Admiration, Disgust, and Love: The Big 3 in “perfect slumbers”

Nekomonogatari: Kuro has arguably my favorite visual in its opening theme throughout the entirety of the Monogatari Series. The opening consists of Tsubasa Hanekawa traveling via train paired with her guitar or CD player, while the dearly somber “perfect slumbers” lyrics tell the tale of Tsubasa’s romantic feelings blooming within the darkness, seeing Koyomi Araragi’s outstretched hand as a beam of light to save her. Hanekawa isn’t sure if she can reach such a bright hand, but wants it to be Koyomi’s hand nonetheless. With so many themes and vivid storytelling going on, I want to focus on one of the very last visuals in the opening theme: Araragi groveling in front of Hanekawa as she looks down on him with disappointment and disgust, surrounded by a copious amount of Red Tsubaki flowers.

5 Thoughts For Spring Anime 2018

With the first week of Spring Anime 2018 in the books, the ever-living hype of the “top heavy” anime listings delivered on every front, and then some. Based entirely off pilot episodes, studios, source material and adaptation history, I will be making predictions and unveiling wishful thoughts for this season as a whole going forward.

Broken Wings, Dependency and a Kiss of Death: Why Darling in the FranXX is More Than Just One Character

     Going into Winter 2018, those who checked out upcoming anime and saw Darling in the FranXX cautiously gave it a pass for the eye test. A-1 Pictures notoriously has a bad reputation, however partnering with Trigger made fans hopeful for what’s to come in this two cour anime. 6 weeks into Darling’s premier, the general consensus for the anime is “Zero Two carries the anime”, and that is very far from the truth. There is a lot of compelling symbolism, foreshadowing, and interpersonal relationship struggles that make for a promising road as we slowly approach Darling’s season finale. Hiro’s insatiable desire to achieve his dream of riding FranXX, combined with his relationship with Zero Two make for a very compelling dynamic that will define Darling in the FranXX.

Mid-Season Review: Winter Anime 2018

Winter Anime 2018 is here and boy did this season come quick. With welcoming the New Year, comes this season’s theme: cute girls, doing cute things. This season I’m picking up 27 seasonal anime, so basically I have a death sentence written. This format will copy my Summer 2017 Review, however the reviews will be shorter text-wise for easier digestion.

Summer Anime 2017 Awards

Now that Summer Anime 2017 has come to a close, it’s time to get the seasonal awards under way. Being that this is my first time doing this, it’ll be rough around the edges but I plan to continue adding and refining these end season awards as I plan to make this a staple. As of right now, I have a tier list planned, rank lists for various aspects such as OP/ED rankings, Character/Waifu rankings, etc.

10 Thoughts Going Into Fall Anime 2017

Summer anime has been an absolute treat, with dark-horses like Gamers! making way, newcomers like Kakegurui taking the scene and sequel titans like BNHA continuing their legacy with much more of their story to tell. Going into Fall Anime 2017, here are my end-season thoughts:

Mid-Season Summer Anime 2017 Review

I’m going to briefly talk about each anime I’m watching from this season and wrap it up in 250 words or less. Every season of anime I walk into it thinking “Less than 10 this time Alex” and “this season’s looking suspect” and EVERY TIME I’m pleasantly surprised by how good the seasonal anime turns out to be. My watch list includes 11 Seasonal Anime with 2 leftovers from Spring 2017.

Slice of Kobayashi

When I think of SOL (Slice of Life) anime, I think RomCom’s such as Toradora!, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Clannad & Chuunibyo. Next I think of Supernatural anime like AnoHana, Clannad: After Story & Haruhi Suzumiya. Finally, I think of standard school based SOL with their own twist like K-On!, Hyouka, Nichijou & Tanaka-Kun.

If I had to make an S Tier of SOL anime that isnt dominated by Romance and something everyone could watch+enjoy, I’d roll with K-On!, Haruhi Suzumiya, and Yuru Yuri. These are all anime with a ton of comedy, enjoyable stories and characters that you can relate to like Kyon from Haruhi, and theres a character for everyone in Yuru Yuri. I focus on SOL anime that aren’t dominated by Romance because most of the all time great SOL anime are heavily influenced by Romance/Relationships. However, there’s a SOL anime that has very little Romantic aspects, and does everything you could expect from a Slice of Life anime and more: Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

First blog post

Welcome to my blog, I plan to update this as much as possible regarding anything anime ranging from seasonal anime, completed anime, characters, plots, etc.

I consume a ton of anime everyday, and while I converse with my friends all the time in an unstructured format I’d like to get my thoughts on here as well, and hopefully expand past “podcast talk show format”.