"At First, I Wanted to be a Manga-ka":Analyzing the Nausicaa Manga by Kumi Kaoru part 1 and the continuation part 2 is a translation of Kaoru Kumi's fascinating visual and technicalanalysis of Hayao Miyazaki Nausicaa manga. Kaoru Kumi starts heranalysis this way:

As soon as the serialization of Nausicaa began, manga lovers beganto praise it highly. It seems like the two things you heard the mostabout it were “it’s quite cinematic” and “its style is dense andhard

In The Ancient Magus' Bride , the protagonist,Chise Hatori, is a special kind of mage, and for a long time there's beensome confusion over what English language term should be used for what sheis. Specifically, there's been confusion and disagreement over whether sheis a 'sleigh beggy' (the official Seven Seas manga version) or a 'slayvega'. Last year I wrote an entry about this, after Crunchyroll translated the term as 'slay vega' in thefirst episode

Kemono Friends is made almost entirely in CG , and they're famously pretty janky andlimited, with a stilted and awkward look ( even when it tried ).The show was made with so few resources that it took themuntil episode 7 to make the bus's wheels spin in the opening . KemonoFriends is also really good. Not 'good for its limited budget'; genuinelygood, to the extent that it's likely to make any number of people'send of year lists ( mine

Knight's & Magic doesn't exactly have a promising premise and plot; in fact, it basicallysounds like a wince inducing piece of wish-fulfillment fanfiction. Amecha otaku dies and is reincarnated as a kid genius in a worldwith mecha where he can use his other-worldly ideas to make the bestmecha ever and be fawned over by all and sundry? Many people wouldgive such a show a wide berth. But despite this unpromising premise, the actual series was surprisingly good ,with an infectiously

It's time once again for a much of the way through update on myearlier impressions of this season . By now the showshave all shown their cards and my views and expectations have beensolidified. In the process one show is turning itself into somethingamazing.

Excellent:

• Land of the Lustrous : This has just gotten more and more stunningas it goes along. The show has steadily ratcheted up the tension andthe stakes, all the while with excellent execution in so many ways.The latest episode (episode

March comes in like a Lion has always tried to blend some comedy intoits serious overall tone. This has not always worked very well, becauseit's mostly been broad, silly comedy that could easily feel out of placeamidst the rest of the show (and that was when the comedy even worked,which I feel it often didn't). One of those somewhat jarring comedyelements has been the Kawamoto family's cats, who've generally beenpresented as goofy things that the show went as

(There are some spoilers here.)

In my retrospective on the summer season ,I said that Princess Principal wound up as more of a prequel than astory and waved my hands a bit about why that was so. Today I want towrite more details about that. The first question to ask is if PrincessPrincipal has a conventional ending. Usefully I can answer that basedpurely on story structure, without having to talk about the specificsof what happened.

There are two ways to have a conventional ending to a

I'm now anywhere from three to five episodes into everything I'mwatching, which is long enough for most shows to show their cards andfor my opinions to firm up. So, as usual , here'show my views of this season have shaken out, to follow up on my firstepisode reactions .

Excellent:

• Girls' Last Tour : This is beautiful and touching and funny; it makescartoony character art fit into its scratchy desolate setting art,and has very good use of background music.

As before I'm collecting here all of mytweeted reactions to the first episodes I've seen (in the order that Isaw them).

• Kino's Journey episode 1: That was solid as an exercise in setting andphilosophy, with a reasonably appealing viewpoint character. →

• Girls' Last Tour episode 1: That was a nice mood piece, full of greatlittle moments & willing to be quiet. Slice of post-apocalyptic life. →

• Land of the Lustrous ep 1: That was a solid