My Hero Academia’s leads all got up a power up these last few weeks, which meant it was high time for one of my favorite traditions: enthusiastic tactical analysis of all their latest abilities. I friggin’ love tactics-based action shows, where battles generally adhere to some sort of internal logic, and My Hero Academia is a wonderful example of the form. Let’s get right to it!
Level Up: The Thrilling Possibilities of 1-A’s Ultimate Moves
I wonder how Togashi himself feels, moving around his hundreds of chess pieces on his massive, three-dimensional chessboard. Surely he himself has a clear ending in mind, right? How could anyone possibly have the confidence to throw this many balls into the air and start juggling, with no idea how the performance will end? Any other author would leave me certain that the Dark Continent, or at least the Succession Arc in particular, will end in unfocused, shambling tears – but this is Togashi, and he pulled off Chimera Ant, so I’ll give him as much rope as he needs. As for this volume in particular, Togashi works very hard to simplify the sprawling madness of the boat setup into three core, parallel conflicts, each of them intersecting, each of them containing within them a variety of sub-conflicts. Let’s start where the volume itself starts, and dig right in!
Alright, back from vacation and catching up on work as fast as I can. First up: damnit I totally forgot to link this week’s Crunchyroll article. As usual, I followed up the wave of premieres with a recommendation post highlighting my own favorites of the Crunchy catalog, which in this season’s case turned out to still be a pretty overwhelming number of shows. Here’s the piece!
Today I conclude my journey through the first four arcs of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and presumably get everyone prepped for the coming fifth season. I know I’m very lucky to be living in the era of an actual, committed JoJo adaptation, and at this point, it almost doesn’t feel like a proper anime season if I don’t have a JoJo to rely on. It’s been a long wait for arc five, and I’m beyond thrilled to get to it. I hope you enjoy the piece!
The Thrilling Tales of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part Two
For this week’s Crunchyroll article, I took a brief stab at articulating a few of the philosophies represented through the various factions and figures of My Hero Academia, with All Might’s spirit of supporting the public good contrasted against Stain’s fanaticism and All For One’s hedonistic self-interest. It’d frankly be nicer if My Hero Academia’s reductive positions were a little less true to life, but hey, this is the world we’ve got. Either way, there’s certainly more to dive into in the contrast between the various League of Villains members and whatnot, but this seemed like a reasonable starting point. Hope you enjoy the piece!
Why It Works: All Might Versus All For One
Moonlight is a quiet film.
I actually had to turn up my speakers just to hear the dialogue, and had to turn them up even more when, after ten minutes, our protagonist resentfully speaks his first words. He doesn’t follow those words up with too many more. Whoever else he is, Little, or Chiron, or Black, is not one for big speeches. His feelings maintain an internal smolder, clear in his downturned eyes and inward-sloping shoulders and perpetual inability to stand in the middle of the frame. Our hero is a man of big feelings afforded minimal release. There is so much there, so much contained in all his unhappy, furtive glances, so much preserved across the astonishingly congruent performances of three brilliant actors.
Look, did you think I wasn’t going to write an article celebrating Hyouka’s move to Crunchyroll? Anyway, here is my contractually obligated squealing about Crunchyroll nabbing what could well be the best television anime of all time, along with some hopefully convincing illustrations of why I’m so damn excited. Hyouka is the best, and I am thrilled that so many new people will now get to experience it. Get to it!
Kyoto Animation’s Masterpiece Has Arrived on Crunchyroll!
Today for Crunchyroll, I did a very enjoyable character profile on one of My Hero Academia’s most compelling figures. All Might is critical to My Hero Academia in a thematic and character arc sense, but he’s also just a really endearing guy who’s always fun to see on screen. I hope I properly highlighted both these fractions of All Might’s appeal, and also hope you enjoy the piece!
Everyone Loves All Might And Here’s Why!
Today I finish up my breakdown of the Joe versus Aragaki fight, covering just a few of the many smart structural and aesthetic decisions that made this fight work. The show hasn’t pulled off another episode this good since, but I’ve got plenty of faith that the last act will be a stunner. Megalo Box has just continued to impress me at every turn, and at this point it only needs to stick the landing.
Junk Dog Vs. Soldier, Part Two
Even from the cover of the first volume, it’s clear that The Promised Neverland isn’t your standard Shonen Jump property. The base art style favors delicate, almost wobbly linework and evocative scribbles over the bold splashes of black and white favored by, say, My Hero Academia or Bleach. The cover is confident in this fraying delicacy, happy to let a clearly defined spiraling staircase fade into half-imagined detail, and in doing so evoking the visual style of something like a children’s picture book. This doesn’t feel like the steady work of a Jump veteran; this feels like the first manga of a dedicated illustrator, perfectly suiting its fairy tale storytelling.