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 are my five favorite posts for the week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
You can see a list of the sites I check here: Massive List of Sites!
All the Anime
Golden Time
It’s been a long time since I watched Golden Time. Even after all that time, two things stuck in my memory. First, we would often see Kouko Kaga in different outfits. In other words, she didn’t wear the same thing all the time! That was only visually appealing; it spoke to her character. And second, she had this insane attack move called The Exorcist. I’ve been meaning to rewatch it (the show, not necessarily the attack move), and this post by Zoe Crombie on the site All the Anime reminded me why. Zoe Crombie captured the spirit of the show. I found myself nodding at several points in the review! See if you have a similar reaction!
Confessions of an Overage Otaku
OH, SO TROP(E)ICAL: THE DIRTY OLD MAN
Extremes annoy me. For example: I’ve never paid any attention to any form of political correctness. Nor have I paid any attention to its irrational backlash. That said, I’m also not one for mislabeling people or things (unless by accident or stupidity — you can draw your own inferences for why I had to include the second bit!). For example, objecting to someone making fun of misusing someone’s name or pronoun isn’t necessarily being politically correct. From where I sit, it’s just being polite to listen to a person’s preference. I mean, seriously — how hard is it to be polite?
The answer is apparently, in many cases, very.
That conversation aside, when I saw the title of The Overage Otaku’s recent post on Confessions of an Overage Otaku, I smiled, then cringed inwardly. The trope under discussion can crack me up, and that’s why I smiled. But I’ve also seen the trope draw ire, and for good reason. And guess what? The Overage Otaku was way ahead of me! Not only did he point out when this trope can be funny and not insulting. He pointed out when it could be insulting, too! That’s the kind of nuanced thinking I’ve come to enjoy from Confessions of an Overage Otaku!
Merlin’s Musings
The Epic of Valvrave the Liberator
I’ve studied my taste in mecha anime, and I’ve come to a conclusion: you can tell what I like by looking at what the most experienced critics in the field don’t like. For example, my favorite mecha anime is Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse. There are a lot of reasons for that (and not all of them have to do with Cryska, though I’d be lying through my teeth if I tried to say she wasn’t part of it). It makes for a lonely experience when trying to find other folks to chat about the series.
Another example would be Valvrave the Liberator. There are a ton of reasons I like it, starting with its OP. But despite it having a lot more to offer than that, I haven’t seen very many posts about it. So imagine my delight when I came across this post by Merlin on the site Merlin’s Musings. Like the Golden Time review above, this post brought back a lot of very pleasant memories. I miss this series! Maybe I’ll review it at some point. Until then, go see what Merlin had to say about it!
The Traditional Catholic Weeb
Anime Review #120: Ya Boy Kongming!
Speaking of great OPs, Ya Boy Kongming! has one of the most catchy tunes I’ve heard in, like, ever. It’s so much fun to listen to that, despite me having a tight window in which I can research and write this post, I took the time to watch the OP on YouTube — on normal speed! And it’s all the fault of The Traditional Catholic Weeb’s post on the site The Traditional Catholic Weeb. Not only did this post remind me of how much I liked the music. It absolutely nailed some of the themes and character moments that defined this series — in the best possible way. It helped me relive my favorite moments from the series, and more. See if the post talks about your favorite things!
USA Anime
The Apothecary Diaries, episode 22
Some of my favorite kinds of dialogue don’t involve words. At least, not directly. To give you a real-life example, consider how Southern ladies pin the 1800s communicated using a fan. It was even called fan language. I would consider vast swaths of the culture of that age as morally reprehensible, but at least I can draw some good out of it: it’s a great example of rich, non-verbal communications. It’s also a lot more pleasant than some other examples, like a crime boss sending a non-verbal message in the form of a horse’s head or something.
Okay, that got dark. Sorry about that! There are actually a lot of literary examples of effective non-verbal communications. I say “literary” because, in my experience, the fiction that uses such techniques often rises to what I’d call the level of literature. This post by Theron on the site USA Anime got me thinking along these lines, and it’s all because of Theron’s detailed, insightful review of the twenty-second episode of The Apothecary Diaries. I feel like I should be up on charges for not watching this show. My only defense is that I promise I will — I hope. In the meantime, please go enjoy Theron’s post!
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?
- Anime Feminist: Weekly Round-Up, 6-12 March 2024: Gender in Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Joint Custody Laws, and Pokemon’s New Protagonist
- LESLEY’S ANIME AND MANGA CORNER: Anime and Light Novel Blog Posts That Caught My Eye This Week (March 15, 2024)
TCrow, I believe once posted that what Episodes 18 and 25 of Re:zero show when viewed together is that Subaru has dormant memories of Satella without elaborating on why that was the case, so I will do so now.
In Episode 18, Puck said that if Petelgeuse wants to kill him that he needs to summon a thousand shadows, half of what Satella could, meaning Satella could summon two thousand shadow hands. In Episode 25, Subaru said that if Emilia hates herself that he’ll tell her 2,000 things he loves about her.
What this shows is that Subaru used that number ’cause he was once in love with Satella even if he only knew the number ’cause of Puck. This shows that Subaru’s initial attraction to Emilia and the construct of his memories in the first Sanctuary anime showing him being fond of silver-haired heroines is that Subaru was once very fond of Satella and subconsciously gravitates to silver-haired heroines ’cause of that past history with Satella.
A reference to 2000 seems to be in the spirit of something Tappei Nagatsuki would do!
Yeah, it’s nice being able to talk about the things we enjoy, isn’t it? One reason I enjoyed hanging with my friends in college so much: I finally had someone I could talk to about the stuff I liked! 🙂
I admit being a little surprised, though. Heh, between my review of Valvrave or my commentary about how we need a good explanation for when our weapons don’t work against the enemy, if I’d been asked which one I might expect to appear on this post, I would have automatically assumed the latter. Heh! 😀
Both concepts are solid and compelling. I really like realism in stories, so the weapons discussion was seriously cool. But in this case, I leaned towards the appreciation you showed for Valvrave. It felt kinda uplifting!
Oh, I missed that post from Confessions of an Over Age Otaku. It sounds really good. I’ll have to go back and find it on my favorites feed. Thank you for pointing it out so I don’t miss it!
You’re welcome! Glad you found it — that post was fun and informative!