Glass no Kamen (2005), one of the adaptations of Suzue Miuchi’s 1976 manga, has recently brought me back to the joys of my time as an amateur theater actor at university. The anime gets it right—the audience, the lights, the bonding and the rivalries, the last minute changes, the unexpected accidents which require fast improvisation,… Read More Glass no Kamen: Christians of Spring and Winter
Teasing Master Takagi-San has been a joyful surprise for me. This slice-of-life school comedy about the excessively self-conscious Nishikata and his clever and humorous female deskmate, Takagi-san, is full of color and light and small moments in which I could find myself—and God—went much further than I thought it would, and really pulled me along… Read More Teasing Master Takagi-san, and an Easter after Lent
Where did it all go wrong? As the events of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry) reset again and again to square one, like an inadvertent Goundhog Day, protagonist Keiichi Mabara repeatedly asks himself this question. Caught in a murder spree of some sort or another, with a different friend of his group involved… Read More Higurashi, Lent and the Martyrs
Although, depending on where you live, it might not feel like Easter was just here (we even had snow this week), the celebration of Our Lord’s death and resurrection has come again. I hope yours was a time of peace and renewal. In my church it’s customary to give up something during the 40+ days… Read More An Easter Approach to Social Media
Starting today and leading up through Easter Sunday, Beneath the Tangles will be running a series of posts based on a theme with the hopes that it will lead our readers to consider the meaning of this week and especially of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our theme this year is loneliness,… Read More Easter Week, Spike Spiegel, and the Loneliness of Running from the Past
Us liturgical Christians are in the middle of Lent, a penitential season marked by prayer, fasting and almsgiving in preparation for Easter. It recalls the forty days that Christ spent fasting in the desert, in preparation for his ministry (Matthew 4:1-2). It’s the season that I struggle the most with, where I can feel a… Read More A Lenten Haruhi Suzumiya
Today marks to beginning of the Lenten Season. Although I’m not Catholic, and have never observed the tradition of giving up a vice or practice for Lent, I certainly understand that this custom holds significance for many (Medieval Otaku, one of our newest writers, could certainly tell you more). There’s also an increasing trend of… Read More Five Reasons to Give up Anime for Lent