"Daffy gets the opportunity to portray Foghorn Leghorn in a movie. Meanwhile, Bugs and Yosemite Sam find a vase buried in their backyards."
"The Foghorn Leghorn Story" centers on Daffy getting a movie role as Foghorn Leghorn for a movie titled "The Foghorn Leghorn story". What makes this episode so enjoyable is just the reactions back and forth between Bugs, Yosemite Sam, Daffy, and Foghorn Leghorn.
For example, Daffy can be one of the biggest jerks and yet Foghorn easily considers whatever he is saying to be a joke and nothing more. Things become even more chaotic when Daffy and Foghorn actually get into a fist of fight over what it means to be a rooster, adding plenty of comedic effect for this episode.
The other side of the plot has to do with Bugs and Yosemite Sam finding a rare vase under their backyards. I was very impressed how the writers handled this one. They nicely gave Yosemite Sam a chance to have a conflict with Bugs by selfishly wanting the rare vase. In the end of the episode, the two stories connect hilariously as everybody ends up fighting with each other.
"The Foghorn Leghorn Story" gave me some good hopes for this show. The character interactions here were just spot on and none of the writing felt lazy or mediocre for once. My favorite moment probably had to be Daffy acting out Foghorn's most emotional life moments and making them so absurd. That or Yosemite Sam blowing up from pure joy of finding the golden turtle that will make him rich. This is the type of writing I really hope the writers keep sticking with. This show doesn't need realism, it just needs thirty minutes of great comedic fun that all viewers can happily enjoy. All in all, The Looney Tunes Show finally hit a mark of getting itself a nicely done looney episode.
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Jake brings Finn to the library to study up on Rainicorn history and culture, but Finn decides to wander around the library halls instead. While there, he discovers a secret society of paper knights, led by the chivalrous Paper Pete. Finn tries to enlist Jake into the fight between the Pagelings and the menacing Moldos threatening the library, but Jake's skepticism proves to be a major stumbling block for Finn.
After a long break, Adventure Time is finally back at a new time with new episodes. This adventure was a lot smaller in scope than usual, with Finn becoming a Gulliverian observer in a literally tiny conflict.
The concept of a secret war in a library is a simple yet interesting one, but this episode in particular felt too simple. The story flows along in a pretty linear, straightforward path, and by the time the plot gets rolling, the episode's already over. Most of the episode's running time is spent towards Jake obstinately refusing to believe what's right in front of him, which is a bit frustrating for a show that never treats its characters or its viewers like idiots.
Secret Mountain Fort Awesome series creator Pete Browngardt makes a guest appearance as Paper Pete, using his usual Steve Little-ish Uncle Grandpa voice to play the part. The designs for both the Pagelings and the Moldos are cute and simplistic, but I'm disappointed in what little we got to see of the library as a setting. The exterior shots and title card display the Turtle Princess' library as a massive, wondrous place, but the most we get to see of it is a small room and a few hallways. Similarly, the Turtle Princess herself barely gets any spotlight for the first episode to actually take a look at what she does (which is mostly shushing Finn.) "Paper Pete" is far from a bad episode, but it's as close to baseline Adventure Time as you can get, and there's not much about it that really stands out from the show's more stellar entries.
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After seeing the mysterious student taunting the citizens of Inaba on the Midnight Channel, Yu and the group begin to suspect that he is the culprit behind the recent string of murders. They quickly track down the suspect's scent, which leads them directly to a twisted video game world."
The Investigation Team enters the TV world to find Mitsuo Kubo. They track his scent through a twisted video game environment. While Teddie begins to take down the shadows in the area with his new Persona power, the group discusses the likelihood of Mitsuo's involvement in the recent string of killings in Inaba. After the discussion, the group hears a loud shrieking voice coming from the direction of a large door that lies ahead of them. The gang finds Mitsuo Kubo arguing with his shadow over the murders and the ideas of if he's empty or not. After Mitsuo rejects his shadow, it begins to transform and the entire scene changes. Yu finds himself back at Junes with the rest of his friends talking about investigation finally being done. The group unsuccessfully plans a party because Yukiko is too busy to attend. As time begins to progress and months begin to pass, the group starts to drift apart. Trying to cheer himself up that the murders might not be over, Yu watches the Midnight Channel and suddenly begins to hear a voice that claims his bond with his friends are nothing but empty.
Yu suddenly begins to give up hope until he hears Yosuke's voice who pulls him out of a strong illusion created by Mitsuo's shadow. Happily reunited with his friends, Yu with his inner strength summons multiple new Persona: Makami of the Hanged Man Arcana, King Frost of the Emperor Arcana, High Pixie of the Priestess Arcana, and Leanan Sidhe of the Lovers Arcana. After subduing the fierce shadow, Yu and the group confront Mitsuo who openly laughs and confesses that he was behind all the murders. Mitsuo's shadow is destroyed and doesn't become a Persona because Mitsuo didn't accept it.
Getting the idea from the illusion he was in, Yu suggests that they all have a party for finally catching the killer. The party is a fun success with the group becoming even closer in the process. During the party, Nanako and Teddie make a promise that he will come over to play with her and Yosuke starts talking to Yu about the shopping district's summer festival.
Oddly enough, I couldn't help but to love this episode for the areas it develops and yet I still have a bad taste in my mouth over how the transitions were written. The positive notes about "It's not Empty At all" is that it not only introduces another unique environment into the series, but it finishes the outline characterization of what makes Yu himself. The shadow environment that is introduced this time is a complete parody of old classic RPG video games, such as the Dragon Quest series. I absolutely love how the Persona series never stops being finding new things to explore even though it already has done so much with its characters and stories. Sadly in the animation we only get to see one or two rooms of this world before it ends. As for Yu, we get to see him stuck in a illusion created by Mitsuo's Shadow. The illusion revolved around the group quickly drifting apart once their mission to stop the murders in Inaba was over. We come to understand Yu's feelings of losing his friends once again (because he arrived in Inaba three months back) and that he wants to continue to tackle the murder investigations, as it keeps him and his friends together. And that's part of what Persona 4 is all about, the power of bonds and how much we should cherish about each friendship we form.
"It's not Empty At All" does have a strong flaw that can't be ignored. The entire transition from when Mitsuo's shadow appears to Yu suddenly being stuck in a illusion was terribly written. While the point of it at first was to confuse the viewers for the sudden scene change, it looked more awkward than clever. I personally think it would have been much better if they just allowed the fight for Mitsuo's shadow to start, have Yu fight him, and then have them make eye contact. With the eye contact, it can at least allow us to understand how Yu got stuck into this illusion in the first place. Their choice makes you even more confused as to why it only affected Yu, considering all the other characters still hold inner regrets about themselves. I might just be looking too deeply into this, but there are plenty of better ways to make a transition than just going right into a scene without giving us a second to think about what's going on.
Luckily, episode 12 is not empty because it holds strong character development and plenty of fun all around. While the supposed killer may have been caught, Persona 4:The Animation still has a lot more story coming up.
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"A Tasmanian Devil escapes from the zoo and gets adopted by Bugs, who is convinced that the beast is really just a dog."
"Devil Dog" isn't that bad, if anything it's a good mixture of comedy that only continues to poke at the original cartoon shorts from time to time. The good aspect here is that the show nicely adds the Tasmanian Devil into the cast of the characters for this show. The bad news is....he's a pet who actually listens to Bugs.
If there was ever a time that showed the writers have no intention of being completely truthful to the characters they are working with, it would be right here in this episode. The Tasmanian Devil was always characterized in the classic shorts as a hungry beast who went after many of the different Looney Tunes characters. Here in this show, Tasmanian is just a angry monster who occasionally eats things. Thankfully, Tasmanian still remains to be full of laughs with his many attacks on Daffy.
I really do feel like the writers really held back their characters by changing their characterizations though. If Bugs was more witty and less oblivious to the fact that he adopted a wild animal, I can imagine this episode being hilarious. Bugs and Tasmanian had so many conflicts in the cartoon shorts that it seems so wrong to make them befriend each other in this show. It's bad enough that this episode ends with Tasmanian literally becoming a house pet and nothing more.
Don't get me wrong, I did think the friendship between Bugs and Tasmanian was rather heartwarming. I just also feel like that kind of bond is just asking for worse ideas to happen. Next thing you'll know we will see Bugs and Elmer Fudd becoming best friends out of nowhere. There are some boundaries the writers shouldn't jump over, and this relationship is one of them.
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