No one has ever made reading James Joyce sound appealing to me before. That alone should interest my dear readers enough to take a look at this post.
Monthly Archives: January 2019
Winter 2019 Anime Impressions
Always happy to see posts from Cytrus. It looks like another anime blogger is tackling ten anime this season. See if one of these shows catches your fancy.
Out of the blue, some short impressions on stuff I will be following this winter.
Honourable mentions, good but probably won’t be keeping up with: Endro, HizaUe, Kotobuki
B class residents:
TateYuusha/Rising of Shield Hero: Isekai adaptation blessed with a motivated staff and a decent budget. I felt the opening was a bit too heavy-handed for its own good, but the series has more unique ideas later down the line. Now it is all a matter of whether a proper plot direction can be established and whether character chemistry can save the series from mediocrity. Very easy to follow, though, with a constant mix of action, humour and character development.
Kemurikusa: There is a lot to Kemurikusa that feels fresh, and that is its main forte. The setting, plot progression and dialogue flow are simply different from any other production of the season. That said, the pacing is on the…
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Pro Deo et Patria & What is Your Country?
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading TWWK’s post “For God or Country? Violet Evergarden and Divided Allegiance.” It was a very good post meditating on Violet Evergarden’s relationship to her country and also about the relationship between piety and patriotism. However, “For God or Country?” is a question which one should never have to ask. In that regard, it’s like the question “Liberty or Equality?” In these times of egalitarian extremism, we might be tempted to say “Liberty!” But, the fact of the matter is one cannot throw out either liberty or equality without the end result being tyranny. A society needs the proper balance of these two things to thrive: let’s say 70% liberty and 30% equality–if one can so quantify the two ideas!
In regard to God and country, the problem is not one of balance but of order, as TWWK avers: “…I understood the idea that my allegiance to God trumps all other allegiances, meaning I could still be loyal to my country, still treasure it, but not above all, not above God.” This is a very satisfactory answer and recalls the fact that some people reverse the order. America is such a great country that one does find Americans who seem to worship–worship in the archaic sense of to praise and to serve–their country more than God. This kind of patriotism exists as a vice rather than a virtue: love of God ought to come before love of country.
Biting off More Anime than I Can Chew
Long time readers have likely heard me complain that I can’t watch more than seven shows in a season and that four is the most I should follow. Well, Winter 2019 is shaping up to be an awesome season: yours truly went ahead and picked up ten anime. This amounts to 3.5 hours of anime per week or about 2% of the week. This seems doable. At any rate, let me get onto the anime without further ado.
1) Boogiepop and Others (Crunchyroll)
You know, I never watched the original series, Boogiepop Phantom; though, it’s on my list of things to do. Knowing about the original drew me to take a look at Boogiepop and Others. The opening arc kept me in my seat for the entire three episodes. It looks like your classic supernatural, monster-slaying anime set in a modern high school. The fights, the suspense, and the mysterious nature of the setting make for a very intriguing anime, and I look forward to more. Has anyone seen Boogiepop Phantom and would recommend it, by the way?
A Samurai Anime You Should Watch: Angolmois
Happy New Year to my dears readers! You have not heard from me since Christmas, but I’m still around. My schedule for the near future promises to be freer than it has been for the past several months, so I hope to produce more content. This content will include my top five anime from 2018, a run down of what I watched for Fall 2018, and what I intend to watch this season. (So far, Boogiepop and Others, The Promised Neverland, and The Rising of the Shield Hero have caught my attention.) Two of those posts are late indeed, but better late than never!
In the current post, I want to encourage everyone to watch Angolmois: Record of the Mongol Invasion. Angolmois came out during the summer of 2018, but I did not discover it until December of last year. I love samurai anime, especially those with a strong core of bushido. Angolmois does not disappoint on this score as it drips with the virtues of the samurai. Any fan of samurai anime or medieval action would do well to pick up this anime.
Medieval Otaku 