Music of the Week #421

Look at that

Given how fast I got through the week’s work, I feel a bit proud of myself writing this up on Monday evening instead of Tuesday night or Wednesday afternoon. Both series being covered got a bump in the road, with FGO just being a bit less exciting than the previous episodes because of my indifference to Jaguar Man and Azur Lane with its one key animator effort on episode 4. At least FGO can afford the slow-burn pace, Azur Lane still has ways to go if it needs to deliver what it’s trying to do

The first part of why Crossbell was so good in my eyes is that our protagonist Lloyd Bannings fulfilled two roles in the series. One as the protagonist who we experienced the story with and second as a character in his own right beyond that of our lens to see the kiseki universe. You might say these qualities are only expected from a protagonist and that’s true but it’s what came after Lloyd that really made these traits to invaluable. Lloyd and Rean occupy the same crucial role as the protagonist but once we get to Rean, we’ll talk about how he differs from Lloyd.

Fate Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia Episode 4: Reflection

I have to say that Jaguar Man really did break the pace of the visuals.

Yet in that same breadth I’m acknowledging a tiny girl running around in a leotard and a body-jacked Rin flying around in her panties. I guess the point is that in gacha, unless it’s cute or sexy, don’t bother. Wouldn’t you know it, Jaguar Man’s final ascension falls in the latter category, at least I think that’s what most would place it at. Anyways, we don’t deal with much in this episode but we do some important looking back though.

Azur Lane Episode 4: The Other Side

Espionage was not something I was expecting from this show.

Although, the focus of this episode definitely goes to the numerous scenery shots than the characters. Apparently there was only one key animator assigned to this episode and the quality dip during the fighting scene definitely shows. Observer’s stomach decided to hog all the budget apparently.

Fate Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia Episode 3: Daily Life in Uruk

You know, I almost forgot that Leonidas is voiced by Shinichiro Miki.

A bit interesting seeing how both Azur Lane and FGO started off in the same way with some action to get us settled and then calm things over, but I guess it’s a basic enough formula to follow through with how to open up shows. Definitely a lot less fanservice shots, which is a good thing because I didn’t want to spend combing through frames.

Music of the Week #420

Got busy

Not much to say there, just had a lot of work last week and didn’t have to time to get to the usual stuff until Saturday night and even then I had stuff going on Monday. I am significantly more free this week so things should be on schedule without any hitches.

This week’s theme is that of the Ao no Kiseki’s final dungeon, definitely one of the better ones given the series’ track record. FC’s was only good for its music, Axis Tower wasn’t so much a dungeon than a bunch of floors culminating in boss fights, and the Palace of Nightmares was genuinely great. Zero then drops the ball with an overly long final sequence but Ao thankfully comes back with a mix of Axis Tower’s boss fight sequences but with a lot more varied areas before the final ascent up the blue tree.

Azur Lane Episode 3: Downtime

As expected, the girls go on a bit of a vacation.

Someone was talking about how the anime adaptation was going to be an origin story for the character Code G, an alternate timeline’s Enterprise fighting with the Sirens, completely of her own free will mind you, who shows up in a couple events in the game. It’s a theory that I give some credence to depending on how much stress Enterprise continues to get in the duration of this show. It would be an incredibly neat way to integrate both anime and game’s plotline together like this.

Music of the Week #419

A welcome surprise

One of the shows of my childhood, Chuuka Ichiban, apparently got a new animated series that just aired early this week. Not only is this a surprise because of how much later this would happen, the fact that Shin Chuuka Ichiban starts out from Episode 19 or 20 of the original series with the memorable black chicken episode. Apparently that’s where the manga serialization kicked off as brand new and that’s what we’re going with, which means I get to see an HD remaster of Mao fighting that evil chef in gold armor as well as see more of the OG food orgasm.

This week’s theme is Mystic Core, where we revisit a particular location in the game to discern the true dungeon’s whereabouts where it’s ultimately a lot closer than we would have guessed. Those of who most likely played Cold Steel II might have a good guess as to where though.