At risk of seeming like I’ve just been fluctuating between positivity and negativity these past few feature week posts, here’s my newest “hot take” on a show that a lot of people seem to like: My Hero Academia is frustratingly pedestrian when it comes to the way it’s paced. It’s honestly been quite a surprise to me as to why I even like it so much, despite it doing most everything that I’ve come to hate about the shounen genre. Continue reading
So recently, I’ve started watching the critically acclaimed Netflix series House of Cards. While only a couple episodes into the second season, I must say that it has caught my attention with an iron grip. The only thing that really competes with it this season is My Hero Academia (because Owarimonogatari is over), which could be considered a happy coincidence because it may have led me to notice some striking similarities between what are otherwise vastly different shows. When I started familiarizing myself more with tropes of the shounen genre, I didn’t expect to be applying that knowledge to much outside of anime…and yet, here we are. It appears House of Cards is more anime than I would’ve initially thought, which is fascinating in its own right, yet also mildly concerning as an intellectual. Whatever the case may be, however, I am to be certain of one thing: It is time for Cory in the House to step down, because there is a new king of anime, and his name is Frank Underwood. Continue reading
Princess Principal
Steampunk Spy Girls, a.k.a. Princess Principal, is a fascinating show that left me with a lot to think about. As stories based around espionage typically do, this anime raises a lot of questions to captivate a viewer’s interest. Throwing into play the mystery of what characters you can trust gives off an extra layer of tension, one that causes me (and audiences like me) to become extra vigilant in hopes of finding sly details and slip-ups that reveal plot twists before they happen. The knowledge/presumption of a surprise however, can often leave you open to something even more unexpected. Shows like this tend to be a game of playing with an audience’s anticipation and expectations. They want to leave you a bread trail, but certainly not an easy one to follow, throwing in a bunch of twists and turns to confuse you, and waiting until the absolute end to make clear of everything. Continue reading
Until just this last week, I haven’t binge-watched anime in roughly a year, and even then, I think I paced myself through most of Hanasaku Iroha. The last time I truly sat down and watched an entire season in one go…I can’t even recall. I hadn’t planned on getting back into the habit, but after starting one episode of both Little Witch Academia and My Hero Academia, I found myself unable to stop. Both series of similar titles had main characters that resonated with me in similar ways, and similarly made me want to root for each protagonist in such a resolute fashion. While cheering on the hero of a story isn’t an uncommon thing for me, I don’t think I’ve ever felt anywhere near this compelled before now. Continue reading
Animation talk, music and analysis: Understanding The Spectales of 'Extraordinary' | Presented by a nerd in-training
Visual Novels and Games
There Goes My Kokoro 