Snowball Earth

Episode 7

The episode is just a giant fight between Sagami and Yukio, Tetsuo, and Hagane. Sagami is still a fickle jealous chump with stupid motivations, but whatever. Tetsuo and Yukio fight Sagami and in the process, Yukio gets torn to shreds by a centaur-looking kaiju. The fight choreography is fluid, each attack connects like it should, and everything is paced just right. The other kaiju haven't reached the mall yet to attack its survivors a la Dawn of the Dead yet. Fine. The narrative has been moving right along in entertaining fashion minus some glaring flaws. I'm down for some good ol' delayed gratification if the anime calls for it.

Somewhere in the middle of this fight Yukio reveals a loveseat he made for Tetsuo and Hagane. I like this little moment of tenderness. For a show that's supposed to be a fun show about a boy and his robot pal knockin' down some baddies, Snowball Earth has mostly been serious in tone so far. It hasn't squeezed in too many heartwarming moments or jokes (unless you count some very unserious-looking kaiju), so to have a little instance of both in this scene was a delight to watch for me. Tetsuo and Hagane had that yukadon moment a few episodes ago, which I guess is cliche, but it's finally paid off in this moment of loveseatery. Granted, this moment is done in cliche fashion too, but considering how Snowball Earth is supposed to be standard popcorn, it's to be expected. Nothing great, nothing terrible.

And then the CG comes in to put a damper on things once again. In theory, I could feel the impact of when Yukio slices through a kaiju. The direction and artistic vision are definitely there, yet all of the effort goes by the wayside because of the limiting CG. This could have been so much cooler to see! Exaggerate Yukio's swinging motion a bit, maybe even distort the edges and throw in some scribbly, spiky lines to heighten the impact of this swipe. Tetsuo looks like Meta Knight with a lightsaber if Kirby: Right Back At Ya! was even more unnecessarily CG'd. And the attack itself looks like a combo activated in a fighting game.

The worst case comes right at the 13:48 mark. Like all things Snowball Earth, it involves a switch from 3D to 2D that is delightful and infuriating at the same time. After being forced to witness the horror of Yukio being knocked around like a rag doll, Tetsuo bursts into tears. And you can really feel what he's going through through his face alone.

Look at how much detail is here to make Tetsuo look as sad and haunting as possible. You can feel Tetsuo's angst through the way the irises in his eyes look like empty, black ovals, to the tears that flow down his sides like Niagara, even to how the muscles tense up all over his face. Really showing every little bit of a face like this is such a necessary key feature for close-up shots and some insight on our hero. It's a tiny bit of visual storytelling that makes a big difference.

Just a few seconds later, we get this.

Notice how much detail is gone. I can barely see the tears rolling down Tetsuo's face here. Nothing about this shot leaves an impact, and becomes another drop in the “awkward CG'd shot of a character's mouth agape from surprise and/or shock” bucket. I feel nothing. The episode does the same 2D-to-3D switcheroo later on with a crying Hagane later on. This is a case of animation whiplash if I've ever seen it. It almost feels like the show is playing a cruel joke on me.

Oh, and speaking of which, there's a switch to 2D when Sagami decides to show off a little bit of his chest. Why? How? Who thought this was a good idea? Is this the show's sakuga moment? Ummmm.......................................

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