NOTE: This was something I wrote last October, so it’s slightly out of date. But because it was more or less finished I thought I would post it.
A year after my WWE Evolution piece, the long-term shape of the ‘Women’s Evolution’ has become clear. The departure of Ronda Rousey and the rise of rival company All Elite Wrestling has led us down an interesting path, and it’s had its share of ups and downs. All things considered, it’s safe to say that women’s wrestling has established itself not only as legitimate but necessary. The days of “divas” and butterfly belts are long gone. But there’s still room to grow, and the path for that change unfortunately isn’t clear.
Continue reading “WWE vs. AEW And The State Of Women’s Wrestling”
I don’t think there’s anything I can say about the Kyoto Animation tragedy that hasn’t been said. It was a senseless act of cruelty that’s going to be felt in the anime industry forever. 34 animators gone in a heartbeat. It’s a crushing loss of human life, a crushing loss for the families and friends and fans of these people, and a crushing loss for the entire animation industry. Tragedies of this scale tend to create a lot of morbid and soul-crushing discourse, but this has mostly been different. From the niche corners of Twitter to the global mainstream news people have unified in giving recognition to the work that they’ve done. In dark times people have acknowledged the lasting legacy of Kyoto Animation: a legacy of love.
I don’t know if this is as much of a thing anymore, but back in the day there were a lot of people who really couldn’t stand Neon Genesis Evangelion’s religious imagery. People would call it pretentious, say director Hideaki Anno was a hack who was trying too hard to be deep, all around try to discredit it as a thing to be made fun of. Considering Evangelion is on its way to Netflix I figured it was a good time to talk about that subject.
We’re living in a pretty messy time. Through the alienation of the modern world we can’t help but question the limits of our good-natured selves. The Paddington films see this and suggest something extremely simple but bold: If we’re kind and polite, the world will be right. There’s plenty of stories that tell people to be good to others, but few capture the amazing power of kindness like the Paddington films do.
CONTENT WARNING: THIS PIECE TALKS ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH AND SEXUALITY. BE MINDFUL IN CASE YOU’RE NOT COMFORTABLE APPROACHING THESE TOPICS. ALSO I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND READING THIS IF YOU CAN, IT HAS A REALLY GOOD QUALITY OFFICIAL RELEASE YOU CAN GET 
Back in January I did 
Too Many Words 