Every week, I visit more than 205 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
The Classroom of the Black Cat and a Witch – 01 [First Look]
It’s become a familiar feeling. A new anime season has started, and I find reviews of shows I’ve never heard of — despite my preparations. Now, I can’t expect to know everything, even about a single topic. Any source I use, like LiveChart, is going to have gaps. And the time I have to read the blurbs is so limited that I’m sure I skip some. For example: I had not heard of The Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch until I read FlareKnight’s review on Anime Evo. And when you read the first sentence of the review, please do be prepared for a bit of a shock. Well, maybe shock’s not the right word. But I will say it’s not a sentence I ever expected to read! Go see what I mean!
More Post from Anime Evo
Arum Journal
Witch Hat Atelier Episode 3 Review – Her Cloak Of Flight
Let me say up front that I don’t do hype. I don’t participate in fandoms on social media at all; I only read specific Reddit threads if I’m reviewing a series, and then only after I watch the episode. So anything I say about Witch Hat Atelier is based on my reaction solely watching the anime series. I haven’t even read the manga!
Of the series, I’ll say this. Most times, I can watch a show either in viewer mode or author mode. I generally prefer the former, but if a show starts sucking, the author side takes over and learns what not to do. It also makes fun of the story.
This show? It has achieved something only a handful of other shows has: it delighted the viewer part of my brain and it enchanted the writer part. The viewer’s blown away by the engrossing animation and the authentic interaction of characters. The writer part is giddy over the story craftsmanship and gripping characters. I find myself reacting to characters and situations as if I’m there, experiencing the story. I adore that level of immersion. Trying to find it is one of the reasons I watch anime.
Who else loves this series? ecargmura from the site Arum Journal. Her opinion of the show permeates her review. And talk about reacting the the characters in a way that shows how effectively they were constructed! Just check out ecargmura’s reaction to Agott in this episode! Go see if you experienced a similar response!
More Posts from Arum Journal
Jonah’s Books & Rants
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3: Thank you, MAPPA. I’m Full.
I haven’t made it to Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1 yet. It’s not because I disliked the first season. On the contrary, I enjoyed the heck out of it. But time is a factor. And honestly, as much as I liked the first season, I needed a break from the curses. Their malevolence was too much like reading social media or watching the news. Sometimes, I need a break from the evil, you know? Be that as it may, I’m still looking forward to catching up. This post by Jonah Hunt on the site Jonah’s Books & Rants has me reconsidering my decision not to plunge forward. His enthusiasm for the season is contagious! Go see if you get the same impression!
More Posts from Jonah’s Books & Rants
Sakura Sunrise
Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Is Better Than I Dreamed
Remember when I talked about the reader versus the writer mode in my brain? The previous post appealed to the reader part of my brain. This post by thesakurasunrise on the site Sakura Sunrise took everything that appeared to my viewer, flipped it around, and explained how the show achieved it. How enjoyable and accessible was that discussion? Let’s just say the writer part of my brain got writer’s cramp from taking so many notes! I love seeing the way this post talked about how and why these creative efforts succeeded. I’ll be you will, too!
More Posts from Sakura Sunrise
Takuto’s Anime Cafe
Samurai Champloo: Serving Stir-Fry Style Entertainment 20 Years Later
Confession time: I’m not a great reviewer. This probably comes as no shock to anyone reading this blog. I have no illusions about my skills when it comes to conveying either my technical analysis of a show’s construction or my description of my emotional and intellectual reaction to it. I can handle simple shows. But there are some series that I’d like to review but simply lack the skill. One of those shows is Samurai Champloo. The show exhibits a genius that I just can’t capture in words. I can see it. But I can’t understand it well enough to put into words. That’s why I so enjoyed reading this post by Takuto on the site Takuto’s Anime Cafe. Takuto did capture the show’s genius. Made it look easy, too! It was great revisiting the series from Takuto’s perspective because he did it justice. That’s saying a lot, given the subject! Go see if you agree!
More Posts from Takuto’s Anime Cafe
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!
TCrow, I deleted the section on Patrasche and her laughing like an anime villain. I had a knowledge gap and didn’t understand there were creatures than can genuinely copy human laughter vocalization and apply it properly, so I deleted the entire Patrasche theory.
TCrow, following that, I then added a blurb about Ram and Subaru’s relationship close to the end of my write-up.
While Ram may have said that they’d use Subaru as bait and such, she clearly cares for him so much in willing to sacrifice herself for him, implying that Rem would be hurt seeing him die, and it just shows that Ram sees Subaru like a brother-in-law already even though he and Rem aren’t actually together. They do rely on each other a lot as much as Ram plays it down with her snide remarks to Subaru.
TCrow, here’s my post on Episode 69 (Season 4 Episode 3) of Re:Zero. I think this episode had all of what makes Re:Zero great with a nice lore drop to bite into, powerful potential foreshadowing, great character interactions, truly unsettling moments, and even some sweet battle animation for good measure:
https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=227
Here’s also a link to Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Episode 3, which has important content for this season:
TCrow, I updated my post to add more to my theory on Patrasche since the initial content was something I added to my post based on some inspiration since I had a strong feeling that there was more to it than just cinematic flair when Patrasche mimicked human/humanoid laughter to Subaru.
Perhaps Patrasche chose Subaru as her owner since she recognized that they are both from Earth, and more specifically, Japan. That would mean when Patrasche had gone crazy, she was deliberately taunting Subaru and messing with his mind. More to back this up is when in Episode 22, Subaru was like moving his legs all around and saying, “I know, okay?” to Patrasche, showing that she was prodding him to apologize without showing what she did to do so, perhaps through her body language, and then she let out steam from her nose to demonstrate her frustration with Subaru not admitting to how he played a part in why things went sour at the castle, so it shows Patrasche can follow human conversation well and probably body language/vibes too given it was Julius who approached Subaru, showing she recognized Julius was being earnest in trying to mend fences with Subaru.
Thanks for the link! I hadn’t realized these shorts were back.
I still have more to learn with regards to writing since I’m not that skilled, TCrow. Your highlighting that ecargmura reacting to the characters in a way that shows how effectively they were constructed shows that I have more to work to do. My favourite moment of Re:Zero Episode 68 was Subaru being motivated to not let Beatrice despair again, and that’s why he dug deeper for a solution, but I didn’t get that across in my write-up even though it was what I thought was the best moment of the episode.
I only got halfway there by talking about Beatrice’s reaction to Subaru’s injuries.
Conveying crafted spontaneity is something that completely eludes me. I tell myself it helps that I admit my shortcomings, but man, it gets annoying sometimes!
Some day, I vow to write something that makes me sit back and say, “Hey, that’s not bad!”
But yeah, right now, I’m doing the same thing you just did with Subaru and Beatrice — identify where I missed the mark and trying to come up with a way of doing better the next time!
Ooo, some of these are from bloggers I’ve never seen before! Thank you for highlighting the work of so many bloggers, so I can find more and more anime fans to be fans with!
You’re welcome! Glad I could introduce you! We might be down in terms of total number of anime blogs, but there’s seriously cool work being done every week!