Beautiful Bones – Episode 10

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Welp, this was definitely another episode of Beautiful Bones. I’m guessing I’m talking to myself at this point, because I can’t imagine anyone else has stuck with this show through ten tedious episodes. Not really sure what I can talk about even in that case, though. I went to a Get Up Kids concert on Tuesday – that was pretty great. I’d expected more of a balanced setlist covering their whole career, but I can’t really complain about them heavily favoring Four Minute Mile and Something to Write Home About, considering those are their big second wave emo hits. A good time overall.

Welp, looks like I’ve written enough words that people will assume are about Beautiful Bones. You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Fall 2015 – Week 10 in Review

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We’re approaching the end of the season, which at this point means we’re also approaching the end of the year. On a seasonal level, this means shows have really stopped pulling out too many surprises – Perfect Insider and One Punch Man demonstrated some welcome strengths over the last few weeks, but even they seem to be settling into a rhythm for the finales. And on an annual level, this means holy crap it’s time to do all that end-of-the-year nonsense! I’ve more or less settled on my top ten shows of the year, and am working my butt off to manage that list, weekly reviews, actual full show reviews, and regular current project articles for all you lovely people. It’s been an extremely busy week on basically all those fronts; I spent a great deal of last week barreling through way too many episodes of Black Lagoon, and this past weekend I also managed to sneak in the excellent When Marnie Was There. All those and many more attractions in this here week in review! Let’s RUN IT ALL DOWN!

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Forgiveness For When Marnie Was There

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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.

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Black Lagoon – Review

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Yep, I reviewed Black Lagoon. The whole damn thing, too – the first season, the Second Barrage, and even Roberta’s Blood Trail. No half measures here, I watched twenty-nine goddamn episodes of gunslinging and explosions. And how was it?

Eh, it was pretty okay. My initial feelings on the show weren’t substantially shifted by finishing it – the show’s attempts at seriousness were still both overwrought and deeply undercut by its absurd villains, and ultraviolence for its own sake remains Not My Thing. But the storytelling actually improved a fair bit in the show’s final third, which was a nice reward for my time. It certainly doesn’t mean I’d recommend the show, but I always appreciate how having to watch something I wouldn’t normally watch for review ends up establishing these interesting, unexpected media relationships.

Anyway. You can check out my megasized review over at ANN, or my many, many notes below!

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Owarimonogatari – Episode 10

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This was a reasonable episode of Owarimonogatari, notable mostly in that it succeeded in a way I think Monogatari rarely does – it went heavy on the pervert banter, and was actually really successfully funny for it. I think a lot of this came down to the fact that Araragi and Kanbaru’s relationship is a really solid one in spite of their perversions; they’re very comfortable with each other, and so there’s less of the gropiness and more trading barbs back and forth. But that wouldn’t work if the gags weren’t just inherently funny, and many of the individual lines this week were excellent. Or maybe I’m just always up for more jokes at light novels’ expense, who knows.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.

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A Bride’s Story – Volume 6

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And we’re back on the manga train, with the second-to-newest installment of one of the many excellent series I’ve been covering. This volume of Bride’s Story applied all the manga’s usual strengths to exactly the kind of dramatic peaks I’d been hoping for, and the results were absolutely spectacular. The hardest part of reviewing this volume was trying to think of something bad to say, and in the end I just couldn’t. This volume was basically perfect, and certainly one of the single most beautiful volumes of manga I’ve ever read. Great work, Kaoru Mori.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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The Perfect Insider – Episode 9

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The Perfect Insider had a fine episode this week, though not a spectacular one. Some of that admittedly comes down to storytelling preference – while I was all about the evocative flashbacks and nice character moments of the last two weeks, an episode wholly focused on mystery plot is almost guaranteed not to thrill me. But even though this mystery is completely ridiculous, this episode had solid pacing and enough coherent reveals to keep things interesting. Plus reviewing it gave me a chance to talk about mystery storytelling in general, which is always fun

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Beautiful Bones – Episode 9

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This week’s Beautiful Bones was really solid! I know, I’m surprised too. But it seems like whenever the show is able to slow down on the overt mystery plot, it does a much better job of making its characters feel like people. That’s what elevated the first half of the Cursed Man arc, and it’s certainly what worked here. Instead of being preoccupied with establishing a bunch of new mystery variables, this one focused on two tiny linked mysteries that were really just avenues to discuss the various characters’ feelings on love and loss. It was understated and thoughtful and just pretty strong all around. Nice work, Beautiful Bones.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Strike Witches – Episode 1

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You guys are assholes.

I hope you know that. I open up my viewing schedule for anything you all want to support, and what happens? You fund The Room and God Damn Strike Witches. I hope you’re proud of yourselves. You got me to watch Strike Witches. You got me to make despairing jokes on twitter about Strike Witches. The first episode of Strike Witches now exists in my past. When Saint Peter scans down my MAL at the pearly gates, he’ll take a momentary pause at the S section, glance at me with one raised eyebrow, and then continue without a word.

So, how was the first episode of Strike Witches?

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What Makes Kyoto Animation So Special?

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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?

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