Must-read Monthly Monday (Jun. 2019 ed.)

 

If it’s not specified, the time period covered in this post is from the 20th of May 2019 to the 24th of June 2019.

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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…

• Fukigen na Mononokean (Season 1) Quick Review by 7mononoke (Anime Rants) – I passed on this blog last time because I only saw one post of theirs – one which involved mostly characters I wasn’t familiar with. That said, some of the last few categories in this review (rewatch value and uniqueness factor) piqued my interest about how they write. (Can we please stop with Natsume and Mononokean comparisons, though? I can’t understand them if I’ve only seen one of the two so far…)

• A Cross-Cultural Comparison of TV: Why Anime May Not Be for Everybody by Shiroyuni (The Limitless Imagination) – For some reason, the name “Shiroyuni” sounded familiar when Takuto mentioned them in his 400 followers post, but the content doesn’t strike a chord of familiarity. I’m being evil by recommending this one, as it’s a particularly long (and arguably outdated) post about cultural differences between Asian dramas, anime and Western live-action, but the length of the post often attests to it being a labour of love and hence something that shouldn’t go unappreciated.

• Zodiac Wednesday: Kusuo Saiki by Nicholas (Trust The Gaijin) – Truth be told, I love astrology. Not enough to brag about it, but enough to occasionally hear about how signs embody people and whatnot. Just going through a few of these posts and Googling up the birthdays assigned by the author shows some incredible insight on the part of the blogger and the character analysed (and has me scrambling for my own natal chart if I match anything being discussed, let’s be real…).
• The Harsh Reality of Being an Adult NEET by Lumi – As much as I don’t like to promote manga under the banner of the Jolly Roger these days, Lumi stumbled upon a manga which explores the anxieties of…well, being a NEET. It’s the sort of anxiety that’s very pertinent these days, so I had to share it despite my personal misgivings.
• Levelling Up With Mob Psycho S2 by Rodrovich – It’s interesting to see how far people – fictional and real – come in a span of a few years. By that, I mean I want to go beat up my past self for not finishing Mob Psycho s1 until closer to the Reigen recap…but that’s beside the point. Mob, too, has come a long way and it’s hard to see that until you have hindsight like Rodrovich does here, but of course you can’t do that without spoilers…
• What Makes an Anime Stand Out? by Otaku Don – I went back to otome games this month (more on that below) and while looking for some hints/reviews for a game I was stuck on…lo and behold, anime posts! It’s hard to describe what makes an anime great, so trying to describe what makes all people’s favourite anime great is a tall order. (Decide for yourself as to whether they succeeded.)
• There Are Many Slumps But Reading Slumps Suck AS by LitaKino – Seeing how manga readers use Instagram and hold readathons was intriguing…(now I’ve got this blank look on my face, just thinking of how I can participate in a manga readathon…)
• A Reflection On Weird Things Eaten in Golden Kamuy and Real Life by ZeroReq011 (Therefore It Is) – I don’t remember if I’ve used a ZeroReq post in these round-ups before, but I do remember being acquainted with their writing before this post showed up in an Anime News Network listicle. I like hearing about and comparing others’ cultures in general, so getting to see how food overlaps with cultural practices (kind of like this post I did for the 12 Days of Anime one year) in an anime post was a definite green light for the round-up.
• Only a few episodes in, Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion might already be my favourite anime of 2018 by Foundation Afro (Terminus Coffee Shop) – The title speaks for itself, but seriously…if I get an excuse to complain about that Angolmois filter while promoting a new blogger, then all the better.
• Character Spotlight: “Immortal” Sugimoto by Ty-chama (Watashi wa Bucho!!) – …and speaking of Golden Kamuy, here’s another post on it. Despite a professed dislike of toilet humour, I can’t seem to pick a favourite character in this anime, but you have to admit the main duo is a lot of what makes the thing tick.
• [Review] Bungou Stray Dogs S1: Getting Ready to Watch S3! by Crimson (My Fujoshi Life) – Crimson taks on one of my favourite anime this season…kind of…and reminds me of 2016 in the process. (I mean that in the best way possible, really!)
• The Rising of the Shield Hero Impressions: Episodes 1 – 7 by Rose (Wretched and Divine) – Rose is trying out a new format with this post, so be sure to give her some feedback!
• Death Parade Review by TPAB (Pantless Anime Blog) – The guy who’s taking the pants off series is back, not necessarily better than ever but still as wordy. Here, he takes on one of my favourite series.
• My Love Story!! Episodes 1 – 24 Review by AnnieMeAddict (Annie-Me) – Speaking of favourite series (I have a lot of them!), I have myself the new favourite blogger of the month…to be fair, I’ve had content from most of these posts before, so there actually wasn’t that much competition. Even still, anyone who loves Noragami and this show can’t be wrong.
• Wallpaper Engine – Creating Cool Stuff! by Nate (Jon Spencer Reviews) – …and now for something completely different. I’ve heard of Wallpaper Engine, but seeing GIFs of some of the interactive wallpapers was quite cool.

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Spellbook Offerings

Kimetsu no Yaiba Collab (with Plyasm and Moya…with AstralGemini for some of the ride, due to extenuating reasons)

• Ep. 4: Demons of the Past
• Ep. 5: Interlude Chat
• Eps 6 – 7: Damsels in Distress and Confronting Cool Villains

Other Stuff 

• Poisoning the First Impression – Trying out certain anime due to Digibro may have been the worst decision I ever made regarding those anime…
• Ode to Anime Studios – Lerche/Studio Hibari – There’s a particular trio of studios that are more entangled than most of them are, so I decided to tackle them together and skip a month.
• Seasonal Reputation, Take 2 – I didn’t think I’d have the chance to elaborate on a post by taking it in a different direction, but a post from Ang (Couch Cruisin’) gave me that chance.
• Publisher’s Digest – Manga readers and anime watchers pay attention to the magazine and the demographic their favourite series come from, but the publisher? Nuh-uh. (Like most manga posts, this got a noticeably low readership, but I had fun writing it all the same.)
• The Disparity Between What I Watch, What I Read and What I Play – It’s interesting to see exactly how different media calls for different preferences…
• @Full Moon: Looking at Gender-Bender Manga in the Past and Present – Discussing an obscure gender-bender manga for Pride Month probably wasn’t the best idea, but it’s the only compatible one I’ve got.

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Coming up next…

• As mentioned above, there won’t be a post on the 29th of June because I did two studios in one post.
• As mentioned in one of my posts this month, I noticed my playing gacha games was adversely affecting other things I was meant to be doing, so I forced myself to give them up and went back to free-to-play visual novels and other games/my reading backlog. It also means I’ve regained blogging momentum, although “for exactly how long?” is a question best answered by hindsight.
• To be honest, I’ve been trying to get myself an internship for a few months now (starting April, so of course it got sabotaged by going to Japan) and I dunno if I have the position as I type this or whether it will impact my blogging, but…yeah. Just so you know. I’m the type who overthinks things, especially such big details as an internship, so putting that sort of mundane news on Twitter would be a big no-no. 
• Twitter spotlight: Takuto wanted to see my collection, so I took a pic of anything that couldn’t be counted as “counterfeit”. I’ve since added vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland.

Counting them (and someone else's Shonen Jump, currently borrowed for said backlog), my collection's really grown over the last year and 2 months. (2/2) (Pretty sure @TakutoAnimeCafe wanted to see my collection, so here you go.) pic.twitter.com/0RGcomPtp8

— Bungou Stray -Doge- (@MagicConan14) June 8, 2019

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