Relevant Aside: More on meta-plot

I’ve written before on meta-plot, the overarching story line that runs through an entire series. I was always told there were seven basic plots. You can look them up if you want. Oh, look…some dudes at the University of Nebraska have decided there are only six meta-plots! http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180525-every-story-in-the-world-has-one-of-these-six-basic-plots?ocid=fbculao The tl;dr version is that their analysis […]

How Does an Ending Work: Cowboy Bebop

When I’m not yakking about character combinations, one of the things I yak about is the basic narrative structure: Beginning: Introduces characters and setting Middle: Conflict arising from character and/or setting plays out End: Conflict resolved It’s the writer in me. I just can’t help it. Of course, it’s a little more complex than that. […]

Pure Propaganda: Momotaro – Sacred Sailors

I’m going to lay off the never-ending discussion of character patterns for a couple weeks. Um, so, yeah…what should I talk about instead? Um…Oh, I’ve got one. Seen Momotaro – Sacred Sailors? Some sources say Momotaro was the first anime. It was a feature-length animated film made in Japan during World War II, and, to […]

The Power of Three More: Amagi Brilliant Park

I don’t always try to find something to say about every series I have watched. There’s just nothing especially special about, say, Komori-san Can’t Decline, at least from my perspectives as writer/animator/social scientist. From my overage perspective, Komori-san has a real problem, that being that three-quarters of the gags revolve around the enormous breasts of […]

The Power of Three, Family: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

So, last week I talked about a stable trio of characters I thought was basically uninteresting, and then, dagnabbit, the producers of Citrus found a way to make the Eternal Triangle interesting. Along with the Eternal Triangle, Hero, Sidekick, and Girlfriend, and Mind, Body, and Soul, there’s another stable trio and that’s Father, Mother, and […]

Irrelevant Aside: X-Ray Spex

My fondness for the New York Dolls, the proto-punk, proto-glam band from the 1970’s, is something I may have mentioned previously. Two of the original Dolls are still with us, Syl Sylvain, rhythm guitar, and David Johansen, vocals. Both are still making music in various ways, David gigging around Manhattan and Syl going off on […]

Confessions of an Overage otaku

Let's talk anime and manga, shall we?

Month: May 2018