In which I shed many tears over the genuine love shared between a couple of friends.
So, wow. Yeah. That episode was phenomenal. Easily the best 25 minutes Ore Monogatari!! has done all season. Definitely among the best episodes of the season. Subtle, adorable, melancholic, touching. Special. I’ve cried over Suna moments before, but this…this was something else entirely.
Well, hello there! You might notice that this week’s highlights are shorter than in weeks past. There are a couple of reasons for that. One, I dropped three shows this week. Having a full-time job, wanting to do a good job maintaining my blog, and generally just wanting to have the freedom to watch more, different things, has moved me in this direction. The thing that most often inspires me to write is actually watching shows, but there are few shows this season that actually compel me to write about them. Two, I do have quite a few things I do want to write about—and so I’m saving my words and writing energy for those! Three, I wrote most of this post after the BBB 5 post, so I’m tired…eheheheh
Sound! Euphonium episode 7: in which we discover that Kumiko likes eggs as much as I do—and looks stupid cute at the same time.
There are a lot of different ways to watch the same show. Myriad perspectives and ways of reading into a show’s text and subtext exist—and I don’t believe that all those different interpretations are exclusive to our particular headspaces. Why do I bring this up? Because my take on this episode differs somewhat radically from my thoughts on last episode. And that’s okay. I spent a lot of time thinking about what some of you guys said in the comments on my last post and I spent this episode trying to think about it in different, more positive terms. And, you know what? It made for a pretty great experience—much of it thanks to some of the cool things Ore Monogatari!! was doing this week.
Right so, deep thematic analysis, resonance between cinematographic technique and unstated meaning…it’s all there in Blood Blockade Battlefront. It’s exceptional, in a way only a Rie Matsumoto show could be. Those qualities…have almost not bearing whatsoever on this episode—because this episode is about one thing and one thing only: having a good time. And if you didn’t enjoy this episode, you might as well get off the giant car-eating monster vehicle now, because this is the reality of Blood Blockade Battlefront. And this is my favorite episode of the season.
As expected, this episode of Ore Monogatari!! brought to a close the relationship tension between Takeo and Yamato—and, as I expected, Yamato’s “secret” was revolved around guilt induced by Takeo’s perceptions and expectations of her. It’s not like this is an uncommon thing; they’ve just started dating and still don’t really know much about the other person yet. But, while it’s nice to see the tension resolved in Ore Monogatari!!‘s typical adorable fashion, I had a few problems with both the execution and the content of the episode.
Good grief, have we already passed the halfway mark for the Spring 2015 season? I guess time flies when you’re going through major life transitions…or something like that. Anyways, I’m back, which means it’s time for one gigantic post covering the last two weeks I’ve been silent—but before that, how about a little announcement?
Let it be known that asking me questions of ask.fm is like is a sneaky way to get me thinking about topics you’d like me to cover in a blog post…this was originally an ask.fm answer, then grew too large for the ask.fm and so became a tumblr post, then kept growing and became more of a philosophical manifesto/personal story than I had originally intended, and thus here we are. To begin, I know I’m treading on sensitive ground here and so, of course, I’d love to hear feedback in the comments. [1] For me, this is very much still a topic I’m learning about and pondering through. But here’s where I am right now.
Unlike episode three, which I found to be quite the tough nut to crack, episode four was a little easier to figure out in terms of its visual code. It’s no less intricate or well-constructed; just a little easier to access. At this point in these write-ups, I suppose I should note that I’ve basically thrown all doubts about “over-analyzing” into the wind. I’ll talk about this somewhere in this post, but the attention to detail in Blood Blockade Battlefront, even when it’s not using super fluid animation, is astounding and has entirely convinced me that I can interpret away with enthusiasm knowing that there are people behind this show (Rie Matsumoto, most prominently) who really care about what they’re doing and are offering up a work of art worthy of our attention and analysis.
So, I’ve kind of felt like I’ve been spinning my wheels with these posts for the last couple weeks, but no longer! Ore Monogatari!! is still super cute, but this episode’s escapade into the river of character secrets and insecurities has finally given me a reason to dive deep beyond the adorableness and really pull out some brainchildren to talk about…too much?
Mage in a Barrel 
