Sweat and Soap is one of those things that when you describe it to someone sounds either sickly sweet or more than a little creepy. I mean, it’s basically a story about two people falling in love as they find they complement each other (that’s the sickly sweet part) because she has a strong body […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Asako Yaeshima"Every once in a while I fall into a rabbit hole and can’t climb out. So I have a subscription to Crunchyroll, and there’s an app that gives me access to certain manga they support. And I happened onto this little gem called Silver Nina. Now, it’s kind of dumb and the art isn’t especially […]
Read more "How to Cook a Series: Silver Nina"You know, in a certain way Rea Sanka, the titular character of Sankarea, is one of the saddest characters in anime. Sure, there are characters who are supposed to be sad, or whose loss is shocking. Right? When Kaori dies in Your Lie in April – oh, man, what a tearjerker. But Kaori’s JOB was […]
Read more "Character Analysis: Rea Sanka"Gleipnir is one of those things that manages to use a story to hide something in plain sight, and that is that it’s thinly-veiled pornography. And let me tell you, that’s one thin veil. So the deal is … do I even need to go through what the deal is? … the deal is there’s […]
Read more "Okay, I Get the Joke: Gleipnir"If you read back in this blog – oh screw it, here’s a link – I was really unthrilled with the manga version of Komi Can’t Communicate. Y’see, our gal Komi is a gal with some severe psychological problems. She has what we in the communication business call “speech apprehension” (you might call it “stage […]
Read more "Medium Matters: Komi Can’t Communicate"What is it with Japanese anime boys and kinky fetishes? First we get Yamazaki from Welcome to the NHK, who prefers his women 2-D, and now there’s Kuruya from Sankarea who gets off on zombie girls. Maybe it’s like a defense mechanism. You know, “I’ll never get a real babe so I’ll lust for a […]
Read more "Medium Matters: Sankarea, Undying Love"WARNING: SPOILERS Okay, it’s all here and it’s all done. I’m not sure whether to cheer or feel sad. Probably both: Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0, and the entire rebuild, is a heckuva ride, and I enjoyed the heck out of it, which is what one would like to expect from a heckuva ride. Okay, if […]
Read more "Medium Matters: Neon Genesis Evangelion"Okay, one more time: The beginning of a narrative is supposed to do a lot of things. You know, it really SHOULD do a lot of things. The key one, of course, is to get the user to KEEP GOING. If the beginning blows, no one’s interested in what comes next. And if you’re looking […]
Read more "Building a Beginning: Rent-a-Girlfriend"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"
Confessions of an Overage otaku 