Ahahahaha Tsubaki made her way back to the top of the Best Girl rankings last week just in time for this episode—awesome. Just my luck. I’m sorry, Tsubaki-chan. It seems I doomed you.
Winter 2015, Week 2: Highlights of the Week
I wasn’t sure about this after the first week, but now…I’m sure. I have too many shows on this schedule, especially in the later half of the week. What’s killing me are the five ongoing shows, but none of them are even close to drop territory. Here’s what did bite the bullet this week:
- Koufuku Graffiti fell victim to both “not really feeling inspired to go back to this one” syndrome and the “schedule too full” curse despite a warm premiere.
- Military! basically sucked for three whole minutes.
- Junketsu no Maria was sadly dropped—best wishes to Maria!
- Assassination Classroom is getting close to drop territory, but isn’t quite there yet.
Akatsuki no Yona, Episodes 13-15
So, I realized that, as far behind as I was, if I tried to write individual posts for these episodes I would never ever ever catch up. I’m also not sure I could really make full episode posts out of each of these episode (14, I could have, I think), so it’s nice to be able to just focus on a few moments from each and then move on to the next one. In any case, we’ll be back on schedule next week. Woo!
The Absence of the Church of Heaven: Junketsu no Maria and Catholicism
So, the headline here is that I’m dropping Junketsu no Maria and that I’m pretty bummed about doing so. I like, even adore, a lot of the peripheral elements of the show—Maria herself, her little posse of misfits, the character designs—but the show’s handling of Catholicism and the Catholic Church, which was more or less the focus of this episode, has left me both uncomfortable and a bit upset after watching the second episode. And, as much as I want to, I just can’t ignore those warning bells in my head.
Site News: Mage in a Barrel Updates
Hello, hello, everyone! I’m here with a couple big announcements about Mage in a Barrel today! I’m really excited about some of the changes I’ve been making around the blog and what it means for the future, so let’s dive right in!
Of course, it only seems right to kick off big news like this with some help from the site’s two long-time mascots, Maka Albarn and Chitoge Kirisaki.
“Thanks for stopping by!”
“I-it’s not like I’m glad you visit or anything…”
Basic Questions, the Answers to which All Anime Fans Ought to Agree
Early this morning, I awoke to find myself with a Twitter notification (among literally dozens) from my friend and fellow aniblogger Namhur of Fiction Realm, alerting me that I had been cast in the role of question-answerer for a number of anime-fandom related questions. Now, after my valiant retreat from 12 Days of Anime due to Toradora! taking over my blog in mid-Decemeber, I had been hoping for a chance to participate in another aniblogger community project. Additionally, I enjoy imposing my super opinions on what it means to be an anime fan on the poor fools of the internet world. So, listen up pigs! This is no mere answering of questions! This is a manifesto to the anime world!
Obligatory Caution
Your Lie in April, Episode 13
Well, it certainly wasn’t KimiUso‘s best, but it landed much closer the show’s good side than last week’s episode did. As I’ve said before, KimiUso is an impressive show in its ability to oscillate between episodes that leave me unimpressed and episodes have a profound emotional impact—going from last week’s episode to this week’s was a classic case of this weird dynamic between Good KimiUso and Kind of Meh KimiUso.
And, the thing is, KimUso can have moving episodes while still faltering in some technical aspects. There were places in this episode that my brain was chirping at me, but my heart was still being worked on. To me, that’s an accomplishment, and I think KimiUso can do this when it leans on its strengths to compensate for its weakness. It’s perhaps not the best model to follow, but it’s the one that’s working for the show.
Winter 2015, Week 1: Highlights of the Week (Ongoing Shows)
With the premieres of new shows taking up most of my writing time lately, the five ongoing shows I’ve carried over from the fall have taken something of a back seat. Which, you know, is kind of a shame considering how good these five shows are. I didn’t want to let a whole week go by without talking about them at all, so we’ll have a short Highlights of the Week this week to chat about Garo, Shirobako, Your Lie in April, Log Horizon, and Akatsuki no Yona.
My schedule for this season is still coming together, but I’m hoping to aim for ~4 posts/week: Yona and KimiUso episodics, Highlights of the Week, and some kind of craft/editorial piece over the weekends. We’ll see how that goes. But, for now, on to this week!
First Impressions: Winter 2015 Anime (Part 2)
Alright, Part 2 of my Winter 2015 first impressions is here (Part 1 available here)! For me, this was the bigger selection of shows I was excited for and, as you’ll see, there were both some really easy keepers and some really easy drops. There really aren’t too many bubble shows this season after the first week, and Isuca is the only show left to air that I care about. I’m currently at 16 shows (including carryovers), but I’m expecting that number to go down by 2-4 shows. The spread is pretty good, too, with both Mondays and Wednesdays being empty. Anyhow, this was a very, very good batch of shows. Lots of fun times ahead in Winter 2015!
Still to Watch: Isuca
Obligatory Reminder: Garo is also still airing, and you should be watching it.
Shirobako Midshow Thoughts
This piece was originally published in the tri-weekly Crunchyroll Newsletter. You can read the article, and others on the Newsletter page.
There are lots of ways to build an anime. You can take a particular thematic thread and spin an entire narrative out of that single thought. You can seek to provide titillation for a target audience and use every possible chance to create it. Or you can take a few indomitable truths about the way we humans live and infuse your story with them. This final way (although these three are by no means a comprehensive list) is the way Shirobako has chosen; however, in a different way than many anime have chosen. Where great fantasy epics explore the vast darknesses and lights of humanity, Shirobako illuminates the ways in which we work and communicate in the modern world.
Mage in a Barrel 