March Podcast for Patrons – Mecha Anime

Posted on by Karandi
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This month I turned my attention to Mecha anime in my podcast for patrons (patrons, if you are wanting the password for the podcast post, it is available on my patreon site for you). If you are interested the following anime are discussed:

  • Evangelion
  • Gundam
  • Full Metal Panic
  • Star Driver
  •  Knights of Sidonia
  •  Heavy Object
  • Code Geass
  • Darling in the Franxx

If you are interested in becoming a patron and accessing the monthly podcast or patron only episode reviews, please visit my patreon site. I am going to continue to work towards creating better content and a greater variety of content and I really appreciate your support.

Goals - March 2018

Once I reach $50 a month I plan to hopefully release a video post for patrons (and once I get better at making videos doing this with some frequency).

At $100 a month I plan to remove WordAds from my site which means patron only posts will not have any advertising attached to them.

At $300 a month, in addition to patron videos that will hopefully be more regular by then, I will produce 1 video post a month for the blog which patrons will have early access to. Increasing that to 2 video posts a month at $500. Though these are goals at this point in time and will need to be reviewed as I get closer to these targets.

However, I would love to know what you would like to see on the blog and if you become a patron what you would like to see as a reward. Be sure to let me know in the comments of visit my patreon site and give me some feedback.

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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If you enjoyed this post and would like to see Patreon2more great content on this blog, consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 a month.

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Another way you can support the content here is by buying a copy of ‘Thoughts on Anime 2017‘ as an ebook. It contains a selection of reviews, features and top 5 lists from 2017 and while the content is available free on the site, this is a great way to give a one off show of support for the blog. It is available for $3.99.

Finally, you can use the affiliate link to shop at Play-Asia.com ifPlay-Asia.com - Play-Asia.com: Online Shopping for Digital Codes, Video Games, Toys, Music, Electronics & more you are interested in anime, soundtracks, figures or games. Should you use the link and make a purchase, I will receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

 

March Comes in Like a Lion Episode 35: Here Comes The Sun

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

This episode was adorable and emotionally stronger because even though Hina herself declares the situation over, she adds a ‘probably’ to the end of it. The scars of bullying remain and the fractures in the class don’t magically disappear. The bullies also don’t undergo some mystic transformation and see the errors of their way to become model class members. And yet, the deliberate denial that used to permeate the class has been swept clean and a new paradigm needs to be forged. It is a time of beginnings even as the old trappings stubbornly hold on and linger in people’s memories.

This is beautifully illustrated in the transition from scenes with the teacher still attempting to deal with the fall out and the atmosphere of the Kawamoto house, and the house of the classmates who invite Hina to bake cookies later in the episode. The classroom is no longer the place of fear and negativity that it was but these emotions are still present and we see that through Hina’s interactions with the teachers when looking at forgiving the bullies, and through the lead bully’s interactions with the teacher.

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Despite the situation being resolved, we didn’t see the full change in Hina until the moment she found out how Chiho was doing and we see once again the closeness of Akari and Hina as Hina lets out so many bubbling emotions in what is hopefully a final fit of tears.

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And then we bring Rei back into the story who witnesses the sleeping Hina and observes that she almost seems to be glowing. If we needed more evidence that Rei is very aware of Hina as a person, this scene seems to consolidate just how closely he has observed her compared to other people. For Rei, who lacks social skills and seems mostly oblivious to others, Hina has left a real impact on his life and his focus on her is incredibly clear (and also kind of adorable).

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As Hina fills Rei in on the events of the past two episodes he laments that he couldn’t ‘do’ anything for her. I’m so glad she set him straight and also called him an idiot for that. And I absolutely loved every second of them walking by the river.

Another incredible episode from this series.

Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this post and like the blog, consider becoming a patron to support further growth and future content.

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Thanks,

Karandi James.

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March Comes in Like a Lion Episode 11

Posted on by Karandi
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March Comes in Like a Lion Episode 11 Review:

While this episode of March Comes in Like a Lion is beautiful (nothing like a fever to justify some truly fascinating visuals) given Rei is bedridden for most of it and the rest is taken up with the sisters enjoying New Year’s there isn’t really a lot going on this episode.

Realistically, it kind of felt like a pause or the calm after the storm of last week’s emotional outburst from Rei, something he probably needed given the stress he was under. As a viewer, I was still interested in what was happening but when the episode ended I felt vaguely disappointed that little to nothing had progressed or changed or been revealed.

Still really enjoying this series but it is definitely more the overall feel of the show than the accomplishment of any individual episode at this point.

March Comes in Like a Lion is available on Crunchyroll.

Help Support 100 Word Anime This Spring Season 2000 ×
Donate to the blog.

Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James

March Comes in Like a Lion Episode 10

Posted on by Karandi
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March Comes in Like a Lion Episode 10 Review:

This was a real return to the first two episodes where we are once again fully trapped in Rei’s perspective and this episode showed me exactly why I fell in love at the start of the season of March Comes in Like a Lion.

The use of music, ambient noise and silence is perfect in this episode as is the imagery. However, the real star is Rei himself and to be honest he is a character that I cannot get enough of in these episodes where we see him and how he views the world (the slice of life episodes not so much). I think it is that he is so entirely trapped by his own negative emotions, he knows this and while giving up happens occasionally mostly he is still really struggling to find a reason not to and that inner conflict is quite compelling.

I kind of get that anyone who doesn’t relate to or really care about Rei will mostly find March a mish-mash of visual imagery with a not-so compelling plot given this episode showed us Rei playing Shogi with music conveying the tone, and then had Rei walk us through the game with commentary as part of the post-match review. Not a lot of action there but a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) character work at play. Plus, Rei’s little melt down in the park at the end was kind of the perfect climax to Rei’s turmoil this episode.

March Comes in Like a Lion is available on Crunchyroll.

Help Support 100 Word Anime This Spring Season 2000 ×
Donate to the blog.

Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James

March Comes In Like A Lion Episode 9

Posted on by Karandi
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March Comes in Like a Lion Episode 9 Review:

While this episode of March Comes in Like a Lion was visually more impressive than episode 8 I liked it significantly less. Mostly this was because the old man, who was the focus for most of the episode, was just an annoying character. I didn’t really care about his plight. Plus, it kind of made Kyouko’s baiting at the end of the last episode fairly pointless given Rei was never going to lose that match.

Actually, what really bothered me was Rei. I get that he is evolving as a character, that’s kind of the point, but at times he was animated with the old man as he is when dealing with Nikaido and there just  didn’t seem to be a big enough catalyst for him to have become that involved. Still beautiful to watch but I’m already wanting to see the next episode because this one was not impressive as a story.

March Comes in Like a Lion is available on Crunchyroll.

Help Support 100 Word Anime This Spring Season 2000 ×
Donate to the blog.

Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James

March Comes in Like a Lion Episode 6

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

This week, March Comes in Like a Lion hits us hard with visual metaphors as Rei tries to work through some of his baggage, or at least tries to figure out what his problem is. I like that this show continues to treat anxiety and depression with a great deal of respect and acknowledges the complexity of mental health issues. There’s no single trigger that sent Rei into the downward spiral he found himself in, and while there are rays of light in his life he continues to see-saw back and forth as he deals with the day to day. If we were to look strictly at what happened this week, the answer would be not much. That said, the episode doesn’t allow you to feel bored and it feels very much like this character is progressing toward something even if he isn’t sure what that something is yet.

March Comes in Like a Lion is available on Crunchyroll.

March Comes in Like a Lion Episode 5

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

March Comes in Like a Lion refocuses this week on Rei and we finally learn why he is a shogi player even though he doesn’t seem to like playing much of the time. We already knew Rei had tragic back-story syndrome (a common ailment of anime protagonists) but now we get to see parts of it directly through Rei’s reflections this week and they do quite a good job of making this tragic back story actually emotional rather than just an add on to a fairly generic character. That’s probably the ongoing strength of this series (other than its interesting visual choices). Rei’s character has depth. Not because someone scooped through a list of traits that make characters seem like they have depth but because they’ve actually worked hard to make him a real person where each layer of who he is and how he responds to situations is built on the culmination of previous experiences.While the story aspect of this show still leaves something to be desired, the characterisation has been more than immersive and hopefully can continue.

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March Comes in Like a Lion is available on Crunchyroll.