Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

…as you continue watching, you start to pick and choose the particular plot threads and character arcs that matter the most to you and latch onto those as your primary hook, and the show uses that attachment in order to trap you in the web of intrigue that its weaving and suspend your disbelief; it recognizes that some of the actual plot elements are a little absurd and a little bit over-the-top, that its magic system is not actually that complex and its rules not that strictly defined, that its world is not necessarily deep enough that a viewer will be possessed to read pages upon pages of background and history, but instead of investing time in trying to explain all that away, they make their investment in getting you to buy into the story anyway.… Read more.

Breaking the tradition

If you’re in my Discord, you’ve already seen my post regarding this, but I wanted to go ahead and post an update directly to the site as well in case you aren’t in the Discord for any reason.… Read more.

Diabolik Lovers

…this is most obvious insofar as there being literally no explanation as to what defines a vampire within the world in which this story is taking place. There is a limit to the educated guesses a viewer can make about what vampires can do and what significance they have based on their portrayals in mythology and in other media; loose commonalities like blood sucking, having fangs and being immortal are on such an unimportant surface level in the grand scheme of things that it feels more like the characters in Diabolik Lovers are role-playing as vampires than anything else.… Read more.

Trigun / Trigun Stampede

…some would describe Trigun as a show consisting of “mostly filler”, but that is a gross misrepresentation of the truth when in actuality, each and every one of those “filler” episodes is so deeply important and strictly necessary for the viewer to appreciate and fully experience the show, filler in name only simply because of the way in which Trigun’s anime adaptation deviated from the original source material it was born from, or the way in which those filler episodes arguably “deviate” from the main plotline, a semantic and technical distinction so unbelievably misguided it is astounding.… Read more.

Gangsta

…I already made mention that I appreciated the show presenting its subject matter in a multifaceted and thoughtful way, but narratives like these largely defined by the way in which the events happening within them speak for themselves absolutely need strong resolutions in order to have impact or tell a story effectively—Happy Sugar Life is a really good example of that, a show that would be absolutely pointless and ultimately waste your time if not for the way in which it ended allowing it to make an impactful statement about the things which took place during its runtime.… Read more.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

…that’s part of what defines Cyberpunk as a genre—the chemistry and camaraderie between members of an effective, close-knit team contrasted against dark undertones of hopeless, futile struggle to overcome a rigged system and individual chase after lofty, ultimately doomed dreams, and it’s this particular element which makes Cyberpunk: Edgerunners immediately more engaging than the video game that it spawned from.… Read more.

Unrealistic Expectations

…but once major studios came to the realization that they could be making way more money than they were already simply by incorporating the very same tactics used by the mobile and free-to-play game studios they were ignoring (largely as a result of attempting to appeal to what at the time was their primary audience, the “core gamer”), everything shifted because that audience of core gamers were being actively shunned by major studios and publishers for the sake of appealing to and taking advantage of the broadest audience possible.… Read more.

Empathy

…now, criticism is not harassment. That much is something I believe in deeply as a critic myself. But could you argue that some of what is said or done during some of the Content Cop videos goes beyond being simple criticism and becomes harassment?… Read more.

New YouTube video!

Hey there epic gamers, 49 GB here. We just finished premiering the first episode of the Skull Lantern Podcast, which you can find here! For anyone coming to this site from that video or just from my YouTube channel in general, welcome and enjoy your stay!… Read more.