Today on ANN, I offer just a few more words on last season’s Kemono Friends. It’s been a fun show to discuss through the season, offering unique points of critique in both its strengths and weaknesses. Many shows are just generally polished or generally crummy, but Kemono Friends’ strange, imbalanced qualities kept it interesting all along the way. I hope you enjoy the review!
You can check out my piece over at ANN.
The Magic School Bus popped up on Netflix, so in a fit of nostalgia I watched the first episode. It was pretty awesome, but also just solid even outside of the nostalgia.
I think we often fail to remember that storytelling for children can still be just damn good storytelling. You can still have vivid characters, personalities bouncing off of each other in logical ways, structured arcs, and proper episodic plots that also impart educational knowledge in an interesting way, integrated to the story.
I’ve been experiencing something similar with books, where juvenile fiction is ruthlessly functional, leaner and meaner for it. It’s harder for most writers to write for kids, because they’re a much less forgiving audience to indulgence.