#inio the brave

[xenosagaepisodeone]

I think it is extremely brave for Mr. Asano Inio to write a version of Homura and Madoka’s story where both parties are Homura

[nitrosplicer]

My Non-Exhaustive 2019 Reading List

As follows is a non-exhaustive list of the books I read in 2019. While I didn’t succeed in tackling every book on my to-read list in 2019, I feel quite privileged to have the time and energy to read what I did!

My list of books includes re-reads: they also count, and are marked with a *.

1. Pretending is Lying by Dominique Goblet

2. Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

3. History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

4. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018 by Sam Kean

5. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

6. Whipping Girl by Julia Serano

7. Real Queer America : LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen

8. Diary of a Puerto Rican Demigod by Edwin Sanchez

9. God Land by Lyz Lenz

10. The War Poems of Wilfred Owen by Wilfred Owen

11. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris

12. The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich

13. Are You My Mother by Allison Bechdel

14. Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano*

15. Becoming Unbecoming by Una

14. Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha*

15. Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich

16. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson*

17. Antigonick by Anne Carson

18. The Overstory by Richard Powers

19. Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

20. Sula by Toni Morrison*

21. When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon by Joshua D. Mezrich

22. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

23. The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking by Olivia Laing

24. Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro

25. Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo

26. The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

27. We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan

28. Collected Poetry: 1912-1944 by H.D.

29. Black Hole by Charles Burns

30. Bid Me To Live by H.D.

31. The Parade’s End tetralogy by Ford Madox Ford

32. Exile and Pride by Eli Clare

33. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

34. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

35. The Collected Works of Isaac Rosenberg

36. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

37. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

38. And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes by Angie Debo

39. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

40. The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings

41. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

42. The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

43. Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

44. Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

45. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

46. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

47. Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith

48. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway*

49. Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf

50. Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

and more!

[dimhortons]

Get to Know Your Mutuals Better~

Tagged by @transgirl-link

One/Name: Robin, although I do respond to Penny as well!

Two/Birthday: October 23rd~

Three/Zodiac Sign: I’m on the cusp between Libra and Scorpio, but I definitely think I was supposed to be a Scorpio

Four/Height: I’m 5′-10″ and likely only going to get shorter from here,,,

Five/Hobbies: Drawing, DMing and writing for DnD campaigns, Cooking moreso during the semester, Video Games, and I’m hoping to add translating to the list after this year~

Six/Favorite Colors: Pink! Especially super pastel and soft pinks

Seven/Favorite Books: Surprise, they’re all gonna be manga, but Yoshitoki Oima’s A Silent Voice is phenomenal, Inio Asano’s Solanin wrecks me, as well as Nagata Kabi’s My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, which was one of the most influential books of my life

Eight/Last Song I Listened to: I’m bopping Devil Trigger from DMCV right now, but Heritors of Arcadia from Fire Emblem Echoes was going just a second ago

Nine/Last Movie I Watched: God, like, the last movie I chose for myself was Liz and the Blue Bird because that’s just the state of my life right now, but I half-consciously watched Mission Impossible Fallout last night

Ten/Inspiration for your Muse: I’ve got a variety of, uh, very predictable and very telling ones. Samus from the Metroid series, Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, and Sae Niijima from Persona 5 are the biggest

Eleven/Dream Job: I’d like to work at an architecture firm doing graphics for building projects, but I want to move on to designing environments and cities for video games or anime one day

Twelve/Meaning Behind your Url: I was playing Bravely Default like five years ago and made a passing joke that Alternis Dim would only get his coffee as black as night from Dim Hortons, and one day I was like, guess that can be my new brand

Thirteen/Top Three Ships: I’ve been ride-or-die YukaMitsu since well before I realized that I was trans, gay, and projecting onto Yukari. I didn’t marry Chrom in Fire Emblem Awakening because internalized biphobia, but Chrobin has been my shit since I accepted myself, and funnily enough, I used to be all about M!Robin in that ship, but as a gal now, I lean F!Robin. Last is YumiKuri, and like, I don’t do Attack on Titan anymore, but they were the first gals that really stole my heart

Fourteen/Lipstick or Chapstick: If I could muster the courage to do my makeup, it’d be lipstick

Fifteen/Currently Reading: After Hours by Yuhta Nishio! Genuinely one of the coziest wlw manga I’ve ever read. Also I’m big gay for Kei

Thank you for the tag, hun~ I’m passing it along to anyone else that wants to do it!

[recentanimenews]

5 Anime Music Groups That You Need To Stop Sleeping On

    What keeps you watching anime? For some it’s the thrill of seeing Hibiki punch God. For others, it’s unexpectedly nuanced character animation, or end-of-episode plot twists that make you desperate for the next. For me, it’s anime OPs and EDs. Every season I’ve been guaranteed a new avalanche of music videos, and at least one or two of them earn the coveted honor of me watching them every day six times in a row. But now what if I was to tell you that some of the music artists who’ve worked on anime have their own albums, and that some of those albums are very, very good?

  Let’s talk about some of the bands featured in anime that easily hold their own weight off the screen.

    “KIMI NO SEI KIMI NO SEI KIMI NO SEI DE WATASHI OOOH….OKUBYOU DE KAKKOU TSUKANAI KIMI NO SEI DA YO!” Once upon a time I was just like you, one who has not listened to the theme song of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai. But then I watched the credits for the first time, and…well, it’s over. The song is lodged in the recesses of my brain and will pop back out, at the smallest notice, to play on end for the rest of the day at the least provocation.

  "Kimi no Sei" is one of my top anime theme song bangers of the decade, and it was created by an all-female group from Kanagawa called the peggies. They’ve put out three albums so far, propelled by dreamy vocals and crunchy guitars. I tend to gravitate more towards the harder-rocking songs like "Kimi no Sei", but it’s all at least pretty good. And don’t just take it from me: their most recent single was chosen to accompany Kunihiko Ikuhara’s Sarazanmai, joining the ranks of Coaltar of the Deepers and J. A. Seazer in the director’s oeuvre.

  Where to start?: Their most recent album is Hell Like Heaven, which features "Kimi no Sei"! But you may enjoy their first album, goodmorning in TOKYO, as well.

    I loved the first ED for Dororo, performed by the great goth rock band amazarashi and animated by the fantastic Osamu Kobayashi. But I found the second ED to be excellent as well, a sad and fuzzy ballad set to an out-of-focus mess of sad and fuzzy colors. Months later, I began to see animation fans on Twitter excitedly sharing music videos featuring a J-pop artist known as Eve. So I’m embarrassed to admit that it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realized that the Eve hosting these music videos, and the Eve who sang the second ending theme for Dororo, are the same person! The videos on Eve’s channel are all quite different, featuring a murderer’s row of independent and more broadly known animators. But there’s a shared language of apocalypse and adolescent fear that hints at a shared universe connecting them.

  Where to start?: You could do much worse than comb through Eve’s YouTube feed for videos that seem cool. I particularly enjoyed this one, which features art direction by Yuji Kaneko (who’s worked on the Little Witch Academia OVAs and Kill la Kill.)  

    I was excited for the first episode of Stars Align, the new project by Noein: To Your Other Self director Kazuki Akane. But what caught me most off guard in the first episode wasn’t the efficient characterization, or the shocking appearance of the protagonist’s abusive father, but the music. A kind soul on Twitter introduced me to the work of the show’s composer, a Kyoto-based group called jizue that is the best musical discovery I’ve made this year.

  Not quite postrock, not quite math rock—music fans refer to them and their kin as “nujazz”—they’re an immediately distinctive band with an extensive back catalogue of work to explore. Of course, the kind of music they specialize isn’t for everyone, and can become wearying over sustained listens. But with their most recent album, Gallery, specifically aiming to spotlight individual members and pull themselves out of their musical comfort zone, there’s a lot of life in them yet. Either way, Akane’s use of their work immediately sets Stars Align apart from the sports anime pack.

  Where to start?: Folks seem to really like their second album “novel” from 2012. You could also jump to Bookshelf from 2016.

    It’s safe to say that Kenishi Yonezu is a big deal. Since being featured on My Hero Academia’s second opening, "Peace Sign," he’s contributed theme songs to March comes in like a lion, Children of the Sea and the TV drama Unnatural. He’s collaborated with hot artists like DAOKO. Heck, he even co-created an independent music label together with several other stars of the Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga. There’s the catch, though: Yonezu rose to prominence not just through his voice, but on the strength of his work as Hachi, an independent composer on indie videos featuring Hatsune Miku.  

  It’s a route to superstardom that simply did not exist a decade ago, and Yonezu as much as anyone represents the new paradigm of Japanese pop music. His most recent work is certainly a world away from the less polished, but spirited work that made his name. But his single for Children of the Sea is excellent, bridging the divide between Yonezu the pop star and Yonezu the master of subculture.

  Where to start?: Why not go to “diorama,” the independent album he released in 2012?

    There aren’t many bands out there quite like Shinsei Kamattechan. They earned their cult following online, posting freaky music videos on Nico Nico Douga. Since then they’ve released a handful of albums, and contributed to theme songs ranging from Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl to Flowers of Evil to Attack on Titan. In recent years, their work has become a bit more accessible, sanding off the nastiness from their earlier work. But the appeal remains: fantastically catchy tunes coupled with bizarre, often disturbing lyrics.

  Shinsei Kamattechan speaks to the same millennial angst that powers the work of manga luminaries like Inio Asano and Natsujikei Miyazaki. Listening to their work can feel like being trapped in the middle of a thunderstorm, but it can be weirdly exhilarating as well. Of all the bands on this list, these guys are my sentimental favorites. Check them out, if you dare!

  Where to start: If you’re brave, begin with their sophomore album Tsumanne. You could also try out their later album Eiyuu Syndrome, which is much brighter and poppier but still has some incredible bangers on it.

  Of course, there’s plenty of other artists we could talk about. What about Asian Kung Fu Generation and their legion of anime theme songs? What about legendary rock band the pillows, who gave FLCL so much of its personality? What about JYOCHO, who did a fantastic ending theme for Junji Ito Collection? Well, we’ll just have to talk about those next time. Until then, Shiina Ringo takes us out:

    What are your favorite Japanese bands? Do you have any favorite bands from outside of Japan that have contributed music to anime? Let us know in the comments!

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Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. He wrote another post in this vein on the blog Isn't it Electrifying, which he sporadically contributes to with a loose collection of friends. Follow him on Twitter at: @wendeego

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