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Rick and Morty: Morty's Mind Blowers (2017)
I am 6 minutes and 18 seconds into the episode...
And I had to stop and come write this review.
Rick played Morty's second memory and it contained some scenes that happened away from Morty and I said to myself "that's bad writing. If Morty wasn't there when it happened, how can it be part of his memory?"
Once the memory was over, like something straight out of a miracle, Morty asks Rick my exact question, why he was seeing stuff that happened when he wasn't there and how they could possibly be part of his memory.
Rick's response:
"Sometimes I got to do a little editing Morty, it helps the mindblowers (memories) play a little bit better upon revisiting"
I take my hat off to you Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, you are true comedic geniuses.
Shingeki no Kyojin: From You, 2000 Years Ago (2022)
One of the weaker episodes this season
First of all, I would like to clarify that I am an avid Attack on Titan fan, it is easily a top 3 anime for me and I consider the Return to Shiganshina arc to be one of the best pieces of fiction out there. So I do not intend to hate on this episode for no reason, I just thought I would share my thoughts and express why this episode is amongst the weaker ones this season had to offer.
I had no issue with everything that happened in the present during this episode. Eren and Zeke's initial confrontation, Eren starting the rumbling and his revealing to the subjects of Ymir that he plans to destroy the world were all pretty solid and the episode could have benefited if it were concerned more with the present than the past.
My main issue is with Ymir's tragic backstory that is shown to us in this episode.
When it comes to character development and explaining the backstories of characters, Attack on Titan is masterful and near flawless (or at least it was before this episode happened). Being a show that features a large cast of characters, it is easy to succumb to one of two extremes when fleshing out the characters.
1- There is so much exposition and backstory that it becomes boring and tedious. Jujutsu Kaisen is a perfect example of this issue. During the second half of the show, a bunch of new characters are introduced and we aptly spend the better part of six episodes having tragic backstories shoved down our throats by the writers. At one point I stopped caring for any of the characters and the backstories and just wanted to see what was happening in the present (to worsen the issue, all of this exposition happened in the middle of gorgeous engaging fight scenes and it was really annoying to be torn away from the excitement).
2- There is not enough exposition and backstory which leaves you unattached to the characters and doesn't make you sympathize with them. This issue is prevalent in Code Geass, another anime with an alarmingly large cast. There are a lot of characters you don't get to know at all. To give it some credit it does spend time giving some personality to four or five of the main characters, but beyond that there are just a bunch of people you don't care about, many of them don't even have anything important to do during the show.
Attack on Titan manages to avoid both of these problems and develops its cast elegantly, providing the right backstory and character development at the right time. The backstories are fed to the viewer over a long period of time and are spread out. In the first season we only get to know a few of the characters, namely the main trio, and to a lesser extent Annie. In season two Sasha and Ymir (the former jaw titan holder, not the founder) each have their own episodes that tell us about their past and we even get a few minutes of insight into Connie's life. These moments of explanation, although brief, go a long way in making these characters feel real. The vagueness that surrounds the past of some characters allows for the jaw-dropping twist that outs Reiner and Bertholt as traitors. If the show had rushed to explain all characters, the exclusion of these two to allow for the twist would have been suspicious. The following two seasons also follow suit, disclosing little bits of previously unknown facts regarding the characters at a steady rate.
Another factor that is really effective in character exposition in Attack on Titan, a factor that distinguishes this show from your average anime, is the fact that we learn about the pasts of characters at times which their backstories will have relevance in the present. In season 2 episode 2 we dive a bit into Sasha's past and learn a bit about her, and the things we learn are relevant and important in the episode. The events that take place in the present don't work as well without our knowing of her background and the insight provided regarding her personality are essential to the episode's events.
At the start of this season we got a beautiful flashback episode featuring Reiner. Not only did this episode provide some long-awaited and well needed background to his character, but what we learn about his history as a warrior candidate tie in very neatly with his role at the time as someone the current warrior candidates look up to and aspire to be like.
But the epitome and peak of backstory in Attack on Titan came earlier this season in the form of episode 15, "Sole Salvation". This episode has no right to work as good as it does. There is a mind-boggling amount of extremely suspenseful things going on in the present which have us itching to see what happens. But in the midst of all this madness we take a glimpse into the past of none other than Zeke Yeager. The backstory is so engaging and we have been longing for this story for so long that it doesn't feel out of place, even considering the chaos going on in the present. This backstory reveal also has a VERY great impact on our view of the present and practically re-contextualizes our perception of the ongoing events. The backstory has an immense narrative relevance to the present.
Judging by these criteria for backstory reveals (being well-spaced out and not forced, carrying required information that we have been longing for and having narrative relevance to the present) "From You, 2000 Years Ago" is nothing to write home about. By this point we have already spent one episode viewing past events, and even though last episode was exciting and engaging, the present remains a very large cliffhanger. To worsen things, the last episode ended on a promise of cutting back to the present and showing us what happens (to be honest it does show us what happens but I expected more content after waiting for a week).
In terms of the backstory having desired content and relevance in the present, again the tale of the founder's life falls flat. There is literally no reason for us to know this much about what happened to her. I would have been satisfied if we got to know more about the origins of titans, but that only makes up 2 minutes of the 14-minute long backstory. The rest is content that does not serve the plot in any way whatsoever. Forget about relevance to the present, 80 percent of what we learned about Ymir's past has no relevance to any aspect of the story at all. Not to say the backstory itself was bad, in fact it was pretty good, but you could remove a great deal of it and the overall plot of the show wouldn't be diminished at all, and for a show that is all about outstanding writing that's saying a lot.
So overall, this episode is a solid 8.5. Everything that happens in the present was really good, the rumbling finally happened and did not disappoint. But the middle chunk of the episode was very average and frankly I think the show would have been better off without most of it. By no means a bad episode, but most certainly not deserving of the perfect 10 it currently holds.
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Never Give Up (2022)
Threw all common sense out the window...
Tanjiro literally should have died at least five times in the last few episodes or at the VERY least he should have lost his ability to fight, but he still manged to get up and fight, defying all logic.
Zenitsu, Inosuke and Uzui were also in no better condition and all should have been dead by this episode.
The fact that the characters just keep unlocking new abilities (Tanjiro unlocking a new level of his powers, Inosuke rearranging his organs and being immune to poison, Zenitsu suddenly deciding to use this super fast move he hadn't revealed before for some reason) is really absurd and makes no sense whatsoever.
But you know what, when the fight that is going on is THE MOST EPIC THING EVER I couldn't care less about any of these logical inconsistencies.
Remember, Demon Slayer is not about plot. Demon Slayer promises us awesome fight scenes with stellar animation, and boy oh boy does this episode deliver.
Easily the best episode in the show so far.
Odd Taxi (2021)
Not what it seems
It's hard to describe Odd Taxi but I'll give it a shot.
Imagine Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia:
1- A series of seemingly separate stories featuring different people which turn out to be connected later on in the subtlest of ways. A structure commonly known as a hyperlink story.
2- The "plot" is virtually non-existent and it's just a series of regular happenings. You can't point out a single coherent storyline. But somehow it works magnificently.
3- Themes of chance and fate have a play in the story as the connections between the different characters are alarmingly convenient.
4- All in all, it is absolutely breath-taking.
Now, increase Magnolia's runtime to 5 hours, make it an anime (with anthropomorphic animals?) , add an extremely complex plot to it without the hyperlink feel being diminished, throw in a few mind-boggling twist for compensation, along the way don't forget to re-define the entire industry of short film-making with the fourth episode and you have successfully made Odd Taxi. One of the weirdest and "this has no right to work as well as it does"-est pieces of fiction out there.
The plot is really smooth and tight from start to finish. The screenplay honestly deserves to be studied as an outstanding example in storytelling. It even has a twist at the end that comes out of nowhere and has almost nothing to do with the plot but still works flawlessly.
Although it should be noted that having a plot as complex as this requires one's full attention. You have to be alert at all times when watching this show or else you'll miss out on something.
Odd Taxi is an absolute must watch for everyone.
If you still aren't convinced to watch this anime, at least do yourself a favor and watch episode 4.
I kind of randomly picked up this show and it did pique my interest to a degree from the start, but when I reached episode 4, my oh my. It was an absolute knock out of the park.it immediately became one of my top 5 favorite TV episodes of all time. It requires no context whatsoever and can be seen independently. So even if you don't have time for Odd Taxi, do not miss out on "tanaka's revolution".
Odd Taxi: Tanaka's Revolution (2021)
I was NOT ready for that
I don't rate TV episodes on IMDb unless they are EXTREMELY good and I feel an urge to give them a 10. That being said this is the sixth episode I have ever rated (Hunter x Hunter's anger and light and this person and this moment, your lie in April's spring breeze and AOT's Hero and Midnight Sun are the other five in case you're interested. That is how good an episode has to be for me to rate it).
You know what.
For the last ten minutes I've been thinking of what to write, but nothing at all occurs to me. I can't say anything about what made me love this episode so much, but it was breath-taking and beautiful. For only 20 minutes we are thrown into the life of some completely random guy and witness the struggles he has endured in life. And it fluctuates from sad to anger inducing to suspenseful to existential with ease and in the best way possible.
This episode can be seen as a standalone short without requiring one to see the previous episodes.
So if you have 20 minutes to spare, do yourself a favor and watch this episode.
Edit: So, I just gave this episode a rewatch (still one of the best ways to spend twenty minutes of time) and I reached a revelation
***Spoilers for the last episode***
On my first watch of the show, the fact that all the animals were in fact people came out of nowhere and blew my mind. So imagine my surprise when I just noticed half of this episode's plot involves a game ABOUT RUNNING A ZOO. So basically the writer just went ahead and semi-spoiled the ending this early on.
So yeah, this episode is the best thing ever.
Shingeki no Kyojin: Savagery (2021)
80 seconds
Zeke broke his personal record of surviving against Levi with a whopping one minute and twenty seconds!
Good job Zeke, you're making progress!