Wading Through the Cultural Stacks

"Archivists...have a responsibility to mitigate harm and are never neutral."- Mx. 'Ellie' Lawlor. On this blog, I review animation, movies, and other cultural mediums, attempting to counter stereotypes of archivists and archives, while reminding people what archives (and archivists) are all about

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The missing chapter(s) in "Spy x Family" Volume 4, spies, disguises, information manipulation, and beyond

Anya’s childish message at the beginning of Mission 21 which successfully warns Loid, ensuring that he and fellow agents aren’t killed, as the door is booby-trapped with a bomb. I used sharpness on this to offset any blurriness. Back in March, I noted that the first edition of Spy x Family manga’s fourth volume I bought, had a misprint which missed part of mission 21, and all of mission 22. As I…

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Feeling like "an artifact": Julian Chase, gen:LOCK, and preserving the past

A few panels from the first page of the gen:LOCK comic, in which he mentions the songs his dad gave him are “an artifact” and that the old Chase is like an artifact. In the opening chapter of the comic gen:LOCK, based on the mature animated mecha series of the same name, protagonist Julian Chase calls his tape recorder that his dad gave him, where he could tape over songs over and over again,…

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Isabel Wilkerson's examination of German archives and American basis for racist laws in Nazi Germany

One of the key parts of Ava DuVernay’s 2023 biographical drama film, entitled Origin, based on life of Isabel Wilkerson, and her journey to write her 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, features an archives. During the film, Wilkerson travels to Germany, India, and the U.S. to research caste systems in history of each country, involving visits to archives and libraries. In this post,…

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Picture discs, poems, a missing vinyl record, social media, and a record store in Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop

Fujiyama holds the cover the picture disc (without a record inside) on page 17 I’ve written various posts about Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop, whether the 2021 film, the 2023 light novel adaptation, but not the manga adaptation, which came in three volumes, published by Yen Press. The first and second volumes came out in 2023, while the third volume came out in 2024. This post will note the…

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Animal experimentation, cover ops, secret missions, Loid's excuses, and classified identities in Spy x Family

Early on in vol. 4 of the Spy x Family manga, specifically panels from Mission 18, Loid makes an absurd reason for why he has to leave, a total and absurd lie. As Anya puts it early on in the manga, he is a “bad liar.” I’ve written about Spy x Family before on this blog, many times. In fact, to date, it has been mentioned in eight posts, including those about: Spy x Family: Family Portrait (a…

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The archives building, records (mis)management, and corporate archives in "I Have a Crush at Work"

The door of the accounting department’s archives building shown during the episode. I didn’t expect that a series about two characters (Masugu Tateishi and Yui Mitsuya) secretly in love, both of whom work at a chocolate company, would have an archives! But, I was wrong. In the fourth episode of I Have a Crush at Work, Tateishi is tasked with going to the archives building, with the door shown…

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"Comes with landlord": Asako Suga's misunderstanding and remembering to read the fine print

The misunderstanding begins. This is from page 14 of volume 1 In the past, I’ve noted the value of fine print, as emphasized by the record-obsessed/dedicated elf, Alfur, in Hilda, and a scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a 1971 film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is all “about the fine print…which…comes up at another key scene in the film.”…

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Secrets, spies, assassins, telepaths, cover identities, and friendship in "Spy x Family: Family Portrait"

The Forger family pictured in this page near the beginning of Spy x Family: Family Portrait. On the opposite page (not shown here) are summaries of Operation Strix, key people, and the story, like its a mission briefing. Similar images were also used in some other Spy x Family books I have read, like some the manga volumes. Sorry for the slight blurriness here and my thumb in the picture, but I…

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Entering 2026 with "Wading Through the Cultural Stacks"

[image] Hello all! In this first post for 2025, I’d like to focus on what is coming ahead this year. I am still committed to having no hiatus on this blog, as I noted before. In 2024, I published posts about over 25 Western animations, 20 anime, 26 films, almost 20 comics / graphic novels / webcomics, and other media. [1] Last year I upped the ante, covering anime and western animation such…

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Theft for profit, near-death experiences, romance, survival, and Aphra editing her own story for listeners

The characters list at the beginning of the script/book (pages xiii to xiv), which is obviously written from Aphra’s perspective, considering she is the FIRST one on this list and this notes her thoughts on all these characters. I’ve written about Doctor Aphra before here, including my post last month, which reviewed archivy themes in Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Omnibus Vol. 2 and Star Wars: Doctor…

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Sealed files, mysteries, and conspiracies in "The Clone Wars: The Last Missions"

During the episode, Jocasta Nu recounts that existing records show that Sifo-Dyas died on Felucia. She does not consider that the record could have been manipulated. Last month, I wrote about the four-episode arc focusing on the brain-modificaction chip which caused the clone troopers to kill their Jedi commanders (i.e. Order 66 or the Jedi genocide). That arc comprised the episodes “The…

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Mind control, near-death experiences, evil robots, secrets, artifact theft, and "lesbian disaster" Doctor Aphra

The perfect encapsulation of Aphra, in her first appearance, in Darth Vader (2015) 3, showing she truly is the moral inverse of Indiana Jones, as it states on a Wookieepedia page. Sorry for the blurriness. This is one of my favorite scenes of her. As of this post, I’ve written about Doctor Aphra ten times on this blog, first starting in July 2023 and most recently mentioning it in my post last…

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"Good soldiers follow orders": Mind control, secrets, intrigue, Kaminoans, and the Genetic Records Hall

Admiral Trench looks at the footage which shows Tup killing a Jedi general because of his inhibitor chip in the first episode of this series/season When I ordered the box set of Star Wars: The Clone Wars last year, one of the disc sets was something entitled “The Lost Missions.” I soon learned this was the sixth season of the series, which only aired in Canada, but never aired in the U.S. (only…

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"Something like a really big CD": Vinyl records, emotions, and real-life preservation

Beginning and end: this stylus will perpetually repeat its spiral journey from outer rim to inner groove, extracting music all along. A tribute to the classic record player. This is a photo by Franz van Duns and posted on Wikimedia Commons on April 28, 2019. In early May of last year, I wrote about the 2021 film Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop, which sadly never received a physical release (except…

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Video games, memory erasure, and archivy implications in "Glitch Techs"

A family’s memories about to be reset about 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the first episode, thanks to a blast from Mitch Williams’ gauntlet, so they don’t remember the video game glitch which jumped out of their TV When I first watched Glitch Techs on Netflix, I only thought of it as a rad animated series about two teens who join those secretly taking care of glitches which result in video game…

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Keeping Gems "in line," memory recovery, and amnesia in "Steven Universe: The Movie"

Steven shows his dad, who visibly gasps, upon seeing the weapon that Spinel used against him, and his Gem guardians Everything seems “perfect” in Little Homeworld and Beach City, with Steven Universe glad that everyone is enjoying their lives. But, just like Cassandra in Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, Spinel (voiced by Sarah Stiles), a Gem with extremely stretchy arms (and body) crashes this happy…

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Marika Urūno's dilemma in a world filled with women, history distortion, and hidden records

Page 20 of this manga, which shows the protagonist confused as to why the history is different in this world, as compared to her home world. At this point, she isn’t completely sure what is happening. A 390-page book, first printed by Yen Press, in an omnibus version which combines volumes 1 and 2, beginning in June 2021, has more archives-related themes than I had expected. The book, a mix of…

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