It’s hard to forgive. As self-focused creatures, we want to believe in a just world, one that will repay our pain with some equal kindness or justice. When we are wronged by others, when we are abandoned or let down, we don’t want to simply accept that pain as the cost of engagement. We want others to understand how much they’ve hurt us, and to give us back the hurt they’ve caused. Forgiveness means acknowledging that things aren’t fair, and that sometimes we must give more than we take, and that embracing others in spite of pain is a constant wager of sacrifice, a road on which the friction of disappointment may one day wear down the strength of our love.
Category Archives: Essay
What Makes Kyoto Animation So Special?
I wrote another big article for ANN! This one’s about KyoAni! I’m super excited about it! I am guessing that is obvious!
I took a lot of time on this one, and am very happy I was able to segue directly from watching all of K-On! into getting to work on it. Kyoto Animation do wonderful work, and it’s nice to be able to celebrate that so directly. I hope you enjoy the piece!
What Makes Kyoto Animation So Special?
Wolf Children and the Wilderness
I wish I had more interesting things to say about Wolf Children. I wish I could dedicate a spiraling essay to unpacking its secrets… but that’s not really the kind of movie it is. The film doesn’t hide anything – it’s a movie about mothers and their children, about struggling and making it through, about time and patience and joy and grief. None of these themes truly dominate the film, because the film is about the lives of a few people, and life has a lot of themes. But they work beautifully in concert, garnishing the sturdy core of a quietly perfect story.
The Many Lessons of Gatchaman Crowds
New essay time! Jeez, I’ve been spoiling you guys lately. There was a bit of a lull when I was getting used to managing my time for ANN, but now you’re getting articles on idols, articles on classic OVAs, and now an article on Gatchaman Crowds. I wrote about Gatchaman’s first season way back when it ended (jeez, that was two years now), but I think I’ve gotten a little bit better at consolidating my points since then. This isn’t a breakdown of every single thing that happens – this is a condensing of the core themes that emerge in different ways across both seasons. I hope you enjoy it, and may our lady Hajime shine upon you!
The Many Lessons of Gatchaman Crowds
Giant Robo and the Beautiful Night
A new essay has arrived! I finished Giant Robo a little while back, but it took me some time to really hammer down a piece on it. I’m happy with the result, though, and certainly happy with the show. Giant Robo is a titanic, triumphant series, a glorious melodrama that revels in old-fashioned adventure and giant robot storytelling while crafting a narrative pretty much anyone could appreciate. It’s both soulful and beautiful, full of riveting characters and gorgeous visual compositions. It’s a masterpiece, basically – you may not be the biggest fan of its style of storytelling, but it is essentially a perfect version of what it is trying to be.
My piece is up now over at ANN, so please check it out, and I hope you enjoy it!
Giant Robo and the Beautiful Night
I also wrote notes that got more and more thorough as I made my way through the series. You can check those out below!
The Intoxicating Lure of Idol Anime
No escaping it now, apparently. I’m stuck in idol hell, so I might as well document the whole process, to save future generations from this dire fate. This is a sprawling article, one that covers my experience at the Love Live! movie, my time spent with four separate idol anime, some thoughts on that whole Database, Database thing, and more besides. It’s a bit more of a personal reflection than the stuff I normally do, but I hope you enjoy it. This past year has definitely been quite a ride.
The Intoxicating Lure of Idol Anime
Monogatari is a Disaster
New article-essay thing! This one’s less of a thematic essay and more of a breakdown of why Monogatari is basically destined to be divisive, going into the various core elements that make it so weird and both repellent and appealing at the same time. It’s one of my favorite shows, but I completely understand why other people wouldn’t like it, or why other people who like it would have entirely different feelings on it even if we both “like Monogatari.” It’s quite a strange mess of a show, and that’s actually part of why I like it so much.
Anyway, I get to all that in the article. AND HERE IT IS:
The Dream of Redemption in Haibane Renmei
New essay is up! This one’s all about that fractured classic Haibane Renmei, full of rich ideas and held back by unfortunate technical issues completely outside its control. I enjoyed Haibane Renmei, but didn’t love it, and I go into all of that in my piece, so let’s get right to it!
The Dream of Redemption in Haibane Renmei
Haibane Renmei’s full of more detail than just one piece can really handle, though, so you can check out all my episodic notes below.
Growing Up is Hard to Do: Oregairu and Hachiman
Alright, big ol’ essay time! This one’s all about Oregairu, and Hachiman more specifically. I could honestly write a piece about almost any of that show’s characters, but Hachiman sits at the center, and his issues are partially reflective of everyone’s. Where his attitude comes from, how it gets expressed, how Oregairu slowly drags him forward – we’re talking about ALL OF IT today. Let’s get right to it!
“You’re Watching It Wrong”
I made a lot of people mad a little while ago. Angry forum threads, capslock responses filling up my ask.fm inbox, the whole nine yards. I even heard people were planning on emailing my editor! It was an exciting time for everyone, but I can’t say I didn’t deserve it. I did something that, if you’re truly, deeply attached to your experience of a media object, can be absolutely unforgivable.
I watched a show wrong.
