Every week, I visit about 215 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 Hanabi
Angelic Layer Episode 5
I don’t get people. That’s nothing new; in fact, it’s even more core to my being than me having a backlog. But I don’t get why people do the things they do. For example, Stellantis recently introduced the Hurricane in-line six cylinder engine to the Ram 1500 pickup truck. It has more horse power than the Hemi V8. It has more torque. The Hurricane even accelerates to 60 MPH much, much faster. Yet, if you read online comments, it seems that some men think that without the V8 sound, the engine is emasculated.
In essence, they are saying that the form of power (its sound) is more important than power itself. That’s just weird.
That brings me tomomomanamu’s review of Battle Doll Angelic Layer on the site Anime Hanabi this week. I really enjoyed momomanamu’s description of how the main character, Misaki, approached her first battle. She did so the same way I would have — in other words, she made Angelic Layer equivalent decision to take a Hurricane to a fight while being surrounded by Hemi fans. And guess how she did? Well, you don’t have to guess after you read the review!
More Post from Anime Hanabi
Anime Herald
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth and its Parallels with Present-Day Censorship
There’s a reason I can’t watch Orb. The series is apparently breath-taking — well-crafted on multiple levels. But it portrays events that utterly enrage me. I’m not talking, “Why, this makes quite cross.” It’s more like “Were I a divine being, I would hit the Sol system with the equivalent of GRB 221009A (gamma ray burst).” That would, I think, reduce Earth to its component atoms. It’s a cosmic CTRL-ALT-DEL.
You’ve heard “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” You might not have heard the closely related, “And those who do know history are doomed to watch the first group repeat it. Again and again. And again. Because of that first group!” Looking around myself at the falling state of my country, knowing it was all avoidable, provokes a level of frustration that I, a novel writer, cannot articulate. I mean, for God’s sake, I called out the bad behavior of the presidential candidate in 2015 in my Concrete Revolutio review.
Did no one in power read that review? (Yes, that was sarcasm. Or a pathetic attempt at humor.)
Okay. Before my blood pressure blows out some arteries in my brain, I’d better move on. Art can often step up and fill in the gaps where history fails. And if it can be entertaining at the same time, then bonus! It’s in that frame of mind that I read this review by Kyli Rodriguez-Cayro on the site Anime Herald. No matter what anyone says, all art has a political dimension. Saying it doesn’t or shouldn’t is itself a political statement. This post shows a keen understanding of that idea. What’s more, it has a precise understanding of the lessons that Orb taught us — in an entertaining, and therefore an effective, way. Go check out what Orb was trying to say!
More Posts from Anime Herald
Merlin’s Musings
Okitsura: Just a Spoonful of Comedic High School Romance Helps the Tourism Advertisement Go Down
I’m kinda glad this review is of a show like Okitsura: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl, but I Just Wish I Know What She’s Saying. If I read many more posts like the first two I’ve celebrated here, I might lose containment. Probably not, but who knows? And why risk it?
Merlin, on his site Merlin’s Musings, continued his streak of Finding Yet More Cool Shows That Crow Hasn’t Had Time to Watch (FYMCSTCHHTTW — which isn’t at all a cool acronym, so I’ve no idea why I included it). This week, he found Okitsura, which he then proceeded to make sound like a delightful cross of comedy, romance, and tourism commercial. I already said “delightful,” and that’s a pretty strong hint of Merlin’s opinion. But please head over and enjoy the post in spite of my inability to be subtle!
More Posts from Merlin’s Musings
MIB’s Instant Headache
Anime Review – Spy Classroom Complete Collection
I tried to watch Spy Classroom when it first came out. I tried to enjoy it. But there were a few specific things that really bugged me about it. And guess what? MIB, on the site MIB’s Instant Headache, just reviewed the series — and he enumerated, in exact detail, my concerns about the first season! It was like he read my mind or something. Which could not have been a pleasant experience for him… But even better, he reviewed both seasons, and his conclusions have made me re-evaluate my position on the show. What did he say that would make me do something like that? You know what you have to do to find out!
More Posts from MIB’s Instant Headache
Shallow Dives in Anime
Street Fighter 2: The Movie: Sweep the Leg
Adapting video games into any other medium like anime has a, let’s say, spotty record. In fact, I can only think of one or two adaptations that succeeded. Though in all honesty, such a measure of subjective and would require thoughtful, reasoned discussion. Which, interestingly enough, is exactly what Dewbond gave us on the site Shallow Dives in Anime. He talked about the movie Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and how it compared to the video game. Did it succeed where so many other adaptations failed? Well, whether it did or not, you know Dewbond will tell it like it is! Go find out what he thought!
More Posts from Shallow Dives in Anime
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?
- The Afictionado: In the Blurry Sunlit Day: January ’26 Roundup
- Anime Feminist: Weekly Round-Up, 28 January – 3 February 2026: Emergency Contraceptives, Gunpla Girls, and Crunchyroll Price Increases
- Lesley’s Anime and Manga Corner: Anime Blog Posts That Caught My Eye This Week (February 6, 2026)
- Phoenix Talks Pop Culture Japan: January 2026 Monthly Favorites
Yay! I’m so glad you liked my review. Honestly, I was a little nervous posting it as is. I don’t really like posting negative reviews, or admitting that I don’t really like that actions of core characters in an anime. But I just really felt that the main character Misaki, made a smart decision and shouldn’t have been punished for it.
FWIW, I didn’t interpret your review as negative at all! You stuck up for Misaki, and I think that’s a testament to the writer’s skill. So, I interpreted it as a good thing.
You mentioning smart decisions getting punished made me realize that of all the things I witnessed in corporate America, that might be the thing that bugged me the most. Most often, at least. It happens so much I can’t believe some companies are still in business.
Just thinking about the amount of suppressed creativity makes me tired.
Once again I am humbled by your kind words and inclusion in this esteemed list. Thanks also for the follow back on Bluesky! 😉
You’re welcome! So far, Bluesky reminds me of what Twitter used to be — you know, when it was fun! I hope it lasted longer than Twitter did.
Renaissance historian Ada Palmer (she’s also a historian of anime & manga!) points out that putting Galileo to trial made him more famous, and if the goal was to shut him up they could have quietly had him killed (Renaissance Italy- easy as pie) or do a smear campaign.
Instead the goal was to create a chilling effect on everyone else.
“The condemnation also frightened Descartes into not publishing a newly-completed radical treatise, which he then revised heavily to be much more orthodox and Catholic. The condemnation “succeeded” in preventing the publication of Descartes’s ideas, and those of numerous others who decided to self-censor out of fear. This led to one of the project’s conclusions: the majority of censorship is self-censorship, but the majority of self-censorship is intentionally cultivated by a censoring authority.”
She also writes about more recent topics:
“…publishers of comics centering Black heroes such as Black Panther suddenly found that the Comics Code Authority censorship process was being much more picky about their Black characters than their White characters, declaring things even as mild as a drop of sweat on the forehead of a Black astronaut as “too graphic” since it “could be mistaken for blood.” This resulted in grueling extra work and perennial delays for such titles, pressuring comics companies to depict fewer Black heroes.”
As I learned about some of the events you mentioned (it was actually after college — and my degree was in theology), it occurred to me that the tactic of censorship represents a profound lack of faith. Consider: if one has faith in the truth, why resort to tactics like that? Truth’ll win out based on it being truth.
I remember encountering the comics code for the first time. I followed the X-Men, and they had to go without approval for one of the Phoenix saga climatic issues because of violence. It was quite controversial at the time. That was when I looked into why the comics authority was a thing. It helped me understand that any attempt to censor is pretty much a bad thing.
I’ve been thinking a lot about censorship. Especially self-censorship. I wonder why?
But seriously, I’m afraid that years from now, someone, in the comments somewhere, will refer to the WSJ or CBS or other entity from 2026 in the same way you referenced Descartes. And I find that really, really depressing.
TCrow, that Anime Herald review on Orb: On the Movements of the Earth is indeed a fantastic read.
I do believe most art indeed has a political dimension, and I’m still pissed at the misogyny directed at Kana in Oshi no Ko Episode 28, which even goes into how bad online mob can get regarding a female idol, and then these people who self-insert into the shoes of the protagonist, Aqua, basically mob Kana online for acting in a way that is congruent with her trauma instead of being in-tune with Aqua’s emotional state. My post on that didn’t talk about the mobbing, but after seeing your take about how most art having a political dimension, maybe I should’ve done so since it was still relevant to the show in that the people mobbing Kana online don’t see how the mangaka was directly criticizing their behaviour and how they have no self-awareness.
It’s hard to advise anyone to take a position — political or otherwise. Trolls are on a hair-trigger, and sometimes, they go above and beyond with doxxing or swatting. On the other hand, I wrote a novel with a female POV character. A reviewer freaked out over that. So, taking a political or not, you could get attacked.
I guess what I’m saying is that I’d prefer folks just say what they think. We need to figure out how to rebuild civility, but whether we do or not, if everyone with am informed position stays silent, things can’t get better.
I won’t say you “should” have. That’s your call. But reasonable political discussion is something the world needs more of.
Thanks for highlighting these blogs! Didn’t know about them till now. 😁
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found more sites to read!