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
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
Look, did you think IÂ 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!
This week on Why It Works, I finally start on a big craft breakdown for Megalo Box, exploring the many smart decisions that made its recent Aragaki fight so spectacular. Megalo Box has always been a stylish and entertaining show, but the storytelling here felt the most sturdily constructed and rewarding so far. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Junk Dog Vs. Soldier: MEGALOBOX’s Finest Fight
For this week’s Crunchyroll article, I used Hinamatsuri as a platform to celebrate another of my favorite topics in fiction: found families. As I say in the piece, I think this world could use far more validation of the families we choose for ourselves, and it’s always nice to find more reasons to recommend shows like Sekai Seifuku or March comes in like a lion. There are only so many ways as an anime critic to strike my “I did a good deed today” itch, but I think leading more people to Rei Kiriyama’s story hopefully qualifies.
Family is What You Make of It in HINAMATSURI!
Sometimes this job is so damn great. I had a lot of fun with this week’s Why It Works, as I looked back to catalog pretty much everything My Hero Academia’s second-most-heroic class roster have accomplished. As it turns out, the answer is Not Much, and a pretty hilarious Not Much at that. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Oh Right, You Guys Are Here Too
For this week’s Crunchyroll article, I dove into the very different worldviews of Yang and Reinhard, discussing how their respective upbringings very clearly influence their views of not just their countries, but their own potential, and the way humans and history interact. It’s really fun to see such an ostensibly “great men make history”-aligned narrative freely admit that we’re all products of our environment, but that’s basically the perspective that makes Galactic Heroes so good in general. The show’s a treat, I’m having a great time with it, and I hope you enjoy the piece!
The Tactical Titans of Legend of the Galactic Heroes
