Okay, I think Cowboy Bebop is brilliant. And I think Cowboy Bebop is flawed. Those beliefs don’t have to be inconsistent. What it says is that the strengths are so strong that they make the flaws easy to overlook. So, the facts that the ending is incomplete and some of the characters are not developed […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Spike Spiegel"Okay, I STILL talk too much about writing and not enough about animating. That’s probably not unreasonable. There are a lot more writers than animators out there, when you get right down to it. Animation, except on computer, is a really expensive hobby, while writing…pencil, paper, done. Boom. But anyone can talk about writing. Let’s […]
Read more "The Voice: Wendee Lee"The A Silent Voice manga went on sale at A Certain Retailer so I picked up the whole set. I meant to read them one at a time during my morning commute, but the story was so great that I just zoomed through the whole set. I thought the story had some holes – I’m […]
Read more "The Princess in Peril: Shoko Nishimiya"One of the fun things about being a writer and animator who talks here about the mechanics of writing and animating is that every once in a while I actually get something published and then I can brag on myself. My story “Godwin, or, The Modern Prometheus,” my take on the “true” history of the […]
Read more "Story Drop: Godwin, or, The Modern Prometheus"I think one of the really fun things about Outlaw Star is that from a narrative standpoint its construction is totally obvious. It’s fun and it’s goofy, and it has good characters and Aisha’s enormous AHEMs; those are the reasons to watch it, so far as I am concerned. But when you break it down […]
Read more "Let’s Cook a Series: Outlaw Star"I don’t do reviews. I mean, I did one, once, of Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, but that was because it was fairly obscure and I told everyone I bought the DVD, so when I saw it – it was hugely fun – I thought I should say something. For, you know, closure. This isn’t a […]
Read more "Bonus Post: Carole and Tuesday"Revolutionary Girl Utena is another of those series, like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop, that cause people who watch it to look at anime differently. Bebop is a remarkably adult work; it’s not a cartoon about kids for kids. Ben 10 it ain’t! Evangelion is DEEP, a hardcore psychodrama disguised as a mecha story. […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Utena Tenjou"