Okay, yeah, I know you never heard of Toshiko Tamura. Let me lay down some backbeat here. If you ain’t heard of Osamu Tezuka, you’re probably reading the wrong blog. I mean, he’s the dude Mangajin magazine called “The God of Manga,” because they decided other titles he’s also been given, like “The Father of […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Toshiko Tamura"Yeah, I started spelling it Trope-ical. There’s no point in a pun no one gets. But yeah, there are a lot of tropes in storytelling. That’s not an accident. Tropes are tropes because they work. I’ve said that – tropes are tropes because they work – a few dozen times, and not just in the […]
Read more "Oh, So Trope-ical: The Sexually Aggressive Gal"Happy holidays to all of you who recently celebrated, are celebrating, or will soon celebrate a holiday. It’s that time of year! One of the saddest (for me) revelations of the final reconstruction of Neon Genesis Evangelion is what happens to Rei Ayanami. Rei is a fascinating character. Although she is genetically human, she is […]
Read more "Character (Re)analysis: Rei Ayanami"Watching Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro is like watching Teasing-Master Takagi-san but without the innocence. The kids of Teasing-Master are, well, kids; the kids of Miss Nagatoro are high schoolers, and, I remind you, the age of consent in Japan is thirteen. There’s nothing explicit about it; it’s clearly PG-13. But Nagatoro’s teasing of […]
Read more "The Power of Two: Nagatoro and Hachioji"Back when I last wrote about Taiga Aisaka – she’s a quivering bundle of tropes instead of a real character – I got into a really good discussion with a reader. His (excellent) point was that a) the light novels had come before the anime and b) author Yukuko Takimiya had started by inventing the […]
Read more "Medium Matters: Toradora!"Evolution’s Hand Book 2: Dying Breath is now available for purchase! It’s available as an ebook or paperback from Amazon. It’s also available as an … Evolution’s Hand Book 2: Dying Breath is Now Available!
Read more "Evolution’s Hand Book 2: Dying Breath is Now Available!"And Yet the Town Moves is one of those silly little slice of lifers built around a slice of the life of Hotori Arashiyama, and her friends, family, high school, and pet. Cutely, mostly it revolves around the maid cafe where Hotori works. It’s run by a local old lady (called a grandmother, as is […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Hotori Arashiyama"Okay, repeat after me: Stories don’t need conflict if you don’t want people to pay any attention to them. Of course, if you DO want people to like your stories, they need some kind of tension or conflict. It’s the creation and eventual release of tension that makes a story interesting to watch/listen to/read. It’s […]
Read more "How To Build a Series: Spy X Family"You know what Wonder Egg Priority reminded me of? Interviews with Monster Girls. Let me tell you why. The deal with the demi-human girls of Interviews is that while they are explicitly monsters, deep down they actually represent common high school stereotypes: The girl with ADD, the girl who gets her boobs first, the girls […]
Read more "How to Cook a Series: Wonder Egg Priority"Sometimes you go back a look at a character you’ve looked at before because you’ve noticed something new about the character. And sometimes you have to go back because the character has changed. You’ve seen Evangelion 3.0+1.0, right? So you can guess which this one is. Until recently Shinji Ikari has been one of the […]
Read more "Character (Re)analysis: Shinji Ikari"
Confessions of an Overage otaku 