archivyrep

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Horrifying Nightmares, Memory, Dream Construction, and Weiss the "Ice Queen"

Weiss trapped in her dream at the end of episode 3 by a Grimm When RWBY: Ice Queendom aired from July to September 2022, I was writing about Steven Universe and negative perceptions of archivists and archives in fiction, for this blog, apart from a reprinted piece on The Watermelon Woman. Although I was watching RWBY: Ice Queendom, an anime spinoff from the the science fantasy/action-adventure…

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Lost shows, old film reels, Batman's dilemma, and the value of preservation

At the beginning of the episode, Bruce Wayne / Batman wakes up from a restless night and realizes the villain is using “The Gray Ghost” as the basis for their crimes. In mid-November 1992, Batman: The Animated Series, the first animated series in the DC Animated Universe, which also comprises seven other animated series, and various films, [1] aired an episode entitled “Beware the Gray Ghost.”…

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Artifacts, holograms, and ex-girlfriends: Doctor Aphra's hunger for knowledge, confidentiality, and beyond

Three panels from the beginning of the first chapter/issue of Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Omnibus Vol. 2, which collects volumes 1-5 of the second comic series which focuses on rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Aphra. I’ve written about Doctor Aphra many times on this blog, beginning with a slight mention of the comic book series named Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, which ran from December 2016 to December…

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Long-Term Memory, Endless Corridors, and the Archival Stacks in "Inside Out"

Joy drags Sadness through “Long-Term Memory” archives-of-sorts in a scene from the film “Inside Out” When I watched Inside Out some time ago, I had forgotten all the archivy themes in this film. The screenplay makes this clear. There are tubes sending memories at the end of every day from shelves in “headquarters” (where the emotions preside over Riley’s islands of personality) to an area known…

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Bloom Into...Height?: A reference room, Yuu, Touko, and blossoming romance

Page 24 of Bloom Into You Anthology Volume Two. I edited this photo of a few manga panels on that page to sharpen it in order to offset any blurriness. Otherwise, I haven’t changed anything else. Touko is the one with darker hair, while Yuu is the one with lighter hair, just for reference. On June 3rd, I wrote about the role of the reference room in Bloom Into You Volume 2, and the significance…

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"Digitization in progress": Yuu, Touko, Reference rooms, and keeping secrets

The student council floor plan shown at the beginning of Vol. 2 of the Bloom Into You manga. Note how the reference room, which is close to the door has a note “digitization in progress,” implying that the records in this room are being digitized. Sorry for the blurriness but it was hard to photograph this on my phone. Last year, I bought volume 2 of Bloom Into You, a yuri romance manga series…

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Revolution, death, records, cover-ups, conspiracies, and beyond in "Andor"

Syril Krin’s supervisor, Chief Hyne, looks through records about Cassian Andor’s accidental killing of two employees of Preox-Morlana (Pre-Mor) and tell him to cover up the incident in the show’s first episode Many Star Wars series undoubtedly have themes relating to records, which I’ve noted on this blog, whether animation such as Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance, Star Wars: Clone Wars,…

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Record deletion and Dooku's manipulation of lackluster archival security in "Tales of the Jedi"

Dooku walks toward the entrance to the archival vault and no one questions or asks why he is there… the lack of security here shows a fundamental flaw in the Jedi library and archive structure, which he exploits Some time ago, I decided to watch Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, an anthology series released in 2023, prior to the release of Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, created by Dave Filoni, a…

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Brainiac, manufactured memories, mind control, and Kryptonite in "My Adventures with Superman"

Clark’s birth father, who calls him Kal-El, speaks to him in the first episode of the second season,. He is only a computer program however, as Clark’s real father died many years before. As of the writing of this post, I’ve mentioned My Adventures with Superman, an animated Superman origin story which mixed together the action-adventure, romantic comedy, science fiction, and superhero genres,…

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The 92-page "Kimari's Journal" scrapbook and emotionally raw impact of unread emails from a "frozen" laptop

A card noting the specifics of the collector’s edition In an effort to increase my physical DVD and Blu-ray collection and not rely on streaming services, I bought a collector’s edition of the 2018 adventure series, A Place Further than the Universe, adapted from a three-volume manga written by Yorimoi. This set came with two Blu-ray discs, original soundtrack, four art cards, a poster, a…

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Memory erasure, Imperial propaganda, moral greyness, murder, and Doctor Aphra the lesbian disaster

On Page 109 of Vol. 4, Aphra suggests that Tolva erase her brain. I previously wrote about volumes 1-3 of Doctor Aphra back in mid-December 2024, noting the archivy themes. This only continues in volumes 4-7, which covers issues 20-40. In this post, I’ll note the archivy themes, connections to other posts on this blog, including those about Star Wars, and archival realities. The fourth volume of…

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Archivists Talk About Fictional Archives: Susan Tucker's Interview with Me

Back in June 2023, archivist Susan Tucker contacted me about my “interesting blogpost on fictional archivists in the Issues and Advocacy Section’s newsletter,” and she included on the Essays, academic and personal page of her Keeping (and Telling) the Past website, describing it as a post examining “books, animated series, films, and other media in which archivists appear.” Eventually, in April…

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Spies, telepaths, assassins, classified records, and secret missions oh my: Archivy themes in "Spy x Family"

Panels on page 3 of Spy x Family Volume 1, showing Twilight receiving records while posing as another individual. These are only some of the records shown throughout this volume and this manga (and anime adaptation) As of the writing of this blog, I’ve posted about the anime adaptation of Tatsuyo Endo’s Spy x Family in five posts, noting how classified records are a major part of the anime, with…

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Old television broadcasts, radios, classified missions, and record manipulation in "The Incredibles" franchise

Mirage tells Mr. Incredible to pay attention to the message as it will only be repeated one time in a pivotal point of The Incredibles. Some time ago, I decided to rewatch the two films which comprise the main part of Disney’s franchise for The Incredibles, [1] specifically The Incredibles (2004) and The Incredibles 2 (2018), set in a retro-futuristic 1960s. While the fact that former Pixar…

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Old wrestling videotapes, Andy's determination, and knowledge in "Invincible Fight Girl"

Messages Mikey gets on the library computer during the episode Late last year, I watched the fifth episode of Invincible Fight Girl, a Western animation which focuses on a Black girl named Andronicus Dependent “Andy” Smith who is born on Accountant Isle and told to be an accountant, but she wants to be a wrestler. In the aforementioned episode, entitled “The Perfect Strike”, and originally aired…

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Clashing with "prevailing notions": Pop culture depictions and archival realities

Archivists on the Issues is a forum for archivists to discuss the issues we are facing today. Today’s post comes from Burkely Hermann (me), Metadata Librarian for the National Security Archive and then, the I&A Blog Coordinator. There are spoilers here for all the series I cover in this post. This post does not represent the views or positions of the Issues & Advocacy committee or National…

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Murder, deceit, and cover-ups: Holograms, manufactured stories, cults, and artifacts in two "Star Wars" series

In this screencap from the eighth episode, Senator Rayencourt (played by David Harewood), who has “significant pull in the Expansion Region” with the Jedi fearing he will stir up “anti-Jedi sentiment” in that region, tells Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh (played by Rebecca Henderson) that he has reported the Jedi’s lack of transparency on this matter (the investigation of the death of multiple Jedi)…