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The Power of Two: My Dress-Up Darling
My Dress-Up Darling was one of the breakout hits of the last season. I thought it was pretty good. Did you think it was pretty good? In a…
Oh, So Tropical: The Pre-pubescent Horndog
As a writer I love tropes. Tropes are tropes because they work in telling good stories. Sure. Take the “Hero-Sidekick-Girlfriend” trio, right? You can use that interrelationship to…
How Not to Cook a Series: Michiko and Hatchin
Look, let me lay it out here: I don’t call this blog “The Overage Otaku” because I’m 19 and all my manga friends are like 16. I’m an…
Character (Re)analysis: Haruhi Suzumiya
It’s been a while since I wrote about The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but what astonishes me about it is that every time you think about it, you…
Computer Animation: Ghost in the Shell SAC 2045
Whenever I start a post about animation I say that animation is something I talk too little about here. I mean, the deal here is that I’m looking…
Character Analysis: Lili Hoshikawa
I didn’t have this one ready for Pride Month. Sorry about that. But I wrote it during Pride Month. Does that count? One of the things that routinely…
How to Cook a Series: The Orbital Children
The Orbital Children is one of those things that snuck up on me. I was like, yeah, kiddie sci-fi, I’m going to like that (sarcasm), but I was…
How Not to End a Series: Welcome to the NHK
Welcome to the NHK is one of those things that should remind you of how a medium people think is for children – I mean, it’s a CARTOON,…
Character Analysis: Re-L Mayer
Ergo Proxy is one of those things you can stare at for a long time. It’s deeply grounded in philosophy and puts together a look and sound that…
How to Build a Series: Thermae Romae Novae
WARNING: This discussion violates my rule on not talking about anime that are just out. It contains spoilers! Be warned. In a lot of ways Thermae Romae Novae…
Character (Re)analysis: Asuka Langley Soryu
My original character analysis of Asuka Langley Soryu is the most read post in the history of this blog. This doesn’t especially surprise me. For one thing, it’s…
The Power of Three: Sankarea
The premise of “The Power of Three” series of posts is that we’re going to be looking at some kind of three-way relationship to see how it works.…
Effects Animation: Ergo Proxy
Man, it’s been a long since I talked about animation. I mean, by now I probably have to remind everyone that when I look at anime I look…
Oh, So Tropical: The Convenient Stomach Rumble
I’m a writer so I can say this: There are a lot of gimmicks writers use to keep the story moving. For instance, the great crime writer Raymond…
How to Cook a Series: Kotaro Lives Alone
Isn’t Kotaro Lives Alone so cute you just can’t stand it? That brave little boy, living alone, living up the ideals of the noble knight, making all the…
Story Drop!
Yay! It happened again! I sold a story! Shh … this is an ugly secret, but I knew this months ago. They’ve even already paid me. Anywho, here’s…
How to Start a Series: Revolutionary Girl Utena
Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of those concoctions, like Neon Genesis, that is sometimes so deep it seems like the creators outsmarted themselves trying to show themselves how…
Character Analysis: Asako Yaeshima
Sweat and Soap is one of those things that when you describe it to someone sounds either sickly sweet or more than a little creepy. I mean, it’s…
The Power of Two: Nana
Man, I like Nana. It’s grown-up, right? Well, at least they try. The gimmick is that both main characters are named Nana, Nana Oosaki and Nana Kumatsu. They…
Character Analysis: Ringo Oginome
You may or may not like Penguindrum – it’s certainly weird, that’s for sure – but as I watched it I was struck by how many characters with…
How to Cook a Series: Silver Nina
Every once in a while I fall into a rabbit hole and can’t climb out. So I have a subscription to Crunchyroll, and there’s an app that gives…
Character Analysis: Rea Sanka
You know, in a certain way Rea Sanka, the titular character of Sankarea, is one of the saddest characters in anime. Sure, there are characters who are supposed…
What’s in a Name: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Can anyone really honestly say they know what’s going on inside Hideaki Anno’s head? There’s a cute manga out there written by his wife Moyoco about their life…
Oh, So Tropical: The He-Can’t-Love-Me Woman
In a lot of ways romance animes are some of the dumbest on the air. I mean, seriously? You have Person A and Person B and everyone knows…
Character Analysis: Tohru Honda
Okay, I admit it: Fruits Basket is an anime I could easily have found to be annoying and Tohru Honda is a character I could easily have found…
Okay, I Get the Joke: Gleipnir
Gleipnir is one of those things that manages to use a story to hide something in plain sight, and that is that it’s thinly-veiled pornography. And let me…
Character Analysis: Justy Ueki Tylor
A long winter storm and a Comic Book weekend (which requires only reading and watching cartoons, including manga and anime) led me to the delight that is The…
The Power of Three Squared: Fruits Basket
Okay, I’ll be honest: Fruits Basket is not exactly in my wheelhouse in terms of what I want to see, right? I mean you take the rom-com thing…
Medium Matters: Komi Can’t Communicate
If you read back in this blog – oh screw it, here’s a link – I was really unthrilled with the manga version of Komi Can’t Communicate. Y’see,…
The Power of Three Minus One: The Dirty Pair
Scott over at Mechanical Anime Reviews has been going through The Dirty Pair recently, and I think he had the same goofy fun I had with it. So…
Oh, So Tropical: The Family Princess
I started out wanting to do a character analysis of Rea Sanka, the main female character (and namesake) of Sankarea, Undying Love, but I ran into a little…
The Power of Three: Penguindrum
Penguindrum is one of those thing, like Wonder Egg Priority, that people have been recommending to me, like, forever. Really. Seriously. For ever. A Certain Retailer had two…
Oh, So Tropical: The Soul Girl
I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at a trio of characters and seen them forming a classic Mind-Body-Soul trio. Sure. How about Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles,…
Medium Matters: Sankarea, Undying Love
What is it with Japanese anime boys and kinky fetishes? First we get Yamazaki from Welcome to the NHK, who prefers his women 2-D, and now there’s Kuruya…
Medium Matters: Cowboy Bebop II
I was trying to stay away from this one, but Cowboy Bebop has been canceled and the really bad second week numbers made it pretty clear that anyone…
Medium Matters: Cowboy Bebop I
Okay, it shouldn’t be news to anyone that there’s a live action Cowboy Bebop series on Netflix. Everyone has an opinion on the matter and the opinions are…
The Power of Three: Amagi Brilliant Park
For REASONS (that I no longer remember), I keep thinking about Eternal Triangles, and it occurs to me that I’ve mentioned the degenerate form of the Eternal Triangle…
Character Analysis: Yoshika Miyafuji
Strike Witches is like a guilty pleasure. It’s a dumb story about characters who are largely one-dimensional by design whose flaws are painted over with constant action and…
The Power of Two: Princess Jellyfish
I never know how much to summarize about a series when I start these essays. I mean, stuff like Cowboy Bebop I know everyone’s seen; on the other…
Building a Beginning: Cowboy Bebop
It seems like, as much as I love it, I complain about Cowboy Bebop a lot. To me, from a writing standpoint some of the characters are under-used…
Character Analysis: Ritsuko
One of the ways you can tell what the target audience for some media message is is to look at the main character. Right? As a rule one…
Oh, So Tropical: The Princess in Peril
You know that the Princess in Peril is one of the oldest tropes in film, let along anime, right? I mean, seriously, The Perils of Pauline was made…
Medium Matters: Neon Genesis Evangelion
WARNING: SPOILERS Okay, it’s all here and it’s all done. I’m not sure whether to cheer or feel sad. Probably both: Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0, and the entire…
How to Build a Series: Samurai Champloo
I don’t talk enough about Samurai Champloo. I guess that’s because it’s Shinichiro Watanabe’s second series, and let’s be honest: Once you’ve made Cowboy Bebop there’s only one…
Medium Matters: Princess Jellyfish
I got the Princess Jellyfish manga a while back and found it delightful, a sweet, well-told story that spanned nine tankoban volumes. Then I FINALLY found the anime,…
Building a Beginning: Rent-a-Girlfriend
Okay, one more time: The beginning of a narrative is supposed to do a lot of things. You know, it really SHOULD do a lot of things. The…
The Power of Three: Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop is one of those things that’s so unique in construction that it’s hard to see the pieces it’s built out of. That’s one of the reasons…
Relevant Irrelevant Post: Book Out
So I did a thing. Well, I did a lot of things. Started the new semester. Watched Princess Jellyfish. Got rained on a few days ago. Went to…
Fun With School: Citrus
One of the cool things about a person in my racket – I’m a professor of Communication – is you can see the stuff we talk about in…
The Outsider: Saiki K
At some point someone realized that pointing out the absurdities and contradictions of everyday life could be really funny. I mean, seriously, going back to at least George…