Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-1584640-20180906072929/@comment-31004482-20180906160316

TL;DR: Overall, this episode was fantastic. Could it have been better in some ways? Yes. Was it a satisfying experience regardless? Yes, indeed! I can only hope that tomorrow's episode will be half as good as this one :)

Long Gushing Fangirl Rant of Squeeeeee!:

Wow. I have serious whiplash from how the writing quality took a complete 180 from yesterday's terrible episode to today's brilliant one. I'm just so stunned, I'm giddy with excitement!

For fear of gushing like a fangirl, I'll start with the weaker points of this episode. Was I the only one to notice the kind of... rubbery quality of the animation? Especially with Jasiri's expressions during her song, and her and Janja's expressions after she saved him at the end. It was noticable enough to be a distraction, and I can't decide if it's the result of a rushed job, or if it was intended to look somewhat awkward. It's a little unnerving either way. Aside from that, the episode itself felt somewhat rushed at the end (which seems to be kind of a theme here as of late). I loved it immensely, but I feel like this could maybe have benefitted from being a two-part or an hour-length episode rather than having it all crammed into one--there was just too much going on for 30 minutes to have properly covered it, I feel.

On that note, I can't hold back the gush any longer--can we talk about how this episode had such a delightfully 80's vibe during the first half? Jasiri's song sounded like a Pat Benatar battle anthem and had me so pumped, and THEN we got treated to a Karate Kid / 80's "training montage" with Bunga and Rafiki and I just died of giddiness on the inside! It makes me wish more time had been spent with the beginning of the Hyena Resistance and with Bunga training with Rafiki, rather than rushing them all into a formulaic three-battle victory all in one episode. Don't get me wrong--I love that we got some Jasiri x Janja shipping goodness at the end--but I would have loved for the suspense to build up to it more. Some character development for Jasiri's clan would have been nice to see, to put some names and personalities to the new hyena faces. I'd have gladly sat through a two-parter just to build the suspense up and make the battle, victory, and ship payoff at the end all the sweeter.

Also, is it just me, or is Kion starting to sound just a little bit more grown up? Of course it makes sense seeing as his voice actor is getting older too, but it does make me wonder if we'll get to see the Guard enter adulthood--or at least begin to--before the series is out.