Every week, I visit almost 280 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!
Anime B&B
Undead Unluck Hit Me Right in the Gut and I Liked It
I’ve participated in internet culture for a long, long time. Do you remember when Prodigy fell? I remember when it was futuristic and new. I remember CompuServe when its Special Interest Groups were among the best sources of on-line information generally available. I also remember — and participated in — USENET when it took over the mantle previously worn by CompuServe’s SIGs. I’ve seen flame wars and passionate discussions and rantings. And I’ve come to a conclusion.
I get more life out of reading a single post of someone joyfully gushing about something they love — and why they love it — than a million rants about why this or that sucks. That’s why I insist that I celebrate anime. As proof of my commitment, consider this: I found things to like in Metallic Rouge. Even the last episode! If that’s not commitment, I don’t know what it.
That’s why I so enjoyed reading this post by MARINA on the site Anime B&B. MARINA loved Undead Unlock. Sure, MARINA found a handful of concerns. That’s cool. I respect that! Pointing them out proves integrity. But the majority of the post is a celebration of Undead Unlock and all its glory. After reading this post, I wanted to drop everything and go watch the series. MARINA’s comments about how meta the show was even reminded me of my (hands down) all-time favorite series, Re:CREATORS. I have no idea if the comparison is valid or not — but I want to know! See if you enjoyed this post as much as I did!
Anime Evo
Hibike! Euphonium 3 – 02
I really, really want to make time to watch Sound! Euphonium 3. What’s holding me back (besides my old nemesis, Mr. Time)? I’m afraid it won’t live up to the promise of the first two seasons. I shouldn’t be too concerned. It’s still from Kyoto Animation. A lot of the talent has returned. And posts like this from FlareKnight on the site Anime Evo are starting to come out. FlareKnight breaks down the latest episode in his usual concise, lively style. By the end of the post, I had a strong sense that the series is still firing on all cylinders. See if you get the same feeling!
ARUM JOURNAL
Whisper Me A Love Song Episode 1 Review – Love At First Sight
The beginning of a new season is a lot of fun. Not only have I started reviewing and watching new shows, but so have a lot of the nearly 280 sites I frequent each week. I particularly like reviews that draw my attention to series that didn’t originally catch my eye. This post by ecargmura on the site ARUM JOURNAL just did precisely that with Whisper Me a Love Song. It’s not surprising, since Yuri romance as a standalone genre doesn’t usually capture my imagination (unless you add a fantasy element, like The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady — man, I enjoyed that show). But this post? This post got my attention. So, my backlog has expanded yet again! Which is a pretty good problem to have.
Merlin’s Musings
My Top Ten Favorite Female Anime Characters
I really like strong female characters. Like, it’s a theme here. So of course, the title of this post by Merlin on Merlin’s Musings captured my attention! The list is thoughtful. It includes characters I haven’t met before, which is cool all by itself. I also heartily endorse many of the choices, like #6 and #7. But Merlin mentioned something that got me thinking — he emphasized that though the post focuses on strong female characters, he likes strong characters in general! I might need to change an aspect of my theme to be more inclusive! While I ponder that, go see if Merlin’s list includes characters you enjoy!
Shallow Dives in Anime
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny Episodes 26-50: Dewbond Eats (Slightly Less) Crow
What’s better than finding a new series that reveals more layers of meaning the more you dig into it? A series you watched years ago whose meaning you missed — until you rewatched it! Rediscovery with benefits is almost as good as discovery in the first place. Dewbond, on the site Shallow Dives in Anime, just wrote about his experience rewatching Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny episodes 26 to 50. It was a lot of fun to see what he picked up years later, not to mention how much he fun he had doing it. Have you seen the series? See if you caught the details he talks about!
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, 10-16 April 2024: Supporting Animators, Simulcasting Woes, and Controller Layout Presets
- LESLEY’S ANIME AND MANGA CORNER: Anime Blog Posts That Caught My Eye This Week (April 19, 2024)
Again, I’m putting it out there that I believe multiple characters peered through Echidna’s Tome of Wisdom 400 years ago or came across knowledge of the future somehow. Primarily based on the content of Season 2 , there are at least two instances I believe she read it in advance.
1. Echidna showed that she had read it in advance to know that Subaru would need to kill himself for talking about Return by Death with her, which showed that she was reading ahead. This is why she turned Petra’s handkerchief into a spirit knife, or whatever it is, so that he could readily kill himself when he was engulfed in a mass of shadow. Subaru even remarks about how much Echidna had anticipated, which I take is something viewers are supposed to hang on to.
2. Echidna made Puck search for Emilia and also made Puck promise to not start a contract with Emilia or else face him slowly losing his memories (the tell is that the special font used in The Frozen Bond, the second OVA, to denote an unknown woman’s speech was revealed to have been used to denote Echidna’s speech in Season 2), most likely so that Puck would not start a contract with Emilia until Melakuera tried to kill her, which also showed that she had read ahead. That she had Puck find Emilia shows that she knew well in advance that Emilia would be frozen.
I’m guessing there will be a reason for why Puck was to slowly lose his memories if he broke that contract/oath he made to Echidna and that it will be revealed in a future arc.
Season 2 also had Petelgeuse apologize to Flugel-sama for taking in the Sloth Witch Factor, which shows that Petelgeuse had promised him to not take it in, and Flugel likely had Petelgeuse make that promise so that he would only take it in when Regulus and Pandora invaded when he would have no other choice but to do so, which showed that Flugel had read the Tome of Wisdom or had knowledge of the future through other means.
Pandora stating that her goal in bringing Regulus to Elior Forest had already been fulfilled shows that she came to the forest with the intent of forcing Petelgeuse to take in the Sloth Witch Factor and to separate Emilia from Fortuna and Petelgeuse so that Petelgeuse would kill Fortuna, leading to him going insane and Emilia going berserk and freezing Elior Forest and herself for hundreds of years. That she made it so that Regulus was not there shows that Petelgeuse being permanently mained until he finds a new host body was not a part of the plan, so she undid it since she needed Petelgeuse nice and healthy for the foreseeable future.
Pandora may or may not have read the Tome of Wisdom, but if she hasn’t, I believe she is still being directed by Echidna through a Witch Cult Gospel, which I surmise are Echidna’s creations that are linked to Echidna’s mind through magic.
Satella knowing at what points Subaru can make a difference in setting his save points also shows that Satella has read the Tome of Wisdom or has knowledge of the future somehow, as there’s no other way she would know at what point Subaru can make a meaningful difference.
In all likelihood, Echidna, Pandora, Satella, Subaru from 400 years ago, Flugel, and other characters from 400 years ago all peered into the Tome of Wisdom or had knowledge of the future through other means and agreed on steering the world to one specific future to avoid the destruction of the world by forcibly opening the Seal in Elior Forest on their own terms instead of one day having it be open under unfavourable conditions with the world ending.
I suspect Satella became a Witch to play her part in the plan by dragging Subaru forward to her desired route with Return By Death and then eventually returning to defeat what comes out of the Seal, which I believe to be a monstrous horde of creatures that have a passive AOE aura at the end of the story that not even Reinhard can protect the world from. I believe Satella literally sacrificed her whole life’s potential to help lead the world to a good ending.
As for Echidna’s final tea party, I believe all the Witches knew what was going to happen as they were acting with future knowledge. There is some basis to believe this in the anime when Minerva said that sometimes good things happen from Echidna’s evil plots, which shows that the dead Witches of Sin are most likely in on Echidna’s plans ’cause they know very well what she is plotting, whether by stopping Subaru from accepting Echidna’s contract at just the right time or their therapy session when Subaru was thinking of killing himself and was shown from the second trial that the people he meets care about him, leading to them addressing his self-sacrificing mentality through a group effort.
While Echidna would probably like to enter into a contract with Subaru on the surface, I believe her quest for knowledge means that she sees that the world ending would deny her more knowledge, so she is following a very specific plan agreed upon 400 years ago rather than doing whatever it takes to force Subaru into a contract with her.
Echidna’s grand speech about Subaru entering a contract with her was likely theater for her own amusement and also keikaku. If one’s actions don’t line up with the words, why should they be listened to? Why this applies to Echidna can be seen in Episode 34 when Echidna let it slip that she tried to vary up the trial with 3 days of trial and error for Emilia in an attempt to help Emilia pass the 1st trial. She then proceeds to tell Subaru that maybe he can give the cowardly princess wings, which is basically telling Subaru that the correct course of action that will lead to him achieving his goals is to have Emilia take the trials. However, this flew over Subaru’s head, and he was determined to do the trials in Emilia’s place after that interaction. Why would Echidna do this if she favoured him accepting her contract? It makes no sense.
Another example in which I propose that Echidna was lying is when she said she gave Beatrice a blank book because she had wanted to see who Beatrice chose. I believe Echidna fully knew that Subaru is the one who would free Beatrice and that Echidna specifically chose to tell Subaru what she did was because she wanted to seem so outrageously evil so as to deter Subaru from accepting her contract. This is backed up by Echidna saying to Subaru after he rejected her contract that she didn’t want him to think she was the only one of the Witches of Sin who is evil since she knew how evil what she said sounded, which led to her revoking Subaru’s qualification for entering the tomb.
Subaru was using his right to enter the tomb as a crutch at that point, and Echidna did him a major solid by taking it away so that he’d be forced to do all he could to help Emilia pass the trials. Echidna clearly knew how evil what she said about Beatrice was. Echidna’s actions do not read as somebody who wanted to force Subaru to accept her contract no matter what. The true reason Beatrice’s book was empty was probably because Echidna needed Beatrice to stay in the library in case she died or something, and since all she did was stay in the library, there was no need for further instruction. Echidna knew that Subaru would not abandon a suicidal child, especially not one who had helped him before, and that is probably another reason she cruelly made Beatrice hang on to her words of wait for “that person.”
As for how the Tome of Wisdom can still be active even though Echidna died, I believe it’s ’cause Witch Factors cause a change in your soul that manifests in an Authority, and that after death, you can still use your Authority as long as you haven’t reincarnated, so any soul clones of Echidna, such as the younger version of Echidna in the Sanctuary trials and the Witch’s Tea Party compared to the older Echidna, can still use the Tome of Wisdom.
“Echidna showed that she had read it in advance to know that Subaru would need to kill himself for talking about Return by Death with her,”
At first, I thought that maybe she had some knowledge of how Return by Death worked. But your note that the story made a point of emphasizing that does make it seem like something we’re supposed to remember, doesn’t it?
“Satella knowing at what points Subaru can make a difference in setting his save points also shows that Satella has read the Tome of Wisdom or has knowledge of the future somehow,”
I’m very, very curious to know how Satella selects save points. Or even if she’s doing it, and not some other force. We may never know, but I’d be surprised if the reveal doesn’t turn out to be important.
“I believe Satella literally sacrificed her whole life’s potential to help lead the world to a good ending.”
There’s certainly something like that going on with her. When we met her, she was completely different than I had expected. Almost to the point where I couldn’t quite figure out why the other witches seemed to terrified of her — with the knowledge, of course that they had good reason. Meaning that the tension in those scenes was through the roof.
I have to give Tappei Nagatsuki and you both credit. Tappei Nagatsuki, for creating a world of such complexity, and you, for navigating it with such deliberation. I would not be in the least bit surprised that, even if some of your conclusions are incorrect, they’re incorrect because Tappei Nagatsuki left intentionally conflicting clues.
I read and watch a lot. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few writers (like Adrian Tchaikovsky) who approach this level of complexity. That’s a shame, because when a writer pulls it off, it’s awesome.
This is me right now: https://media1.tenor.com/m/Hy-KN1Vg1BIAAAAC/girl-anime.gif
LOL. I really enjoyed your top ten — and for the character introductions! I hadn’t seen some of them before!