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The quirk of reviewing longer series is that their appeal so often depends on the slowly developed attachment they allow you to form with their characters and setting – something which is often hard to communicate in words, and is a direct result of the gentle pace that these series can afford.  Kemono no Souja Erin takes full advantage of its length of fifty episodes – it takes us though many years in the life of its protagonist,…

This short film of roughly 20 minutes was one of the entries in the JAniCA Animator Training Project, a competition aimed at developing younger talent from various animation companies.  Ojiisan no Lamp comes from Telecom Animation Film, headed by Takiguchi Teiichi, an animator who worked on such films as Whisper of the Heart and Piano no Mori.  Here, he gets to flex his storytelling skills by contributing both the screenplay and the…

Here are two sheet music arrangements for two of the more noteworthy piano pieces from Kemono no Souja Erin….

Note: posts which contain episode numbers in the title may contain spoilers – read reviews instead for spoiler-free opinions.

Though the majority of this arc featured gentle development of Erin and her raising of Lilan, the end of episode 39 appears to signify that the show is ready to approach the resolution of the overarching plot.  The various threads of the story thus far – Erin, the Grand Duke, the Queen, Damiya, and…

Note: posts which contain episode numbers in the title may contain spoilers – read reviews instead for spoiler-free opinions.

I think I have a somewhat firmer idea of where the plot of Kemono no Souja Erin will be heading with regards to the overarching conflict, which will no doubt intersect at some point with Erin’s personal growth thusfar.  Much time has been spent building up the background between the Queen and the Grand Duke, and the factions…

Note: posts which contain episode numbers in the titles will likely discuss plot developments during those episodes – read reviews instead for spoiler-free articles.

I first sampled “Kemono no Souja Erin” some time back, when it had first begun to air.  As I was following another show at the time, I wasn’t able to give it more than a brief trial (one episode) and it drifted away from my mind.  However, it is…

As far as interesting plot constructs go, Sky Crawlers starts off on a good foot.  In an ambiguous world which carries shades of a bygone Europe, humans called “Kirudore” wage war against one another in the skies.  Their existence is one of perpetual adolescence – no one knows exactly why they do not age, just that they don’t – they exist to be used as pawns in battle.  In this setting, a young pilot, Yuichi, settles into his new…