tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59774476184265598472024-02-20T21:07:42.247-05:00Narrative InvestigationsReviews of books, manga, anime, tv shows, movies, and webcomics. If it has a plot then I have something to say about it.Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comBlogger1171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-67046653086030574212020-07-05T23:05:00.000-04:002020-07-05T23:05:08.938-04:00Two Weeks Worth of Media: June 22nd - July 4th<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(wohoops)</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2020/07/two-weeks-worth-of-media-june-22nd-july.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-44253358508778916412020-06-24T13:39:00.001-04:002020-06-24T13:39:41.569-04:00A Week's Worth of Media: June 14th-21st<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well, it's certainly been a minute y'all.</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-weeks-worth-of-media-june-14th-21st.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-43811456885365243842018-12-24T13:09:00.003-05:002018-12-24T13:09:48.137-05:00Helen's 12 Days of Anime 2018: Summer 2018 anime round-UP<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Boy I was watching a lot this past summer! Heck, there are still some titles that I tried when the season started and I liked them well enough but just did not have a chance to get back into them and they're still on my to-watch list months later. Not a clue when I'll get to those, but let's go down everything I did have a chance to finish. Quick note, if I was going to include the <b>Yamato 2199</b>/<b>Yamato 2202</b> series in these round-up posts this would probably be the place to do it (since the last episodes Crunchyroll uploaded were uploaded in August, although they've all been taken down by now) but I don't want to talk about this series until it's completely <i>completely</i> done so hopefully I'll have a chance to do that, uh, next spring when the last movie releases in Japan I guess.</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2018/12/helens-12-days-of-anime-2018-summer.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-62477981520196793072018-12-17T15:20:00.003-05:002018-12-17T15:20:26.767-05:00Helen's 12 Days of Anime 2018: Spring 2018 anime round-UP<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moving right along, my spring slate of anime might look fuller than my winter plate but actually I think they were pretty similar since I had a couple of continuing series which I didn't talk about last time. And there were a few shows which I dropped that I haven't included, like <b>Record of the Grancrest War</b>, thinking of doing an entire post just on my dropped shows but it feels a little petty.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Also, I've got two Netflix shows this time around, <b>HisoMaso </b>and <b>A.I.C.O.</b> and I included them both in this spring round-up for two different reasons. <b>A.I.C.O.</b> was an easy addition since Netflix dropped all of the episodes in a single day, worldwide, and this was the show's very first release. However, while <b>HisoMaso</b> wouldn't hit Netflix until this fall I actually followed the fansubs for this series during the spring (because like hell I'm passing up any series with dragons in it). I'm trying to be consistent in how I construct these posts but man, Netflix is just not making it easy for me!</span><br>
<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2018/12/helens-12-days-of-anime-2018-spring.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-16808778444512938472018-12-16T00:26:00.001-05:002018-12-16T00:26:48.081-05:00Helen's 12 Days of Anime 2018: Winter 2018 anime round-up<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hi again y'all, it's been even longer than I thought and I gotta say, grad school has been kicking my ass and this past fall semester was the worst so far. I'm still doing some manga blogging over at <a href="http://theoasg.com/">The OASG</a> but that's about all I can manage these days, especially since I'm about to gear up for job hunting.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So! For this year's 12 Days of Anime I'm going to try and talk about a lot of the anime I was able to watch this past year to semi-make-up for that. I might not have had the time to put together a lot of reviews and blogs but half-hour anime episodes still fit into my schedule so I did watch a far amount of stuff this past year! </span><br>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Starting from the beginning then, let's run down everything I saw and finished in the Winter 2018 season from my favorite shows to, um, things that I at least finished in a given season. For shows that lasted more than one cour (including split cours) I'll talk about them in the season they ended which is why this one is a bit short to start things out!</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2018/12/helens-12-days-of-anime-2018-winter.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-65587007326416666632018-01-24T17:37:00.001-05:002018-01-24T17:37:36.511-05:00Fall 2017 Anime Review<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hey guys!</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I want to put on the blog here in the future but it's still really handy for me to make these little listicle/round-up posts for myself. ("Handy?" Well you know, when I'm making larger lists, recommending things to friends, figuring out what books my parents should buy me for my birthday, etc).</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, here's what I spent the last three months predominately watching when it came to anime (<b>Just Because!</b> was dropped halfway through, <b>Ancient Magus Bride </b>& <b>Garo: Vanishing Line</b> are still on-going so they aren’t in this post). Some of this will sound a bit repetitive since I mentioned a number of these shows in my 12 Days of Anime posts (like my Top 9 Shows of 2017 post) but here they area again one more time!</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2018/01/fall-2017-anime-review.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-3560900337373378062017-12-31T10:55:00.001-05:002017-12-31T10:55:54.819-05:00On the final day of aniblogging I give to thee: 12 shows I unceremoniously dropped <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Suck it y'all.</span><br>
<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/on-final-day-of-aniblogging-i-give-to.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-69005073538549046532017-12-29T23:42:00.001-05:002017-12-29T23:42:47.951-05:00On the eleventh day of aniblogging I give to thee: 11 shows that I haven't yet seen<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">No matter how much anime I try to watch each year, and by god I watch a LOT, there are always shows I just don't get around to. Sometimes a show has a slow start so I try it, drop it, and only find out much later that it was worth sticking around for. Other times a show is so niche that is is both incredibly my kind of show but really hard for me to find out about (I feel like I'm trying to do the reverse of this with <b>Kabukibu</b>, I'm trying to let everyone know how much I enjoyed this show now that it's on a larger streaming service). So, while I most likely won't end up trying out every show on this list they are all shows that I'm curious about!</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/on-eleventh-day-of-aniblogging-i-give.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-8938874568576355292017-12-28T23:04:00.000-05:002017-12-28T23:04:13.751-05:00You don't need a "normal" quirk to be a superhero<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second season of <b>My Hero Academia</b> gave its side characters a lot of chances to shine during the sports festival arc and I was struck by how many of the characters' superhuman quirks were (on the surface) completely unsuited to being superhero powers.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like, let's run down the list of 10 of the stranger quirks that make for surprisingly good superhero powers (even if I question the logic behind basically all of them)</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/you-dont-need-normal-quirk-to-be.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-44670969977554182092017-12-24T23:00:00.000-05:002017-12-24T23:00:27.373-05:00On the ninth day of aniblogging I give to thee: My favorite shows of 2017<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I never aim to have a "top ten list" or anything like that, I just count up how many books/shows/etc I liked the most and go from there. And, since I'm bad at numbering these, let's just go alphabetically from the top!</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/on-ninth-day-of-aniblogging-i-give-to.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-59491680910489648342017-12-21T20:31:00.000-05:002017-12-21T20:31:13.465-05:00Eight times Encouragement of Climb was my aesthetic <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So <b>Encouragement of Climb </b>season 2 came out a couple of years ago but I only saw it last summer and I put the title for this post away in my drafts lists for the 12 days of anime 2017. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then I was so busy that I didn't realize that Crunchyroll had taken down all of the second season episodes until earlier this week.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, hopefully I'll have a better version of this post next year. Frankly I just didn't have enough time to torrent the show to find the right screenshots, but here's the gist of what I was planning to write:</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/eight-times-encouragement-of-climb-was.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-72072387745640580582017-12-20T19:29:00.000-05:002017-12-20T19:29:39.716-05:00On the seventh day of aniblogging I give to thee: seven shows that disappointed me~<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Alright, time for some hot takes.</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/on-seventh-day-of-aniblogging-i-give-to.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-30647974222560413392017-12-19T21:20:00.000-05:002017-12-19T21:20:49.587-05:00Six seasons of Takashi Natsume receiving Reiko Natsume’s comeuppance<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was fairly surprised when we got a fifth season of <b>Natsume Yuujinchou</b> (<b>Natsume and the Book of Friends</b>) last year. I wasn’t surprised that a sixth season came around shortly later, <b>Natsume</b> has been doing split-</span>cours<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> before it was cool, but it certainly was wild to have a return to the series after more than a couple of years.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I enjoyed the return and by and large I don’t believe that I had any stunning insights into the show that were borne of my intervening years of life experience, phew because that would be really condescending. There was one thing that I noticed however and that is that Reiko Natsume, the deceased grandmother of Takashi Natsume, follows the classic trickster archetype but with one difference: her comeuppance always falls to Takashi.</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/six-seasons-of-takashi-natsume.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-3185851380517484782017-12-18T19:51:00.000-05:002017-12-18T19:51:34.344-05:00Is your job your life? The five girls of Sakura Quest<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I didn’t like <b>Sakura Quest</b> as much as I had hoped I would and it was for the simple reason that I just didn’t resonate with any of the five girls. In some </span>ways<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, the girls were really similar and I don’t just mean in art </span>style<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, this is a story about working adults and yet it seems like all they do IS work!</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/is-your-job-your-life-five-girls-of.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-87755517001756308592017-12-17T14:14:00.001-05:002017-12-17T14:14:59.137-05:00Why I don’t like digital-only manga: four series I can’t check out from the library!<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">While I certainly don’t mind having the option to collect manga digitally I am a little put out by the sheer number of digital-only manga titles coming out these days. They’re largely being put out by Kodansha USA and while I have several little complaints (they put out so many it’s hard to keep out, they release them so quietly I never see any buzz, etc) but my chief complaint is that I can’t check them out from the library! </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There may be some way for my library system to get say, a kindle or comixology version of these manga for patrons to check out, or heck maybe even try to make Overdrive do something useful for once, but as far as I know my library system hasn’t done this so I’m just bummed out. I’d love to read these series but heck, I can’t even keep up with buying series that I already love, I can’t keep dropping money for new stories sight unread!</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So, here are four titles that I’d love to read but haven’t yet (and skipping over the elephant in the room, <b>Chihayafuru</b>, and skipping over the couple that actually have gotten later print releases).</span><br>
<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/why-i-dont-like-digital-only-manga-four.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-19868626007774895022017-12-16T14:35:00.000-05:002017-12-16T14:35:02.749-05:00On the third day of aniblogging I give to thee: Three new franchises for me (thanks guys)<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Like I said in yesterday’s post, I actually managed to get into the <b>Symphogear</b> series this past summer when I was nursing a really persistent migraine. The “nice” thing about my migraines (and why it also took years longer than it should have to diagnose) is that I don’t have light sensitivity so at least I can still watch videos even when there is literally nothing else I can do (no really, the pain keeps me from sleeping and even thinking straight is really tough). I had tried <b>Symphogear</b> a few years earlier with a friend but we just couldn’t get into it, it was too campy for us (plus the visuals in the first few episodes are rough, the show actually had to switch studios halfway through the first season which is a special iteration of production hell). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This time I was willing to try and make it past the camp and I really dug it. <b>Symphogear</b> is kinda funny in that the plots often end up being super dumb, the villains never die (someone please just kill off that doctor for good already), and yet the characters are really fun despite all of the insane hoops the plot makes them jump through. I’m enjoying it, wish it had more of a US fandom so I could buy fanart of it, and REALLY REALLY WANT THAT FOURTH SEASON CRUNCHYROLL.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another franchise that I got into earlier this year was Fire Emblem, I totally blame Justin for this. I’ve been playing <b>Path of Radiance</b> on and off (I'm not terribly great at it) and Justin eventually encouraged me to play <b>Fire Emblem Heroes</b> as well. I wish <b>Heroes</b> had more story content since I think that’s the most fun part (also, ORB BANANZA) but for the moment I’m having fun with the events. I just hope that I beat <b>PoR</b> EVENTUALLY since there are more Fire Emblem games I want to play later and I really don’t like to have multiple, unfinished games on my hands at once.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finally, in more ways than one, both Funimation and Crunchyroll have started streaming the <b>Space Battleship Yamato 2199</b> from 2012 (good lord, I was still in undergrad!) and I’m pretty happy I’ve finally gotten an introduction to another one of anime’s seminal, sci-fi series. The premise of the story is way bleaker than I expected however, I did not realize that the series would start with “aliens came, bomb us, wrecked the Earth, and we have about a year before humanity goes extinct” which isn’t exactly the mood I want to be watching in 2017! But so far, episodes are being released one by one so I won’t finish the series until halfway through the spring season, I’m digging the high tension plots and continuously amused that the Yamato is literally a marine battleship IN SPACE. Like seriously guys, I don’t feel like this design is the best fit for the number of atmospheric re-entries that the Yamato is clearly going to be making…..</span><br />
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Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-59895427601123542742017-12-15T22:43:00.003-05:002017-12-15T22:43:34.582-05:00On the second day of aniblogging I give to thee: two shows blocked from me~<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Netflix was not a newcomer to the anime streaming business in 2017 but </span>frankly<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, this is the year they’re starting to irk me the most. Sure I was plenty grumpy with how long I had to </span>wait<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> in-between </span>cours<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> of Kuromukuro but this year the gaps in between when a show airs and when a show drops on Netflix have gotten more random-seemingly. I’m hoping that the fall 2017 fantasy series <b>Children of Whales</b> pops up on the service soon; it looked really interesting and it’s a shame since Viz Media actually managed to release the first volume of the manga to coincide with the anime’s airing and that synergy really does help sales! (also, expect a review from me on that first volume over at The OASG sometime in the coming weeks).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I was also miffed this year that Crunchyroll did not end up simulcasting, or rather stream at all, <b>Symphogear AXZ</b> when it aired. I’m going to talk more about <b>Symphogear</b> in a later post but I finally got into the franchise this year and I was excited to see that I was all set to catch-up right around when the latest season was going to air (I have a lot of friends who love the show so I wanted to talk with them about it!). And yet, we haven’t heard a PEEP out of Crunchyroll about the show. As far as I know, the show hasn’t switched studios or anything, there must be music rights involved but Crunchyroll must have dealt with those for the first three seasons of <b>Symphogear</b> as well, so I’m befuddled! I really hope that CR is able to put up the show either by/when the upcoming fifth season airs, I really want my campy sorta-kinda-idol-punching-monsters show!</span><br />
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Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-16667194696040988532017-12-14T20:43:00.004-05:002017-12-14T20:43:56.520-05:00On the first day of aniblogging I give to thee: one anime shit-watched~<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Clearly I am starting off this series of posts on The Best Possible Note.</span><br>
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</div><a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/on-first-day-of-aniblogging-i-give-to.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-88081300867855281832017-12-13T21:59:00.000-05:002017-12-13T21:59:30.683-05:00Day 0: The 12 Days of Anime 2017<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I wish I had blogged more this year.</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/day-0-12-days-of-anime-2017.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-6944279982974534292017-09-12T23:22:00.001-04:002017-09-12T23:22:39.769-04:00Otakon 2017 Con Report: Sunday<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;">Well, at least I got this fully posted within a month of the con?</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/09/otakon-2017-con-report-sunday.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-75457414450664485992017-09-05T19:47:00.000-04:002017-09-05T19:47:12.569-04:00Atom: The Blockheads<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most folks would start a blog post on the recently concluded anime <i>Atom: The Beginning</i> by saying what previous experience they have with Osamu Tezuka's best known work <i>Mighty Atom</i> (<i>Astro Boy</i>). I will be brief: I have no experience with it at all (except for Naoki Urasawa's manga adaptation <i>Pluto</i>). <i>Atom: The Beginning </i>is not one of Tezuka's own works, instead it is a currently running manga written and illustrated by Tetsuro Kasahara, although yes it does have some contributions/guidance from both Masami Yuki and Osamu Tezuka's son, Makoto Tezuka. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Given that this is a different kind of <i>Astro Boy</i> story, much like <i>Pluto</i> in that way, I think it's fine that I came to it with more or less no experience. These days it's rather common for every currently airing anime with a manga source material to have their source material snapped up and licensed but strangely enough <i>Atom</i> hasn't been licensed here, ie, I have no idea how faithful or not this adaptation is to its source. <i>Atom</i> also seemed to be a bit of an unpopular anime; I'm not sure how much of this is due to its own merits and how much of this relates to the fact that it was streaming behind a double-paywall on Amazon's Anime Strike service, but typically for franchises I'm not familiar with I'll rely on the knowledge of other fans to fill me in on historical context, funny cameos etc etc. (I mean, I REALLY don't have the time to google every character, every event, and then try several different spellings and trying to search in Japanese too since that's what it often takes!).</span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/09/atom-blockheads.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-64688596916477694762017-08-30T22:30:00.004-04:002017-08-30T22:30:58.634-04:00Otakon 2017 Con Report: Saturday<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">An even busier day somehow! </span><br>
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<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/08/otakon-2017-con-report-saturday.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-23277765978020041522017-08-28T22:18:00.000-04:002017-08-28T22:18:02.641-04:00The Eccentric Family 2<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I really enjoyed the first season of <i>The Eccentric Family</i>. It was whimsical and magical in a very low-key way, even when the stakes became very high for Yasaburo and the rest of his tanuki buddies/family. Of course it always helps when the art is pretty as well, I liked the semi-flat, far less moe than most PA Works shows, style and there are still so many scenes that I can crisply remember thanks to both this artwork and their tone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I was excited for the second season of the show, I wasn’t quite sure what else needed telling in the story but I was up for it! And now that the second season has ended I’m left asking myself, What was the point of that season?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second season was not bad but it did not have the clear character developement and drive of the first season. I’ve seen folks mention that the source material for <i>The Eccentric Family</i> is a book series and while it’s set to be a trilogy the final book isn’t out yet (all I’ve heard about it is that it contains The Great Tengu War WHICH I AM SO DOWN FOR). That would explain some things, in my opinion the middle installment in a trilogy is the trickiest story to tell satisfactorily since it lacks the natural draw and tidiness that comes with either a beginning or an ending. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And it certainly feels like we’re in the middle of Benten’s story. I was a bit frustrated that this season didn’t do even more with her since she is the most fascinating character in the series. It’s not that I don’t love our tanuki main cast but we already know them well; from their histories, hopes, to why their conflicts play out as they do. But Benten, born human Satomi Suzuki and spirited away and then trained by Akadama into becoming a tengu, is a real mystery all around (fun tidbit, it looks like Professor Yodogawa’s assistant is her brother!). Equally mysterious is another character with a name that’s not a name, Nidame (literally, The Second) who appears to be Benten’s inverse; a tengu (whom at this point I’m presuming born to Akadama) but who vocally eschews his tengu status, despite constantly doing things no human could. This is a thematic conflict ripe for development, even though I fear it might make the story messier as a whole (if, as Yasaburo says, there are tanuki, humans, and tengu, is it possible for someone to switch classes? And what about those oni in the demon world? Etc etc) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Eccentric Family 2</i> advanced some of the plots surrounding the Shinogami Family but it did not change anything about the larger tanuki society, or the even larger Kyoto society, really at all. And that’s where this season fell flat for me. <i>The Eccentric Family</i> is clearly a story with ideas of mixing in themes and conflicts between both personal and larger levels and yet it didn’t deliver this time. I can only hope that this second season was one of house-keeping, merely tidying up, for a grander, more foolish, finale. </span>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-58969399397551094512017-08-23T21:53:00.003-04:002017-08-23T21:53:37.941-04:00Otakon 2017 Con Report: Friday<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br>
<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/08/otakon-2017-con-report-friday.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977447618426559847.post-76886144185566242572017-08-21T16:30:00.000-04:002017-08-21T16:30:15.912-04:00Summer Anime 2017 Initial Round-UP<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let me tell ya folks, I have NOT missed messing around in blogger to try and make sure my posts are actually legible. HOO BOY.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anyway, as anyone who listens regularly to the The OASG podcast probably knows, I tried out a heck of a lot of anime this summer! I'm not keeping up with all of it but that's fine by me, I'm forever trying to find that happy balance between "this anime is only okay but I want to watch it alongside other people" and "this anime just isn't doing enough for me, let's work on my backlog instead." I am trying to plow through last year's <i>Precure</i> show, <i>Mahou Tsukia Pretty Cure</i>, since my plan is to finish that witch series before watching <i>Little Witch Academia</i> and then finish THAT before I go back to this year's <i>Precure</i> series, but really that's the only backlog show I'm watching right now too. Especially since I am still watching three shows from the spring (which again are <i>Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul</i>, <i>My Hero Academia</i>, and <i>Sakura Quest</i>) so once again I've got a full plate of shows to watch!<br></span><br>
<a href="http://narrativeinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/08/summer-anime-2017-initial-round-up.html#more">Read more »</a>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07574610749856418971noreply@blogger.com