Welcome to a Crow’s eye view of the posts that caught my attention this week! How do posts catch my eye? They 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’s quality and quantity of posts is amazing. I hope this helps you find some of them!
Here’s the list of the sites I check!
Review Order
This week, I reviewed the sites in alphabetical order (A to Z).
Anime as a Cup of Tea
ID:Invaded : Intertwining Dreams and Reality ( Review )
ID:Invaded’s first episode caught my attention. I was intrigued by the characters, the fantastical world, and the core concept. Then, I just stopped watching it. You might have noticed that I’ve been saying that kind of thing a lot lately, and it’s because I’m making a conscious effort to pay attention to posts about series I didn’t finished. Otherwise, I seemed to avoid those posts for fear of spoiling a show I might later watch. But that’s really the opposite of what I’m trying to accomplish with Other Posts to Crow About. For one thing, it means I might have missed this post that reinvigorates my hope to see this series! For another, I’d miss cool posts like this one by Ethan_07 from Anime as a Cup of Tea. It not only captured the heart of the ID:Invaded’s story, but the heart of its main character, too. It’s an anime celebration twofer!
Beneath the Tangles
In/Spectre, Violet Evergarden, and Invisible Disability
I enjoyed reviewing In/Spectre. A lot of it had to do with how much I adored Kotoko Iwanaga. She’s wildly intelligent. She’s fearless. She’s literally a goddess (of wisdom!). And she’s missing one leg and one eye. Characters who have a disability, who are not defined by the disability, yet who treat the disability realistically are important to me. My son’s deaf, and though he’s fine with it, it seems some people are not. And that includes people in positions of authority who should know better. I wondered how it felt to be treated as if I were deaf, so I wore hearing aids to a retail store. Talk about experience being the best teacher! I was dismayed at what people said, thinking I couldn’t hear them. It was particularly hard not to wheel around on one couple who said particularly nasty things. Anime often does a good job exploring this topic, and this post by TWWK on Beneath the Tangles highlights two excellent examples. When all’s said and done, this post captures a critical aspect that’s seldom captured, and I was really glad to see it so clearly articulated.
Jonah’s Daily Rants
My Review Academia S4 FINALE: Burning Determination
The next time you read a review from your favorite blogger, see if you can figure out how they really feel about an episode. Watch the word choice. Watch the size of the sentences. Heck, even look for an increase in swear words that are usually missing from their reviews. For me, it’s more enjoyable to read a review when I sense the writer’s really excited about an episode. It’s even more fun when it’s about an episode I reviewed (in this case, with Irina from I Drink and Watch Anime): My Hero Academia Season 4 episode 88, “His Start.” That’s the case with this post by jernahblunt from Jonah’s Daily Rants. I got three paragraphs into the review before it dawned on me that this wasn’t an ordinary review. It was a celebration of the episode! See if you can see the transition.
Keiko’s Anime Blog
First Impressions: Gleipnir
I love reading perspectives that challenge my conclusions. I like reading posts that make me think. Did you see the first episode of Gleipnir? I did. I’m going to show my age here, but it had a strong David Lynch/Blue Velvet vibe going on. But even while part of my brain enjoyed the edginess, another wonder about some specific parts. For example, I was a bit uneasy about most of the scenes with Clair Aoki. Was the fire scene exploitative? Was she mischaracterized? Was the scene of her changing in front of Shuichi Kagaya an attempt to convict some viewers or ephebophilia, or was there a dramatic reason for it? As a guy, I’m sometimes blind to stuff like that. But not everyone’s so blind! Fortunately, there are writers like Keiko from Keiko’s Anime Blog who can explain things in a way that even I can understand. And that’s no small feat! Not only that, Keiko fit a lot of meaning in a small space. Conciseness is something I admire (and something that stubbornly eludes me). See if Keiko’s post changes your opinion about Gleipnir — or supports it!
Never Argue with a Fish
Anime Corner: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Review
This entry in Other Posts to Crow About earned itself two distinctions. First, it continues the theme of finding a post where the writer’s entire presentation glows with delight (like jernahblunt’s post, above). I love reading those reviews! They’re up-lifting. Second, the author joins a small group who convinced me to set aside my unwritten rule of not featuring the same blogger in two consecutive Other Posts to Crow About. There are, like, three others in that group, and I’ve been doing this weekly for over two years. Plus, I just love this site’s custom artwork! I’m talking about neverarguewithafish’s post on Never Argue with a Fish about Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! If you have any doubts about how wonderful that series can make people feel, or if you just want to revel in that feeling yourself, you should read this article. It’s a great antidote for our times!
Thanks for sharing my post! And thank you for your kind words! 😊
You’re welcome! Now let’s hope the next episodes live up to the show’s promise!
Thank you for including me two weeks in a row Crow! Glad you liked it so much!
You’re welcome! I liked how you captured the special spirit in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!