Must-read Monthly (not) Monday (November 2018 ed.)

You’re probably wondering where this post was on Monday. Well…normally I’m good about these things, but real life got in the way for once…

If it’s not specified, the time period covered in this post is from the 22nd of October 2018 to the 19th 22nd of November 2018. (Hey, that’s exactly one month!)

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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…

• 12 Days of Anime 2018 by appropriant from Perpetual Morning – It’s back for another year! I’ll be doing it again, seeing as talks to go somewhere over the holidays didn’t work out. I’ve already got some really good puns thought out for a few post titles …here’s hoping I can think up some content that matches how good the puns are.
• Why Deku’s Version of Heroics is WRONG (but so is Bakugo’s)  by Luna at We be bloggin’ (You Can’t Know) – All-caps are provocative, but there’s nothing more provocative than a different viewpoint. Deku is often painted as being “in the right”, but because we’re following his story, we don’t get any big signs towards Deku being wrong. Luna’s post begs the idea: is it possible both boys are in the wrong, just to different extents (rather than the matter being entirely black-and-white)…?
• My Monster Secret – How a Ridiculous Harem Comedy Touched My Heart by the Luminous Mongoose from Carnivorous L Reviews – Jitsu wa Watashi wa is a harem comedy…one which had an anime a few years back, to lukewarm reviews that say “it’s treading well-trodden ground”. Now read the post with this in mind (spoiler alert for the manga ending though…even I got caught off guard by that)…
• It’s More Than Kick-Ass – Samurai Flamenco and Deconstruction by Vrai Kaiser from Fashionable Tinfoil Accessories – In bloggers’ Gravatar-style blurbs, sometimes people promote their own blogs, but somehow I haven’t managed to stumble upon Vrai’s pre-Anime Feminist haunt until now. However, Gridman put me in the mood for some Samurai Flamenco nostalgia and after a bit of deliberation, we have this post (comparing the show to Madoka) as the link to include for the month.
• Yuri on Ice from a Performer Perspective by Arthifis – Speaking of nostalgia, this one made me realise it’s been a good 4 years or so since I last touched a piano for performance reasons (gave up having lessons due to schooling, then gave up for good a year after that). The emotions are strong with this post.
• Ranpo Kitan – Game of Laplace Episode 1 from the Anime War Crime Tribunal – I’m not even sure what the blogger’s name is, but heck if I wasn’t entertained. Would’ve sided with the Gangsta. post if this were any other month (due to the single F-bomb for emphasis at the start of the Ranpo Kitan post), but because it was Halloween last month…yeah, why not?
• Black Butlers and Red Madams by Irina – Speaking of Halloween, what better than Black Butler and especially Madame Red, whose arc doesn’t just flesh out Ciel but the world around her as well? Of course, in order to truly understand this post you’ll need to know the spoilers behind her character, but otherwise there are no caveats on this post – just something spooky and tragic all at once.
• We are who our backpacks say we are (or not) – The SSSS.Gridman Trio and Colour-coded Archetypes by Atelier Emily (For Me, In Full Bloom) – Much like Samurai Flamenco before it, Gridman relies on the viewer’s knowledge of tokusatsu colorations as an indication of how their personality is. I thought this post would’ve touched on the fact the protagonists’ eyes are blue and the antagonists’ eyes are red, but you can only contain a certain amount of analysis without going off the rails, I guess.
• [November OWLS Blog Tour] Eiichiro Oda – I’m thankful for being a pirate fan by Matt in the Hat – No, he doesn’t mean “pirate fan” in that way…please try to shell out money for whatever you can afford. One thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned is the fact I’ve watched about 5 early episodes of the One Piece anime and read about 75 manga volumes. Although I don’t get Matt’s comparison to Matt Groening all that much, he splits the post fairly evenly between explanation of his points and of the series itself, so nobody has to feel out of the loop with this post.
• Uraraka Ochako – The Cheerful Flower by Mel – Another dose of BnHA because I’m not worrying about my usual quotas as much – I did get this post finished a few days late, after all. I’ve seen a lot of love around the ‘net for the Boku no Hero Academia boys, but one character I never seem to see get the same treatment is Uraraka, come to think of it. Although the post is far from perfect in spelling (for instance, the word for “you can do it” is dekiru), the passion is there and that’s all that really matters in the end.
• Waxing Philosophical – Comics as Literature Part 1 by Allison (Bloom Reviews) – Even though this isn’t on anime or manga per se, a lot of the arguments somehow work really well in tandem when thought of in terms of manga (probably because manga, as a collective, is considered to be a sequential medium which is similar to graphic novels and comics).
• 10 Female Anime Directors by Artemis from Otaku Lounge – Let’s face it: anime was a boys’ club for a long time, for multiple reasons I have no time to go into here. However, that’s been changing over the last few years and so here are some of the names you should keep an eye out for. There is a second list, but this one arguably has the more popular names, not to mention it’s first chronologically so it makes sense to share this one first.
• Preview: Noah’s Notes by Jacob (Ink and Image) – Jump Starts are always a bunch of fun, but I found myself attracted to Noah’s Notes a lot compared to some of the others (lookin’ at you, Jujutsu Kaisen!). The fact it wrapped up not too long ago is a shame, though…my favourites always lose to the Jump machine: first Red Sprite, this, even Barrage…
• Island: A Demonstration in Terrible First Episodes by Chris (Peach’s Almanac) – Oh, Island. Where did you go so wrong? You tried so hard to evoke mystery…and ended up falling on some harem protagonist’s junk, probably. (Okay, I’m dropping the extended metaphor. It’s getting silly.) Even still, even if there is an audience for this stuff, there’s a reason Island made my headache worse when I first watched it. But don’t take my word for it – take Chris’s.
• At What Point Do We Get Too Invested? by Kausus from Otaku Gamer Zone – It seems I missed this blogger by about a month, because they moved to a different platform. Nonetheless, it’s something worthwhile to think about – what happens when you burn out? Is there really a limit to one’s passion? The answers, regardless of whatever hobby you apply them to (although this post is most relevant to anime and is framed as such), are all subjective, so it’s up to you as to what you do with them.

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Spellbook Offerings

• Even So, Sinners Dance Aimlessly… – It was a wise choice to not pick this post, which is about Dances with the Dragons and Concrete Revolutio, for Megane Day 2018 because it’s got some pretty bad stats when compared to some of the other posts in this lineup.
• Finalising the Fall 2018 Lineup & Learning to Love (Backlog) Anime Again – After much dithering, here are the shows I’m sticking with for the next few weeks. Also, much Tsuritama, much wow.
• Ode to Anime Studios – Studio feel. – After Tsukigakirei, people were willing to give this studio a chance…but like all studios, it has its hits and its misses.
• Fire on the Hill: Symbolism of Fire in Shiki – This post has been sitting in the queue for a while, so I’m glad it’s finally gotten its turn in the spotlight. Then again, I’m not too sure what I was going on about with a title like that, in retrospect…maybe it’s a pun on the Ed Sheeran song Castle on the Hill?
• SSSS.Gridman and the Lack of Consequences – Gridman is hit-or-miss under its veneer of moody visuals and hero vs. kaiju fights, so in search of others who have the same problem with the show, I rant a bit about the show’s writing.
• Just Because an Anime’s For Kids Dosn’t Mean You Have to Dismiss it… – Kodomomuke anime have always gotten the short end of the stick (and Merc Storia got a similar treatment since it seems to be pandering to a similar demographic), so I put out this post in defence of them.
• Jigokuraku and the Power of the Extreme – This was a contender to be retroactively made an OWLS post before I finished the Phantom in the Twilight one. The manga itself is a bizarre and gory, but ultimately fun, time so I wanted to convey that here.
• 1st Blogiversary Celebrations – day 1 and day 7 are probably the most interesting because they’re unique, since the rest are just a series of blogging tips. If you want to see the tips though, here’s day 2 / day 3 / day 4 / day 5 / day 6.

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Coming up next…/What happened?

• Signed up to the Reverse Thieves Secret Santa, so a Hyouka review should appear here on December 24th, if not a Sakamichi no Apollon one. I’m including that as part of the 12 Days of Anime though (that’s not cheating, is it?).
• Just a bit more clarity on what happened to throw this post off schedule: For volunteering, I was asked to move to Mondays for my weekday shift (instead of the original Wednesdays), starting the day this post was meant to come out. When I got to this post 2 days after it was meant to come out, it turns out it was missing 7 of the “other people’s posts”…so I figured I’d finish it and put it out late, rather than never. The next post should come out on the 24th of December as per usual though – since it’s holiday season, there should be more than enough time to compile the usual stuff and still get everything else done.

Navigation: Other People’s Reads | Spellbook Offerings |Coming up next…/What happened?

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