Must-read Monthly Monday (Sep. ’20 ed.)

If it’s not specified, the time period covered in this post is from the 24th of August 2020 to the 21st of September 2020.

 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…

(I had to recreate my entire template from scratch because entire sections of my old posts were disappearing, thanks to the block editor…)

• [Anime] Thoughts On… Kenka Banchou Otome -Girl Beats Boys- (Anime Review) by Billy (Tokimeki Crazy Life) – I haven’t played the Kenka Bancho Otome game, but I have watched the anime and read the manga. The one thing that’s good about reviews where you’re missing part of the experience is the vicarious living, in a sense.
• On Pacing: Filler by Space Whales – Pacing is a touchy subject. One person’s “well-paced” is another person’s “terribly paced”. To be honest, I don’t like it when you have to wait a long time for the payoff unless it turns out that building was justified all along (“justifying” is a murkily subjective thing in this case).
• Human Lost is Better in Concept Than Execution by Irina (I Drink and Watch Anime) – It’s been a while since one of Irina’s posts showed up in one of these round-ups, to my memory, and that’s because I don’t want to show too much favouritism to bloggers I follow (although, inevitably, I will be biased towards their stuff because that’s what following is for). As far as I know, not many people have covered Human Lost, but if you have a post on it that you like, feel free to share it with me.
• When Choosing a Show to Watch by Rose (Wretched and Divine) – When Jon gives you a graphic design workshop partner, you use that opportunity to…dig into your partner’s archives. (As expected of me.) It’s always interesting to find out how people pick anime to watch. Personally, I have a variety of reasons, most being covered in this post.
• Concrete Revolutio: A Look at Heroism by Scott (Mechanical Anime Reviews) – Another person I try not to show too much favouritism towards, since he is one of the significant factors in my being here in the first place. Then again, he did do a post on a constantly overlooked (but, admittedly, kinda trippy) superhero anime and, of course, I cannot pass on something like that.
• Success and Failure in the Ongoing Attempt to Bring Kids Back to Giant Robots by sdshamsel (Ogiue Maniax) – I’m no giant robot connoisseur – I shall refer you to Scott for that (hence his post above). However, the names in this post aren’t names I see around a lot, and like Brave Beats and its ilk, it makes one wonder: what is it that makes certain types of series (in this case, kids’ series) so inaccessible?
• Spy x Family Volume One Review by Allison (Bloom Reviews) – Spy x Family is good, y’all, and it only gets better.
• The Work Place In Anime – Comparing New Game and Re:LIFE by Rai – Having now seen both seasons of New Game (signed up for the monthly AniList challenge to take advantage of the subscription I mention below), I think season 1 was more relatable and motivational than season 2, but that’s because while I was watching season 1 I could relate more, because I was doing more programming then. Likewise, the concept of “work” is something that I have a complicated relationship with…but don’t let my mixed feelings stop you from reading.
• Is Sequel Culture Killing Anime? by Zeria (Floating into Bliss) – Now that a Sword Art Online Progressive anime is a thing, it seems somewhat pertinent (and kinda funny) to ask this. These feelings are compounded by the fact this post has been dying in my folder for a good year or so (as evidenced by the fact its central focus is Blackfox) and the author professes that their expectations are upended by what is essentially the unpredictable future, including having several huge sequels on the horizon set for 2020 or 2021.
• Getting There by Rushi – …and now for something a bit more off the beaten track for these round-ups: I find the one thing I value the most is being able to do what I want, when I want (and that includes following my kinda-specific whims involving watching certain kinds of anime, such as “anime with transformations”). With COVID around, I’ve been allowed to do more at this pace…but at what cost? There’s always a hidden tradeoff, like it or not.

 

Spellbook Offerings

#AniTwitWatches (Rolling Girls)

• Eps 11 – 12

Other Posts

• Is Anime Childish?
• Ode to Anime Studios – Trigger
• A Connoisseur’s Guide to Anime Cheese
• We All Live in a Pokemon World
• Knowing the Nuance is Critical (A Fugou Keiji Post)
• Human Lost: Cyberpunk Crossing the Divides

 

Current Obsessions

• V-CRX: I’ve become a bit of a Soma Saito stan while in quarantine, so accidentally waking up at 4 am and finishing early at around 7 am for the EX-ARM panel on the special day of Sept. 5 was simultaneously a bit of a dream, but also kind of felt like it wasn’t worth it because the host was obviously reading from a guide of some sort and interaction was limited to a side chat.
• …it happened – I got a subscription to my local streaming service. They have a monopoly on the licensing in my region, including movies and a few OVAs (because they’re the local Sony and Funi affiliate), and just after Lita was asking “what do you want to watch next?” (see tweet), I get an email saying “You can watch Human Lost for 3 days if you get a subscription.” So after thinking things over…obviously I did. Currently, I’m not regretting it – I never regret being paid back in unforgettable experiences – but I hope this means I can finally compete with other bloggers for the coveted first impressions to hit the ‘net in fall 2020 – summer 2021…The reason why I’ve held back for so long on subscriptions is once you have one, you want all of them and/or you’re on the path to being broke. I mean, there’s this one, HiDive, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon, plus I have one anime held partially by YouTube (Idolish7 Vibrato) then add Viz/Shonen Jump for manga…that’s a lot of money per month.

#ReallyWatch I really want to watch Human Lost…it's not released on disc in my region until Nov. '20 (BD only -> I'm a DVD-only person when it comes to discs) and I missed the theatre premiere.

Tagging: @The_Moyatorium (I think Lita tagged enough already.)

— A Bungou Stray -Doge- @ ARB Gacha Hell (@MagicConan14) September 4, 2020

Coming up next…

• I’m running October’s JCS, so I’ll put a tweet out on October 1st for it.
• As mentioned above, WordPress may cause me some block editor havoc, so please tell me if you see anything of the sort on the Spellbook.
• Haven’t forgotten the spring 2020 wrap-up…it’s just massively delayed, as noted previously (it only got kicked further down the road when I decided to take up the AniList challenge I mention above). I’ve only finished Arte as I type this (including not being caught up to Fruits Basket), which is why I haven’t put it out yet.
• It’s NAZ this month re: studio posts.