A short post on the fun of enjoying the extremely awful main character of The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited (Fugou Keiji).
The Millionaire Detective’s Daisuke Kamba: A Playground of Attraction
Fandom
What Are We Talking About When We Talk About “Empathy” in Media Criticism?
A long-overdue thought on a certain trend in the way we talk about anime.
I Haven’t Seen Evangelion, but I Will Someday: What I’m Looking for When I’m Watching Anime Now
This serves as your official notice: I have not seen Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now you can stop being surprised by that fact.
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!
Aniwords – Is There a Right Way to Watch Anime?
It’s pondering the deeper implications of simple questions time again! Frankly, I’m not sure I did the topic as much justice as I wanted, but you write and write again. Maybe someday I’ll finally land on something I feel is my seminal commentary on fandom conversation.
Aniwords – What Does It Mean to Have a “Favorite Anime”?
Someone let the highly sentimental version of me out of the box this week, and the result is this piece. Ultimately, it just comes down to another rendition of me trying to plead for people to be nice to each and me winding up utterly failing to capture the incredible feeling of wonder I got from watching people’s responses pop up by the dozens (the dozens!) on Twitter, but I think it does alright anyways.
On Sakuga, and Why You Should Care About It
I felt it was finally time to do my part to introduce sakuga to others and in this piece I make a case for why anybody can enjoy sakuga.
What is a Best Girl?
At its core, the concept of the “best girl” is a pretty silly one. It ultimately amounts to a fandom game, an arbitrary imposition of indeterminate criteria on a set of character for the sole purpose of crowning a champion. And yet, it’s a game I’ve invested myself into again and again. Perhaps, as the saying goes, “the joy is in playing.”
Aniwords – The Great Waifu Carousel
In my ongoing battle to negotiate the lines of blissfully unattached fandom and genuine media engagement, I’ve run into a lot of different facets of anime watching in which this weird dynamic is found. On the hot seat this week is characters—waifus, husbandos, best girls, and everything else—and thinking about the ways that the general marketplace of fandom and industry seem to be at odds with lasting remembrance of anything at all.
But, sometimes, you find the perfect seat on the carousel. This article is about all of that.
Mage in a Barrel 