Aniwords – Brando, Now We Got Bad Blood: Family Heritage in Early JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure

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Ordinarily I wouldn’t recommend just watching the first two episodes of a show as a last ditch effort to try and come up with a post, but that’s what I did for Aniwords this week and I think it turned out okay! I’ve never watched any JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure before (its particular brand of craziness just never struck me as something I’d care a ton for), but I was surprised and pleased that I enjoyed the first two episodes as much as I did. A large part of that was the dynamic between Dio and JoJo and the unexpectedly rich texture of their rivalry. What exactly that texture is… well, you’ll have to read the post to find out!

Here’s the link~

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere – Blu-ray Review

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It’s always an interesting experience revisiting shows that I watched relatively early on in my anime-watching career, and Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere (somehow, probably because it was on Hulu at the time, which is where I started out watching anime after my free Netflix trial was over) is certainly one of those shows. While it didn’t have quite the same effect of being over the top ridiculous as it did back then, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Horizon remains fun and easy to watch. Watching things with my blogger/critic hat on rather than my uninhibited fan hat is always something of a risk, I feel, but things panned out pretty well!

Here’s the link!

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere

 

Aniwords – We Ain’t Swallowing No Buckets of Barium Here! Kiznaiver and the Sign of a Scar

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You guys wouldn’t know this since I haven’t done a weekly round-up post in a while, but Kizaniver‘s probably my third or fourth favorite show this season—besides being the first Studio Trigger show I’ve actively liked. As such, I took my chance with this week’s Aniwords to explore one of the things that’s most fascinated me about the series so far: the use of scar imagery as a symbol for human connection.

Here’s the link~

Kiznaiver

Aniwords – Sleepy Spotlight: On Tanaka-kun and Flying Witch

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I’ve been waiting since Non Non Biyori for a show to inherit its specific kind of slice-of-life bent, but I didn’t expect we’d get two of them in the same season (on the same day, no less!). As you already know, they are Tanaka-kun is Always Listless and Flying Witch, and I took some time on this week’s Aniwords to chat about how Tanaka-kun and Flying Witch are inheritors of the Non Non Biyori spirit and why the three of them work so well.

Here’s the link!

Flying Witch

My Hero Academia Volume 3 – Manga Review

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I’m continuing my coverage of the My Hero Academia manga over at The Fandom Post, which means I’m not officially Relevant thanks to the anime airing this season. The anime’s reportedly only scheduled for 13 episodes, which is a bit weird for me as a manga reviewer—the manga, despite being fun, still doesn’t feel like it’s totally hit its stride yet in this third volume. Anyways, the manga is still good and I’m having a ball watch it get adapted into an anime.

Check out the full review here!

My Hero Academia

First Impressions: Spring 2016 Anime (Part 1)

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I knew it was coming, but I still feel like this spring season took me by surprise. Maybe it’s because this is the first season that I can remember since I started watching seasonal anime where I didn’t have some kind of major life transition or important obligation concurrent with the start of the season. Maybe it’s because I was so focused in on Macross Delta‘s premiere that I forgot to emotionally prepare for everything else. Whatever the case, it’s here now and it’s time to take a look at what we’ve got!

Macross Delta 1-84

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Aniwords – Uncharacterization in The Lost Village

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The Lost Village wasn’t my favorite premiere so far, but it was probably the most interesting first episode to anything that’s aired from the Spring 2016 season so far. My love affair (not literal) with Mari Okada is well-known, and while my feelings on Tsutomu Mizushima (Shirobako) are more ambivalent than you might expect, putting them together on a show was something I was looking forward to. Apparently, rightly. And so, this post on writing and horror and using characters for a very specific purpose was born.

Here’s the link~

Mayoiga