1. I am shamefully behindhand when it comes to the work of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki; so far Spirited Away is the only one I'd seen. A week or so ago, I took a step to remedying this by seeing Whisper of the Heart, an intensely charming, thoughtful little film about adolescent love blossoming … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Miyazaki, Shakespeare, and Lame Pulps
Anime
Commentary: When Good Characters do Bad Things
Another bit of storycraft commentary up at Noble Cobra Magazine. This time discussing some thoughts I had about heroic or righteous characters doing 'mean' or off-color things in fiction: pranks, unwanted jokes, nasty tricks, that sort of thing, and how it can be used for characterization purposes (and yes, more Fruits Basket, since that's on … Continue reading Commentary: When Good Characters do Bad Things
Friday Flotsam: Lincoln, Civil War, and More Manga
1. This week for my US History class I learned why most people only quote the first paragraph or so of Lincoln's 'house divided' speech; because after that it kind of devolves into a paranoid rant of how the Democrats want to impose slavery upon all the states, including speculation that Stephen Douglass etc. were … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Lincoln, Civil War, and More Manga
Thoughts on ‘Fruits Basket’
Fruits Basket tells the story of the romantic adventures of a rice ball in a basket of fruit. Said rice ball is a cute, sweet, slightly ditzy teenager name Tohru Honda, while the basket of fruit is the Sohma family; an ancient, ultra-rich aristocratic clan with a tendency to extreme good looks and a strange … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘Fruits Basket’
Anime Double-Take
One of the joys of watching dubbed anime is that, from what I can tell, there is actually a fairly small pool of professional voice actors who handle it (compared to something like Hollywood). Which means you often run into the same performer over and over, often doing fairly similar voices across very different shows. … Continue reading Anime Double-Take
Friday Flotsam: School and ‘One Piece’
1. At school I've more or less defaulted to lecturing, as trying to get the kids to engage hasn't been too profitable for most of the classes. Though oddly enough, turning to lecturing interspersed with questions has gotten a lot more interaction going, so perhaps it works out. 2. I ended up correcting the history … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: School and ‘One Piece’
‘Spy x Family’ at the Everyman
My latest piece for The Everyman went up today, where I get to talk a bit about Spy x Family: Following a devastating conflict some decades prior, a tense cold war persists between the nations of “Westalis” and “Ostania” (fictionalized versions of West and Easy Germany circa the 1960s). Ace Westalis spy ‘Twilight’ works tirelessly … Continue reading ‘Spy x Family’ at the Everyman
NC Commentary: Villain vs. Villain
My latest story commentary essay is up at Noble Cobra Magazine. Yes, I'm again talking about My Hero Academia, though this time I'm dealing with a part where it falls short by discussing its version of the "villain's rise to power" arc and comparing and contrasting it with what I think is a better done … Continue reading NC Commentary: Villain vs. Villain
Friday Flotsam: On Republics and Anime Girls
1. The purpose of government is to promote the common good. The great danger of any Republic is the loss of the sense of commonality between different parts of the populace. This, of course, can happen under any form of government, but it is a particular danger for Republics, because elected governments incentivize animosity and … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: On Republics and Anime Girls
New Video Upload: ‘My Hero Academia: Be a Man’
Matching this song to this series was simply too natural not to do. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtzgkFuyLtk
Serpent's Den 