Madoka, Mysteries & Plot Twists

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I think Puella Magi Madoka Magica is pretty neat. I wrote about it not too long ago but it’s a series I frequently feel compelled to write about. I probably consider it my all time favourite anime series, whatever the heck that’s worth. It’s a series of great craft and empathy.

One of its biggest achievements is how it pulls off its core mystery elements, which isn’t an easy thing to do. Make no mistake, there are a ton of stories that handle mystery really badly. They can be hollow or even downright deceptive. Some would even accuse Madoka Magica of this, but I’m going to make the case that it’s quite the opposite. Madoka Magica is a series that gets mystery.

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Charlotte Funcurve Review

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So, there were some complications that I couldn’t get to with this Charlotte review until I was back from my three week trip to Japan, but those were sorted out and just a few days ago this was published.

I thought Charlotte was pretty rubbish. Pretty much everything bad I’ve ever heard about Jun Maeda. Lame repetitive slapstick gags, completely ridiculous unearned dramatic peaks and ends up crushed under the weight of plot twists it doesn’t have nearly enough grace to handle. But let’s not dwell on these things. That JoJo: Stardust Crusaders review is done and it’s coming very soon if you want something a little less mean from me.

You can find the review right here.

Charlotte Episodes 1-3 Review (Full Series Review Excerpt)

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So, I’ve got a big review of the whole 48 episodes of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders for Funcurve that’s on the way. The first half review is finished but the whole thing is going to be published back to back, so I decided I wouldn’t keep you waiting with a preview post a month or two before the review is even published. Before I get to the second half I decided to write about something completely different, so here I am writing about friggin’ Charlotte. This was a choice that was sort of made on a whim, as I haven’t seen very much of Jun Maeda but have a nagging curiosity about his super divisive melodramas. In the earlygoing Charlotte is… okayish? There’s definitely a lot of things about Maeda’s style that are immediate turn-offs to me, but there’s bits and pieces that I think I just might come to like in the long run, or not. You can find the preview after the break.

Continue reading “Charlotte Episodes 1-3 Review (Full Series Review Excerpt)”