Yamakan set himself up for all this, I’m afraid. It’s never a good idea to put the kind of pressure on himself that he did, and as a result I think a lot of people came into this series predisposed to hate it. And it’s good – damn good – […] Read more
See my “Hourou Musuko” post – time is lacking, so I’ll hold off till tomorrow for the series wrap. But as for the finale… Well – let the long knives come out for Yamakan, no doubt. While I enjoyed this series very much as a whole, there’s no doubt the […] Read more
All of the big ideas that are wrapped up in Fractale are finally starting to come together in a coherent and impactful way as it nears the conclusion of its 11-episode run on NoitaminA. Yet, it’s the increasing bond with the characters that makes the series a success at this […] Read more
Life goes on, and so does Fractale. And while it can be hard at first to view apocalyptic events in any anime series without thinking of other things, in the end a good show can sweep you up along and make reality disappear for a while. If this show has […] Read more
The buzz for the last week was concerned with whether Phryne had been raped, based on her behavior in episode 7. I certainly wasn’t prepared to make that assumption based on the narrow evidence provided, but neither would I rule it out – clearly, something was amiss here. And based […] Read more
That was a really exciting and visually striking episode. Fractale has already proved itself capable of some pretty big shifts in tone, and this week provided another one – a kind of surrealistic journey that had me in mind of “The Wizard of Oz” – or at least the dark […] Read more
Poor old Fractale. It was eminently predictable, of course, that if the series proved to be anything less than a masterpiece the critics both in Japan and in the West would turn on it like piranhas. Yamakan brought it on himself to some extent of course, but even if I […] Read more
Clainservice After the pretty intense and morally challenging events of the last couple of episodes, this was definitely a breather week on Fractale. The wisdom of taking a breather on an eleven-episode schedule can certainly be debated, but as these things go it wasn’t a bad episode in terms of […] Read more
It’s certainly not the only show this season about which this could be said (Madoka Magica comes to mind) but there’s a really interesting dichotomy taking place in Fractale. You have the very cute and Ghibli-esque character designs, the lush backdrops and the Celtic lilt of whimsy that suffuses the […] Read more
So – will the relentless nattering of the Yamakan bashers settle down after the shocking third episode? Oh, probably not – dissing the guy seems to be an international sport these days, and he certainly puts his foot in his mouth often enough. But the episode certainly delivered big-time. Back […] Read more