Princess Jellyfish was neat to see in that a lot of the characters were upside down in their construction; instead of having one key weakness, many of them had one key strength instead. This allowed them to push the plot forward and keep the narrative momentum going. Narrative momentum? You mean there was a plot […]
Read more "Let’s Cook a Series: Princess Jellyfish II"CONTENT WARNING: I haven’t seen the anime yet. On the flip side, I was able to pick up the Princess Jellyfish manga for a song (Mystery Girls by the New York Dolls), and since it was there and I’d heard of it, I thought I’d give it a taste. WHAM! Zoomed straight through it. What […]
Read more "Let’s Cook a Series: Princess Jellyfish"Devilman Crybaby is one of those things a lot of people like. I should like it, too, because it’s for grown-ups. I mean, it’s explicit in its explicitness, in its themes, in its text and its subtext. This is a show for grown-ups. Now, I didn’t LIKE it. This is one of those places where […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Akira Fudo"I ran into a list of shows that was described as “8 Great Anime for People who Don’t Like Anime” and had a look. You know, there was some seriously good schnizz there. It included two of my all-time faves, Black Lagoon and Samurai Champloo, plus a couple more I really liked, Beastars and Paranoia […]
Read more "The Odd Couple: Nana and Hachiko"Night is Short, Walk on Girl is one of those movies I keep coming back to over and over when I’m not feeling too great and have no energy for anything other than curling up on the couch and reading subtitles (it has never been dubbed to my knowledge). Yeah, been a lot of that […]
Read more "Building a Film: Night is Short, Walk on Girl"Tropes are one of those things that I’ve mentioned about a zillion times but never actually talked about. There’s probably a formal definition, but a trope is basically a commonly used marker or indicator used to tell the audience something about the characters, plot, or setting. Setting/genre is a big place where tropes show up […]
Read more "Oh So Trope-ical: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi"Konata is one of my favorite characters ever. I like Lucky Star, as silly and pointless as it is, and watch it over and over, possibly because it’s silly and pointless, and Konata is a big reason that I like it. Now, why is that? Do you think we can unscrew the inscrutable here? Let’s […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Konata Izumi"Whoever dreamed up Beastars dreamed up something that is like the perfect storytelling cookbook. Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “No conflict, no drama.” (George Bernard Shaw) AAH! AAAAHHHH! Back, dreaded cliché, back I say! But it’s a formula that’s worked from The Epic of Gilgamesh: find a character the audience likes and put […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Legoshi"Welcome to the NHK is a classic, and it’s a classic for a couple reasons, I suspect. One, I’d guess, is the love story between Tatsuhiro and Misaki, which is sweet and handled nicely as it develops. Another is that Tatsuhiro is an unusual character, his status as a hikkikomori – a person who is […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Misaki Nakahara"When you’re looking at the structural elements of an anime or manga, sometimes it gets really complex and you can get deep into insights. In The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Chise and Elias are a complementary couple along six separate dimensions. The metaplots of Black Lagoon and Cowboy Bebop are so well disguised you have to […]
Read more "Medium Matters: Mardock Scramble"