Tag: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Our 7 Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Series

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Narutaki and I mainly made it out of Hurricane Sandy relatively unscathed. We were far from the flood zone and the worst thing that happened to us was we losing power for a few hours. But since then my life has changed. My commute was a nightmare the week after the disaster and since then my job has radially changed. Sometimes just because you are not hit by the disaster does not mean you are not effected by it. And so it got the both of us thinking quite a bit about disasters at the end of the world. Therefore we thought we would write-up a little list of anime that deal with what happens to the survivors after the world ends.

With all the devastation in New York and New Jersey, it is no wonder the apocalypse has been a topic of discussion. Making it through is surreal with things you’ve seen in fiction happening on the news. Coming out unscathed just means you try to help those that weren’t as lucky. And things are still not back on track in the region and won’t be for a long time to come. Thankfully things didn’t turn into any of the scenarios below.

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Anime 101

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There was a formspring question a while back about what anime you would show a class, we liked it so we expanded it into a little post. Imagine you are a professor. You have students who have anime studies as a major. What titles should they be familiar with in their first year that introduces them to the major? Lists like this are never really complete especially when working in some sort of restriction like our 10 TV series and 5 movies but there is only so much time in a semester. It also becomes more difficult as the years go by and more and more shows are produced. But you can still attempt a good foundation. It is important to note that not all of these titles are necessarily the best representations of their genre. Titles were often picked because it helped show the full range of what anime has to offer more than being the pinnacle. The shows here are meant to show what anime can produce in order to help the student decide where they want to focus their studies. So here’s what we thought of, what would be on your list?

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Ode to Broken Things

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If your anything like me you have found yourself dissecting your choices in entertainment and what they mean about you. I occasionally sit back and wonder why I truly enjoy the things I truly enjoy. During these examinations I have come to one major conclusion. The artists and works I usually like the most are usually very flawed. I loved Kinoko Nasu, Rumiko Takahashi, and Yoshiyuki Tomino but they are all idiosyncratic artists with highly imperfect works under their belt. This realization lead me to another even more shocking revelation.  All the most influential works in a genre are not the masterworks but flawed works. All the shows that define radical shifts are often riddled with major flaws but are inspiring despite that fact.

Flawed works are sometimes the most special of all; they are chance taking stories that don’t quite have all the details worked out. When breaking new ground it is no surprise when one gets lost along the way. This can occur in many different facets from having the amount of episodes suddenly shortened due to low-ratings or lulls in the middle of the story as they try to stretch or even extraneous characters taking up too much time. But these are also stories that surprise you with their decisions and that’s a most powerful and memorable reaction.

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