Welp, it’s A-1 Pictures birthday, and I think you all know what that means: time to shamelessly plug every single artistically interesting thing they’ve ever been involved with, and hop…
May 9, 2020 • Subscribe
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Why It Works: Let’s Explore the Fundamentals of a Great School Festival Arc!
This week’s Why It Works column is pretty self-explanatory, as I use the convenient approach of My Hero Academia’s school festival arc to talk about why these festivals…
Why It Works: Let’s Explore the Finer Points of Anime Power-Ups!
I’ve got another fairly breezy Why It Works column for you all this week, though this one certainly plays into a fair number of storytelling and conflict-building fundamentals.…
Why It Works: Animating the Impossible, the Breathtaking Works of Kou Yoshinari
This week, I actually took my Why It Works inspiration from an airing show, though not one I’m actually watching. It turns out Kou Yoshinari showed up to…
Why It Works: Kaiju Are Making a Comeback!
For this week’s Why It Works, I took stock of just how generous our current era is in terms of kaiju productions. We’ve got the Anno-Higuchi films, Legendary’s…
Why It Works: Chihayafuru and the Makings of a Great Tournament Arc
I finally got to write about Chihayafuru for Why It Works this week, which I’m sure you all saw coming the moment season three was announced. Chihayafuru is…
Why It Works: A Lifetime of Competition: Growing Up in Chihayafuru
With the spring season rapidly approaching, it felt like about time to write some sort of thematic wrap-up for this season of Chihayafuru. I’ve been thrilled by Chihayafuru’s…
Why It Works: The Madness of Hunter x Hunter’s Hero
Hey everyone! For this week’s Why It Works, I dove back into Hunter x Hunter, that seemingly infinite well of potential storytelling topics. This time, I explored the…
Why It Works: The Quiet Lessons of Laid-Back Camp
Laid-Back Camp is friggin’ back, meaning I can once more wax rhapsodic regarding the meditative, life-affirming qualities of the best slice of life anime. That basically covers this…
Why It Works: Worldbuilding, Storytelling, and Weaving a Song
For this week’s Why It Works, I pulled together an old-fashioned “philosophy of storytelling” essay, centered on the relationship between worldbuilding and dramatic structure. As …
Why It Works: Worldbuilding, Storytelling, and Weaving a Song
For this week’s Why It Works, I pulled together an old-fashioned “philosophy of storytelling” essay, centered on the relationship between worldbuilding and dramatic structure. As …
Why It Works: Introducing the Incredible Director of the Horimiya Adaptation!
This week (well, last week, technically), I ended up springboarding off the Horimiya anime announcement to ramble about Masashi Ishihama. Ishihama is one of the industry’s unsung greats,…
Celebrate Koneko’s Birthday with the English Dub!
It’s November 23rd, which is the birthday of one Koneko Toujou, one of the main girls of High School DxD and my personal favorite character from the series.…
Why It Works: How Eizouken Embodies the Messy Thrill of Storytelling!
I am sure it could not be less surprising that I’m favoring Eizouken in this season’s Why It Works columns, but you only get so many chances to…
Why It Works: Ojamajo Doremi and the Magic of Children’s Animation
Heck yeah, writing about Doremi on Crunchyroll. I’d likely never have gotten the chance if not for this upcoming film, so count that as another reason I’m so…
Why It Works: What Are the Fundamentals of Great Horror Anime?
This week in Why It Works, I capitalized on Halloween’s approach to write a general article about how tricky it is to make animation scary, and what tools…
Why It Works: The Beauty and Excitement of Exploring New Art
I’ve got a big Why It Works piece this week, all about the benefits of expanding your artistic horizons. I feel like people often see this process as…
Why It Works: How Princess Connect! Re:Dive Captures the Spirit of Konosuba!
The title pretty much says it all with this one! Featuring the same director and a variation on the same premise as Konosuba, Princess Connect feels like a…
Why It Works: What Are the Best Anime About Anime?
This week I’m once again diving into Eizouken-adjacent articles, as I use the show’s unique production focus to shamelessly promote some of my other favorite anime, like Shirobako…
A Journey Down A-1 Pictures Lane
Do you remember ‘Eromanga-sensei’ and ‘My little sister can’t be this cute’ (with 2 seasons by the way)? Darker but impressive times in A-1 Pictures and Aniplex histor…
Why It Works: The Young Titans and Ailing Empires of Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Today on Why It Works, I dove once more into Legend of the Galactic Heroes, to explore the fascinating contrast of Reinhard von Lohengram and Yang Wen-li. Each…
Why It Works: How Eizouken Embodies the Messy Thrill of Storytelling (Part Two)
Today on Crunchyroll, I conclude my early breakdown of how Eizouken explores the genuine fundamentals of creating stories generally, and producing anime specifically. The show’s progression actually ended…
Why It Works: Prepare Yourselves for a Superb, Sequel-Packed Spring Season!
Along with my own personal list of shows that appeal to my snooty critical sensibilities, this week I also wrote up a more general preview piece for Crunchyroll,…
Call of the Night: Let’s Call It a Night!
Greetings, fabulous people of the Internet! Hanime on Anime here, and was this really one of the most talked about anime of the summer season? I have a…
Why It Works: How Usopp the Liar Became a True Hero in One Piece
You all knew this One Piece rampage would inspire some articles eventually, right? Well, here’s the opening salvo, as we explore the journey of my current favorite One…
Why It Works: The World is the Game: Designing Worlds After Breath of the Wild
For this actual week’s Why It Works post, I ended up writing an article I’ve been meaning to write for years, and gushing a whole lot about how Breath…
Why It Works: What Does It Truly Mean to Be “Over 9000?”
I had a whole lot of fun with this week’s Why It Works article, as it fell into one of my favorite categories of criticism: thorough explorations of…
Why It Works: Fighting With Impact: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter’s Nen System
With the already-limited spring season now experiencing a necessary wave of delays and cancellations, my Why It Works columns are at last able to assume their final form:…
Why It Works: Here’s Why You Should Be Excited for Josee, the Tiger and the Fish!
Welp, the title kinda covers it, right? BONES’ upcoming film Josee looks phenomenal in basically every regard, so it was a no-brainer to write a rundown of its…
Why It Works: Who Defines Justice in My Hero Academia?
This week’s Crunchyroll article returns us to My Hero Academia, as I explore the central question presented by Gentle Criminal’s addition to the narrative. Gentle’s actions aren’t legal,…
Why It Works: Fabulous Hair, and Other Character Design Fundamentals
For this week’s Why It Works, I leapfrogged off Ninny’s absolutely fantastic hair from Burn the Witch, in order to discuss the nature and importance of character designs…
Why It Works: Gen Urobuchi’s Puppet Masterpiece Returns This Spring!
Hey folks. I think you can figure this one out by the title – Thunderbolt Fantasy’s on the way back, and so I am conscience-bound to hype it…
Why It Works: My Hero Academia’s Most Terrifying Team-Ups!
Today I’ve got a pretty silly Why It Works feature, mostly prompted by how much fun the new My Hero Academia movie was. Inspired by that film’s generous…
Why It Works: Gen Urobuchi’s Puppet Masterpiece Returns This Spring!
Hey folks. I think you can figure this one out by the title – Thunderbolt Fantasy’s on the way back, and so I am conscience-bound to hype it…
TokyoScope NEWS: Celebrate Godzilla's 70th Birthday with a Box of Traditional Japanese New Years Food!
A round up of recent Japanese pop culture headlines and ephemera
Ode to Anime Studios – A-1 Pictures/Cloverworks
Well, here goes nothing… After the 12 Days was over (I finished writing mine on the 23rd), I had no idea what to write on…until I realised I…
Why It Works: What Are Your Favorite Musical Cues in Anime?
This week on Why It Works, I dug into the power of a great musical cue, something I personally am an absolute sucker for. Nearly all of my…
Why It Works: One Perfect Moment – Atmosphere as Drama in Anime
For this week’s Why It Works, I discussed anime’s laudable focus on atmospheric storytelling, and its ability to convey emotional truths or the precise tension of a moment…
Why It Works: Hope Lights the Way Through Desolation in To Your Eternity
For this week’s Why It Works piece, I wrote a response to To Your Eternity’s phenomenal first episode. I haven’t been cross-posting my Why It Works pieces, since…
Why Spy x Family Works
Hot take: Spy x Family was a good show. Here's a short little video about some things that made me like it and some things I think are…
Why It Works: Not Born to Be a Hero: My Hero Academia and the Road to Greatness
Today I’ve got a fresh My Hero Academia article for you all, largely inspired by the show’s recent provisional license retakes, as well as Mirio and Nighteye’s additions…
Why It Works: What Anime Should You Check Out After Avatar: The Last Airbender?
With the spring season largely cancelled by COVID, the anime-adjacent thing I’ve most enjoyed recently has undoubtedly been the utterly fantastic Avatar: The Last Airbender. And fortunately, …
Let’s Hear It For the “Boy”
I had resisted this show for some time. I have a hard time with music genres and sports genres, as they are quite similar in their approach: someone…
Why It Works: Sing “Yesterday” For Me is this Season’s Must-Watch Drama!
The title for this one pretty much covers it – Yesterday’s premiere was fantastic, and also happened to be on Crunchyroll, so today I wrote an expanded article…
Why It Works: Here’s Why You Absolutely Need to Catch Up on My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU!
With the summer season nearly upon us, this week’s Why It Works ended up being unsurprisingly dedicated to singing the praises of Oregairu, one of my very favorite…
Let’s Watch LYCORIS RECOIL Episode 1 – Easy Does It
Lycoris Recoil gets off to an explosive start with a winding, conspiracy-laden first episode full of cute girls and violence.
Hidden Pictures
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,
Marchen Awakens Romance, Winter Sonata, Umineko: When They Cry, When They Cry
Let’s Talk About It: The Unpopular Opinion(s) of Anime!
Remember when you were a kid and you watched one of your favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons, and then Monday morning you’d talk about said cartoon with your friends…
Let’s Talk About It: The Visual Beauty Of Anime Openings!
Anime. What more can be said about it that hasn’t already been said before. It went from being an underground niche medium (and still is in some parts)…
Let’s Talk About It: The Best & Worst Of Anime Fandoms!
What does it mean to be a fan of something? If you ask anybody on the street they would tell you it means that you have admiration for…
Why It Works: Chihayafuru is Back! But Where Do Its Heroes Go From Here?
Did you really think I wouldn’t also be rambling about Chihayafuru over on Crunchyroll? Considering it’s easily the platform’s strongest pickup of the season, I expect to be gushing…