This debate crops up with some regularity. First of all, it’s pointless and stupid to tell you which you should prefer. But there are some interesting things about brain science and anime history that can be added to the mix.
Continue reading →On August 4 of this year, one of the Precure events for children was held in Tokyo. They’re popular, featuring all sorts of activities, including a live-action stage battle and dress-up corner where girls can transform into their favorite current season Cures and have their photo taken. Something was missing this time. There are outfits for Cure Sky, Cure Prism, and Cure butterfly, but none for Cure Wing! Maybe the … Continue reading →
There’s a genre of anime i like, usually under slice-of-life or iyashikei, where the main character’s dissatisfied with their life and wants to make a change. They want to make friends and stand out from the crowd. With Yura in this series, it’s her first day at a new school, and she’s failing to make an impression. Maybe joining one of the official school clubs is the solution!
Continue reading →I’ve been impressed by the writing on the Pretty Cure series from the very first. It’s a great example of Hopepunk, positive and uplifting, with the characters making tough decisions and coming up with different solutions and unconventional tactics. They make things better, but not perfect.
Continue reading →What’s an Otaku? An otaku is someone passionate about their unconventional interests, and spends considerable time, thought, and/or money in support of them. People usually think of anime and manga fans, but in Japan it would also include trains, martial arts, traditional/historic clothing, gaming, etc.
Continue reading →Bocchi the Rock! is the new entry in the girl’s rock band category. It’s more of comedy to K-On!’s relaxing iyashekei. Bocchi’s more succinct, with 12 episodes to K-On’s 41 + Movie. The real difference is that we see a lot more musical realism with Bocchi, which gives them challenges to work on.
Continue reading →In the last entry I introduced the project to compare episodes from the 2004 Futari Wa Precure with the new series, Hirogaru Sky! Precure. Here we look at the first episode from both:
Continue reading →In a discussion over on urusai.social (mastodon anime instance), I got the idea to watch Hirogaru Sky Precure (new 20th season) and Futari wa Precure (1st season) in synch, and compare them. I’d watched quite a few magical girl anime series, but I was reluctant to try Precure because there were over 600 episodes at the time, and I’d heard that it was aimed at 5-8 year old girls. My … Continue reading →
Back in 2020 I was thinking of starting watching Precure, but was reluctant because there were so many episodes. I asked my friend Margaret about it, and she had written this article a couple months before that. She was sure I would enjoy it, so I decided to start at the beginning. Here’s her article: May 29, 2020 Hello my friends and happy Friday, I wanted to put down a … Continue reading →
Garden of Words is an excellent example of the Kishotenketsu story structure. If you haven’t seen that movie, I also look at Kiki’s Delivery Service here. Did you ever notice that things play out differently in some anime movies? They just don’t follow the familiar pattern of action that we’re used to in Western fare. For fans expecting something like a typical action movie, it’s a disappointment. The reason? It’s … Continue reading →
