#anime analysis

[littlecakeclub]

They had so many good moments in the latest episode, but my absolute favorite was them just holding hands and talking casually. Soft, intimate, and just quiet trust.

[bodiesdecaying]

asuka's death in end of evangelion has always struck me as one of the most devastating yet strangely poetic moments in anime. it isn't just that she dies it's how she dies. with her sync ratio pushed past 400%, she isn't simply piloting the eva anymore, she is the eva. every cut, every bite, every moment of her unit being torn apart is something she experiences in her own body. she's fully alive, fully aware, and she feels herself being eaten alive in excruciating detail.

and what makes it so tragic is the timing. for once, asuka finds that fire again, that will to live. she says she doesn't want to die, she digs deeper than ever before, and she unleashes everything she has in this final stand. and then, despite her strength, despite her determination, she's consumed anyway. it's not just cruel, it's poetic in the way evangelion so often is: showing us the fragility of human will when faced with forces too vast and indifferent to care.

anno didn't write her death as a cheap shock, he made it unbearable on purpose. it's horrifying, yes, but it also cements asuka as one of the most human, most unforgettable characters in the story. her end is both tragic and strangely beautiful, because it embodies the heart of evangelion itself. brilliance, pain, and the inevitability of being broken by a world that doesn't forgive.

[blondstain]

there’s something sacred about edward’s stubbornness. he loses his body, his home, his childhood, and yet refuses to stay down. he doesn’t believe in gods, only in the people he loves and the promises he made. the world takes and takes, but ed keeps giving back, turning his guilt into motion. maybe that’s what redemption looks like: not forgiveness, but the will to keep creating.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

I’m a few chapters into DanDaDan. Based on what I read so far, this series feels like the “Kaguya-sama: Love is War” of shonen anime. What I mean is that it feels like the author is taking familiar tropes of the genre and trolling the audience with them.

Momo, the tough-looking tomboy, is actually a silly weirdo who keeps being made a fool of.

Okarun, the weird nerd who keeps to himself, has that familiar trope where women start falling for him. The funny thing is that the story turns the trope on its head since it reveals more about the girls than Okarun himself. What I mean is that in stories like this, the harem trope usually tries to make the protagonist seem cooler than how they are in the story. In DanDaDan, it’s reversed.

Aira falling for Okarun was to show that Aira is completely delusional and a complete weirdo herself. Momo falling for Okarun also makes sense since she’s also a weirdo nerd. Just to emphasize how weird Momo is, Momo literally can’t even hear Okarun’s real name since he has the name of a famous heartthrob actor who she has a crush on.

Aira, the girl who has the characteristics of a typical protagonist, turns out to be someone with main character syndrome.

Jiji, the handsome, cool boy who you think will be the love rival for Momo’s affections, turns out to be a complete drama queen weirdo who ends up annoying the other characters.

(Side note: since I brought up kaguya-sama, Momo and Okarun are really making me miss Miko and Ishigami)

[braunslover]

analysis on reiner braun and his deep-rooted need for validation.

spoilers for all seasons, mainly season 4.

growing up all reiner wanted was to be appreciated by an adult figure in his life.

he wanted his mothers validation for the warriors scheme, he wanted to know he was doing a good job — he never got that validation. he got her tears, her anger and her hatred, simply because they weren’t honorary marleyans yet.

then, when he got that validation, it was only because he gave his mother what she wanted — not because he was her son, not because she wanted him safe and healthy — but because he was a fast pass into an ‘easier life’ for her.

once becoming an honorary marleyan, he sought out his father to tell him about the fact they could be a family again, that his father wouldn’t be shunned for associating himself with them.

his father shut that dream down fast; instead of feeling any joy for seeing his son, or being proud of his achievements, he was angry and ashamed of him. he couldn’t enjoy his victory, because all he really wanted deep down was to have a father — a family.

then, marcel happened. my interpretation of reiner and marcel’s relationship was brotherly; reiner saw marcel as a big brother, as a protector — (and maybe even envied what marcel and porco had), because reiner viewed marcel in this way, he wanted to impress him, alongside his family.

we see young reiner as someone who ‘snitches’ a lot, or at least tried to. this stemmed from a place of wanting validation from a male authoritarian figure in his life, in this instance, magath. he said he’d essentially snitch on porco, and porco was quick to snap back.

then, marcel stepped in (like he did plenty of times) to be the peacemaker. this only emphasises my point that reiner sees marcel this way, because marcel was always there to de-escalate situations.

what really solidifies this belief is marcels death. marcel had revealed that reiner only became the armoured because he wanted to keep porco safe, and this genuinely broke something in reiner.

maybe it was the revelation that he wasn’t doing as good as he thought he was, and it only consolidated reiners belief that he was a failure, and that he wasn’t strong enough to pull this off.

however, i also think it stems from the deeper issue of reiners need for validation from male figures, like marcel. as i stated before, i believe reiner saw marcel as a brother, and hearing from someone he idolised that he only got picked was because it was essentially rigged, changed reiners view on everything.

as reiner dissociated in this scene, he almost gets eaten by ymir — before marcel quickly intervenes to save his life. i truly believe this ignited reiners ‘downfall’, per se. before now, it was easy for him to push down what he was feeling, but this moment truly solidified the break in him.

reiner and annie have an argument about what happened to marcel, and reiner goes on to say; ‘reiner is dead, if you want marcel — then that’s what i’ll be.’

in my opinion, reiners soldier personality is 100% based off marcel — a big brother figure who tries to de-escalate tense situations, like marcel always did.

because reiner couldn’t get this validation from anyone else in his life, he took on that role himself. he became the figure he always craved, and essentially lost himself along the way. he got so caught up being the guy everyone came to that he forgot who he actually was.

reiners warrior persona often flashed through; a ruthless identity that doesn’t feel quite like him. it isn’t him. it’s something he adopted to get through his mission to distract himself from the guilt he’d feel for letting everyone down.

reiner is a conflicted man, he never truly knows what he needs to do because his decisions have always been skewed by those around him; his mother, magath, marcel, the corps…

just when he thinks he might start to have a clear decision in mind, the guilt and the need for validation trips him up, and he ends up feeling like that lost little boy again, watching his mother break down because she wants so badly for them to be accepted by society.

reiners suicide attempts come from a place of all consuming guilt — he sees no hope for himself, and he doesn’t want hope. he truly believes he is a terrible person, and that any suffering he has, he deserves. he sees suicide as relief from his twisted, brutal life, but deep down i don’t think he wants to die.

he wants to be accepted — more than anything. he wants people to see him for who he truly is, even if it’s embarrassing. he’s a scared boy underneath everything, and his inner child had never gotten the love he needed to feel fulfilled, or to feel like he had something worth fighting for.

reiners guilt is a big part of who he is; in season four he’s lost a great deal of weight, often looking almost emaciated and unwell (more prominent in the manga). he doesn’t take care of himself because he’s convinced he’s undeserving of life, of care.

all in all, reiner is a deeply complex, troubled and scared character, whose profound need for validation takes over almost every aspect of his life — since childhood, reiner was doomed to live a life of agony and despair, where he can never and has never done right by anyone, because someone will always end up hurt or unhappy. he hasn’t been given the proper grace or care he needed, specifically in his childhood to have even had a shot of living a fulfilled life.

[with-my-calamitous-love]

i could go for hours and hours about nina tucker. about her innocence, about her victimhood, about everything she could have been, and what happened to her.

the more i think about it, the worse it gets. nina didn’t realize what happened to her. she was just a girl, excited to spend time with her dad, excited to help him with his research. i wonder how quickly that excitement morphed into confusion. did it hurt? was she scared? questions ed and al still ask themselves, years after it happened.

oh, and speaking of ed, he still wakes up thinking about it. obviously, for the sheer terror of what happened, the heinousness of the crime, the tragedy of what he saw.

but less obviously, he wakes up thinking about alchemy as a whole. because for edward, its so much more than just a tragedy. its a crisis of faith. it was the moment ed realized that alchemy- his creed- wasn’t the pure, righteous discipline he thought it was. he had seen alchemy perverted, twisted.

but deep down? he always knew alchemy wasn’t perfect. he knows that because of human transmutation.

edward knew, from the moment he saw that grotesque, black mass that should have been their mother, that alchemy was not always noble or right. from the moment he drew a transmutation circle in blood for alphonse, to save the only person he had left, that alchemy had an undeniable twisted nature, hidden beneath a guise of brilliance. edward always wanted to believe that alchemy was a force for good. but deep down? he knew better.

so when nina happened, it wasn't just about the horrific cruelty of the act itself. it was a cruel reminder of what he and al did. a reminder of greed and its consequences. and shou tucker? a warning, of who he and al would have become, if they had let that greed consume them.

for anyone who hasn't seen FMA or FMAB and would like too, don't let this stop you. it is a FANTASTIC show and i have so much more to say for it <3

[quitearc]

am i overthinking or does the way levi didn’t cover his eye mean something 🤔

So in the end of Attack on Titan, we see Levi with his eye gone and what struck me is that he never covers it. No eyepatch, no attempt to hide it. Meanwhile, Hange also lost her eye earlier in the series, and she did wear one.

At first I thought maybe it’s just a design choice or a different kind of injury, BUT the more I think about it, the more it feels intentional. Hange’s eyepatch fits her. She’s inventive, adaptive, always turning damage into something functional or even expressive. She builds around her wounds.

Levi, on the other hand, doesn’t build around them. He just lives with them. There’s no need to hide, no need to fix. For him, the scar isn’t something to disguise - it’s just another part of reality. He’s a man who’s stopped pretending that pain needs to look neat.

And that’s kind of Levi’s whole essence: endurance without display.

He doesn’t cover what’s broken; he carries it. Quietly, practically, without sentiment.

So maybe it’s not about the eyepatch at all - it’s about what each of them does with pain.

Hange transforms hers.

Levi accepts his.

❓What do you think - am I overthinking it, or does that small detail actually say everything about who they are?