Seventh week of 2019 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!
100 Word Anime
What Does It Really Mean To Me To Love Anime?
Here at Crow’s World of Anime, I try hard to celebrate anime, so there are certain topics that are going to attract my attention. Take this post from 100 Word Anime. Now, you have to know by now that it’s not the topic alone that keeps my attention — grabbing my attention is important, of course, but it’s the execution that keeps me reading. Karandi drew me into the article with her topic and kept me there by sharing insights into her journey toward loving anime in a very entertaining way. I don’t want to give too much away, but the journey starts with Sailor Moon, takes a detour to The Chronicles of Riddick (?!?), bounces off Evangelion… Well, I hope I haven’t said too much, but if you read the article, she weaves it all together!
Alex’s Arena
Fantastic Females Friday: Masami Iwasawa
If you’re reading anything on this site, I’m going to guess that you’ve seen Angel Beats. If you haven’t… I just don’t know what to say! Seriously, no insult intended — but I think you’d like it if you give it a shot! Assuming you’ve seen it, if I ask you which character most resonated with you, I bet you as my readers would bring up the names of every character in the show. All of them were just that distinct, interesting, and affecting. But there was one who’s story will still pop into my mind randomly out of the blue. It’s even worse if I hear someone bump an acoustic guitar (and my daughter’s a music teacher!). When I remember Masami Iwasawa, I have to pause. Alex’s post on Alex’s Arena does a fantastic job of capturing why her story is so powerful.
Anime Bird
Review: Beyond the Boundary
No, I will not shut up about how powerful I thought Beyond the Boundary was. No, it’s not enough that I inducted it into the Caw of Fame (and it’s about time to induct another series, isn’t it? Hmmm…). I will continue to search out and bring you insightful, well-considered opinions about why you should watch and enjoy this show! This week, Anime Bird stepped up with an in-depth, insightful, and fascinating article on the show’s merits. Jayke describes watching the show years ago and wondering if it would still have the same magic? Would it hold up to the weight of nostalgia? Well, you know — you’ll have to read the article to find out!
A Girl & Her Anime
Breaking the mold?: Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Review
Do you remember the first time you watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica? I remember the early episodes drawing me in with their upbeat OP CONNECT. I remember being lulled into a false sense of safety by the cute characters and slice of life vibe. I was enchanted when Madoka told her mom that she wanted to get drunk with her when she got older. And then we get episode 3 and witness what happened to Mami. The event was so profoundly traumatic that it destroyed the original ED and switched it to the powerful and amazing Magia by Kalafina — which is in a class all by itself. Amelia at A Girl & Her Anime had been meaning to watch this show. Now she has, and what she says reminds me of why I loved this series in the first place.
Reasons to Anime
5 Reasons To Watch: The Devil is a Part-Timer!
Okay, I just want to put this out there: I am not including this post from Reasons to Anime because I’m reviewing the series. Though I’m saying that as a joke, the meaning’s serious: I’m including Casper’s post because it’s fascinating and fun to read! A good list is often fun to read, and this is definitely a good list! I’d typically encourage you to read the article to get all 5 reasons, but there’s one I just have to comment on, and it’s number 4, “The best of angry.” The article says that The Devil is a Part-Timer does a great job with angry expressions, and hoy boy! does it! Angry Emi is awesome Emi, and yes, I jknow I ust used that as an excuse to talk about Emi again. But if you want the rest of the reasons, you know what you have to do!
UEM!
Is Your Anime Illegal? The Trouble With the Miller Test
The trouble with reading a lot is that at times, it’s hard to know when I’m being alarmist (everything in the news can’t mean we’re living in 1984, can it? Oh God, maybe it can…). It also hard to know when I’ve missed the signs that we’ve already plunged into the abyss. And not the charmingly dangerous Made in Abyss abyss, either. Did you know that in some states in the USA — the “land of the free” — that you can go to jail for owning certain kinds of drawings? Drawings. Complete fabrications of imagination. JekoJeko’s post on UEM! makes two important contributions to our understanding of this situation. First, it includes a quote from Neil Gaiman, and the quote is about the most concise and lucid inditement of this insanity as anything I’ve ever read. Second, the article lays out in clear detail why the legal standard for throwing people into jail for drawings is flawed. It’s not that anyone’s defending fictional representations of exploited children. It’s that many of us take exception to a State exerting its authority arbitrarily — which is, if we’re paying attention, pretty much the anti-thesis of freedom. In the US, there’s a reason that the first amendment covers freedom of speech…
Thanks for always giving me something to read and introducing me to so many other great blogs!