What Was Up with Anime in 2024: A Record

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Has it really been almost a year since my last post on the blog? How time flies! At least this year it didn’t take me until February to do my yearly recap. Every year I say, “I’m going to do more blog posts this year,” and while I didn’t do that in 2024, the silver lining is that I did write a book! A light novel (sort of) to be exact. Forgive me if I make a promise to write a blog post about that experience, as we all know how blog post promises go…

Anyways. Anime! I really liked that the 2023 edition of this post ranked everything I watched (from this year and not), so we’re bringing back the format for 2024. Hope you enjoy!

Completed Shows | Rewatches | Unfinished

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Every Anime I Watched in 2023 and What I Thought about Them

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Over the years, these year-end wrap-up posts have taken a variety of shapes and forms. In the past, I’ve enjoyed making list of my top shows of the year. But in a year where few airing television anime really moved me, I thought I’d forgo that formality by telling you all 28 (more or less) new things I watched in order to provide a more thorough chronicle of my anime-watching activities.

Hopefully it’s enjoyable and not too tedious!

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Great Escapes: A Fond Look at Makoto Shinkai’s Disaster Film Triology

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As sometimes happens on Discord, instead of Twitter, these days, I was talking with some friends about Makoto Shinkai, director of smash-hit Your Name., regular-hit Tenki no Ko, and not-really-a-hit Suzume. It reminded me that I’ve never really set down my thoughts on the three films, nor on Shinkai’s evolution since he made a it big.

And, hey! Suzume released this year (2023) in the states so this is still timely! Right?

Suzume

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Who Will (and Won’t) Trust Jujutsu Kaisen after Episode 43?

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Before you begin to read, please allow me to inform you that there are spoilers ahead for the anime adaptation of Jujutsu Kaisen up to episode 43. I tell you this because, unlike the lawless land of Twitter where the social contract of posting about weekly shows with some semblance of awareness that many people have lives and can’t watch new episodes immediately when they come out has been left in tatters by the need to chase clout, this blog values preserving your individual experience with a show.

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Is “Bocchi the Rock!” Mean to Bocchi?

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Something I’ve been considering almost since the start of Bocchi the Rock! is the central source of the show’s comedy and how that intersects with a compassionate understanding of mental health. Whenever you have a story that wants to mine a character’s struggles (in whatever form) for laughs, inevitably it raises the question of whether the humor is coming from a place of understanding or cruelty.

And thus, the question: Is Bocchi the Rock! mean to Bocchi?

Bocchi the Rock! OP
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