You know, there are characters that are hard to figure out, and you can stare at the screen for hour and hours saying, “Wow. This is working and I don’t know why.” Then, if you’re me, you try to figure it out. And sometimes you’re just walking around outside with your mask on, staying away […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Gene Starwind"Okay, same thing as “What’s in a name?” last time. What in Heaven’s name does that name mean? It’s routine now for anime presented in the west to retain their original Japanese names, unlike the olden days when Gally could be called Alita so American audiences would find her easier to relate to. Or Chibiusa […]
Read more "What’s In a Name: Chibiusa"There was something so overpoweringly attractive going on in Toradora! that I watched it straight through twice. I mean, who knows? Might have been COVID coma at work. But it managed to transcend both cute and saccharine, and that’s a damn good trick. Wasn’t the plot. Wasn’t the setting. Wasn’t the theme. Nope. If you […]
Read more "The Power of Two: Taiga and Ryuji"Okay, so last time we looked at how manga and anime differ. Anime is an action medium while manga has more depth; the anime business is higher financial risk/reward proposition while manga can be riskier in content because of the lower costs involved. Right. I just summarized a thousand-plus word post in one compound sentence. […]
Read more "Medium Matters: School-Live! II"I really like School-Live!, the manga. Although as the story winds to its end – the final English language volume went on sale in late August – the plot seems to be getting a little lame, it’s still a legitimate portrait of the survivors of a zombie apocalypse and the psychological burdens they would bear. […]
Read more "Medium Matters (Part 1): School-Live!"Nana is one of those things that’s actually easier to think about than a lot of anime, because it transcends the genre(s) in a specific way. Yeah, it’s animated and from Japan. So far as I know that makes it anime by definition. But it’s not built like a traditional anime. That may be why […]
Read more "How To Cook a Series: Nana"Flower of Evil is one of those things that when I read a summary of the manga I said, “I got to get me some of that.” Now, I don’t know about you, but to keep me from buying everything in sight I have a monthly spending limit. And the Flowers of Evil complete manga […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Sawa Nakamura"So I subscribe to an anime goodie box services. Sometimes they send me real crap, as in someone there thought it would be cute to send The World’s Lamest Face Mask (TM) in the first COVID-era box. Yeah, um, nope. But they also send cool stuff. There was a cute little Gundam head I had […]
Read more "The Eternal Parallelogram: FLCL"There was something powerfully cute about Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions. It’s about kids with delusions of having super powers (yeah, chunibyo), which puts them on the extreme end of the spectrum that includes things like identifying with magical or powerful characters, playing RPGs, and doing cosplay, and since I do all those things I […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Rikka Takanashi"Sailor Moon is the longest series I’ve ever watched, and the source I was using, for whatever reason, stopped supplying dubbed or subbed episodes after around #160, so I haven’t seen the end. Still, it wasn’t bad, although I would have liked Sailors Uranus and Neptune to do more than stand around telling the other […]
Read more "How to Write a Sailor Moon Episode"