The Animation Station

[Philip J. Fry]

On June 12.

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

Chihayafuru, S1: This is the story of Chihaya, a girl with a head eternally in the clouds who dreams of becoming a champion of Karuta, a Japanese card game of fast reflexes, sharp listening and Japanese poetry, while longing for a childhood friend, Arata. This season shows those two first met, how she fell in love with Karuta and how later in life she, along with Taichi, another childhood friend and rival of Arata, meet in high school and form a Karuta club, as Taichi completely falls for her, most likely setting up a future love triangle (if she ever finds out about his feelings, because she is a total airhead). For me, this season is at it's best when it focuses on intricacies of the game it self as Chihaya, Taichi and the team they eventually form, learn it and get better at it, with the matches itself full of different strategies and changes of momentum.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, S1: At first it took me a while to completely get used to the new animation and while it doesn't look on the same level as GITS: SAC (at times it even looks goofy as hell), the 3D animation allows more fluid movements and smoother camera motion, which works particularly well on the action scenes, which include a chase scene that reminded me a little of Mad Max and some gorgeously choreographed fight scenes. The story this time deals with a post-economic disaster world that has descended into a state of perpetual war (mostly for profit), we have a Section 9 which has disbanded and turned into a team of mercenaries, all while a new type of humans (post-human), with enhanced hacking capabilities, has been creating havoc while the American government tries to cover it up (and most likely find a way to profit from it).

Something this iteration of SAC has done well, at least in comparison of the previous two seasons of SAC, is to tell this story in a clearer, a little more straightforward way without sacrificing the moral ambiguity, social commentary and bleak tone that has made previous iterations of GITS so successful. Overall, this is still really good.

[Philip J. Fry]

[Irish]

The Simpsons intro remade in a hella weird 90s VHS style

[vimeo]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

DuckTales (2017), S1: Man, I should've properly watched this show a long time. Not only it is funny, nicely animated and well written, almost all the new iterations of the main characters are better than the original 1987 cartoon (which was already good), particularly Webby who is just awesome. Also, Lena (who, as I recall, didn't really have counterpart in the 1987 version) was a character I really enjoyed, particularly at how vulnerable she ends up being. Best episodes so far? The one in which Lena and Webby go to Scrooge's second secret bin to find his precious dime and the penultimate, a fantastic bottle episode with a heartbreaking ending. On to season 2.

[[ETM]]

It's weird to see a quintessentially Montenegrin name without context, I never noticed Petrana Radulovic before. It's like a really old lady's name, which makes it stranger.

[BuffaloWilder]

My tastes in animation aren't as fine grained as some, but Rango still surprises me.

[Philip J. Fry]

My tastes in animation aren't as fine grained as some, but Rango still surprises me.

I watched it for the first time a few months ago. Fun and charming as hell.

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

I just hope it has a lot of Sango, because Sango is the best and I might or might not have had a crush on her back when I was a teen.

[Philip J. Fry]

DuckTales (2017), S2 is as strong and funny as season 1, with a cast remaining really strong and with a lot of chemistry. The biggest development being the [

Show Spoiler

addition of Della Duck, the long lost mother of the twins and she does not disappoint. She's hilarious, awesome and her determination to get back to her children and learn to be a mother is a welcome addition, while having some very clear flaws which make her a very compelling character and already one of my favorite characters of the show.

] This show is great.

[Philip J. Fry]

[Philip J. Fry]

Freakin' finally