My Favorite Posts from the Anime Blogging Community
Welcome to a Crow’s eye view of the posts that caught my attention this week! These are my favorite anime blogging community posts from 2020 Week 24.
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 every week, 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 reverse alphabetical order (Z to A).
My Favorite Posts from The Week
SIMPLYMK
A Horror Noob’s Perspective of Gakkougurashi! (School-Live!)
What kind of horror gets under your skins and makes you feel the most terrified? Is it something that’s overtly part of the horror genre like Shiki or Another? Those are undeniably effective. I know some writers who speak very, very highly of either or both of those series, and for good reason. But for me, if I’m expecting the horror, it can be less effective. That’s because I can put my shields up. I’m ready for the vampire or the hidden killer. But what if you could slip in a series in that isn’t obviously horror? Well, that’s the kind of scary that gets to me. Exploration of that idea is why I so enjoyed this post by simplymk from the site SIMPLYMK. The series in question is School Live!, and if you somehow haven’t seen it yet, please do yourself a favor and watch the entire first episode, right up to the last seconds. Then, go read this post and see if the episode affected you in the same way. And if you have seen it, check out the post anyway. I had a lot of fun comparing notes!
RABUJOI
Fruits Basket – 35 (S2 10) – Squaring Off Against a God
If you read my review of Fruits Basket Season 2 episode 10 (and if you haven’t, please pretend you did — it’s been a long week!), you may have noticed two things. First, you probably noticed that Tohru impressed me. That’s not unusual, but in this episode, she crossed a metaphorical barrier into Tanjirou territory. She impressed me with the enormity of her decision, and I’ve been dying to read other reviewers’ take on it. But few bloggers have talked much about it! I was beginning to get bummed when I came across this post by magicalchurlsukui on the site RABUJOI. Not only does the post understand the point that I thought was so amazing about Tohru’s decision — it put it right in the title! Seriously, the idea practically raises the series to the level of Greek myth — but what this article has to say is more interesting than that!
Jonah’s Daily Rants
Azula: The Mad Prodigey
Was Avatar: The Last Airbender an anime series? By strict definition, no. But you know what? To me, it looks like an anime duck, walks like an anime duck, talks like an anime duck, and is animated like an anime duck. So whether it’s officially anime or not, to me it’s close enough. With the show recently premiering on Netflix, I’ve seen an uptick of posts about the series. I’m glad to see that, because I think it’s a great show. As usual, I tend to gravitate to the secondary characters, like Mai, who kinda seems like a Fire Bender version of Saki from Fruits Basket Season 2 (well, a bit of a pale echo, but can really compare to Saki?). But now I’m way off topic (though I’d like to talk more about Mai!). One of the most cool things about Avatar is one of its villains, Azula. What makes her so cool? Glad you asked, because I found this post by jernahblunt on Jonah’s Daily Rants. It’s among the best discussions I’ve ever read about Azula’s character. But don’t take my word for it! Read it for yourself and see what you think!
Jon Spencer Reviews
Anime ABC’s X is for xxxHOLiC
I celebrate anime on this site, and I I do that in part to be a force for positive in the world. But there are pros and cons to everything, and the con to my approach is that in my enthusiasm for a particular episode or series, I might suggest you watch a series that you flat out don’t enjoy. And I don’t want to do that! That why I keep an eye open for reviews that present a more balanced perspective on my absolute favorite series — especially if there’s a gap of a point or more in my My Anime List score for a series and the average. That was the case for xxxHOLiC. There’s so much I like about this series that I can’t see the negatives anymore — even when they’re pointed out! I was glad to find this post by Jon Spencer from Jon Spencer Reviews. I got a really good feeling from the review because he touched on so many of the things I liked about the series. At the same time, he wasn’t blind to some of the less endorsable moments (though to me, the animation is charming — but I can’t deny how weird the screen caps were!). Head on over to see what I mean.
I Drink and Watch Anime
Tower of God Ep.11 – Leesoo The Delicious
Adaptations are hard. Whenever I see a series announced that’s based on a light novel, or a manga, or (new to me this year!) a WEBTOON, I wonder how well the original material will translate to anime. Does the original map well to a 12 episode cour? Will they have to add filler? Hack out bits of plot or character development to squeeze it into a season? Those were the kinds of things I thought about when I saw Tower of God announced. After I started watching it, though, all of those questions went out the window. The reason? I was too busy letting the show blow me away. I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed a series so much. I could tell you what I find so enjoyable, but I found a perfect example from Irina on I Drink and Watch Anime. She reviewed episode 11. You can tell how much fun the episode was to watch not only but what she talked about, but by how she talked about it. Now, if we could just get more Yuri in the series…
I am trying to get into reading (and a bit of writing) animeblogs recently and your digest articles are helping a lot. Thank you!
By the way, would you care to recommend any specific animeblogs? I am looking for intelligent commentary, editorials, things like that.
You’re welcome!
Really, I can recommend any of the blogs that I’ve highlighted here and in previous Other Posts to Crow About editions:
https://www.crowsworldofanime.com/posts/category/other-posts-to-crow-about/
And there’s the master list that you probably saw from the introduction:
https://www.crowsworldofanime.com/posts/what-sites-do-i-read-for-other-posts-to-crow-about/
Some sites post more than others, but almost all of them have interesting posts. I hope this helps!
Thank you for including my article this week 🙂 it’s not like I don’t like the animation either, but it is distracting lol.
You’re welcome!
I hope I didn’t come across like I thought you didn’t like it! I was trying to contrast my unconditional (okay, blind!) adoration for the series with what I consider to be a more professional reviewer’s perspective.
But you know, even I had to cringe at that screen cap you had of Himawari and Watanuki. Yikes! 🙂
Haha, no worries. You didn’t come off that way, I thought I’d just clarify. Thank you once again for the compliment.
By the way, did you read my Somali review and discussion? I feel like you would appreciate it. If you aren’t interested though, that’s fine too of course.