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A Spoiler-free Review

I couldn't sleep the other night - upset stomach, spondylising ankylosis, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, or some such - so I watched some more of Shigofumi, having set it aside after it turned out to get rather darker than I'd expected at the end of the very first episode.

And as it happens, after it gets dark, it gets weird.  It's not relentlessly dark, nor is it relentlessly weird, but when it's not one or the other it's usually both.  Also, sometimes, stupid; episode 8 nearly went off the rails in that way.

And then I reached episode 11, where a certain someone does a certain something to a certain someone (those who have seen it will know what I mean), and I didn't have episode 12, which you would expect to reveal the outcome of the event of episode 11.  And then, last night, it showed up on the other anime torrrent site, and I downloaded it, and just now, I watched it.

Well.

Couple of points:

First, I'd expected Shigofumi to be episodic, but to weave together a cohesive story from the largely unconnected episodes, like Popotan or Azumanga Daioh.  And it is, and it isn't, and it does, and it doesn't.  Which makes it hard to discuss, really.

Second, as happens from time to time in this business, the ending would have been much stronger if they had left it out entirely.  Watch episode 11, let it sit for a week or two, and then watch episode 12.  See?

Shigofumi: Well.   Um.   Yeah.  Solid production values.  Good costume design.  Also, cats.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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