Tag: science fiction
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Majestic Prince
Read More →: Majestic PrinceEvery season has its dark horses and this one is no different. I’ve been excited about Flowers of Evil, Attack on Titan and Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet since the offset, but I ignored Majestic Prince, which I figured would be as cliché as it looked. I don’t know if it’s just Hisashi Hirai’s dated…
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Power and responsibility in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
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Read More →: Power and responsibility in Gargantia on the Verdurous PlanetThere’s something of a power struggle going on in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. Although he doesn’t seem to want it, Ledo could easily become a tyrant. His robot is so powerful that the sheer disparity in strength between him and everyone else is frightening. What will he do next?
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Don't give up: dying in pursuit of change and The Sky Crawlers
Read More →: Don't give up: dying in pursuit of change and The Sky CrawlersMamoru Oshii doesn’t make forgettable anime. Be it Ghost in the Shell or Patlabor 2, the man injects so much personality into his films that it’s impossible not to recognise his touch. There is, of course, his famous basset hound, but there’s also a poetic side that transports this viewer into the ether. I can’t…
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The end of Psycho-Pass
Read More →: The end of Psycho-PassOne wouldn’t think it to look at them, but Shin Sekai Yori and Psycho-Pass were like two peas in a pod. Both deal in dystopian futures, social commentary and rebellion, both attempt to obfuscate their commentary by presenting it through morally-questionable speakers, and both refuse to end with everything neatly resolved. Suffice to say, I…
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Broken Apple: Shin Sekai Yori
Read More →: Broken Apple: Shin Sekai YoriMany of us are optimists and like to think there’s an innate sense of goodness within us all, but given a God’s power, how would we react? Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World) answers that question within its first 3 minutes: upon the discovery of psychokinesis, civilisation regresses into a thousand year-long dark age,…
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Anime still has it: Space Brothers
Read More →: Anime still has it: Space BrothersFor a while there, I stopped believing that the anime industry was capable of crafting shows like Space Brothers (Uchū Kyōdai.) When I seriously started getting into anime, there were series like Planetes, Gankutsuou, Monster and Mushishi all being released in and around the same time. These were series not influenced by other anime and…
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Liking Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse? See also…
Read More →: Liking Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse? See also…Earth’s invaded, humanity’s out-matched and Japan’s moe legions are our first line of defence. Would you feel confident?
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Being swept away
Read More →: Being swept awayI have many a faint and fond memory of Eureka Seven, but wasn’t sure how to feel about news of its sequel. It ended with a quite profound sense of finality, after all. Everything that needed to be said, was, and underscored with probably the finest insert song ever used in anime, too. I’m using…
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Returning, being a superficial anime fan and Rinne no Lagrange
Read More →: Returning, being a superficial anime fan and Rinne no LagrangeIt’s been a while since my last post. Around a month, in fact. Through-out February, I took something of a break from anime. I’ve been keeping up with One Piece, but that’s about it. This wasn’t a planned thing, either. I just stopped watching anime. Winter hasn’t helped, either. Although a notoriously poor time for…
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Because you need a little violence in your life: Dr. Mohiro Kitoh's fabulous depression
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Read More →: Because you need a little violence in your life: Dr. Mohiro Kitoh's fabulous depressionOne thing we may deduce about author Mohiro Kitoh from Bokurano and Narutaru is that he probably had a few bad experiences growing up. It’s otherwise very difficult to understand why his stories about children are quite so fucked-up. Case in post, Narutaru, of which I just finished watching the anime adaptation.
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On Wolf's Rain
Read More →: On Wolf's RainI first watched Wolf’s Rain in 2003, just as I was beginning to ramp up my interest in anime. I remember a few things about it: being absolutely traumatised by its ending and being spell-bound by Yoko Kanno’s music. Following on from the similarly fondly remembered RahXephon, it made a fan of Studio Bones out…
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Quantum is .hack as it should have been, albeit now too late
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Read More →: Quantum is .hack as it should have been, albeit now too late.hack//SIGN was one of the first anime shown by Cartoon Network and it left a lasting, negative impression on me: an otherwise brilliant show with a plot that went nowhere. .Hack//Quantum is the latest iteration of the series. It is .hack//SIGN as it should have been. It’s not a remake, just a three episode version…
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Changing the flow of time
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Read More →: Changing the flow of timeTime travel always seemed like a cool concept to me. I could go back in time, make some money and live an easy life. That’s just an immature way of looking at things, though. When I imagine going back, I’m not thinking about the people around me. I’m being selfish, just thinking about material things.
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Puella Magi Madoka Abstract Subversion Nyanyan Death
Read More →: Puella Magi Madoka Abstract Subversion Nyanyan DeathJust be brave, everyone, but especially you, Japan.
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How the Cowboy Bebop ending explains the meaning of “You’re gonna carry that weight”
Read More →: How the Cowboy Bebop ending explains the meaning of “You’re gonna carry that weight”What is the Cowboy Bebop ending trying to say? It feels like such a waste! Spike doesn’t have to face Vicious, he could just stay with Faye and Jet, leave Mars and fly away, but he doesn’t. No matter how many times it’s replayed, there will always be that choice hanging over Spike in the…
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Low-brow good times [Occult Academy first impressions]
Read More →: Low-brow good times [Occult Academy first impressions]If there’s one thing I’ve learned about anime over the past year, it’s that these Anime no Chikara projects start out strong, only to have me lose interest after four episodes. When faced with the latest offering in the project, Occult Academy, I was determined not to be sucked in. I would watch it, but…
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Gren's eternal smile
Read More →: Gren's eternal smileIf I had to condense my love for anime into one single moment, I’d choose the scene when `Space Lion` begins playing in the 13th episode of Cowboy Bebop (Jupiter Jazz.) It is one of the first times I can remember feeling a pang of bitter-sweetness whilst watching anime: the sadness of Gren’s passing tempered…
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Eden in name only
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/ MangaRead More →: Eden in name onlyHiroki Endo calling his manga ‘Eden‘ is a hint. Eden is supposed to be a paradise on Earth, but Endo‘s version is more like Hell. It’s sarcasm on his part, I think, because this is a contrary and brutal series, where anything that’s good is crushed and anything that’s innocent is (often literally) raped. For…
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See You Chinese Electric Batman
Read More →: See You Chinese Electric BatmanIt’s interesting how Darker than Black never explained what has ‘sealed’ the Earth’s sky, caused Hell and Heaven’s Gate to appear and triggered the world’s first generation of contractors; and quite frankly, if it turns out to be aliens from the Moon, I’d rather not know, but my point is, ambiguity is exciting, and yet…
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The harsh beauty of Tsutomu Nihei's Biomega
Read More →: The harsh beauty of Tsutomu Nihei's BiomegaHappy new year, everyone! Time sure flies and it’s now looking likely that this blog will live to see it’s fourth anniversary on the 4th of March, which is just… surreal! This time of year also provides me with the rare opportunity to immerse in some new worlds of fiction. Last year I fell under…
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Timelessness and anime / Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG
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Read More →: Timelessness and anime / Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIGIn the four weeks since this blog was last updated, I’ve seen at least 80 episodes of anime! Not bad, eh? But to write anything of decent length, more than ever, I need to feel like what I’m writing about is really worth your time. That isn’t to say everything airing right now is poor,…
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The scent of flames: Armored Trooper Votoms
Read More →: The scent of flames: Armored Trooper VotomsTo be honest, I doubt there is much I can say that will convince you to take a look at Armored Trooper Votoms. It’s an old series, with a heavy emphasis on war. Chirico is no Kamina. The characters are gritty and unrefined. When it can be hard to sit through just the 1 episode,…
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Embracing the end of the world
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Embracing the end of the worldI’ve seen Ghost in the Shell many times; the most recent happened to be Friday night. It is a beautiful film, both beautifully animated and beautifully directed, only 80 minutes long too, and just as importantly, every time I watch it, I feel like I’m interpreting it in a slightly different way. I first stumbled…
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For your consideration, Blue Comet SPT Layzner
Read More →: For your consideration, Blue Comet SPT LayznerMecha anime has always been a bit hit or miss for me. I’ll often find that I’m not as attracted to the mecha as I am to the science fiction stories they inhabit. That is to say, I enjoy a lot of good mecha anime because I enjoy a lot of good science fiction. I…
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Casshern Sins: I wanted to leave my color on my city
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Casshern Sins: I wanted to leave my color on my cityKnowing that some day you will die is not a prospect that one’s thoughts tend to dwell on, but in Casshern Sins, when death is everywhere and the land is ravaged with decay, that your life will some day end is impossible to ignore. It’s a feeling that I often get from this show, but…
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Until I kill you, I'll even eat mud to survive! Hokuto no Ken
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Until I kill you, I'll even eat mud to survive! Hokuto no KenWhen I finished watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes late last year, I felt like I’d had my fill of sprawling eighties anime series for a fair old time to come, but fate, it seems, has long been conspiring against me. My destiny had seven scars on his chest. A mere swipe of his hand…
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When eternal love goes wrong [Kurozuka]
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/ ReviewsRead More →: When eternal love goes wrong [Kurozuka]I had high hopes for Kurozuka, because it is a genre of anime I tend to enjoy, that being stylish, far-fetched, visually-intoxicating science fiction. It is a beautifully drawn journey, in-which 1,000 years of vampiric romance sweeps across the Heian period of Japan to the bombing of Japanese cities during World War 2 to a…
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The Legend of the Galactic Heroes ending is heart-breaking
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/ ReviewsRead More →: The Legend of the Galactic Heroes ending is heart-breakingDuring the very last scene of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes ending, baby Felix gazes up at the night sky and grasps at the stars. “That might be an action that’s been repeated endlessly in any era, in any world,” the narrator poetically explains, adding that “Humans always pursue things that they can’t reach”,…
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A timely message
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Read More →: A timely messageThere’s no specific point to this post, but for a few days now, I’ve wanted to write something for my blog, and thus, here we are, dear reader. It’s just that time of the year, I guess; a blank page and hours to spare. Themes or no, after nearly three years of doing this, I…
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Casshern Sins: You looked as if you were dancing
Read More →: Casshern Sins: You looked as if you were dancingIt’s hard to explain how I feel about Casshern Sins. It’s way beyond anything else I’ve seen this year. More than just another good anime series, more than just entertainment, I find it is engaging, evocative and inspiring, perched somewhere in-between the surreal, fable-like quality of Kino’s Journey and the philosophical melancholy of Mushishi. After…
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I'll ruin you because I love you
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/ ReviewsRead More →: I'll ruin you because I love youEpisode four of Casshern Sins; an animated, beautiful contradiction. Perfectly flawed, just the way I like it.
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Actually, Blassreiter is quite good
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Actually, Blassreiter is quite goodWhen Blassreiter started airing in April, I suppose I wasn’t the only one to ignore it, but why is that? Wait, isn’t it obvious? Just two damn words are all it takes. Studio Gonzo. In recent years, despite the odd exception, their name has become synonymous with bland, conventional, boring anime. Hence, somewhat unfairly, I…
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A romantic interpretation of Kaiba
Read More →: A romantic interpretation of KaibaI was always going to like Kaiba. Even before it started airing, I had, somewhat dangerously, convinced myself that it would be good. After all, with someone like Masaaki Yuasa directing, I had to expect it would special and well, some five months later, here we are again, I just finished Kaiba this weekend. Lets…
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Bokurano: … I really wish I could've died on the Earth I grew up on.
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Bokurano: … I really wish I could've died on the Earth I grew up on.I finished Bokurano this weekend, just as planned. 24 episodes in 5 days isn’t bad at all, as I’ve never been one to enjoy marathoning through anime. After all, I ended up needing nearly 2 whole years to catch up with 300+ episodes of One Piece, so, starting and finishing Bokurano in a matter of…
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The meaning of life, according to Ghost Hound
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/ ReviewsRead More →: The meaning of life, according to Ghost HoundThe suggestion that there might be a level of consciousness beyond the physical realm has fascinated people for thousands of years. Are we tied to these bodies forever, or, could this vague concept of “we” be a mere illusion; a solid container that our ‘ego’ is ready to transcend at any given moment? Science has…
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First impressions of Kaiba: big surprise, I loved it
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/ ReviewsRead More →: First impressions of Kaiba: big surprise, I loved itApologies, I know things have been quiet around here of late. While everyone gets so excited about all this new anime airing in Japan, I just get tired of it. There’s too much to watch, too much to read and too much to say. It tires me out just thinking about it, so, despite having…
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Lohengramm's advantage; contrasting dictatorship and democracy
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Read More →: Lohengramm's advantage; contrasting dictatorship and democracyThough Legend of the Galactic Heroes might seem like a Death Note style dual of fates fought between two talented leaders (Reinhard von Lohengramm of the Galactic Empire and Yang Wen-li of the Free Planets Alliance respectively) it is what they represent, as much as who they are and what they believe, which is just…
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The light of dawn always comes right after the deepest darkness
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/ ReviewsRead More →: The light of dawn always comes right after the deepest darknessWriting an anime blog is frustrating. Either through lack of time or energy, I just haven’t felt the inclination to set aside an afternoon to write about something. I guess that’s more a reflection on my recent viewing habits than anything else, because since finishing with February’s Ookiku Furikabutte, I’ve not been able to immerse…
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Blame! Adventure-seeker Killy's Cyber Dungeon animated
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Read More →: Blame! Adventure-seeker Killy's Cyber Dungeon animatedIf there’s one genre I’m always likely to love, it’s dark, heavy science fiction. As attested by the bitterly disappointing Ergo Proxy and Oshii’s philosophically-loaded Innocence, it’s a subset of anime that’s prone to artistic pretension of the highest order, but even still, when it works, as in the case of the viscerally despondent Texhnolyze,…
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Musical memories of Gurren Lagann, recalling a whimsical dystopia
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Read More →: Musical memories of Gurren Lagann, recalling a whimsical dystopiaNot sure how I missed this, but the full soundtrack for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was released recently; that’s 51 tracks of epic, exciting, heavenly music, and even better, it contains the one song I’ve be longing to hear since late-July. I’m talking about track 13 on Disc no.2; the translated title is “The Days…
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Basking in the inferno of Cloverfield, remembering Blue Gender
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Basking in the inferno of Cloverfield, remembering Blue GenderHead-spinning, stomach-turning and mind-racing are a few of the adjectives I’d choose to describe how I felt when I stumbled out of the cinema last night, having just suffered through Cloverfield. To say I’d been looking forward to this film would be an understatement, and even though I’d only discovered its baffling trailer in early…
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Another step Toward the Terra, circa 1980; old or not, it's still great
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Another step Toward the Terra, circa 1980; old or not, it's still greatBe it 1980 or 2008, To Terra…. is just a wonderful story, a timeless one, even, that I can always watch or read and be completely lost in imagination.
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The world is not beautiful, therefore it is; introducing Kino’s Journey
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/ ReviewsRead More →: The world is not beautiful, therefore it is; introducing Kino’s JourneyI quite like subversive fairy-tales; the suggestion that there is something ugly and unknown shifting beneath a veneer of superficial beauty. This is precisely why I so admired Princess Tutu, because lurking behind that familiar style of magical girl characterization was insecurity and doubt; supposed heroes and villains stalked by emotions betraying their cliche destinies.…
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You need to be watching Dennou Coil
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/ ReviewsRead More →: You need to be watching Dennou CoilIn this so-called modern age, the thousands of miles that separate countries are irrelevant; a shrinking distance covered by mere flickers of electricity. Obviously, our world is merging and cultures are overlapping, yet the distance between you and I remains the same. Though we may have transcended the physical landscape, the emotional complexity of human…
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Turn A Gundam and our attraction to self-destruction
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Turn A Gundam and our attraction to self-destructionAs of writing, I’ve managed to sit through 28 episodes of Turn A Gundam; satisfied that I’m just over half way there. I won’t lie – it feels like an achievement because I’ve struggled through the series; at one point I literally had to stop an episode half-way and take an energy boosting nap, such…
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"If I told you that I came from the future, would you laugh?" Review of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
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/ ReviewsRead More →: "If I told you that I came from the future, would you laugh?" Review of The Girl Who Leapt Through TimeIf a good movie is hard to come by, surely a good anime movie is like one in a million; what a relief then, because for now, my long search is over – The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is that one in a million. Dubbed in some quarters as the anti-Ghibli, it offers a…
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From rambling to first impressions of Turn A Gundam
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/ ReviewsRead More →: From rambling to first impressions of Turn A GundamMoans about anime blogging that somehow lead into my first impressions of Turn A Gundam. Yes, you read that right, please try to contain your excitement!
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Please embrace the brilliance of Toward the Terra
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Please embrace the brilliance of Toward the TerraI’m writing all this because I’m falling for Toward the Terra.
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It's theEnd of the world! Reflecting on Eureka Seven!
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/ ReviewsRead More →: It's theEnd of the world! Reflecting on Eureka Seven!It’s taken me two or three months, but today I finally finished watching Eureka Seven. Like whenever I finish reading a book or watching a long TV series, I feel like I’ve accomplished something big, but at the same time, I’ve grown attached to the Gekko-go and I’m not ready to wave good-bye. I adore…
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Discovering Eureka Seven; mecha and dehumanisation
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Discovering Eureka Seven; mecha and dehumanisationIn my previous E7 article, “Discovering Eureka Seven; subtext and pop culture“, I briefly touched on the pervasive themes of war laced through out the series, going so far as to compare it to Akitaro Daichi’s post-apocalyptic (underrated) masterpiece “Now and Then, Here and There“. As a genre, we’re conditioned to believe animation is for…