“He always let his actions speak for him. He’s careful and has a lot of pride. He’s always thinking about what happens when he loses.” – Komano, Chihayafuru 2 episode 19
Nowhere does Chihayafuru hit home for me as well as it does with Taichi’s development over the course of the series.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that Diana, and not Akko, would’ve made a more suitable protagonist for Little Witch Academia.
Turmoil finds its way into Bunny Mountain Market when Choi tells Tamako that she is the bride for the prince that Dera has been searching for all this time. Like with most things Tamako is relatively unphased by the news and expresses doubts that she is actually the prince’s bride. To her it is no big deal, and she goes about her days as though nothing has changed. The people around her, however, are thrown into a state of confusion as they suddenly find themselves faced with the prospect of Tamako leaving and torn between their desire to see Tamako happy and to not see her leave.
This post contains spoilers from the Pandora Hearts Manga. If you are not up to date and do not wish to be spoiled then I advise you do not read this post.
It is troubling when a show trivializes the wounds or disabilities of a character, using them to create a dramatic effect but later disregarding them. A lot of shows or manga (especially Shounen) love to injure their characters as a way of illustrating how tough the character is, or how strong the opponents they face are, but then ignore the severity of such injuries by having their characters miraculously heal overnight or regain lost limbs. Removing serious injuries without addressing them is not only noticeably odd, but it can very often work against the story that is being told. On the other hand, when the injuries of the characters are treated with the proper weight, the story is much more effective and what is trying to tell, and this is something that Pandora Hearts does very well.
Aida Mana, the leading girl of DokiDoki! Precure, is a character that is ridiculously competent. The student council president, a very hard worker, and someone who is always willing to extend a helping hand to others, Mana is the type of person that parents and adults look at with pride and peers look up to with respect. But while she is so independent, Aida Mana is hardly the perfect young girl, and her particular character traits, and resultant problems, allow for different types of character exploration. Episode two of DokiDoki takes a look at one of these problems in an episode about being willing to ask someone else for help and the alienating effect of trying too hard by yourself.
Though it has been close to a year since the first season finished airing, season two of Chihayafuru picks the story up right where we left off without losing a single bit of it’s charm. One thing that I’ve always liked in particular about this show is its portrayal of the competitive aspects of Karuta. Not only because it makes for a very intense story, but also because competitive games have always been a big part of my life. Growing up I played in quite a few Chess tournaments around the country. I competed and placed in tournaments, some even on national level, and on occasion even participated in teams. In recent years I’ve also begun playing League of Legends, and while not as serious as my Chess experience, I still try to be competitive both as a solo player and with my team. Chihayafuru really resonates with me because the experiences and the struggles of the characters remind me so much of my own experiences in the competitive world. And as we enter the show’s second season, and the Karuta club is forced to pick up additional members, Chihayafuru once again impresses me with its depiction of team dynamics.
In the past few days before the holidays I have been taking a trip down memory lane by re-watching much of Aria. Though I’ve seen the series several times, the simplicity and sentimentalism of the stories have not lost their magic. The series is full of strong episodes, but one that I’m particularly fond of is the OVA that takes place between The Natural and The Origination.
Would you enter the world of Alfheim Online?
That’s the question I found myself asking once episode nineteen finished and it’ll be the theme of this post. Follow with me and as we take a look at ALO as a game. Let’s forget about Kirito, Leafa, Asuna, and all the other characters and plot and just look at the system. ALO suffers from some hideous balance issues, but there are also appealing aspects to the game that sometimes get forgotten amidst all of the problems. Unlike the death-trap that was Sword Art Online, ALO offers a large world to safely explore and adventure in. The ability to fly is also a tremendously appealing aspect of the game that offers a completely new experience from real-life.
Well, I finally reached my first year of blogging here on Through the Frozen Glass. One-hundred and fort-nine posts ago this anime fan decided to write about some shows in the new fall season. In retrospect, choosing to blog about anime was one of the best decisions I’ve made and probably a big part of why I’m still an anime fan today.
A recent discussion with a friend about characters in literature got me thinking about the most unlikely of anime, Guilty Crown. A show that I blogged episodically back when I first started this site, Guilty Crown was an awful show that was widely disparaged in the aniblogging community. One of the major complaints that I had about Guilty Crown was that its protagonist, Ouma Shu, was an inconsistent character that rapidly changed depending on what the story needed him to be. I considered Ouma Shu to be a poorly written character, but after the discussion, there is perhaps a better way to look at it. Shu’s character was unlikable because of his inconsistency, but that isn’t necessarily a result of bad writing; the inconsistency in his character could be intentional and indicative of a character with a weak core.
