AN INCONSISTENT START | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episodes 1-2 Animation Breakdown

[00:00] We are back, Jiujutsu Kaisen. Bros, we

[00:02] are so, so back. It's been a solid

[00:05] couple of years, but JuiTutsu Kaisen,

[00:07] one of the most refreshingly creative-l

[00:09] lookinging anime led by one of the most

[00:10] refreshingly creative characters, is

[00:12] finally back. And I'm glad to report

[00:15] it's as good as ever. The first two

[00:17] episodes of the highly anticipated

[00:19] Jiu-Jitsu Kaisen season 3 were exactly

[00:21] what you'd expect them to be. They were

[00:23] textbook examples of creative people

[00:25] ditching the textbook and doing their

[00:26] own thing, of creative people being

[00:29] creative, and I wouldn't have it any

[00:30] other way. They were wonderfully

[00:32] directed. They were well animated. They

[00:34] were eye-catching in all the right ways.

[00:36] They were amazing. Minor issues and all.

[00:38] As such, as always, and as expected,

[00:41] let's break down the visuals. Make sure

[00:43] to subscribe. If you like this video,

[00:45] chances are you'll also like the 17,000

[00:47] more Juutsu Kaisen videos I'll upload in

[00:49] the coming weeks and months. So,

[00:50] subscribe. You can also become a member

[00:53] of this channel. Members get at least

[00:54] two exclusive videos per month, custom

[00:56] badges and emojis, shoutouts, and more.

[00:59] Just go down there and press the join

[01:00] button. As always, let's start with the

[01:03] staff list. Both episodes were

[01:05] storyboarded by series director Shota

[01:07] Shazono with him doubling down as the

[01:09] episode director for the first episode

[01:10] and assistant director Yusuke Takadada

[01:12] taking on that role for episode 2. Now,

[01:15] it's practically mandatory for me at

[01:17] this point to suffix the name Shotoshono

[01:19] with something along the lines of one of

[01:21] the most creative minds in the industry,

[01:22] which he is. And as you'd expect from a

[01:25] Shoison production, the episodes were

[01:27] filled with unorthodox composition

[01:29] choices, highly competent animation and

[01:31] an oxymoronic sense of familiarity in

[01:34] its sheer refusal to do anything

[01:35] familiar, or in other words, the

[01:37] direction and storyboards good for the

[01:39] most part. Over on the drawing front,

[01:42] episode 1 had two chief animation

[01:44] directors in the two character

[01:45] designers, Hiomini and Yusuke Ajima, two

[01:47] animation directors, a small but stacked

[01:50] key animator list, and an entire army of

[01:52] second key animators outnumbering the

[01:54] key animators 7 to1, which is just

[01:56] tradition at this point. Episode 2,

[01:58] meanwhile, had four CADs, the

[02:00] affforementioned two alongside JJK

[02:02] regular Sotaya Yamazaki and Mitsu Mori,

[02:04] 7 ADs, a longer KA list, and a slightly

[02:07] smaller second key animator army.

[02:09] Overall, not bad by Mapa's admittedly

[02:12] low standards. The episodes themselves

[02:15] were extremely solid animation-wise.

[02:17] They were wild in a methodical sense.

[02:19] Let's put it that way. Setting aside the

[02:21] respectable amount of movement, the

[02:23] episodes didn't shy away from having

[02:25] several different approaches to

[02:26] movement, which if that's not your cup

[02:28] of tea, I'm afraid this season is not

[02:30] for you. Depending on the situation, the

[02:33] animation took on many different forms.

[02:35] Be it the weighty kinetic sequence of

[02:37] Yugji fighting the curses, the

[02:38] spectacular unrestrained fright between

[02:40] Choo and Na or the unorthodox

[02:42] hyperdynamic Yuji versus Uta, the show

[02:45] isn't afraid to, for lack of a better

[02:47] phrase, filter out some of the normies

[02:48] with its visuals. A bold choice given

[02:50] the series's global popularity, but an

[02:52] unsurprising one given director Goshono

[02:55] and the rest of the team's track record

[02:56] both with this very show as well as

[02:58] other titles. It is however worth

[03:01] mentioning that these episodes weren't

[03:03] perfect. They had issues, minor issues,

[03:05] but issues nonetheless. Of course, I'll

[03:07] get into the specifics in a bit, but

[03:09] basically the level of polish wasn't as

[03:11] high as I had expected from the first

[03:13] two episodes of a production of this

[03:15] caliber. I wonder if it's because

[03:16] they're trying to give the latter

[03:18] episodes more time or because they had

[03:19] to rush the first two episodes a bit

[03:21] because of that advanced screening

[03:23] thing. Perhaps a combination of both.

[03:24] Who knows? Anyway, with all that being

[03:27] said, let's finally go through these

[03:29] episodes scene by scene. Starting with

[03:31] episode 1. The episode opened up with

[03:33] some trademark Goshono storyboards. This

[03:36] opening shot, for example, it was so

[03:38] eye-catching. Besides the cinemascope

[03:40] aspect ratio, you had the first

[03:41] background layer, the character cell,

[03:43] and another background layer on top

[03:45] making the composition feel dynamic and

[03:47] spacious. Also love the compositing

[03:50] head. The volutric lighting, aka those

[03:52] streaks of light meant to represent the

[03:53] reflective nature of the glass coupled

[03:55] with the bloom effect looks perfect and

[03:57] the light rays changing position gives

[03:59] the illusion that these things are

[04:00] moving despite the fact that they are

[04:02] part of the background layer, meaning

[04:03] they are entirely [music] static.

[04:05] Animation wise, the scene had very

[04:07] little going on, just a tiny Yugji

[04:09] moving in the corner, but it looked

[04:10] amazing regardless thanks to the clever

[04:12] composition and compositing. Moving on,

[04:15] the animation in this shot is a bit

[04:17] wonky. It's hard to tell given the

[04:18] blooding, but the lines don't appear to

[04:20] be particularly consistent, and even the

[04:22] sleeves are slightly off sync, but it's

[04:24] fine overall. Nitpicks aside, there are

[04:27] so many unique compositions here. Too

[04:29] many to go through. Once again, Goshono

[04:31] is a master of framing. He knows exactly

[04:33] how to draw the viewers's eyes towards

[04:35] whatever he wants their eyes drawn to.

[04:37] He knows exactly how much visual

[04:39] information to convey in each shot,

[04:41] ensuring the viewer is neither over

[04:42] stimulated nor bored. He is insanely

[04:45] good. Plus, the shots conveyed a ton of

[04:47] intent. The whole idea here was to

[04:50] convey Yuji's mental isolation and

[04:52] self-hate. And Goshono portrayed that

[04:54] perfectly. Him washing his hands, but

[04:56] the blood refusing to come off, his

[04:58] eyes, aka the most human part of a

[05:00] character being blocked out. Genius.

[05:02] More about the animation. This entire

[05:04] section and the scene that followed,

[05:06] basically everything before the OP was

[05:08] animated by Takafumi Mitani, which is

[05:10] particularly cool because he also

[05:12] animated the first scene of Jiu-Jitsu

[05:13] Kaisen season 2. And while not perfect,

[05:15] his work was really impressive. This

[05:18] shot was insanely fun and a perfect

[05:20] example of Koshaono's dynamic, spacious

[05:22] compositions. The background layers form

[05:25] a horizon and the curse is placed behind

[05:27] it except its arm which is actually in

[05:29] front of the horizon with a strong for

[05:30] shortening effect since it's closer to

[05:32] the camera with the effect getting

[05:34] stronger as it gets closer. Now, most

[05:36] sane directors would end the short hair,

[05:38] but not Goshono. Yuguji starts running

[05:41] and the camera pans backwards revealing

[05:43] that the background is actually 3D.

[05:45] Brilliant. Absolutely breathtaking piece

[05:48] of background art here with some solid

[05:49] creature animation and again every

[05:51] single shot is incredibly complex and

[05:54] layered. This one for example, you have

[05:56] the super super background sky, the

[05:58] super background building, 2D effects

[06:00] over it, another background layer in the

[06:02] windows and stuff, and a second cell

[06:03] layer of Utah. So that's five layers of

[06:05] visual information. Wow. By the way,

[06:08] don't let my obsession with the

[06:09] storyboards fool you. The actual

[06:11] animation was really impressive as well.

[06:13] The body mechanics felt heavy and

[06:15] impactful with every action being

[06:17] consistently drawn to convey the maximum

[06:19] amount of weight. The background work,

[06:21] be it 3D or otherwise, and the motion

[06:23] bluring helped with that. Things weren't

[06:25] perfect, though. This shot looked stiff.

[06:27] I don't like how Yuji's head went

[06:29] downwards and just froze. Also, him

[06:31] jumping out of the window was quite

[06:32] janky. And I didn't like how we saw him

[06:34] running towards the window in one shot

[06:36] and halfway in the air in the next one

[06:37] without any visual indicator of him

[06:39] jumping. Shortly afterwards, we had this

[06:42] shot where the curse is clearly damaging

[06:44] the buildings by brushing against them.

[06:46] But when the smoke clears, the buildings

[06:47] are intact, obviously, because they're a

[06:50] background layer. This makes the shot

[06:52] look flat, hindering the illusion of

[06:54] volume and three-dimensionality that

[06:55] Goshono loves to convey. None of this is

[06:58] significant, of course, but the first

[07:00] episode, which on paper should be the

[07:02] most polished. Having issues like these

[07:03] isn't exactly a good sign. Anyway, the

[07:06] curse itself was quite well drawn. Also,

[07:08] shout out to the random 2D bowls. I

[07:10] appreciate the effort. It was good.

[07:12] Just, you know, small things here and

[07:14] there, things most fans won't even

[07:15] notice. Another thing about Goshono is

[07:18] that he's excellent at making a lack of

[07:20] movement feel intentional. Near the end

[07:23] of Mitani's sequence, we had a 20 second

[07:25] shot of the camera panning up a still

[07:27] frame followed by another 20 second

[07:29] still frame with some simple looped

[07:30] effects near the end. So that's around

[07:33] 40 seconds that needed just two

[07:35] character drawings, a small amount of

[07:36] looped effects and some compositing

[07:38] tricks and it didn't look awkward

[07:40] whatsoever. That man is a genius. We

[07:43] then got to Okoda sequence and once

[07:45] again we had ambitious, dynamic and

[07:48] meaningful storyboards and less than

[07:50] stellar animation. The acting had a

[07:52] certain amount of stiffness to it with

[07:54] some occasional melt. It was ambitious.

[07:56] Absolutely. I'm sure Goshono's

[07:58] storyboards didn't make life any easier

[08:00] for Okuda, but I wouldn't exactly call

[08:02] it polished. This shot, for example,

[08:04] there are unintentional distracting

[08:06] jumps between the poses giving it that

[08:08] stiffness I talked about. Negativity

[08:10] aside, I love the complex framing hair

[08:12] and the drawings kept up. The room

[08:14] feeling claustrophobic because it's too

[08:16] small for all three of them. symbolism

[08:18] for the power struggles within the Zen

[08:20] clan was a brilliant idea. By the way,

[08:22] don't make the mistake of thinking these

[08:24] shots were stills. They weren't. The

[08:26] characters might be static, but the

[08:28] actual shadows were animated back and

[08:30] forth constantly. Also worth mentioning

[08:32] some meticulously animated shoe tying

[08:34] here. As you may know, small movements

[08:36] like these are held to animate. So,

[08:37] props to the team. A very fun scene

[08:39] overall. We then had this section. And

[08:42] while there wasn't much going on

[08:44] animation wise, the drawings, Yoskeima

[08:46] corrections, I believe color use and

[08:48] background art was insanely good. We

[08:50] also had more of Koshazono's Hall of

[08:52] Fame tier resourcefulness. Yuji climbing

[08:55] down the stairs only to end up at the

[08:56] top over and over again had symbolic

[08:58] meaning. It represented his isolation

[09:00] and it allowed the team to reuse the

[09:02] same shot by chopping it up. Two birds

[09:04] with one stone. By the way, the actual

[09:06] stair climbing was quite well animated,

[09:09] albeit slightly melty. I know I said the

[09:11] scene didn't have much going on

[09:12] animation wise, but this was nice. Also,

[09:14] a really well-drawn fist curl hair. And

[09:17] speaking of hands, a tremendously

[09:19] well-drawn pair of hands then brought us

[09:21] to the most technically impressive part

[09:23] of this episode in my opinion. Unpopular

[09:26] opinion perhaps, I don't know. This

[09:28] entire section was animated by Masahiro

[09:30] Tokumaru. And even if you aren't

[09:32] familiar with that name, chances are

[09:33] you've seen some of his work before.

[09:36] Remember those intricately choreographed

[09:37] fights from the anime Vivi? the ones

[09:39] that were plastered all over the

[09:41] internet back in the day. Well, most of

[09:42] them were bent by Tokumaru and more

[09:44] recently, he did a ton of work for the

[09:46] sports anime Oblivion Battery, animating

[09:49] many of its highlights and directing and

[09:50] storyboarding the most impressive

[09:52] looking episode of it. Needless

[09:54] biographies aside, the point is Tokumaru

[09:57] is excellent at kinetic motion at

[09:58] weighty body mechanics and he loves

[10:00] using 3D in his workflow and both of

[10:03] those skills were visible throughout

[10:04] this entire sequence. The scene started

[10:07] with this large scale shot that I've

[10:09] talked about before in a trailer

[10:10] breakdown. The sense of

[10:11] three-dimensionality was off the charts

[10:13] and the three-tone liquid animation

[10:15] complete with these vertical lines

[10:16] looked amazing. We then got this cut

[10:19] with those classic Tokumaru effects. The

[10:21] liquid had tons of organic individually

[10:23] animated shapes, lineless ones of

[10:25] course, because how cool is that? A

[10:28] thing I loved about this entire section

[10:29] was its use of long continuous motion.

[10:32] The action didn't hide behind stopand go

[10:34] payoffs. Not that there's anything wrong

[10:35] with that. Instead, it kept moving. The

[10:38] curses, for example, their movement was

[10:40] so smooth and had this weird sense of

[10:42] weight and flow because they never

[10:44] stopped moving. Also, the drawings

[10:46] themselves were incredibly consistent

[10:48] and volutric, which added to the

[10:50] three-dimensionality of this shot.

[10:52] Speaking of the third dimension, I'll be

[10:54] honest, the 3D bridge does look a bit

[10:56] clunky, especially in this wide shot.

[10:58] But the unorthodox camera placements and

[11:00] Eugi's top-notch body mechanics more

[11:02] than made up for it. There's so much

[11:04] weight behind Yugji's run, jump, and

[11:06] subsequent freef fall. Again, it's not

[11:08] stopand go motion. Rather, it's smooth,

[11:10] continuous animation made possible by

[11:12] Tokumaru's excellent draftsmanship. The

[11:15] placement of every single frame is

[11:17] methodical with the goal of making the

[11:18] curses and Yuji feel like actual

[11:20] physical bodies with consistent weight

[11:22] and volume. We then got this bird's eye,

[11:25] or rather this curs's eye view of the

[11:27] entire city. Meaning, yes, they modeled

[11:29] the entire thing in 3D just for these

[11:31] few seconds of footage. a luxury most

[11:33] other shows can't even think of

[11:34] affording and it was worth it in my

[11:36] opinion. Also, a lot of these curse

[11:39] insights were either 3D or 3D assisted.

[11:41] Again, Tokaroo loves his CGI, but they

[11:43] didn't look out of place given the

[11:45] consistent character animation.

[11:47] The framing throughout this entire

[11:49] section was absolutely topnotch. Here's

[11:52] an example. Why frame Yuji simply

[11:54] hanging from a balcony when you can add

[11:55] an extra building with broken walls that

[11:57] reveal parts of the interior? But wait,

[12:00] what if that's too much? What if the

[12:02] viewer doesn't know where to look? Well,

[12:03] fear not because one, the relevant

[12:05] building is lit while the rest are dark.

[12:07] And two, the composition itself

[12:09] naturally guides your eyes towards the

[12:11] focus. Again, genius. While we're on the

[12:14] topic, as impressive as the compositions

[12:16] were, I do have a few issues with the

[12:18] storyboarding. This section, for

[12:20] example, Yugji jumps down and in the

[12:22] next shot, he has already landed,

[12:23] letting the buildup of the previous shot

[12:25] go to waste. Then in the very next shot,

[12:28] we see him mid-run without ever seeing

[12:30] him get up and start running. We can

[12:32] figure that part out ourselves

[12:33] obviously, but it looks clunky in

[12:35] motion. I'm sure some of you will call

[12:37] this nitpicking, but I have to point

[12:38] this stuff out. Anyway, the curses were

[12:41] incredibly well animated. The weight

[12:43] behind their movement was outstanding,

[12:45] especially because many of them had

[12:46] unorthodox anatomies, the kind you can't

[12:48] use real life references for. Also, the

[12:51] untextured 3D backgrounds looked

[12:53] amazing, and these shots animated on

[12:54] once looked eerily smooth. Pretty sure

[12:57] they're not auto in between, which makes

[12:58] them even more impressive. Tokumaru's

[13:01] outstanding 2 and 1/2 minute sequence

[13:04] was finally brought to a close with some

[13:06] incredible drawings. Yajima productions

[13:07] again, I believe, and some fantastic

[13:09] liquid effects. We then got some fun

[13:12] shorthand drawings followed by the Nawa

[13:14] fight animated by Teepeoka, which was

[13:17] really fun. The motion was extremely

[13:19] smooth. And if you thought Nya's

[13:20] movement was choppy, that there were

[13:22] frames missing, well, mission

[13:24] accomplished, because that's the point.

[13:26] That's literally what his ability is. As

[13:28] per usual, the compositions were off the

[13:30] charts with an unparalleled sense of

[13:32] space and distance. Even the backgrounds

[13:34] were heavily warped at times to convey

[13:36] that effect. The Nya fight was followed

[13:39] by Uta's appearance, which was

[13:40] accompanied by Shinsaku Kosuma's easily

[13:42] recognizable effects with those sharp

[13:44] geometric edges and some solid acting.

[13:47] Love the paradax said. As far as I can

[13:49] tell, the background isn't 3D. It's just

[13:51] some clever fragmentation of the BG

[13:53] illustration and panning. Although I'm

[13:54] not entirely sure. The episodes also

[13:57] used a ton of these short reverse shots.

[14:00] At least that's what I think they're

[14:01] called. Shots where the composition

[14:03] remains the same, but the camera flips

[14:05] 180°. Koshas only used a lot of those

[14:07] hair. This shot was cool in concept. I

[14:10] get what they were going for and I

[14:12] understand how difficult it is to draw a

[14:13] shot from that perspective, but in

[14:15] motion it just looks a bit comical. Not

[14:18] a fan. Anyway, that brief chase sequence

[14:21] then brought us to Yuji versus Uta. And

[14:23] I have opinions. Firstly, it seems like

[14:26] the entire fight was animated by

[14:27] Takafumi Mitani, meaning he animated

[14:30] seven solid minutes around a third of

[14:32] the episode, which insane. And the

[14:34] animation throughout the fight was

[14:36] pretty solid. It's just I don't know how

[14:38] I feel about some of the storyboarding

[14:39] choices. Let's go through it in order.

[14:42] This first exchange looks a bit off to

[14:44] me. Not a fan of the weird zoom in and

[14:46] the whole thing seems to lack the sense

[14:48] of flow it was going for with those

[14:49] quick cuts. Here's an example. The

[14:52] energy/buildup hair was stopped dead in

[14:54] its tracks by this slow motion shot. And

[14:56] the shot that followed didn't build up

[14:58] enough energy for the shot that came

[14:59] after it to feel natural. Does that make

[15:01] sense? Watch it again. Maybe you'll

[15:03] understand what I mean. I did love these

[15:06] long exchanges. The actions made sense.

[15:08] It wasn't just I'll swing wildly and you

[15:11] dodge. Every single slash was carefully

[15:13] thought out. Also, the animation was

[15:15] really solid. The movement wasn't

[15:17] particularly tight or snappy, but that

[15:19] was the intention to convey motion

[15:20] that's more natural and loose. This shot

[15:24] looked really mediocre. Unfortunately,

[15:26] Yugji Ragdolling looked incredibly stiff

[15:28] and janky with massive jumps between key

[15:31] poses and a complete lack of energy near

[15:33] the end. It looked like Yuji rolled over

[15:36] for absolutely no reason whatsoever,

[15:38] like it was a video game and the player

[15:39] had high ping. Even the debris animation

[15:42] melted a fair bit. Plus, some of the

[15:44] drawings and movement around it weren't

[15:46] exactly stellar. We did have more of

[15:47] Midani's loose natural body mechanics,

[15:49] so at least there's that. But the issues

[15:52] were evident. Regardless, really strong

[15:54] drawings here, followed by a ridiculous

[15:56] bit of background animation. And the

[15:58] entire background, including the car and

[16:00] its interior, was hand animated, which

[16:02] of course is insane. But once again, the

[16:04] storyboards were a bit iffy. Goshona

[16:07] tried to do that thing where you use a

[16:09] lot of quick cuts and each cut flows

[16:11] into the next one seamlessly, kind of

[16:12] like what itsami occasionally does, but

[16:15] I don't think he got the timing right.

[16:17] The editing just felt clunky. The flow

[16:19] was almost there, but not quite. In my

[16:21] opinion, the transfer of energy between

[16:23] shots was imperfect. I don't know. Am I

[16:26] the only one? And I'm a massive

[16:27] storyboarding nerd, so I see both what

[16:29] Koshuna was going for and how he didn't

[16:31] quite get there. But do let me know what

[16:33] you guys think. Anyway, some lovely

[16:35] drawings and curse animation then

[16:37] brought us to the end of episode 1. Long

[16:39] story short, a fairly impressive work,

[16:41] but not one without its issues. Episode

[16:44] 2 started with a couple of really smooth

[16:46] walk cycles, some spacious compositions,

[16:49] some insane background art, and this

[16:50] absolutely spectacular fight. Many of

[16:53] those action scenes are presumed to be

[16:55] the work of Yakumo Crack, an animator

[16:57] who caught my eye with his work on

[16:58] Shield Hero season 3. Initially, a lot

[17:01] of people thought those scenes were

[17:02] animated either by Goshono himself or by

[17:04] Rui since both have animated similar

[17:06] shots before. I wasn't the Koshono camp,

[17:08] by the way, but that doesn't appear to

[17:10] be the case. It still looks a bit

[17:12] Goshono to me, but hey, whatever.

[17:14] Anyway, I've talked about these shots

[17:16] before. They are a textbook example of

[17:18] that flow over form mentality that makes

[17:20] 2D animation so special. The idea was to

[17:23] convey speed, force, and intensity. And

[17:25] good god, did they succeed. They weren't

[17:28] afraid to distort and twist the

[17:29] character models to their utmost limits,

[17:31] literally breaking them at times. It's

[17:33] the kind of sequence fans scream

[17:35] incomplete animation or I can't tell

[17:37] what's happening at both very wrong

[17:39] opinions. By the way, as impressive as

[17:41] the animation was, we need to talk about

[17:43] the art direction and the compositing.

[17:46] These Shinyhira inspired pencil lines

[17:48] added by the latter looked amazing and

[17:50] the distorted intensity of the animation

[17:52] was perfectly complemented by the warped

[17:54] backgrounds. Fantastic work. We then got

[17:57] Fay Hung sequence which had a similar

[17:59] flow over form philosophy. Although it

[18:01] wasn't as over the top. Also worth

[18:03] mentioning the sequence used that quick

[18:05] cuts method of action storyboarding that

[18:07] Yuji versus Uta used but it was executed

[18:09] better. The flow was flowing if that

[18:12] makes sense. Some solid character

[18:14] acting, brilliant compositions, and 3D

[18:17] background black magic then brought us

[18:18] to Kichiro Watanabe's sequence. And once

[18:21] again, I have opinions. Animation wise,

[18:24] it was outstanding. One of Watanabe's

[18:26] career best. And think of how much

[18:27] territory that takes in [music] the

[18:29] wild, unrestrained motion, the iconic

[18:31] flowy timing, those trademark effects,

[18:34] it tremendous amount of background

[18:35] animation. It was outstanding. I just

[18:38] wish I could see any of it. What the

[18:40] [ __ ] just happened here? Why did they

[18:42] butcher Watanavi's work like this? Why?

[18:45] The scene was drowned out in red, making

[18:47] it feel a bit one note and making it

[18:49] difficult to appreciate the drawings,

[18:50] which would have been bad enough on its

[18:52] own. But on top of that, they decided to

[18:54] blur everything, as well as add this

[18:56] light flicker and dim effect, which made

[18:57] the animation practically

[18:59] incomprehensible.

[19:01] Don't get me wrong, I don't have a

[19:02] problem with the movement itself being

[19:03] difficult to follow. That's the point.

[19:05] And I don't have a problem with

[19:06] directors prioritizing the overall

[19:08] screen instead of the raw 2D animation.

[19:11] As long as the overall screen looks

[19:13] better than said raw 2D animation, which

[19:15] was not the case here. From what I've

[19:17] seen, the advanced screening didn't have

[19:19] that obnoxious bluring and dimming. I

[19:21] haven't seen it, but based on what I've

[19:23] heard, it didn't, which makes it

[19:24] particularly bizarre. In the back of my

[19:27] mind, I can kind of see what they were

[19:29] going for, enhancing the uncanny nature

[19:31] of Fatanabi's animation with the

[19:32] bluring, but I don't think it worked at

[19:34] all. Anyway, this was cool, though.

[19:37] Loved the black and white negative film

[19:39] aesthetic, especially because they

[19:40] didn't bury the outstanding drawings.

[19:42] Good stuff. Moving on, we had a lot of

[19:45] dialogue, but thanks to Goshono

[19:47] storyboarding, it didn't feel boring.

[19:49] The compositions were consistently

[19:51] outstanding, so much so that they could

[19:53] linger on nearly, if not outright,

[19:55] static shots for long periods of time

[19:57] without it feeling awkward. Of course,

[19:59] we did have a decent bit of character

[20:01] acting. Some shots executed better than

[20:03] others, but by and large, it wasn't

[20:05] exactly a Sakuga fest. Plus, some of the

[20:07] drawings weren't perfect. The drawing

[20:09] supervision was a bit inconsistent.

[20:11] Despite all that though, the shots

[20:13] looked captivating, which hey, that's

[20:15] Shota's owner for you. He'll find a way

[20:17] to make things look interesting no

[20:18] matter what. And those with the episodes

[20:22] a great way to start the season in

[20:24] consistencies and all. As a general rule

[20:26] of thumb, any new Goshono is good

[20:28] Goshono and that's doubly true if he

[20:31] isn't actively being [ __ ] over by the

[20:32] schedule. So, this was great. I don't

[20:35] know how well this season will fared in

[20:37] the long run based on everything I've

[20:38] heard. The answer should be a lot lot

[20:40] better than season 2, but you never

[20:42] know. So, I'll end this video on an

[20:43] optimistic hoping for the best. That's

[20:46] about it. A special thanks to N03,

[20:48] Ahmed, and the Galas 90 for becoming

[20:50] tier three members.