Studio WIT

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is Probably Better Than We Give It Credit For

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Imagine: It’s 2013. You’re Tetsurou Araki, the famed director behind Death Note and Highschool of the Dead. Now, you and WIT Studio, the offspring of Production I.G., have blown the minds of anime fans new and old with an adaptation of Hajime Isayama’s manga, Attack on Titan.

The problem: You adapted too much of what was already written and there’s not nearly enough content to make a second season immediately. People are frothing at the mouth for more and you want to give it to them. That’s when a script by Ichirou Ookouchi and Hiroshi Seko catches your eye.

It’s similar to Attack on Titan, but only on the most surface level. It’s about humans surviving in walled cities against a horde of monsters with a specific weak spot. However, the setting, technology, aesthetic, and philosophy behind the action are a beast of their own. There’s something here. An opportunity to do what Attack on Titan did, with the same people, unconstrained by the wait for source material.

From director Tetsurou Araki and WIT Studio, with music by Hiroyuki Sawano, this is Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, the anime that was meant to surpass Attack on Titan.

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[Repost] The Great Pretender Review: Cases 1 through 3

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The following is my review of Cases 1 through 3 of The Great Pretender that I wrote for Anime Quarterly back in September. If you like what you read and are interested in reading more by the AQ crew and me, be sure to bookmark AnimeQuarterly.com and make it your next frequent stop for anime news and reviews. Also, help us grow by supporting us on Patreon.

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My 5 Favorite Anime Endings

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It’s the end of 2020… nearly. For December, I’m taking another hiatus to do some fiction writing. While I wouldn’t call it a grand finale, given how rough the year has been for many, it’s still worth celebrating that it is still ending. To celebrate, why not shout out the stories that know how to conclude the best.

Glass Reflections on YouTube often has said that “the ending is paramount” and despite my disagreements with him, I can’t disagree with him on that one. The ending of a story can make or break it. The conclusion of SAO: Ordinal Scale made the plodding narrative leading up to it all worth it. On the flip side, the last five minutes of Black Butler II ruined an otherwise exciting season in retrospect.

So here are a few of my favorite endings that left on a high note, redeeming lesser qualities or acting as the culmination of greater ones. They made me cry, they made me giggle uncontrollably, or they left me without the will to speak.

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The Best Three Anime on HBO Max

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HBO Max is the newest and hottest service to make us ponder the costs and benefits of paying for another streaming subscription, and boy I am excited. Not because I plan on buying it myself for the foreseeable future, but because I know a lot of other people will and HBO Max just so happens to have a fair selection of anime.

Not only does it have a library of 21 Studio Ghibli films, including my personal favorite, The Cat Returns, but it also has a hub of select shows from Crunchyroll. 16 shows in total, which seems low considering how expansive their library is, but the selection they have brought over is… rather well-refined.

I’m excited about HBO Max’s anime selection for the same reason people are excited about some of DC’s content being on HBO Max. In the case of DC, many are happy that some of the better DC content recently such as Doom Patrol will possibly get more attention now that it is on a service that stands to be more popular than DC’s service, DC Universe.

Of course, I say this right after DC up and took some of those very same films used to hype up HBO Max off of the service right after it launched. Let’s just pray the same doesn’t happen with HBO’s Crunchyroll library and therefore invalidates this entire post.

Despite that, I’m hoping that this smaller selection of shows will gain traction and popularity. In that same vein, I want to name just a few anime from HBO Max’s selection that I think should be your top priority. I’m only going to name shows that I have watched though, so don’t be mad if I don’t hype up Konosuba like everyone else in the world has.

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Pondering Attack on Titan’s Final Season

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At the end of the much-acclaimed third season’s final credits, a fourth and surprisingly final season of Attack on Titan was announced to be greenlit.

We went from waiting years for a second season to getting subsequent sequels at a reasonable pace to the point that now I’m a little shocked that the end of both the manga and anime are syncing up accordingly. However, long-time fans became concerned as soon as it was suggested that Studio WIT would NOT be animating it.

In the wake of the world burning down, we were blessed with quite a climactic trailer for the final season. And the editors wasted no time telling us who would be helming it.

Studio MAPPA.

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A Review of Attack on Titan, Season Three

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How in the hell did Attack on Titan Season Three, Part 2 become #2 on MyAnimeList’s all-time top anime list? I was already a little surprised when Your Name dropped to #6 after Hunter x Hunter 2011 (makes sense), another iteration of Gintama (meh), and Steins;Gate (how have I not watched this yet?). However, for Attack on Titan to take #2, particularly in its third season? Now that threw me for a loop.

Granted, I’m not pretending this list is the be all end all, as it is merely determining the best based on the average score given by the users who have rated it on their lists. None of these shows are perfect. Both Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Your Name are arguably overrated and flawed, even if I think they are great. However, this list does give a sense of the nature of certain show’s fanbase and the cultural discussion surrounding a work.

I’ve never seen Gintama, nor does it look that interesting, but for this show to consistently score this highly tells me that the fanbase must be one of the most committed ever. Likewise, Hunter x Hunter 2011 is one of the most highly scored Shonen’s out there. Steins;Gate to me is the equivalent of that popular Emmy nominated show everyone says to watch but that I’ll take years to sit down and enjoy. The list says a lot more than just which anime is the best.

As such, my goal today is not to argue whether or not Attack on Titan is deserving of this status, but to understand why the fanbase is reacting so strongly and now of all times. Especially because, to me, season three is the weakest of three admittedly solid seasons.

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What Am I Watching? August 27th, 2018

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Wow, it’s been a whole year since I did one of these? Not sure why I haven’t done these more since they’re a great buffer in between longer editorials for this blog… Well, whatever, while I work on reviews for Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Megalo Box, I figured I would give you another (long-overdue) a glimpse into what is currently consuming my free time.

It’s not a long list, as I’m not one who can consume too many new shows in a given season and is even less capable of finishing those in my backlog. Regardless, hope you will all sound off in the comments about your thoughts about the shows on this list when all is said and done. Now let’s get on with it.
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Genocidal Organ and Project Itoh

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On July 12th and 13th, Genocidal Organ by Geno Studios will be in US theaters by Funimation Films for a limited time. It is based on the 2007 novel of the same name, written by the late Satoshi Itoh, who went by the name Project Itoh. This will be the third and final film adapted from Itoh’s novels and released in the US.

This man’s work is incredibly special to me and his story is one I believe should be shared. In preparation for the release of Genocidal Organ, I wanted to do my part to spread the word about the film as it is one of my most anticipated movies of the year. Simultaneously, I want to tell you all a bit more about Itoh and his other works. I hope you all fall in love with his works like I have. Continue reading →

A Review of Attack on Titan, Season Two

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After four years, several fake sequel announcements, 5 OVA’s, a weird middle school spin off and two crappy live action films, Studio WIT has finally delivered us the long awaited sequel to one of the most internationally successful Anime of the last decade. Is it burdened by having only 12 episodes this season? No. Does it answer the questions we were left with at the end of season one? Kinda. Does it improve upon the first season’s flaws? Absolutely. Continue reading →

A Four Year Late Review of Attack on Titan, Season One

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With Attack on Titan’s second season now completed, it is the perfect time to look back on the first season and give it a formal review before giving its sequel the same treatment later this week. Attack on Titan holds a special place in my heart as it was the Anime that made me fall in love with Anime back in January of 2014, thus kickstarting a three and a half year obsession that has introduced me to entirely new facets of entertainment I never knew I wanted. I’m surprised I haven’t given this show a formal review before, so without further ado, here is my review of Attack on Titan.

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