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The Power of Two: Frieren
Okay, I’m going to come right out and say it: I think Frieren is a great character. I think the plot of Frieren is a huge waste of…
The Power of Many: One Piece
The problem with large ensemble casts is for the animators and writers to keep the different people straight. The cause of the problem is the production cycle of…
How to Build a Story: Gunslinger Girl
You can tell that Gunslinger Girl is really old, and not just because the animation looks old. You can tell it’s really old because, despite the name, it…
Book Drop Coming!
Are you, or do you know anyone who might be interested in a Magical Girl Rom-Com? If so, you might want to know about …. Ta ta ta…
Character Analysis: Kaoruko Waguri
Kaoruko Waguri, the best girl from The Fragrant Flower Blossoms with Dignity (FFBD from now on, since typing that phrase makes my fingers hurt) is an interesting character…
Stories without Stories: CITY the Animation
With City, the Animation, which is by implication nothing at all like City, the manga, we’ve got another of those slice-of-life stories that doesn’t really have a plot.…
The Power of Threes: The Flowers of Evil
I’m not fond of the Eternal Triangle or the Love Triangle as a trope because it’s usually just too trite. So you’ve got person A, who is being…
How to Build a Series: Toradora
Romances, especially teen-aged romances, seem pretty difficult for anime. Not harems, mind you, just plain old every day romances between two people. There aren’t a lot of them…
The Power of Two (Revisited): My Dress-up Darling
We’ve … okay, I’ve talked about Marin and Wakana from My Dress-Up Darling as a pair of characters before. Sure, right? Well, maybe we can also think of…
Stories without Stories: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
I don’t want to say that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya doesn’t really have a plot, but, you know, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya doesn’t really have a…
The Power of Two Plus One: Dandadan
Dandadan is one of those things that does at lot of cool things and does them at really high speed so you’re not quite sure what’s going on…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Lovable Goofball
People love to love the goofy characters, don’t they? You know who they are: They’re people who are funny not because they are comedians or anything like that,…
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, And Yet The Town Moves, Outlaw Star, Outlaw Star
Eternal Triangle: Toradora
There’s so much day-to-day stuff going on in Toradora that people forget it’s a romance and not just a slice-of-life story. But it really does go places as…
Character Analysis: Shoko Komi
In certain ways Shoko Komi – yes, she of Komi Can’t Communicate – is another of the easiest characters in anime to figure out, and it’s because of…
Making Great Characters
Okay, we’ve talked about SIMPLE ways to make characters before. The simplest is the formula, “The character is a _____ but _____,” where the first blank is a…
What’s in a Name: Dr. Stone
Got one for you in the spirit of April Fool’s Day. Not a fool, just a little goofier than usual. When you study any language there are always…
Character Analysis: Fushi
Look, there’s a lot to like about Yoshitoki Oima’s work. Don’t just take my word for it. Take a look at her list of awards. They include an…
How to Build a Series: 86
Our old friends Salvati and Simplicito scored BIG on their last series, The Elite Classroom (not to be confused with Classroom of the Elite, which was created by…
The Weakness of Three Plus One: School-Live!
It’s easy to tell what a noob I am when I say that School-Live! was the first manga series I followed from beginning to end as it came…
How to Cook a Series: Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Why the heck do so many light novels (and the anime adapted from them) have such dumb names? I mean, don’t bother to answer that. I actually know…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Oaf
I’ve written a bunch of times about one trope, the Soul Woman. You know who she is: She’s a main character who, when you break her down into…
How to Build a Series: Dan Da Dan
Okay, first of all Dan Da Dan falls under the “It’s New” rule. I’ll do my best not to reveal spoilers. Although, SPOILER, it’s a high school romance…
Same Stage, Different Stories: Trigun/Trigun Stampede
The original Trigun was a little messy but ultimately a very powerful story. And let’s be frank: Who doesn’t like Vash the Stampede? The guy’s a total goofball…
For 5 February
February 5th is this blog’s birthday. Yup, been at it since 2018. And look how many of you have gotten bored to death in that period! Every February…
The Power of Three: Samurai Champloo (revisited)
Some time ago I looked at Fuu, Jin, and Mugen and concluded that they were a sort of half-assed Eternal Triangle, where the two guys vie for the…
Oh, So Trope-ical: Pawn Queens
There’s a really great character trope out there if the writers are careful in how they deploy it. You know what it is. The title says it. I…
The Antagonist: Mysterious Aliens
I started last year (2024) with a lot of posts about antagonists because it was a role I hadn’t thought about a lot yet. Surprise! I thought about…
How to Cook a Series: ZOM 100 Bucket List of the Dead
Sorry, Salviati and Simplicio won’t be making an appearance this week. They are too busy pitching a story that will remind everyone of Rascal Does Not Dream of…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Superhero Doctor
Regular readers know I bring a few perspectives to these posts. Published writer looking at writing. Award-winning animator looking at animation. And yeah, I can do the critic/critique…
What’s in a Name? Nana
Some of these things are just too easy to write but too much fun not to, kno wut I meen? So this one here is my Christmas present…
Character Analysis: Frieren
There are some things to like about Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and some things not to like. For instance, after a couple good ideas the plot jumps the…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Infantilized High School Girl
The Law of Tropes #1: Tropes is tropes because they work. Right? Certain characters/situations/relationships are common because users recognize them and understand them, and because they do somethi…
Triple Plot: Gosick
I watched Gosick because Mari Okada, the writer of O Maidens in Your Savage Season and director of Maboroshi, worked on it. Of course, she was the “Series…
The Power of Three Minus One: Maison Ikkoku
Metastable relationships – where the main characters are in love but can’t or won’t admit it – have been on my mind lately, possibly because for National Novel…
How to Build a Series: Classroom of the Elite
Due to popular demand, we return to our anime-writing friends Salvati and Simplicito. You know, the guys Galileo used to explain how the Earth goes around the Sun.…
How to Start a Series: Dragonball
And I do mean Dragonball, the original series, because it was the start of it all. If the first one doesn’t work, Z and Kai and whatever others…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Idol Girl
There are a lot of idol girls in anime. It’s almost unavoidable, right? The purpose of anime is to get eyeballs on the screen, and a key way…
Non-random Aside
Boy, it’s been a while since I did one of these, hasn’t it? But here it is, just a few hours after 12:00 AM November 1st, and I’m…
Character Analysis: Kanna Kamui
Look, as cute as it is, there’s a fundamental problem with Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. Put simply, Tohru and Kobayashi form a complementary pair of characters that’s too…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Metastable Relationship
I’ve talked about metastable relationships in passing so many times it occurs that there’s something bigger going on there. And sho ‘nuf … The term metastable comes from…
How to Build a Series: Death Note
Death Note is one of those anime stories that tries to be deep by asking deep questions. There are others. Ghost in the Shell asks “What does it…
One-Punch Man, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Death Note, Ghost in the Shell
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Ugly Duckling
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Ugly Duckling Okay, you know the story of the Ugly Duckling and I know the story of the Ugly Duckling. It’s from Hans Christian…
The Power of Three: Ghost in the Shell
Okay, we all know who the most interesting character in Ghost in the Shell is, and it’s the Major, Motoko Kusanagi. She has the choice between her human…
Oh, so Trope-ical: Too Cool for School
One of the things you typically look for in kids’ media … and remember, the target audience for most anime is slightly nerdy Japanese high school boys ……
Character Analysis: Tomo Aizawa
Okay, I’m going to say it right up front: Tomo-chan is a Girl is pretty damned dumb. The hero, Tomo Aizawa, is dumb, the boy she’s hot for,…
Oh, So Trope-ical: The Broken Girl
It sure seems like the number of anime where the kids belong to/come from a complete nuclear family with a mother and a father is pretty small. There…
Killer Ending: Steins;Gate
Okay, the “gimmick” of Steins;Gate is that it’s adapted from a videogame and for the last third of the series – right, the third act in a three-act…
Character Analysis: Ai Hoshino
There are a couple stories where a character who is the real driving force in the plot is behind the scenes for most or all of the series.…
Week Off!
I’m still here. I’m just taking a week off for REASONS. C ya next week.
How to Build a Series: TP Bon
Okay, I write science fiction, so I’m a sucker for stuff like time travel as long as the writers can convincingly deploy handwavium. You know handwavium: “We can…