JO's Ramblings

JesuOtaku's tumblr/randomness dump. Because I'm too disorganized to blog. ^w^;

[jesuotaku]

List of Work I've Done for ANN

Was asked about this recently, and there's not really an easy-to-find list of what all I've written about for ANN, but there is a lot of it, and I often get asked my opinion on things that I've already written thousands of words about on ANN too, so I made a comprehensive list.

Now some of these are very old. Some of them are not! So I guess just take note of the date in the byline for some of these if you want to shake your head at the poorer writing of my younger days. Anyway! I'm writing very frequently for the site now, so with any luck the new content will outweigh the old in no time at all. :) Here's the list!

EDITORIALS (These are fun multimedia pieces about a specific topic in anime fandom, some of my very favorite work I’ve done.The titles may be goofy sometimes, but I try to go in-depth on each topic.)

Three Reasons Why Blood Blockade Battlefront is the Best Show of the Spring

Why are Anime Fans Obsessed with Steven Universe?

Why I Can’t Stop Watching Prison School

Why Clannad Made You Cry

Why We Still Love Digimon

Ten Years of Death Note: Is Light the Bad Guy?

Why We Love Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Is Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Just an Attack on Titan Clone?

Anime’s Fiercest Frenemies

Subaru Natsuki: The Best and Worst Thing About Re:Zero

What’s So Gay About Yuri!!! On Ice?

How Keijo Won the Gold in Fanservice

FULL REVIEWS

(These are full reviews of movies or series, usually on DVD or Blu-ray with details about that release itself included with story analysis.)

anohana: The Flower we Saw that Day (movie)

Attack on Titan (eps. 1-13)

Attack on Titan (eps. 14-25)

Attack on Titan English Dub Preview (eps. 1-5)

Attack on Titan (live-action film) Part I

Attack on Titan (live-action film) Part II

Bamboo Blade (eps. 13-26)

Barakamon

Black Butler (eps. 1-13)

Black Butler: Book of Circus and Book of Murder

Blood Blockade Battlefront

The Boy and the Beast

Case Closed Movie: Captured in Her Eyes

Castle in the Sky

Cowboy Bebop 

Corpse Princess (eps. 1-13)

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (video game)

Death Note ReLight 2

Devil May Cry 

Digimon Adventure tri.- Chapter 1: Reunion

Digimon Adventure tri.- Chapter 2: Determination

Digimon Adventure tri.- Chapter 3: Confession

Doukyusei -Classmates-

Durarara!! x 2 (eps. 1-6)

Durarara!! x 2 (eps. 7-12)

Expelled from Paradise

Fate/Zero

Fullmetal Alchemist 

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (eps. 1-13)

Future Diary 

Gatchaman Crowds

Gunslinger Girl

Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino 

Gunslinger Girl OVA

Hellsing Ultimate (OVAs 9-10)

Hetalia: Axis Powers (season one)

Hetalia: Beautiful World (season five)

Junjou Romantica (season one)

Kamisama Kiss

Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple (eps. 27-38)

Kill La Kill (eps. 1-4)

Kill La Kill (eps. 5-9)

Kill La Kill (eps. 10-14)

Kill La Kill (eps. 15-19)

Kill La Kill (eps. 20-25)

Lupin the 3rd: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine 

Madoka Magica the Movie III: Rebellion

Nabari no Ou (eps. 1-13)

Nabari no Ou (eps. 14-26)

One Piece (eps. 144-156)

Princess Nine

Psycho-Pass (season one)

Psycho-Pass the Movie

Robotics;Notes

Servant x Service

Silver Spoon (season one)

Soul Eater (eps. 1-13)

Soul Eater (eps. 27-39)

Tokyo Majin 

Trigun: Badlands Rumble

Wolf Children

Yurikuma Arashi

EPISODE-BY-EPISODE REVIEWS

(Comprehensive writeups of shows episode by episode. Next to editorials, I enjoy writing these weekly breakdowns the most!)

Berserk (2016)

Blood Blockade Battlefront

Chaos Dragon

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Future Arc

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Despair Arc

Durarara!!×2

Durarara!! ×2 The Second Arc

Durarara!! ×2 The Third Arc

Flip Flappers

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc

Joker Game

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

Lord Marksman and Vanadis

Mushi Shi: The Next Chapter (2nd half)

One-Punch Man

Psycho-Pass 2

Rail Wars!

Tokyo Ghoul

Tokyo Ghoul √A

Utawarerumono: The False Faces

PREVIEW GUIDES

(These are first impressions of the premiere episode for every new anime that airs each season, right when they first come out. The writeup that's labeled "Jacob (or Hope) Chapman" under any given show's page is mine, but there are lots of writers with differing opinions right up against each other for each new show, which is what makes the guide fun!)

Winter 2014

Spring 2014

Summer 2014

Fall 2014

Winter 2015

Spring 2015

Summer 2015

Fall 2015

Winter 2016

Spring 2016

Summer 2016

Fall 2016

I'll just bookmark this post, edit it whenever there's something new to add, and link it or a specific review from it whenever I get that question again. Hopefully it'll be more convenient that way. :'D So many wurds!

[rincentric]

someone who doesn’t watch tokyo ghoul tell me what you think this is about

[the-real-actual-lars-deactivate]

Homosexual purple man attempts to woo a young teen with an eye injury

[jesuotaku]

He wants to woo his delicious insides. Also, woo rhymes with barbeCUE.

[dithe-r]

[ninadough]

[jesuotaku]

Mr. Penguin is wise.

[sailortralfamadore-deactivated2]

So I don’t know how many of you who follow me here read Anime News Network (though you should be), but if you do, you probably saw an announcement today that the site had hired a bunch of new people as streaming reviewers.

Well, in case you were wondering, the “Rose Bridges” on the list was me....

[jesuotaku]

YEAH BOI. I'm assistant editor on this big ole new project on Anime News Network and also writing about Tokyo Ghoul, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and Rail Wars!

You can check all that stuff out here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/episode-review/

Excited to be working and writing with my good buddies Gabriella (writin' bout Terror in Resonance, DRAMAtical Murder, and Sailor Moon Crystal) and Rose (writin' bout Black Butler: Book of Circus) as well as all the other new and returning writers. So please, tell us what you think of the new feature over at ANN, and I hope you enjoy the daily streaming reviews! :D

[madeupmonkeyshit]

[glass-bones-goku-deactivated202]

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (1989)

[jesuotaku]

Now this is a story all about how~ my--ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!

[malatruse]

In the end, all girls are like the rose bride.

[millionfish]

LETS GO STARDUST CRUSADERS 

[jesuotaku]

IGGY!!! : D

[pangodango]

Lovely Little Thieves Trailer!

I know I said the next update on this tumblr would be the completed demo, but I lost two of the days over the weekend I was going to use to complete it, so it’s just a couple more days off yet. It’s sitting at about 25,000 words and around 40 choices, so by “demo” standards, you’re getting a lot of VN. Thank you for being so patient!

This is a special update though. The trailer for the game is now finished! It was edited by myself and my friend Josh Brumfield (krosswerks.) Enjoy and pass it around! The demo is right around the corner…

[jesuotaku]

awwwwwwwwwww yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah~

[mimikaki]

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1996) Anaconda (2014)

[lemedy]

Far and near

I am all the Mysteries

From near and far

I am all the Mysteries

I am all the Mysteries in Creation

I am all the Mysteries in the World

[bearingyoursoul]

aaaaaaaaah one of my favorite scenes from my favorite anime! T_T

[jesuotaku]

NNNGH MY HEART.

[free2anime]

Celebrate Shark Week with Rin!

Be sure to watch episodes of Free! - Eternal Summer - every Wednesday at 11:30am ET! Click here to watch now.

[jesuotaku]

this is the only shark i will be celebrating, yes. i don't even care if you're not a real cop.

[jesuotaku]

Since Urobuchi Gen seems to be if not the best but at least consistently competent writer in anime right now I have a question. What about his voice and storytelling makes his work distinct and stand out, enough so that you already know at first glance whether a show is written by him or not?

(Last question today, btw! Thanks for sending in so many fascinating ones, everybody!)

I’m more interested in Urobuchi’s subtextual story ideas than his textual language/writing style (the language barrier doesn’t help, there’s only so much I can tell about his style when I don’t speak Japanese,) but his dialogue is extremely distinctive. It’s not “realistic” per se. People don’t literally talk like real people, but that’s true of most distinctive scripts. (and Boochi makes people talk more like real people than most other *anime* do at least.) However, it’s consistent. Boochi makes sure all his characters use different speaking styles, language use, and are interested in talking about different things. Most of his characters symbolize an idea, but unlike, say, Christopher Nolan who also writes “characters as ideas” rather than people, Boochi keeps them human. He gets characters to talk about what ideals or concepts they symbolize by jamming them up next to someone who is completely opposite to them. (Sayaka v. Kyoko in Madoka, Kiritsugu v. Saber in F/Z, Akane v. Kogami in Psycho-Pass.) The way I just put it makes it sound dumb and obvious though, and it never is. Hell, Kiritsugu and Saber only speak to each other *three times*, and in all three cases, they don’t talk about their philosophies. They both express their ideals to Irisviel, who acts as a conduit and therapist to both of them (but it’s a tragedy, so ultimately she can’t communicate each’s beliefs to the other.) So it’s never just people standing around talking about philosophies. I *hate* that. Boochi doesn’t do that, he finds ways to lace it into the action of the story and force those conversations, kinda like how musical numbers need to come out of emotional necessity in a musical, and the perfect placement of them is what makes the show good. Outside of this, his characters just act like people, with heavily relatable emotions and actions, but it’s those glimpses into “THIS PERSON REPRESENTS THIS PHILOSOPHY” that make all of those emotions and actions carry weight.

Anyway, that’s all textual. That’s *how* he talks. *What* he talks about is what I really find fascinating. Boochi loves to juxtapose the absolute *pit* of emotionless cruelty against naive optimism, and find truth in both things. He’s so sympathetic to and deeply understanding of “evil” and where it comes from that it’s scary. He doesn’t write bad guys who are just bad and you shouldn’t like them. He forces you to really understand why the bad guys think what they do, and he goes out of his way to almost make their ideals sound logical…appealing…you can see why they almost succeed. He writes impeccable Lucifers, basically. (Kyubey in Madoka, Gilgamesh in Fate/Zero, Makishima in Psycho-Pass.) But the amazing thing to me is that he equally understands the purest and most optimistic hope and goodness in humanity…and that’s the side he chooses, every time! He goes out of his way to show how evil and heartless the universe around us is, how much sense it makes to succumb to and embrace it, and then at the last second, convincingly makes a case for hope over despair (Madoka), mercy over justice (Fate/Zero), and order over anarcy (Psycho-Pass.) To embrace both perspectives so wholeheartedly and portray the triumph of good over evil in a way that always rings true, and turns bittersweet or even barely sweet endings into real heartwarmers…well, it’s cray-cray. I mostly admire Boochi for how intimately he understands a massive variety of human hearts, and how he refuses to really judge any of them, just to understand.

Boochi and I appear to love a lot of the same ideas and I want to steal his powers is what I’m saying.

[jesuotaku]

You mentioned that Lovely Little Thieves is inspired by the goofy slasher films of the 80s. What about that genre appealed to you?

I love all the practical effects and campy abandon of those movies, but not much of that made it into LLT. It's very self-serious in the serious moments and "funny" (let's go with "fun," I don't claim to be funny,) in the fun moments. It's not really campy. Obviously a visual novel can't have "practical effects", but I hope people imagine practical effects rather than CG when they see the art for the demises, of which there are a lot, some of them quite disgusting.

I like those goofy slasher films, but only ironically, so I don't think I can claim to be a big fan, and they didn't inspire me in a "this is amazing!" kind of way. It was just a "wouldn't it be interesting if?" situation. It's gonna be pastiche, not homage. I borrow from the aesthetic and then swing it wildly in my own direction, rather than referencing a lot of movies or trying to reconstruct the arc of one. If that makes sense?

[jesuotaku]

How big are you in any of the STEM subjects

i can't science or engineering or mechanics any good. is the M mechanics or math? i can't do either.

i can only technology okay because my livelihood is so tied to the computer.

liberal arts girl through and through i'm afraid.

[jesuotaku]

Was just wondering, when you said you "experienced" Fate/Stay Night was it the old anime or the visual novel? And if it was the visual novel, did you finish it? Cause that's a long ass visual novel.

It was the visual novel, and I didn't see the whole thing. My friends were livestreaming it basically, so I popped in and out. I saw several hours' worth, though! IT SURE WAS BAD.

[jesuotaku]

Will Lovely Little Thieves be available to Apple users? I ask because a majority of VN's can usually only be played on Windows and PC.

I'll try! I'll have to seek help from someone who knows more about Mac compatibility, once the demo and/or final version is done.