now that i have recovered from the emotional shock of seeing *that* akutagawa scene from chapter 88 animated in HD 4K (i thought i’d have another week to emotionally prepare myself LMAO), i just wanna be a little bit of a nerd and say that i really liked the cinematography/composition this episode.
in particular, i really enjoyed the anime’s decision to draw visual parallels between this fight and previous fights (in particular, the fight against francis, which is important because it is the first time they worked together).
after all, this fight is the culmination of everything they’ve done together. from the combining of their abilities, coming to an understanding with each other, realising the potential of beast-beneath the moonlight-rashoumon… bringing back similar shots that were used in previous fights is SUPER effective at highlighting the parallels and how far they’ve come, in my humble opinion.
here are a few things i noticed:
- first of all, both of them activating their abilities one after another is an explicit nod to S2’s fight;
- the confrontation/conversation in the hallway from S2 (to an extent! they’re on the same sides, which caught my eye);
- akutagawa blowing up the engine room on the ship, and kyouka doing the same during the first fight between him and atsushi (S1);
- and a similar angle being used for black tiger claws / koukko zessou as a nod to the fight in the S3 finale.
the parallels — though maybe less explicit, *are* still there in the manga? like, the entire “structure” of the fight so to speak is very similar to the francis fight in S2 — akutagawa finding atsushi, taking place on a(n air)ship, breaking away from the fight to strategise before confronting the final boss (then, francis, and now, fukuchi) is undeniably a nod to that fight? i love that this is given its due in the anime as well.
another thing about the cinematography this episode i loved was them using the clock as being the indicator of fukuchi’s fuckass space-time sword doing its thing. that was a really nice touch, in my opinion; the cuts in between were jarring and disorienting and really helped put us into sskk’s shoes.
and as for the background design alongside the clock itself — there were a couple of things about them i enjoyed:
- the number of floors / levels of the ship in the back (5, as a nod to the five ways an angel decays, the DOA)
- the blue of the clock is meant to be reminiscent of fukuchi’s sword, i’d argue, with the way both of them pops out of the sunset/orangey-red lighting
- the clock’s design being super ornate and gold plated reminds me a *bit* of a tabernacle (where they keep unused eucharist in a church) — and thus brings up connotations of sacrifice. that white bridge-thing beneath the clock as well reminds me a lot of an altar, too (see the image above the last to see what exactly i’m referring to, because image limit)
okay, yeah, that one might be a bit of a stretch, sure. but its placement as being above them, combined with the two tables/boxes to the left and right of the ship’s bow (which looks very much like a cross, btw) gives it a distinctly religious, altar-kinda feel, i’d argue. and crosses have been used in S4 as symbolism as well!
(tbh, there could even be a bit more imagery i’m missing, because — the angels of the DOA refers specifically to the buddhist conception of an angel. i’m not too familiar with buddhist imagery, but i thought that this was worth pointing out regardless!)
the last thing i want to say is that the red and blue symbolism went CRAZY this episode. i don’t have much else to say because it was super obvious — they even reused the same “black tiger claws” shot from S3, after all — but i do wanna point out that the symbolism even went into the carpets. the fucking carpets.
like, the shift: it’s red when akutagawa’s leading the conversation but changes to blue after atsushi’s suggesting of the submersible as a strategy? i mean, i don’t know if this (or anything i’ve said, to be fair) was intentional or not, but it’s a cool detail anyway!
personally, i enjoyed this episode, the action was great, and all of this too was a really neat addition as well! and now… uh. we wait for the chaos to get worse i suppose !? (laughs nervously)
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How do you guys feel about T’noy Karaxis being infatuated/obsessed over one particular human and, by proxy, his family? As it seems like the rest of you don’t seem to share their ideals, or at least you don’t express them as much.
(I’m thankful at least one of you asked a question that won’t get you torn apart.)
Oh, you want to hear feelings? My older brother is nothing but an uncreative one trick pony who traps the same victims - if you could even call them that - in his fancy glorified yellow box over and over every other timeline so he doesn’t have to deal with them and work more than he has to. None of his victims are actually valuable, either. He says he’s doing us a “service”, but he’s not the one eradicating the Pauls across timelines or pitting humans against each other. Instead he’s stuck with the same horny family for the 300th time and I can’t even get the Woodwards back-
Bliklotep, they get it. Also, you’re not the one getting rid of Matthews, either.
I respect Pokotho’s methods.
You laughed at the singing ice cream shop. And the subsequent singing coffee shop.
OK? I don’t like ice cream or coffee. Sue me.
If you can’t already tell, Bliklotep has opinions. He runs his amusement park for the variety of humans, not for the shitty fried food.
My carnies work hard on that food!
If they make so much, feed them every once in a while. They’re delicate brainwashed humans, that need enough food to keep up a decent facade. You don’t want a repeat of Snoozle Town.
Don’t talk to me about food, snuggle-poo. You know how loud your Sniggles are? You just had to keep them in the Black & White when they’re not advertising?
They’re enthusiastic.
Ignore them, they like arguing. Speaking of which, we all have our own modus operandi. Even Nibbly. But our oldest brother is very selective with his prey. The Spankoffskis aren’t the first ones he’s messed with in terms of torture and enslavement; there were other families before them, of course.
Of course, Blinky himself’s not the most modest of us, either. No matter what he says, he prefers Watching the Woodwards to anyone else. He ‘likes their dynamic’, allegedly. I think he’s just projecting.
Extremely long story short, Tinky controls space. He can mess with whoever he wants for, really, as long as he wants, and there’s not much we can do about that. He basically only messes with them because he can. That, and he always looks in the bottom of the barrel for any of his Boxed victims. We’re…not exactly sure why.
Like Blinky said, T’noy Karaxis says he’s doing a service to us. And the people in Hatchetfield. In a way, he sort of is - one less citizen to watch out for. Well, him and his brother. And the elder Spankoffskis.
Mhm. That was some trillion timelines ago. They became too big a liability, according to him. They’re…also somewhere in that Bastard’s Box of his.
As for us-
We couldn’t care less. He’s older than any of us. That, and he doesn’t really meddle too much with our plans. We don’t get in each other’s way. Other than what you see on this blog thing, we aren’t in the same places in many specific timelines. If he does mess with any of our chosen toys, then it’s a big issue.
As long as he doesn’t do anything’ near the Honey Festival, I’m fine with it.
He’s what you humans would call protective over the Spankoffski brothers, we know well enough not to do anything to them. That’s the agreement.
Though if we ever want timeline business done, we have to ask him, and that’s the tricky part.
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