As I mentioned last week, one can view Serial Experiments Lain as the story of a machine learning to become human, though unlike most series, Lain puts the audience in a position where we don’t know that the “machine” isn’t a human at first. Episode 11 goes a step further as Eiri explains to Lain… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 11
From the very beginning, Serial Experiments Lain is unusual, abstract, hard to grasp. Just when you think the show couldn’t get any stranger, it does, with episode six taking us deeper into the strangeness and also pulling us out. While the mysteries of the Wired, the Knights, and Lain herself deepen (with the most remarkable… Read More Serial Experiments Lain Revisited: Episode 06
A few weeks ago, I cuddled up to my husband—whom I married the end of last August (2017)—and flicked on Toradora, a favorite of mine. With Adam being fairly new to anime, I’m trying to stick to ones I know well and feel he’ll enjoy so we can discuss and enjoy them together. Had you… Read More Taiga x Ryuuji and Messy Relationships
I was really excited to watch Koi to Uso. The plot summary for the series felt like Minority Report meets moe, where a high school boy wants to be with the girl of his dreams, but is assigned a different match by the Japanese government, which at this point of the future assigns marriages to… Read More Koi to Uso’s Marriage System and a Call for Incompatibility
Last week, I traveled on the first of two vacations we’ve planned for this summer. While I might have some pertinent content to share for the second, I was surprised that I also had something to share for the first, which was a simple excursion to South Padre Island, the nicest beach that we have… Read More TWWK’s Beach Episode
First fight. Romantic rivals. Long distance relationships. The conflict in Tsuki ga Kirei is real to life. I meet consistently with college students who attend my church, and these are some of the problems they’re dealing with in relationships. And of course, I’ve been there myself. The beauty of Tsuki ga Kirei is in evoking… Read More Tsuki ga Kirei and the Detours of Life
One of the things I try to teach young people I mentor is to question the culture. Question the church. Question authority. Why do you do the things you do? Why do you believe the things you believe? Are they in line what with you believe is true, or do you just accept them blindly?… Read More Akane v. Chinatsu: Is All Fair in Love and War?
Romcom anime is usually pretty simple. You’re introduced to a couple, then to conflict in the form of live triangles, misunderstandings, personal problems that each has to work through, etc., until an eventual resolution is found and the two come together. The supporting characters exist to help the leads grow closer together, so though they’re… Read More How Toradora Shows That Loving Others Isn’t Worth It
I knew kids just like Hachiman Hikigaya, the ones who didn’t socialize with anybody, nor did they seem to care that they didn’t have friends. Like them, Hikki would rather just be left alone. Or so it seems. Although he loves to extol the virtues of being a loner, it’s easy to tell in OreGairu that… Read More Hachiman Hikigaya and the Ugliness of Something Genuine
Tsuki ga Kirei is about a romantic relationship between a boy and girl, but even so, episode six was especially full of relationships. Through juxtaposition, we saw what it means to have a good relationship, via Kotaro’s family v. Akane’s, friendship v. relationship, and Takumi’s scolding of Akane v. the editor’s response to Kotaro. And… Read More Tsuki ga Kirei Episode 06: Relationship Building 101