Yo ho ho, piratical Christmas?! I’ve kind of made it a personal challenge as to how many posts I can write out of “Red Nosed Reindeer,” the third episode of Sword Art Online. (I believe this is my third.) This time, I want to explore the contrasting attitudes toward death displayed in the episode. Death… Read More 12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 3: Sword Art Online, Death and Birth
Everyone is going to die—everyone on this Earth is going to die. That’s not exactly news. But to have this notion in some corner of your mind is very different from actually seeing the day come, like a spinning roulette in which your number may just come up next. To know that, before the moment… Read More Bokurano: And thus we face Death
Wonder Egg Priority is a beautiful, uncomfortable, moving and confusing series that starts out engaging all the things we don’t talk about—self-harm, abuse, rape, bullying, gender dysphoria, and homosexuality, to name a few. Our silence and blindness to these issues have a weight and pressure to them, and WEP shows how this reinforces the isolation… Read More Wonder Egg Priority, Episode 11: “The Temptation of Death”?
Love is always Like looking through clear water Go to accept it And it leaves Just like you Love is always In a sunshine-filled place Even if I can’t see you Can’t touch you It’s like you’re by my side -“Letter” (Violet Evergarden Special end song) by TRUE Anime has become harder to watch for… Read More Violet Evergarden Special: What God Is Known For
In This Corner of the World, one of the most critically acclaimed anime films of recent years, went relatively under the radar. Following the life of the joyful and ditzy Suzu, the film mixes whimsical elements with gut-wrenching realism, taking place in the years leading up to and through WWII, reaching a climax with the… Read More TangleCast 66: The Meaning of Life in This Corner of the World
The tragic attack on Kyoto Animation was a shock to us all. I felt devastated as I read the reports, but turned a bit toward hope when I came upon the fundraiser. The people who created many of my favorite anime, such as Violet Evergarden and Tamako Market, were now reeling from the loss of… Read More Angel Beats and Accepting Death
I perceived a fascinating juxtaposition in the new arc of Boogiepop and Others. Boogiepop refers to herself as a shinigami or the Reaper, aka Death, but what are we to make of the Imaginator? The Imaginator is obviously the villain, but I wondered why a villain should be referred to as “he who imagines”? While pondering… Read More Death vs. the Devil in Boogiepop and Others