i am not immune to stories in which characters who have endured harsh, empty existences become absolutely transformed by someone’s sincere love for them and learn to live

Have you watched Tsurune, by an chance? If yes, what do you think about it?

Finally managed to write down a reply for this! (Told y’all I was gonna do it and I did not give up, lmao.)

So this ask caught me off-guard for two reasons: one is that I never see it coming when people send me Tsurune asks now that the anime is long over and the fandom is inactive, and the other is that nobody has ever asked me this question so straightforwardly. Whenever I got asks about Tsurune, people would question me about the differences between anime and novel, the anime versions versus the canon versions of the characters, fanservice and ship tease, alterations in character relationships and my opinions on specific episodes, chapters or scenes. As far as I remember, no one has ever asked me what I think of the anime (or the novel) in general.

I won’t go into the novel since this ask is just about the anime (I can do that in another one if you like), but I’ll end up mentioning it every now and then because it’s pretty impossible to discuss about an adaptation without talking about its source material. Still, I promise this review won’t be centered on that.

This is actually a very condensed version of my thoughts, because the real thing would be a bible. It’s still a lot, though. Here comes a long-ass ride.

I guess I should start by making clear that I usually follow the history of KyoAni’s productions very closely as I’m a big fan of the studio. This includes reading the novels and mangas they adapt into anime as well. I had read volume 1 by the time the Tsurune anime came out, so I already knew what the canon was like. I must add that I was also familiar with Japanese archery to some degree and I was reading Zen in the Art of Archery when the anime was airing (it’s referenced early in the novel, so I decided to give it a try).

With all of this being said, when it was announced that Tsurune would get an anime, my first reaction was to worry. This surprised even me, because I usually have high hopes for any KyoAni adaptation, even the ones I end up not liking. I mean, it’s a studio filled with brilliant stars and holds the golden standards of the whole industry, so even when the content isn’t good, the quality of the animation itself is enough to make their shows worth anyone’s time. But the choice of director had me very concerned.

Now, this is Kyoto Animation that we’re talking about. In no moment did I fear for the animation’s quality. Most of Tsurune’s staff members, if not all, already had previous experience working on Violet Evergarden. And we all know that even newcomers freshly graduated from KyoAni’s preparatory school can make a stunning visual masterpiece. Yes, I am talking about Kyoukai no Kanata. And yes, I said visual masterpiece, because we also know that what these productions normally lack is the most essential part: the content.

In those cases, the one who actually makes a difference is the director. I’m a firm believer that the more inexperienced the staff is, the more competent a director they should be placed under. If not a senior animator, at least let it be a rising talent with the best prospects possible. But the schedules usually don’t help with that, so these hatchlings ended up under Yamamura Takuya’s wings.

To elaborate a bit further on why I think brighter animators should be the ones leading new packs (no, it’s not discrimination against the less accomplished, because you gotta start from somewhere), it’s because they usually have this knack for bringing the most out of the stories they’re working on. When the story is great by itself, that’s a different thing, but when it doesn’t quite reach its full potential with just the text, then the one to give it life has to be a person with more vision.

Am I saying that Tsurune is one of those stories? Absolutely. Tsurune is about archery, which is an art that is best appreciated when observed. You can’t get everything out of it just with words, and there are many things in it that people who don’t know much or know nothing about Japanese archery wouldn’t understand without actually seeing them, so the series obviously needed an anime in order to reach its full potential. But other than that, I’ll be honest: I love the Tsurune novel for its cultural baggage, the handling of its characters and its fairly innovative views in the repetitive and boring scene that sports animanga are nowadays, but I don’t consider it a well-written novel. Because it isn’t.

This might seem controvesial coming from someone who defends the canon with claws and teeth, but I’m aware of its flaws. I think Ayano Kotoko has a lot of room for improvement, and she’s evolved remarkably from volume 1 to volume 2. But volume 1 is what the anime was based off, so there was a deep need for a clinical eye in that production. One that could measure the original work’s strengths and weaknesses and balance them out by powering one up and overcoming the other. And also a certain level of knowledge about Japanese archery. Sadly, Yamamura Takuya didn’t have any of it.

As much as I admire Yamamura as a key animator and in-betweener, I believe he has a long way to go before he can be considered a good director, and I certainly don’t think he was ready for his debut when he was put in charge of Tsurune. I would rather, and I mean this in a good way, have seen him work as anything else for the rest of his career. Being a series director was too much for him. I say this taking into consideration not only the fiasco that the Tsurune anime was in sales but also Yamamura’s history in the studio before becoming a director.

This might sound funny, but Yamamura had no idea how big Animation Do and KyoAni were before he decided to join. He also was never very skilled. His in-betweening was actually not approved at first when he was trying to enter the company. He even once admitted that his knowledge of animation was extremely limited at the time, and what a time that was, because the studio was busy up to the neck with the making of Lucky Star back then. He didn’t know left and right, basically, and he recalled in an interview from last year that he is still surprised the studio actually hired him.

Despite all of this, Yamamura joined the company with the intention of becoming a director. While he did manage the feat in the end, it took him +10 years and a few frustrated attempts. Animators usually start out at in-betweening and earn other positions through passing exams. Yamamura failed his first exam to be key animator, only managing to pass half a year later. He also failed his first exam to become a director. At his second attempt, one of their colleagues even suggested that maybe he should stay a bit longer as a key animator, and I couldn’t agree more. While he did pass the test, I can only bring myself to think that he did so with an average score.

Now, I did say that this info came from a 2019 interview, when the Tsurune anime was already over. But they weren’t really what shaped my opinion on Yamamura regarding his direction. It was the anime itself. But this interview served to confirm something I had already noticed from his tragectory to series direction: with him being in the studio for so long and having worked on so many titles, it was weird to me that he was rarely an episode director in comparison to key animation and in-betweening. Episode direction is a step that I consider crucial for one to become either series director, animation supervisor or series composer. I do know that quite a few directors take just as long as he did or even longer to debut and actually do thrive in the end, but observing Yamamura’s work always gave me the impression that he was better off following decisions made by someone else rather than making his own.

Yamamura also loses points with me in that he’s backed up within the company by Kawanami Eisaku, another director who doesn’t get rave reviews on his works. He’s the one who replaced Utsumi Hiroko after she migrated to Mappa, and ever since he took over the Free! franchise, its sales decreased to less than 1/3 of each of the first two seasons separately. I personally don’t like that he seems to look down on Utsumi despite his lack of success in inheriting her legacy, but leaving this aside and focusing only on his skills, I’m not fond of directors who opt for simplistic approaches in general. I think animation is a medium that should be used to amplify the appeal of the source material, not water it down. It also feels like these kinds of directors are always trying to play safe, which (they don’t seem to realize) goes against the audience’s expectations and kills the hype. It strikes me as cowardly, to be frank. I also don’t like when they ignore what the characters had been building up and simply retool them to their own tastes. I was praying that Yamamura would be different from this bad example, but turns out he was actually worse.

I got a really bad feeling when the anime PVs of Tsurune were released. My very first impression was that Yamamura was still too much of a beginner and he wouldn’t be able to make Tsurune into a successful anime. I know this might seem like an exaggeration, but here’s the thing: ever since KyoAni started making its own titles, I’d never seen lack of hype for their upcoming works. Ever.

Until Tsurune.

Every time a PV of a KyoAni show comes out, people go crazy. It’s not always a frenzy like it was with Free! in its heyday or Violet Evergarden when the novel commercials were the only pieces of animation we had of it, but there’s usually lots of debate and speculations going on. With Tsurune, almost no one cared. You’d see next to nobody talking about it save from a few people on Reddit. And honestly, why should they bother? It didn’t seem promising at all. Didn’t show much of the characters or the story’s premise, didn’t highlight any particularly interest aspect of the plot and didn’t leave any impression animation-wise. It was very bland, to say the least. Unfortunately, so was the anime series.

It might be blunt of me, but my overall evaluation of Tsurune is that it was a really boring show. Nearly all elements that made the story and characters interesting were either taken out or squeezed into a cookie cutter mold, cliche version of what they looked like they were going to be at first but turned out not to be in the novel. And I say this because one of the things that make Tsurune a good novel is how it turns stereotypes upside-down. It introduces the readers into what seems like is going to be a typical sports shounen and starts out describing the character archetypes in the most common ways possible and puts them in the most common situations possible, then it reverses them all. That’s what’s most charismatic about the books. It’s what incites actual character development and gives us different sides of each relationship, yet the anime makes no use of it.

The anime also hardly makes any use of all the mystic, Zen and lowkey folklore-ish veils of the novel, which are supposed to add up to the archery elements. The Zen part is actually essential since Japanese archery is fundamentally a Zen form of art. Yes, art. Japanese archery is, in fact, not a sport. This is one of the aspects that elevate Tsurune above other works of the sports genre: it’s only categorized as such because it can’t fit anywhere else, but it’s not really a sports novel. That could have elevated the anime to the same status too, if only the studio hadn’t treated it like a sports one. But they made that mistake.

Still, I think the biggest sin in this adaptation was to try to cling to tropes that are considered successful and ignoring the characters’ personalities, which didn’t match these tropes at all, resulting in both characters and bonds being utterly destroyed and the flow of the story slowing down to a slug pace. By the second half of the anime, literally either nothing interesting happens or the things that were supposed to be interesting don’t hold the audience’s attention enough, which the animators attempt to cover up with queerbait. Everything is so tediously predictable that I’ve seen countless comments from the Japanese side of the fandom about how similar the Tsurune anime was to Free! and how “KyoAni only ever makes male characters like that, don’t they”. They were referring to Seiya and his weird jealousy, by the way. Even first-timers could tell that the characterization was a disaster.

The sad thing is, they were right. The Tsurune anime really did feel highkey like a Free! copycat in the characterization department. The main character is always getting swung about by everyone around him. The best friend is very clearly co-dependent. The deuteragonist is revealed to be bitter because of a deceased relative and is an asshole to the rest of the main cast for a good portion of the series. The rival from the other school is rude as hell for no reason and he’s got annoying groupies on his team who don’t exist outside of idolizing him. There are only four female characters and they have almost no screen time. And the list goes on.

As for the animation itself, I would like to say that it was perfect, but what really rang the alarm in my head was the many beginner mistakes so evident here and there, such as missing frames, the opening theme starting out of nowhere, the colors of the background often being too bland, lack of movement or scenes where the characters are too static, etc. I shit you not that when I saw the title splashing onto the screen all of a sudden in the initial ten seconds of episode one, the first thing I thought was, “This won’t sell well”. Sure enough, it didn’t.

So there you have it. I didn’t like the show. The only things I enjoyed were the archery scenes and the soundtrack. The rest simply didn’t do justice to the original work. I hope this summary has explained why, but if you want more info on it, maybe visit my Tsurune tag. You’ll find me elaborating more on particular topics in response to similar asks. Or you can send me other questions if you feel like.

That’s it!

Final Thoughts - 2018 Long Shows

It’s finally here! I’m so close to being done with 2018 (...mostly. We’ll get to it) that I can taste it, but in the meantime, this list is gonna be weird, because there will be things that were already on other lists since I revised my rules of what should be classified how. This post is specifically for any show that ended in 2018 and lasted longer than 13-ish episodes (including shows that aired a second season during the same year or within six months of finishing the previous one), which means that there’s about as much on it as a usual season of shows, but they all had more time to impress - or disappoint me. I’m doing a better job in recent seasons of getting to everything, but last year there were unfortunately things that I missed (I was burned out in the winter) and just have to leave aside for now because I can’t wait any longer for these lists.

Anyway! As usual, let’s start with what I skipped!

* The Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of the Commandments, The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo S2, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, Garo: Vanishing Line, and Mr Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues because I haven’t seen their previous seasons or parent works. (Yes, even Cardcaptor Sakura. Y’all can shoot me later.)

* Hakyuu Hoshin Engi, Beatless, and Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls because by the time I was rounding things up, I hadn’t heard a single positive thing about any of them.

Next comes what I dropped -

WORST OF THE YEAR: Steins;Gate 0 (4/10)

What a fucking mess this show was. Aside from a very noticeable downgrade in production talent from its predecessor, the plot meanders and flirts with maybe actually happening this time before just dropping out again, over and over, to the point where I was perfectly willing to drop it two episodes from the finish line because it was such an insult to fans of the original. (Also, continued disgusting mistreatment of the transgender character.)

Gundam Build Divers (4/10)

Taking the Build series from being a well-written kids show to an averagely-written kids show that hides itself in decent mech designs.

Katana Maidens (4/10)

I remember so little about this show, and granted that I did drop it after one episode almost nine months ago, but what I did remember was that it gave me strong KanColle vibes with laughably inconsistent animation and flat characters. Meh.

Darling in the FRANXX (5/10)

This should probably be lower on the list, but I got out of Darling while the getting was good, sixteen episodes in. I understand that future episodes of the show cemented it as crappy right-wing nonsense in addition to pushing worldbuilding out of its fortieth-story window, but the moment it lost me was much sooner, when the crazy yandere female lead was reduced, almost instantly, to Good Anime Waifu as a reward to the protagonist for going against his friends with his selfish motives.

Persona 5 the Animation (5/10)

In addition to not actually finishing in 2018, Persona 5 just did not give me a single reason to watch it when I’d already finished the source game, with middling-to-bad visuals (thanks to the switch from Production I.G. to A-1 Pictures, and not even the team that created the much better-looking Day Breakers OVA before the game was released in the U.S.) and phoned-in music, which is especially unacceptable in a Persona adaptation. Also, we all absolutely called that the studio couldn’t tell the story of the entire game in just 26 episodes.

Record of Grancrest War (6/10)

There’s people that like this one a lot, but I didn’t see much that interested me in the first two episodes. I’ve heard better things about the manga.

Golden Kamuy (6/10)

I had problems with the first half of Golden Kamuy that the second half simply didn’t fix, and it became difficult for me to keep watching - the show still interrupted almost every fight scene with a dick joke, but still wanted to maintain a serious and occasionally frightening tone - and those things simply don’t go together. It needed to either spend more time being funny, or keep its lowest-common-denominator humor out of the fights.

Next, I have two shows that are (potentially permanently) On Hold, simply because it’s time for me to move on and I don’t have the time or energy to marathon them when the Winter shows are starting to wrap up:

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, because even though I initially dropped it, I’ve heard a lot of good things since and I want to eventually give it another shot.

Yowamushi Pedal Glory Line, because despite the fact that I still enjoyed the previous season, this one started right in the middle of my burnout and I only heard bad things about it. I’ll get to it eventually, but it’s a shame that this series has been on a clear trend downwards since its revival.

And finally, the stuff I finished!

The Ancient Magus’ Bride (6/10)

Keep in mind that this is here entirely on the merits of its aesthetic and its side characters - in the end, Ancient Magus’ Bride is a Beauty and the Beast story where the beast gets what he wants without learning to be less of a dick or even apologizing for his clearly wrong actions.

Major 2nd (7/10)

Always pleased to have even just Good sports shows around, and this one is a very effective reboot of a classic series that’s never made its way stateside (man, the underperformance of Big Windup! really did a lot of damage to this genre in the West). With good character development and a decent second-generation premise, Major 2nd has the potential to be the beginning of a solid baseball story, assuming that it gets a needed followup.

IDOLiSH7 (7/10)

I dropped IDOLiSH7 when it first aired, and though I wound up enjoying it after I was very strongly urged to revisit it, the problems it started with never quite left it behind - that is, it has an okay cast of characters but doesn’t present even passable performance sequences, and if you’re going to include big song-and-dance numbers, they have to be good, or you may as well just be UtaPri.

ClassicaLoid Season 2 (8/10)

In 2017, I gave the first season of ClassicaLoid a near-perfect 9/10, and while this season gives us a satisfying conclusion to the story, it does things both a little better than the first, and also not quite as great. It’s story is much more well-integrated over the runtime so it doesn’t happen all at once in a few chunks, and the jokes that work are still absolute genius, but there’s simply too much that doesn’t quite land correctly, and a little too much immature humor, for it to reach the same lofty Hall of Fame heights as the first season. Still, one of the most underrated shows I’ve ever seen.

My Hero Academia Season 3 (8/10)

God, Izuku in that onesie is too damn cute.

My problems with Hero Academia are frustratingly persistent - the show is at its best when the students are competing with other students, because outside of last season’s Stain (a villain whose motivation is specifically related to the world of MHA), the villains are just not at all compelling and they all seem a little too generic for their own good. I just want Horikoshi to be a little bit less predictable of an author and do a little less reading of the Standard Shounen Playbook. Luckily, when it works, it works magnificently.

March Comes in Like a Lion S2 (8/10)

March remains director/auteur Akiyuki Shinbo’s most accessible work, and one of his masterpieces, as a well-paced and marvelously moody story of a depressed shogi prodigy learning to be a normal teenager before his youth completely passes him by, and the fantastic characters that surround him with their own complex problems and motivations. I just really, really hope it gets a third season eventually, because this one did not leave off on a satisfying conclusion.

Speaking of which...

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma S3 (9/10)

It’s almost a shame that My Hero Academia became hugely popular purely based on its accessibility to American audiences, because Food Wars pretty squarely deserves to be the reigning Shonen Jump king - each season has only improved on the previous one, and this one was based entirely on a continuing arc that could only have happened in the universe of this show, Fighting Food Fascism. That being said, it also leaves off right in the middle of the arc (because it had almost caught up to the manga), meaning that we have to hope that it can remain relevant long enough for there to be enough source material for another season. I’ll be crossing my fingers until they snap.

Banana Fish (9/10)

Yes, this has risen a point since my review, but Banana Fish still deserves to be thought of as both a complete masterwork of crime fiction, being fantastically paced and expertly plotted in the use of its many, many twists, and a work that disappointed the side of me that hoped that, in adapting it into the modern day, MAPPA could have managed to get the author to let them depict what is clearly a queer relationship with the authenticity and legitimacy that it deserved. It’s still amazing, though, and Amazon should be pushing it with their most lavishly-made originals. At least it was the last noitaminA show they’ll get to totally bury.

And, finally, the one you all saw coming.

BEST OF THE YEAR: Lupin the 3rd Part V (10/10)

Lupin is, quite simply, one of the pinnacles of the medium. A simple idea that can (and did) go in thousands of different directions, handled by highly creative writers and an animation staff that has been knocking it out of the park for years, despite the fact that it is criminally (heh) unrecognized in the West. To put it simply, there’s a very, very good reason that it’s been around since the 70′s.

Okay! All I have left to do is finish Dragon Pilot (waiting on a friend) and we can get the last two lists out of the way! We’re almost done...

Attack On Titan Episode 88 release date in 2023 : The Final Season Part 3

Yes, Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 is on its way. The show may never end at this rate. It's good news, though, for those who are looking for episode 88 release dates. This is especially important after the show ended in Part 2. We'll be covering everything we know about 2023's Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3. Also known as Attack on Titan Season 4, Part 3 and , also known under Attack on Titan Final Season Final Arc. Because anime is a confusing medium. Although the Attack on Titan final episode is still at least a year away we know a lot about it. This includes a teaser trailer, poster, and a glimpse at how many episodes remain. It also gives us an idea of a potential release window for Attack on Titan Episode 88. May Also Like : Annie Leonhart Aot : Everything You Need To Know Episode 88 of Attack on Titan is scheduled for release Attack on Titan has seen a series of release windows in its nearly ten-decade on television. New seasons have been released as part of the anime's traditional Spring and Fall windows. We believe the Attack on Titan episode number 88 release date will be sometime in the Winter 2022/23 window (January-February 2023). Why? The Final Season's two first parts have been released in December 2020 and January 2022, respectively. This is the pattern and there should be enough time for next year, barring any delays in production. We'll see that Part 3 should be shorter than the other two, which should help speed up production. Related : King Fritz : Everything You Need To Know Is Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 actually a movie? Some rumors suggested that Attack on Titan's Final Season might be made into a movie. This is likely to be due to the continuing success of anime movies on the big screen called 'canon', such as Jujutsu Kaisen Zero and the Demon Slayer Mugen Train movie. This is not the case. Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 is not a movie. Instead, it will consist of several TV episodes adapting the last chapters from the manga source material. Related : Carla Yeager : Everything You Need To Know How many episodes of Attack on Titan remain? Part 3 will likely be quite short, although we don't know the exact length. It's running out of material. The first season of Attack on Titan Final Season/season 4 was 16 episodes long. It adapted the manga's chapter 91 to chapter 116. Final Season Part 2 ran 12 episodes and covered chapters 117-130. There are only nine manga chapters left to adapt, which means Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 could last around 10 episodes at the current ratio of manga chapters-to-episodes. Depending on how MAPPA approaches (likely) the action-heavy scenes, that could be extended to 12 or 13. Related : Zeke Jaeger : Everything You Need To Know Attack on Titan Final Season Story: What can we expect from Part 3? First, it is clear that the decades-long conflict between Paradis Island and Marley is over. Part 3 remains a mystery. The Rumbling is Eren's world-ending move. It sees the Titans enclosed in Paradis wars and used as a huge army. Eren plans to kill all people outside Paradis, so that his friends can live happily without having to suffer the vicious cycle of revenge that will eventually lead to Paradis' 'devils. The coalition of forces from Paradis and Marley stands in Eren's path. They include Eren's "sister" Mikasa, his once-family in the Survey Corps and the rest of the prominent Marley forces. Before we reach the final showdown, there are some wildcards. Floch is the most prominent. Gabi last saw Eren's loyal lieutenant being shot, but it didn't seem to be fatal. He will likely play a significant role in the final act of the show's finale. Zeke is likely to be on the chessboard as well. Zeke is currently stuck in the Coordinate due to Eren's actions from Part 2. However, if anyone can help him out of a temporary jam it's Zeke. Jaegerists, those who support Eren, may also be affected by Eren’s continuing rampage around the globe. It could be that they support or oppose Eren that will decide how the conflict ends. In the end, Eren will be fighting Mikasa for the fate of the planet. It could be the question of his willingness to let go of his warpath that makes all the difference. Also Read : Eren Kruger Aot : Everything You Need To Know The Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 3 Episode release date is 2023 Studio MAPPA was given a place on the anime production committee for Attack On Titan's final series. A committee is a group or companies that have invested in an anime project and share the risks and rewards. MAPPA is therefore interested in seeing the Attack On Titan end as successful as possible. They should also be able to have greater control over the ending of the story. Whether the nine final chapters were adapted from an Attack On Titan movie or a Shingeki no Kyojin Season 4 Part 3 movie, the main issue was the availability of Studio MAPPA. They have grown quickly in recent years and announced in March 2022 that they would be opening a sub-studio to provide CGI art for their projects. Studio MAPPA has more projects than it can handle in 2022, so there's no doubt that. Chainsaw Man, Hell's Paradise, Jigokuraku and Dance Dance Danseur are just a few of the many projects on Studio MAPPA's 2022 agenda. Jujutsu Kaisen 0's Japanese movie box office broke all records, so it was not surprising that Season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen was also announced for 2023. The Zombieland Saga movie on aliens is also in development. Attack On Titan Episode 88 will be released in the mid- to late 2023 to maintain animation quality and give the final season a solid production schedule. May Also Like : Reiss Family : Everything You Need To Know Trailer for Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JMKbUDgbCM&ab_channel=AnimeHypeアニメ日本 By Anime Hype The Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 trailer is more in the 'teaser bracket than it was at the beginning. It gives very little away. You can also find the first poster here. It's not only a metaphor for following (quite literally!) in Eren's footsteps while they chase down the Scout, but it's also noteworthy that Levi is seen here wearing ODM gear. It appears that despite suffering serious injuries in the Final Season it is possible that he could be recovering and ready to fight in Part 3. 2023 looks set to be a great year for anime. The third season of Demon Slayer is set to premiere next year. Meanwhile, the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen is scheduled for 2023. Related And Alert Spoiler : Aot Ending Explained : Everything You Need To Know Aot Final Season Part 3 Discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHbqA3zFkpc By Daily Anime Also Read : Attack On Titan Girls : Our Top 10+ Read the full article

THE THREE EPISODES THROWDOWN Where you get first impressions and thirst impressions

Banana Fish

To start off, let’s make a brief summary of one key aspect: the boy lovin’

Ep1: Ok, not a whole lotta that here…

Ep2: Eh, I guess a little bit?

Ep3: Ah, there we go. Kinda.

But seriously, let me preface this (paragraph) by noting I haven’t read the OG manga, so I came in blind, trusting it’s notoriety and the amazing previews of this animated version. I’m a sucker for well-executed, clean retro style, see? It has a certain Gundam: The Origin vibe that hooked me immediately. I checked to see if there was anyone in common involved but the character designer is a woman called Akemi Hayashi, so she’s neither Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (…) nor Tsukasa Kotobuki, obviously; but she’s indeed doing great. As for the director, turns out she comes straight from Kyoto Animation, which will probably become a common occurrence, since they form them rather well in there. Her name is Hiroko Utsumi and you may recognize her from directing Free or Chuunibyou, so a newbie she’s not. The studio, Mappa, has been killing it quite a bit, at least animation wise; although their stories always leave something to be desired. Let’s hope this is among the better ones.

Let’s start with what hooked me in, shall we? That sleek production design. The characters, the environment, the music, the colors and, of course, the animation. It’s all working like a charm and it is impressive more often than not, be that for little gestures or big fights, the attention to detail is ever present. The questionable side of this is that they didn’t quite kept the 80’s setting, yet the look of it isn’t entirely clear on that. So it’s a present day that kinda looks like the 80’s. Which, yeah, I guess it makes sense, considering our current infatuation with that cocaine-infused decade. Also, I should mention this takes place in USA and it is quite obviously inspired by the movies of the time, which gives its storytelling a peculiar quality of giving action precedence over themes, at least for now.

He was a boy, he was also a boy. Can I make it any more obvious?

And as for the story, it’s mostly an action thriller about a LSD-like drug that makes you go on rampages, then say “Banana Fish” and die. They really knew how to party, back then. Our cute blond protagonist, Ash, leads a band of merry kids from the rough side of town (and life) and the plot kicks in with the death of a man that mutters “banana fish”, just like Ash’s brother did before being shot and going catatonic. Then along come two Japanese journalists to cover this dangerous lives and thus we meet our cute black haired protagonist, Eiji, who pretty much falls for Ash’s rough charm immediately. This is a key selling point, of course, because a high-budget action thriller with a gay relationship at its core isn’t quite the most common occurrence in the media. The fun part is that Eiji’s older than the 17 year old blond, yet much more naïve and infinitely more virginal. The not so fun part is that Ash didn’t really choose not to be a virgin. Our blond, intellectual, fighting expert of a gang leader was taken in by a mafia boss, Dino, at a young age; and Dino was really into Michael Jackson, for all the wrong reasons. Unsavory stuff, sure; and a recurring happenstance, unfortunately; but at least it’s never quite in your face and it does fuel the story in many ways.

Uncle Dino here, who totally looks like a nice fella.  

Let’s go back to happier things, like the music. It’s lovely. Not terribly noteworthy, mind you, but delightfully sleek. My only beef is with the opening, which is inexplicably edgy as hell and makes no use of the 80’s vibe at all, instead going for a more new metal vibe. The lowest point of the production, easily.

Improvised-pole-vaulting into a lavishly animated metaphor, as you do. 

As for what is in store for the rest of the series, hard to tell, really. From what I gather, it’s playing fast and loose with the source material, not just by changing the time period but several other elements as well. Seems to be going for a more dramatic approach, even though there’s no shortage of light-hearted moments too. Personally, while I can’t judge it as an adaptation, I do trust it will be a worthwhile experience as a series. These people seem to have a decent idea of what they’re going for, although there is the underlying fear of it getting too gruesome and edgy for its own good. Also not having much of a strong theme, but again… OH, THE EIGHTIES.

This is clearly the year of our Lord (Reinhard) 2018

Attack On Titan Episode 88 release date in 2023 : The Final Season Part 3

Yes, Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 is on its way. The show may never end at this rate. It's good news, though, for those who are looking for episode 88 release dates. This is especially important after the show ended in Part 2. We'll be covering everything we know about 2023's Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3. Also known as Attack on Titan Season 4, Part 3 and , also known under Attack on Titan Final Season Final Arc. Because anime is a confusing medium. Although the Attack on Titan final episode is still at least a year away we know a lot about it. This includes a teaser trailer, poster, and a glimpse at how many episodes remain. It also gives us an idea of a potential release window for Attack on Titan Episode 88. May Also Like : Annie Leonhart Aot : Everything You Need To Know Episode 88 of Attack on Titan is scheduled for release Attack on Titan has seen a series of release windows in its nearly ten-decade on television. New seasons have been released as part of the anime's traditional Spring and Fall windows. We believe the Attack on Titan episode number 88 release date will be sometime in the Winter 2022/23 window (January-February 2023). Why? The Final Season's two first parts have been released in December 2020 and January 2022, respectively. This is the pattern and there should be enough time for next year, barring any delays in production. We'll see that Part 3 should be shorter than the other two, which should help speed up production. Related : King Fritz : Everything You Need To Know Is Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 actually a movie? Some rumors suggested that Attack on Titan's Final Season might be made into a movie. This is likely to be due to the continuing success of anime movies on the big screen called 'canon', such as Jujutsu Kaisen Zero and the Demon Slayer Mugen Train movie. This is not the case. Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 is not a movie. Instead, it will consist of several TV episodes adapting the last chapters from the manga source material. Related : Carla Yeager : Everything You Need To Know How many episodes of Attack on Titan remain? Part 3 will likely be quite short, although we don't know the exact length. It's running out of material. The first season of Attack on Titan Final Season/season 4 was 16 episodes long. It adapted the manga's chapter 91 to chapter 116. Final Season Part 2 ran 12 episodes and covered chapters 117-130. There are only nine manga chapters left to adapt, which means Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 could last around 10 episodes at the current ratio of manga chapters-to-episodes. Depending on how MAPPA approaches (likely) the action-heavy scenes, that could be extended to 12 or 13. Related : Zeke Jaeger : Everything You Need To Know Attack on Titan Final Season Story: What can we expect from Part 3? First, it is clear that the decades-long conflict between Paradis Island and Marley is over. Part 3 remains a mystery. The Rumbling is Eren's world-ending move. It sees the Titans enclosed in Paradis wars and used as a huge army. Eren plans to kill all people outside Paradis, so that his friends can live happily without having to suffer the vicious cycle of revenge that will eventually lead to Paradis' 'devils. The coalition of forces from Paradis and Marley stands in Eren's path. They include Eren's "sister" Mikasa, his once-family in the Survey Corps and the rest of the prominent Marley forces. Before we reach the final showdown, there are some wildcards. Floch is the most prominent. Gabi last saw Eren's loyal lieutenant being shot, but it didn't seem to be fatal. He will likely play a significant role in the final act of the show's finale. Zeke is likely to be on the chessboard as well. Zeke is currently stuck in the Coordinate due to Eren's actions from Part 2. However, if anyone can help him out of a temporary jam it's Zeke. Jaegerists, those who support Eren, may also be affected by Eren’s continuing rampage around the globe. It could be that they support or oppose Eren that will decide how the conflict ends. In the end, Eren will be fighting Mikasa for the fate of the planet. It could be the question of his willingness to let go of his warpath that makes all the difference. Also Read : Eren Kruger Aot : Everything You Need To Know The Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 3 Episode release date is 2023 Studio MAPPA was given a place on the anime production committee for Attack On Titan's final series. A committee is a group or companies that have invested in an anime project and share the risks and rewards. MAPPA is therefore interested in seeing the Attack On Titan end as successful as possible. They should also be able to have greater control over the ending of the story. Whether the nine final chapters were adapted from an Attack On Titan movie or a Shingeki no Kyojin Season 4 Part 3 movie, the main issue was the availability of Studio MAPPA. They have grown quickly in recent years and announced in March 2022 that they would be opening a sub-studio to provide CGI art for their projects. Studio MAPPA has more projects than it can handle in 2022, so there's no doubt that. Chainsaw Man, Hell's Paradise, Jigokuraku and Dance Dance Danseur are just a few of the many projects on Studio MAPPA's 2022 agenda. Jujutsu Kaisen 0's Japanese movie box office broke all records, so it was not surprising that Season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen was also announced for 2023. The Zombieland Saga movie on aliens is also in development. Attack On Titan Episode 88 will be released in the mid- to late 2023 to maintain animation quality and give the final season a solid production schedule. May Also Like : Reiss Family : Everything You Need To Know Trailer for Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JMKbUDgbCM&ab_channel=AnimeHypeアニメ日本 By Anime Hype The Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 trailer is more in the 'teaser bracket than it was at the beginning. It gives very little away. You can also find the first poster here. It's not only a metaphor for following (quite literally!) in Eren's footsteps while they chase down the Scout, but it's also noteworthy that Levi is seen here wearing ODM gear. It appears that despite suffering serious injuries in the Final Season it is possible that he could be recovering and ready to fight in Part 3. 2023 looks set to be a great year for anime. The third season of Demon Slayer is set to premiere next year. Meanwhile, the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen is scheduled for 2023. Related And Alert Spoiler : Aot Ending Explained : Everything You Need To Know Aot Final Season Part 3 Discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHbqA3zFkpc By Daily Anime Also Read : Attack On Titan Girls : Our Top 10+ Read the full article