snake Archives | 100 Word Anime

Review:

At this stage I’ve more or less resigned myself to the story walking through predictable patterns. Even the possible showdown between Ox and Tiger was kind of inevitable if the story didn’t change path given they are the second and third animals in the zodiac. Still, I kind of wanted more from Snake and Dragon. Twins sent into a death match where only one is likely to survive should have something interesting to offer in terms of back story – right?

Turns out, not really. In addition to having a dull and fairly meaningless back story the visuals seemed a little lacking this week and so far the great animation has been this anime’s best selling point. While a mid-season slump is fairly typical but then you kind of need your story and characters to do some leg work.

Tiger probably got the best moments this episode and even then you can only carry the joke of drunken warrior so far before you have to accept that other than being an emotional ball of crazy she really hasn’t exhibited much personality. Reeling from over the top giggles and lethargy to killing machine, she’s amusing but that’s not quite the same thing as being a good character.

So Snake is still kind of around (though in addition to having lost his head he has now lost both arms – not that it seems to bother him) and Dragon is doing pretty much nothing (as he has for most of the show). Somehow I’m not really caring how part two of this resolves but at this point in the season dropping this also seems pointless and I’m still really wanting this show to actually do something with its story other than go through the motions.

Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this post and like the blog, consider becoming a patron to support further growth and future content.

Thanks,

Karandi James.

Review:

The mystery continues with Roberto getting increasingly worked up over the mystery, the prophecy of his death, some childhood trauma, old texts found in the library, and finally a snake bit and a demonic vision. Once again Vatican Miracle Examiner is determined to shove everything into one story and it just keeps piling one thing on top of another and much like the first mystery, this really starts to hurt the impact of each revelation or clue.

Though, I am kind of enjoying this mystery more than the first one despite still picking fault with the pacing and delivery. This mystery has at least managed to give both priests some purpose and they have begun to feel like an actual team rather than a one man show with an overprotective tag-along.

One thing that did annoy was that Roberto didn’t just share his thoughts on the corpse (you know, pre-snake bite) with his partner. Instead, the audience is deliberately kept in the dark in an unnatural way on this point. That’s an annoying way to add suspense.

This show isn’t getting any better or any worse. It kind of just is at this point.

Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this post and like the blog, consider becoming a patron to support further growth and future content.

Thanks,

Karandi James.