Category Archives: Essay

Why It Works: What Does It Truly Mean to Be “Over 9000?”

Posted on by

I had a whole lot of fun with this week’s Why It Works article, as it fell into one of my favorite categories of criticism: thorough explorations of seemingly trivial cinematic moments. In this case, the inescapable “it’s over 9000” meme from Dragon Ball Z, a meme whose resonance and enduring nature seems to me to be a natural result of how it articulates the dramatic recalibration from the original Dragon Ball to the more self-serious Z. But enough explaining the article, let’s just get to it!

What Does It Truly Mean to Be “Over 9000?”

Why It Works: What Are Your Favorite Musical Cues in Anime?

Posted on by

This week on Why It Works, I dug into the power of a great musical cue, something I personally am an absolute sucker for. Nearly all of my favorite moments in anime take strong advantage of a impactful music drop; music possesses an ability to immediately evoke an emotional state like few other art forms, and can hit us on a level that entirely bypasses conscious, reasoned response. I greatly enjoyed writing this one, and hope you have a nice time reading it too. Let’s get to it!

What Are Your Favorite Musical Cues in Anime?

Here’s Five Sights You Won’t See Anywhere But Symphogear!

Posted on by

This week’s Why It Works is all about Symphogear, because it’s never a bad time to talk about Symphogear. Actually, the truth is that my recent reader-funded posts on Symphogear’s fourth season have simply reminded me how awesome and absurd this series is, and so I felt the urge to write some more general hype for this fantastic series. Let’s celebrate some of the more absurd highlights of the incomparable Symphogear!

Here’s Five Sights You Won’t See Anywhere But Symphogear!

Flowers, Expectations, and the Perils of Interactive Fiction

Posted on by

I had a variety of subtopics in mind for my return to Flowers, and we’ll probably get to a few of them, but at the moment, I can only really feel one strong emotion towards this game: resentment. There are many unique dramatic tricks only made possible by interactive art; but at the same time, there are just as many potential dramatic hurdles, and ways in which your narrative trajectory can be contradicted by your gameplay options. For many games, this disconnect is most apparent in their treatment of violence – characters will torture themselves over difficult moral questions in cutscenes, and then we’ll return to controlling them, and happily murder hundreds of people. In Flowers’ case, it came in a different, but equally frustrating form: a blunt and unexpected fail state.

Continue reading →

Why It Works: Here’s Why You Absolutely Need to Catch Up on My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU!

Posted on by

With the summer season nearly upon us, this week’s Why It Works ended up being unsurprisingly dedicated to singing the praises of Oregairu, one of my very favorite anime, and one of the first shows I fell in love with as someone actively writing about anime. Oregairu’s first season was excellent and second season phenomenal, and if you haven’t actually seen it, you’ve still got a few weeks left before its finale season begins. GET TO IT!

Why You Absolutely Need to Catch Up on My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU

Why It Works: What Anime Should You Check Out After Avatar: The Last Airbender?

Posted on by

With the spring season largely cancelled by COVID, the anime-adjacent thing I’ve most enjoyed recently has undoubtedly been the utterly fantastic Avatar: The Last Airbender. And fortunately, with Avatar having recently gone up on Netflix, this was also the perfect time to recommend anime mirroring a variety of its many strengths. I kinda regret I didn’t fit in a “fully articulated character arcs” segment, but there’s probably only so many times I can recommend March comes in like a lion and Monogatari before someone starts yelling at me. Mushishi will have to do this time!

What Anime Should You Check Out After Avatar: The Last Airbender?

Why It Works: Why You Absolutely Need to Check Out Pokemon: Twilight Wings!

Posted on by

As is often the case for Why It Works posts, the title says it all here. The new Pokemon shorts they’ve been producing to promote Sword and Shield are phenomenal, blessed by a terrific core team and the freedom to seemingly tell any sort of vignette within Sword and Shield’s universe. They’re a fantastic collection, and they’re each only about six minutes, so there’s not much excuse to check them out. But if you still need convincing, here’s my article!

Why You Absolutely Need to Check Out Pokemon: Twilight Wings!

Why It Works: Let’s Celebrate the Birthday of A-1 Pictures!

Posted on by

Welp, it’s A-1 Pictures birthday, and I think you all know what that means: time to shamelessly plug every single artistically interesting thing they’ve ever been involved with, and hopefully trick some unsuspecting young anime fans into broadening their aesthetic horizons. In spite of lacking any overarching artistic vision or creative mandate, A-1 Pictures have produced some terrific shows over the years, and I was happy to celebrate them once more. Let’s get to it!

Let’s Celebrate the Birthday of A-1 Pictures!

Why It Works: How Princess Connect! Re:Dive Captures the Spirit of Konosuba!

Posted on by

The title pretty much says it all with this one! Featuring the same director and a variation on the same premise as Konosuba, Princess Connect feels like a direct spiritual successor to Takaomi Kanasaki’s last comedy hit, and also just a great time in general. I actually kinda prefer Princess Connect’s more slice of life-oriented tone to Konosuba’s harsher comedy, but they’re both excellent productions, and comparing them gave me plenty to talk about. Let’s get to it!

How Princess Connect! Re:Dive Captures the Spirit of Konosuba!

Why It Works: Fighting With Impact: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter’s Nen System

Posted on by

With the already-limited spring season now experiencing a necessary wave of delays and cancellations, my Why It Works columns are at last able to assume their final form: weekly odes to Hunter x Hunter, each column celebrating a different aspect of its collective majesty. Alright, that’s probably not actually going to happen, but I really could write about Hunter x Hunter’s excellence forever, and I was happy to ramble about the nen system this week. Let’s get to it!

Fighting with Impact: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter’s Nen System