Nisemonogatari
Number of Episodes: 11
Production Company: Shaft
ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll
Brief Overview: Araragi Koyomi's adventures in the supernatural continue right where they left off in Bakemonogatari, though this time around, Araragi's younger sisters are involved in the action too.
Another
Number of Episodes: 12
Production Company: P.A. Works
ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll
Brief Overview: Transfer student Sasakibara Koichi can tell that there's something strange about the atmosphere in his new class. A strange girl named Misaki Mei seems to be the key to it all, but none of the other students in his class seem aware that she even exists.
Aquarion EVOL
Number of Episodes: 26
Production Company: Satelight
Brief Overview: Twelve thousand years after the events of Genesis of Aquarion, humanity faces a new threat originating from Altair, who are in search of human females to replace those lost by disease. Humanity defends against the invasion by using giant machines called "Aquaria."
Natsume Yuujinchou Shi (TV Series 4)
Number of Episodes: TBA
Production Company: Brains Base
ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll
Brief Overview: Natsume Takashi can see youkai (Japanese spirits), an ability which has caused him strife since childhood. After inheriting the "Book of Friends" (a notebook with the names of several youkai written within) from his late grandmother, he uses his skills to return those names to the youkai to whom they belong.
Daily Lives of High School Boys
Number of Episodes: 12
Production Company: Sunrise
ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Mini Episode 1
Brief Overview: Tadakuni, Yoshitake, and Hidenori are three friends who attend an all-male high school. These are the stories of their daily lives as they talk about and think about girls, but have little success actually interacting with them.
While I know everyone is excited to raise a toast to more of the female characters from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, I wanted to take a short detour this week in order to discuss something a bit more time-sensitive. Last week, Anime News Network�s podcast covered a subject which is near and dear to my heart, sexism in anime and anime fandom. For those interested, you can listen to the podcast here. Unfortunately, though it�s a subject that tends to spring up more often in my blog than most other anime blogs I�ve come across, I wasn�t asked to be a part of this roundtable (alas!), but I thought I�d share some of my reactions.
First of all, I was really glad to find that most of the points I would have wanted to cover myself actually did end up becoming part of the discussion. There was a column on ANN at one point called �Chicks on Anime,� which featured the female writers from the site discussing all manner of anime-related subject matter, and the one thing that I always found a bit unsatisfying was the fact that there was very little meaty discussion about the way one�s gender could play into the digestion of this form of media or the issues one encounters in a fandom that at one point was very male-dominated. I was afraid that the panel might once again skirt the issues and play it safe without offering any real criticism or insight, but my fears turned out to be unfounded.
Note: This piece contains spoilers for several episodes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. If you haven't seen the series, it's probably best to skip this.
In my last column, I talked at length about why I think Tomoe Mami is one of Madoka Magica's more underrated characters. This time around, I wanted to spend some time talking about Sakura Kyouko, who's similarly misunderstood. Much like Mami, Kyouko's stint on the show is brief (at least more so than Madoka's, Sayaka's or Homura's) and memorable primarily for a couple of important scenes. She also has what I would call the strongest personality in that she's not shy like Madoka, nor prim-and-proper like Mami; her personality is forceful and grating, her attitude standoffish. Her initial goals seem very self-serving and, at least anecdotally amongst the people I know, she's probably the least-favorite character from the primary five. While I can't really argue on that front - I'm not a huge fan of the character myself - I think that her presence in the show still conveys a few very important points about the story that are worth talking about.
Kyouko's introduction makes her out to be the closest thing the series has to an actual antagonist (barring the numerous witches that appear throughout, whose real natures make them into tragic figures more than willfully-antagonistic forces). She comes into town looking for new territory, and it's only the newly-minted magical girl Sayaka who ends up standing in her way. Their transition from competitors to tragic compatriots (and, as some might suggest, possible lovers) is one of the more interesting relationships to develop in the series.
This isn't directly anime-related, but a reader brought a specific example of this to my attention a couple of weeks ago, and since this is a subject which I think affects quite a few people directly I thought I'd present my thoughts on the matter.
While some might say that the internet is a place without borders, the honest truth is that much of it is devoted to arguing over just about every topic known to humankind. Since anonymity is such a strong value in this space (a fact which I find positive in spite of its inherent issues), the default level of discourse is one that's prone to general impoliteness. In a perverse way it kind of makes sense, since in most cases one doesn't honestly know much, if anything, about the person whose conflicting opinion is being presented, so why bother with niceties? Of course, as in real life, just because it's more convenient to ignore others' unique situations doesn't mean that asshattery is the correct course of action.
Thanks, everyone, for tolerating my recent short hiatus from blogging. I was struggling with the hospitalization of a family member (who is now on the mend, thank goodness), and needed some time to be supportive to my family. Now that things are looking up, I'm ready to devote my full attention to this blog.
I'd just like to mention a conflict that occurred in the comments section of a recent entry, because I think it does a good job of illustrating the levels of discourse that I find tolerable and intolerable. I've stated previously that it's not my desire to censor comments or commenters for being contrary to my own opinions, and that remains true. In this instance, the commenter wasn't happy with something I'd said about a particular series, and that's certainly their right. They went so far as to call this blog "shitty," which is not something I like to hear (especially in the midst of what I was dealing with last week), but which I can accept. What crossed the line (and which caused me to ban the commenter), was that they used a homophobic slur to try and emphasize their dislike of me and my opinions, and that's entirely out-of-line as far as I'm concerned. Employing language that's been used to hurt and discriminate against people is really the lowest-of-the-low, and I would hope that anyone else who frequents this website would know better.
On a lighter note, the person also seemed to think that I was a man, which I found amusing. Gender on the internet is one of those subjects that's difficult to talk about without sending both sides into a frothing rage. I've probably never mentioned this before, but I go by "Jessi" rather than my full name (Jessica, as you'd probably guessed), because aside from its spelling, the shortened version of my name is fairly gender-neutral. I don't do this because I want to "pass as a man" on the internet, but instead because I'd rather my gender not be the main issue of my writing unless I choose it to be. One unfortunate consequence of being a woman on the internet is that there are people out there willing to troll me simply because of who I am, and more so because of some of the subject matter I focus on. I do think that my experience as a woman is different from what's considered the average (read: Male) experience, and I think that's something worth talking about when circumstances call for it. But it doesn't take a set of lady parts to comment on sexism or critique anime episodes, so I choose to make it a non-issue for the most part, and I hope everyone will see fit to respect that.
I am now in the midst of catching up on anime that I'd meant to watch last week, so more first episode reviews are forthcoming. Thanks for continuing to stop by and I hope that everyone enjoys reading what I have to write (even if you might disagree with me).
