#I had enough of that type of writing with River (male fantasy character) and Series 7 Clara

[roadimusprime]

I'm excited for 73 Yards, and it's not because RTD is calling it his best work, it is because we might finally get a full sense of who Ruby is as a person.

[aegor-bamfsteel]

Why do people say that Aegor raped Calla when she was a child? Daemon betrothing his oldest daughter to Aegor does not mean the marriage was consummated when she was a child. Sadly, Daemon himself was betrothed as a child. His grandmother Daenaera was married when she was 6 and his grandfather Viserys II was 12 when he wed and 13 when he had his first child, only a year younger than Daemon when he had his. Usually, it is custom to wait to consummate if the bride is a child.

Furthermore, the people who hate the Blackfyres try to frame it as Daemon selling his daughter to be raped, but I doubt that is why he betrothed her to Aegor since he already has Aegor’s unconditional support. Calla and Aegor never had children, per GRRM, so Aegor championed his nephews and nieces, essentially dedicating his life to his brother and his family. Daemon didn’t need to sell his daughter to Aegor for support, so that was not the reason for the betrothal. (2/3)

My point is that GRRM is wildly inconsistent with his child brides (and grooms). He uses Unwin Peake’s nameless daughter dying in childbirth at the age of 12 as a reason for why he is so despicable (and that is despicable). But then has Aemma Arryn consummate her marriage at age 13 and paints her father, grandparents, uncle, and husband as decent people. Daenaera is then married at age 6 but doesn’t consummate until age 15 or 16. It’s due to Aegon’s depression instead of custom. (3/3)

Thank you for the very thorough ask, tiger. I hope that I have successfully responded to all of your questions. Calla, as with all Blackfyres (and many non-Targaryen women), has certainly gotten a raw deal when it comes to page time/character depth; her only mention is in twoiaf: “Whatever the case may be (for Aegor’s anger at the Targaryens and Bl00draven), Aegor Rivers soon began to press Daemon Blackfyre to proclaim for the throne, and all the more so after Daemon agreed to wed his eldest daughter, Calla, to Aegor.” As Yandel doesn’t make any further comments, I assume the people who believe Calla was raped as a child exist in fandom rather than on page. Rape is a very sensitive subject, and I’m trying to keep the fanwank a bit quieter, so my response will be under the cut.

Why do people say Aegor raped Calla as a child? This actually involves several leaps in logic I don’t find convincing, so I’ll try to break it down:

We are first introduced to Aegor in the Dunk and Egg novellas via mention by some Blackfyre supporters, who are the natural antagonists of the Targaryens; the protagonist, Dunk, is best friends with the Targaryen prince Egg. Many of the Blackfyre supporters are minor antagonists to Dunk, especially in The Mystery Knight when they attempt to kill him (Alyn Cockshaw) or kidnap Egg (Tommard Heddle). Meanwhile, Bittersteel is a legendary hero to Blackfyre admirers (such as Osgrey), at least an important hoped-for ally to the Whitewalls conspirators (Gormon Peake needed some quick victories so Aegor would have faith in his and Daemon II’s rebellion), and a threat Bl00draven takes as seriously as the Blackfyre sons themselves. As an important member of a faction which has members that tried to harm the protagonist Dunk, people see Aegor as a villain. 

The problem with seeing him as a villain (as opposed to simply an antagonist, which he undoubtedly is if you consider the Targaryens protagonists of the story) is that, due to lack of page-time and because he’s not that bad, he never actually does anything too villainous. Urging someone to rebel is at the end of the day just words. He took Bl00draven eye out in battle, but that appears to be an accident and doesn’t seem to have slowed him down. Leading the Golden Company to sack Qohor for failing to honor a contract is severe, but its only mention is in a non-canonical app that few people read. When his chief rival Bl00draven is a canonical child-murderer, child-crippler, kinslayer, deserter, head of a secret police organization, tyrannical overlord, etc...Aegor’s “evil deeds” don’t appear to add up to much. He might even seem more sympathetic than Bl00draven! But that cannot be, so fandom has to headcanon villainous behavior for him, because he must be a villain antagonist.

But what sort of villainous behavior should he do? In order to root for Bl00draven against him, it must be something terrible. GRRM often uses rape to signal how terrible a male character is (and how awful Westeros can be). The most evil villains in the main series are serial rapists: Gregor Clegane, Ramsay Bolton, Euron Greyjoy, Craster; even Tywin Lannister, Roose Bolton, and Petyr Baelish have raped or enabled the rape of young women and girls. When the age of the victim is specified, she is often a preteen/young teenager to make her rape even more evil. The lone exception is Joffrey Baratheon, and that is only because he is 12 (he still molests Sansa repeatedly). Fandom rightly criticizes GRRM using sexualized violence against women as shorthand for “irredeemably evil” or window dressing for a dark fantasy. Yet when Aegor, a character who shows no sign of being a sexual predator (look at Shiera’s SSM, the Dunk and Egg books, and Yandel’s commentary on Aegor’s anger at Bl00draven: one-sided Aegor/Shiera has even less evidence of being real than Daemon/Daenerys), needs to commit villainous actions, some in fandom fall into the same trap as GRRM and imagine him raping women.

Then Yandel tells us that Daemon “agreed to wed his eldest daughter Calla” to Aegor shortly before the Rebellion. As Calla was not a triplet of his eldest sons Aegon and Aemon, the oldest she could possibly be was 11, still a child even by later GRRM standards. The phrase “agreed to wed” is at most a promise; it’s not an official betrothal, it’s certainly not an actual wedding, and it’s absolutely not a consummation. If it had been a consummation, that certainly would have been mentioned, as Yandel has repeatedly recorded rumors just for the purpose of making Daemon look bad (the 14 year old newly acknowledged landless natural son petitioned the king for a polygamous marriage with a princess and an Essosi noblewoman? sure...) Considering Daemon died at the end of the Rebellion and Aegor was now a landless, penniless rebel dependent on his goodsister Rohanne’s mercy, and how the Blackfyres needed to find more allies, I think any talks of marrying Calla was silenced. She married someone else, whereas he remained a bachelor for life and championed the cause of Haegon and his son Daemon III (not necessarily the others, as seen with Daemon II and Aenys, and he did not crown any of Daemon III’s brothers). 

Whatever I headcanon, 2018 GRRM’s comment that he doesn’t think Aegor had any offspring pretty much puts the nail in the coffin of Aegor having consummated any wedded relationship, let alone with Calla. If a male character is promiscuous, GRRM raises the possibility of them having sired natural children; with Aerion Brightflame in Lys, and Brandon Stark in the North, and even Tywin Lannister, he says, “I suppose they could’ve sired bastards” (or in Tywin’s case, gives a non-answer). That he gave a straightforward NO regarding Aegor’s potential children indicates that he feels it would be out of character for Aegor to have a sexual relationship, whether in marriage or outside of it. I hope that when people headcanon Aegor as a serial rapist, they take GRRM’s comments and fandom criticism of sexual violence to heart.

My point is that GRRM is wildly inconsistent with the ages of his child brides (and grooms): I would disagree to the point that in his earlier works, underaged girls forced to wed old men was universally portrayed as terrible and a feature of a corrupt character. Hoster regretted his actions toward Lysa on his deathbed, but it led to their estrangement and her susceptibility to Littlefinger’s manipulation; Sansa Stark’s marriage to Tyrion showed the breakdown of societal norms under Lannister rule; Jeyne’s forced marriage and immediate consummation to Ramsay moves Theon to try to rescue her. Although the marriage wasn’t consummated, GRRM found it difficult to write the Tyrion/Sansa scene because of her horrific abuse. But then The World of Ice and Fire and Fire and Blood are published and older man/younger woman marriages and relationships are outright romanticized by the authors themselves (Elio Garcia said 37 year old Daemon Targaryen’s relationship with the 16 year old Nettles was a true romance; GRRM said that 56-year-old Alyn Velaryon was the great love of 21-year-old Elaena Targaryen’s life) Perhaps the lack of PoV in these works distanced the male writers from the female characters’ emotions and allowed them to envision Rhaenys (16)/Corlys (37), Corlys (61)/Marilda (17), Thaddeus (56)/Floris (14), and Aemma (11-13)/Viserys (16-18) as mutually romantic couples with sympathetic men; but then in the same works the authors use forced relationships with young girls to villainize other men Unwin Peake (daughter died in childbirth at age 12) and Aegon II (was receiving a blowjob from a 12 year old when his father died). The double standard seems to imply that a teenage girl can consent to a relationship with a man old enough to be her father/grandfather if she is genuinely in love with him, which is disturbingly close to real-life defenses of statutory rape. I hate the way that the supplemental material has suddenly decided to defend these couples with “the girls wanted it”, and I can only hope this doesn’t start appearing in the main series that people actually care about.

One type of underaged pairing seems to have a consistent portrayal: child grooms don’t seem to be granted the same mutually happy relationship as child brides. Both Viserys (12) and Larra’s (19) and Androw (17) and Rhaena’s (25) marriages ended in tragedy (and death, in the case of the latter). This makes me...unsettled when thinking about how the authors will write Daemon (14)/Rohanne (older). But to stay within the bounds of your question, I don’t think they will depict an Aegor/Calla marriage due to it making little political or characterization-based sense; so fortunately it will neither villainize nor romanticize Aegor. Although an antagonist to the Targaryens, he has consistently took the higher road over Bl00draven and has the potential to be a tragic and multifaceted character.

[sophygurl]

WisCon 43 panel Mental Illness in SFF

Speculative fiction is fruitful grounds for stereotypes and tropes related to mental illness. We have mad scientists on the one hand and mad gods on the other. We have robots representing one kind of neurodivergency in the science realm and the fae or fae-touched doing similar in fantasy worlds. We have creatures that feed on sanity and medications that cure mental illnesses, and the drugs or plants that cause them. What's going on with mental illness in SFF genres? When are these depictions and metaphors helpful and which ones are just plain harmful?

Moderator: Jason Finn. Panelists:  Ira Alexandre, Kristy Eagar, Clara Cecilia Abnet Holden, Kiersty Lemon-Rogers. [also Autumn was added to the panel - I didn’t catch if she wanted to be known beyond her first name however] [additionally, a member of the audience named Cassie eventually joined the panel as well, but I wasn’t able to catch anything beyond her first name]

Disclaimers: These are only the notes I was personally able to jot down on paper during the panel. I absolutely did not get everything, and may even have some things wrong. Corrections by panelists or other audience members always welcome. I name the mod and panelists because they are publicly listed, but will remove/change names if asked. I do not name audience members unless specifically asked by them to be named. If I mix up a pronouns or name spelling or anything else, please tell me and I’ll fix it!

Notes:

Kristy introduced herself by saying “I like to say I’m seven kinds of crazy” - she has a wide array of mental illnesses/neurodivergency.

Ira said they are “also seven kinds of crazy”, specifically mentioned Bipolar II, autism, and ADHD.

Kiersty said she’s liking the term “mentally weird” for herself, that not everything is officially diagnosed “for reasons”, and that she likes to see people like herself in fiction.

Clara said she also likes the “seven kinds of crazy” and mentioned OCD, GAD, autism, and severe depression. She gets excited to see characters even close to being like her.

Autumn said she finished her master’s degree in counseling and also holds multiple diagnoses. She writes “queer mental illness trash romance”, and has created the games Player 2 and Self Interview.

Autumn also said she wanted to hold space for people who don’t like the word crazy, for whom it’s not something they’re reclaiming.

Jason said he has a family history of mental illness. He started the panelists off asking about representation that they have feelings about.

Ira said they wrote about the Vorkosigan Saga with a focus on Miles, who is more known for his physical differences but who is also neurodivergent. Miles is also a vet with PTSD - which is not handled very well in the story. There is another character who has PTSD who gets the help that he needs, however.

Ira also likes Murderbot (I’m guessing by a quick search this means The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells), as well as Chidi from The Good Place. The fork in the garbage disposal line really speaks to them.

Kristy also loves and relates to Chidi. She noted that there is no therapeutic help available in the afterlife. She also talked about the show Monk - the detective with OCD. Monk often described his OCD as being both a blessing and a curse. Monk made her feel seen, however she felt depressed at the end of each episode. She noted that his OCD gave him a sort of superpower where hers did not. Instead of framing it in terms of blessing and curse, and feeling like she only has the curse, she likes to think of it as neither - it just is.

Clara talked about characters like Monk where the superpower is just that the see the world differently.

Kristy also talked about how most of us don’t have a personal assistance to come around and help us interface with the world.

Clara added that other shows do this, as well - Sherlock, House, The Good Doctor. There is an exceptional cis white male with an ability that is valued enough that his inability to interface with the world on his own is seen as okay.

Autumn said she is sensitive to characters being read as autistic but the story doesn’t tell us that they are. Example was a Canadian show, Strange Empire.

Autumn also talked about Jacqueline Koyanagi’s Ascension - the main character is both physically and mentally disabled. Strong rec. [I agree!!]

Kiersty mentioned Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series as being decent rep for someone with ADHD as a sort of superpower. Also An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon reads as neurodivergent.

Kiersty added an example that was not well done, which I didn’t catch the name of. She loves the work but the representation was bad. Another work I didn’t catch the name of [ugh my handwriting] has tokenization. The queer mentally ill character has psychopathy and is treated unkindly within the story. This was the focus of Kiersty’s graduate work - it can be hard for her to analyze critically because she loves and respects the author overall, but there are serious issues here.

Ira went back to the idea of the helper character (like for Monk, Sherlock, etc.) - there are labor issues here as well. These helpers are paid for their work to make the character more palatable to the world. Sometimes the exceptional genius character gets taught how to treat others kindly along the way.

Kristy said this is a classic trope in the detective genre - the neurodivergent genuis detective and the person who explains what they mean to the rest of the world. Nero Wolf is another example of this - being a massive genius somehow entitles these men to treat others poorly.

Kristy talked about The Good Doctor as a combination of good and bad representation. Often, another doctor or nurse or even patient will explain things to or for the main character, which can lead to the idea that he is unable to learn these things on his own. One episode had the example of “I can’t be racist, I’m disabled!” which is a very bad take.

Kristy noted that the interfacer is also the one who is seen as having the “burden” of being in relationship with the person with the mental illness.

Ira talked about Murderbot - the first book at least was a positive example - that it’s okay to interact with people differently instead of trying to correct how you naturally relate to people. It’s a more adaptive relationship,

Kiersty talked about Data in Star Trek and the whole “I just want to be human” trope. When that type of character is coded as neuroatypical, it can be problematic. Kiersty will fight anyone who questions Data’s personhood. She relates to him very strongly.

Kiersty also talked about Deanna and how she would tell Data that he does have emotions - he just expresses them differently. He didn’t need to have an emotion chip or whatever. He already had connections and relationships with others, even if they looked different.

Autumn talked about Kingpin in Daredevil as a possibly divisive example because he’s a villain. But his villainy was not related to his autism. They both just existed. This is also an example where the translator character is a man and also paid for his services, so it is not unpaid labor. And Kingpin’s romantic interest, Vanessa, accepts him as he is.

Clara added “Kingpin is definitely not a good person, but I love him.” She also agreed his character was handled well and is over the common trope of mental illness being the reason for the villainy.  

Clara talked about how so many villains are characters with anti-social personality disorders - the all villains are psychopaths trope. Then there is Sherlock who said in the first episode that he was a sociopath but no, he wasn’t, and portraying him that way is a problem. Rec’s the book and film I Am Not a Serial Killer - good depiction of someone with anti-social PD who is not a villain and not violent and who gets a diagnosis and therapy.

Ira said, in regards to villains, mental illness as a driving force for the plot becomes the reason for their villainy. There is a fascination in pop culture for the display of a villain’s psyche’s in a way that there isn’t for other types of characters.

Kristy talked about the debates between psychopathy and sociopathy. With the Sherlock thing that Clara mentioned - Kristy thought it was plausible because of the spectrum of disconnect in emotions involved. There is a problem in portraying all psychopaths as serial killers - many are CEO’s, accountants, soccer mom’s, etc. There are positives - the emotional disconnect can make someone with psychopathy good at hiring and firing people, for example.

Clara said that she likes depictions where anti-social characters can be helpful and useful.

Autumn spent the past year working with people with anti-social PD - people who require full time care. Incarcerated people tend to have it as a diagnosis but it’s not always a good diagnosis because part of the diagnostic criteria includes “criminal behavior.” The context of criminal behavior is not always taken into consideration.

Autumn said that the people she worked with had empathy but their feelings of guilt were so overwhelming that they melted down when they tried to tune into them. The problem is that this disconnect becomes habituated - it becomes a refusal to take responsibility for their actions at all because they can’t let the feelings in.

Jason asked the panelists to talk about depictions of therapy. This was Deanna’s whole job. He is unhappy with Barclay’s treatment in the series a lot of the time.

Ira commented that there are too few space therapists. In fantasy - therapists usually have another role in addition to the therapy.

Autumn talked more about Deanna as a professional empath. In seasons 6 and 7, the show started portraying therapy more realistically - the way therapy actually happened during the time the series originally aired. Autumn also added that Dax was unqualified for the role as councilor on DS9.

Kristy talked about therapy in speculative fiction sometimes being specifically therapy. Then there is Guinan in The Next Generation who did a lot of unpaid labor as a therapist for everybody, exemplifying the magical black woman trope as well. There are a couple of episodes focused on her character and her feelings, but not a lot.

Kristy is also interested in the idea of the holodeck being used as therapy. Also, in fantasy novels, the priest often plays the role of therapist. It’s worth asking who is doing the labor and who is getting paid for the labor and who is benefiting from the labor, especially through lenses of race and gender.

Ira talked some about the movement of getting therapy from your own demographic (for example, black and queer therapists treating their own people), and how that could be an interesting concept to explore in spec. fic.

An audience member talked about the white cis male frame that mental illness is often looked at through in fiction. As a counter example, brought up Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti and Akata Witch, as well as Andrea Hairston’s Will Do Magic for Small Change - which delve into black and brown ideas of not being allowed to feel and the harm that therapy can do. Horror, as a genre, looks at this sometimes, too.

Autumn said the issue is complex - the thing about therapy with someone who shares your demographic can work because the most important thing in success of therapy is a shared rapport, and often that can be found with people you share things with.

Autumn also shared that in real life, schizophrenia cuts equally across the population, but diagnostically that doesn’t show. Black and brown people have more distrust of authority for obvious reasons, and that can be viewed as mental illness. Similarly, Russia used anti-psychotics on people who didn’t trust the state - but they had good reason not to have that trust.

Kristy noted that the panel is all white and that this is a problem. An audience member began asking the panelists questions in regards to race, and was asked if she wanted to join the panel to speak on that and she did (everyone applauded - this felt very needed, although the panelists were doing their best to address the issues).

The audience member introduced herself as Cassie, and this was her first WisCon - she said this kind of thing happens to her a lot because being at cons sparks her hypomania.

Cassie talked about the TV show Insecure where one of the black main characters is seen in therapy with a black therapist and how amazing that is.

She also talked about the issue of black people being scared of being shot at by police and that getting a diagnosis of delusion slapped on them, but this is a very realistic fear. Also - black expression of depression is often anger.

As far as people with anti-social PD, the white ones tend to end up as CEO’s, the black ones end up in prison.

Cassie rec’d Binti as well and talked about the depiction of PTSD, isolation from one’s own community. The character does see a therapist, but there is so much misunderstanding due to cultural differences. There are access issues around therapy - both in real life and in SFF.

Clara talked about strict and narrow depictions of “otherness” in fiction and how we can only have one margliazation in a character. As if it’s unrealistic for someone to be both black and mentally ill.

An audience member commented - “I guess cishet white men have no trouble empathizing with others.”

Kristy talked about Shonda Rhimes shows, specifically How To Get Away With Murder has a bisexual black woman with mental illness as a main character.

Kristy also mentioned Hannibal - “I love relationships where the therapist ends up eating their patient, or vice versa.”

“If you love cannibalism and mental illness....”

Jason - and we’re out of time and have to end it there. [lol]

[So. This was a really good and really interesting panel for a lot of reasons, but I’m left feeling a little frustrated about the focus of it, only because well - I wrote this one up too and was thinking about it specifically touching on ways that SF and fantasy use the tropes of their genres to portray mental illness and when those are used well or poorly. The panel did a little bit of that, but it feels like it veered off a lot into other genres, discussing mental illnesses in general, and even when focused on SFF - it was more listing off works and what they did vs. exploring the idea of SFF tropes specifically in regards to mental illness. But perhaps I need to narrow the focus of the panel description more if that’s the panel I want to see? IDK. It really was interesting and I liked how they just invited the audience member to the panel mid-way through to gain her perspective. Also some cool recs!]

[mysticdragon3md3]

md3 watches Ascendance of a Bookworm eps2-4

2:45 PM 12/4/2019

Ascendance of a Bookworm Episode 2 – Life Improvements and Slates

I feel less compellted to stop the ep every few minutes to write my reaction notes, since I already watched these clips before on YOuTube.  I feel like I can finally relax and watch this series.  I should watch spoilers more often.  LOL  

I've been warry for a little while now, but I wonder if this is it...  I've been seeing AniTube vids latey alluding to "that scene" from this series.  Though I have no idea what they're talking about, it sounds like something problematic sprang up in the story.  And more and more, I wonder if it's this romance that the show is pushing between Main (I don't like that Crunchyroll spelling; my brain keeps wanting to read "main") and Lutz.  I mean, if they take that to fruition without time skips, then that means this adult lady from our world, trapped in the body of a 5 year old, will be in a romantic relationship with a 5 year old boy from this fantasy world.  O____o;;;;;;;;;;;;  I hope they don't do that.  ...But knowing how often incest has been pushed as the romantic subplot, more often in anime this past decade or so....I'm afraid that may be the case.  x__x;  I really hope I'm just being paranoid!  ;o;!  

Also, this whole shampoo/sniffing hair reminds me of when I was younger and I did understand that it's weird/intrusive if a guy does that to a girl.  Up until that point in my life, women had frequently commented on my shampoo scent and sniffed my hair.  And I just came to learn that it must be a normal thing.  Then the first time a guy asked if he could sniff my hair, my first thought was, "Well, I don't want to change my response, just because of his gender."  I had spent a lot of my childhood sexist against males, and I was trying very hard to grow out of it.  So I let him pick up a lock of my hair and sniff it.  Granted, my hair was so freaking long that even picking it up, kept him at a good 3-4 foot distance away from me.  So I didn't realize it was anything considered intimate.  But in retrospect, and after guys kept approaching me more than once in the hardware store, while I was still in my church clothes,...What kind of weirdo chases after girls running errands in a store, whenever she happens to be in a nice dress, then strikes up random conversations and asks to sniff her hair?!  In retrospect, that was weird.  And as an asexual, I am retroactively creeped-out.  

3:15 PM 12/4/2019

Well, Crunchyroll crashed during the commercial break again.  Do I have to stop watching now?  Like I did yesterday during Dr. Stone?  ;o;?  If this keeps happening, maybe I'll just watch fansubs on YouTube.  ;_;  I really don't want to though!  I'll try reloading the page and see if it'll let me skip to the middle of the episode, where I left off.  

3:31 PM 12/4/2019

She forgot her papyrus idea?

Well, I'm not going to wait through another commercial break that'll probably crash or buffer like all the others.  I'm going straight to the next episode.  And I just hope there isn't more to ep2 besides the ending theme and previews.

3:32 PM 12/4/2019

Ascendance of a Bookworm Episode 3 – The Events of Winter

omg Give Main some tools!  LOL  

Aw, poor Turi.  She should be proud of all the things she was able to help Main do, that Main so obviously couldn't do alone.  Instead she feels sad that Main is better at weaving than her. ;_;

I learned a long time ago that age doesn't matter, just experience.  Being the older sister isn't some kind of automatic hierarchy that makes you naturally better at everything vs your younger sister.  I have so much social anxiety that I've been paralyzed with inexperience for most of my life, so growing up, it was only logical to me that my outgoing sister had lots of experience and capabilities that I couldn't do.  I never felt sore at her about it.  Instead I recognized that I could rely on her to help me with the things she did better than me.  I just got lucky that the pseudo-philosophical blabbering I naturally do is for some reason very useful to her (per her words).  Sisters is a team thing, not a hierarchy.

Gotta say, there's a lot of scenes in this anime that suddenly stop.  Like I expect the characters to do an action, but they freeze instead.  I know there's a lot of limited animation and a series needs to save their budget.  But this series does it so well, that during the times when they cut corners, it's really unexpected.  Not bad, which is what makes their choices for when to place the limited animation, still good direction.  Just unexpected, after the series/episode has been able to fool you so far, with the other limited animation corner cutting it placed so well that it was unnoticable.  It didn't impede the natural flow of the episode/series so far.  It's pretty impressive.  ^-^!  Like when Turi was warming the parue tree's branch to pick the fruit, or when Lutz was about to flip the pancake/paruecake.  

I love that Main straight up called her dad's jealousy by acting innocent.  

I love when Main talks like an adult in that tiny body.  LOL  "I'm not the type of person to work without compensation."  LOL Wow.  She really had him make a crochet hook.  I thought she'd use knitting needles instead.  Ambitious!

LOL  Her dad's so silly!  LOL  

4:04 PM 12/4/2019

Ok.  No time for ending credits or ending themes.  I gotta get on with my day.  

4:58 PM 12/4/2019

Ascendance of a Bookworm Episode 4 – Forests and Clay Tablets

Back from my daily walk.  Maybe I can watch this ep without sitting and typing at my laptop?  (Feh.  Heard that one beofre. x_x; )  

"Officially going there to learn to read and write."  Yosha!!!!!!!!!

I keep forgetting Main's dad is the captain.  lol

When I first saw this scene on YouTube, I was confused because I thought clay soil was most prevalent around water.  o.o?  Isn't it that layer that's usually exposed on the sides of creeks and rivers? But in this series Main says, "He took em to a spot with very little vegetation ro drainage." I'll have to research later.  

"With books, you can learn what people in the past were thinking, and experience so much mroe than you normally could in an average lifespan."  Damn straight.  Whenever spoilsports start denegrating 2nd hand experience and blabbing on about how "you can only really learn stuff first-hand" and whatever, I always end up shouting, "Then what the hell are libraries for!?!"  Second-hand experiences have value, damn it!  "Experience so much more than you normally could in an average lifespan."

Why is their first instinct to jump onto those tablets when they didn't know what they were?!  This is why there are so many fairtales about people doing random stupid stuff, then getting cursed!

I didn't expect them to introduce magic like this.  Why is she glowing?

Well, because they owed her, now she has more hands to produce more clay.  

Damn.  Rain.  

Oh no!  No no no no no no!  As somone who as tried to speed up ceramics baking by cheating with fireplaces and ovens before the actual kiln, please don't just toss your clay tablets into a stove fire!  o~o!!!

...and kablamo.  ^^;;;;

5:28 PM 12/4/2019

Well, that's enough new anime for right now.  I've got stuff to do.  

[bloganimeworld720-blog]

Introduction

Lately, the quality of anime has dropped. Authors focus all their attention on drawing perfectly shaped boobs rather than making the story more interesting and appealing to bigger audience. Stories often lack originality as well. Sometimes I can even guess how the end will look like after watching just the first episode. Because of these reasons, I did a little research and tried to find anime shows that are often recommended by anime veterans as a "must watch" anime.

Luckily for me, this was one easy task because I'm not the only one who is looking for anime shows with some good quality art, awesome background stories and well developed characters. Everyone who asked on forums about this type of anime got similar answers. Most recommended anime shows were from psychological genre. This makes sense because I immediately remembered how fast I got addicted to watching Death Note or Code Geass. Soon I realized that my list would be far better if it had more anime with brilliant and interesting mind games. Am I right?

Most of the anime that I'm going to talk about are pretty much well known. However, there will be a few reviews of some great shows that simply slipped by us unnoticed due to the popularity of other shows.

The following list of top most popular psychological anime is not ranked in any way but in what order I have watched the series. If you don't want to read each and every review, you can use this table of content and see which anime will be mentioned in the list. With that information, you can easily use "ctrl+F" and go directly to the review you want to read. Remember that this list will be updated from time to time with new reviews!

List of mentioned Anime:

No Game No Life (NGNL)

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)

Monster (Naoki Urusawa's Monster)

Mirai Nikki (Future Diary)

Ergo Proxy

Code Geass (Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch)

Death Note

Death Parade

Psycho Pass

One Outs (ONE OUTS Nobody wins, but I!)

No Game No Life (NGNL)

Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Game, Supernatural.

Main characters: Sora and Shiro.

Plot: The story of No Game No Life revolves around two characters, Sora and Shiro, who are also known as Blank. One day, Sora and Shiro get transported into another world after they win a chess game against Tet, the One True God. This world is called Disboard and everything in this world is decided by playing games. Sora and Shiro will join the weakest race and start conquering all other races to eventually challenge the God.

Shiro and Sora.

Review: I could say that this anime is more or less a gambling contest where you have to play a game to get what you want. It does not fall in the genre of psychological anime, however, it is based solely on games and how to trick your opponent and I thought adding it to the list wouldn't be a mistake.

Sora and Shiro play a lot of games and come up with some extraordinary solutions which will slowly but surely allow them to accomplish their goal. However, Sora and Shiro will sometimes come up with solutions that have no great development behind them. The downside of this anime is that sometimes Sora and Shiro are portrayed as so powerful characters that you are basically 100% certain that they will win.

Still, No Game No Life is a very popular anime and many people will recommend it to you to watch it. The fact that Sora has been ranked in "the Top 5 of the most intelligent Anime-Characters" in a poll, made by Charapedia, tells you a lot. If you put aside that main characters are a little bit overpowered then you will definitely enjoy this show.

Mirai Nikki (Future Diary)

Genres: Action, Mystery, Psychological, Shounen, Supernatural, Thriller.

Main characters: Gasai Yuno and Amano Yukiteru.

Plot: Yukiteru Amano, a highschool student, spends most of his time writing a diary on his cellphone. Deus, who reveals himself to be an actual entity, grants Yukiteru a "Random Diary," which shows highly descriptive entries based on the future and forces him into a bloody battle royale with 11 other holders of similarly powerful future diaries.

With the last person standing designated as the new god of time and space, Yukiteru must find and kill the other 11 in order to survive. Yukiteru teams up with Yuno Gasai, who is his obsessive stalker.

All Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) characters.

Review: Even though Mirai Nikki anime has kids not older than 14 as main characters, this show is still very mature. Amano Yukiteru, also known as Yuki, is the male protagonist and he is the first diary holder in the show. Whereas, Yuno Gasai is the main female protagonist and she is the second in the Survival Game and has a "Diary of Future Love".

The basic premise for this story has already been seen a couple of times. Basically, a group of people is pitted against each other in a battle where only the last man standing is the winner. However, what makes Mirai Nikki such a popular psychological anime is that it is hard to predict what will happen next. Each character is equipped with a "Future Diary" which gives them a special power. The power and the characters' strengths come from their own personalities.

Watching players use their own strengths and opponents' weaknesses to survive will surely force you to watch all Mirai Nikki episodes in one day!

Death Note

Genres: Mystery, Police, Psychological, Supernatural, Thriller.

Main characters: Yagami Light, Lawliet L, Ryuk, River Nate.

Plot: Death Note story follows Light Yagami as he obtains a notebook which allows to its user to kill whoever he or she wants just by writing that person's name. Light Yagami decides to get rid of all criminals in the world by writing their names in the notebook. Soon Light Yagami will become known as Kira which translated from Japanese means "Killer". The police decides to catch Kira by enlisting one of their best detectives whose name is L. After that moment, everything becomes just one epic cat vs mouse game that has never been seen before. Light Yagami will use Death Note as a way to avoid police and continue his mission, whereas, L must use all sorts of deductions to find a way to prove who is Kira.

L and Light Yagami.

Review: A perfect way to kill someone without getting your hands dirty? Why don't just use Death Note?

Death Note was the first anime to come to my mind once I decided to make a list of anime that involve mind games. Death Note is still a very popular psychological anime even though it was aired in 2006 for the first time. Ten years is a long period!

I believe that Death Note is definitely the best anime ever created because of its unique story rivaled by few. You can't call yourself an anime fan until you have watched Death Note.

Psycho Pass

Genres: Action, Police, Psychological, Sci-Fi.

Main characters: Kougami Shinya, Makishima Shougo, Tsunemori Akane.

Plot: On Earth the system of justice is not the same anymore. It is the 22nd century and Japan is using the Sybil System to determine whether someone is threat to humanity or not by checking their mental state for signs of criminal intent, their Psycho Pass.

However, this carefully created world has its flaws. The system does not work perfectly and one of the main characters, Akane Tsunemori, will realize that soon. With everything she has known turning to be a lie, Akane wrestles with the question of what justice truly is, and whether it can be upheld through the use of a system that may also be corrupt.

Psycho Pass.

Review: What if you could tell that a person is going to become a criminal just by analyzing their state of mind? What would you do with that kind of information?

Similar to Death Note, Psycho Pass leaves us with a question where is the line between good and bad. After watching this anime, your idea of what justice is might be changed.

Psycho Pass is full of realistic characters, who have interesting background stories which you cannot see these days in anime. Unpredictable shifts in the story will keep your attention all the time, not to mention the antagonists and their back stories, which won't leave you indifferent. Every character has his or her role in this series and you will soon find yourself attached to those same characters, fearing for their lives and possible clouding of their Psycho Pass.

Psycho Pass is a great psychological anime which you should add to your watch list.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural, Thriller.

Main characters: Ryuuguu Rena, Furude Rika, Sonozaki Shion and Sonozaki Mion.

Plot: Keiichi Maebara moves to the village of Hinamizawa where he becomes best friends with schoolmates Rena Ryuuguu, Mion Sonozaki, Satoko Houjou, and Rika Furude.

Keiichi soon learns that there have been a series of unexplained murders that have plagued the village for the past three years during the annual Watanagashi Festival in June. Keiichi will try to find out more about these incidents but with no success. With the next Watanagashi approaching, things will start to take a turn for the worse.

Higurashi no Naku Koro (When They Cry).

Review: What is so special about this anime is that it forces viewers to want more and more violence just so they can learn new details about the story. At first, this anime will not be interesting to you, but be patient. Bit by bit, you will understand that behind all that ideal life full of joy lies something so terrible that will surely leave a great impact on you. The story will take you to the depths of every characters' psychology and you will learn the sick motives behind their every action. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni will leave you to wonder just how little is enough for a normal person to become a criminal.

All in all, this is a great psychological anime with some unique storytelling and brilliant mind games.

Ergo Proxy

Genres: Mystery, Psychological, Sci-Fi.

Main characters: Mayer Re-l, Pino, Law Vincent and Ergo Proxy.

Plot: Due to the great ecological apocalypse that hit the Earth, humans are forced to live under the domes and never to leave them.

In order to survive this disaster and make living easier AutoReivs, humanoid-like robots, were created. Unfortunately, robots can get sick in this story. AutoReivs have begun contracting an enigmatic disease called the "Cogito Virus" which grants them self-awareness. During the investigation of this disease, Re-l Mayer will discover that there is more behind this problem then she previously expected. Along with Iggy, Vincent, and the child AutoReiv named Pino, Re-l Mayer will try to uncover the truth about the town where they live in and the robots' true purpose that has been kept as a secret for far too long.

Ergo Proxy.

Review: This series is a real psychological mind boggling experience. The story is so complex that sometimes you will be simply pissed off because you have no idea what is really going on. Even though you will get your answers at the end of each episode, new questions will soon appear. This is the kind of anime which should be watched more than just one time in order for you to grasp the whole story. Nevertheless, even if you are not the type to dwell into details, you can still surely enjoy the epicness of this story. Character development in Ergo Proxy is well planned which is worth mentioning.

I have had a great time watching this anime.

Death Parade

Genres: Drama, Game, Mystery, Psychological, Thriller.

Main characters: Decim, Nona and Kurokami no Onna.

Plot: This story is set in the after life where those who die are welcomed by bartenders, or better say arbiters. The dead ones get a chance to play a game and how successful they are in that game will determine whether they will be given another chance to live or they will be banished into the void forever. Whatever the game is, the results end up the same: each players' true self is exposed through the game. Decim, one of the main characters, is a lone bartender of the Quindecim bar. His role in judging these passing souls will change when he meets a curious black-haired woman.

Death Parade. | Source

Review: Welcome to the afterlife! Take a seat and let's have a game. A brilliant topic worth talking about since everyone is interested in what will happen to them once they die. Am I right?

Coincidentally, I found out on Reddit that research students in real life have written thesis by taking Death Parade as its basis. Amazing, isn't it? The show will hook you up pretty soon. The story itself is thought provoking. Every passing character will leave his or her influence on the audience as they approach the grand finale, which will definitely leave you heart-broken. So, don't let the cheerful opening fool you, because this is surely not a happy-go-lucky anime.

One of the greatest works of Madhouse. Death Parade has really lived up to it's hype!

One Outs (ONE OUTS Nobody wins, but I!)

Genres: Psychological, Seinen, Sports.

Main characters: Tokuchi Toua, Ideguchi Satoshi and Kojima Hiromichi.

Plot: Meet Toua Tokuchi, an excellent pitcher, who will sign a contract with the Lycaons stating that he will earn 5 million yen for each out but loose 50 million yen for every run he gives up. Hell of a contract, right? Don't worry because Toua Tokuchi is the best pitcher in the world and he will do this for fun.

Adapted from the manga by Shinobu Kaitani of Liar Game fame, One Outs documents the intense psychological battles between Toua and those around him. With millions of yen at stake, can a pitcher who has done nothing but gamble in a head-to-head imitation of baseball finally lead a real baseball team to victory?

One Outs.

Review: One Outs is full of amazing mind games, intelligent characters, sports and a whole lot of money at the stake. A perfect combination if you ask me.

I believe some of you will think that sports anime can't get so deep into psychology of people. However, One Outs will prove you wrong. The mind games that you will see in One Outs anime are ranked on the same level as the mind games from Death Note. This comparison is more than enough for you to realize how great this anime is. Some fans even compare Toau Tokuchi to Light Yagami.

To fully enjoy One Outs, I suggest you to learn basic rules in baseball first. Once you have done that, lay down and start watching this brilliant show!

Monster (Naoki Urusawa's Monster)

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Police, Psychological, Seinen, Thriller.

Main characters: Liebert Johan, Tenma Kenzou, Lunge Heinrich and Liebert Anna.

Plot: If you had to choose who will live between two given people, how would you decide which one you will save? Kenzou Tenma, a Japanese brain surgeon who works in Europe, will face this question. Kenzou will have to decide whether he will save a young boy or the town's old mayor. Once he makes the decision and saves the life of the boy, his nightmare will begin.

Series of murders will occur and all evidences will point to the boy who was saved by Kenzou Tenma. Along his journey to unravel the true identity of his little patient, Kenzou discovers that the fate of the world may be intertwined with this mysterious child.

Monster.

Review: I can say that Monster is an anime part horror and part mystery. However, without a doubt it is a psychological anime. The show has 70 episode and the pacing is a little bit slow so you will have to be patient. Even though the show aired in 2004, Monster is still considered one of the best psychological series on par with Death Note. Once you get used to the art style, you will surely start to appreciate the story and its characters.

The characters are well developed throughout the series. The antagonist of Monster is brilliant. I really liked his design and we can say that he is one of the best manipulative villains I have ever seen. The show focuses heavily on the psychological aspects of the characters and deals with conspiracies, secret government programs and what not.

Code Geass (Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch)

Genres: Action, Mecha, Military, School, Sci-Fi, Super Power.

Main characters: Lamperouge Lelouch, C.C., Stadtfeld Kallen and Kururugi Suzaku.

Plot: In the year 2010, the Holy Empire of Britannia is establishing itself as a dominant military nation, with a goal to conquer Japan which was soon accomplished. Renamed to Area 11 after its swift defeat, Japan has seen significant resistance against these tyrants in an attempt to regain independence.

Code Geass' story follows Lamperouge Lelouch, a boy from the royal britannian family, who was forced to take asylum in Japan after the murder of his mother. One day, Lelouch will meet a girl named C.C. who will give him a special ability called Geass, The Power of Kings. With Geass, Lelouch can order anyone to do anything he wants and soon he will realize the vast potential of this power. What follows is Lelouch's battle of wits against other empires and organization to take control over the world.

Code Geass.

Review: Code Geass tackles one interesting philosophical question and that is "Whether a means to an end is more important than the end itself?". Even though Code Geass does not fall in psychological genre, I really had to mention this show as well. It is full of mind games and I strongly recommend it to everyone to watch it. What you will like the most is Lelouch's brilliancy in using other people with his Geass to accomplish what he wants. Each episode is ended with a cliffhanger. What's more, Code Geass is packed with some great mecha fights and amazing soundtracks.