So Ginko really is a criminal-bear after all. I’m definitely a fan of how knowing she watched Sumika die (or “die”) complicates her character. It was a heartless act, and clearly reflective of how selfish her interpretation of love is, but it’s far from an irredeemable action. Ikuhara shows are full of characters with selfish or violent streaks that are nonetheless also full of humanity, and it wouldn’t be satisfying to see characters triumph if they didn’t start off in positions of great personal weakness. Ginko and Kureha each have their own forms of weakness, and with so much of Yuri Kuma’s worldbuilding secrets already revealed, I’m hoping the second half will spend some time building each of them back up. Let’s get to the gao gao.
Author Archives: Bobduh
I’m Creating a Patreon!
Hey guys! Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming, but I just now established my Patreon, and figured you should probably know. The Patreon itself lays out what’s going on, but basically, if you’d like to support my work and help me both continue and get working on new projects, now there’s a way to do it! I appreciate any support you could offer, and either way I hope you continue to enjoy my work. Stay Justice, everyone!
Cross Game and My Father
I’ve never been much of a sports guy.
Shocking, I know. Somehow, my appreciation of boys kicking or throwing various projectiles could never quite match my love of writing, videogames, and Japanese cartoons. I stayed inside, I played Zelda, I chortled while talking about the “jocks” playing sportball. I was above all that.
Log Horizon II – Episode 19
The kids are killing it! This week’s episode easily topped last week’s already great conversations, with Tohya’s feelings on his place in Elder Tale being sharply highlighted by the fatalistic philosophy of the Odyssey Knights. Grim revelations and big character shifts and at least four contrasting parties (the kids, the knights, the Minami faction, and Roe 2) made for a heavy and solidly rewarding episode. My writeup ran long without even really digging into a full contrast of Log Horizon’s competing philosophies on the value of gaming and validity of this world in a personal sense – this show is now competing directly on SAO’s turf, and that’s always an interesting conversation. Much that was built up was resolved this week, but I’m still excited to see whatever next episode brings. We might even get some actual animation!
Nah, just kidding. But there’s definitely plenty to look forward to anyway.
My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!
Parasyte – Episode 18
And Tamiya’s story comes to an end. This episode was somewhat hampered by the aesthetic neutrality that’s weakened Parasyte all along, but its conclusion was strong enough narrative-wise that I couldn’t really complain about that. The anime is making me want to reread the manga – apparently we’re losing a lot of character texture, and the strongest thing here is the base material. But a great source adapted poorly can still be a pretty good show, and that’s where we’re at now.
My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!
Winter 2015 – Week 5 in Review
Aw jeez, we’re nearing the halfway point already? This season and year are going way too fast, and all I’ve got to show for it is all this writing about cartoons. This was a fine week in anime, and it seems the various tiers for this season are pretty established at this point, even though it’s hard to directly compare many of the shows I’m watching. Maria the Virgin Witch is excellent, but shares almost nothing in common with most of my other shows. Shirobako is fantastic, but how do I compare what it does to something like Yuri Kuma Arashi? Fortunately, I’ve long since learned comparisons and evaluations are a sucker’s game – I’m happy just to enjoy the good in the many shows I’m watching.
Also next week I’m gonna rank them anyway because it’s tradition, but that’s besides the point. Let’s run ’em down!
Yuri Kuma Arashi – Episode 6
Here we are again. Five episodes in, and we’ve finally got both Lulu and Ginko’s personalities solidly established. Lulu’s driven by guilt over her brother’s death to the point of self-sacrifice, making a martyr of herself and assuming Ginko’s goals as her own. Ginko is in lust with Kureha, driven by a combination of a desire to “return to the love she once gave her” and something that seems a good bit more carnal. In spite of the strength of her feelings, they don’t really seem driven by any kind of understanding of the current Kureha – she wants to possess her, yes, but this doesn’t seem much like the love Kureha has lost. Kureha herself is in all kinds of turmoil, with only her own conviction to trust in. With Ginko in a moment of possible vulnerability, we might finally be moving towards a moment of greater honesty for both of them. Let’s watch some bears!
Log Horizon II – Episode 18
As I mention in my piece, this episode of Log Horizon was noteworthy mainly in that it managed to make one of Log Horizon’s general weaknesses into a strength – for once, the emotional problems of the younger set were actually handled with some real sensitivity. The unusually frank and extended nature of this episode’s core conversations really helped in returning a sense of humanity and consequence to the feelings of these characters, which I’d say made this actually superior to just another episode that simply avoided the problem of making these characters compelling for their own sake. And also it’s just nice to see Isuzu and Rudy being really cute together.
My full ANN post is available here. Episode notes below!
Rolling Girls – Episode 5
I felt kinda mixed on this episode of Rolling Girls, and it’s a little hard to describe why, because my biggest problem here was that the beats of this story just didn’t land in an emotional sense for me. The scenes all came in the right order, but they just felt a little too rote – I’m not quite there with Himeko at the moment. The actual story being told is a nice one, though – the rival family narrative and the father-daughter relationship narrative work very well together, there were still plenty of nicely surreal details, and the overall piece is certainly reflective of Rolling Girls’ coming-of-age focus. This was an episode I wanted to like more than I actually liked it, which I guess is still a good sign?
My full ANN piece is available here. Notes below!
Valvrave the Liberator, Season One – Review
Yeaaaa Valvrave. I had a lot of fun with this one, as I hope is clear in my review. I couldn’t get in all my favorite ridiculous quotes and moments, but Valvrave offers so many that it’d be impossible not to miss some. I also get in some discussion of narrative tension and plot twists that somewhat echoes my earlier post on the subject. The one interesting thing I couldn’t find time to mention was the show’s focus on social media as a form of power – I liked how consistently Valvrave returned to that idea, but since it didn’t really go anywhere and didn’t directly play off any of the other stuff I talked about, I couldn’t find a way to gracefully include it in the review. And the review was long enough as it is – this is close to my longest piece for ANN, actually.
My full ANN review is available here. If you want the loose notes that actually get to revel in Valvrave’s silliness, they’re below!