Welcome to my favorite anime community posts, Other Posts to Crow About, for 2020 Week 52!
Every week I look for posts that celebrate amazing moments in anime or otherwise blow me away with their wit and charm. I check hundreds of sites, and I can tell you that the ani-blogging community constantly produces a ton of amazing posts. I hope this list helps you find some of them!
Here’s the list of the sites I check!
Review Order
This week, I reviewed the sites in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A).
My Favorite Anime Posts from 2020 Week 52
Random Curiosity
Winter Preview 2021
Four times a year, we say goodbye to the previous season and hello to the next. As a blogger who mostly reviews seasonal anime, this is a hectic time for me. It’s also dangerous: If I choose a series I hate, I’ll be stuck reviewing it for at least the first cour. Worse, if my readers hate it, I’ll be stuck publishing reviews that no one reads. So, I try to do my research. Fortunately, I had help — posts like the one I’m about to celebrate! If I think trying to pick the shows to review takes time, try creating a seasonal preview. That takes even more time! I have tremendous respect for anyone who even attempts it. And while I’ll say that many blogs provide insightful and helpful previews, the one that consistently provides the most comprehensive and in-depth coverage is from the team at Random Curiosity. Winter 2021 is no exception. If you’re wondering what’s coming in the new season, this is the post for you. Heck, even if you know what’s coming, you may find a few surprises here. I know I did!
Otaku Nuts
The Scene We all Needed in 2020
Crow’s World of Anime is all about celebrating amazing moments in anime, because there’s a real power in those moments. Like the peak expressions in any art forms, these moments can help us understand an idea in a new way. They can help us see the world from someone else’s perspective. Best of all, in the context of the damage 2020 has brought us, these moments can uplift us. Shiggins from Otaku Nuts wrote about one such moment from My Hero Academia season 4. Did you watch the series? Do you remember the character named Eri? She suffered terribly at the hands of Kai Chisaki/Overhaul, and Izuku Midoriya/Deku and Mirio Toogata/Lemillion fought hard to save her. Fighting, though, wasn’t enough — they needed help. This post captures a moment that not only helped Eri, but might help some of us feel a little better about life. The moment felt very uplifting, but don’t take my word for it. Read what Shiggins has to say!
DOUBLESAMA
WANDERING WITCH: THE JOURNEY OF ELAINA
There’s a mystery I eventually want to solve, if I ever get time. Why in the world do I feel like I have to defend a series that I’ve enjoyed? Is it some kind of tribal thing? Some hard-wired behavior that made sense when we were small, huddled communities, but not so much when we’re the planet’s apex predator? I fully support the idea that folks can have whatever opinion they want about anything they want. So why do I feel this pressure to defend series like Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina? Someday I’ll figure it out, but for now, I’ll turn it around. I’m going to celebrate a post by Doublesama from the site DOUBLESAMA. It’s not that this post effusively praises the show. It’s that this post gets what the show was about and gives credit where credit’s due (IMHO). It also identifies a fantastic choice for favorite character.
BENEATH THE TANGLES
12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 12: Toradora
There’s something about Toradora that elevates it above other rom-coms. It even elevates its Christmas episodes above other anime Christmas episodes. It’s a combination of the show’s foundational themes and its balanced, well-realized characters. These are on full display in episodes 18, “Underneath the Fir Tree,” and episode 19, “Christmas Eve Party,” which are my favorite Christmas episodes of any series, any medium. I’d like to describe how it hits all the right notes, but instead of doing that, please let me direct your attention to the post by TWWK on BENEATH THE TANGLES. This post captured exactly what made these episodes so great. I particularly liked the examples it used of Minori Kushieda, Taiga Aisaka, and Ryuuji Takasu. See if this post captures the spirit of the season for you.
Anime Feminist
Misato Katsuragi lives an existential millennial nightmare
What is it about an anime series makes it memorable 25 years after it debuted, while some series are forgotten even during their first run? More specifically, what is it about Neon Genesis Evangelion that still inspires articles and blog posts 25 years after it came out? Saying there’s no single answer would be an understatement. The series, after all, has taken its place among great works of modern literature, and there seem to be as many answers as to why as there are scholars and researchers. Rather than focus on academic perspectives, though, I’d like to celebrate this post by Anthony Gramuglia on Anime Feminist. It focuses on Misato Katsuragi, one of the critical characters in the series, and talks about her life and struggles through the lens of the experience of millennials. As the father of someone in that category, I can attest that the perspective here is absolutely accurate. It also a sobering realization about celebrating amazing moments in anime: Not all such moments are up-lifting. Sometimes we can only see the light by acknowledging the dark.
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!
