Mob Psycho 100: The Hero We Need

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Disneycast Episode 2 – Dumbo, Bambi, and Cinderella

Apologies for the lack of a non-Disney podcast this week, if anyone actually cares that there wasn’t one. We had a busy week with our friend coming back from Army training and Brandon wasn’t in the mood for podcasts and stuff.

Also, apologies for him sniffling a bunch. I cut out as much of it as I could, but there’s still some in there.

What’s in this ep:

0:00 – Introduction
2:12 – Dumbo intro/history of Disney up through Dumbo
8:02 – Dumbo shows the future of animated movies
10:22 – Analyzing Dumbo
34:02 – Bambi introduction
35:22 – Analyzing Bambi
(At one point I say that I don’t remember the music of Fantasia because I don’t care about it. I forgot that we also had it turned down and talked over it. Still, I don’t think it’s an entirely incorrect statement.)
58:26 – Cinderella introduction
1:00:00 – Analyzing Cinderella
(I think Brandon and I are on two different pages re: gender roles in this part)

Analyzing Friendship Is Magic Part 1 (The Mare in the Moon) [With Edits]

This post has been copied from my Digibrony tumblr, since I intend to continue my episodic analysis of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on this blog. I’ve updated the post with some new thoughts and comments, and fixed a lot of spelling errors.

While writing my favorites-based ranking of MLP:FiM episodes, I found myself promising to analyze a bunch of them. I’ve decided to pull the stops and analyze them all. I’m skeptical about my ability to do this, since I’ve tried to do the same with a large number of anime shows over the past four years and never succeeded in finishing one, but I think that my love of MLP is enough to conquer this obstacle!

Episode One: Friendship Is Magic, Part 1 (Mare in the Moon)

When Twilight is reading about the history of Nightmare Moon, Princess Celestia’s voice narrates. I like to think that this book was Celestia’s own account of events, which brings up a point about history: it’s written by the winners. According to Celestia, she “reluctantly” harnessed the elements of harmony and “tried to reason” with her younger sister, but (and fans of the “lunar republic vs. solar empire” thing will love this), we could easily say that this is propaganda by Princess Celestia, and a simplification of a more political and intricate series of events.

I doubt this, of course, but one of the things I like about MLP:FiM is that while it has a canon, that canon is very loose. The idea that Celestia has simplified the story of trapping her sister in the moon need not be a dark or nefarious twist, but is still something you could run in any direction with. This is supported by the fact that Celestia consistency withholds information and manipulates her subjects throughout the show.

Responding to Some Amazing Hidamari Sketch Posts by Cuchlann (Part 2)

(Part 1) On the title: long and silly story short, this is a response to a post by Cuchlann, not a post by 8c. Anyway, everything I said last time about taking too long to post on Hidamari, other people got there first, blah blah, only this post is about a year old and only surfaced to me now. Well, let’s open it up!

RT: @2009digitalboy: ZETSUBOU SHITA! Twitter Has Left Me In Despair! – OR, Is Twitter Making or Breaking Hikkikomori? – Don't F This Up (4)

A post in the “Don’t Fuck This Up” series. In response to comment number 46, by lolikappa.

A hikkikomori is a person who shuts themselves in and distances themselves from society. Twitter is a site that allows wide-scale socializing through massive networking. On paper, Twitter and hikkikomori should be opposite concepts, but could Twitter actually make a hikkikomori even worse? When does the line between ‘socialite’ and ‘shut-in’ begin to blur?

Gunslinger Girl Chapter-by-Chapter – Ch. 1 – Observing the Heavens

A post in the Epic Journey.

I don’t get many chances to talk about Gunslinger Girl, and in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had a post centered on it. This is a travesty because Gunslinger Girl is my favorite franchise. I’d go so far as to say that I like the Gunslinger Girl manga more than any single anime. The first GG anime was very excellent, but only covered the first 2 volumes of the manga, which were mostly plot setup. When they decided to make a second season, some how Il Treano happened and PLEASE NEVER AGAIN. Anyway, I have a lot to say about the GG manga (understatement) and I want to do a chapter-by-chapter analysis. I’ve created a system to keep things organized.