In my youth, the two anime protagonists stood larger than life in my eyes: Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop) and Shinji Ikari (Evangelion). The pair are so contrasting – Spike only wants to look forward even though his past won’t let him, while Ikari should move forward but is continually stuck in the past. I feel like I’m a little of both, especially in regards to Beneath the Tangles. I’m a little bit Shinji, with my heart always attached to the site even as I’ve put my efforts into Anime Pop Heart and other endeavors. But when I left, I was Spike Spiegel. No looking back. Whatever happens, happens. I was confident leaving my home in the hands of Japes, who has a heart for the site and the wisdom and know-how to develop it in a right direction.
Now, 16 months later, I feel even more confident I made the right decision. I thought our staff was wonderful, but it’s even stronger now than how I left it. The site functions so much better. And new readers have become part of our community. Japes and the administrative staff here have done a marvelous job – it’s not easy to take another’s site, filled with his passions, direction, vision, and mistakes, and to not only make it work, but to also lead it to growth. I’m so thankful to the leadership and staff. Meanwhile, on my end, I became more involved in my local ministry. I also took a busier job which, strangely enough, has seemed to prepare me for something I never expected: a return to this website.
As our Patreon users discovered a few days ago, and now you all as well, I’m returning to Beneath the Tangles as the site’s administrator.
A lot of you may not know me except if you’ve dug through archived posts, so I’ll just briefly introduce myself. My name is Charles, though I’m better known around the blogosphere as TWWK. I started this site almost seven years ago as a way to bring together two passions of mine – anime and Christianity. At the time, I had just started a family, and it’s grown since then. I’m also involved at my local church and work as a historian.
I hope you’ll join the staff and myself as we continue to move forward. Can you believe this blog is almost a decade old? And as with any site, organization, or group, Beneath the Tangles is dynamic and changing. You’ll see us do things a little differently, but my hope is that anything we do here will continue to engage you as we develop a better and better site, one that becomes a home for you as it’s been for me.
And maybe for just this once, I’ll gladly wear a comparison with Shinji Ikari (but only from episode two): I’m…I’m home.
Welcome back. =)
Thank you! 🙂
This is so awesome! I’m glad to have you back. You were the reason I followed this blog for all these years. I’m so happy to hear this.
I too went through a similar moment, when my blog was deleted and every trace of my work erased from existence. At first I chose to give up. But something in me decided to get up off the mat and start a new one, and now I’m getting more interaction in three months than I did in 8 years at the old blog. I hope you choose to stay for a long time!
Thanks, Tommy!
I’m glad to hear Anime Bowl is revived and better than ever! What’s your new URL?
It’s now called Tom-foolery, and it’s at tommyaphillips.com
Glad to see you back! You were one of the first bloggers I spoke with at the start of my own blogging, and I’ve always been encouraged by your drive and dedication to everything you do.
Thanks, Marina! We’re now the old-timers (mid-old-timers?). I’m glad to be back!
WELCOME BACK! I MISSED YOU!!
Aww, thank you! It’s so nice to be plugged back into the community!!
So glad to have you back on board! Not that the other contributors haven’t put out some quality articles, but it’ll be nice having someone on the site again whose tastes in anime run so closely parallel to mine.
I’m amazed at how much anime viewing has changed…10 or 15 years ago, we all pretty much had the same tastes. Now we have a website here with a dozen writers who ALL have different tastes without a whole lot of overlap!
Okaerinasai 🙂
😀
TWWK! :D:D Glad to see you back on the site again. In a lot of ways, it wasn’t really the same without you— Even though you were only gone for a year. I’m glad you and your Bebop avatar are back for me to have friendly theological and philosophical debates with. Even if I’m still not a Christian, and still possibly <3vil. XD
I’m so glad that I’ll be chatting with you once again. And don’t worry about the evil part – I would contend that we all are. 😉
That´s just great! True Easter news! I´m looking forward to you new articles.
By the way, I recently finished Serial Experiments Lain, which I found amazing. I´ll comment.
Aww, haha, thank you! I’ll look forward to your comments on Lain!
Welcome back, Charles! I’m new to this site, but absolutely thrilled to find a place where anime and Christianity cross paths. I hosted a weekly anime night in my home for about 11 years. While I haven’t had much time for anime since I had kids, it still holds a dear place in my heart.
Thank you, Teddi! I’m glad you’re able to come be part of the community here – a couple of us are parents, too, so we’ve deep in the business of finding time to do anything, haha, while trying to also raise a household that is revolves around the love of Christ.
I remember my first encounter was your Madoka post back when this site was still under WordPress, when I was searching for contents that combine my faith with anime. Bit late to the party, but welcome back =).
Ah, that was a very significant post for us. It brought a lot of people to the site and continues to, even though I kind of cringe at it a little now haha.
Thank you for being a part of the site!
[…] officially on April 24th, some 16 months after I left, I came home, armed with an analogy about Shinji Ikari and Spike Spiegel. I was also full of ideas. I’d spent a lot of time writing for Area of Effect magazine the […]
[…] world (you can see it everywhere, from Haruhi to Bokurano to Shirobako to Madoka to Grimgar), linked to our story as a site, and an otaku card must-see. And it’s also the strange kind of show I ended up not liking […]