Welcome to My 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts from 2023 Week 33!
Every week, I visit over 285 anime sites looking for posts that celebrate amazing moments in anime or otherwise blow me away with their wit and charm. These five posts are my favorite for the week! I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did!
You can see a list of the sites I check here: Massive List of Sites!
Confessions of an Overage Otaku
THE ANTAGONIST: ISABELLA
Do you know what can make a villain more effective? Subverting an expectation or a trope one hundred and eighty degrees, that’s what! Yeah, it’s obvious, but I’m going somewhere with this! I really enjoy reading The Overage Otaku’s posts on his site Confessions of an Overage Otaku because I always pick up something new or see something in a new light. This time, he tackles villains like Isabella from The Promised Neverland. What makes her such a compelling villain? What does what she did merit discussion? There’s only one way to find out!
I Drink and Watch Anime
ZOM 100 – Episode 5
I’m really glad that Irina, from I Drink and Watch Anime, decided to review Zom 100. She really knows how to showcase the show’s humor, character, and artwork, not to mention its themes. This week’s review is a perfect example — if I mention a zombie shark and you saw the episode, you can see where I’m going with this! And I know where you should be going: to visit I Drink and Watch Anime to enjoy her review!
Mistakes Cheerio for Chesto
Understanding Evil: Geto Suguru
I could curse the darkness or light a candle. Which is a false dilemma. I do both. Because you never know when a good curse might hit harder than a tiny flickering flame! Where was I? Oh, yeah, talking about celebrating anime (I’m sparing you the rhetorical link between candle lighting and celebrating anime). Spencer’s post on Mistakes Cheerio for Chesto certainly qualifies as a post that celebrates anime. But he did two additional things that convinced me that I had to celebrate this post in particular. First, he opened with the sentence “Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, Episode 5 is one the best episodes of anime I’ve ever seen.” And second, he described why with wonderful clarity. Go read it — you’ll see what I mean!
The Otaku Author
Mysteria Friends (Season One)
One of these days, I’m going to get around to reviewing Mysteria Friends. Here’s a shocking bit of news for you: I’ve already seen it! It’s not on my backlist! Come to think of it, I haven’t mentioned my backlist at all this week. Hmmm…
But you don’t have to wait for my review! Lynn, on his site The Otaku Author, just wrote a review that did the series proud. It contains Many Cool Passages(tm), but two things stuck out as particularly cool. First, he spoke well of Grea. This is important: I can’t consider a Mysteria Friends review good if it doesn’t extol the wonders of Grea. Second, as a favorite character, he made a choice that at first shocked me. But after I thought about it, I agreed that yes, that was an awesome choice. See if you agree!
Wrong Every Time
Land of the Lustrous – Episode 10
I reviewed Land of the Lustrous. But I didn’t do it justice. No; I couldn’t do it justice. There’s a subtle beauty there, and a deep sadness, that I can’t capture in words. And I write novels for fun! Fortunately, Bobduh has a better command of English, as well as a keener eye for the mysteries that this series treated with such subtlety. He proved it, too, in this post on Wrong Every Time. I think he did a particularly noteworthy job when he talked about Diamond and Bort. If this show spoke to you at all, or if you think it might, then you owe it to yourself to give this a read.
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!
Hi, TCrow, I’ve been very busy. It turns out that I had not exhausted everything I could think about regarding Re:zero after all.
Tappei has used multiple characters as foils to Subaru, with Reinhard, Rem, Julius, Roswaal, Beatrice all serving such a purpose in the first 2 seasons.
Reinhard is obvious in how he was presented as being the strongest of the strong while Subaru is meant to be weak with him being a weaker physically than Otto and having a brittle and tiny gate.
Rem was a foil to Subaru in the sense that in her inferiority complex led to her overcompensating and trying to be good at housework and be useful in general whereas Subaru gave up on life and became a reclusive NEET.
Julius in how he was very much a knight in every manner, whether it be his strength, mannerisms, and even his mercy for Subaru after the latter’s outburst at the castle, which had Julius not intervened, would have resulted in Subaru being killed by other knights over and over, as opposed to Subaru’s self-declaration of being a knight with none of the qualifications.
Roswaal in how he sacrificed his humanity to give his all for one person much like Subaru does but sacrifice everybody else whereas Subaru wants to save everyone and wants to cling to his humanity.
Beatrice in how she had given up on hope on living and was just awaiting her death after being abandoned by everyone she knew in the past whereas Subaru always fought not to be abandoned after being summoned, which is something that happened to him in the past as a result of his inferiority complex.
Now comes what I really want to say. Given how Tappei is clearly using many characters to highlight certain traits of Subaru, I believe that there probably exists a character who was influenced negatively by his/her upbringing that it makes that person annoying or insufferable much like how the comparison with his dad led to Subaru developing major esteem issues. Whoever this person is may not necessarily even have esteem issues, but he/she will be the type to act out in a manner that hurts others/only benefits himself/herself, whereas at least Subaru was well-meaning most of the time despite all the trouble he caused for others in trying to get out of his father’s shadow. It’s possible given how Subaru’s background was deliberately obscured until Season 2 that this character I am referring may also have a background that is deliberately obscured.
What character are you thinking of? Or do you think the character is yet to be announced? None of the characters I can think of fit your description. Or maybe Priscilla? She selfish enough, and may have esteem issues (hard to say; we haven’t seen enough of her yet).
I’m not thinking of any character in particular. It could be a character that has been revealed who we know nothing about or a character that has yet to appear in the story yet. I’m certain that there is or will be such a character based on what has happened in the story so far. Priscilla doesn’t seem like she has esteem issues to me, and if anything, she has an overabundance of self-confidence.
Or maybe Priscilla just has a very high amount of self-confidence that doesn’t cross the level of having excessive pride. It’s just that she is proud of showing her pride in herself. She did take a liking to Subaru after he showed her that appas have red skin, which shows she is not averse to being corrected/learning new things.
So many good posts to read! Thanks for the heads up! I missed a few of these.
You missed some? That surprises me! You seem to get to almost all the posts before I do — I see your likes on a ton of them! It’s great to see you encouraging blogs with your likes.
Thanks again for the shout out. I’m just going to search through your site to find another of your favourite series to review…
You’re welcome!
And check out the Caw of Fame for ideas! I’d love to see you review Re:CREATORS — though I think it’s still only on Amazon Prime.
I have Prime so may have to look into it.