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Swampcon was an interesting experience. I went on Saturday afternoon with my friend, and we stayed there a couple of hours. When we got there, I was extremely surprised by how many were there. This was my first time attending a convention, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. There were a lot of people in really detailed and accurate cosplay of various characters. My favorite one was easily anyone cosplaying as the angel devil from Chainsaw Man (easily best character sorry). Also really loved all of the kurapika cosplayers. There were so many people cosplaying there that I almost felt out of place with my tshirt and shorts. As we talked about during our discussion of Genshiken: they take fiction that it our there and transform it into fiction that is theirs alone. Through this medium of fan culture, people were brought together to share their interests in various types of media.

I wasn’t able to go to the panels that I really wanted to go to since I woke up late. However, I was able to go to “How to get a rizztraining order” and it was something !!! First off, I really enjoyed this panel and how hilarious it was, but it really showcased how many creeps are out there. This panel showed different instances of men leaving gross and inappropriate comments on cosplayer’s pages and messages. Unfortunately, this side of the fandom is the one that gets the most attention from those outsides of this fandom. I know before getting into anime, I was (unfortunately) someone who was predisposed against it just because of weirdos like them, who end up tainting society’s perception of fandom.

This was sadly the only panel I was able to attend, but I still had an amazing time at the vendor corner. I’ll be honest and say I am the craziest shopaholic. I am always buying the most random and unnecessary things online or at target, so I knew it was going to be hard to resist buying stuff at Swampcon. Thankfully, I was there with my friend, and he was my voice of reason, so I ended up only spending $15 on a Cinnamoroll headband and got gifted Kirby earrings :D I loved seeing all of the different prints, charms, stickers, and figures that were on display. TBH I almost caved and bought a $250 Mikasa figurine because she solos. Seeing so many different types of products really made me realize how big consumer culture is. Fandom is an example of unofficial culture capital. We all buy these little fun or cute objects that don’t really translate into any economic benefits. We buy them because they make us happy and we can show these items to others that also enjoy them. These little (but very expensive) items bring us so much joy because it materializes fictional characters that we all enjoy and love. I like to think that I have some self control when it comes to fandom consumer culture, but then again I do have a full drawer full of anime shirts and a whole shelf with manga and small anime figures. :/

This was my second time watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. Gonna be honest, the first time I only watched like 4 episodes because I wasn’t really into it. Upon rewatch, it grew on me a little more, and hopefully things pick up because I would love to keep watching this highly loved anime.

The anime starts off with teenage protagonist Shinji. We see him all alone with no guardian as Earth starts to be attacked by angels. Misato comes and picks him up and takes him away to NERV, an organization led by Shinji’s (very absent) father that creates huge robots. We see Shinji looking forward to finally seeing his dad after such a long time, but the reunion isn’t as happy as he had pictured it. His father barely even greeted him, and instead was immediately giving him orders to get inside the robot. I can only imagine how bad Shinji felt about his dad being distant his whole life then not caring about seeing him.

Throughout these first few episodes we see Shinji struggle with his fear and lack of confidence in himself. After his first time going into a fight, he was extremely resistant to doing it again (understandably). However, he is faced with a moral dilemma because he is the only one capable of fighting and people will die if he doesn’t.

This is not at all what I expected. I have never heard of this anime, so when I first pulled it up on Netflix, the cartoony animation caught me off guard. I’m a huge fan of slice-of-life anime and this one was enjoyable. It follows the life of the red panda Aggretsuko and her daily struggles with work and her guilty pleasure of death metal.

I like how there were many relatable aspects in this show, like the being the new guy, the terrible boss, or the little work crush. However, the most recurring theme is hiding your true self. Aggretsuko faces so many challenges at work, yet she is able to stay sane by going to karaoke by herself and blow off some steam with death metal. At the beginning nobody knows of her secret (except for the karaoke place employees) and Aggretsuko seems embarrassed about her happy place. This is something that’s relatable to a lot ol us, where we are hesitant to talk about our interests with others, in fear of being judged or looked down on.

My favorite characters have to be Gori and Washimi. The way the present themselves is so badass, but behind closed doors we see that they are normal people like everyone else. They have a great dynamic with Gori being more talkative and emotional and Washimi being the calm and rational one. I love how immediately accepting they were of Aggretsuko’s hobby and even tried to learn how she does it. This was such as heart-warming moment that was the spark for Aggretsuko to be more like herself infront of others.

This was my first time ever watching Sailor Moon. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, mainly because it was funnier than I expected. I’m such a fan of the 90s anime art style and all the fun different character designs.  

This show shows middle schooler Usagi and her becoming Sailor Moon. By the end of the first episode, she had already acquired her powers from her talking cat Luna. By the end of the first episode, we see very clear themes of power. The monster pretending to be Naru’s mother, along with the blonde man, was trying to steal the life/energy of innocent people. They keep coming up with elaborate plans, like creating fake fortune tellers, to steal these powers, which shows the extent they are willing to go.  

An episode I really wanted to focus on is episode 4. It starts off with Usagi crying because she had gained some weight, despite looking the same. I was expecting her friends and family to help her feel better, but instead they were somewhat bringing her down and agreeing she put on some weight and that she should take care of it. This reminded me of real-world societal beauty standards that women are expected to keep up with. The only person who was reassuring to Usagi was my king Motoki.  

In episode eight, we are introduced to Sailor Mercury. Before acquiring her powers, we see she is a hardworking, always studying student that is weighed down by this constant need to be academically perfect, since it's all she sees herself being good at. I look forward to seeing both Moon and Mercury working together in the future! 

This anime is pretty solid so far. I have heard a bit of Gundam, specifically the newer stuff. I was a bit confused after skipping 6 episodes, so I'll mainly focus on the first two!

This anime starts off with the citizens having to evacuate because of the war. We later see the city get shot at and Frow's family was killed right in front of her. Seeing her go hysterical about this was really sad but the way she was able to quickly get herself together and help others get to safety is really admirable. Amuro is an interesting main character who isn't afraid to take risks. He didn't hesitate to jump into the Gundam. Watching this scene play out reminded me a lot of the first few episodes of Evangelion since both Shinji and Amuro are teens who have piloted robots in a war. I decided to search up if anyone else noticed these similarities and I ended up finding out that Gundam is actually one of the main inspirations for Evangelion.

[Why do fireflies have to die so soon?]

Typing this and my eyes burn from crying so much </3

I knew what I was getting myself into with this film, but geez I didn't think I would be crying 20 minutes in. The journey of Seita and Setsuko was such a sad one to sit through. Seeing them deal with war, death, hunger, and illness was just so heartbreaking.

Something that I would really like to focus on is Seita's strength. Despite every obstacle that came his way, he was able to push forward and survive. Very similar to Gen from the previous film, Seita had to remain strong in order to take care of his family. When his mother died, he didn't allow himself to cry in order to prevent Setsuko from finding out. He carried her around everywhere and his top priority was her happiness and well-being. Seita is the epitome of a perfect older brother. Even when he was tired and didn't feel the best, he did what he could to bring food home. Seita took care of Setsuko, but there was nobody to take care of him. Every day, he had to push forward and do what he needed to.

When Setsuko died, I was completely shattered. I felt so awful for Seita, who had now lost all of his family. His family was the only reason he was able to get up every day and put food on the table. As we see at the beginning of the film, Seita dies as well presumably not too long after Setsuko.

This movie goes to show the struggles faced by innocent civilians during a time of war. Seita and Setsuko's story was one full of hardships, which inevitably led to their deaths. Despite everything, Japan still surrendered and lost the war. All of these deaths were in vain and could've been prevented if a more desirable outcome had happened sooner.

[Take a good look around, little one. Look closely, you see? This is the war that killed your father. Remember it.]

Barefoot Gen was a lot darker than I expected from the very childish animation. It starts off with the Nakaoka family and the hardships they had been facing during World War II. They were a family of 5, going on 6, living off of scraps and rations. During all of this, they were also living in fear of a bombing from the U.S. The alarms were constantly going off and they had to hide in bunkers, nothing ever happened. However, one day the alarms didn’t go off on the day of an actual attack. This scene was extremely hard to sit through. The way everyone just slowly disintegrated and blew up left my jaw dropped. The seemingly innocent vibe of the art style managed to capture the gruesomeness perfectly and leaves the audience in shock. Seeing the baby and the dog burn was hard enough but then we had to see Shinji, Eiko, and the father burn to death in front of Gen and the mother. This movie really showcases the importance of family and the struggle of the loss of loved ones. This movie emphasizes the problems of war and how it affects everyday civilians. As we all know, war is an awful thing with detrimental effects on everyone around. I really admire how strong Gen was able to stay throughout the film because I don’t think many others would’ve had the strength to carry on as he did.

The film also shows that war has everlasting side effects. Thousands of people who miraculously survived the bombing were soon to meet death with all of the injuries they had. Seeing the maggots crawling around INSIDE their skin really sent shivers down my spine. Despite surviving the attack, these people, ended up dying from injuries, infections, or illnesses like leukemia.

[This is... the center of the world?]

For starters, this is a really nice change of pace from the last two anime we have watched! Sure it can still have its dark subjects, but I really like how funny it can be at many times. I love Akira and Saki's relationship so far and I'm 100% rooting for them.

Akira has lost all his memories and was stuck with a Jarvis-level phone and about 8 billion yen. Saki is a college senior who has been traveling and is in the middle of trying to score a job. Akira is trying to figure out how and why he has all this money, and he soon figures out it's to "create a better world". Those who have received this task can all agree that this is not enough money to make any real change in this world. Akira recognizes that in order for something to actually be done, the money would have to be given to someone who is already in a position of power.

Saki is a college senior who has been traveling and is in the middle of trying to score a job. During her visit to New York City, she decides to ditch the group at the end and go to what she calls "the center of the world", The White House. This struck me as pretty odd as to how the home of the president would be considered as the center of the world.

[We have to change our way of thinking, if we really want to change the future]

Overall a very interesting and thought-provoking anime! I went back and read the summaries of all the episodes I skipped and it actually made somewhat sense!

First things first, in episode 15 there was some messed up takeover of power. In the colony, the queen was overthrown by Squealer. However, this new form of government is built on the premise that they have to overtake other places in order to expand. The name Robber Fly just puts emphasis that they have to go around robbing the freedom of others for their own personal growth and benefit.

In episode 21, it touches on the topic of identity and discrimination, which are two very prevalent topics in the real world. The child of Maria and Mamoru had been brought up as a queerat. To me, this brought up the idea that it is really easy to manipulate and take advantage of someone into whatever you need them to be. Given that it was such a young child, it easily followed Squeler's order as long as he provides them with biological necessities. This brings up the idea in this world about what defines whether or not you're human. Just because something looks different from us means they are below us? I see where Squealer is coming from, but the way they went about it was extreme, much like Makishima in Psycho-Pass.

In the end, Saki and Satoru get married and she has come to accept everything that has happened. Saki represents hope. Despite everything that she had gone through, she was able to push forward and hope for a better society in the future.

[A chain always breaks at the weakest link.]

Honestly, I am mad confused. This post is mainly going to focus on the first two episodes since I was just completely lost by the time I had to skip to episode 12.

Going into this anime blindly, by the animation, it seemed like a sweet slice of life that would focus on the power of growth and friendship like "A Place Further Than the Universe" but boy was I wrong. Right off the bat, there's just a crazy amount of gore with students being killed in awful ways. However, the first three minutes of episode 1 have got to be some of the most beautiful and intricate animations I've ever seen. The eerieness yet calmness of these first few minutes immediately got me hooked onto the show.

Saki is the odd one out in her group since she was the last one to move up to Sage Academy. When the conversation of the Copycat is brought up, I immediately assumed it is some joke that is passed around by the students to scare the others. However, seeing Saki's memory with the Copycat was definitely disturbing. This seems to have to do with something about altering memories which is the basis of the system in place.

So obviously a bunch of stuff went down before episode 12, but I noticed that there is something called the "Personality Index" which is a number that measures one's traits and how stable they are. This immediately reminded me of "Psycho-Pass" with the crime coefficient. With just this connection, I can get a feel of what I had missed in the episodes I had skipped. This seems to be a society that crazy heavily monitors everyone's activity, and if it isn't up to standard then you kick the bucket or something.

[Just like a rat, I live by sneaking and hiding and you're a disposable hunting dog who has a collar put on.]

Damn, RIP T_T

Didn't think this show could get much darker, but it did! It was definitely painful to watch a woman get bashed to death for a minute. The way that everyone was just standing there just emphasizes how much everyone is used to the Sibyl System. They all stood there like a bunch of deer in headlights because never would they think something so awful could happen right in front of them. This event really stood out to me because it shows how this system has basically erased people's ideas of ethics or morality and basically replaced it with a number that determines good or bad. These people had become so accustomed to their "perfect" society that they have forgotten how to think for themselves. They expect this system to protect them which has recently done everything but that, due to Makishima's actions. Seeing other characters, like Akane facing this same struggle in episode 16. just goes to show how messed up this system has made everyone's ideals.

However, some of Makishima's ideas make sense. He wants others to see just how flawed the Sibyl System is. Sure, the way he goes about it is extreme, but also it is the only way for others to see his vision. He doesn't support this system that discourages free will. This show shows that often most of the choices we make each day are already decided for us before we even get to think about it. Makishima is a really smart character that is playing the necessary evil in this society.