For a long time, I felt out of the loop whenever Pokémon came up. It seemed like half the anime fans in my generation watched or played Pokémon growing up. Meanwhile, I didn’t watch anime until I was sixteen. My family didn’t have Cartoon Network, so I didn’t even watch dubbed anime in ignorance, like many of my friends.… Read More Annalyn’s Corner: Leave the Pokemon Village
In sports anime, characters have to learn that their failures don’t define them—or their place on the team. Once they learn they are unconditionally accepted, valued, and forgiven, they’re able to play without any more pressure than necessary. I’ve noticed this often on Haikyuu!!, but the most recent episode struck me in a slightly different way. For Ennoshita,… Read More Annalyn’s Corner: Haikyuu!!, Grace, and Boldness
It’s easy to get in a rut with the kind of anime you consume. I entered the fandom in a pre-made rut, applying the same prejudices I had about live action movies and YA fiction to animation. If there weren’t explosions, sword fights, martial arts, or some similar form of excitement, I wouldn’t give the show a… Read More Annalyn’s Corner: Giving Rakugo Shinjuu a Chance
The best anime—really, the best stories in any medium—capture a little bit of what it means to be human. The characters wrestle with themes like freedom, death, family, love, and corruption, whether in dialogue or action, and the audience relates, because we’re trying to figure out how and why these themes play out in our… Read More Annalyn’s Corner: What is Freedom?
I love how sports anime portray different strengths and weaknesses. In Haikyuu!!, for example, Hinata Shouyou enters high school volleyball majorly lacking in two areas: height and experience. People consistently underestimate him because of this, and no one would blame Hinata if he gave up—at the very least, they’d expect him to envy his taller peers. Instead,… Read More Annalyn’s Corner: Valuing Strength that Lasts
In anime, insults are often represented by arrows that stick straight into a character. Depending on the anime, a barrage of insults might knock the character onto the ground. The offender might not even realize what he’s doing—often the hurtful words are said out of ignorance and carelessness, rather than ill will. The effect is… Read More Annalyn’s Corner: Your Words Have Influence
This weekend, I found Zombie-Loan on Crunchyroll. I loved it about five years ago, so I decided to see what I’d think of it now. As expected, I’m no longer a fan. I’ll knock my rating for it down at least 25% by the time I finish re-watching. And yet, there are some nuggets of truth to… Read More Annalyn’s Corner: Living like a Zombie
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