So! As I first mentioned a couple weeks ago, I dump a whole bunch of words into Patreon mini-essays every month, and I figured it’d be a waste to just let those words languish in the bowels of ask.fm’s non-existent search function. Instead, I’m going to be collecting my new answers at some point during the course of a month, and also going back through the archives so you guys can actually get to see all that writing. I’ll be starting to answer October’s questions soon, but for now, here’s the whole set of answers from August. If getting a response like this sounds cool to you, my Patreon door is always open, and either way I hope you enjoy the work!
Category Archives: Discussion Response
September 2015 Patreon Roundup
Hey all! So I’ve finished answering all of last month’s Patreon questions, and figured it might be a good idea to start linking those mini-essays over here. You may remember I attempted to catalog some of my longer ask.fm answers here a while back, but I think this formatting will be a lot more manageable. I actually put a pretty significant amount of work into the questions I get, and since there’s no schedule to their release, unless you’re checking my ask.fm page consistently you’re very likely to miss a pretty thorough response. Fortunately, on my end I have all the tools I need to keep track of specific Patreon answers, so I figured it’d be good to make them a bit more available. I’ll be starting with the most recent set of answers today, and then going forward I’ll hopefully fill in the older missing ones as I catalog new months.
I’ve included links to all my specific September responses below the cut. And as always, if you’d like a question of your own answered, my Patreon is thataway. Hope you enjoy!
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan – Episode 8
The Disappointment of Haruhi Knockoff-chan continues apace this week, with a hot springs episode that has to be the most by-the-numbers hot spring episode I’ve seen in years. It takes the Haruhi pedigree to trick me into watching a show that’d even consider tossing off an episode like this – episodes that just come fresh out of the factory fully constructed, no sharp edges or rough touches of personality left to distinguish them in their endless, undying ranks. C’mon, Nagato Yuki. I’m dying here.
My full episode review is here. Notes below!
12 Days of Anime, #1: Wenge’s Christmas Song
There were a lot of lovely moments in anime this year, but my very favorite comes from my favorite new show. Ping Pong was already a tremendous show before episode five – its characters, storytelling, and aesthetics were just demolishing the competition, and Wenge himself was already its most poignant character. Cast out alone into Japan, he’d been forced to come to grips with the limits of his own talents, and his false pride could no longer make up for the fundamental loneliness of his situation. And yet Wenge rose above – instead of retreating into himself, he reached out to the teammates around him, and ended up making a new home of his exile.
12 Days of Anime, #2: Slaine Makes a Friend
Aldnoah.Zero was largely an exercise in continuously adjusting expectations. From “Urobuchi’s going to write an ambitious mecha war story!” to “Urobuchi will at least guide the writing of a mecha war story!” to “I guess Urobuchi had a week free, huh” to “jeez, this show is a sack of garbage,” it was a long, bumpy road to a point where Aldnoah would no longer offer less than it promised. Fortunately, the place Aldnoah ended up in was actually a pretty decent place to be – yeah, it’s a dumb show with a stupidly overpowered protagonist, no understanding of tone, and no actual focus, but watching Slaine get senselessly beaten on sure is funny.
12 Days of Anime, #3: Lisa Feels The Wind
There’s just something about that open road. Modern society is an inescapable monolith, and wherever you go will be just one more spot on the map, but when you’re young and hopeful and feel like freedom is a real thing, the road has a real power to it.
12 Days of Anime, #4: Hunter x Hunter Breaks Me
I’m not really much of a crier. This used to be pretty much a hard rule – basically nothing would move me to cry, regardless of how personal or how tragic. This has started to change over the last few years, starting with Katawa Shoujo and my reintroduction back into anime. And I’m actually grateful for this – my favorite media is the stuff that makes me cry, and I wish I did it more often. It happens rarely enough that I can still easily say any show that makes me cry is among my favorite shows.
Well, Hunter x Hunter made me cry. God damn did it ever.
12 Days of Anime, #5: Alien Flamenco
Of course you’d introduce an alien villain, Samurai Flamenco. Of course his name would be Alien Flamenco.
12 Days of Anime, #6: Shounen Hollywood Goes For Broke
I am well aware of the fact that I am one of maybe seven people who watched this show. I am equally aware that I never would have watched it myself if I weren’t being literally paid to do so. Maybe Shounen Hollywood knew these things. Maybe it was aware it had no audience to impress, and thus no audience to disappoint. Maybe that’s why it decided to be one of the most secretly ambitious, balls-to-the-wall concept-happy productions of the year.
12 Days of Anime, #7: Going Pro
I don’t know what I’m doing here, guys. Don’t have a goddamn idea. I started out on friggin’ reddit with a post about Nisemonogatari, and now I’m ANN’s official Monogatari analyst. That’s worth noting, right? I’m happy about how things have turned out, but am generally too stressed and busy to actually revel in it, which I guess is how this writing thing goes no matter how you’re doing? I hope?