Every week, I visit almost 200 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!
Hanime on Anime
Finding God in Orb
I want to watch Orb. I really do. But I need to get into the right frame of mind first. I’ve discovered that there are emotions too strong to describe — rage among those. I can’t stop carrying a grudge from something that happened over 800 years ago (assuming that the Inquisition started around 1184). And don’t get me started on what Constantine did about 300 CE! That bastard… So, I think you can probably see why watching Orb isn’t the best idea for me right now. Not with things being what they are in the USA right now (“History? We’ve never heard of it. Surely a theocracy will be just fine! By the way, what’s an ‘inquisition?'”).
Fortunately, Hanime on Anime, from the site Hanime on Anime, apparently has a better handle on things than I do. She was not only able to write about Orb and place it in its historical context. She was able to do it was subtlety and grace. What’s more, I detected absolutely no hint of sarcasm or innuendo! I mean this honestly: not only did what she write give me a bit of hope for the future. That she wrote it did, too. What kind of post could elicit such a reaction? Head on over and find out!
More Post from Hanime on Anime
Kvasir369
Witch Hat Atelier – Episode 8 Review
Something bothered me, quite a lot, when I watched this episode of Witch Hat Atelier. Since I’ve already seen the next episode, and since episode 8 was more than an hour and a half ago (apparently, the maximum length of time that my short term memory retains under stress), I’d forgotten about it. But not only did Kvasir369, on the site Kvasir369, address the bothersome issue up front. He also traced the implications of witch culture on that world’s wider civilization! It’s a great sign for a story to withstand that kind of scrutiny — in fact, Witch Hat Atelier seems to invite it! Just what form did that scrutiny take? You know how to find out!
More Posts from Kvasir369
Merlin’s Musings
These “Polar Opposites” Are SO Much Fun!
I started watching You and I Are Polar Opposites, and I quite liked it. I might have finished it, too, if it weren’t for that stupidly good Apothecary Diaries! It’s that darned Maomao and her delightfully cunning mind. And we can’t forget Gyokuyou and her deft touch with palace politics! Well, anyway, yes, I will finish You and I Are Polar Opposites for a number of reasons. Instead of me going on and on about what those reasons might be, please let me direct you to this post by Merlin on Merlin’s Musings. In his typical entertaining and enlightening way, Merlin makes it clear why the show’s so much fun to watch. Even if you’ve already seen it, you’ll get a kick out of reading this review!
More Posts from Merlin’s Musings
MIB’s Instant Headache
Anime Review – When Will Ayumu Make His Move
From one romantic comedy to another! MIB, on his site MIB’s Instant Headache, tackled the series When Will Ayumu Make His Move?. What I liked about this review was that not only did MIB wrote something that was fun to read. He also also gave me a clear idea of what the series was, and what it wasn’t. Without giving anything away, after reading MIB’s post, I have a sense that part of the show might be a bit of a let down, but it is still very likely worth watching! In fact, going in knowing that will set my expectations such that I’ll enjoy it a lot more than I would have going in blind. See if you have a similar reaction!
More Posts from MIB’s Instant Headache
Thorough Watch
Re:Zero Episode 74 (Season 4 Ep. 8) + Relevant Break Time Ep. Analysis + Important Details
I watched the latest episode of Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 4 (shockingly, I’m more or less keeping up with this season!), and it kicked me square in the teeth — in the best way possible. In the earlier seasons, Subaru’s pathos set this series apart from the other Isakei series by grounding it. While I enjoyed seeing Subaru grow — whoops! I almost started reviewing it! See, the show had impressed me so much I was going to start reviewing it on my own! Instead of subjecting you to that, please let me direct you to anicritic’s review on the site Thorough Watch. How much did this review live up to that site’s name? Let’s just say that I caught a ton of references and hints in this episode — and that was no more than a third of what anicritic caught! Go see if he talks about what you saw in this episode!
More Posts from Thorough Watch
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TCrow, here’s my write-up for Episode 75 (Season 4 Episode 9) of Re:Zero: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=288
There’s a lot of interesting things to chew on this episode. What an episode.
Subaru’s going through the wringer again — peak Re:ZERO!
Indeed, this is Re:Zero at its finest.
I also forgot to include something in my write-up, and as I don’t know when you may have read it, I’m posting my edit here regarding the odds of Meili having pushed Subaru to his death twice going up significantly after this episode.
“Subaru without his memories is basically the one who killed Meili’s big sister, Elsa, rather than a big brother figure, so it’s not a surprise she wants to kill him right now since their relationship is basically starting again from zero.”
There’s something going on with Meili. I think the episode made it clear! I’m really looking forward to finding out what (unless it’s a red herring!).
I also realized just now that I forgot one possibility for what could’ve happened between Subaru and Meili that didn’t include disassociation, and that would be that Meili had both her name and memories eaten like Rem did with Meili being up and about while being remembered by others being conditional on a Gluttony wielder possessing someone who’d been completely erased resulting in that person being remembered while being possessed. Thus, Rui could have been going back and forth between Meili and Subaru, resulting in both of them going in and out of consciousness as Meili goes back and forth between struggling for dear life and going back into suspended animation like Rem is. And all of that could’ve been due to deliberately troll Subaru according to Rui’s Gospel since Witch cultists follow whatever they say. I am adding this to be write-up now.
TCrow, here’s a theory on Shaula likely lying about there being no fifth rule she has to follow to protect the Pleiades Watchtower: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=285
TCrow, here’s another Re:Zero theory on the limits of the Authority of Gluttony and my belief that Subaru doesn’t have any innate resistance to Authorities: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=281
Thanks for the mention.
You’re welcome! I’m enjoying your coverage of Witch Hat Atelier!
Thank you once again for the inclusion and kind words! 🙂
You’re most welcome!
Ooo, some more good posts to read! Your reading recommends are always interesting. I’ve found so many great bloggers to follow just by checking out your shout out posts!
I’m really glad to hear that — thanks for letting me know!
Thanks for the shout-out, TCrow. I appreciate it.
You’re welcome! It was an insightful read!
Orb has an interesting frame- heliocentrism passing from person-to-person in a tenuous thread, and things turn out badly for most of them.
It’s interesting to see how religion is treated in anime, since less than 2% of the population is affiliated with Christianity. The most obvious is more stories that avoid polar good vs evil.
Given the 2% figure, it strikes me that the view is “from the outside,” so to speak. It’s a less biased view than we might get otherwise, if such a thing is possible when dealing with people and religions. Everyone seems to believe in something, even if that something is nothing.
I guess my point is I enjoying thinking about their perspective, especially, as you said, they avoid the polar extremes.