#<center> JJK S2 #13 “Red Scale” + #14 “Fluctuations”
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Catching up by reviewing both of these episodes at once (I did watch Red Scale twice too, but haven’t got a moment to review it). I think these episodes showed me I’m kinda an animation guy, and even if I don’t let it solely determine how I feel about something it still can strongly influence how much I can enjoy something. Or rather, I notice things which most people don’t notice and that influences my enjoyment. I want to emphasize that, and that doesn’t mean I am objectively correct by noticing things others don’t, it just means that this is a subjective view on these episodes and if you liked them more than me, it’s totally fine. But I don’t want to pretend, so I will be honest here how it was for me personally. I initially didn't want to post it on forum but I thought it may be interesting to read anyway.
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Red Scale is kind of fun, and I was able to enjoy it more on a rewatch. The direction definitely is mostly pretty strong, with some visual cues and also dynamic storyboarding which manages to hold the episode together. Frankly I didn’t care much for the Choso vs Yuji matchup, but they managed to at least make it interesting with a strong visual aesthetic as well. Apart from the obviously interesting color design inspired by Cyberpunk I also liked the water effects (influenced by Kizumonogatari). My favorite bit probably is Yuji and Choso being in a battle position staring at each other in the toilet, that’s cool. We got some nicely choreographed hand-to-hand combat as well, with main animators like Kosuke Kato pulling through. What dragged the episode down for me is the polish. Starting with an awkward walking cycle, there are just many instances where the animation looks unfinished, could use more in-betweening, or is just straight up jank. On the rewatch I tried to ignore most of it (and especially in the toilet section that’s easier to do). But as I said before, if that shows anything I am an animation focused guy and noticing these things made me enjoy the episode less, it feels disjointed and unnatural. The toilet section was pretty good though, although it also got rough towards the end (the narration was unnecessary too, honestly) but the direction carried it through. This lack of polish is not supposed to be the case for an obvious episode which was given (not that much but still) time and has extreme animation talent behind it, but apparently due to the need to make 3D backgrounds it had a pre-production cycle of its own which made the actual production part much more tight. First watch quite frankly was not a good time for me, but a rewatch helped. Overall an episode I liked but I don’t find it extraordinary. The ending also raised questions which unfortunately didn’t get answered in the latest episode, maybe next week.
Rating: 6.5/10
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Now, this week’s episode, Fluctuations. I cared even less about the content in this episode. I guess we now know what water was up to when we already had elements like fire (Jogo) and earth (Hanami) before. The cursed technique of the old man was cool though, although it’s not clearly defined how far he can push his actions within the boundaries of laying them out in frames. But story-wise… it wasn’t that interesting. Generally the pacing of Shibuya is a bit weird and after the highlight so far (Gojo getting sealed), my interest hasn’t been high. I hope there will be some interesting twists or good spreads of intensity which can make me more invested again. If you wondered why I talked so much about animation in Red Scale, it’s because it’s relevant here too and I don’t want to type it twice. Here it’s worse though, and it’s visible the episode director didn’t have nearly enough time. Very concerning to see this kind of quality when we still have 9 episodes left. The episode director himself even considered letting himself be uncredited (he’s generally tweeting like someone under depression because of how unsatisfied he is with the episode), and that says a lot. Even the much anticipated Itsuki Tsuchigami episode is facing a lot of struggle and Tsuchigami is tweeting daily about how difficult it is. I wish this series could be delayed but it probably won’t, at least not until it breaks down to the point where there is nothing available they can broadcast.
Rating: 5.5/10
