Okay, 

So this one is a little different. I haven’t done posts on individual episodes. Nor am I going to do separate posts for each season of this anime. The reason for this is pretty simple. I ended up binging two seasons in the span of a week.   

And that definitely says something. I first found out about Tokyo Revengers from a friend of mine. We were talking about the different anime we were watching and he highly recommended this one. So I gave it a shot, and oh boy do I not regret that one bit. 

I’d say the storyline is rather simple, but it’s not. It follows Takemichi Hanagaki, a self proclaimed loser who is one day watching the news and sees that his ex girlfriend from middle school and her brother have been killed in a gang related attack. That same day, Takemichi is pushed onto the train tracks in an attempt on his life, however he saved. The incident sparks in him a power of time travel, and he goes back twelve years to when he was in middle school, and part of the gang that kills his girlfriend in the future. 

The two seasons are essentially Takemichi going forward and back in time with the goal of saving those who die in the gang violence as a result of this once pure gaggle of motorcycle riding middle schoolers turn bad for unknown reasons in the future. I’m skipping over a lot of detail here but to go into all of it would be to almost write a book in and of itself.

What I really loved about this anime is that the main character, Takemichi is the hero. But he’s kind of useless. Essentially every fight he gets in results with him getting absolutely pummelled. He’s not meant to be physically strong, or even a cool guy character. What makes him the hero is his spirit. Takemichi doesn’t really win any fights, but he never loses them either. He simply doesn’t let himself loose. No matter how big the opponent, and how beaten up he already his, Takemichi always gets back up and keeps fighting. That’s what makes him a hero. 

I really like that idea. I found myself cheering Takemichi on despite knowing he’d never be the one to win the fight. Instead by putting on display his unbreakable character, he inspires the other characters around him to be better. So, you don’t need to be big, strong, or cool to be the hero. Takemichi shows anyone can be the hero if we have an unbreakable spirit. 

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I didn’t like this episode.

Episode Eight of The Last of Us is different. There was a very clear tone change made apparent from the start of the episode. A show that has always been rather dark, got darker. 

This episode takes weird twists and turns. Warped religion, torture, sexual assault, and cannibalism. It almost felt out of left field. Yet, it belonged. The world has fallen, and there are no rules anymore. At least, that’s what is going on in the show. This really emphasized that. This isn’t one of those apocalypse tropes where there’s no government but everyone still somehow upholds a sense of morality. No, this is not that. What we get instead is depravity, and it fits. Mostly, because if the world were to fall I think it would be the truth of it. We already teeter the line, sans apocalypse. 

In this episode, we also see the resilience of Ellie. She takes care of Joel, who is barely conscious with an infected wound. Not only that, but she successfully hunts a deer for them to eat, though they never do actually get to eat it. But when she gets captured by another group, Ellie shows some true grit and keeps her fighting spirit up, taking out a couple of the captors before escaping back to Joel. 

I have to say, I do like the fact that Joel’s character has taken a bit of a back seat since the sixth episode. Ellie definitely deserves to be the star of the show for at least two episodes. It really does wonders for character development. I think this might be because in this storyline Joel appears to be the typical strong stoic man, protecting Ellie from everyone on their journey. But what we have been shown instead is that even Joel is fallible. And more than that, what we are shown is that Ellie can take care of herself and Joel also. It really brings up this idea of Joel acting as an adopted father to Ellie. After all, family takes care of each other, it’s never really one way. We see this theme really being harped on again at the end of the episode when Ellie and Joel reunite. It’s a really touching sentiment I think. That even though the world has fallen to depravity, what endures is family.

Kind of sappy, kind of sweet. 

Anyways, no stills from this episode, it was kind of gross to look at. 

The post The Last of Us – Episode Eight appeared first on Watch With Zeh.

It happened again…

I don’t know why I’m surprised every time we get a gut-wrenching episode, and I’m not referring to the baseball bat lodged in Joel’s stomach. 

Oh don’t worry he can’t die yet that wouldn’t work for the story. 

Anyways, I am really glad we finally got more on Ellies backstory. There was too much vagueness there for a bit too long I think. I mean, there are only nine episodes in this season and we get her backstory on the seventh? Seems a little late in my opinion. But as they say, better late than never I suppose. 

I really like how the entire episode built up to the point when Ellie finds out she’s immune to the fungal infection. Rather, it builds up to the event that causes her to find out she’s immune. To put it simply, she got bit. But what I also really liked is that this episode showed what she was up to before she joins the fireflies, the resistance forces. 

I liked this not so much for the character depth, which was great, but rather cause it answered a question I’ve had for awhile now. 

How is a child raised through the apocalypse?

Well, in the case of Ellie, it was military school. Makes sense. In fact, that’s probably one of the better ways to be brought up during the apocalypse, in my opinion. Also, what this episode really highlighted too is how much we take for granted in our youth. Seeing Ellie go to the abandoned mall and be absolutely mind-blown by so many simple things like a carousel sees strange. After all, such seemingly ordinary things have been staples in many of our upbringings. So, seeing it all be so foreign to Ellie really made me think about how much society would change in such situations. But more than that, it made me think back on the mundanity of my own childhood. A good one to be sure, and I’m blessed for that. Yet, it’s not something we often consider really. It’s easy to look back at the good times and reminisce, but we rarely ever think about how drastically different those times could have been. After all, we were just children and the world around us is completely out of our control. 

This episode really made me grateful for the life I’ve gotten to live. It’s been a good one.

With a bit of luck, and a bit of grit, it’ll continue to be so

Some of my favourite frames:

The post The Last of Us – Episode Seven appeared first on Watch With Zeh.

REUNITED!!!!

It finally happened. Joel and his brother Tommy are finally reunited! 

To be honest I was surprised it happened so soon. I thought for sure it would take longer for them to get back together than six episodes. However, I guess it’s not the main plot going on here, even though it was kind of the whole motivation for Joel. 

The Plot Thickens

Okay… so there are a few we need to talk about. First of all, Tommy got married? And is going to be a dad?? You’d think that a whole fungal zombie apocalypse would be enough to put procreation on hold for a minute right? That’s just my thoughts. Yet, they are living in a very Wild West-esque little colony that seems safe and full of good people. This probably means it’s not gonna last. At least, if all other apocalypse tropes are upheld it’ll definitely go bad. 

Also, Joel seems to have a heart condition and so he tries to get Tommy to take Ellie the rest of the journey. Then, she refuses and only wants Joel to go with her, and there’s frankly a bit of inconsequential and useless floundering before Joel decides to keep going after all. 

Another thing is Joel himself. Slowly but surely, we’re finding out more about Joel’s character. It’s slowly turning out that he might not be the good guy we all expect him to be. All of the episodes we’ve seen so far tend to paint Joel in a more sympathetic light. Yet, when we finally meet Tommy, we learn there might be a reason why Tommy stopped answering the radio from Joel. Turns out, Joel has done some awful things to some not so awful, and awful people alike. Tommy, feeling a bit remorseful of what they did together, is trying to turn a new leaf. So, it would seem like Tommy doesn’t really want Joel there. I mean, I don’t think it would be too personal, but at the same time you’d think you’d want to hold onto your only living post-apocalypse relative. Maybe that’s just me though. 

The end of this episode was a cliff hanger. Which I have to say, really sucks. I get it, they’re a tried and true method for leaving the audience wanting more, and keeping them thinking about the show all week until the next episode. Cool, it works.  BUT…BUT… they’re such a pain. JUST TELL US!!!! 

Me hating on the cliff hanger just proves their efficiency.

Anyways, here are some of my favourite frames from this episode.

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