Welcome to my 5 favorite anime blog posts from 2022 week 02!
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 340 sites, and I can tell you that the ani-blogging community constantly produces a huge number 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
Banished From The Hero’s Party, I Decided To Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Review
When I first read the title “Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside,” two things struck me. First, the title is enormous! Yoast would be seriously angry with me if I tried to include that title in my posts’ Focus Keywords! It gets testy if I use five or six words. But an entire sentence? That’s right out! The second thing was the latter half of the title. Would I really want to watch an anime about anyone’s “Quiet Life in the Countryside?” I grew up on a farm. There’s no way I’d want to watch that dramatized!
Fortunately for the show and its viewers, it turned out to be surprisingly interesting. How so? Glad you asked! Karandi from 100 Word Anime just posted her thoughts on the season. In her typical clear, concise, and authentic way, she talked about what made the series such a surprise. I agreed with the points she made, and I think you just might, too!
I Drink and Watch Anime
In Defence of Anime Comedy
You know what’s hard? Writing a good story. Well, it’s hard for me, and I’ve observed that it’s not easy for other people, either. That hardness isn’t confined to any specific Genre, either. Drama or comedy, writing a compelling story takes skill. Yet, for whatever reason, some folks seem to think that comedy is a lesser genre. Is there any truth to that? Is it okay to look down on comedy? That’s the topic that Irina tackled on her site I Drink and Watch Anime. It’s pretty clear which side she took based on the title, but as is the case with Irina’s posts, the journey is more than half the fun. I have to say that her selection of introductory GIFs is just fantastic (as usual!). Topical, too!
Matt-in-the-Hat
Spoiler-Free Review: Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of the Starless Night
I’m a fan of the Sword Art Online universe. I’ve actually enjoyed it since I first watched the original series back in 2012. So when Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale came out in 2017, I actually experienced it in the theater. It was a lot of fun hearing people discuss the series before the movie started. In particular, I enjoyed the conversation in front of me as the girlfriend explained the series to her boyfriend. I don’t think that dude had any idea how lucky he was.
When I heard that SAO planned to revisit the Aincrad in movie form, even though I had such a positive experience with Ordinal Scale, I worried. Could it recapture the spirit of the original series? Could it present the characters in from a new and compelling perspective? I won’t know until I see it for myself, but I can enjoy posts like this one by Matthew Castillo on his site Matt-in-the-Hat. His post directly addressed some of my biggest fears. Am I relieved? More worried? I don’t want to spoil his post, so you know what to do!
The Traditional Catholic Weeb
Anime Review #71: Himouto! Umaru-Chan
I’ve only talked about Himouto! Umaru-chan once on this site, and that was in a post called 5 Funny And Light-Hearted Anime Series back in December 2015. It’s one of those series that I wished I had more time to talk about. There just isn’t enough time to explore all of the nooks and crannies of anime goodness! But that doesn’t stop me from celebrating posts like this one from Traditional Catholic Weeb on his site The Traditional Catholic Weeb. This post is a fantastic and thorough dive into the series — the story, the characters, what worked, and what didn’t work. My standard measure for a review’s success is whether or not I want to watch the series after reading the review. And guess what? This review succeeded big time! See if you agree.
Umai Yomu Anime Blog
Redo of a Healer Review (Spoiler Free)
Do you know what series I haven’t talked about at all? Redo of a Healer. The reason feels complicated, but I suspect it’s more simple than I’m making it out to be. Simply put, I don’t want to upset any of my readers. It’s not a political correctness thing. I honestly want people to be comfortable with how I present topics. And let’s face it: Redo of a Healer presents few avenues for conversation that broad swaths of the population find comfortable!
But even as I express an honest desire to host a site where folks can be comfortable, I have to wonder how comfortable is too comfortable. There are topics I would like to discuss that aren’t family friendly. There are aspects of the human condition that will remain out of my reach if I strive for comfort. Maybe that’s okay; maybe this site should avoid any kind of explicit material. There’re are still a lot of topics that I can cover, after all.
While I work though that dilemma, I can at least still celebrate posts that explore series like Redo of a Healer. I came across one such post by Yomu on the site Umai Yomu Anime Blog. There were two things about this post that captured my attention. First, I am still amazed that Yomu can post such detailed and interesting reviews without spoilers. That’s not easy to do! And second, his discussion touched on difficult subjects in an accessible way. At least, it was accessible from my perspective. But don’t take my word for it! See for yourself!
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!
Thank you for the mention on my review. I hope you got enjoy reading it. 🙂
You’re welcome! I very much enjoyed reading it!
That’s good to know! I’ll do my best and write more reviews for you and everyone else! 🙂
I’m just coming back from reading the Redo of Healer review, and I pretty much agree as far as I’ve watched the show. There’s this line in the review: “It’s definitely a polarizing anime, although I don’t think it got much attention compared to something like Goblin Slayer. I don’t think that many people watched it, or if they did, they just dropped it immediately and never really talked about it.”
Yup. It’s actually an interesting case study. I remember plenty of people anticipating the hell that the “JSW” are going to raise, and then… nothing. Here’s the thing “Redo of Healer” is such honest and straightforward depravity porn that there’s little else to say about it. Here’s my personal reaction: I was found Redo of Healer less disturbing than both Goblin Slayer or Shield Hero. I also enjoyed the show a whole lot less and thus dropped it. But appreciate the honesty.
Goblin Slayer has this casual the-ugly-races-are-evil streak, and when it comes to victims (especially non-character victims) it puts perpetrator revenge over victim care. And Shield Hero is just so indulgent with cartoony villains and outsider edginess, taking no responsibility. I still like Shield Hero the most of these three shows and will watch season two (whereas I dropped Redo of Healer, and won’t ever watch anymore Goblin Slayer).
Redo of Healer, though, takes a good long look at revenge fantasies and reveals how empty they are. I never got the impression the main character actually enjoys his revenge. He’s both driven and detached, with some sort of abstract aesthetic, and ultimately empty: if you take away his revenge, there’s nothing left for him to do. I sort of appreciate the show’s attitude more than either Goblin Slayer or Shield Hero. And it’s my least favourite of the three.
It’s freaking messy. You can enjoy things that make you morally uncomfortable. But you need to be able to talk about what makes you uncomfortable without immediately being branded a censor.
During my teenage period, I got the depravity fix from the British New Wave in SF/F (which was about 20 to 30 years old at the time), and the new stuff in the vein was Thomas Covenant. By the time Game of Thrones/Prince of Nothing hit, it was all really familiar. Redo of Healer does little I haven’t read before. But as I grew older, I just wanted less of that. Depravity porn is something I’ve grown out of; some things have more to offer and still hold up. Redo of Healer struck me as pretty focussed and more aware of what it’s doing than either GS or SH. Out of the three, it’s the one I respect the most. Still, Shield Hero is the one I’ll watch season 2 of.
I remember your comments about Goblin Slayer. I’ve consumed so much fiction within the fantasy genre. So to be honest, your comments about the “the-ugly-races-are-evil streak” really made me think. So you get the distinction of being one of the only 3 or 4 people in the last 10 years to change my mind about something. I appreciated that comment. I still enjoyed the series, but I was much more aware of the short cuts it took.
I also tried to enjoy Shield Hero, and often did — but your comment about “cartoony villains and outsider edginess, taking no responsibility” is spot on. It not only wasn’t necessary. It diminished the impact the series might otherwise have had.
“and the new stuff in the vein was Thomas Covenant”
Man, it’s been awhile since I thought about that series. I remember it; and now that you mention it, it did have a similar feel.
And I plan to watch Shield Hero, season 2, as well. The underdog appeal is still present, after all, and so far, at least, I still really enjoy that.
Thank you for the call out Crow and for the clarification
You’re welcome. Glad you said something, because I really left the wrong impression! So thanks for giving me a chance to clarify what I meant!
Love that you’re doing this! I need more anibloogers to read and it’s cool of you to show us new content we might not know!
Thanks! I hope these posts introduce you to some new bloggers. There are a lot of good ones, yourself included!
Thanks! Yes I keep looking for even more haha very thankful for the list you made