Simplicity in Amanchu

I love plots with heavy meaning, full of depth that I can spend hours of my idle time breaking it down.  That’s one of the main reasons why I’ve claimed Puella Magi Madoka Magica as my favorite for so many years now and why this blog was originally intended to be about Planet With.  Planet With is easily one of my favorite examples of, well, almost a dozen separate themes all coming together into this beautiful gray space, rivaling that of Gundam OO, Concrete Revlutio and even Death Note for my money.  However, that all came crashing down when I watched Christopher Robin.  Yes, the live-action Winnie the Pooh movie.  The movie does nothing special and really only has two core values:  Family is more important than work and everyone needs to take time off and simply relax and exist.  The latter is kind of encompassed by the former, but I feel it’s different enough to merit its own mention.  Though simple, these themes are simultaneously powerful and well explored and made me want to write about something just as simple, powerful and sweet.  After that exceptionally long explanation and introduction I’m finally getting to the actual show I’ll be writing about:  Amanchu! And specifically, how it delivers its rather simple, yet powerful, messages in its own simple, powerful and sweet ways.

First Episode Principal

I mentioned in my first blog that I had some trouble figuring out what to write about; because I consider first impressions to be one of the most important moments when it comes to art and creation in general.  How are we supposed to trust creators if they aren’t willing, or are incapable, of giving us a good enough reason in the first place to become invested in what they’re creating?  It’s for that reason that I didn’t particularly care for Karas, why it took me until Sirene’s episode in Devilman:  Crybaby to actually care about the show, but I was immediately invested in others.  Cowboy Bebop, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Samurai Champloo, Planet With, Made in Abyss, FLCL, et cetera, because the staff was able to give a plethora of reasons to stick around for the show.  One of my favorite studios, Studio 3Hz, has stunningly good first episodes.  While I could talk about almost any of their shows I’m going to focus this time on last year’s gem, Princess Principal.

A first episode has a myriad of responsibilities and goals, all of which can be tackled in varying ways in the context of each story.  The primary goal is to give us a strong enough impression that we are invested enough to continue watching the rest of the show.  However, there are three supporting goals that are necessary in leading to that much larger, more important one.  Those three are to provide us context into what’s going on, provide us with some insight as to what the show’s themes and tone will be (which could also translate to, “provide us a teaser of the narrative”), and, lastly, provide us with what the aesthetic is going to be.  For the sake of clarity, I’m using aesthetic as a very broad topic encompassing not only the visuals and directing, but also the music and voice acting.  Without these three we end up with no idea as to what’s going on and disinterested which is… less than ideal if you’re trying to make people interested.

A Brief Look at the World Building of Yuki Yuna is a Hero

I was trying to come up with a good intro to this one that would give a little more incite to my personality and tastes but I can’t think of anything witty or smooth enough.  Instead I’ll just outright say it:  The world and character building in Yuki Yuna is a Hero is absolutely phenomenal and I want to talk about how specifically the first season does it so well.

Spoilers ahead.

ef: A Tale of Epiphanies

I spent a lot of time lamenting about what the first post on this new blog should be; something that would set a good enough standard for the following posts as well as give a good enough idea about the person writing to the readers.  I couldn’t write about my favorite anime, Madoka, because everyone has said something about it and I when I do get around to saying my thoughts, I want to be well versed enough to do them justice.  I also don’t want to start off with negatives as I am so tired of the cheap and easy trick that is, “rant about whatever you hate in a funny way”.  Only while watching Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya did it occur to me; why not simply write about the anime that made me a fan of the medium?

So here I am, talking about ef:  A Tale of Memories and how it took me from liking anime only on the surface, to truly appreciating it.