July 26, 2018

Not Everything I Saw At Moe Lane's Blog This Morning Caused Me to Fear For Humanity...

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July 17, 2018

Intersectionality: Am I Doing it Right?


Art by Mokerou

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July 08, 2018

The Feng Shui of Superheroing

For most of this season, My Hero Academia has had amazing pacing. The stakes of the characters' actions have become steadily higher as the show has gone on and this superhero cartoon is one of the few shows that has really kept me on the edge of my seat. 


This has been a really well done story in which our heroes witness what appears to be the denouement of an epic tale that has defined a previous generation of heroes. 

The episode that wrapped up that arc (ep49) was just...EXCESLIOR!1!!!

Now, In episode 51 we are well into the "High-School Kids Decorate Their Dorm Rooms" arc. 



This ought to be something of a let down but it works as a respite from the incredible tension of the first half of the season. Furthermore, these two episodes, which have been devoid of fights have had some serious character and plot development and have been eminently watchable. 

In this sense the show reminds me of the old Claremont run on X-Men or some of the books like Young Justice where much of the important stuff was happening when 'nothing was happening'.

They've also looked at ethical issues that these kids are facing; namely the unnerving fact that there is no hard and fast Venn diagram comparing 'Law and Justice' or 'Legal and Right', which, as the late Steve Ditko might have said, is ultimately The Question.

I'm sure there will be some hemming and hawing about "FILLER ARC!" but the way they are doing these less action oriented episodes actually seems to me to be good storytelling. Furthermore, while this is definitely a Japanese Shounen type of show, it's clear that the creators really GET American superhero comics.

Besides, it looks like the down time will be of limited duration....

 


I'm an old fart and am enjoying the heck out of this show, but if you have kids they are the ones that should be watching it.


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One Room



What....did I just watch?

Logging in to Crunchyroll revealed some new shows so I randomly picked a show that was at Episode zero. 

I perused One Room's blurb and frankly read too much into it. 
 You are the protagonist. A new project in virtual anime from SMIRAL Animation that also brought you the "Anitore" series and "Makuranodanshi." This time, the project is about 3 stories that develop in your (one) room.

From that straightforward discription I somehow thought this was going to be experimental story telling. While it kind of is, it's less My Dinner With Andre' than How I Met Moe'. It says right there in the blurb 'you are the protagonist'...and indeed Episode zero involves "You" (presumably a mute) answering the door to find Yui Hasanaka, a young girl who asks "You" to help her study for her entrance exams.



The episode then proceeds to be a montage of her being...disturbingly...Moe'. By the time the show's four minutes was up I was thinking that Yui may need therapy. There's a LOT of codependency there. 

It then dawned on me that there may be more to this show, because I never even made it to the refrigerator when a glaring inconsistency emerged:

Yui is from the country and is completely bewildered by life in the most pleasant and resident-friendly big city in the world. She's in need of remedial tutoring for her college entrance exams. She's a helpless waif...out of her element. 

And yet....

more...

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