Over here in the states, we’re just wrapping up Thanksgiving and heading into my favorite time of year. That’s right, it’s holiday shopping time. It’s the time of year when I can buy all of the stuff that I’ve been pining over at ridiculous discounts.
But really I love the holidays. I get to put up the tree and take out my ceramic Christmas village and gaze longingly at model trains.
I took a couple days off from work, so this has been an extended weekend, so I’m ready to take a tour around the Otakusphere. I just want to say there were a lot of ridiculously good posts this week that I didn’t get all of them in here. I shared a few of them over on Twitter.
I’m starting with a couple of music posts, Dewbond made a funny observation when he started talking about tying music to particular anime characters.
“We’ve all grown up with the anime music video, and probably at least watched one shonen anime with a Linkin Park song horrible edited on top of it.”
The funny thing is that one of my favorite AMVs has Linkin Park’s In the End with Cowboy Beebop. It’s got some pretty decent editing. I’m sure this is the exception and not the rule.
Anyway, it’s a fascinating idea, and I’ve never been great at picking out music to pair with shows. Well, except I really want Guster’s Satellite used in a School Days AMV.
On the other side of this musical duo of posts, Leap250 shared what they have been listening to. I’m not even versed in Japanese pop or rock music. But there are some good tunes here.
In another pairing of posts, Voyager over at Galvanic posed a question a little more than a week ago — why is it always the woman that dies? It is a query that is as old as women getting shoved into fridges.
The Animanga Spellbook offers a couple of good answers. My answer would just be an extension of one of the ones there. Not having seen the shows he is referencing, my guess is that the main character is male. It’s not likely the main character is going to be the one struck down by the terminal illness since that’s not how these kinds of shows work.
Since you have a romantic entanglement to stoke the melodrama, it’s most likely going to be a person of the opposite gender.
My guess is if you looked at something in yuri or yaoi, you would see that it’s the same gender as the main character.
I’m a sucker for con reports especially when they come with pictures. Kawaiipaperpandas took a trip over to Kumoricon over in Portland. Con life isn’t for me, but I’m glad it’s for someone and they can share it with me. You rock!
Amerowolf over at Recommend Me Anime put together a really interesting list about anime that deals with bullying. Great Teacher Onizuka is on that list. Everyone owes it to themselves to check out GTO. I don’t generally go for a lot of anime comedies, but this one is solid.
There are some other good shows on the list as well like Another, and some that I’m intrigued by like The Lost Village.
There are voice actors who I can instantly recognize, but I still love such as Crispin Freeman and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. Then there are ones that I’m shocked when I discover they played a role like Steve Blum or Travis Willingham. Then there are icons like Johnny Young Bosch, and Rodzd over at Anime Pad got a chance to talk to him.
I believe in supporting independent journalists, and there is some interesting stuff in there. Go and give it a watch.
Finally, I wanted to share a sad story from real life. David over at Another Anime Review relayed that The Memphis College of Art is closing its doors. I’m not sure what happened here, but when a specialty institution disappears, it leaves a hole in the community, and that is enough to feel sad about
Anyways on the home front, I have made it up to Episode 20 of Evangelion. This process has taken me way longer than I thought it was going to. I have at least four more posts planned with a possible fifth one if I feel like it. I’m hoping to get wrapped up by Christmas.
So just remember this holiday season to take some time and enjoy the Christmas lights, spend some time with your friends and have fun.
And, as always, thanks for reading.
In Search of Number Nine — An anime blog 
I love how you’re doing these. 😁. The format is pretty great.
Thanks. They’re fun posts to do and they give me a reason to read through a bunch of blog posts.
Thanks for the mention. This was one of my few posts that I elected not to share on LinkedIn because of the local politics involved (particularly since I mentioned Marse Fred of the Smith Plantation). Gotta say that it’s both funny and deeply depressing how becoming a public servant strips you of your right to a personal opinion on anything remotely political or controversial. So I’m very grateful to see the post reach an additional audience, here. Thanks!
I know exactly what you mean about having remotely controversial opinions. The Internet has done a lot of wonderful things, but it also traps every opinion out there forever.