Spring 2015, Week 3: Highlights of the Week

April 21, 2015April 21, 2015iblessall 30 Comments

To be entirely honest, it’s a minor miracle that this post is out on time this week, what with falling seven shows behind over the weekend thanks to Anime St. Louis. Despite that, though, I was treated to an excellent slate of episodes in the past week, with my “non-serious yet dearly beloved” crop of shows (Show by Rock!, Nisekoi:, etc.) continuing to be exactly what I need and want them to be: really enjoyable entertainment.

Note: Hoping to get the Blood Blockade Battlefront write-up out on Thursday. I’ve got all the ideas set, just need to pull it all together.

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Con Report: Anime St. Louis 2015

April 19, 2015April 20, 2015iblessall 26 Comments

So, you may have noticed that I sort of went silent this weekend (late on yet another Blood Blockade Battlefront post >_>)—well, there’s a good reason. I left Friday afternoon to trek down to Saint Louis, Missouri, where I met up with some friends, went apartment hunting, and went to Anime St. Louis 2015. This was, coincidentally, the convention’s tenth anniversary, which coincided perfectly with my status as a…first-time con-goer. Having only been watching anime for about three years, this was really the first time I had ever had the opportunity and interest to attend a con and it was a pretty interesting experience! What follows are some of my thoughts on the experience.

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Why Danmachi Works: Moe and Family Soften the Heart

April 16, 2015April 16, 2015iblessall 18 Comments

I’ve been thinking lately about the difference in my personal response to the first couple episode of Danmachi (aka Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?) from the reaction of the wider anime-watching public. If you’ve been pretty much anywhere online where discussion (or, in this case “discussion”) about anime happens, you’ve probably seen the Hestia fanart craze that blew up pretty much from the moment the first episode of Danmachi finished airing. The reason? Her, uh, unconventional method of supporting her breasts—known around the fandom as the “boob string.” But, for me, the blue ribbon encircling Hestia’s torso was never something that really caught my attention before the fanart craze and meme running started and I found myself actually a bit peeved by the intense focus on a relatively inconsequential element of a show I liked for other reasons. But why should this be so?

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Ore Monogatari!!, Episode 2

April 15, 2015May 25, 2015iblessall 21 Comments

I suppose I can just betray my character bias right off the bat so no one accuses me of hiding it later: I think Makoto Sunakawa is being set up to enact one of the all-time great bro roles in anime history. I really do. Of course, that’s not all I came away with from this episode—which was delightful, by the way—but the relationship between Takeo and Suna has really been the big focus of these early episodes as Ore Monogatari!! works to build their characters. Rinko, I’m sure, will get her turn, but right now Ore Monogatari!! is all about the bromance.

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Spring 2015, Week 2: Highlights of the Week

April 14, 2015April 14, 2015iblessall 19 Comments

Whoa, highlights are on a different day this season! That’s right, they sure are! Due to Ore Monogatari!! being a blog show and airing on Wednesday, Wednesdays are going to be pretty tight for me schedule wise, so I’m bumping highlights back to Tuesday for Spring 2015. This actually works pretty well, as it means the majority of shows will be on the same episode number, with a few shows (Nisekoi:, Punchline, Pleiades, Ore Monogatari!!) being an episode back. For full disclosure, there’s also a matter of search rankings: the Ore Monogatari!! posts will rank better if there’s been posting on the blog in the days prior. So, that’s that! Hope it doesn’t bother anyone much! Let’s get to it!

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Blood Blockade Battlefront, Episode 2

April 13, 2015April 14, 2015iblessall 23 Comments

Before I launch into this post, I want to direct readers to something I wrote over on Tumblr last night, an abbreviated essay called “Blood Blockade Battlefront: Style vs Substance(?) and Cinematic Language.” This essay lays out the theoretical framework this post will be operating out of—simply, that visual language is a valid semiotic code [1] capable of expressing meaning, just as more traditional methods are. So, the point of today’s post is to essentially lay out an example of how this is true, breaking down the way director Rie Matsumoto and her team have constructed a cinematic code that conveys information, themes, and ideas to the audience through the images on the screen.

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Blood Blockade Battlefront, Episode 1

April 12, 2015April 13, 2015iblessall 10 Comments

My most-anticipated show of the season. Blood Blockade Battlefront (Japanese: Kekkai Sensen). It didn’t let me down, bringing great direction, true style, and surprisingly substantial characters to the screen for a first episode that was easily my favorite premiere. Thus far, Rie Matsumoto’s sophomore effort as a full series director has been an incredible effort of visual and cinematographic density that has basically become substance all on its own. They say style can sometimes become substance (which isn’t at all to say that BBB doesn’t have substance of the more traditional kind), and that’s certainly what’s happened here.

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First Impressions: Spring 2015 Anime (Part 3)

April 10, 2015April 12, 2015iblessall 29 Comments

And, somehow, we’ve come to the end of the premieres for the Spring 2015 season! There really haven’t been too many surprises thus far, as nothing I was really looking forward to flopped and only a few shows surprised me. In terms of building a weekly schedule, that’s really something of a boon. In terms of being happy with my schedule, that’s really a boon. So, yeah, let’s finish this up and get into the season for real!

Still to Watch: Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Ninja Slayer

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Ore Monogatari!!, Episode 1

April 8, 2015May 25, 2015iblessall 19 Comments

So, in a season of cuteness, more cuteness comes. When it rains, it pours, as they say. Except Ore Monogatari!!) (or My Love Story!! is a different kind of cute from the moe-heavy offerings the Spring 2015 season has already given us. In fact, with our protagonist openly flaunting the typical standards for attractive character designs, Ore Monogatari!! knows it’s a different kind of show. And so, I’m happy to fulfill my promise of episodic reviews for the next 24 weeks of good shoujo anime. Cheers, and I hope you enjoy!

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First Impressions: Spring 2015 Anime (Part 2)

April 8, 2015April 9, 2015iblessall 25 Comments

Thanks to Funimation holding a bunch of shows (okay, really just BBB and Mikagura) hostage with no release date or time in sight, this post is missing both of those shows, as I’d hoped to include both of them here. Well, oh well. It is what it is, I guess. Anyways, this batch of anime was chock full of deadly cute stuff—ships, ship, more ship, moe, moe, more moe—familiar faces, and a couple of unfortunate duds. The dread of knowing I’m going to have to cut more than I want is already setting in…

Still to Watch: Ore Monogatari!!, Mikagura Gakuen, Pleiades, Punchline, Urawa no Usagi-chan, Ninja Slayer, Kyoukai no Rinne, Yamada-kun, Nisekoi: