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!
Seasonal Previews
It’s almost time to transition to the Spring 2024 Anime Season! These sites published their previews this week:
- Anime Evo: FlareKnight’s Spring 2024 Preview
- The GlorioBlog: The GLORIO Chat Episode 158: Spring 2024 Anime Preview
5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts
AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog
7th Time Loop Episode 11
7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! continues to impress me with its subtle characterization and attention to detail. Of course, I like the lead character, Rishe. She’s smart, she’s strong, and she has very shiny hair (this show has a unique approach to hair animation — it’s interesting!). But Rishe’s not the only interesting character. Blogger Eva, in this post from AngryAnimeBitches Anime Blog, shares some very cool thoughts about Arnold and what we learned about him in episode 11. After having just watched the episode, I think Eva was spot on! See what you think!
The Con Artists
Sousou no Frieren – Episode 26
Seriously, is Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End even capable of putting out a bad episode? That’s a bold question from me, since I only just finished watching the first episode. However, based on what so many bloggers I trust are saying, this show just keeps on delivering the goods. Take this post by CONARTISTSUSHMA on the site The Con Artists, for example. The show’s nearing the end of its first season, and it’s still hitting this hard! I can’t wait to catch up. Which I hope is soon. There’s no time to waste — I’ve missed uncounted Fern pouts!
Japan Powered
Revisiting Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions
Did you watch Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!? I did, and it’s one of those shows whose scenes, years later, come back to me at random moments. More than any other show that I can recall (well, except for WataMote: No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!, which was so brutally honest that I find myself not wanting to about it), it captured the awkwardness, uncertainty, and raw potential of high school’s years. I’ve often wondered why I thought that way about the show. Then I read this post by CHRIS KINCAID on the site Japan Powered. The answer had not occurred to me. But now that CHRIS KINCAID pointed it out, it’s clear! See if you figured it out before I did!
Phoenix Talks Pop Culture Japan
Mecha March: Knights of Sidonia (2014)
There’s another series I think of randomly — Knights of Sidonia. I liked it for one of the reasons I also liked Arpeggio of Blue Steel -Ars Nova-: both made exceptional use of CGI. I enjoy CGI if it fits the story and tone, and in both cases, I think it did. That alone, though, wouldn’t make it stick in my mind. What would? Well, I just found this post by RisefromAshes on the site Phoenix Talks Pop Culture Japan that laid it all out. All of it! This is a great description of why the show stuck with me. See what you think!
Shallow Dives in Anime
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny Episodes 1-25: Dewbond Eats Crow (No Not that Crow)
For obvious reasons, Dewbond’s title on Shallow Dives in Anime caught my attention. At first, I was like, “Okay, now what did I do?” Then I reflected that, “Oh, yeah, that’s a joke that’s been hiding in plain sight, isn’t it?” I came for the joke, but I stayed for the analysis. Because reading Dewbond’s reflections on his reaction to rewatching Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny was not only entertaining, but insightful as well. I think Dewbond was gutsy, too. I’m not sure I want to rewatch some of the shows I loved decades ago. I tried that with Space: Above and Beyond. One of us didn’t age well. Though to be honest, I shouldn’t assume it was the show!
That aside, I think you’ll get a kick out of reading Dewbond’s reaction to the series and to his memories of the series. Seriously: it takes guts to self reflect in such a public way!
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, 13-19 March 2024: Stolen Ryukyu Artifacts, Adult Content Creators, and Union Wage Wins
- LESLEY’S ANIME AND MANGA CORNER: Anime, Manga, and Light Novel Blog Posts That Caught My Eye This Week (March 22, 2024)
TCrow, I think we low-key got some character development for Arnold in this final episode.
Seeing Arnold accept that the ring he gifted to Rishe is beautiful is already a change compared to before when he said he hated the colour of his eyes. Rishe didn’t realize it, but Arnold was saying the ring was another thing he found beautiful. I found it very wholesome and welcomed Arnold’s character development as he got over his hatred for his eyes.
That all surprised me in a very good way! I think you’re right — Rishe didn’t really realize what she’d done! That made it all the more special.
TCrow, I don’t know if you’ve seen the new Re:zero trailer, but I noticed 2 plot points were directly spoiled in it through 2 of the scenes. If you want to avoid being spoiled, I recommend avoiding the trailer.
I haven’t seen it yet — and I think I’ll try not to now! Thanks for the warning!
It bothered me. I don’t think the Season 2 trailer had a direct spoiler, but this one came with 2 direct spoilers. I guess in the future I’ll ask around before watching a trailer for any anime that’s not a completely original work.
Tcrow! Thanks a ton for the link to our site. Frieren is so freaking good!
You’re welcome! And I should have listened to you before now — I just started watching Frieren, and dang, it blows me away.
I’m really glad you are enjoying it!
As always a great selection from fellow bloggers! I’ll have to check out the new posts when I can. Of course, flattered that I’ve made the cut for this feature. I really appreciate it!
You’re welcome! And thanks for writing about Knights of Sidonia!
Re:zero Season 3 is confirmed for October 2024. That’s sooner than I expected, so I guess I’ll have to start playing around with a test blog or something since I plan on blogging when Re:zero is on the air.
Cool! Looking forward to seeing it go live!
TCrow, I’m building upon one of my previous theories of Al being Subaru’s younger brother with this post.
Now, I lead off by saying that Re:zero is a logical series. Unlike tons of poorly made isekai series out there, all characters in Re:zero have their own underlying motivations. The isekai protagonist of most bad isekai stories would be made to look good for being self-righteous against Lugunica’s knights, but Subaru got his shit kicked in ’cause Re:zero is a real story, not shit meant to solely be wish fulfillment. It’s clear that Re:zero is a story where there are actual consequences ’cause of this.
Where I’m going with this is that there are time travel stories out there like Doctor Who that posit that all of time is happening at once, meaning there are no real rules and almost anything can happen with it being a matter of the writer’s discretion. The bootstrap paradox commonly featured in time travel stories is also highly illogical and only exists “just because” rather than there being an actual legitimate reason for being used that can be reasoned through logic.
‘Cause Re:zero is a highly logical series, I posit that time is linear in Re:zero, so if you have read my theory about Al, you’d know I believe he was born as Kenichi and Naoko’s second son, and I think the main reason Al was summoned to the fantasy world to a point before Subaru’s arrival at Lugunica’s Capital is that Subaru was transported to somewhere in Re:zero’s world or a place that was a limbo between worlds where his body never aged even the slightest before he suddenly arrived in Lugunica’s Capital in Episode 1 of the series and that this period where that happened was before the time Al was summoned to Re:zero’s fantasy world.
Re:zero being a logical series isn’t the only reason I believe that time is linear in this story. We as viewers know that when Subaru shows the intent to reveal anything about Return by Death that Satella drags him to a dark world where she can interact with him, squeezing his heart being one such thing she can do. Given we know that what is known as Return by Death resets Subaru’s body, meaning that the soul is the seat of where memories and thoughts are held instead of the brain in Re:zero, I surmise that the reason Satella can so easily read Subaru’s mind is that that dark world is a pocket dimension located within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, and since that would mean she is always lurking around Subaru’s soul, she can readily read his thoughts.
This could explain why Satella’s Witch scent is so strong after Subaru dies, and that’s because Satella lurks within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul through that dark world. I believe that in between the time Subaru was snatched away from Earth and Al’s summoning, Satella was building this dark world for some purpose, which I believe is for her to help Subaru bring about her desired future where she is killed by him as she requested in Episode 38. Satella will one day emerge from the dark world that is within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul to possess Emilia in order to fight what comes out of the Seal in Elior Forest, and then Subaru will need to lead the force that kills her after the threat of the Seal is gone for good. There had to have been a period of time where that dark world was built after all. It wouldn’t have existed “just because”.
I don’t see any logical flaws in your reasoning. But it highlights a concern I have for this show. It’s something that afflicts a lot of shows, but this one in particular, given its complexity and lore.
If Satella is powerful enough to accomplish all of that, I’m having a hard time convincing myself she needs Subaru’s help. It’s likely because I haven’t understood the mechanisms yet, and that could easily be on me. It’s been a long time since I watched the show (since I reviewed the most recent series, in fact). With a show this lore-dense, I’m sure I’ve forgotten key element.
I’ll give the show this: I’m recognize it likely has an explanation. Tappei Nagatsuki knows what he’s doing!
It’s also a problem I struggle with from the opposite direction. As a writer, it’s hard to know how much detail to include explicitly; how much to infer; and how much to omit. Sometimes, there’s a fine line between trusting the reader and losing them. After all, readers don’t have time to study the lore in my books. I can’t expect them to! Finding that balance is a challenge, and I really respect Tappei Nagatsuki for how he’s approached that challenge.
Why Satella needs Subaru’s help would be that she is a world-ending threat herself, so there needs to be someone who will kill her after she deals with the threat from the Seal in Elior Forest is defeated. If what we’ve seen from Satella in Season 2 holds true, Satella has limited control over herself when manifesting in the physical world and is only stable in soul form since the soul is the seat of where memories and thoughts form given Subaru’s entire body is reset after he dies.
Subaru in his current state will never kill Satella. He even said in Episode 38 that he would save her, so he is not up to the task of killing her yet. If you recall from my previous speculation, I believe at the end of Re:zero that Emilia will willingly choose to be possessed by Satella to save the world when she sees there’s no other way to do so, allowing her to have some agency and die peacefully, and Subaru needs to accept that with saving either the world or Emilia being the final choice Tappei poses to Subaru.
I believe Subaru and Emilia need further development before they can make those choices and that the main plot of Re:zero is a plan concocted from a large group of characters from 400 years ago steering the world to one particular future in which the world is saved by forcefully opening the Seal in Elior Forest on their own terms instead of having it be open one day under unfavourable conditions with the Gospels I believe were created by Echidna meant to steer the Witch Cult into helping create that future.
Oo, I was actually looking for some new blogs to subscribe to just yesterday, and there’s quite a few blogs in your post that are totally new to me! Thank you for pointing out some hidden gem bloggers!
Thanks much for letting me know! Glad I could help you find some of them!