When Horimiya: Pieces released, I decided to revisit the original season. My original observations still hold. The series offers a heartfelt, nostalgic feeling toward growing up. For those of us who, like me, worked all the time and didn’t have the social interactions of high school or college for that matter, there’s a pleasant vicariousness…
Sweatshop Content and our Content Consumption Habits
After I resigned from my library position (I had moral and ethical problems with how I was expected to police policy), I started hunting for remote work. I enjoy writing, so I started hunting there. When I’m drafting a novel, I will write at least 1,000 words Monday through Friday. Weekends are left for…
Revisiting Shuffle!
I had watched Shuffle! back at the beginning of my anime-watching career, and it was my first exposure to harem anime. For perspective, the anime released back in 2005. The story is based on a visual novel. I will include spoilers. Enter Rin, a typical droll harem protagonist defined by his “niceness” and his, ahem,…
Men Live in Despair. What Can Be Done?
It’s no secret that many men struggle with depression and despair. This desperation has many factors, such as lacking a sense of purpose. The problem also isn’t new. History likes to move in rhyming cycles. Each era stands unique yet still follows a cyclical pattern that Romans called the saeculum. This includes the current troubles…
Revisiting Omamori Himari
Omamori Himari was my first exposure to ecchi harem anime. It’s been over a decade since I last watched it, so I thought I’d give it a revisit. I’ve enjoyed some harem comedy in the past (the few that are fairly well-thought out), so I can, sometimes, appreciate the appeal the genre has. Even a…
Revisiting Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions
Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions explores the psychology of avoidance, coping with change, and seeing magic in everyday things. And it is a love story. The story centers around Rikka and Yuta, a pair of high school students (because life ends after high school, or because most people never leave high school). Rikka has…