5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts from 2021 Week 23
Welcome to my 5 favorite anime blog posts from 2021 week 23!
Every week I look for posts that celebrate amazing moments in anime or otherwise blow me away with their wit and charm. I check hundreds of sites, and I can tell you that the ani-blogging community constantly produces a ton of amazing posts. I hope this list helps you find some of them!
Here’s the list of the sites I check!
100 Word Anime
Why Vivy May Become My Favourite Sci-Fi Anime
The 2021 Spring Anime season has delivered not only some solid entertainment. It’s delivered some series that are noteworthy. One series that I had my eye on early was Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-. It looked like a winner — stunning art, impactful stories, and a sympathetic lead character in Vivy. Trouble was, there was one thing — and only one thing — that really bugged me about the series, as I described here. Much to my dismay, I found that I couldn’t embrace the series.
However, I’m willing to be convinced my initial impression had been mistaken. The show itself shows some signs that it’s moving in the right direction. And then there’s this post by Karandi from 100 Word Anime. If a post were to directly attempt to argue me into reconsidering, it would likely fail. But Karandi post did something much, much more effective. She told me why she liked the series. She had some really good reasons, too! The most compelling from my perspective were her observations about Vivy’s character. Did she capture what you like about the series?
AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog
Fruits Basket (2019): The Final Episode 9
Sometimes I pick a series to stretch my emotional vocabulary. I did that with The Ancient Magus’ Bride. But frankly, and I can admit this now, I was cheating. Yes, that series dealt with heavy topics, and yes, there was some high beauty that really made me stretch to talk about it. But it was still distant. The Ancient Magus’ Bride dealt with magic and abstract concepts, and those, in a small way, insulated me from having to deal with the raw emotional aspects. But Fruits Basket doesn’t have that buffer.
Instead, Fruits Basket deals with accessible human drives and feelings. Sure, it plays with the idea of the Souma curse, but it’s so far in the background that it leaves the characters painfully authentic. I often find myself resorting to the upper limits of my ability to describe things by using either passages from Tolkien or leveraging religious imagery. That’s why I like posts like this one by Shadow from AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog. This post makes talking about even episode 9 look easy. I’m not saying it was easy; for all I know, Shadow had to labor mightily to achieve this tone! But it describes what made episode 9 so emotionally impactful. See if you saw the same things that Shadow did!
Armchair Anime
Vinland Saga
Looking back at all of My Favorite Anime Blog Posts/Other Posts to Crow About, if I had to call out a single theme, it’s this: I don’t have enough time to watch all of the anime that I want to. There are too many new series to watch as they air, so that by the end of each season, my backlog is even larger. I suppose I should gracefully accept this as a limitation. But I don’t accept any of my limitations gracefully, so why start now?
So, all of my BS aside, you might be wondering what series I’m going to lament not watching now. This time, it’s Vineland Saga. It got fantastic press as it aired, and almost every review gushed about how great it was. There’s a measure I use that gives me an accurate measure of how memorable a series was: At least a couple of years after it aired, is anyone still gushing about it? In the case of Vineland Saga, the answer is yes! As evidence, please let me present this post by Marshal Brummel on the site Armchair Anime. It does more than simply gush about the series. It methodically explains why the series is so darned interesting. So, onto the back log Vineland Saga goes!
Never Argue with a Fish
Anime Corner: Dorohedoro Review
Hey, let’s keep the trend going, shall we? Let’s talk about Yet Another Series I Was Too Stupid to Watch (YASIWTSTW, which is probably harder to say than the original phrase). This time, it’s Dorohedoro. What was it about the series that made it so great? Well, I wouldn’t know, having not watched it! Fortunately, I have the authentic testimony from neverarguewithafish on the site Never Argue with a Fish to fill in my information gaps. So, after reading this post, I find that not only was the series itself interesting. It’s a fantastic example of what makes anime itself so compelling a medium. So, backlog, meet Dorohedoro! If you were smart enough to watch the series when it aired (or since!), see if neverarguewithafish talks about the reasons you liked the series!
The Otaku Author
Heaven’s Lost Property (Episode 1) – A Full-frontal Hero Arises in the World!
Okay, finally. A series I’ve seen! And what’s more, it’s a series I enjoyed the heck out of! I remember watching Heaven’s Lost Property for the first time. I came away with several strong impressions. First, I had to respect Tomoki Sakurai’s absolute dedication to his calling. Sure, his calling involved migratory flocks of flying panties, but hey, who am I to judge? Second, something about Ikaros captivated me. Maybe it was the initial air of mystery. Maybe it’s that we later learn she had the power to destroy civilizations. Whatever it was, I adored Ikaros.
There was a lot more to the series than Ikaros, as this post by Lynn Sheridan on the site The Otaku Author shows. This post focuses on the first episode, which introduces us not only to Tomoki and Ikaros, but several other characters who play major roles as the series goes on. It also highlights an event that foreshadowed that this show wasn’t just going to be ecchi/comedy/harem. For me, it elevated the series from “something enjoyable that I’d quickly forget” to something more. See if you agree!
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Want to explore more amazing anime blog posts? Check out the previous editions of My Favorite Anime Community Posts!
Tcrow, here’s a take on Vivy that I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere on the Internet, and I will post it here.
I think the main central theme of this show, and I thank that it is more show instead of tell in this case, is that merely copying an AIs experience data does not result in an actual clone being produced, which is why Elizabeth was a failure, not being a true copy of Estella. If this was the only instance of that, I wouldn’t have made the connection, but even future arcs present this as being the case. Then with the case with Grace, Diva and Matsumoto shot down Dr. Tatsuya’s suggestion to upload Grace’s data into K-5 as being a viable way to save it. Now, with this Elizabeth 2.0, it’s a copy of Elizabeth that is not exactly the same and seems to behave differently than the original and even saying directly that it was different than the original. We also had the case with Diva after its reboot that the Diva that came into being acted very diva-like indeed in comparison to who Vivy was then and now, which shows how Vivy could have developed if it hadn’t if it hadn’t come into contact with Matsumoto.
I like Tappei’s take on this as I strongly believe that stuff like mind uploading that is popular in some circles will not work out because it’s impossible to clone a person perfectly given that the clone wouldn’t have actually experienced everything the original experienced, which would result in whomever’s mind being copied not resulting in the creation of someone who was identical to the original. I do think that this final arc will end with Vivy coming to terms with itself and its unique existence as a being, whatever that entails.
Maybe I wasn’t being 100% clear, but I believe the message of this show can be more generalized as everybody is unique and their own person, including autonomous AIs. I believe Vivy will do something unique and true to itself that only it can do. Maybe that means it saves the world by singing, and however cliche that might be, if it is done properly, it could still work.
That’s interesting — and I think it speaks well of the series that it can support this kind of conjecture!
Did you ever read Frank Herbert’s Dune series? In one of the later books (I forget which!) the Bene Tleilax created a constant stream of Duncan Idaho clones. While not directly addressing the idea you talked about, it nevertheless supported your idea: Even with the memories of previous Duncan Idahos, the current version (who everyone referred to as The Duncan) maintained a distinct personality.
We’re a hybrid of animal and spirit, according to most major theological frameworks. It makes perfect sense that the animal part would have a profound impact on the soul/spirit/person!
And that would also include the container for the AI.
I have not read the Dune series, but maybe I will eventually do that. I do plan on watching the upcoming Dune movie later this year.
I don’t have a theological background like you do or believe in religion myself, but I have long believed that there is something that makes every person unique, which I refer to as the soul or self, that is a product of all of the mind’s accumulated experiences. That is why I scoff at the idea of it being possible to fully replicate someone’s mind because nothing can actually replicate the lived experiences of a human being. Sure, it could be possible to copy all of a person’s memories, but I believe it’s impossible to make it so that a replica actually lives through the experiences since memories themselves are not the expressions of the actual experiences but how a person perceived particular moments in time. And it’s possible a replica of a person might come to a different conclusion of why a memory was important than the original person because it didn’t live through the experience itself. For that reason, I truly believe that The Duncan maintaining a distinct personality would be an accurate representation of what would actually happen if technology ever progressed to the level that copies of an individual could be made.
While the AI version of Kakitani might not 100% be a complete copy of Kakitani in the sense that it didn’t truly experience everything he did, the core burning desire for an answer to the question the original Kakitani had wanted answered remained and was what drove the AI version of him, and I guess that was why the AI version’s one mission was to find the answer to that question even though it still failed to do so in the end unless the data for the AI Kakitani was backed up somewhere as was the case for Elizabeth, allowing for the AI version of him to come back once more. I remember in Vivy’s OP that it showed Vivy fighting a middle-aged version of Kakitani, and given that that hasn’t happened in the actual series yet, I think this fight could happen in the final two episodes. I know some people are tired of Kakitani showing up again and again, but I believe this could very well happen.
I meant mind and body’s accumulated experiences, so yeah, I do believe one’s actual experiences are what constitute the soul/self.
Have you seen the second HLP movie yet? It’s just become available for me so that in part is driving my urge to rewatch the whole thing. That, and it’s great. Thanks for sharing.
I haven’t seen Eternally My Master! Didn’t even know it was available. Just checked Funimation, and there it is! Thanks for mentioning it!