12 Days of Anime

Hello all! It’s Barty again, and this time I’m back for real.

I mentioned several months ago on my About page that after over a year and a half following my last original post (that’s not a reblogged post from another blog I follow with my response), a reflection on both seasons of JoJo’s Bizare Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders upon having completed it, I would finally return to blogging on this website instead of strictly on my other social media platforms.

Yeah, two to three months went by and that still didn’t happen. But I have written a lot since then, so there’s no shortage of stuff for me to talk about. It just needs to get published on here, instead of/as well as on Facebook or Twitter.

And that brings me to the subject of this post. Because I needed the incentive to get back to blogging, how convenient is it that the 12 Days of Anime project has finally come along again.

Advertisements

Day 1: The Heroes Earn Their Happy Ending – Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Yuusha no Shou

Most people probably began 2018 hoping it would be better than 2017. For anime fans, they might’ve been heavily awaiting certain long-awaited sequels and original series that had been announced for broadcast this year. Or they were hyping up Devilman Crybaby when it dropped on Netflix (and you can be sure I will be posting about that series within the coming week).

I, however, heavily awaited (with bated breath, unyielding anticipation and soul-crushing anxiety) the conclusion of Yuusha no Shou, the final arc in the second season of my favorite (and in my view, most under-appreciated) magical girl anime series of all time, Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru. 

The Beautiful Melancholy of What Could Have Been: In Defence of Uchiage Hanabi

I knew you were another defender of this film, but I seriously didn’t expect us to have a nearly identical point of view on it.

I knew about the production issues it had going in, but I just didn’t care. It was probably the most poignant romance about choice and perspective I’ve ever seen, and I was completely engaged in its approach to utilizing the Groundhog Day looping plot but never explaining its mechanics.

It’s flawed, sure, but it was SHAFT’s attempt at adapting a beloved TV drama and trying to get at the core of emotional poignancy their works often contain but still have a tendency to leave the viewer a little cold with what they’re seeing (probably because of their absurdism)…and I felt this film worked in the opposite direction. It was plenty emotional for me and the message was crystal clear from start to finish.

It’s easily my favorite anime film nowadays that isn’t attached to a larger series/storyline, and I’m glad to see that you got what you did out of it. Thank you for doing it so much justice.

Dawn of the Second Day

I’ll admit I’m late to the show on this one. Uchiage Hanabi, Shita Kara Miru ka? Yoko Kara Miru ka?, also known simply as Fireworks, has been out in Japan since Summer of last year and has been seen by large parts of Anitwitter before this year even began; even I saw it over a month ago now and have honestly been putting off this article for way too long. Word of mouth in my circles for the movie has been overwhelmingly poor, to say the least, ranging from people encouraging others to just watch the music video of DAOKO’s theme song instead of the film, to people openly declaring it the worst anime movie ever made.

While I won’t deny DAOKO’s MV has most of the film’s best cuts in it and the song is actually really good too, I feel that the video loses out on most of…

View original post 595 more words

Taku’s Top 15 Anime: #4

Awwwww yis, I was waiting for this one! Good writeup Taku, I felt the same way when I first watched Madoka myself.

Taku Reviews

#15: Selector Infected/Spread WIXOSS

#14: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

#13: Ouran High School Host Club

#12: Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume

#11: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

#10: The Devil is a Part-Timer!

#9: Hibike! Euphonium

#8: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable

#7: Clannad + After Story

#6: FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

#5: K-On!

#4: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

(Spoilers ahead, you have been warned)

Madoka Magica is a very special title for me as an anime watcher. I first watched Madoka almost three years ago now in June of 2014. At the time, I had only ever watched anime casually on and off. I had been working through Soul Eater during the semester before, but had all but dropped it and only really watched things I saw on TV. Everything changed when I discovered GRArkada one weekend and heard him talk about the show. On a whim, I binged…

View original post 609 more words

Taku’s Top 15 Anime: #8

Funny, I started off with the Phantom Blood manga and I really enjoyed it even though the art wasn’t to my taste, certain scenes also were more emotional than in the anime adaptation though the PB anime albeit truncated was better in a lot of ways. Battle Tendency is when I /really/ got into the franchise though.

I’m currently in the process of watching DiU but I put it on hold for a bit. Gonna wait until school is done to just binge through it. I absolutely love it so far, though I still think I might be a bit too attached to the characters of Stardust Crusaders to rank it above it. But we’ll see! And I gotta get on with reading the manga.

Glad you’ve been enjoying JoJo! Can’t wait to hear about Steel Ball Run and JoJolion once you’re all caught up.

Taku Reviews

#15: Selector Infected/Spread WIXOSS

#14: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

#13: Ouran High School Host Club

#12: Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume

#11: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

#10: The Devil is a Part-Timer!

#9: Hibike! Euphonium

#8: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable

(Spoilers ahead, you have been warned)

So, I love JoJo. I’ve become a huge fan of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise over the last few months and it’s something I’ve been able to connect with a lot of people through. I personally wasn’t that big a fan of the first season, featuring the Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency arcs. I thought it was perfectly alright, but I didn’t get too much into the franchise and it took another six months before I decided to watch Stardust Crusaders. I then proceed to binge through the entirety of Stardust Crusaders and Diamond is Unbreakable over the course of a…

View original post 566 more words

Symphogear AXZ Premiering This Summer

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH BEST NEWS I’VE GOTTEN ALL DAY BRING ON THE SYMPHOGEAH HYPE ❤

The Yuri Nation

Spring 2017 is pretty much a “breather” season for the Nation, time for us to relax, finish up shows we weren’t able to from past seasons and enjoy whatever other non-yuri shows we planned on doing. I say this because we’re going to be really busy this coming Summer and Fall.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear AXZ (S4) announced for July 2017: https://t.co/JN2ivIhXg1pic.twitter.com/Xc99pyvgYM

— moetron | pKjd (@pKjd) March 31, 2017

With NTR, most likely Citrus, the Kase-san short and Symphogear 4 it is safe to say Summer 2017 will be the best season of 2017 for the Nation or at least the most hyped. On a related note, if the latest Symphogear arc is 2 cour and Symphogear 5 is not a new adventure then I hope we won’t have to wait till next Summer for the 5th season.

View original post

“Umineko”: Gulls, Cats, and linguistic associations thereof

Absolutely fascinating. Still need to read Umineko tho, lol.

FungaFuFu

Recently, I was talking with fisharson and Phazys about upcoming shows, and Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, the English title of which translates to “When Seagulls Cry”. Both noted that the title certainly didn’t seem quite as sinister as it’s predecessor, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni (lit. “When Cicadas Cry”). I pointed out that, being a coastal city dweller myself, the long and somewhat mournful call of a seagull was incredibly evocative and very closely associated with the location, and I felt it was plenty appropriate. Still, fisharson wasn’t quite impressed – the most recent seagulls that featured prominently in animated media after all are the button-eyed sort in Pixar’s Finding Nemo. While certainly menacing to the fish, their design is such to elicit amusement from the viewer – certainly, couldn’t a better choice have been made for a horror anime been made?

View original post 263 more words