A new feature for the Lounge! I’ve sometimes collected these snippets and put them down at the end of the weekly reviews, but they’ve never seemed to fit well there. So, instead I’m going to collect them in their own weekly post. Episodic and current anime links will continue to be in the weekly post because that’s where they fit best.
Some weeks there might be less than others, or maybe no posting at all, but so it goes.
A shout out goes to Jon at Jon Spencer Reviews for helping me brainstorm the title.
Worth Reading
- First up – a link I post with a lump in my throat… Mage in a Barrel is ending regular posting. As I’ve said before, Bless was the inspiration for starting this blog and has long been a mainstay of my anime reading, so this is a sad thing indeed. Though, knowing Bless, he won’t be able to stop posting entirely for any length of time. But, ya gotta follow your bliss. Good luck Bless!
- Over at Shinyuu, Yukinocake posts a wonderful review of the Orange manga. If you haven’t read the manga or seen the anime, both are available on Crunchyroll and I highly recommend them. Of the two, I slightly prefer the manga as the anime has some pacing issues.
- The Weekend Otaku examines the animation quality of the shows he’s following for the Summer 2017 season. I don’t think he gives Abyss the credit it deserves, but it’s still interesting reading.
- Over at Hag’s Un-profound Adventure she posts Shirobako, New Game, Stella, Seiyuu: Workin’ it out, an interesting article on the intersection of CGDCT and girls at work.
- Lita at Lita Kino Anime Corner posts on the value (or lack thereof) of seasonal hype and balancing that with with your own judgement. For my part, I try not to be swept up in it… but I don’t ignore it either. It’s just one more data point in evaluating whether or not to watch a show.
Hit the jump to see the ‘other stuff’ below the fold!
Other Stuff
- If you haven’t been following Henkei Shōjo (Transforming Girls), it’s a… fairly odd comedy / fanservice-y series of video shorts based on girls transforming into various bits of machinery. This month’s outing caught my eye because it references Uchuu Senkan Yamato.
The original ANN article can be found here.
- Over on Twitter, senpai;notes has been asking people to post their favorites of various kind of anime. Some of my responses:—
—
https://twitter.com/DerekL1963/status/903389440420098048Yatahatze of For Great Justice correctly pointed out that though Silver Spoons covered much more mature material than might be expected, it was in fact set at a high school and didn’t have any adult protagonists. My bad. It didn’t occur to me until much later that Welcome to the NHK and Barakmon both also had at least one protagonist who was an adult.
——
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
Glad to see this :) I really like the idea of linking and sharing cool stuff you saw recently. It’s a good way to discover new content and catch things that I miss on occasion. Thanks for the post :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! It took me a bit to find a way to put my own spin on the idea, but I think i’ve found it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good idea for a feature! I’m really bad about reading blogs beyond the 3 or 4 (I guess 3 now) that I check regularly, so this will be really helpful.
As it happens, I’ve watched exactly one of the five anime on each of your three lists (Husband, Silver Spoon, and Bebop). I was thinking about the “adult protagonists” one because I happened to see that post in your feed, and coincidentally the first two shows I thought of for that list – Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Trigun – would both qualify for a sci-fi list too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a LOT of blogs out there, and a lot to keep up with… So, I’m glad you find it useful.
I hadn’t realized that 2199 made two lists until I was assembling this post. It’s kinda interesting how SF also maps onto the Adult Protag list… I almost put Planetarian on the latter list too.
LikeLike
Thank you for featuring me! Love your post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome! Orange is one of my all time favorites.
Hope to see you more here at the Lounge!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes sir! XD
LikeLiked by 1 person
An interesting feature, and links to places I didn’t know, too. The animation rankin is interesting, less for the actual ranking, but because I’m so unknowledgable about the technicalities that I can’t tell how much on there is taste and how much is appreciation of a craft I don’t understand. I’ve often wondered about that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No one person can follow it all… :) I know that even with my huge (50+) follow list (plus watching what people retweet) I’m only scratching the surface.
As far as the animation ranking, probably a little of both. There are certain objective technical standards, but (IMO) you can’t apply those in any completely objective way. And of course any ranking of purely artistic and stylistic concerns is inherently subjective. We often say in the photo competition that if you were run the same photos past the same panel of judges the next day, the results will almost certainly be different. The top tier will always stand out, but it quickly gets much murkier below that level.
LikeLike