Something I’ve been considering almost since the start of Bocchi the Rock! is the central source of the show’s comedy and how that intersects with a compassionate understanding of mental health. Whenever you have a story that wants to mine a character’s struggles (in whatever form) for laughs, inevitably it raises the question of whether the humor is coming from a place of understanding or cruelty.
And thus, the question: Is Bocchi the Rock! mean to Bocchi?
Something I think is very important to get right has been got rather wrong, in my estimation.
The only righteousness which we can truly claim is to understand the fallibility of our own humanity.
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.
We forge ahead with our series on RWBY this week, following up on last week’s piece about the show’s evolving writing by talking about how its visuals have grown up over the years. Honestly, I might have bitten off a bit more than I should have with trying to cover a topic as general as “visuals” in a single post, but I think I’ve managed to highlight the show’s evolution in this area pretty well nonetheless.
As you guys well know, I’m rather fond of doting on shows that are… less than perfectly crafted. This goes doubly true for those rare cases where a show starts out a bit wobbly on its feet and then manages to carve out a distinctive path for itself. I’ve seen this happen a few times, but perhaps no show’s arc from underdog to champ has been as fun to witness as that of RWBY.
This week, the first of a two-parter on the show’s growth over the years—starting off by focusing on its storytelling!
On the absolute treat that was the Dazai backstory arc of Bungo Stray Dogs’ second season.
It’s been quite a while since I first wrote about the orange manga about two-thirds of the way through its publication run on Crunchyroll. Now, an improbable anime adaptation has aired and I am compelled to, at last, put words to the feelings I have about the show. While I probably will continue to regard the manga as the superior version of the story, the merits of the anime adaptation are substantial—and, as you’ll read, ultimately none of that matters when it comes to orange anyways.
We’re back at it again with Mob Psycho 100, a show I never really thought I was going to get a chance to talk about on a theme level because it was just so disjointed. But here we are, as it turns out, “Be kind,” is a rightfully powerful unifying force. It’s pretty neat to see how such a simply idea can bring together so many scattered thoughts and make sense of them. And for it to be one as important as kindness is pretty cool, too.
There’s gold to be found in the heart, and treasure to be found in the working of it.
Mage in a Barrel 