Love Death + Robots Vol. 2

I disagree that it was an absolute dud but I very much agree it felt watered down.





Automated Customer Service. I weirdly appreciated the vacuubots eye-light. They did a good job making it emotive. Got a laugh when it kept looking at her sideways as it left the room. (Shortly after it gives the poodle an impromptu haircut.)

Sadly the story was mediocre. Automated customer-service sucks. Killer robot... so original, what a courageous take.

***

Ice was good, I liked the art style. What I'd describe as the "most stylized" of this season. Simple story with a nice moral, bit of a twist at the end. A good fit for the anthology. Reminiscent of Zima Blue.

***

Pop Squad felt the most tragic to me. (In a good way.) The concept was a little shaky but the ideas backing the setting were interesting to tackle. This season lacked the quantity of epic tragedies the last season had. This episode helped fill that niche. (And I do like me some tragedy.)

***

Snow in the Desert. Visually it was superb except for one huge flaw. Snow's facial animations seem a magnitude of order worse than his skin/overlay. Otherwise it's damn pretty. Still dunno why animators can't grasp the idea that muscles below skin change the shape of a face every time it moves. A skeleton and skin isn't enough.

Story was interesting. I liked the implied concept that the central earth government seemed genuinely good. It's pretty tropey these days to make the earth-gov evil in a lot of sci-fi. The episode had a weirdly hopeful and bright outlook on things that's hidden beneath a lot of dirt. Potential immortality, a government of AI that might actually not be evil, and at the end of it, a possible soulmate.

***

The Tall Grass. I liked a few shots of the glowing in the grass but overall it seemed, trivial? Like this was an introduction to a larger story, not a self contained short.

***

All Through the House. I dunno why but this one amused me. Not at all complex and I'd otherwise pan it as mediocre but the take on Santa was well thought out. The scene giving them presents was for me funny. Ending it with the question I'd been pondering was perfect. I'm not sure I'd score this high if I was recommending it to random people but for me personally it hit a funny bone. Unexpectedly so from my very first impressions.

***

Life Hutch. Okay, first and foremost. Instant flashbacks to AMEE from Red Planet(2000).


So it's really pretty, but horror doesn't do much for me. Was more invested in the alien-ship-attack than the malfunctioning robot.

Similar to Tall Grass it was a short story that lacked a vital twist. Might appeal to the horror genre fans a bit more?

***






Haven't read em.

I liked the episode, didn't take too much from it initially. My first take changed though after seeing how my (then gf) viewed it. She loved it, her favourite episode. She's been through some pretty terrible things in her life. She saw it as a story about trauma and adapting to your life after something irrevocably changes you.

There was much more to her perspective that I won't go into but it definitely made me rewatch it with that idea in mind. I liked the episode more for seeing it from that viewpoint.

Also focused a bit more on Yan and Liang's platonic friendship subsequently. How it survived years and dramatic changes.


Pandemic hit em pretty hard I believe. Sourcing multiple studios across various states and countries, some of which are located in heavy urban centers, probably dragged things to a crawl. Type of industry where remote-work is viable but getting the infrastructure up took time.