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Above Anime: The Beneath the Tangles Newsletter
Aug 9, 2024 • Subscribe
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The Heike Story: A Tale of Forgiveness?
There are many lessons to learn from The Heike Story: the cost of pride, the trauma of war, the insidiousness of bitterness. Every episode conveys these truths with…
When Forgiveness is Weakness
Since the run up to the 2016 primaries, when it was obvious that the neoconservative movement was beginning to gradually migrate (back) to the Democratic Party in preparation…
Vinland Saga’s Grand Moment of Forgiveness
I knew fans of Makoto Yukimura's Vinland Saga were talking about this moment when it happened. And when I finally got to it, I was just overwhelmed. I recently…
The Power of Trust
The Promised Neverland is an anime that discusses the idea of trust through its main characters, Emma, Norman, Ray, and Isabella. Here’s a whole video essay analyzing The…
The Art of Redemption: How Anime Villains Evolve and Find Forgiveness
From Itachi to Meruem
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…
The Power of Three: Nana
Like a lot of media, not just anime, love of various sorts plays a large role in Nana. Well, it could hardly not, after all. You can call…
The Objective Power Of Animation
Animation is a powerful medium, but one that is often overlooked largely by hollywood and the broader world. Well, I think theres a good chance that may not…
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…
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.…
How Far Does Forgiveness Go? Ranking of Kings Ending Explained
Ranking of Kings has dominated discussion for the past few months, but did it manage to stick the landing? Join Ember Reviews as we take a deep dive…
The Power of Three: Flowers of Evil
While I was waiting for the Flowers of Evil manga to go on sale I picked up the anime to tide me over, and BOY, was I glad…
'Chihayafuru' and the Power of Connection
Connection is the driving force behind everything in the narrative of Chihayafuru. With each connection stemming Chihaya's love of karuta and the poems in the game. 0:00 Intro 2:33 Disclaimers 3:45…
The Power of Soundtracks in Anime
Here’s something I haven’t written about, but I would like to. I’ve brought up soundtracks a few times in my reviews, but really, it’s not that often. For…
Macross 7 – The Power of Rock
I write this post with lots of happiness and yet, lots of sadness. Both for the same reason. By watching Macross 7, I have officially watched all the…
The Power of Three: Steins;Gate
I was thinking about Steins;Gate for a different reason when I hit on why it works narratively. Because it shouldn’t, you know. Steins;Gate is really kind of a…
The Power of Tears in Anime
How does anime use tears and the visuals of crying characters and why do I like it so much!
Episode 202, "The Power Of Love"
On this episode of The One Piece Podcast we have the crew on to discuss some classic manga, some current anime, some late-breaking video game trailers, and a…
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…
The Power of Two: Golden Kamuy
I’m reading the manga for Golden Kamuy when I get around to picking up a new issue every so often, up through volume four by now, and I’m…
the power of a stupid game
A silly game can be the thing that makes your life Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon are two of the most nostalgic properties of the 90s and 2000s, surely topping any…
Episode 202, "The Power Of Love"
On this episode of The One Piece Podcast we have the crew on to discuss some classic manga, some current anime, some late-breaking video game trailers, and a…
The Power of Three: Millennium Actress
Satoshi Kon was the original flim-flam man. Well, probably not. The original flim-flam man probably dates back to about five minutes after the invention of portable currency. If…
Kiyohimé or the Power of Love
Kiyohimé was written down around 1887 and contains dated language and spellings. This period brought many stories from Japan to the West. I left the language unchanged; I find…
The Power of Three: Tokyo Godfathers
The late Satoshi Kon was famous for playing sleight-of-hand with his characters. They were always existing at two or three different levels of reality or slipping around in…
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…
Kiyohimé or the Power of Love
Kiyohimé was written down around 1887 and contains dated language and spellings. This period brought many stories from Japan to the West. I left the language unchanged; I find…
The Definition of a Power Fantasy
There are a lot of power fantasy who claim to have a strong protagonist, but 95% of them don't even come close to the power that Anos possesses.…
The Power of Three: Princess Jellyfish
I briefly ran out of reading material … no, that’s not quite right. You all know it’s been a rugged time for a lot of us and I…
The Performance of Power: The Saga of Tanya the Evil
Power is one of those topics that pops up over and over in writing and in life. For instance, power underlies a lot of the relationship stuff I’ve…
The Power of Three: Darling in the Franxx
Everyone loves a good mecha story. Well, at least the manga/anime target audience – slightly-nerdy teen-aged Japanese boys – loves a good mecha story. Consequently, there are lots…
The Low-Key Power of 'The Portrait Studio'
Plus: animation news.
The Power of Two: Shinji and Misato
The cool thing about Neon Genesis Evangelion from a writer’s perspective, and from the perspective of a person like me who takes a writer’s perspective on looking at…
The Power of Two: Mei and Yuzu
Citrus is the story of two teen-aged girls falling in love. I’d like to be profounder than that, but that’s what it boils down to. It has some…
The Power of Two: Tatsuhiro and Misaki
Welcome to the NHK is one of those things I like a lot in part because it’s about grownups with real problems instead of kids with robot suits…
The Power of Two: Yuta and Rikka
Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions was one of those things that was just so dang cute I watched it all the way through. Then, since my tolerance for…
The Power of Two: Saki and Satoru
I don’t like to work with relatively obscure works since no one’s seen them, and if no one’s seen them no one can tell me how badly I’ve…
The Power of Three Minus One: Promare
The movie Promare came around a while ago and I missed it. I read the previews and said, “Meh. Mechas,” which is about what I say about any…
The Power of Three: Welcome Back, Alice
I’ve made my appreciation for the work of Shuzo Oshimi very plain at times. Oshimi is the magaka behind The Flowers of Evil, Inside Mari, and Blood on…
The Power of Two: Kou and Nino
It’s been a while since I watched Arakawa Under the Bridge, so I may have a detail or two out of whack, but at the heart of it…
The Power of Three: A Silent Voice
One of the nice things about A Silent Voice is that it’s about kids growing up, and it treats the kids honestly as characters in that it lets…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Power of Three: Carole and Tuesday
Elsewhere I’ve written about the way Shinichiro Watanabe treats female characters, which is to say for the most part much more fairly than most anime writers and directors.…
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 Power of Two: Rei and Shinji
Okay, Neon Genesis Evangelion is too cool for words and everyone knows it. This is not news. One of the ways it’s cool is that it has multiple…
The Power of Two: Taiga and Ryuji
There was something so overpoweringly attractive going on in Toradora! that I watched it straight through twice. I mean, who knows? Might have been COVID coma at work.…
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…