So, it’s that time of the year again, that time of the year that comes around four times a year, that time of year when a bunch of new anime start all at once and it’s a mad scramble to try and watch all the things I at least want to try. And with this season’s premieres being so spread out over a long period of time, halfway through premiere week I’ll have to take a break, but that’s neither here nor there. Let’s hit it!
The Best Anime of Spring 2016
Spring 2016 was ridiculous. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched 10+ shows in a season, but this season made me do it. In addition, the top level of shows this season were ridiculous. We had basically two competing AOTS shows (fortunately, only one actually ended this season). In short, I had a whole bunch of fun—my weekly schedule this season felt like coming home each time I started in on it.
Aniwords – Rediscovering the Musicals of My Childhood in Anime Insert Songs
I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve decided to take a strictly personal angle on an anime-related topic during my three years of anime writing, but today I’ve got another addition to that particular collection—although I couldn’t tell you why I chose to do so. It just kind of happened. Spontaneously, like a song… in a musical! Whoa.
Anyways, hope you guys enjoy me going a little more introspective than normal (although I’ve snuck in some analytical pieces here and there, teehee).
A Comparison of Translations for Concrete Revolutio
It’s not often we get two different official sets of subtitles for a simulcasting anime, but that’s what happened with Concrete Revolutio (which was streamed by both Funimation and Daisuki here in the US). After seeing some screenshots from Funimation’s version of Conrevo‘s finale, which differed a bit from the Daisuki subs, I got it into my head to compare the two translations—what follows are the results, along with my commentary.
On the Kuma Miko Ending Controversy and Creative Ownership
All this started because everyone was talking about something I hadn’t seen and I just had to be a part of the conversation.
Aniwords – The Lost Village and the Death of the Genre
The Lost Village wasn’t the best anime that aired this season, nor was it anywhere close to being my favorite, but darn it, it was sure a heckuva a lot of fun to write about. I’ve long since passed by my formalist fan days (I remember telling one of my college professors that I was a formalist LOL), but talking about The Lost Village‘s formal qualities is very nearly the only way I can think to approach the show—as should be clear since this is the third post I’ve written on its formal elements. In any case, I hope you guys enjoy this wild post!
Aniwords – Concrete Hero Luluco: From Heroes to Justice to Love
I’ve been away on a business trip, which is why I’m late getting this one posted over here. I apologize for the blog’s relative deadness as of late – I promise I haven’t forgotten about it; just in a weird sort of funk with writing lately since work’s been crazy. Things should settle down by mid-July.
Anyways, this belated post is a (perhaps overly so) ambitious attempt by me to bring together some thoughts I’ve been having on My Hero Academia, Concrete Revolutio, and Space Patrol Luluco. Hope you guys enjoy it – if not, let me know if it was impregnable after all in the comments.
Aniwords – Dealing with Bakugo
Another week, another Aniwords! On the docket this week is My Hero Academia, which I confess I feel rather lax for having left untouched for this long. While I think the show’s pretty good, and even improves on the manga in places, ultimately I’ve been disappointed by how safe the adaptation’s been played. That being said, there’s still a ton of cool stuff going on My Hero Academia, and so I hit on some of those things this week. Hope you guys enjoy it!
Aniwords – The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Modern Anime, and Ambition in Storytelling
I read things, which make me think of other things—which make me want to write things. Thus goes the cycle of my Aniwords columns. Speaking of which, I’m actually at my one-year anniversary writing weekly columns for Crunchyroll, which is a pretty exciting thing! That’s a lot of consecutive weeks of writing (although there were two weeks where I didn’t write anything because of work), and I don’t know if I ever would have imagined I would have lasted this long—let alone still be coming up with new ideas of things to say each week.
(More exciting news after the break, by the way!)
Aniwords – Kiznavier & How to Say Things without Words
I don’t know how many of you guys are watching Kiznaiver (mostly because I’ve been very poor at writing up those weekly posts this season due to the volume of stuff I’m watching), but episode 7 was really, really good. Good enough to motivate me to devote an entire post to detail how it, and the rest of the show, uses visuals to communicate beyond what the writing says.
Mage in a Barrel 