Welcome to My 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts from 2023 Week 36!
Every week, I visit over 280 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 favorites 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
KILLER ENDING: YOUR LIE IN APRIL
I take the road less traveled. Not on purpose, and I only realize it in hindsight. Where other people go doesn’t factor into the direction I choose. But there are times, rare though that that they are, that I want to see a sign that I’m on the right track. That my thoughts resemble human thoughts. So I found this post by The Overage Otaku (on the site Confessions of an Overage Otaku) to be both insightful and comforting. Insightful, because it describes what happened at the end of Your Lie in April in precise literary terms — which I can use as ways to look at my own writing. Comforting, because it suggests my reaction to the show was a human reaction — as shocking as that may seem! See what you think!
Hanime on Anime
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!: An Animator’s Journey
I worked on literary magazines in high school and college. That time working with creative people makes up most of my positive memories from that time. I rarely see a series capture that experience. One series, though, completely nailed it: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! How did it manage this feat? I’m glad you asked, because this week, I found this post by Hanime on Anime on the site Hanime on Anime. This is a fun, insightful take on the series. I found myself smiling throughout! See if you have a similar reaction!
Otaku Brit (^.^)
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish: A powerful representation of disability
You probably know that my son was born deaf. Learning about the disability challenged us. But do you know what was even harder? The reaction of people around us — sometimes complete strangers. The situation taught me a lot, so when I see an anime that tries to deal with disabilities and gets it wrong, it infuriates me. Disabilities are important and do not deserve to be treated as cliches. That why I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post by otakubrit on the site Otaku Brit. The post talks about Josee, the Tiger and the Fish in such vivid and compelling terms that it’s now sitting on the very top of my backlog. That’s saying a lot — it’s a big and varied backlog!
Shallow Dives in Anime
Five Years of Shallow Dives in Anime: Netflix’s One Piece
I don’t think my reaction of black despair was unusual when I heard that One Piece was going to get a live action adaptation. In fact, I held out so little hope that I forced myself to forget about the adaptation. Then I came across Dewbond’s post on Shallow Dives on Anime. If it had been anyone else, I might have ignored it. But this is Dewbond we’re talking about — his reviews are honest evaluations based on a broad and deep understanding of anime. And… well, you’ll have to read it yourself to believe it!
Wrong Every Time
We Are Not Fireworks: A Silent Voice
In my Favorite Posts Post from last week, I said that one of Bobduh’s posts on the site Wrong Every Time reminded me strongly of something J.R.R. Tolkien might have written — if he had reviewed anime. This week, Bobduh wrote another post whose ending read like — and I hesitate to even write this — something Alfred, Lord Tennyson might have written shortly after he wrapped up Ulysses. Am I exaggerating? No. That’s my honest impression. And I have a degree in English! Seriously, this post so eloquently captures what A Silent Voice is about that I’m speechless. Go see what I mean!
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!
Want to Read Favorite Posts from Other Sites?
- The Afictionado: Zombies, Demons, and Vending Machines: August ’23 Roundup
- Anime Feminist: Weekly Round-Up, 30 August – 5 September 2023: Gundam Doujinshi, Police Body Cameras, and Gender Pay Gap
Thanks for these recommendations! Your Lie in April got me into into anime properly, so I will always enjoy reading about it. I also love A Silent Voice 🙂
That’s quite a powerful introduction to anime!
You could certainly say that – it worked though! 😀
The end of “Your lie in April” had me blubbering and weeping inconsolably. To me it is the saddest anime ever created.
Gotta say, that was pretty much my reaction, too.
The story was crafted well enough. It hit me even harder because at the time, my daughter was taking piano lessons from a conservatory. I was going to her recitals while watching this show. Everything just clicked together.
I haven’t been able to rewatch it. I’m not sure I ever will! But I might surprise myself.
If my tear ducts ever need to be unclogged, that’s the anime that will do it.
Anyone who has ever had a daughter, or anyone who has ever been as lonely as that boy, will find a special connection here,
When I watched it for the first time, my daughter was in piano classes. I’d even been to a couple of her recitals, so this show was all too real for me!
In the best way!
TCrow, you might remember this, but I speculated that the anime will might show that Priscilla has forgotten all memories she had of Subaru the next time the two of them meet each other. It was not just because I had taken psychology courses but because I had literally experienced repression myself a number of years back, which is part of the reason why I believe it is well within reason that Priscilla herself will have exerienced/will be shown to be experiencing repression. I had forgotten all memories of the woman I wanted to marry when I was 19. Although I have recovered many of those memories, some of it is still hazy with some of the details I’m not 100% sure about since so much time had passed by.
I’ll share a little about myself. When I was in the fourth grade, I attended my school’s open house at the suggestion of my teacher, and I met a girl there a few years younger than me who I immediately knew I wanted to marry when I grew up. Eventually, this girl told me her family was moving to British Columbia, and she got me to promise that we’d meet again in university since she planned to move back to Alberta for the last part of her post-secondary education. I didn’t really have a desire to go to university on my own, but because of the promise I made, I fully intended to go to a specific university we had agreed upon because she meant the world to me.
I did end up going to this university, but I was rather aimless since I didn’t innately have a strong reason to go to university aside from meeting up with that girl again, resulting me in following a friend into engineering even though I had 0 interest in the field myself. With very low motivation, I dropped out after 1 semester. Before I had made that decision, I told myself that I would forget as much about that university as possible with the thought that I’d never see that girl again. I didn’t want to deal with the shame and of possibly being judged by that girl, so I ended up forgetting everything about her since I was afraid to face her.
Since my mother had taught me to hide my disappointment in public as she felt that was unbecoming of people, I became someone who would hide his emotions in my youth, and after I forgot this girl, I became even more emotionally stunted since it was my first inclination to hide my emotions. If Priscilla really believed Subaru was fitting to be her lover, she could very well also experience repression because Subaru’s outburst at the castle caused her to question her belief in her instincts as a woman, which would initially manifest as intrusive thoughts about Subaru’s outburst that would impair her day-to-day functioning before she ultimately pushes aside those memories subconsciously to preserve her ego.
Given how Priscilla has been portrayed as being quick to anger in the anime, I believe Priscilla’s memories of Subaru being repressed could result in her being even more quick to anger and unpredictable on the surface. What Priscilla and I would have in common is that great shame caused us to experience repression. For me, shame about my failure, leading to me being afraid to face that girl, and for Priscilla, shame that her instincts as a woman could lead to her choosing someone like Subaru, and for someone who perceives herself to be as great she is, that would result in huge cognitive dissonance, leading her to forgetting all about Subaru much like I had with that girl who I was taken by.
Sorry to hear you went through that!
I’ve been thinking about your thoughts about how that might apply to Priscilla. The more I think about it, the the idea seems to fit. You have a better handle on the series than I do, especially with regard some of the character motivations. But even from my perspective, Priscilla has some narrative role to play — a role she hadn’t shown yet. It could well be as you describe.
Even if it isn’t, I have to admire a show like Re:ZERO that is written with such subtlety and skill that it supports this kind of analysis.
Oo, you’re right Confessions of an Overage Otaku’s post on Your Lie in April was really good. He clearly laid out why the ending was so good and how all the pieces came together to make it work. It was a really interesting read!