I almost called this “How Not to Start a Series,” but as annoyed as I am with Komi Can’t Communicate, from the standpoint of financial success the author, Tomohito Oda, actually did something very clever in starting this series. And since I do analysis and not reviews, let’s break this down and see what that […]
Read more "How To Start a Series: Komi Can’t Communicate"I know there’s a Descending Stories anime. I think it’s on Tootsieroll, or whatever that service that Sony just bought is called, but I haven’t seen it. But I just finished the manga, all ten volumes, and as a story it works for me despite the fact that there’s no more than a minimum of […]
Read more "How To Build a Story: Descending Stories"A while back I posted about anime I’d stopped watching, and someone, Irina maybe, said, “You know, it would be instructive if you could tell us why you stopped watching.” Point. That fits into what I do here, looking at anime and manga from my twin perspectives as a writer and animator. Part of telling […]
Read more "Stopped Reading This: Golden Kamuy"I waited until the complete The Flowers of Evil manga set went on sale before picking it up. I won’t say that was a mistake; it’s been around for years and isn’t going anywhere. But I got it, and it was one of those things, like A Silent Voice, that I simply could not put […]
Read more "How to Build a Story: The Flowers of Evil (Part I)"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"I don’t think it’s an original observation that the fundamental driving force in Neon Genesis Evangelion is love. The basic plot is driven by Gendo’s love for his lost wife Yui and his desire to find/recreate/rescue her. The resolution, at least as expressed in the manga version and The End of Evangelion OVA, is driven […]
Read more "Love is the Drug: Neon Genesis Evangelion"Rei Ayanami is one of the most fascinating characters in anime history. Period. Final. Full stop. Now, let’s be honest with ourselves. Anime has a lot of things going for it. It can be exciting. It can be profound. It can be heart wrenching. But at the same time it’s cartoons, okay? You know, cartoons. […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Rei Ayanami"There are three characters that seem to me to be related to one another because they are all explorations of what it means to be human. The three are Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Mokoto Kusunagi from Ghost in the Shell, and Alita, the namesake of Battle Angel Alita. Rei is interesting because she […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Alita"GROUND RULES: If you know how The Ancient Magus’ Bride ends DO NOT TELL. If you don’t, feel free to throw something on the floor. Okay, this is the next to last in my continuing series on The Ancient Magus’ Bride, previous posts here and here and here. What I’m trying to do in this […]
Read more "How is this going to end? The Ancient Magus’s Bride"Okay, when I’ve got nothing else I come back to talking about writing and how it’s done, but then, that’s the thing (one of the things) I do. So I was a bad, bad boy, and bought a manga that Amazon said I’d probably like, probably because I like Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (and the […]
Read more "Constructing a Beginning Badly: Plus-Sized Elf (Vol. 1)"