Time traveling with anime! Or, perhaps it’s actually remembering love…
Aniwords – Competition Motivation in Scorching Ping Pong Girls & Yuri!!! on ICE
Anytime you throw two shows together in a post, you’re limiting your potential audience, but I rather think I’ve outdone myself with this one by comparing the megahit of the season with a sadly underwatched gem that have very different audience-targeting goals.
Anyways, this is kind of a combination post on two ideas I’ve had in my head about things I wanted to say about each of these shows, and somehow it all came together. Even if you’ve only watched one (or neither!) of these anime, I think there’s still some good fun to be had here, so I hope you’ll check it out! Also, please, for the love of good anime, at least give Scorching Ping Pong Girls a shot.
[7] -arata naru sekai: loneliness-
Just one of a thousand things I want to say about one of the best things I watched this year.
[8] -kuromukuro: familiarity-
A brief study of the highly effective first half of Kuromukuro‘s premiere episode.
[9] -akagami no shirayuki-hime: steadiness-
In defense of a “boring” romance.
[10] -konobi: friendship-
Friendship is by no means an uncommon theme in anime, but few recent anime have done as good a job at portraying a friendships that feel like, well, actual friendship than Konobi.
[11] -konosuba: pettiness-
Not all small things are pretty. In fact, some are petty. Like Konosuba‘s Aqua.
[12] -introduction to small things-
A choice is made, and we follow the droplet of water until it reaches the puddle.
On A Certain Scientific Railgun and Canonical Fanfiction
A Certain Scientific Railgun is basically author Kazuma Kamachi’s fanfiction in his own universe, but the show’s genre-blending tendencies, as it happens, mean that part of its core appeal is similar to that of fanfiction. It’s a fascinating thought to unpack.
Aniwords – In Defense of Liking Things
Yet another rambling-ish article from me on the nature of being a person who watches and likes things—ostensibly about anime, but theoretically applied to much more. In short, liking things is good and I like watching other people like things. So I hope I was able to encourage people to not be too afraid about sharing when they like things!
Mage in a Barrel 