Every week, I visit over 270 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 Evo
Hibike! Euphonium 3 – 05
I’m watching Sound Euphonium Season 3 as it airs. I’m not sure, but I think it might be even more enjoyable than the previous seasons. Even if it’s not, there were several things I noticed while I watched episode 5 that made me really, really wish I had chosen to review this series for the Spring 2024 season! Then I came across this review by FlareKnight on the site Anime Evo, and suddenly, I didn’t feel so bad. Why? Because FlareKnight talked about everything I loved about the episode, and then some. As usual, I appreciated FlareKnight’s thorough and honest approach — and I think you will, too!
Anime Herald
An Unexpected Gem: How Bocchi the Rock! Outshines the Competition
One of my ulterior motives for reviewing anime is that I want to develop my emotional vocabulary. I want to get to the point where I can clearly describe the emotional overtones in a scene and how those overtones affect me as a viewer. I also have an ulterior motive for looking for posts to celebrate — I’m hoping to find good examples of posts that adroitly handle such things. And I found one! Austin Jacques’ post on Anime Herald tackled the series Bocchi the Rock!, a series that made me feel kinda terrible — because I had no hope of robustly describing it or my reaction to it! And now I have an example of how it can be done. Go see if you enjoy the post as much as I did!
ARUM JOURNAL
Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again Episode 5 Review – Life Long Love
I wish I had time to watch Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again as it airs. As a grandpa myself, I’ve observed my view of the world expand and evolve. There are some topics that, as a younger man, I intellectually knew about, but that I had not experienced. So my understanding lacked nuance and depth. This show’s tackling some of those issues. I know that because of ecargmura’s excellent coverage of the series on the site ARUM JOURNAL. In fact, this is another post I can use as a reference for emotionally intelligent prose! So, bonus!
Confessions of an Overage Otaku
HOW TO BUILD A SERIES: KNIGHTS OF SIDONIA
Knights of Sidonia had a lot going for it. For one thing, I enjoyed its CGI. I liked its rugged setting; I liked its science fiction elements. Science fiction can explore ideas in a way that’s removed from our day-to-day living, which means some topics that are too charged to talk about in real life might be safe to explore. The Overage Otaku on the site Confessions of an Overage Otaku uses humor and a format borrowed from actual history to talk about Izana. A unique character, presented through the lens of The Overage Otaku — that has “good time” written all over it!
Merlin’s Musings
My Top Ten Anime Crushes (and a whole lot more!)
There are lists, and there are lists. I have nothing again a quick, frothy little list that makes me smile. But I have a ton of respect for a well-researched list that’s presented with editorial thoroughness. That’s just what I found in this post by Merlin on the site Merlin’s Musings. You might see the title and think, “Crushes? What’s so special about that? Anyone can talk about crushes!” Merlin elevates the topic by carefully considering the classifications of crushes, exhaustively considering the options for each, and delivering a thoughtful declaration of ultimate-crushness. Best of all? The uber-crush, the most crush-worthy of crushes, is a choice who I can thoroughly endorse! Go see if you have a similar reaction!
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, 1-7 May 2024: Black BL, Mental Health Chat, and KOSA Updates
- LESLEY’S ANIME AND MANGA CORNER: Anime Blog Posts That Caught My Eye This Week (May 10, 2024)
There are two reasons I believe Emilia wasn’t possessed by Satella in Episode 34 and 4 reasons I don’t believe she was possessed in Episode 36:
Regarding Episode 34:
1. Satella was wearing different clothes than Emilia did. I have never heard of a legitimate possession where the possessor gets to keep her original/signature clothes instead of wearing the possessee’s clothes.
2. Since Satella is sealed, only her soul form can move about, and both in Episodes 34 and 38, there was a purple aura surrounding Satella, respectively, which shows it was most likely a spectral projection of Satella rather than even Satella’s soul itself present since the other dead Witches of Sin had no aura around them even though they are also in soul form, which shows that Emilia was not possessed as Petelgeuse and Roswaal’s possessions don’t have an aura, so if Emilia had been possessed, there would not be a purple aura, but since there was, it was not possession but a spectral projection of Satella that was acting. Subaru did not see what happened, so it doesn’t mean anything it was implied that he thought it was possession after he killed himself with his fear of Emilia’s face ’cause he has no way of knowing.
Regarding Episode 36, I know some people believe that Satella was possessed because of the shadows in her eyes, but I believe that detail was merely meant to animate that Emilia’s mind had broken and that she was unwell.
1. Emilia used “daisuki” in this episode to indicate her affection for Subaru when we know that Satella uses “aishiteru”. If Emilia had been possessed by Satella, she would have also used “aishiteru” rather than stick with her own lingo.
2. Roswaal had indicated his intent to isolate Emilia by making it snow since the people at the Sanctuary know that Emilia can do it, and with Puck gone, it would force Emilia to lean on Subaru as Roswaal said, since Subaru was the only one who felt particularly strongly about her and vice-versa, and Subaru leaving for the mansion most likely resulted in Emilia doing the 1st trial over and over to try to prove her worth to Subaru since it was hinted that one of the Ryuzu clones took Subaru’s letter that he had written for Emilia explaining why he was leaving when it showed a Ryuzu clone watching Subaru as he placed his letter at Emilia’s door. As for why Emilia would attempt the trial over and over even though it caused her distress, Emilia as we know from Part 2 of Season 2 had low self-esteem and was thinking that she was useless, so her way of proving she wasn’t useless would be to successfully complete the 1st trial, which she failed to do and eventually went insane without Subaru’s assurance that he would be returning.
3. Given that Satella is sealed, she can only interact with the physical world when Subaru invokes the Taboo, which didn’t happen in Episode 36. When Subaru invokes the Taboo, such as in Episode 17 and Episodes 33 and 34, Satella killed Emilia and sent a spectral projection of herself to the Sanctuary. Given Subaru did not invoke the Taboo in Episode 36, it makes sense to believe Emilia had not been possessed.
4. Emilia did not notice how seriously injured Subaru was at the end of Episode 36, asking if he was sleepy even though he was wounded all over. This shows her mind had broken to such an extent that she could not grasp reality very well at the moment.
Thank you for recommending Merlin’s Musing’s post, it was such a fun read. What a great idea for a post! I totally want to write a post like that in the future. This post gets extra points for including Botan from Yuyu Hakusho, she doesn’t get nearly enough attention. And holy moly! They weren’t kidding when they warned that there was a lot of pics on their post. So many awesome pics! Loved it.
I am slightly torn between blushing and this, but mostly this: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c5/2c/0d/c52c0d223c08ea12e6e7355032a6d77d.jpg
LOL! Awesome!
I have to confess — and please don’t hold this against me — that I wasn’t aware of Botan from Yuyu Hakusho. After doing a little research, I see that I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m going to fix that.
Someday. My backlog is beginning to develop a gravitational pull, it’s gotten so big!
This is me right now: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c5/2c/0d/c52c0d223c08ea12e6e7355032a6d77d.jpg
Just out of sheer curiosity, did you see my post about monstrous anime protagonists?
Sure did! Enjoyed reading it, too. And going back to make sure, I realized i hadn’t clicked the Like button — a problem I just fixed!