Idle Master

  Mushoku Tensei has always been a show with morally debatable characters. In the second episode, we see a man disregard his parent's funeral to masturbate at home. In the fourth episode, we see a man cheat on his wife and impregnate his maid. And in the sixth episode, we see a man who molests a child thrice below his mental age. There has almost never been an episode where I did not see arguments on the common themes of sexual objectification and chauvinism in the show. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many has been turned off by the perverted nature our protagonist Rudeus exudes. At best he would enact voyeurism or gawk at any female with a sliver of human skin. At worse, he would talk about grooming a child to be his perfect wife or commit sexual assault on a minor. These are all acts that are no doubt morally reprehensible in modern conventions. The common counterarguments then would be that the world of Mushoku Tensei is not modern. Taking place in the morally-archaic medieval era, it

Ousama Ranking is a show that wears its heart on its sleeves. Episode 1 and 2 has no doubt tugged onto everyone's heartstrings. The struggles of Bojji and Kage are simple and yet instantly palpable. The blob-like designs and pastel colors are childish and yet infinitely expressive. Both elements lend to incredible scenes where every emotion are painted in the most beautiful way possible, so much so that you may not even need context for you to "feel it".  It is with these type of expectations did my heart gleefully awaited episode 3. But what I was left with when I finished the episode was a profound respect not for the animators of the show, but for the scriptwriters. You see, for a show that thus far had such a simple story, what was brought onto the table was a script that was far more complex and masterful than it deserved to be. And what I am talking about is it's ability to play with expectations and write multi-faceted characters. Writing a good mystery Queen H

Why tension pervades in death games should be quite intuitive. Unlike the tension of a heated argument, there are no do-overs. You can't talk your way out of it, or is there a second chance. One life is all you get. Similarly unlike the tension of a heated battle, the threat to life is much more spontaneous and visceral; In a fight scene someone can land a punch but you expect the other to retaliate. But in death games, a snap of a finger may be all that it takes. Even on the thematic lens, death games are palpable. Not everyone can relate to having your life threaten or to be a threat to other lives, but everyone can understand the significance of those moral dilemmas. After all, the weight of human life is engraved into our bones, biologically and societally.  Once you add up the permanence, spontaneity and palpability of death games, what you get is a seemingly perfect story. One whereby your audience can be expected to be at the edge of their seats every second. However, us aud

Mizuho is best girl -- That is all that is necessary to be said in my intro this week. Disclaimer: There are two essays preceding this; Just like how the show has built upon itself each episode, my essays thus have ideas that are built upon one another as well that can add a lot of context-flavor. However, since this runs the risk of reading fatigue, I will instead just summarized each of them and leave the final decision to you.  The Human Sandbox (Episode 1): https://zxcaderu.blogspot.com/2021/07/sonny-boy-human-sandbox.html This essay takes an in-depth view on a concept I coined, the 'human sandbox'. It is an analysis focused around how the show's structure and premise removes all sense of survival-concepts and societal associations. This is done so to establish our characters not as human-beings but as a pure manifestation of 'concepts', ideas that the show writers are much more excited to explore. It is also a lot more technique-based, using interesting techniq