What Makes Ya Boy Kongming Tick?

I didn't think I'd like Paripi Koumei for this long, to be honest... In some ways, Paripi Koumei is not a series I'd particularly like. Ancient Chinese history bores me, to be honest - all that stuff about war strategy and tradition is more my dad's domain. Despite that, I love it - which is...

What Platinum End Says About My Past and Present

(TW for discussion of death, suicide, suicide ideation and trauma.) At age 14 - 15, I wasn't what you'd call a "chuunibyou" in an outward sense. Aside from sinking far too much time into Tumblr and TV Tropes...as well as anime, manga and fanfiction...I was pretty ordinary. That said, one of my stories from that...

The Threshold of Relatability

Inspired by this post by Karandi. We fans of anime, manga and associated media tend to see ourselves in characters, but how much is too much? Seeing an aspect or two which we also recognise as influencing our own actions tends to garner comments of "#relatable" and "I love this character because they act/talk like...

Social Anxiety Through Comedy (A Tsuritama Rewatch Project Post)

Tsuritama doesn't feature social anxiety as front and centre as other anime do, but the strange faces Yuki makes are window dressing for a bigger issue. Meta context: This post originally was written in December 2020, around the Netflix "airing" of Komi Can't Communicate. Originally the intro text above the cut referred to a Komi...

Why Don’t People Like Anime Feminists?

Inspired by this Artifice post and...well, Anime Feminist itself. Obviously, some people do like anime feminists - hence the blog in question - but there are some who don't. Admittedly, my stance on the word "feminism" has been bugging me since 2015 or so, when someone asked me if I was a feminist. I said...

Is the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things Genre Oversaturated?

Is any genre “oversaturated”? Meta context: This post was created as a stopgap measure, so it reflects the time it was written (the time of which will easily become apparent when you read the post). I think it still has some measure of use though, or else I wouldn't put it out... The winter 2018...

100 Worst Anime Openings! – K and Friends Rate “Bad” Anime OPs

After a long time with no collabs here on the Spellbook, here’s…something. I hope you like confusingly terrible anime OPs, because there’s enough in this video to make your head spin…

P.S. I submitted exactly one OP and that OP made it into this video. Which one, though? Just try and guess.

K at the Movies

This is a long and arduous process but I’m happy finally have it come together. I mean I watched it with some of the people featured in my esteemed judges panel and I think the fact that I can sing-along with most of these proved that I’ve probably gone insane. Yes, I asked a month ago what are the worst, the awful, the annoying, the just epically bad anime openings that you know and we’re going to find what is the worst. Did we find the right choice for the worst our opinions a little whack. I guess you’ll just have to watch the video and see what you think.

Thanks to the Cast

Of course this wouldn’t have been as great without everyone coming together, from everyone who participated in the open ballot poll, to who retweeted and shared the poll, judged anime openings and watched the video. I…

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Must-read Monthly Monday (May ’21 ed.)

If it's not specified, the time period covered in this post is from the 19th of April 2021 to the 24th of May 2021. 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…...

Must-read Monthly Monday (Apr. ’21 ed.)

If it's not specified, the time period covered in this post is from the 22nd of March 2021 to the 19th of April 2021. 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…...

Trying to Find One Anime to Represent You is Too Hard!

Inspired by Zainou's post and the subsequent anecdotes. Meta context: This incident in this anecdote - and most of the text being written up - happened pre-COVID, so you can kind of date it based on that. The scheduler says it's from late July 2018. Imagine, if you will, a building inspired by Japanese architecture....