Examining Old School Anime: How a Mazone Shows the Importance of Mental Prayer

Here’s my latest post under the Column Examining Old School Anime.

Beneath the Tangles

Episode 15 of Space Pirate Captain Harlock features, after Queen Lafresia, the most interesting Mazone we’ve yet met.  Aurora been posted inside an ice palace at the North Pole, where she waits for Captain Harlock to investigate the curious pattern produced by an aurora borealis.  Her only purpose in life is to kill Captain Harlock, and Aurora has meditated on him and their fateful meeting for years.  However, her long contemplation has brought home to her how good Captain Harlock is, and she quite naturally falls in love with him.  (What woman can resist the manly bearing of Captain Harlock?)  Unfortunately for Aurora, she tries to trap Captain Harlock inside the palace and picks a fight with Miime, an alien woman who owes her life to Captain Harlock.  The Mazone’s attack is cast back on herself and brings about her demise.

Miime, surprisingly powerful for a soft-spoken woman

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Two Final Prayers of St Thomas More

I had no idea that St. Thomas More’s feast day was yesterday. I just purchased a book on his life and writings and have started to make progress in reading it.

Catholicism Pure & Simple

These beautiful prayers were written by St Thomas More (whose feast day we celebrated yesterday, 22nd June) while he was being held prisoner in the Tower of London.

Sir Thomas More,
by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527

“Give me the grace, Good Lord:

To set the world at naught. To set the mind firmly on You and not to hang upon the words of men’s mouths.

To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly pleasures. Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business.

Not to long to hear of earthly things, but that the hearing of worldly fancies may be displeasing to me.

Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help. To lean into the comfort of God. Busily to labour to love Him.

To know my own vileness and wretchedness. To humble myself…

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Reasons to Watch Scholagladiatoria

Matt Easton of the YouTube channel Scholagladiatoria recently posted a video thanking those who’ve spread the word about his channel to bring the total number of subscribers up to over seventy thousand.  Those of you who’ve clicked on my Guide to Becoming a Scholar of Swords and Swordplay page know that I place this channel above all the rest in terms of the accuracy of information one finds there and the breadth of Matt Easton’s knowledge.  But, let me do my part here by sharing some awesome videos of his with you, and I hope that many of you who have an interest in the Middle Ages or fencing will subscribe if you haven’t already.

The following video explains how to accurately grip a Viking sword.  More people grip a Viking sword incorrectly than any other blade.  While one can often get away with a wrong grip in the case of other blades, doing so with a Viking sword will cause the pommel to jab into one’s wrist when cutting, which leads to the user hating a perfectly good sword.  One cannot but admire the facility with which Easton shows that he can wield the blade when gripped correctly.

Rose of Versailles: The Changes of Oscar de François de Jarjeyes and the Dignity of Human Life

This is a beautiful post on Rose of Versailles. I must confess that I was rather iffy about watching this, but iblessall has done much to change my mind.

Mage in a Barrel

As I started the final five episodes of Rose of Versailles, a friend warned me that I was in for a “rollercoaster.” Having come off the ride, I think I’d have to say that, as thoughtful as the caution was, it was unfortunately understated, as the conclusion to this magnificent series wrecked emotional havoc on me like it had not in 35 episodes prior. In considering why, I of course ended up at some of the easier conclusions for explaining my emotional wreckage—character investment, Stockholm Syndrome, lack of sleep, an exceptionally doomed ship—but I found myself unsatisfied with those answers. However, in considering the show as a whole, rather than simply a five-episode excerpt, I came to understand that I had, to continue to metaphor, been on a rollercoaster the whole time. On a terrifying and exhilarating ride known as “life.”

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The whitewashing of England’s Catholic history

This is a very interesting article, especially since one doesn’t think that much about Catholic contributions to British economy, political liberty, and literacy.

Catholicism Pure & Simple

from: The Catholic Herald:  http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/06/16/

by Ed West

A 19th century view of Magna Carta

The invention of liberty, literacy and prosperity have all been wrongly portrayed as Protestant developments

Last week I was writing about Magna Carta and how the Catholic Church’s role has been written out, in particular the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton.

But the same could also be said about much of English history from 600AD to 1600; from the very first law code written in English, which begins with a clause protecting Church property, to the intellectual flourishing of the 13th century, led by churchmen such as Roger Bacon, the Franciscan friar who foresaw air travel.

However, the whitewashing of English Catholic history is mainly seen in three areas: political liberty, economic prosperity and literacy, all of which are seen as being linked to Protestantism.

Yet not only was Magna Carta overseen by churchmen…

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Opinions on Spring 2015 Anime

Shinoa’s the Xellos of Seraph of the End.

I have often commented that for a blog to be successful the blogger must read more than write; so, one can only expect that yours truly has broken this rule many times.  This season of anime, my opinions feel rather isolated despite at least three popular shows appearing in my lists.  Yet, I think that I have read plenty of blogs over the past few months.  Perhaps I have not read the right blogs?  But, I thought that I only followed like-minded people!  Shikata ga nai.  Angryjellyfish has six of these shows on his watch list (just missing Danna ga Wakaranai), but I cannot find another blogger with as similar of a list.  The end result is that the following opinions of mine feel more shallow than usual, as there are fewer sources of opinion from which to glean ideas.  Well, there is always next season, and my dear readers can satisfy my curiosity as to which of the following shows wound up as their favorites this season.

Examining Old School Anime: the Arcadia as the Church

Beneath the Tangles

Occasionally, I find myself writing posts like this, where I ramble on about a vague idea.  They have the virtue of giving my dear readers an insight into how my mind works, though I can’t claim the following as a polished article.  In this case, the condition of Captain Harlock’s world in 2977 A.D. reminds me of Our Lord’s complaint to St. Faustina about how many modern souls are lukewarm with respect to religion.  This lukewarm attitude may be traced to the Enlightenment.  (Actually, some trace it to the late Middle Ages, but the symptoms became obvious after the Renaissance.)  More and more people questioned the validity of religion: didn’t religion lead to eighty years of continuous warfare during the Renaissance?  Isn’t faith purely irrational?  It became popular to cleave to a deistic model of the universe, and devoutly following the precepts of an organized religion became associated with the…

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Friar Pedro vs. Maragato the Bandit

I love reading stories like this. The story features some beautiful artwork too,

Aliens in This World

Goya is known for portraits of horror, war, and nightmare.

But he did paint a series of humorous paintings about a story of raw heroism… and earthy comedy.

Maragato was a notorious bandit. He wasn’t even ashamed to steal a family’s dinner and eat it all himself. But when he accosted a barefoot Franciscan, Friar Pedro Zaldivia, and held him at gunpoint, the friar cleverly took his gun away and pointed it back at him. Maragato ran off, and the Friar gave him a parting gift of shot in the backside. The bandit gave up and the friar tied him up until the authorities could come. Then… he protected the bandit from the many people willing to beat up a disarmed bad man!

Goya liked these good-natured paintings so well that he kept them.

The full story.

Goya’s series of six paintings telling the story. They are still all…

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Notes to Philo’s Allegorical Interpretations

‘Tis safe to say that my goal of writing fourteen posts in fourteen days proved a bridge too far.  But, there is often value in setting goals higher than one can accomplish.  Such is especially the case with me: if I strive not for the moon, I have no hope of landing among the stars.  Nevertheless, I met the two goals of feeling confident once again in my writing and making writing a pleasant habit once again.

Speaking of setting impossible goals, reviewing Philo’s Allegorical Interpretations I-III in a complete sense would require more than the single post I’m willing to allot to it.  One stares agape in wonder at the wealth of information Philo provides and his facility of bringing forth relevant passages of Scripture and parsing Greek philosophy.  The three books draw interesting allegorical interpretation on the Story of Creation and the Fall of Man for discussing virtue and vice.  Treat the following post as notes to topics I found most interesting.  “But, can’t you be more thorough?  I know you: you’re just being lazy!” you say?  Well, to paraphrase G. K. Chesterton, anything really worth doing (as sharing what I gleaned from Philo surely is) is not only worth doing well but also worth doing badly, an adage I hope the present article proves in spades.

A Couple of Manga to Read in June

Usually, I have more manga than this to recommend.  However, good manga is hard to find.  This will be a very short article indeed, but I hope that you’re willing to try out one of the following two recommendations.  For a change, I’ve given ratings for content after each review.

No! I promise that I really did find only two manga worthy of recommending!