One thing I came to develop a deeper appreciation of over the last year of anime is just how important it is for a show to have individual standout scenes to punctuatie its narrative. Being consistently good is important, of course, but even the best written story in the world will necessarily have moments of…
2018 Soundtrack Shoutouts
Well, we're coming up fast on the end of the year, and that means its time for everyone's favorite year-end tradition: Arbitrary awards! For the back half of these 12 days of Anime, I'm gonna be doing some of my own, just highlighting scenes, shows, soundtracks, etc that I thought were special and deserved some…
Alexis Kerib, The Cruelest Villain Of 2018
The words that keep coming back to me when I think of Alexis Kerib, the shadow perpetually looming behind SSSS Gridman's troubled Akane Shinjou, are "quietly grotesque." He doesn't look like much when we first meet him, mind. Oh he looks big and strong and like a perfectly worthwhile Tokusatsu fightman villain. His big Darth…
Hitman and Death To Capitalism
Hitman 2 is one of 2018's standout AAA video games. Iterating on the formula established in 2018's landmark assassination romp, Hitman 2 delivers a tightly refined mix of massive, open maps, clear and predictable stealth rules, and interlocking AI schedules that serve to provide the player with an endlessly engaging array of murderous puzzles. However,…
The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Grief, Forgiveness, and Taking Ownership
(Content Warning: Frank discussion of fictional child neglect, child abuse, and suicide) (Spoiler Warning: explicit discussion of critical developments in Volume 9 of The Ancient Magus' Bride) Chise Hatori, the protagonist of Kore Yamada's The Ancient Magus' Bride, is a victim of profound neglect and persistent child abuse. This is the defining point of her character. Everything…
Reincarnated As A Slime And The Power Of Positive Fables
At a glance, studio 8-Bit's That Time I Was Reincarnated As A Slime comes off like any other of the innumerable "I died and was reincarnated in another world with a gimmick!" shows that have flooded the anime market over the last few years. We have a somewhat bland, utterly overpowered protagonist who solves most of…
Bloom Into You, Touko Nanami, and the terror of social performance
Touko Nanami is a girl who spends her days wrestling with an intense, suffocating fear. Fear of not being good enough, of confronting how people feel about her, of being seen as who she is instead of who she assumes people believe she is, or should be. Day in, day out, Touko seeks to hide…
On Laid-Back Camp and Nature as Society’s Companion rather than Society’s Foe
Laid Back Camp (also commonly referred to as its Japanese title of Yuru Camp) emerged this winter as one of the season's sleeper hits. Based on the manga by Afro and animated by Studio C-Station and director Yoshiaki Kyōgoku, the story follows an ordinary high school girl named Shima Rin as she goes on a number…
Fall 2018 Seasonal Anime Breakdown
Hello once again, dear reader! I hope you haven't forgotten about me in the measly...10 months its been since my last post here. Awkward how that works out, isn't it? Well, let's just attribute that to the trials of amateurism and press on like nothing's happened, shall we? Now, months have passed and we find…
Hibiki And Miku Are Precious Like The Sun
So, for most of these articles I've written over the past couple of weeks have gestured towards some sort of philosophical pretension. Some vague veneer of academia. Themes. Meaning. Sophistry. That goes on pause today. Today, there is only Hibiki Tachibana and her wife, Miku Kohinata. On the right of these pictures is Hibiki. Hibiki…
Musings And Pretensions 