[Anime X-Change] Senki Zesshou Symphogear – A Review in 6 Songs

This December, I took part in Jon Spencer's Anime X-Change event, where I recommended one anime to someone and received a recommendation from them in return. My partner, William Dunn, recommended the first season of Symphogear to me! It was quite a ride - I can't say I loved the show, but it has its…

[Spoiler-free] Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel III. Spring Song Review

Ever since I gave up on my final essays to catch Heaven’s Feel I. Presage Flower on the big screen and failed because all the seats were booked, I’d been committed to watching the rest of the movies in theatres. I am very lucky that I was able to do so for not only Lost…

[OST Spotlight] In This Corner of the World: Healing with “Migite no Uta”

It was fun doing soundtrack analysis for The Promised Neverland, so I'm back at it again! Technically, the piece featured today is more of an insert song, but it encapsulates the movie so well that I really couldn't choose anything else. "Migite no Uta" (みぎてのうた; "The Right Hand's Song") is the official theme song of…

What Makes a Spoiler a Spoiler?

This is something I wonder about sometimes, which a certain Tweet caused me to reflect on again: https://twitter.com/spookyredh/status/1262012943144636417 People have different degrees of tolerance when it comes to spoilers. For me, as I'm sure it is for most people, my avoidance of spoilers is dependent on how much I care about continuing a show. I've…

[OST Spotlight] The Promised Neverland: A Series in One Soundtrack

It's been a while since I finished the anime and I still can't get over how good the music was. Takahiro Obata's soundtracks were largely responsible for getting me hooked on the series since Episode 1. In particular, I want to offer my interpretation of "Main Theme 1," which encapsulates the series wonderfully: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEu9A9yNgXs ***This…

The Power of Volatility in I Want to Eat Your Pancreas

Let's talk about an anime I haven't heard too much talk on! I wrote this piece sometime last year, during a phase when I missed university essay-writing dearly, but never got around to proofreading and posting it until now. *This post contains spoilers. You can't really spoil much of the film though, when it pretty…

Juuni Taisen: Satire or Joke?

So what distinguishes between a show that's a satire and one that only deserves to be laughed at as a bad joke? It all really comes down to intention. Was Juuni Taisen purposely full of ironic flaws for us to spot and reflect on, or were certain parts just accidentally kind of bad?

Do Spoilers Matter?

When I was 9, I was taught an important lesson when I inadvertently spoiled Death Note for my mom (I have a cool mom who reads manga). My mom didn’t let me read her manga at the time because I was too young, so I picked up the next volume of the manga that she borrowed and started reading the back of it. I only uttered the phrase “After L dies…” when my mom dropped her book, stared at me in shock, and proceeded to give me an emotional lecture, at the end of which I promised never to spoil anything again. My mom was…quite the L fan.