The portrait of an artist as a young man in RahXephon

The longer I watch RahXephon, the more I become convinced that this is not a show about the human condition. Sure. There are elements in the show that speak to the human condition especially when you look at how the trauma of the war affected various characters, how Ayato reacts to being lied to and […]

The Otakusphere: Everything is coming up iniksbane

You ever have one of those days where every song on the radio is about you? Or every show on the television seems to be speaking to your view of the human condition? It could just be the opening lines from the Friend’s theme song, or those lines in the Deathcab’s Grapevine Fires. There are […]

Do not poke super happy love blog award

Huzzah! If anyone gets the reference, then you are part of the secret 80s kid club. It’s been far too long since I’ve done a tag post. I’ve talked about my love of tag posts before. They are like getting a handshake across the vast darkness that is the Internet. If you don’t believe it’s […]

Reflections: What I’ve learned in 250 posts

Welp, here I am. This is the 250th post to go up on In Search of Number Nine. I’m not sure if I should celebrate or if I should cry or if I should just hang my head in shame. Well I mean, I am writing about this, so let’s just celebrate. Woo woo. I […]

The Otakusphere: Love, love, love and loneliness

It looks like I’m doomed. I simply can’t escape Valentine’s Day this week. Love (or at least cards and romance shows) is in the air across The Otakusphere this week. I even got my own Valentine’s Day card specifically done by Jon Spencer. It’s all about Chirico Cuvie. Jon says it’s his come hither look. […]

If you meet the RahXephon on the road, do you kill it?

I’ve spent most of the morning trying to decide what I wanted to say about the most pivotal moment in RahXephon. If there is a single episode where the show turns from a sort of mecha show into something else entirely, it’s Episode 14 “The Boy in the Mirror/ Time after Time.” I think I’m […]

Is RahXephon a mecha show?

When I was writing about Evangelion, I said the angels don’t matter. Perhaps it could be better stated that the angels are only important to the story when they tell us more about the four main characters. For example, we have an angel who splits into two separate bodies because the writers wanted to put […]

Reflections: Yes. I still want to buy stuff. So can I please have these?

I recently went on a tear of buying anime. I collected Pat Labor, Dennou Coil, bought Serial Experiments Lain and a Sengoku Basara and a few others. I’ve always been a collector. I have stacks of video games, piles of books and an avalanche of movies. I appreciate owning the physical version of the stuff […]

The Otakusphere: Politics, gatekeeping and anime hair physics

I’m not sure if you noticed, but I’ve got a sweet new masthead for this feature, done by my friend Jon Spencer. At least that’s what I assume his name is. I just wanted to give him a shout out. It’s gotten me jazzed about getting revving up the engine and taking a tour around […]