but I also see foreshadowing of the much better western animation era to come.
Dungeon Meshi S1E4-6 (part two)
It is during the party's encounter with a pack of vengeful ghosts that Laios and the others most sorely miss Falin, and - implicitly - wonder if any of them have it in themselves to measure up to her spiritual strength and goodness.
And then they make ghost ice cream.
Dungeon Meshi S1E4-6 (part one)
Orcs. There's no fantasy RPG mainstay that's been subject to more controversy. I have thoughts on the matter, but if I started writing them down I'd end up with a thousand+ word essay, and I don't think this review has room for that.
The Amazing Digital Circus E5: "Untitled"
Caine isn't just the demiurge. He's also the problem of hard solipsism.
Oh My Goddess! S2E2: "The Beleaguered Queen of Vengeance"
I just realized that what I'm basically trying to say is that Belldandy, uniquely within this series, is written as an actual god. The issue is, ironically, the exact opposite of what the very humanized Skuld and Urd claim it is.
Oh My Goddess! S1E11: "Heatvision and Urd"
I've seen this joke in supernatural comedies before, but Marller is a really well done and amusingly animated example.
The Owl House S2E20-21: "Clouds on the Horizon" and "King's Tide"
Talk about a cliffhanger jesus fuck.
The Owl House S2E18-19: "Labyrinth Runners" and "O Titan Where Art Thou?"
Imagine a world where studio-produced art was allowed to be good, instead of having to be what some lizard-brained finance bro thinks will be profitable.
That would be a pretty cool world.
Girls' Last Tour E1-2: "Starry Sky; War" and "Bath; Journal; Laundry" (part two)
Are they actually a pair of ghosts, haunting the lifeless ruins of their old city?
Girls' Last Tour E1-2: "Starry Sky; War" and "Bath; Journal; Laundry" (part one)
Post-apocalyptic slice-of-life is an increasingly prevalent little subgenre.
The Owl House S2E15-17: "Them's the Breaks, Kid," "Hollow Mind," and "Edge of the World" (continued more)
Too bad the only "answers" he can give at this point are hidden glyph-magic lessons encoded in weather events.
The Owl House S2E15-17: "Them's the Breaks, Kid," "Hollow Mind," and "Edge of the World" (continued)
This episode does two things. One is getting Luz and Hunter the information they need to make the next part of the plot happen. Which it does an annoyingly hamfisted, but technically sufficient, job of. The other is being a character study of Phillip Wittebane, and at that it does far better.
The Owl House S2E15-17: "Them's the Breaks, Kid," "Hollow Mind," and "Edge of the World"
It's honestly pretty prescient for a 2022 release. The trends were obviously already pointing in this direction, sure, but Tara's portrayal here is much more spot-on satire of the second Trump presidency than it is of the first.
Gaslight District (pilot)
I'm well aware that pilots - especially indy studio pilots - tend to be much weaker and more kludged together than the shows that ensue. I think that that's the case for this one. I hope it is. Because, while there's a lot that interested me in this pilot, there are also a couple of things that rendered it nearly unwatchable.
My Little Pony Fanworks: "Lullaby for a Princess" and "Children of the Night"
These two are interestingly oppositional takes on the same MLP backstory material.
Dungeon Meshi S1E1-3
This tickled my funnybone extra hard on account of me having had a similar idea a few years back.
Mob Psycho 100 S2E9: Show Me What You've Got ~Band Together~
It's not what I was wanting or expecting, but if Mob Psycho 100 wants to take a break for an episode or two and just have stupid shonen action scenes where nobody actually gets hurt and we plough through a series of grotesquely drawn villains who take turns going "n-n-nani???" before being defeated, I suppose it's earned that right.
The Owl House S2E13-14: "Any Sport in a Storm" and "Reaching Out"
The state abduction attempt turns out to be a...prank? Object lesson? Something like that?
The Owl House S2E11-12: "Follies at the Coven's Day Parade" and "Elsewhere and Elsewhen"
"Fullmetal Alchemist-y" is becoming more and more a propos.