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5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts from 2022 Week 50

Welcome to My 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts from 2022 Week 50!

Every week, I visit about 315 anime sites looking for posts that celebrate amazing moments in anime or otherwise blow me away with their wit and charm. The ani-blogging community writes a lot of those posts. I hope this list helps you find some of them!

You can see a list of the sites I check here: Massive List of Sites!

Anime Evo


Spy x Family – 22

Have you enjoyed the latest season of SPY x FAMILY? I have, at least for the most part. The emphasis changed in this second part to more of an episodic format. The narrative seemed to briefly walk away from Operation STRIX. To be honest, that bothered me, because I enjoyed that plot line. On the other hand, the shift in emphasis let us get to know some of the characters better, and it introduced some new and interesting characters.

However, the focus swung back to Operation STRIX during episode 22. How did that go? Well, I talked a little about it in my review, but there’s a limitation in my format: I mostly talk about my favorite quote and favorite moment. But no worries! FlareKnight, on the site Anime Evo, does a great job of telling us exactly how well they did. And they did well indeed! He captured pretty much all the stuff I liked about this episode, and more! See if he mentioned what you liked!

Check out the post here!


Anime Feminist


Girls Doing Stuff: Agency and motivation in girls’ hobby shows

I was going to say it’s hard to talk about some topics in today’s climate. But you know what? It’s hard to talk about pretty much anything. I’m convinced that if I sing the praises of oxygen, someone’s going to jump down my throat and attempt to do me rhetorical harm. But even in that environment, there are some topics that are more dangerous than others.

I found this out by accident some years ago. I mentioned that I ran my own Unreal Tournament server. It wasn’t on the internet. It was only on my home LAN. But I enjoyed playing Capture the Flag matches, which we divided up between me and my kinds on one team and bots on another. I mentioned a particularly enjoyable match where I provided top cover as my daughter ran back with the flag. That earned me strange looks from the audience. Apparently, in the opinion of some folks, it’s okay for my son to play, but not my daughter.

I feel sorry for those folks.

Anyway, that incident made me aware of the “controversy” around gender roles. It’s only grown worse over time, so I seriously respect Alex Henderson for their post on Anime Feminist. It stood out for three reasons. First, just tackling that topic on the internet takes guts. So, points for courage! Second, Alex Henderson handled the topic with integrity and even-handedness, both traits I appreciate in a post. Finally, the post is just fun to read. That’s a a lot for a single post to accomplish! Go see how they did it!

Check out the post here!


Lita Kino Anime Corner


TOP 5 CHRISTMAS EPISODES

Wait, it’s almost Christmas? What happened to Easter? I’m joking, but only a little — time does nothing but speed up as I get older. So I’m glad I go on my weekly anime blogging excursion so I can know what time of year it is! Lita’s post on her site Lita Kino Anime Corner is a perfect example. She gave us a list of her top five Christmas episodes, so it must be near Christmas! It’s a fun list; it helped me remember some great episodes! See if she listed your favorite Christmas episodes!

Check out the post here!


The Magic Planet


Let’s Watch CHAINSAW MAN Episode 9 – “From Kyoto”

Did you see Chainsaw Man’s recent episode 9? As an anime-only viewer, I can say the episode did not go in the direction I expected. I kind of expected Makima to do something amazing. But there was another character who blew me away! Who was it? What happened? I could tell you, but you know how this post goes. To give you the answer, let me direct you to Jane the Anime Witch’s post on her site The Magic Planet. As usual, she captured the essence of the episode, and what an essence this episode had! Reading the post felt like reliving my favorite moments from the episode. See if you have a similar reaction!

Check out the post here!

Otaku Sinh


Tempting Fate with a Wobble Wobble, Jiggle Jiggle! The Eminence in Shadow Episode 10 [Review]

I’m enjoying The Eminence in Shadow way more than I thought I would after, especially if you had asked me after I had watched the first episode. In fact, I’m enjoying it for different reasons than I imaged after that episode. It’s hard to explain, because I haven’t quite figured out how to explain it myself! Episode 10 might just be my favorite episode yet, and, following this post’s traditional guidelines, I’m going to direct you to Sinh on his site Otaku Sinh for an explanation. He not only offers keen insights into what made the episode so funny, sexy, and portentous — but he also has hilarious captions!

Check out the post here!


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tcrow
Copyright 2022 Terrance A. Crow. All rights reserved.
https://www.crowsworldofanime.com

5 thoughts on “5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts from 2022 Week 50

  1. I know there’s no news of a Season 3, TCrow, but here comes a lengthy post from me making the case for why I believe Priscilla will be the one Subaru ends up with once again. I just find the dynamics between the Subaru and Priscilla pairing so toxic as is as of Season 2.

    I believe Priscilla will be the one Subaru is with at the end of Re:zero is because I believe Priscilla is the only woman in the story who considered Subaru to be someone with the potential to be her lover after their first meeting with each other. I also believe an exchange Subaru had with Wilhelm is a very important message in Re:zero.

    Why do I believe that? Telling Priscilla that appas have red skin even though nobody has dared to contradict her on that in all her years of living and standing up to the thugs even though he was a weakling left a strong impression on her. It affected her enough that she displayed signs of possessiveness over Subaru with her saying to Emilia, “Is there a reason you stare at my manservant, half-wit?” That was meant to assert her dominance over Emilia and was a power move in her eyes over someone she perceived to be inferior to her. Now that’s not the only reason I believe what I do. If it was, it would be a huge leap in logic. I will go on further below regarding some analysis of Episode 16.

    Although I don’t have a degree in psychology, I took a number of psychology courses in my university days, and I believe that Priscilla’s reaction to Subaru deciding to lick her foot showed that she actually thought highly of him before the incident at the castle and still hoped that he was the sort of man she thought he was. I believe this ’cause Priscilla saying, “It seems you really are just an insignificant man!” in Episode 16 shows that she thought Subaru was more than just a loser before he made a fool of himself at the castle since it’s the sort of thing you say to someone who made a good impression on you but then did something to make you question your initial good impression of that person, and her challenging Subaru to lick her foot was an attempt to see if he actually had any dignity left after the humiliation he suffered at the castle and to see whether he’d show the same kind of attitude he had when they first met, which was one that didn’t show deference to her and even in that incident taught her something new. I do think Tappei likely studied psychology in university to some degree, so I’m partial to this analysis.

    She lectured him about what he displayed not being an act of loyalty or devotion but more akin to a pig’s greed, leading her to say she would strike down any camp he was a part of, and this tells me that Subaru’s decision to lick her foot was something that was the complete opposite of what Priscilla wanted even though on the surface she made it sound like favouring his miniscule pride would lead to an undesirable result. I believe Priscilla decided that she would make a weak pathetic Subaru her mortal enemy because he did something that insulted her to the core, and for someone as extremely proud and confident in herself to the extreme as Priscilla is, it would be to show that she was wrong about her judgement in some way, and that would be that Subaru showed that he was pathetic and not worth her time after she would go as far as to try and make Emilia jealous by grabbing his arm and suggesting that Subaru was her (Priscilla’s) manservant at the Royal Palace. Showing that she was wrong to think more of Subaru was shameful to her, so much that she beat the hell out of him, lectured him, and threatened him to strike down any camp he was a part of. Her wanting to strike down any camp he is a part of shows she wants Subaru to be humiliated as much as she had been or even moreso because it was a personal humiliation for her that she misjudged Subaru, and for a guy who is struggling through his way in the world and acts as a white knight, what greater shame could he face than to have his ambitions be thwarted by Priscilla, the one who had him on his knees and asked him to savour the humiliation of licking her foot, every time he tried to make something of himself? It would be the ultimate humiliation. This interpretation is backed by Priscilla saying, “Your careless behavior and attitude have lead me to that decision!” It shows that she thought that Subaru would think over the reason for that particular interaction leading to the way it did and that she expected a better response from him. I do note that Priscilla was likely also angry because Subaru abandoned his pride, and for someone who values her pride so much, seeing Subaru lower himself to that level probably disgusted her, but I believe the main source of her anger that bordered on rage was a sense of humiliation due to her pride being wounded. If Subaru was just a little ant or clown to her, she would not have reacted the way she did in as deciding to strike down any camp he is a part of is far too punishing for just being disgusted at Subaru’s actions.

    I know it might be a tough sell since it’s just one scene from a character that has only showed up in 3 episodes so far, but Priscilla’s outrage along with her body language during the scene which included her playing with her hair as well as uncrossing and crossing her legs before she approached him says to me that she thought of Subaru as being more than just a clown or jester and as someone she will make herself presentable for by showing off her feminine features. If that’s the case, perhaps her approaching Subaru with her fan actually doubled as a romantic overture alongside a test of Subaru’s dignity, and that scenario would mean that Subaru’s best response would be to say something along the lines of “Wait a minute. You really want me to lick your feet? I’d say somebody has a foot fetish.” It would be a clever way to turn the tables on Priscilla and take away the inordinate power she had over Subaru during this interaction by reframing the situation as being something Priscilla so desperately wants.

    While it may not matter to Subaru whether or not Priscilla was attempting to demonstrate a power move against Emilia when she declared him as her manservant, what matters is Priscilla’s intent. If that was what she intended, Subaru’s loudly declaring himself to be Emilia’s knight at the Royal Selection would be seen as a rejection of her romantic overture. Depending on how badly she was impacted by this perceived rejection, there are 2 ways she can respond based on her always behaving as if she’s the most important woman/person in the world:

    1. Priscilla will downplay Subaru’s achievements the next time they meet and possibly in the future as well as a way to make Subaru seem less of a catch so that it doesn’t seem that she missed out on much by being rejected by him. This would be her overcompensating for her initial impression of him being soured by the horribly embarrassing outburst at the castle so as to preserve her ego by telling herself that Subaru was not really worth it. An extreme case of this would be pretending that she doesn’t even remember Subaru so as to outwardly project that Subaru isn’t worth remembering as a means of saving face for the perceived rejection regardless of Subaru not caring about or never having perceived that he rejected her in Episode 12.

    2. Priscilla was affected so badly by Subaru’s humiliating display at the castle, which called into question her initial good impression of him, that she completely forgets memories related to that event, meaning she forgets all memories about having met Subaru on that day. This is referred to as repression in psychology. Priscilla unconsciously pushes away thoughts about Subaru because of how much that incident traumatized her since it caused her to see that she had made a horrible mistake in judging Subaru to be a potential lover, which calls into question her absolute faith in her own judgement. Her mind thus represses the thoughts to preserve her ego.

    I know some people will point to Al saying to Priscilla that she loves watching wicked beasts torment weak creatures and her affirming that she does love that as well as well as Episode 25’s title being “That’s All This Story Is About” as being things that directly refute my analysis, but I cannot believe that she took pleasure in watching Subaru get emasculated and was actually horrified. Her extreme reaction in Episode 16 that had her being outraged that Subaru didn’t think clearly about why she made the request for him to lick her feet and declare that she would strike down any camp he belonged to doesn’t jive with assertions that Priscilla thought of him as some lowly peon. There’s nothing to say that Subaru doesn’t fully win over Emilia before the end of the show, dating her or even marrying her only for Emilia to die after Satella possesses Emilia as part of the latter’s master plan to finally be killed off.

    I believe it’s possible moving forward that the author will include a scene in the anime that hints or outright shows that Priscilla is unhappy with Subaru choosing Emilia over her, and if White Fox adapts future seasons of Re:zero as well so that we get the most content possible, I believe that such a scene will be a big tell about the ending of Re:zero.

    Some ways Tappei could go about doing this would be to have Priscilla make a snide remark towards Emilia that was clearly elicited due to jealousy (which I don’t think is likely since Priscilla is such a prideful person), have Priscilla indirectly or directly ask Subaru who he would choose between Emilia and herself (which would be blatantly obvious but also something she probably won’t try to do given she knows Subaru’s current preference, but it could happen given her own confidence in herself), or have Priscilla ask Subaru to affirm a trait of hers that she is confident in herself about (for most people, she wouldn’t care, but if she was into Subaru, she would want to hear him say it).

    Narratively, I believe it would make sense for Subaru to eventually be with Priscilla since Al, who recognized what Subaru meant by the Kansai dialect, is clearly someone from Earth who is either Japanese or is a fan of Japanese culture. In life, it would help Subaru if he could lean on someone who was also summoned to Re:zero’s fantasy world since that person would be able to emphasize with his struggles.

    Anyway, I’m convinced that Subaru will eventually end up with Priscilla after Emilia dies permanently given Satella wants Subaru to go kill her, probably because she wants her suffering to end, and I do not believe that Subaru can stop this from happening as it’s either Satella destroys the world or Subaru leads a coalition that kills Satella after she possesses Emilia’s body, but we’ll see whether Tappei does indeed intend to make Priscilla a love interest for Subaru, if only at the very end of Re:zero in the final arc. I personally believe there will at least be some buildup to Subaru and Priscilla being together so that long-term Emilia and Rem fans don’t burn their copies of the light novels in outrage because they perceived it to be a random out-of-nowhere development.

    Ultimately, I believe Re:zero is about not being beaten down by what life throws at you and about loving yourself.

    I’ve spoken with some Emilia fans who have said that overcoming the impossible is one of Re:zero’s themes, and I don’t agree with that. I don’t consider it to be throwing the series’ themes out of window with Emilia permanently dying. I’ll bring up Wilhelm and Subaru’s exchange after it turned out that Petelgeuse still lived on.

    Wilhelm: But while it may be inelegant, I must say this. Fight. Even if you have regrets, even if you have remorse, you must fight. If you have made the decision for yourself to fight, to struggle, then fight with all you have. Do not give up for one second, one moment, one instant. Cling greedily to the victory you have within your sight. If you can still stand, if your fingers still move, if all your teeth have not broken. Stand and fight. You must fight.

    Subaru: You’re telling me to get stronger?

    Wilhelm: No. I’m telling you to be strong.

    This is Wilhelm telling Subaru to persevere no matter happens in life.

    I believe Tappei’s final challenge to Subaru is to force him to choose between Emilia and the world. I believe he will choose Emilia repeatedly and loop many times before realizing that he can’t just let the world burn over and over. Yes, I do believe it is possible for Subaru to pick himself up after Emilia dies if Satella possesses her at the end of Re:zero. Maybe Priscilla will have to give him a From Zero moment, but he will live on and be strong as Wilhelm told him to.

    I believe what Subaru has for Emilia is very unhealthy given that he ties his entire sense of worth to her, and I believe he will have to let her go in order to be the man that he can be. I personally find it to be quite toxic even if most Re:zero fans eat up the Subaru and Emilia pairing.

    Emilia: “You have no idea how I feel every time I see you getting hurt because of me!”

    Subaru: How would I know?! I don’t even think about it! All I think about is how to look good in front of you! I’m suffering for you here! At least try to look as cute as I hoped you would!

    I hear this from Emilia fans all the time. They completely missed Subaru say something extremely cringe and toxic, showing that he expected Emilia to feel better just because Rem’s From Zero moment made him feel better and had in mind her ideal reaction even though you can never be sure how a real person will respond to your actions.

    Subaru thought that because that was a big pick me up for him that it’d no doubt make her feel better if he attempted to replicate it even though she’s her own person, and it speaks to Subaru being self-absorbed to the point that he couldn’t imagine Emilia not reacting positively to it.

    In both episodes 25 and 40, Subaru displayed moments that betrayed a sense that he believes that his feelings will be reciprocated as is the case with other isekai protagonists. It’s one thing to be confident but to talk about certainty and having pictured an ideal reaction shows that Subaru still remembers a lot of the stuff he has read about and watched in isekai stories. Instead of being happy for Subaru, I root for him to fail with regards to Emilia.

    1. You put a lot of thought into that! You should start your own blog. Even if you only post a theory of this depth and complexity once a month, it’s be worth it!

      If I can distill your points, I think you’re saying (perhaps not in the same order);

      1. Subaru’s relationship to Emilia is toxic, at least in how he views her
      2. Pricilla may have initially been interested, but his behavior shocked her enough to make her reconsider; or would have, if she had been less proud and more able to admit her mistake; which may or may not actually have been a mistake in the long run

      I cannot fault your reasoning regarding how Subaru treated Emilia, especially early on. I think his view of Emilia, along with how he treated her, improved as we got near the end of season 2.

      But that doesn’t change the fundamental question, which is: are those two a good match? A related question is whether Priscilla might be a better match.

      I think your argument is persuasive. I don’t know if the story is headed that way. But I know if we get a season 3 and beyond, it’s going to interesting to see how well it tracks compared to what you’ve laid out!

      1. I’ve had people suggest that I start a blog, but I don’t think it’s worth starting a blog to only write about Re:zero since it’s the only series that I am passionate about to write lengthy theories like this. Having a blog I write on every 4 years seems like a strange use of my time.

        I think there can be a case made for either Emilia or Priscilla being a good match for Subaru provided that the story gave them enough time for Subaru and the girls to develop. However, I think it will be a lot harder for Subaru to get to that point with Emilia given it was revealed in Season 2 that he gravitates towards silver-haired heroines with his anime and light novel preferences. With that piece of knowledge available to viewers, it’s clear that being with Emilia is basically equivalent to his wildest fantasies coming true, which I believe will make it extremely difficult for Subaru to change some of the more problematic aspects regarding his attachment to Emilia.

        When Satella appeared to Subaru by breaking into Echidna’s tea party, she stated that she wants him to love himself. I just find it hard for Subaru to find it in his heart to actually do that if he thinks of winning over Emilia as the reward he is entitled to after a long and painful journey. I can’t believe that Subaru actually likes himself if he only likes himself because he was able to win over Emilia. That is not real self-love.

        On the other hand, Subaru and Emilia have similar life circumstances to an extent given that they experienced significant isolation in their youth. Emilia faced so much prejudice for her similarities to Satella, and Subaru crumbled over the pressure of being his father’s son that he never learned how to develop an actual relationship with a real person. Emilia has serious abandonment issues given how Fortuna broke her promise to see her again and how Puck was forced to break his contract with Emilia because of Roswaal’s scheme and because releasing her real memories to her would help her to complete the Sanctuary trials. I believe that’s part of Subaru’s appeal to Emilia. Given her abandonment issues, Subaru, who basically clings to her for dear life and swears that he will always be with her, is basically like a wish come true for her now that she doesn’t even have convenient access to Puck anymore. Subaru and Emilia both strongly understand the pain of loneliness, and having common experiences can be a foundation to a good relationship. Make no mistake about it though: the dynamic between Emilia and Subaru is that of co-dependence, at least as of Season 2, and I’m not sure because of Emilia’s physical attributes that Subaru will ever get to the point that he’ll love himself and not because he won over Emilia.

        Subaru and Priscilla are not without parallels in how their characters were presented, at least at the start of their introduction to the story. Subaru treated most people like NPCs for the first three arcs. Hell, he literally called Beatrice an NPC. Priscilla has a really snobbish attitude, which was shown in Episodes 12 and 13 when she said that as their superior it’s her duty to keep the masses waiting as well declare that she is the one fit to rule the nation with all everybody needs to do is grovel at her feet and serve her. After the events of the mansion arc, Subaru’s ego grew so huge due to his 2 successes that thought of inserting himself in people’s affairs regardless of their wishes and assumed that people in opposing camps would no doubt help him when he asked because he saw them just as tools and not as real people. While I can’t say whether Priscilla’s pride is fully warranted since there wasn’t much of her actually shown in the anime, both Subaru and Priscilla were acting in a way that was naturally dismissive of other people. Priscilla also threw out a comment that unless Al wants his ruined face to be ruined further that he’ll remove Subaru from her sight, which suggests that she might be an abusive person even with those close to her. So she and Subaru could both grow from how they were at the start of the story to become people who care for others in their immediate orbit although it may take longer for that to happen in Priscilla’s case given that she might have had that sort of unforgiving attitude long before she ever met Subaru. I know that suggesting that Subaru pair up with Priscilla might be unthinkable and not make a lick of sense because pairing him up with someone abusive won’t do anything to improve his self-image, but I see it being possible that Subaru will be the first person Priscilla treats relatively well by her standards, and Subaru could be the catalyst to her treating people better when she sees how far Subaru will go to help others close to him.

        Tappei has said Re:zero will have 11 arcs, and we’ve gone through 4 of them after the conclusion of Season 2, so there is a lot of time either way for the relationships between Subaru and Emilia as well as Subaru and Priscilla, if the author intends for that to happen, to develop. Personally, I believe Subaru and Priscilla could be the trojan horse endgame couple that not much of anyone will see coming until very close to the end of Re:zero. I was confident to make a bet with my brother that if Subaru and Priscilla are together at the end of the last Re:zero season that he’d give me a 1,000 dollars, but we’ll see in time whether my confidence was warranted.

        1. 11 arcs total, and we’ve seen 4? It’s probably because you just gave me the numbers, but that feels about right. It feels like we’re just short of the mid-point.

          The series has given you so much material to analyze that I have to respect its craftsmanship!

Please let me know what you think!

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