I wish more anime were directed like these two productions.
Aniwords – Power, Kindness, & Adulthood in Mob Psycho 100
We’re back at it again with Mob Psycho 100, a show I never really thought I was going to get a chance to talk about on a theme level because it was just so disjointed. But here we are, as it turns out, “Be kind,” is a rightfully powerful unifying force. It’s pretty neat to see how such a simply idea can bring together so many scattered thoughts and make sense of them. And for it to be one as important as kindness is pretty cool, too.
Help Choose Mage in a Barrel’s Next Episodic Project!
Hello, friends!
It’s taken a while, but I’ve finally recovered enough from the (what felt like to me) Herculean effort that was my Hyouka episodic posts and I’m ready to pick up something new. I’ve got a shortlist of things that you can vote on, but if you’d like to really make a cast for something on this list – or, better yet, recommend something not on here at all – leave me a comment!
Note that the upper limit here is 26 episodes. Maybe someday I’ll do episodics for Turn A Gundam, but I’m just not there yet.
Here’s the shortlist poll—and I’ve got more thoughts on why I’m interested in writing on these shows below. As always, I reserve the write to chuck all feedback out the window and do something else entirely (although I doubt that’ll happen in this case).
Aniwords – Finding Gold in an Everyday Art Club!
I’m back to Konobi this week, which I realized yesterday is probably rivaling 91 Days for the most consistent show of the season. But while 91 Days has been plagued with production problems (oh Studio Shuka), Konobi‘s production values have stayed pretty consistent, which has allowed it to consistently do the kind of stuff I talk about in this column—take additional care with certain scenes to really make them special. I’d love to read some interviews with this creative staff to hear what they think of the show they’re working on…
Love Live! Sunshine, Macross, and the Resonance of Franchise Lore
The sad truth: not all idol shows can be Macross. On the other hand, this is in defense of Love Live! and Love Live! Sunshine.
Aniwords – 91 Days and the Cinematography of Murder
Hello, hello! Let’s talk about murder! Or, more specifically, how murder looks (in 91 Days). I’ve been wanting to write something about 91 Days‘ visuals for a while now, but despite some attempts at cinematographic motifs, the show never quite gave me a concrete visual paradigm to explore. But, somehow, I came up with this kind of topical approach, and while I think it could use some refining in the future, I also think it’s pretty good!
Aniwords – What Does It Mean to Have a “Favorite Anime”?
Someone let the highly sentimental version of me out of the box this week, and the result is this piece. Ultimately, it just comes down to another rendition of me trying to plead for people to be nice to each and me winding up utterly failing to capture the incredible feeling of wonder I got from watching people’s responses pop up by the dozens (the dozens!) on Twitter, but I think it does alright anyways.
