Every week, I visit about 245 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 time for the Fall 2024 previews! Several sites this week (or last week) published previews, and I’ve tried to summarize them here:
- Angry Anime Bitches: Fall Anime 2024 Season Preview
- Anime Feminist: 2024 Fall Premiere Reviews
- Anizeen: Fall Anime Season 2024
- Chikorita157’s Anime Blog: Fall 2024 Anime Season Preview
- Lost in Anime: Fall 2024 Season Preview and Video Companion
- Scribble Anime: Which Autumn Anime 2024 shows have I picked?
- Random Curiosity: Fall 2024 Preview
Five Favorite Anime Blog Posts
Anime Rants
“Philomela’s Freedom” – The Ancient Magus Bride Season 2 Part 2 Review
If you’ve read my reviews of The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Part 2, then you probably have an idea of how much I adored the series. The magical and fantastic elements added their charms, but this series brought a lot more to the table than just that. 7mononoke’s post on Anime Rants captured that variety. In particular, 7mononoke really understood that this was Philomela’s story — in a way that showcases 7mononoke’s ability to communicate her understanding and appreciation of characters. Please, go see what I mean!
More Posts from Anime Rants
Harper Anime Reviews
Hello, Sailor – High School Fleet Spoiler Review
Just the other day, I was thinking about High School Fleet. If you haven’t seen it, you might not know what I’m talking about. On the other hand, if you’ve seen it, you still might not know what I’m talking about. What do I mean by that? Well, I could explain, but this post isn’t about me, so let me direct your attention to Austin Harper’s post on Harper Anime Reviews. Austin Harper’s perspective felt familiar to me, in no small part because we seem to share a similar perspective on the show — which is, admittedly, an acquired taste. If you want to know how either of us saw the series, please check out this review!
More Posts from Harper Anime Reviews
Mechanical Anime Reviews
Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection (2009): Always count on the Yamato
Speaking of WWII battleships doing what they ought not to be doing… (Just for the record, I mean that to be a humorous segue from the previous post to this one, with no disrespect intended!) I remember seeing earlier versions of anime where the WWII battleship Yamato ended up in space. That’s just cool stuff! Turns out it’s cool in movie form, too, as Scott explains in his review of Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection on the site Mechanical Anime Reviews. What did Scott think of the movie? Did he recommend it? You’ll have to read the post to find out!
More Posts from Mechanical Anime Reviews
Merlin’s Musings
Her 7th Time Loop as an Unstoppable Female
I enjoy it when an anime surprises me with appealing characters and well-crafted plotting. That’s what I experienced when I watched 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!. So when I saw that Merlin had reviewed it on his site Merlin’s Musings, I had to check it out. Merlin’s review did two things that made me want to share it with all of you. First, Merlin called out the title for its WTF-ness. I mean, seriously — these titles are getting unwieldy! Second, Merlin brought out the stuff that made the show so much fun to watch. Even more, he did so in an entertaining way! Please check out his view on Rishe and her castmates!
More Posts from Merlin’s Musings
Otaku Sinh
EPIC New Ability and a Glimpse into an IMPORTANT Backstory! Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 11 [Video Review]
I was a bit bummed this season not to see more anime bloggers review Wistoria: Wand and Sword. I’m having a lot of fun with that show, and I wanted to compare notes! So, I was delighted to see that Sinh over on the site Otaku Sinh reviewed some of the show’s episodes. While most of his reviews are on YouTube. Well, at least some of them are on his blog, which makes them eligible for me to celebrate here. I’ve always enjoyed Sinh’s irreverent style. It’s also nice to find someone who sees shows from a perspective similar to mine! Note that’s not a slam on him; I’m sure he’s sane otherwise. For proof, please check out his review!
More Posts from Otaku Sinh
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, 18-24 September 2024: In Memoriam, the First Female Zelda Director, and Love Bullet
- Lesley’s Anime and Manga Corner: Anime, Manga, and Light Novel Blog Posts That Caught My Eye This Week (September 27, 2024)
Thanks for including two of my Yamato posts this month 🙂
They were both a lot of fun to read!
TCrow, here’s another take of mine on Re:zero Episode 29, Parent and Child.
As Subaru noted in Parent and Child, he had never really formed a real relationship in his life with anyone, which was why he struck out so badly on the first day of high school. Where I’m going with this is that ’cause of that fact, Subaru has very limited life experiences to draw upon on how to cheer someone up aside from his lap pillow moment with Emilia and Rem’s From Zero moment.
Given the impact From Zero had on him, it’s no surprise he tried to imitate Rem’s From Zero moment, which was a confession meant to be an intervention for when Subaru was trying to run away from his problems. To be clear, I am not criticizing Subaru for having his heart in the wrong place or anything. I acknowledge Subaru was well-meaning in doing this, but in my opinion, Subaru was not thinking about what Emilia needed most at the time but rather assuming what he thought she needed ’cause of From Zero having such a huge impact on him.
As we know from that Episode 40, Emilia needed a reason to believe that someone cared about her in Puck’s absence ’cause her failure in the Sanctuary’s first trial and her recovery of her memories from Puck making her wonder whether she is even the same person and question her worth as a person. She had indicated the main reason she couldn’t believe Subaru loved her was that he broke her promise to her when promises hold such a high value to her. When Emilia questioned Subaru on why he broke his promise, he evaded the question.
It’s my belief that Subaru should have proven after that moment what he had really been doing instead of staying the night with her by immediately showing that he had drawn all over the Sanctuary trial room. By refusing to do that, Emilia increasingly became despondent and unreceptive to what he was doing, and her making it so clear that she couldn’t believe that he loved her triggered his fear of abandonment, much like when he was extremely stressed out in Episode 8 and in Episode 13 when he lashed out due to being triggered by Emilia rejecting his reasoning for his actions at the Royal Castle, which led to him talking to Emilia as if she were a doll, which she explicitly said outright in Episode 40 in case anyone was wondering otherwise.
Episode 40
Emilia: You have no idea how I feel every time I see you getting hurt because of me!
Subaru: How would I know?! I don’t even think about it! All I think about is how to look good in front of you! I’m suffering for you here! At least try to look as cute as I hoped you would!
Emilia: Don’t talk like I’m just some doll!
As we know, Subaru has serious self-esteem issues. He didn’t find worth in his own life in Episode 38 and needed an intervention from the dead Witches of Sin to see that perhaps his life is worth something after all and that people care about him. It took knowing that Patrasche dragged him out of the tomb for him to realize what he had seen in the second Sanctuary trial is true, that he has friends after all.
After all that, it does not change that Subaru has serious issues to work out. When Otto intervened after Subaru was despairing over Roswaal not calling off the mansion attack, Otto at one point put it in Subaru’s head that Emilia likes him back, and I believe that may have been another reason he came up with a confession meant to be an intervention, ’cause he wanted to help Emilia but also wanted her to understand that he loves her with the intent of that eventually being reciprocated given he was beginning to believe that people could like him back.
I know I will get some flack for saying that Subaru wanted his feelings to be accepted during his confession/intervention to Emilia, but if he didn’t, his fear of abandonment wouldn’t have been triggered, and he wouldn’t have said the toxic things he did. As Sgtcarrotop noted a number of years back, Tappei after getting Subaru to go through character development in Arc 3, immediately tested that character development in Arc 4, and Subaru once again came across looking horrifying in what he said after his fear of abandonment was being triggered again like it had been in Episode 13 since he has been clinging on to the hope that Emilia, the only one who hadn’t inflicted any physical pain on him when he first came to the world, will be his light at the end of the tunnel. Episode 40 was meant to show that Subaru still has serious issues even though they weren’t as bad as they were in Episode 13. This is backed by Subaru saying to Emilia that she should at least look as cute as he’d hoped, which showed he was hoping for a very favourable interaction.
As for why Tappei would include Subaru’s abandonment issues in this scene, one staff member who worked on Season 1 put it best when he mentioned that staff members kept trying to make Subaru look cool, but Tappei would force them to redo the scenes so that Subaru doesn’t come across as cool, likely since Tappei doesn’t intend for Subaru to be a self-insert outlet but a very flawed man who needs to work on his issues. Tappei likely included Subaru saying something toxic to give viewers the sense that Subaru still has a long way to go.
Just as there are first-degree, second-degree, third-degree, and fourth-degree burns, one’s fear of abandonment doesn’t disappear right away just like that when the fear is as deep-seated as Subaru’s, who carried significant trauma from childhood and had never formed a relationship with anybody in his life up until his summoning. Tappei is an actual competent writer, and he’s not going to handwave away Subaru’s issues like this as would be the case in many lesser works.
So yeah, I am planting my feet down firmly here that Subaru wasn’t meant to be seen as a chad or anything for finally kissing Emilia. A Reason To Believe was meant to show a man with serious self-esteem issues giving support to the woman he fancies who also has serious self-esteem issues in his own flawed way.
Oops, I meant Episode 40, A Reason To Believe.
“Tappei is an actual competent writer,”
I think that every discussion about this show has to start there. I’m glad to see how much you respect this work and its writer!
I’m glad you enjoyed my review! 😀
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