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Oh, So Trope-ical: The Hair Bra
The point of manga and anime is to get eyeballs onto content, whether it’s paid for directly (by buying manga) or indirectly (by ad sales during anime). In…
The Power of Four Plus One: Toradora
I haven’t done one of these in a while. This could be fun if I can keep track of the mess. But then again, that’s the point. Toradora…
Character Analysis: Isaki Magari
Let’s be frank here: Insomniacs After School is so sweet it could be named High-Fructose Corn Syrup. That’s not necessary a bad thing. When you’re making an anime…
How to Cook a Story: Komi Can’t Communicate
Somehow I keep saying that Komi Can’t Communicate was something whose premise didn’t appeal to me. I’m going to say it again: Shoko Komi doesn’t need a hundred…
Killer Ending: Your Lie in April
Your Lie in April is one of those stories that could have gone either way, Comedy (happy ending) or Tragedy (sad ending) and – watch my lips –…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Gamer God
There are certain tropes that are so obvious it’s almost a waste of time to look at them. Oh, man, what’s the point of the Princess in Peril…
Off The Tracks: The Promised Neverland
I wasn’t planning to post this piece this week. I had something else, about Insomniacs at Night, I think. BUUUT, we ended up having an actual discussion last…
The Antagonist: Isabella
I’m going to start out with this: Isabella, the orphanage “Mom” from The Promised Neverland, is not the best example of this type of antagonist for REASONS. I’ll…
Jumping the Tracks IV: Change the plot
This is it for Jumping the Tracks, okay? You won’t have to hear me (in your mind’s ear) blather about it again for quite a while! But for…
Jumping the Tracks III: Throw in more characters
I’ve had a bug in a delicate place about stories that Jump the Tracks, that is, lose track of progress in the main meta-plot of a series, for…
How To Cook a Series: Beastars
I’m taking a week off from shows going off the track, since even I don’t think it’s THAT interesting. I mean, you know, really. Problem: This is the…
Jumping the Tracks II: Streeeeetching the ploooootttttt
There’s a longer explanation of all this if you go back to Jumping the Tracks I: Just Keep Going, but just to run through it quickly this is…
Off the Tracks I: Just Keep Going
Going off the tracks happens when the writers lose track of the story’s meta-plot, the storyline that defines the end of the story. Was that technical, or what?…
The Antagonist: Desty Nova
Okay, Dr. Nova from Battle Angel Alita may not be the best example here, since the manga is like a zillion years old and no one went to…
Gender Bender: Najimi Osana
The writers of Komi Can’t Communicate make it very clear we’re supposed to expect some pretty weird kids. They come right out and say it: Admission to their…
A Strange Aside
I’ve been looking at transgendered characters this month, since in the US it’s LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and sure, why not? It’s not like we don’t have a ways…
Gender Bender: Hana
Okay, let’s start with this: If you haven’t seen Tokyo Godfathers, you should, okay? And if you haven’t, you don’t know who Hana is, so let me spell…
Gender Bender: Sapphire
Now that we live in a day that permits it, there are a lot of representations of LGBTQIA+ characters in manga and anime. Some of them are good,…
The Eternal Triangle: Waltz
I keep telling people that Shuzo Oshimi is my favorite magaka. That’s not a lie. You might know him from The Flowers of Evil if you’re more into…
Character Analysis: Zero Two
Darling in the Franxx is one of those things that popped onto the radar because it tried to do something we’d seen a million times – a mecha…
The Power of Three: Komi Can’t Communicate
Komi Can’t Communicate is one of those stories that chaps my ass when you get right down to it. You see Communication is my racket. I is a…
The Antagonist: Gendo Ikari
There’s a special kind of antagonist we can call a monomaniac, right? The person who is focused entirely on one single thing that motivates everything they do. Bizarrely,…
One Story, Two Stages: Aura, Koga Maryuin’s Last War
So let me see: There’s a boy. Isn’t that the start of a lot of anime stories? But this boy has a problem. Back in middle school he…
The Antagonist: The Faceless Foe
There are a lot of good reasons to make the antagonist an on-screen character. An on-screen antagonist can have dialog, for one thing, and if they’re written well…
How To Start a Series: Pleasure and Corruption
There’s a manga out there called Pleasure and Corruption. It is hard R-rated. Be warned. I’m going to be frank here. I’ve only read one volume of the…
The Antagonist: Haruhi Suzumiya
You don’t think of Haruhi as being an antagonist. You don’t even think of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya as having a meta-plot that calls for either a…
Hidden Protagonist: Satsuki Kiryuin
I may not use the terms “main character” and “protagonist” in the same way a lot of people do. A lot of people use them interchangeably, but I…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Big Brother
For storytelling reasons heroes often have sidekicks. Sure, right? A sidekick can do a lot of things, like be comic relief, or have some skill that the hero…
The Antagonist: The System
“The System,” some kind of deeply hidden procedure or agency, makes a great antagonist. Tell you why in a sec. You see “The System” in a lot of…
Neon Genesis Evangelion, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Revolutionary Girl Utena, WONDER EGG PRIORITY
Character Analysis: Roanapur
It seems a little odd to describe a locale or setting as a character. I mean, in college, it could get your paper marked “-5 Anthropomorphism” or something…
Medium Matters: Fruits Basket
Okay, not really medium, since there are two Fruits Basket anime, and anime is just one medium. But there ARE two Fruits Basket anime and you don’t have…
Character Analysis: Marin Kitagawa
All right, you know who Marin Kitagawa is. She’s – depending on how you look at it – the Dress-up Darling of My Dress-up Darling. You can fight…
The Antagonist: Ragyo Kiryuin
You know it seems like in a lot anime you never really see the antagonist unless there’s big fight. Look at Sailor Moon, right? The antagonist appears in…
Character Analysis: Ryuji Takusa
It seems bizarre that one of the anime I write about a lot is Toradora. I mean, compared to Neon Genesis Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop or The Melancholy…
Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Toradora!
Happy Anniversary, Me
I normally post on Monday morning, in fact, generally about 12:01 AM since I’m so eager … well, no. It’s because if I do things the same way…
How Not to Start a Story: Heaven’s Design Team
The manga Heaven’s Design Team gets itself hyped with the blurb, “Does for zoology what Cells at Work! does for human biology.” I know this for a fact.…
Character Analysis: Haruko Haruhara
Haruko from FLCL is another character who is really easy to analyze. She’s a Look at Me woman. Boop. That’s it. That doesn’t make her a bad character,…
Same Stage, Different Show: My Dress-up Darling and 2.5-Dimensional Seduction
The breakout success of My Dress-up Darling made the Powerz That Be say, “Hey, ya know what? There’s moniez to be made in this Cosplay stuff.” So I…
Character Analysis: Toshiko Tamura
Okay, yeah, I know you never heard of Toshiko Tamura. Let me lay down some backbeat here. If you ain’t heard of Osamu Tezuka, you’re probably reading the…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Sexually Aggressive Gal
Yeah, I started spelling it Trope-ical. There’s no point in a pun no one gets. But yeah, there are a lot of tropes in storytelling. That’s not an…
Character (Re)analysis: Rei Ayanami
Happy holidays to all of you who recently celebrated, are celebrating, or will soon celebrate a holiday. It’s that time of year! One of the saddest (for me)…
The Power of Two: Nagatoro and Hachioji
Watching Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro is like watching Teasing-Master Takagi-san but without the innocence. The kids of Teasing-Master are, well, kids; the kids of Miss Nagatoro…
Medium Matters: Toradora!
Back when I last wrote about Taiga Aisaka – she’s a quivering bundle of tropes instead of a real character – I got into a really good discussion…
Evolution’s Hand Book 2: Dying Breath is Now Available!
Evolution’s Hand Book 2: Dying Breath is now available for purchase! It’s available as an ebook or paperback from Amazon. It’s also available as an …Evolution’s Hand Book…
Character Analysis: Hotori Arashiyama
And Yet the Town Moves is one of those silly little slice of lifers built around a slice of the life of Hotori Arashiyama, and her friends, family,…
How To Build a Series: Spy X Family
Okay, repeat after me: Stories don’t need conflict if you don’t want people to pay any attention to them. Of course, if you DO want people to like…
How to Cook a Series: Wonder Egg Priority
You know what Wonder Egg Priority reminded me of? Interviews with Monster Girls. Let me tell you why. The deal with the demi-human girls of Interviews is that…
Character (Re)analysis: Shinji Ikari
Sometimes you go back a look at a character you’ve looked at before because you’ve noticed something new about the character. And sometimes you have to go back…
The Power of Three Plus Two: O Maidens in Your Savage Season
When you’re dealing with characters in writing, I mean seriously, do I have to say this? The more you have, the harder it is to keep them straight.…
Medium Doesn’t Matter?: Joshi Kausei
There’s something we keep coming back to here, and that is that manga and anime are very different media, and the ways they are different influence the ways…