Last year was the discovery that anime had become high art. I think it was the fall season of 2016 I first encountered Oregairu, which utterly transfixed me. Then followed gems like Steins;Gate, Shinsekai Yori, Hyouka, Re:Zero, Garden of Words, and Monogatari. Oregairu is currently battling it out with Evangelion (Episode 2.8 might be worth most, if not all, of Eva) for my #1 spot, with Shinsekai Yori and Hyouka right behind it, and it was the first series to inspire me to cover each and every episode.
But now that I've finished writing about the finale, I feel a bit restless. I have a list of some thirty more series that look promising, but I don't want to stop writing, either. I could do more character sketches, and go into Hachiman, Yui, Yukino, and Haruno's characters again, from the perspective of the entire series, but I think I'll give Oregairu a rest for the time being. Also, this is my second year (out of ten) in what I'm calling my self-directed apprenticeship of preparation for eventual contribution to the intellectual/artistic/spiritual life as a whole, so reflecting about art in the media of anime and video games will play a distinct role in that, and I should think about what that is.
Thus, I probably won't cover another anime run in the way I did Oregairu, but I might well cover individual arcs at a time instead (e.g. Tsubasa Tiger from Monogatari), especially those which let you know a character inside and out - and I might even cover standalone episodes that intensely, beautifully depict forms of love: family love in Clannad 2.18, and romantic love in Re:Zero 18 (and I'm still hunting for a beautiful, transcendent depiction of friendship in art). Posts on Breath of the Wild and The Last of Us are probably forthcoming as well.
What captivates me has always been beauty: beauty in the art i.e. photography of anime, music, and writing. I want to be able to speak about the why something is beautiful, whether an image or a deed, and explain, at least to myself, why it is so moving, or why a character seems so real it helps me understand myself and other people; and when you can really understand someone inside out, loving them often becomes almost effortless.
Speaking of beauty, there is sometimes beauty - awful, heart-rending beauty - in tragedy, so I might actually start writing on either the arcs or characters of White Album 2. That series had one of the most devastating turns I've ever seen, accompanied with an understanding, empathetic eye for each of the three main characters. No antagonist, no enemy, just three people fully realized, and complicated enough to make it a pleasure to try and understand them.
But now that I've finished writing about the finale, I feel a bit restless. I have a list of some thirty more series that look promising, but I don't want to stop writing, either. I could do more character sketches, and go into Hachiman, Yui, Yukino, and Haruno's characters again, from the perspective of the entire series, but I think I'll give Oregairu a rest for the time being. Also, this is my second year (out of ten) in what I'm calling my self-directed apprenticeship of preparation for eventual contribution to the intellectual/artistic/spiritual life as a whole, so reflecting about art in the media of anime and video games will play a distinct role in that, and I should think about what that is.
Thus, I probably won't cover another anime run in the way I did Oregairu, but I might well cover individual arcs at a time instead (e.g. Tsubasa Tiger from Monogatari), especially those which let you know a character inside and out - and I might even cover standalone episodes that intensely, beautifully depict forms of love: family love in Clannad 2.18, and romantic love in Re:Zero 18 (and I'm still hunting for a beautiful, transcendent depiction of friendship in art). Posts on Breath of the Wild and The Last of Us are probably forthcoming as well.
What captivates me has always been beauty: beauty in the art i.e. photography of anime, music, and writing. I want to be able to speak about the why something is beautiful, whether an image or a deed, and explain, at least to myself, why it is so moving, or why a character seems so real it helps me understand myself and other people; and when you can really understand someone inside out, loving them often becomes almost effortless.
Speaking of beauty, there is sometimes beauty - awful, heart-rending beauty - in tragedy, so I might actually start writing on either the arcs or characters of White Album 2. That series had one of the most devastating turns I've ever seen, accompanied with an understanding, empathetic eye for each of the three main characters. No antagonist, no enemy, just three people fully realized, and complicated enough to make it a pleasure to try and understand them.
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