Ki Sho Ten Ketsu

First I’ve made this playlist of a number of YT videos about Kishotenketsu, I haven’t actually watched all of them yet but the ones at the start I have.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepidrlF-PrpezIs-mVr3Q0Ls

In this post I’m going to talk about it in a few different ways.

First, as I've already said before, I think the common translation of Ten as “Twist” is unintentionally misleading. And one manifestation of that is how it’s applied to Attack on Titan.  Yes I think even Pause and Select is wrong in trying to argue the Kishotenketsu breakdown of Attack on Titan correlates to the official Season designations of the Anime.

This is largely driven by the confusion of Ten with being a plot twist, because Season 3 revolves around plot twists way more then the first two seasons.

The first 3 seasons were designated three seasons even though they functionally aired as 4 broadcast seasons and have slightly more than enough episodes to theoretically be divided into Five seasons because of the quirks of how it aired. I’m convinced the 5th Broadcast season was branded as the “Final Season” purely for marketing, because the Manga was about to end and they’d committed to adapting the rest of it. 

However, narratively speaking I believe the Ten begins when Reiner becomes the main POV protagonist for a while.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Ten at least when applied to long form stories like this is about the story being very different then it was before.  And that if there is indeed a Plot Twist that causes it, that plot twist isn’t always part of the Ten but can often happen at the end of the Sho.

And one precedent for that is the Evangelion Rebuild films.  

One reason I think some people have trouble accepting the claim that the Three Act Structure isn’t as big in the East is because so many Anime film series are made as Trilogies, but honestly I think that kind of is just the Japanese Film industry mimicking Hollywood. Take the Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Compilation films, they are a trilogy but I feel would clearly have worked much better as four films with the second beginning and ending with the Ramba Ral and Crowely Hamon arc.

And that’s why the Rebuild films are special, they are a true Kishotenketsu Tetralogy.  Evangelion 3.33 feels almost like itself a Reboot, but why everything is so different now is because of what happened at the end of 2.22.

And this also fits how I feel Kishotenkestsu very intentionally applies to the Wachowskis Speed Racer film from 2008.  Basically each of the film’s four races are the culminations of each of the four acts, with the film’s main “Twist” if you can call it that happening alongside the second race.

Like many who are aware of Kishotenketsu I often get annoyed when seeing some Normie YouTuber try to force the Three Act Structure or some other Western Structure derived from it (any proposed structure with an Odd number of parts is clearly just trying to stretch out the Three Act Structure) onto an Anime or Manga.  

However I also admit it’s not entirely wrong.  There are natural things that led to the Three Act Structure that can make it not limited to the West.  But I think the reverse is also true.  One video in that playlist argued Kishotenketsu is a Rhetorical device not a Story Structure, I disagree with the “not” part, or rather would add an “only” after it.  Both the Three Acts Model and Kishotenketsu can be viewed as lenses through which to look at stories that are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  After all most 12 episode Anime are either 4 Acts of 3 episodes each or 3 acts of 4 episodes each.

Still there is a Western Chauvinism I think in how often the Three Act Structure is imposed on Eastern stories rather than the other way around.  So I figured I should try to even that out.  I already mentioned Speed Racer but as an Anime Adaptation it’s certainly not independent of Eastern Influence, rather it shows how the Wachowskis did their research better then a lot of other Hollywood Anime Adaptations. The Cynic Clinic video at the start of my Playlist cites examples of people in Japan seeing Kishotenketsu in Frozen and Little Red Riding Hood. 

JustWrite has a video on how Batman Begins actually follows a Four Act Structure, but a differently defined one then Kishotenketsu.  And yet I can apply a Kishotenkestsu lens to it fairly easily by simply saying its midway point "Twist" is the introduction of The Batman to Gotham City.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace certainly can be broken down into four acts instead of the usual three based on what Planet the main cast is on, Naboo, Tatooine, Coruscant, and Naboo again.  The question is how plausible Kishotenketsu is? It could be in this context the Midway Point Twist is the existence of Darth Maul becoming known to the Jedi. 

But also on the subject of Star Wars, each season of Andor is divided into 4 Arcs of 3 episodes each just like a lot of Anime.

I also think about how Superman The Movie and Superman II are meant to be telling one massive story across two movies and that kind of fits.  First Superman is introduced to the world, then stopping Luthor’s plan is the development, then the introduction of the Super Villains is the Ten and the eventual battle between them and Superman is the Ketsu. 

I recently rewatched It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and concluded it too can be given a four act breakdown.  The first ends when the race properly starts after the failed negotiation on how to split up the money.  The Intermission breaks up Acts 2 and 3.  And Act four begins with the finding of the money.  

A number of DC and Marvel limited series that get referred to as Graphic Novels were originally published as 4 praters.  The Dark Knight Returns might actually the easiest to apply Kishotenketsu to. 

I added an update to my post about Spin Offs that start with no prior connection to the main cast arguing how they can fit one way of defining Kishotenketsu. And that also got me thinking how Phase One MCU can be viewed as following that kind of Kishotenketsu.  The first Iron Man film is the Ki, Iron Man 2 is the Sho, Thor and Captain America are the Ten and The Avengers is the Ketsu.  

I also got to thinking how one could make a standard Hollywood Trilogy into that by taking a setting or character only in the third film and making a prequel about them placed on the watch order between movies 2 and 3.  For the original Star Wars trilogy I guess the Ewoks would be the best option for that, (and there are Ewok focused Spin Offs but I don’t know where they hypothetically fit on the timeline). [Update: I guess a movie about the Bothans could also work if it also gives screen time to Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma.]  For The Dark Knight Trilogy an origin story for Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman would be the best bet.

Four Koma Manga like Azumanga Daioh are often cited as the perfect way to demonstrate Kishotenketsu on a micro level. But strangely never actually contrasting it to the standard Three Panel structure of American Newspaper Comics like Garfield.  It perhaps says something about my biases that I think the Azumanga Daioh girls in a Three Panel comic would look weird, but I think Four Koma gags with Garfield and Friends could work pretty well.

But I also notice Internet Memes and Web Comics tend to be Four Panels instead of Three (but you have to read them Right to Left unlike a Manga).  Is it possible that is because of how indirectly Japanese Comedy has influenced Internet Humor from very early on via Video Games and Anime and the sillier Godzilla movies?

The most infamous Four Panel Webcomic is arguably Loss, but honestly I’m having trouble even forcing it to fit Kishotenketsu.  It is more like Western Storytelling where the “Twist” happens in the last panel.  That’s not me dissing it, frankly I’m sick of the unfair hate that author has received and honestly I think it's a brilliant piece of wordless purely visual storytelling and the way people have abstracted it to mock it only further proves that.

However what I do think shockingly conforms to Kishotenketsu is a Prequel Meme, the one based on that Padme and Anakin scene from Attack of The Clones, “You’re Joking Right”.  Because I can easily argue that the Ten is the implication that Anakin isn’t Joking. 

I honestly am shocked that much of this wound up being about Star Wars.  Every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in. 

I’ve wondered if maybe Japan also has a more niche Six Act structure given how many OVA series (like Gunbuster, War in The Pocket, Tenchi Muyo and Murder Princess) and Anime Arcs (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and the first arcs of A Certain Magical Index, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sailor Moon SailorStars) I’ve observed play out over exactly 6 episodes (and the School Days Visual Novel is structured as 6 episodes). But then I think about how the Freytag’s Pyramid Five Act structure is just the Three Act structure with a couple extra steps, and suspect these Six Part stories have a similar relationship to Kishotenketsu, with it probably most often being the Sho and the Ten that get an extra episode each. 

That allows the Phase One MCU model to fit even better. I'd already split the Ten into two movies and now I can add The Incredible Hulk to the Sho rather than ignoring it.

Can I make the 6 episode George Lucas Saga fit? Maybe.  The Phantom Menace as an Introduction to everything obviously works, then we have two episodes covering the Clone Wars, then two episodes of following the next generation before Return of The Jedi brings everything together. 

Update February 2026: It seems season one of A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms will be 6 episodes, and episode 3 ended on a Twist. 

Someone on BookTube finally covered George MacDonald's Lilith and I observed from how they described the structure that it kinds of works as KiShoTenKetsu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu61VYRn_yE

I've also remembered once watching a YouTube video that says in the original Rocky the inciting incident happens at the halfway point.

The problem with Ranking Anime

I use Anime Database websites like Anlist and Anime-Planet mainly to help me keep track of what Anime I have and haven't watched for my own sake.  The thing I’ve increasingly noticed is how I feel compelled to score an Anime on an at least Semi-Objective out of 5 or out of 10 scaling system doesn’t correlate well to how often I feel compelled to revisit one or talk about it. 

It honestly feels more useful to put them in categories rather than mathematical rankings.

First there are my Favorites, the Anime I would unambiguously start with when trying to summarize what my taste in Anime is, as well as what I consider masterpieces even when they don't entirely conform to my general tastes.  You can get a taste of these by looking at what I list as Favorites on those Database websites, but on those sites I try to list only one entry per franchise, the truth is most any franchise that produces one Favorite of mine probably also has many other entries I could have listed.

Then there are shows that I like and consider worthy of how successful they are, but wouldn’t call a personal favorite and probably wouldn’t talk about as much as I do if they weren’t among the most well known Anime, a frame of reference I can be confident most people into Anime at all will somewhat understand.  

Examples would include Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, Re:Zero, Mushoku Tensei, Vinland Saga, Frieren and Delicious In Dungeon. Those are all shows from the last 15 years, certainly there are older shows I could put in this category?  Cowboy Bebop is probably the clearest 90s version of a show I feel exactly this way about.

Maybe the more of an Old Classic something is, the harder it is for me to even be self aware how much my own praise for it is because it has that Classic status.  Revolutionary Girl Utena and Serial Experiments Lain are shows I feel like I rank higher than any of those I just listed, yet I rewatch them less often, maybe that’s just because they are such uniquely Dense and thus intellectually exhausting shows to watch. 

Then there are shows I like about as much as the second category but may seem more enthusiastic about because of how much my talking about them exists in the context of defending them against the hate they receive from the online Anime Community at large. Rent-A-Girlfriend, Future Diary, a number of Isekai.  Of course some stuff in the second category does receive similar hate in certain contexts, (in fact several years ago I’d probably have placed SAO here but the intensity of it’s hate seems to have died down).  But I don’t talk about them so defensively because their vocal unironic fandoms are pretty visible.

Then there are shows I like about the same as those two categories but indeed I don’t wind up talking about much because it often feels like I’m the only one even aware of them. When they are talked about on this Blog it's because I’d currently or recently watched them or they’re relevant to some specific topic I’m talking about.  But even within this category there are some I’m more likely to actively recommend to others when I feel like they are the kind of show someone is looking for but hasn’t found on their own.  Engage Kiss is one example as are most shows I mentioned in the Anime Neo-Westerns post, as well as the shows I like to recommend as Fantasy Anime that in no way feel like Isekai even though they came out during this Isekai era like Grimoire of Zero and it’s spin off Dawn of The Witch, or Tales of Zestiria, WorldEnd and Manaria Friends which are also from 2017 or the film Maquia.

And then there are shows I have significant issues with, but also have something I find fascinating about them, about what they could have been, that has me thinking about them more than many shows in the fourth category.  Wonder Egg Priority is placed here, a lot of people seem to feel this way about that show but my opinion is more overfall positive then most peoples.  But arguably the show the character I use as my Avatar comes from is in this category.

And then as perhaps an Evil Counterpart to the second category are shows I failed to enjoy that I would have never thought about again at all if they didn’t become super popular, if I didn’t feel like I was the only one to watch it and not like it.  I don’t want to be a person who hates on things others enjoy, but sometimes I can’t help myself and need to say my piece. The lead Anime in this category is probably Revue Starlight.

Thing is, while I’m pretty sure every Anime I have any strong opinions on at all are in one of these categories, I’m not always sure myself which one.  Like I certainly can’t confuse the first two categories with the bottom one, but in between those is a lot of fluidity.

Septimal Anniversaries of Spring 2017 Anime

This is a follow up to the beginning of my series on revisiting 2017 Anime.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2024/01/septimal-anniversaries-of-2017-anime.html

I’m not gonna structure this the same as I did my coverage of Winter.  First I’m gonna talk about what I remember I was actually watching at the time. 

It’s still true that most are on CR but Dubs are less guaranteed.

Twin Angel Break I found to be a neat little Magical Girl show that stood on its own quite well despite being a sequel to shows I hadn’t already seen yet.

Eromanga-Sensei was Fun Trash, very Trashy but Fun.

Attack on Titan season 2 I watched on Adult Swim so it was Summer when I finished it. I don’t regret my time spent with the first three ‘seasons” of AoT but the “Final Season” lost me quickly.  From a Yuri standpoint this is the season that had the most YumiKuri.

Those are the three TV Anime I watched to completion as they aired.  I also saw the Washio Sumi movies as soon as they became available to me, I no longer remember exactly when that was, they were good.

Clockwork Planet I watched maybe half of as it aired then dropped it for a while but wound up finishing it in 2023.  It’s a neat, fun show with an out there SciFi premise you can guess from the title.

Grimoire of Zero I’m pretty sure I did watch and finish before 2017 was over, it’s a good non Isekai Fantasy show that doesn’t even feel like a Quasi Isekai either, I highly recommend it. It’s on HIDIVE.

Little Witch Academia I already talked about, I’d seen more then half before 2017 was over but didn’t finish it till years later.

And I’m pretty sure that’s it for any TV Anime of this season I’d even partly seen before 2017 was over.  Besides the ones still on my dropped list but I don’t feel like mentioning them.

WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? Is another good Fantasy show that isn't’ Isekai or Quasi Isekai but also different from Grimoire. So I highly recommend it as well to Fantasy Fans.

Sword Oratoria is a spin off of DanMachi, a show I haven’t seen, yet it stands on its own well enough.  It’s the closest to a Quasi Isekai the first half of 2017 provided.  I won’t recommend it as highly but I enjoyed it.  It’s on HIDIVE.

ReCreators I also talked about in the first post of this series and others even older than that.  I didn’t watch it until 2023.  I don’t have more to say on it right now. [Update: I apologize for not knowing when I first posted this that Re;Creators was no longer on Amazon PrimeVideo, there is no no way to legally watch it.]

In the OVA department was Kase-san, which is good but I prefer my Yuri to be a little trashier. I think 2018 was when I saw it near when I saw it’s longer follow up which I have the same opinion on.

April had the 21st Detective Conan movie The Crimson Love Letter which I first saw in 2022 by digitally renting it on PrimeVideo.  I like all the Detective Conan movies but we are in their weakest era here and I don’t have anything special to say about this one.

ChaoS;Child Silent Sky isn’t really a movie but more of a bonus epilogue episode to the series I talked about in Winter.  It's not Dubbed so I haven’t rewatched it as much, it’s interesting but I don’t have anything to say about it right now.  They aren't needed, the ending of the series is satisfying enough on its own.

Mystery Box Storytelling can be good, J.J. Abrams is just bad at it.

Now I know the first response is gonna be that Abrams coined the term so how can he be the one doing it wrong?  Did he identify a type of storytelling but not fully understand it?

I myself in the past have sometimes gone along with those saying Mystery Boxes are inherently bad because that's how you get Disney Star Wars.  And I still agree that it shouldn't have been the approach taken to Star Wars, that the Original Trilogy was Absolutely not Mystery Box storytelling.  Abrams' problem seems to come from him seeing it everywhere.

But since I think this idea particularly is done dirty by it's very name it's perhaps necessary to define it.  It's not any Mystery at all, it's certainly not twists where we weren't expecting there to be one, nor even every twist where we were expecting there to be a twist, and it's not anytime a character isn't named in the very first scene they appear in.  

A Mystery Box is something the story presents as being an unanswered question early on and builds up to revealing, possibly for quite a long time relative to the story's total length.  But I would also argue it only truly exists in serialized storytelling and doesn't include any question both asked and answered in one self contained Episode or Movie.

I feel bad about claiming I agreed with Mystery Boxes being inherently bad in the past because I've absolutely loved plenty of TV Shows and Anime that Absolutely did this, and specifically enjoyed engaging in that mystery speculation.  And that includes ones where the answer to the Mystery can be considered disappointing because it was either very obvious or not something I ever had a fair chance at solving in advance.  Because I truly believe in the adage that it's about the journey rather then the destination.  But the thing is I can hold the view that the answer to the mystery doesn't really matter and still enjoy engaging in all that speculation and coming up with theories of my own anyway because it simply is fun.

There is no actual tangible rule that explains what the Mystery Box stories I like did differently from Abrams.  The closest I could come to is saying the good ones don't have that as the only thing going for them, they are stories where I was actually invested in the characters and so the investment in the Mystery is about how the Answer is relevant to them, or at least they think it is.

But the thing is that's subjective, plenty of the shows I'm about to talk about loving are hated by others, and plenty of people like Abrams's Star Wars Movies, even Rise of Skywalker, I know because depending on my mood I've been one of them.  Yes I just admitted that the last part of the title of this post is Subjective, in fact it's a subjective opinion I have based on very limited information because his Star ____ movies are the only Abrams things I've seen, I haven't watched any of Lost.  Maybe it's really more Abrams being bad at explaining it in that Ted Talk people meme on then actually bad at doing it, artists are like that sometimes.

My favorite Live Action TV show and my Favorite non Japanese TV show was Pretty Little Liars, it's Mystery is ridiculously convoluted and ultimately doesn't hold up under scrutiny, and I don't care, I enjoyed every stop of the ride to get there.  It means way more to me then any Star Wars does, even The Prequels.

But the Mystery Box approach is also core to Twin Peaks and Game of Thrones going back to it's books.  Deliberately withholding information is Absolutely vital to what they were doing.

But what I'm most into is Anime.  Right now the most well known Mystery Box style Anime is Attack on Titan, and I enjoyed the first "Three" seasons of that show.  I stopped enjoying it during the "Final" season but not because I found any reveals bad or disappointing, everything about the show had changed basically which isn't inherently bad but I just wasn't into it anymore.

However my personal Favorite Anime of all time is Noir.  And it too had a Mystery Box, who killed Mireille's parents and why does Kirka have their Watch.  If you think you've solved that mystery from just the information I provided you in that sentence you are correct, the answer is that simple and obvious but it didn't matter, I still love the scene where it was revealed and love that they pretended it wasn't obvious.

Witch Hunter Robin, Madlax, El Cazador de la Bruja are other fairly obscure 2000s Anime I enjoy in part for their Mystery Boxes.

Even Revolutionary Girl Utena and Neon Genesis Evangelion are Mystery Box shows, the objection you may make to explain why they are not are equally applicable to The Force Awakens as far as the people who still like that movie are concerned.

Basically the Mystery Box is one of those story telling devices that people insist on claiming is inherently Bad and then come up with endless excuses why the ones they like don't count.

Fantasy stories where Royal Blood gives you Superpowers.

I find this topic interesting to analyze.

On the one hand if you're going to have genetically inherited Superpowers or Magical Affinities be a thing in your fictional setting, it actually seems far more plausible to me that they would become the ruling class rather then the X-Men based standard of making them oppressed minorities.

However on the other hand real world Hereditary Monarchies have been justified by claims that the Royal Bloodline descends from Demigods or when Christianized have some God granted miracle power to vindicate their Divine Right to Rule. So doing this in a Fantasy or Sci-Fi story can intentionally or not seem like vindication of actual Royalist beliefs.

A lot of old 19th Century Novels that don't have fantastical elements do involve lost heirs to titles of Nobility where the lost rightful heir is identified by some Heirloom or Birthmark.  I can see how it would make sense when translating those tropes into a Fantastical setting to use some sort of Super Power or Magical Ability instead.

"The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known." from The Lord of The Rings is the most directly based on the real world equivalent.  The Royal Touch associated with both French and English Kings.  And yeah the Inklings more then any other famous writers of Fantasy were Medievalists in their real world politics.  More recently the Royal Touch has been cited by Da Vinci Code supporters as evidence that the Merovingians descended from Jesus.

In Game Of Thrones and the Novels it's based on the Targaryen ablity to control Dragons is the source of their Divine Right to rule.  People who liked how the final season ended tend to paint the complainers like Lindsay Ellis as the ultimate Girl Boss Feminists who suddenly support Hereditary Monarchy when it's a Woman.  Those critics have in fact made it clear it's about the character development, and suggesting Targaryen madness is simply biological determinism does not actually disagree with Eugenics.

In Attack On Titan those with royal blood can alter memories and it seems also command Titans, or help Titan Shifters control Titans.  And indeed Krista/Historia's arc over the course of Season 2 and the first part of season 3 is the best Return of The Queen arc I've seen so far.

But I want to talk last about something more obscure.  Aldnoah Zero an Anime from 2014 I watched recently on HBOMax.  

It's a Real Robots Mecha show using a lot of tropes codified by Gundam.  But in Gundam the super powers that exist for the purpose of limiting the ability to pilot Gundams to specific people are more like Childhood's End (even calling them Newtypes seems to play on language from that book).  But in this show it's an ability the Royal Family of the Martian Empire was given by some technology of an ancient lost Martian civilization, but that they can also loan to others making them Nobles.  When The Princess does this it tends to be by Kissing them on the Lips.

So this show unlike a lot of Mecha does wind up seeming like a straight forward endorsement of Royalism.  The key to making Peace in the end is getting the good Royal on the Throne.

It also reminds me how a lot of the concepts related to Courtly Love in old Chretien de Troyes style Medieval Romances kind of resemble the modern Internet concept of Simping.  In this Anime whether you're a good guy or a bad guy isn't determined by which side of the War you're on, but whether or not you're Simping for Princess Asseylum.

Those are the four that popped into my head right away as I decided to make this post.  Feel free to comment with other examples you find interesting.

Anime 2020 is winding down now

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 8 was late but pretty interesting.  So this show drawing on Norse mythology also somehow exists in a world where no one ever heard of it before?

I decided to drop Our Last Crusade or The Rise of A New World during episode 9.  It feels kind of like a waste to get this deep in and then not finish it, but this show was frankly lucky, it holding on by virtue of none of the Fall Simuldubs coming out consistently. 

Episode 9 of Assault Lily Bouquet was not the sequence of events I was expecting.

I’m not supposed to be talking about Higurashi Gou past episode 13.  But most of my thoughts on rewatching Episode 8 for the Dub are heavily informed by the recent developments of episodes 16 and 17.  I was pretty skeptical of a certain theory when this episode first aired, but now it’s confirmed and I can’t not notice what should have and for many did give it away.

Oddly enough I do feel like I’m maybe willing to say I prefer Michelle Rojas as Mion but still Megan Hollingshed as Shion.

I don’t think I’ll be bothering with episodes 9-13, there isn’t much I feel like rewatching anytime soon there.  You can argue there is a lot to look for now that I know, but this part of Higurashi I can only take in small doses and I’ve recently watched all three versions.

I finished the Million Lives Isekai.  I’m only giving it a 7, yet I still recommend it pretty highly to people at all into Isekai, it has plenty of moments better than the sum of the whole.

I watched some more of Fate/Grand Order Babylonia, episodes 14-16, they were pretty good.

TONIKAWA episode 11 a fun Gaming party episode.

Yashahime episode 11 was a decent Shonen filler episode. 

I then finished Babylonia and gave it an 8 out or 10.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 9 was a very good episode, things are coming together now.

The Day I Became A God episode 9 was fantastic.

The fourth episode of Attack On Titan’s final season, and last to air in 2020, was fairly decent, looks like things will finally pick up next week but my coverage here is over.

The penultimate episode of SAO Alicization War of Underworld was alright.

Pretty good Weekend of Simuldubs.

So I returned to the Dub of HigurashiGou for episode 7 to hear Ayu’s Dark Rika voice.  I’m afraid it was disappointing, I do like this actress and wanted something nice to say about this Dub.  Of course I don’t think the writers “translated” it well either. I watched that scene multiple times on YouTube after seeing the full episode, I really didn’t think it’s be that hard to write.

Rebecca Forstadt doesn’t get the respect she deserves because she’s one of those VAs who pretty much always sounds that same.  But that’s what makes Rika special, her little bit of time as Dark Rika was great stuff and it still angers me they never let that cast to Kai.

WOW, Episode 11 of Million Lives opens with a Pretty Cure Homage that made my Cry.  What is this doing buried deep into a forgettable Isekai?  And then we get even more.  This is 10x better than the show it’s in.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 8 was the perfect kind of Fanservice episode.  Someone animating this show appreciates Legs and Feet in a way most Seinen Anime do not.

TONIKAWA episode 10 was Cute.

Yashahime episode 10 was decent.

Episodes 7 and 8 of The Day I Became A God were quite an emotional whiplash.  The show is really getting good now.

Episode 3 of Attack On Titan’s Final Season was basically flashbacks, but it looks like things are finally connecting back up.

The latest episode of Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld was an entertaining mess.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Anime 2020 Fall SimulDubs finally seem to be back in swing.

I watched the 3 part saga of the SlimeIncarnation OVA that was released in 2020, it was pretty entertaining. Well, episode 10 of Million Lives Isekai was not what I expected. Yashahime episode 9 was entertaining. TONIKAWA episodes 7-9 were a lot of fun. The Day I Became A God episode 6 was good television. The second episode of Attack On Titan’s Final Season was pretty interesting. I love the way Reiner told the Potato story making it sound all sinister, it really makes you think about perspective. Well as of this episode the main plot of SAO Alicization War Of Underworld seems technically over, but I think there are three episodes left. I think when I’m done with what’s left of Anime 2020 I may take a break from following Seasonal Anime for a few weeks. I think it may be best to not start winter till I can already binge 4-6 episodes of the shows that interest me.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Incepting Anime 2020

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Our Last Crusade or The Rise of The New World episode 8 was pretty good.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 7 introduced a Daughteru.

Million Lives Isekai episode 8 was very awkward.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 7 was fine.

I changed my mind on Attack On Titan. I wasn’t prepared for this weekend to still have so little of the existing Dubs I'm following, or how little I’d have to say and also didn’t expect it’s Toonami run to start this soon.  Still only 4 episodes count as 2020.

The premier of the final season didn’t feature any of the usual protagonists.  But it was pretty thrilling.  That one girl’s voice sounds familiar but I can’t put my finger on it.

The following episode of SAO Alicization War of Underworld was very entertaining, often nonsensical but entertaining.  Totally made me think of Inception.

A Game of Endings

Avengers Endgame was great, I've already seen it twice now so I know it can hold up, historically second viewings have always been my most critical ones.  I wanted to celebrate that good news before getting into what this post is actually about.

I haven't watched Game of Thrones since season 4, but after watching a plurality of Video Essays and rants about the ending I get the sense that I'm generally inclined agree with mostly all of the criticisms.  People hating on letting the North be independent makes me uncomfortable but that's no where near the main event of all the complaining.

There are however two things that are a part of this discussion I feel inclined to disagree with.

The fact that I've seen more then one person say they can't enjoy the early seasons they used to love anymore.  This is something I've already talked about more directly in the context of Anime, my fundamental disagreement with Glass Reflection's The Ending is Paramount video.

Thing is I've never really been disappointed by a bad or imperfect ending because I know better then to expect it to be great.  I know that the longer it takes to get to the ending the more impossible it is it'll feel truly satisfying.  But even in the case of a single season 24 episode show like Romeo+Juliet my frustration with the last two episodes cannot take away how much I loved the first 22.

I do love great endings when they happen, and Avengers Endgame manages to top even the Anime Endings I find highly satisfying (Code Geass R2 is still the best ending I've ever seen in Anime) because it managed to pull it off even though it was over a Decade in building.

In order for my overall opinion of something I started out liking to become even mediocre much less bad the decline has to begin very early.  In the case of Neon Genesis Evangelion it was as soon as Asuka came in things started to decline, the literal End of Evangelion being utterly irredeemable was not enough on it's own.

The second Issue I have is everyone feeling so confident the eventual ending of the A Song of Ice and Fire books will be very well executed even if at first glance it looks like the same basic ending. I'm certain their ending will also be unsatisfying.  I'm not even confident the final book will ever get written at all.

It's possible of course that now people will praise the books' ending just for being different then how the show ended, or that even if it is genuinely better executed it'll be because it had the benefit of seeing how the show's ending was critiqued. Which means Martin should perhaps be eternally grateful the TV show ended how it did.

I do think Martin has a basic idea of where he wants the story to go, and maybe he gave the gist of it to the show's writers.  But his taking forever to write even the second to last book tells me he has no idea of how to actually get there.  And I feel the same way about Berserk, the insane confidence of some Otaku who think the Mangaka has some brilliant ending perfectly mapped out when it's taking him over 30 years to get there is laughable to me.

Meaning much of the core criticism of the show's ending could easily be equally applicable to the books, forcing the characters to a predetermined end even if it doesn't organically fit their journey, it's just the specifics that would be different.  This problem has never been unique to adaptations, Star Trek Voyager's finale had the same core issue, as SFDebris explained they stubbornly stuck to a finale they wrote at the same time they wrote the pilot.

Of course part of why I doubt I'd like the Books' ending any better is how for me Game of Thrones went wrong a lot sooner then it did for them.  I loved the first 2 seasons, even mostly liked season 3, which is more then enough to indefinitely give my mind an overall positive association for the brand.  But season 4 is where the show lost me.  Most people at the soonest see the very end of season 4 as the first warning sign, but overall it's when the show ran out of book material they started not liking it.

The show had some differences from the books even in season 1, and from what I've heard I think I'm inclined to like the show better in at least that season/book's case.  I mean superficially I'd have preferred the books much more over-sized Iron Throne, but the more meaningful changes I'm glad they changed.

So it seems like if anything I'm inclined to prefer the show to the books.

Many critics of the final season say they are not in concept against Dani's heel turn and they are confident Martin is going to "character develop" it better.  For me Dani being set up as a righteous leader is core to what I was liking, and the seeds of her ruthlessness being planted was part of why season 4 turned me off.

If Martin saw "The Return of the King" trope turning out to be a bad thing as the core of his deconstructive narrative, then he shouldn't have made that King a Queen, because to me choosing to "deconstruct" the Messianic Archetype when you give it to a woman is inherently sexist.  I crave seeing that narrative played straight but with a Queen and that's why I loved Krista/Historia's story-line in Seasons 2 and 3 of Attack on Titan.

So even if Dani turning evil genocidal maniac makes more sense in the books I would still inherently hate it.

Honestly I'd like it if it's Jon Snow who turns evil after finding out he was the rightful heir all along, that would be a far better deconstruction of that trope to me.  He's the one who's journey in the first 4 seasons seems like what modern audiences are inclined to consider the most acceptable version of that Trope, like Aragon as a Ranger but with even more humility and hardship.  So deconstructing the expectation that that inherently makes a good person much less a good leader would be far more subversive.   It'd also Subvert the show's internal expectation that the Starks are always good.

But like with the Dani debate you'd have to execute it properly and not make it seem like a switch was flipped out of nowhere.

Anime Weekly Update, Summer Ends and Halloween Season Begins

Besides the currently airing shows I’ve been mainly watching old Pokemon Stuff still.  Sometimes joining one of the TwitchPresents streams which were covering Master Quest this last week and are now starting the Advance Generation, sometimes watching old Pokemon Chronicles and Diamond and Pearl episodes on my favorite non legit site.  And also revisiting various movies.

Happy Sugar Life had a fairly unsatisfying ending, they didn’t quite go all the way either way with the different routes they could have gone.  I gave the show an 8 on MAL for now, I may change my mind later.

Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight has also ended.  This show started out great but got pretty dull, really losing me with the pointless time loop twist, and in time I mostly felt like I was forcing myself to finish it, and maybe I wouldn't have if the Summer had more shows I really got into.  It gave us a happier ending then Ikuhara usually does so that’s a plus, but not enough to make up for how dull it got.

And of course in the last episode they decided to get really on the nose with the meta commentary they were never actually making.

Attack On Titan season 3 episode 6 was pretty good, lots of interesting reveals of the show’s lore that I’d been waiting for.  I know a lot of people are gonna see revealing the Royal/Noble bloodlines to have some secret magical powers as endorsing a Feudal worldview regardless of if it’s depicting them as depraved and corrupt.  But maybe it makes more sense to look at it as the families with special powers are the ones who naturally would have taken power in the distant past in a fantasy setting, like the Targaryen’s ability to control Dragons on Game of Thrones.

Episode 34 of Hugtto!PreCure was pretty amusing.  I was late in seeing episode 33 or I probably would have commented on it in last week’s update, with that episode I think the show might have gotten its groove back.

Episode 10 of Food/Stay Night was fun as usual.

Episode 21 of Steins;Gate 0 was awesome, this is what we’ve been waiting for.

Looks like my Anime of the year is still likely to be Katana Maidens.

For the coming Fall Season, the FUNimation Simuldubs I’m likely to try are That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Goblin Slayer, Ulysses: Jeanne D’Arc and The Alchemist Knight, and maybe a few others when I learn more about them.  Sentai/HiDive is doing Release The Spyce, I’ll wait till the Dub starts this time and then if I don’t like the voices I can just catch up on the Sub.  SAO season 3 I may try to follow Subbed since I know it’s Dub will take awhile, there are other shows I may try like that Vampire Yuri one.

And of course I’ll be continuing AoT 3 and what’s left of Steins;Gate 0.

For October I was earlier in the year planning to do some project related to Horror Anime, but due to certain events in my life I’m not in the mood for anything too dark right now.  So my Halloween Anime recommendations remain the same as they were last year in my Top 5 post and the follow up.  I did make a new Higurashi post on another blog.
http://mithrandironmythology.blogspot.com/2018/10/this-is-post-about-higurashiwhen-they.html

Update: Okay apparently I was mistaken about which show Sentai is simuldubbing. I guess I'll have to sub Release The Spyce.

I'm posting this update early.

I want to start generally posting these after watching the Saturday shows.

The 4th Episode of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord was surprisingly good.  I would have liked to see Rem handle her situation on her own, but it was still good regardless of that.

Happy Sugar Life episode 6.  That Fingernail part might have freaked me out if I hadn't already seen Higurashi.  But compared to Higurashi's it's nothing.

Episode 6 of Revue Starlight I don’t have any particular thoughts on.

I enjoyed episode 4 of Ragnarok.  Mother’s basement decided to make a video bashing it the same day.  I mean it’s probably technically my least favorite Isekai too, but the genre doesn’t have as low an average with me.  What bugs me more about the video was his jabs at In Another World With My Smartphone, which is probably my favorite Isekai, that he choose Death March to be the one post 2016 Isekai to give a positive review too baffles me, it is inferior to Smartphone in every possible way.

The premier of Attack On Titan season 3 was pretty good.  But I should have known the girl I didn’t quite recognize would get stuffed in Levi’s refrigerator.

The 28th episode of Hugtt!PreCure was fun.

My Spring Anime thoughts

This is my first time doing a post like this. In the past I haven't watched much Anime as it airs.

Last year I covered Sailor Moon Crystal season 3 episode by episode.  I've kinda lost my passion for doing that sort of thing.  I'm gonna keep it up with Pretty Little Liars till it finishes this season because that's perhaps the oldest tradition of this blog.  And then I'll be done with it.

Crystal has always been different from other Seasonal Anime.  My first time really following any seasonal Anime was for Flip Flappers and Izetta last Fall.  They were both great.

For Winter 2017 I followed Maid-Dragon, Tanya the Evil and ACCA, I enjoyed all three.  And I dropped Masamune-Kun after 7 episodes.

The first two Yuki Yuna prequel movies I already commented on, they're good, but if I saw them in Theaters I wouldn't consider them worth the ticket price.

For this season I have a bit more mixed set of perspectives.  But even then I haven't tried nearly all of them.

Twin Angel Break is the best, that's the most consistent fun I'm having.  If you want to watch a not so Dark Magical Girl show without scaling the mountain of a 50 episode monstrosity, Twin Angel is what you've been waiting for. I highly recommend it.

The only other show I've been watching Subbed is Eromanga-Sensei, and that is largely to go along with Digibro's Podcast.  I'm not nearly as hard on the show as they are, but their assessments are hilarious.  It's a trashy guilty pleasure show, but nothing special.

For Simuldubs first and foremost is Attack on Titan season 2.  I'm enjoying it, time will tell if it lives up to the first two arcs.  I'm bothered that the Dub changed their pronunciation of Mikasa.  Maybe this version is closer to the original Japanese, but all three Abridged Serises I watched used the Season 1 dub Pronunciation.  So it's burned into my brain that that is how Mikasa should be Pronounced.

Love Tyrant I gave a shot, that premise for a Death Note parody could have been great.  But I had to drop it before finishing the second episode.

One I still haven't watched yet but that I might given my Mythological Interests in Seven Deadly Sins, similar for Gabriel Dropout last season.  Vrai seems to be enjoying it.

I want to end on Clockwork Planet.  This is a show many other seasonal roundups have been the hardest on.  And with only 2 episodes I can't be sure it'll keep my interest.  But for the time being it has my attention.

It has some Anime Fanservice, the second episode is kinda lighter on it which has me wondering if it's one of those that use it all up early on.  But even if that issue doesn't go away, I find the characters interesting, regardless of the fetishes they play into.

So that's my take on this season so far.  Maybe it'll help you out, maybe it won't, but thanks for reading it.

Westernizing Anime in Live Action Hollywood adabtations

Is a touchy subject.  I'm not as universally adverse to it as many of my fellow SJWs.  I believe re-imagining stories in a different setting is a powerful tool.  Both in terms of time and culture.

It's more a problem I feel when the Hollywood version is the first and possibly only Live Action take something will get.  Which is common since the most ambitious Anime are simply not doable on the budget limitations the Japanese film industry has.

But with Death Note there was a live action version made in Japan that did pretty well.  So I have no problem with Hollywood setting it's film in America.

I do tend to agree that Westernizing Ghost in The Shell isn't a good idea (and it gets worse) (But there is an opposing view) (and another).  As far as Pokemon which there has been buzz of a Live Action version recently, my thoughts on that are pretty complicated.  Four of the 6 (is it 7 already) regions are based on Japan, but one is also New York and Kalos is France.  What's amusing is seeing people refer to the character of Ash Kethum as inherently Japanese when they're not even calling him by his Japanese name.

The most offensive thing about doing a Western Re-imagining to many is the White-Washing.  We want more diversity in Nerdy Hollywood movies in general, even when the source material isn't foreign.

Hollywood has made a lot of progress in being willing to cast more diverse films. The Force Awakens shows that a diverse cast certainly won't hurt an established Brand.

The issue with Adapting Anime is a paranoia that America can't handle something with no White Men.  (Even TFA had Han and British villains to fall back on, and most of the female characters are still White.)  So they cast a bunch of white characters until at some point they notice there are no roles for Asians left.

Why not focus on adapting some of the Anime that are diverse already in the original source material?

Code Geass absolutely allows you to have a lot of young white leads and stereotypical British Villains. But because condemning Racism and Imperialism are largely what it's all about none of us SJWs would complain, as long as Suzaku and the other "11s" are Japanese actors, and Kallen is still mixed.

Attack on Titan is so overwhelmingly White it would probably be called Racist if it weren't a foreign work. In fact the Western equivalent of it would be a dystopic future where there are no White people left but one half Breed who happens to be the most awesome character in the story.  I could see David Duke writing that actually.

But I think the best choice would be Gundam 00.  It is still the only Gundam series I'm familiar with, maybe others are equally diverse, I don't know.

The main Messianic Archetype lead, Setsuna, is a thinly veiled Kurd, one of the most obscure and minor minorities of all.  And surrounding his story-line are other Middle Easterners like Persians and Arabs.

Saji and his sister were the Japanese entry point characters.  And it has two Chinese characters who are siblings too.

Graham Acker is a character that was meant to be a sort of parody of a typical American action hero, but American fans wound up loving him.  So cast a typical Hollywood action hero lead as him (same choices you'd consider for Steve Rogers) and feature him prominently in at least one trailer and you should be set.  And one of his comrades was African American.

The show has lots of Europeans, and Russians like Soma Peirez.  Ali Al Sachez is either Spanish or Latin American.  Aeolia Shenberg I think we can assume is an Ashkenazi Jew.  And Louise Halevy is a Shephardic Jew, whom Hollywood often forgets exist.

Most of the Crew of the Ptolemaios is hard to tell since they go by code names and animation can be tricky to decipher ethnic features from,  Alleluia I would also cast a Latin American actor for, to avoid any implications Sachez being the only Latin would have.  The Lockon brothers are Irish.  Sumeragi I think is also Japanese, or mixed.

I've still only scratched the surface.  The story and cast is so massive I think you'd need at least 2 movies just to get the gist of season 1.

Why does Japanese Media seem more Liberal then Japanese culture?

If you spend a decent amount of time in Anime fandoms and also talking about Anime and it's connection to the culture that produces it.  You've no doubt seem people point out that Japanese culture is much more conservative and traditionalist then a casual viewing of it's media will let on.  For example Japanese culture is not nearly as tolerant of Homosexuality as watching Strawberry Panic might lead you to believe.  In fact Japan is probably the only "developed" nation that is currently more socially conservative even then America.

So why is that? people like to ask.

Well I feel the answer is pretty simple.  Entertainment Media is always to the left of the mainstream of society (Liberal by the standards of it's time at least, any significantly old work may seem Conservative to someone reading it now), at least in any Society that has Freedom of Speech.  The Poets and Playwrites have always lead the way in making the world more progressive.  And sometimes the more Conservative a culture is the further to the Left the artists swing.

From Euripides who's plays were filled with Social Commentary, to Lord Byron who was a member of the Carbonari.  Also Charles Nodior and Victor Hugo who were close friends of Nicolas Bonnevile, and early mentors of Alexandre Dumas.

Even the old Hollywood Biblical Epics that a lot of Conservative Christians idealize actually had a subversive agenda if you pay attention.  DeMille defied McCarthyism in casting Edward G Robinson in The Ten Commandments.

Now often these Liberal works of Media are not satisfactory to other Liberals and get criticized, sometimes fairly sometimes unfairly, by Liberals who spend their time critiquing Media rather then writing it.  The modern SJW bloggers who get unfairly accused of being impossible to please are not the first to do this, Karl Marx was critical of Eugene Sue.  I think it'd be absurd to suggest Sue wasn't a real Socialist just because Marx was critical of him.  Modern Liberals probably have more valid reasons to be critical of Sue then Marx did, since Sue is definitely problematic on gender issues.  And Dumas was much better then Sue at being nuanced in their approach to fictionalizing the French Revolution.

Now exceptions have existed, there have been Conservatives writer who've written stuff and even been successful and influential.  Paul Feval and Ponson du Terril were the main conservatives in 19th Century French pulp fiction, you can find all kinds of Conservative alternative media in modern America, most of which is inferior to Feval at being enjoyable to people who'd disagree with them.  And Chuck Dixon as a Comic Book writer.  And some Japanese Media actually does come off as conservative, mainly Attack on Titan is what I can think of.

The issue with Japanese Media is the way it's critiqued by western viewers misinterprets a lot of things about it.  A lot of that misinterpretation comes from not knowing how Conservative Japan is.  But on the other hand a lot of people who think they're smarter then the average Western Anime viewer because they read up a little on Japan, keep insisting on interpreting Japanese media in the context of how Conservative Japan is, rather then in the context of the long human history of artists being to the left of the mainstream.

This comes from both sides, from Liberal critics choosing not to trust anything that looks Liberal in an Anime unless the writer is outright beating the viewer over the head with how Subversive they're trying to be, like Ikuhara.  And even Ikuhara has critics, Utena is nearly universally praised by Feminists, but his more recent works like YuriKuma Arashi are about as divisive as Zach Snyder.  It might be fair to call him the Frank Miller or Alan Moore of Anime.

A number of these critics basically think the handful of Anime they really like are the good progressive ones and the rest are the problem.  While other critics have other responses to the very same works.  Like Evangelion, loved by Vrai but mostly hated by the comment leavers at TheMarySue.

And you got Conservatives of various kinds, like a blogger user-named Ex-Army who calls himself a "Libertarian Nationalist", whatever that means.  He is supporting Trump right now but I was familiar with his blog before Trump took off.  He primarily uses Anime Images with right wing quotes of dubious veracity slapped over them as his thumbnails.  He basically thinks the fact that Japan has a Nationalist Xenophobic culture means all that Anime that entertains him must reflect that.  In fact a pretty good chunk of Japanese Media is actually trying to be critical of that Xenophobia just as America's media tries to fight against our Xenophobia.

Code Geass I've just recently seen accused of having a Nationalist message.  I think a distinction needs to be made between being Patriotic and being Nationalist in the sense of what a Fascist or Mr Ex-Army means by Nationalist.

One thing that generally both the conservatives and liberals of Japan tend to agree on is Western Imperialism is the source of much of the World's problems (while in the West that is thought of as a uniquely Lefty thing to say that) so indeed Code Geass begins with an Evil Empire that is pretty clearly an Anglo-American stand in.  But it makes a strong effort to Humanize and not demonize the Britanians.  It's a very Anti-Racist work and Zero was adamant that the Black Knights were not fighting to bring back old regressive Japan but a new Progressive one.  I actually think there are few Anime's I've seen harder to interpret as being conservative, some I already mentioned, another would be Gundam 00.

But perhaps the biggest focal point of this dispute is the Yuri and Yaoi genres (Girl's Love and Boy's Love).  It's mostly Yuri I'm familiar with.

Part of Japanese Culture is a thing called the Class S Relationship.  A tolerance of quasi Romantic Relationships between young School Girls, that they are expected to grow out of, sometimes viewed as practice for eventually marrying a man.  Similar attitudes toward Lesbianism used to exist in the West but are now considered outdated.

Understanding what Class S is is absolutely vital to understanding the context of the Yuri Genre.  The issue is the then simplistic assumption that most Yuri is nothing more then a ficitonalization of that and has no desire or ability to make viewers in Japan rethink their general attitude towards Homosexuality.

Now I'm not going to say all criticisms of the Yuri Genre are invalid, thing is Western media made with the best of intentions towards the LGBT community often gets things wrong too.  The old Lesbian Pulp Fiction novels of the 50s and 60s were very problematic especially in how they ended, but they also meant a lot to the contemporary Lesbians who read them and it'd be disingenuous to discount that.

The first thing that I feel gets overlooked is that your typical Yuri absolutely does go further then what is tolerated in a real Class S relationship which is not expected to be physical in even the most mundane way.  Really it's Anime that are not officially Yuri but have a strong Yuri fanbase because of the very Femslashable female friendships they depict, like Maria-Sama and PreCure, that give a better picture of what a Class S relationship is actually supposed to look like.

Now maybe Yuri only goes further because of the natural tendency of fiction to exaggerate, but it's an important fact to note.  Or maybe it's because more girls then mainstream society admits do in private go further then what is acceptable.  But in the Yuri genre it's all pretty public.

The perception however is that with anything in a School setting, no matter how far they go they're playing it safe because conservative viewers can always just assume the characters will "Grow out of it".  But the thing is viewers are equally as free to imagine the opposite, and clearly most of Yuri's actual fandom (male or female) does just that.

A lot of the criticism is about the lack of actual Sex, and focus on Crushes that seemingly go on forever without being resolved. Yuru Yuri is a really fun Anime I watched just recently, where the criticism is mostly that.  Thing is it's not even High School, it's Middle School, most Middle School fiction doesn't go beyond that in it's romance regardless of orientation.  The hesitance of fiction to acknowledge that Middle Schoolers sometimes have sex can be viewed as a problem, but it's not an entirely unique to Homosexuality problem,.  And tension not being resolved is a natural product of being ongoing.

Erica Friedman has pretty much said a Yuri needs to be about adults for her to really like it.  And more Adult Lesbian relationships are needed.  But younger LGBT people are often the ones who depend on representation in fiction the most.  [Update Correction, she said prefers stories about Adults].

To a large extent, the difference between whether or not a School Girl set romance is liked by the Yuri Critics is if it actually talks about what being Gay means.  And while I agree having that conversation is important, I also like Escapism, I think stories that pretend it's not an issue at all make a lot of ground in normalizing it.

The Ikuhara approach to being subversive is important, we need a good deal of that.  But in the long run I think the more casual approach to putting progressive ideas in what you write actually does more to change minds.  Pretty Little Liars is a show that started out very casual in how it Incorporated it's feminist ideas, but become more overt over time.  Now it slipped up big time in Season 6, but for the first 5 seasons it really was the best inter-sectional show on television.  Watching PLL has certainly done more to change my thinking to the left then almost anything else, the other factor being actually studying The Bible.

Now I'm aware that as a Cis-Het male my ability to understand these issues is limited.  But all the use of the term "Real Lesbian" I see among Yuri critics I fear has the potential to be unintentionally hurtful to a lot of people, it echos actual discrimination that exists within the Gay community towards Bixexuals and Pansexuals and people who identify as Fluid.  And the condescending attitude towards real life women in High School and Collage who "experiment".  Conventional wisdom says even most straight people don't end up marrying who they dated in High School, but if your future Spouse isn't the same Gender as your Highschool sweetheart, then it's assumed one of those two relationships must be invalid.

Another thing I like about Yuru Yuri is how the characters are kind of Nerds, Yui is a Gamer and Kyoko goes to Comic Book conventions.  Maybe the perception that those things aren't for women isn't as a big a problem in Japan as it is in America, but I doubt it.

Another objection to the Yuri Genre is the emphasis on Purity it often has. Which can tie into the perception that Lesbian Sex isn't real Sex and so Lesbians can technically claim to be Virgins. Those are understandable concerns, and ones I may talk about more in the future.

The gist of this is, Japanese Media is very much Liberal by virtue of what that means in Japan.  If you're watching an Anime and it seems liberal to you, it probably is.

Hollywood and The Titans of Myth

In Hollywood movies based on Greek Mythology, the term Titan keeps being applied to entities that don't actually seem like the Titans at all.  But rather more primal monsters, even though they are refereed to as the parents of the Olympian gods who are shown as idealized Super Powered humans.

The basis seems to come from intentionally confusing them with the other offspring of Ouranos and Gaea.  The Cylcopses, the Hundredhanders, the Gigantes and Typhon.  They are very inhuman creatures, like the beings created by or corrupted by Morgoth in Tolkien's works.  But in the actual Mythology the Titans are defined as being not like those monsters, they were the successful offspring, and were entities very much like their Olympian children, entities that would in Tolkien more resemble the Valar.

This trend started at least as early as Disney's Hercules animated movie.  Where in addition to making Hades seem like the Devil, they also used the word Titans when what the climax was clearly actually based on was the legend of Herakles helping the Olympians fight off the Gigantes.  The Gigantarchy not the The Titanarchy.

Then there was The Immortals, a very garbled version of the Theseus legend.  Where the name Hyperion is given to a Human king who should have been Minos.  And the Titans just look like very big Orcs.

And in Wrath of The Titans, the only entity we see who shares a name with a Titan is Cronos.  But this Cronos is more like Typhon.  And in Clash of The Titans which that is a sequel to the remake, the justification for putting Titans in the title is the Kraken.  The Kraken isn't actually Greek at all but exploration era sea faring folklore derived from Norse legends.  The monster Perseus actually slays at Joppa is the Ketos/Cetus, who was not a Titan.

All this is perhaps done to try and give Greek Mytholgoy a more Lovecraftian vibe.  While some Greek mythical ideas likely influenced Lovecraft, in Greek myth the age before the known world was a Golden Age, not the primal demonic wasteland of Lovecraft and the Buffyverse.

A few times they've just been depicted a Giants (like that one Xena episode).  Likely influenced by Christians associating them with The Nephilim/Genesis 6, which itself is because the word Giant comes from Gigantes.  This trend probably helped inspire the anime Attack on Titan.

DC Comics however has depicted The Titans of Myth how they were (in-spite of getting plenty else about Greek Mythology wrong).  There were different story-lines for them between Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis, but in both were depicted a plausible parents of The Olympians.

Wonder Woman is the initial basis for bringing Greek Mythology into the DC Universe, but The Titans of Myth are usually involved with the Teen Titans.  Their Pre-Crisis appearances are collected in New Teen Titans Archives Vol 2.  And for Post-Crisis appearances get New Teen Titans: Who Is Donna Troy and Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Death and Return of Donna Troy.

Some education about Valentines day

Here is a funny little video on YouTube that happens to provide some Education about where Valentines day came from.

I'd also like to share for the fun of the season some AMVs.  Warning, the second contains spoiler for Attack on Titan fans who aren't familiar with the Manga.  The third is a Video I made myself, taking pieces some some other videos.