Must-read Monthly Monday (May 2018 ed.)

Another month has just flown past. Let’s look back at what happened in it…

If it’s not specified, the time period covered in this post is from the 23rd of April 2018 to today (21st May 2018).

Navigation: Other People’s Reads | Spellbook Offerings | A Turbulent Month | Coming up next…

Other People’s Reads

It wouldn’t be a round-up post without them. However, since I scour people’s archives on a regular basis, these may not even be from the right time period…

• Isekai Izakaya Nobu is Cool Japan Propaganda by Frog-kun of Fantastic Memes – Cool Japan, for those not in the know, is an initiative by the Japanese government to use cultural items such as anime and manga to promote Japan, in ways that are more academically analysed than you think they might be – the term for this stuff for me is soft power. Despite that, the implications of what Cool Japan’s money could do, paired with the harsh tone, make this a pick of the month for how striking it is.
• The Requisites of an Aniblogger by Doteco of Ani-dotes – I’m not too familiar with Doteco, but this post of theirs is particularly intriguing. Once again, I’d like to reiterate it’s not the amount of content you put out, but how much fun you have while creating your content which makes aniblogging worth your while.
• Laid-Back Camp, a (Happy) Story of Solitude by Alex from The Afictionado – I forgot I had this post on the backburner until I opened up the folder of bookmarks I use for Must-read Monthly Mondays. Obviously it’s about YuruCamp, but more specifically it’s a lesson in not buying into the typical CGDCT tropes.
• A First Impression: Megalobox Episode 1 by Junko from Moeronpan –  Intensely detailed episode reviews aren’t really my thing but I appreciate it when people can write such content, and since I was in the market for reading some Megalobox content due to my own post on the matter (see below), it seems like a good opportunity to plug some great writing.
• Shaky Science – Binging Anime and Brains! by Irina of I drink and watch anime – “To binge or not to binge” is always a big question in the aniblogging community, but did you ever think about the science behind what compels one to binge? No? Well, Irina did it for you.
• A Silent Voice is an Excellent Film by Rossiroad of My Brain is Completely Empty – Once again, this matches one of my posts (below) and is intensely detailed (above), so there’s no reason not to share it. Strangely, I don’t think I’ve shared anything from this guy since the spam post, so for anyone who wasn’t previously aware of My Brain is Completely Empty, here you go. (By the way, between that spam post and this roundup, I have gotten some spam about paralegals…) 
• Yuri on Ice Part 1: Love as Narrative from The Quotorium – I wasn’t aware of this post until it turned up in one of Karandi’s In Case You Missed Its, but heck, the level of analysis in this is probably something I couldn’t match. Well, it’s back to the drawing board for me…
• Rhythm of Despair, Poetry of Doom from Ink and Image – Girls’ Last Tour is something I haven’t really mentioned since it finished in the previous fall season. This post dissects how the structure of the show’s storyline gives it a sort of rhythm that creates a bigger payoff the further along the story goes.
• TPAB’s Top Ten: Things I Learned From Six Years of Blogging and Reviewing (Part 3 of 10) – I’ve binge-read some of the previous TPAB anniversaries, and it’s amazing how he can come up with ten things every year (aside from last year, apparently) even though if my memory of when I started on Blogger was right (circa June 2012), we began blogging at about the same time…Why part 3, you ask? This one’s about collabs – perfect timing too, since I’ve been doing a few of them myself.
• What Kind of Collector Are You? by Laura, the Manga Hoarder – While reading this, I realised the more academic type of post is only restricted to certain kinds of people who lean towards the more professional, didactic style of writing. That said, this post also has a secondary function of acting as a personality quiz, so don’t let the fancy names scare you from reading this.
• Drunken Otaku: Heartstrings (Death Parade) by Ink from Ani-Gamers – I went wandering around the archives of Ani-Gamers and ended up in a section that seems more Irina’s thing. Nonetheless, I’m always up for a good Death Parade article and this one’s right up my alley…drinks or no drinks.
• Attraction of Videos, Blogs and Podcasts: Your Input is Required by Lita Kino – Fellow anime content creators, take notes – here’s what your most likely audience (other anime content creators) pay attention to! Make sure to spread this post around, too.
• All Might is the Best Written “Hero of the Hero” Character in Anime, and Here’s Why! by the Luminous Mongoose at Carnivorous L Reviews – It’s Boku no Hero Academia season again, and you know what that means…more posts about it! I haven’t seen much from this blogger yet, but this was one of the posts that convinced me to follow them.
• Maybe There is an “I” in “Team”: Bungou Stray Dogs by zboudrie from Let’s Talk Anime – In order to study up more on how people have written OWLS posts (see below for more on that front), I took a look at this one. It takes quite a liberal stance on what a “movement” is and then proceeds to wind both characters and other themes throughout in a way I found enlightening. It’s well worth the read if you’re done with the second season.
• The Real-Life Camping Grounds and a Mystery Lake: An Armchair Journey of YuruCamp Part Three from Infinite Zenith – I’m not sure who began the trend of looking for anime places on Google Maps, but I think I found a completely new level of exactitude in that game…Why part 3? Apparently parts 1 and 2 contain locations that aren’t as obscure as these, so this post’s the one most worth scrolling through.

Navigation: Other People’s Reads | Spellbook Offerings | A Turbulent Month | Coming up next…

Spellbook Offerings

Carried over from last month:

• 25 Days Anime Male Challenge – This’ll be on for the next month on Saturday afternoons (my time) so other people can get their posts out before me. These posts definitely drop a lot of the uptight, almost-academic air I’ve got in my other posts, so if you’d like to fangirl over anime guys with me, feel free to.
• Spellbooks and Horoscopes – Talking about magical girls would’ve been fine and dandy if they weren’t behind paywalls for me, so here’s me teaming up with AstralGemini to discuss magical boys for the rest of the season, with posts set for Sunday afternoons (my time).

New this month:

• Dealing with Demons in Koe no Katachi – Koe no Katachi is a story of socialisation just as it is anything else, so here I’ve tried to parse the series through the lens of the social concepts honne and tatemae.
• Ode to Anime Studios – Toei Animation – I took a daring move on the Ode to Anime Studios by talking about a series that hasn’t been licensed in my region. Nonetheless, for all its flaws I love Ashita no Nadja, and it’d be great if someone checked it out because of this post.
• The Importance of Legacy in Touken Ranbu – I’ve been sitting on this idea of what “legacy” means for the show since at least Katsugeki‘s airing season (summer 2017), so to have Hanamaru season 2 have the perfect pieces to finish the puzzle means I finally got this dying idea a home.
• The Game’s Afoot – Lupin III Part V feels remarkably fresh for a part of a long-running franchise, so here’s how I think it accomplishes that goal.
• Megalobox Episode 1: Junk Dog Could’ve Been a Contender… – Bad On the Waterfront joke aside, this series was the best thing that could’ve happened to me at the end of a terrible week. Here’s my love letter to it as I know it so far – a dissection of what the characters and symbols stand for (plus a small addendum on the music).
• Isekai Izakaya Nobu: A Variety Show in Anime Form – I thought this post was a bit too provocative and the argument doesn’t seem as thought out as some of the other posts I’ve done, but regardless it’s still the Spellbook’s 100th post.
• Goodnight, Punpun Anime… – “Was there ever a manga you think should never make the jump to anime?” Obviously manga readers have different answers to this question, but here’s a possible candidate for your perusal – Goodnight Punpun.
• Sweet Things are a Reflection of One’s Self-Image: Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori – Rokuhoudou hails from a seinen magazine, but acts like its main audience should be female. Therefore, there are some interesting implications hidden in its depths for the topics of gender and self-image…episode 5 just gave me the push I needed to look at some of them.

Navigation: Other People’s Reads | Spellbook Offerings | A Turbulent Month | Coming up next…

A Turbulent Month

• After writing spending about 4 or 5 hours agonising over what to say for My Reasons Why, I managed to snap (mostly) out of whatever emotional funk I’d gotten into last month. The commitments then came right back and gave me stress jitters all over again, but they were no longer as bad as April’s burnout.
• I had to cull Golden Kamuy from my watchlist because even though I was enjoying it, I couldn’t keep up with all the shows I was watching…
• There have been over 1000 likes for posts on the Spellbook and there’s over 100 posts here already! Pretty crazy, huh?

Navigation: Other People’s Reads | Spellbook Offerings | A Turbulent Month | Coming up next…

Coming up next…

• As of this post, I have four commitments left (two of which will be over by the time the 21st is over for me), then a week’s break. I can currently confirm my June schedule has a break for the entire second half if it doesn’t change, including attending a wedding and setting up for my first stint with OWLS! If you can’t find me around, I’m probably preparing for what June holds.
• Keep an eye out for the poll post I’ve scheduled for later today. It’s a bailout measure for the half-year celebration of the Spellbook that I threw up on the fly after some consultation with Astral and Tetrax4berium. I’m going to save blogging tips for the yearly milestones instead…
• I’ve already mentioned what’ll be keeping me busy on the blog front above for the most part, so look above for the relevant details.

Navigation: Other People’s Reads | Spellbook Offerings | A Turbulent Month | Coming up next…

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