Forty-ninth week of 2018 edition!
This is a Crow’s eye view of the posts that caught my attention this week. Typically, they’ll be posts that celebrate some aspect of anime, like strong characters, moments of beauty, or amazing worlds.
There are only two rules:
- I have to find the site to read it. I publish a list of the sites I review every week, so please do look for your site! If you don’t see it, I’d love for you to mention your site in the comments so I can add it to the list!
- Your post had to have been published during the last seven days (or so)
Remember, you can find a list of the sites I check every week here.
There’re a lot of good posts in the anime blogsphere. I hope this article helps you find some of them!
Anime Evo
To Aru Majutsu no Index III – 09
I’ve loved both the A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun series since they first aired. Of the two, the Index series is probably my favorite, because it plays with serious theological ideas. That’s something I seldom see! One thing you need to keep in mind is that the world of Academy City if pretty complex, and it’s easy to get lost. It takes an observant reviewer to keep it all straight, and guess what impressed me about this review from Anime Evo? Yep, you guessed it! The review not only keeps everything straight, it lays it out in terms even I can understand! Best of all? It offers an explanation for an incident between Touma and Misaka in this episode, an incident that didn’t make sense to me the first time I watched it. I came away from this article with greater peace of mind. How much more could I possibly ask?
Anime Herald
DOUBLE DECKER!’S TREATMENT OF TRANS CHARACTERS LEAVES LOTS TO BE DESIRED
Back on November 17, 2018, I tweeted a screen cap just a few frames away from the one in this post from Anime Herald. The shot was from episode 9 of Double Decker! Doug & Kirill when Max, dressed in a tuxedo, attended a school dance with a biologically male friend of hers who was trying, apparently for the first time, to dress in a way that matched his vision of himself. Or maybe I should saw herself. See, this is a struggle for me; I’m not sure how to use the pronouns respectfully. My tweet in November was me saying how much I appreciated Max making such a statement. But it turns out there’s a problem: I’ve often joked that I see the world from high orbit, and it’s hard for me to understand the subtleties of human interaction. I miss details, and that’s particularly hard for me when I’m trying to understand and advocate for people, because it means I can make misstatements. This post from Anime Herald does an outstanding job calmly and clearly explaining why this episode of Double Decker! Doug & Kirill really was not a good representation of the transsexual community or the issues they face. It’s no small praise when I say “calmly.” Members of this community have been under such heightened discrimination lately that many have become militant, and I can’t say I blame them. Articles like this present the perspective so well that if we get past this stage of human history, it will be because of thinking like this.
Bateszi Anime Blog
When it’s easier to pay than to pirate
Do you remember having to subscribe to a high-quality Usenet provider like Giganews and scan just the right newsgroups to find fan-subbed versions of anime — because there was literally no other way to see the majority of titles? This post from Bateszi Anime Blog remembers! As you know, the situation’s very different today, with legal streaming services making it much, much easier to subscribe and watch the anime you want! Nowadays, it’s not only easier to use legal streaming services; it’s most often cheaper! But legal streaming doesn’t cover all of the bases. This post not only (correctly, in my opinion!) celebrates legal anime streaming, it’s also honest about the one remaining sore spot.
Couch Cruisin
[Review] High School of the Dead
No, I’m not a shill for High School of the Dead. Yes, I enjoyed the show, and yes, I rewatch it from time to time (more than I care to admit!). But I’m only going to highlight a post praising the show if I think it’ll be interesting to you! And this article is interesting. Couch Cruisin’s post contained one sentence that confirmed we were on the save wavelength: “Cool, calm, and collected Saeko is a beast with a katana. She’s my favorite character.” Saeko isn’t so much best girl as she is best goddess, but now I’m off topic. This article’s best trait is that it’s a great capsule summary of why you might like High School of the Dead. If you still haven’t decided to watch this show, or if you already watched it and want to see if Couch Cruisin liked the same things you did, check out the article!
Edgy Anime Teen
AOTY – Planet With’s Intro (pt. 1)
If you’re followed my blog very long, you’ll know that I really liked Planet With. Quite a lot, in fact. Would I say it’s a solid candidate for Anime of the Year (AOTY)? Well, after reading this post from Edgy Anime Teen, I think the answer’s a resounding yes! What I like about this post is that on one hand, it identified a lot of the things I loved about the show. On the other hand, it talks about even more things! The show has the dramatic and thematic depth to inspire a lot of fascinating conversations, as this article shows so well.
Your’s is the first anime blog to link mine since I’ve come back to writing. I really appreciate the support. As it goes, I subscribed to your RSS feed a few weeks ago. Please keep up the great work!
Thanks — appreciate the feedback and thanks for subscribing!
Some folks have reported problems with the feed, and I’m working on it. Apologies in advance if you experience any issues!
I appreciate the shoutout! I like Saeko. That Rei is trouble in a skirt!
And Rei had her chance, too!