Welcome to my 5 favorite anime blog posts from 2021 week 45!
Every week I look for posts that celebrate amazing moments in anime or otherwise blow me away with their wit and charm. I check over 300 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!
Anime Evo
Banished from the Hero’s Party – 05
Are you watching Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside? Are you having as much trouble as I am mustering the patience to say the title? I think I’m going to adopt Karandi’s idea in her recent post and call the series “D Rank Apothecary in the Countryside.” I mean, there’s only so much time in the day!
That aside, I’ve been watching the series. I had expected a quiet, laid back quiet life in the countryside. Crazy, huh? Well, I got that. And I got quite a bit more. In fact, episode 5 had a moment that made me exclaim “holy hell!” so loudly that I scared my cat, Empress Rosalita I (her common name is Rosie). On one hand, it came out of nowhere. On the other hand, it flowed naturally from the narrative. This post by Flareknight on the site Anime Evo did this moment justice when he described it. That, and the rest of the post had some tremendous insights about Ruti Ragnason. I’m not sure where the series is going, but I know that I like it — and this post says why. See if you agree!
Convoluted Situation
Extensive Analysis of Bakemonogatari: What makes it so unique? – Hitagi Crab 1
I’ve been thinking a lot about why I like what I like. How is it that I can eviscerate any anime series I’ve ever watched, but still like some of them? How does that work? Certainly, I started a site to celebrate anime partly to curb that instinct I have. But still! The question has been on my mind lately because of a super secret collab I’m working on with Dewbond from Shallow Dives in Anime. In that collab, I’m in a position where I have to defend why I like a series that, if considered solely on its mechanical merits, I probably should not like.
That’s why I so enjoyed this post by Edy from the site Convoluted Situation. Edy asked almost the same question about why he liked Bakemonogatari. That series blew me away with what I saw as its innovative composition. So, what did Edy like about the show? Did it help me understand why I liked the show? In fact, it helped me understand a little better how the show appealed to me. And that gave me insights into why this other show did, too! So, win/win! See if this post talks about what you liked about Bakemonogatari!
The Magic Planet
Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 5
You might be thinking, “Dude. You’ve already celebrated three of The Magic Planet’s reviews of takt op.Destiny. Weren’t the celebrations in 2021 Week 41, 2021 Week 43, and 2021 Week 44 enough?” Well, that’s an easy question! The answer is no, they weren’t enough, because darn it, Jane The Anime Witch turned in another fantastic review on the site The Magic Planet.
What makes this review worth celebrating? Episode 5 was a turning point. It wasn’t a dramatic turning point, or even a thematic turning point. No, it was something both more subtle and more substantial. It was an episode that defined how I see the series even more than the episodes that came before. I haltingly tried to say why in my review using a specific moment as an example. But I gotta say I think Jane the Anime Witch got closer to the heart of the matter than I did. See if you agree!
The Otaku Author
Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (Episode 16) – Family Squabble
I mentioned earlier that I’m struggling to understand why I like series that, as a writer, I should find poorly crafted. I know the how: I turn off parts of my brain to watch some shows. If I want to like a series, I’ll ignore poorly crafted bits as long as those bits don’t become egregious. For the most part, I’m at peace with that. Honestly, it got exhausting ripping everything apart all the time, and I didn’t like what it did for my disposition.
There are some series, though, that I can leave all of the part of my braining running, and I still find little to quibble about. There are even a few rare series that I consider master-level in terms of craftsmanship. One of those series is Jobless Reincarnation. There’s a scene in episode 16 that hit me so hard in the emotions that I had a hard time sleeping. I can count on one hand the number of times fiction has done that to me in the last decade. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one that episode affected. Lynn Sheridan from The Otaku Author called out the same scene in his review of the episode. He talked about other aspects of the episode, too, from the perspective of a writer and a viewer. I really liked how he described that one scene, though, and I think you will, too!
Shallow Dives in Anime
Overlord Season 3: Death Touching your way to World Domination
The series Overlord introduced me to Momonga, a gamer who got trapped in the made-real version of the RPG he loved. As a gamer myself, I saw Momonga as almost a stand-in for me, if I were placed in that situation. It was only by the time we got to Overlord III that I began to realize that he and the other denizens of the Tomb of Nazarick (excuse me — the Great Tomb of Nazarick) were not the good guys in this story. Not by a long shot. And that their “not goodness” seemed to be accelerating.
But I’ll say this: Albedo’s laugh in the OP, Voracity, practically qualifies as a religious experience. The quiet desperation of the ED, Silent Solitude, appealed to me, too.
The third season had a lot going for it, not only for how it continued the series, but for where it seemed to be heading. Examining how the season worked, including what it did right and not so right, was the subject of this post by Dewbond on the site Shallow Dives in Anime. In usual concise, insightful, and entertaining way, Dewbond breaks down the important elements of season 3. Does the season stand up to his examination? There’s one way to find out!
Want to Read More of My Favorite Anime Post Lists?
Want to explore more amazing anime blog posts? Check out the previous editions of My Favorite Anime Community Posts!
