Finally got around to Burst Angel Episodes 1 and 2 - The main character has a few scenes where she invokes Brandon Heat from Gungrave, which isn’t a bad thing for a gunslinger in a rotting city where violence rules. It’s just surprising. This just fine for the moment. It’s got good facial expressions but I’m waiting there to be a hook. Gonzo got a lot of flack for their dodgy CGI back in the day. But now that mecha anime has mostly headed in that direction they just seem ahead of the curve.
Terror in Resonance Episodes 1-5: it be reductive to say the show is an excuse for another Yoko Kano soundtrack but the audio design for the series is very striking. As a thriller about terrorism it’s had snappy pacing and escalating stakes. It’s hard to get a read on it because the main duo of bombers are so cold and restrained. But that’s a description you can use for everyone. It’s a cast of people who are restricted or repressed in some way coming into conflict. Which does feel like it’s waiting to get to the real meat in the final stretch.
Re:Zero Episode 1: I have an instinctive reaction to any Isekai where they use video game logic and terminology. I’m sure there’s plenty of good ones but every time I’ve encountered it the dialogue just hits my brain wrong (Actual video games don’t do that. They understand that their mechanics are shorthand for ideas and concepts that need to be abstracted while a normal writer can pull that off). But that said, with most of the episode being about that assumption, this was a solid start.
Its reputation hides how funny Re:Zero is at the start. The leading man thinks this fantasy life is like a video game and therefore everything exists to solely satisfy him. Then he immediately gets beaten up for being a stupid coward who needs to get over himself because people have better things to do than entertain his jobless ego. Now they do joke about him expecting a pretty girl to just show up and exist for his benefit… right before a pretty girl to show up and save him. Which is undermining the point. But at least there’s a very clear sense the mystery girl has her own identity and stuff going on that this clueless dipstick isn’t picking up on or entitled to know yet.
