Category: Editorials

May’s Final Denouement: How it should have ended.

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Warning: I am talking about the endings of Mitsuru Adachi’s Touch and Cross Game in this post.


hisuiconAs many other surely do, whenever I read a manga or watch an anime I have a habit of trying to predict where the story is going and how it will end. I like to see how in tune I am with the authors train of thought. This on rare occasion can lead me to coming up with a better ending than the one I was presented with in the original story. I do not want to come off as though the ending of Cross Game was not excellent. I just feel that there were important loose ends that were never answered that the version in my head addressed.

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Learning about humanity through the inhuman.

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There is no doubt that Mushishi is a magical read, and I’m not just talking about the supernatural subject matter, but rather the skilled storytelling that bellies bits of wisdom and beauty in each chapter. The world created is so rich it becomes alive each time you open the book. Examination on a chapter by chapter basis can reveal human nature, the strength and weakness present in all people, and the thrill of discovery. Ginko is the perfect person to tell us these stories because he is as curious as the reader in what these beings called Mushi will reveal.

hisuiconIn magical theory there the concepts of sympathetic and antipathetic magic. Sympathetic magic is the idea that you use things that are similar to cast a spell because their correspondence enhances the spell. A voodoo doll works because  it looks like a human and it has pieces of the subject to create a link between the two. The concept of antipathetic magic says that things of opposing nature can be used to create just as effective a result. Antipathetic magic would use the trappings of the dead to bring something back to life. In a similar fashion, Mushishi uses two life forms that are on opposite ends of the spectrum to show us more about the human condition.

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All is NOT fair in love.

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SPOLIERS FOR DURARARA!! EPS. 1-14

Durarara!! is a show chockfull of strange, unhealthy, and sometimes downright disturbing relationships. The show just gets stranger and stranger, but today’s focus is on Shinra and Celty. Many find these two to be ever so cute together, but from the moment Shinra appeared on my screen, I was suspicious of him. As with so many other things in Durarara!! I had a feeling something just wasn’t right. However even as more is revealed others seem to view Shinra very differently than me and Hisui.

The thing in Durarara!! that really gets to me is not the strange or broken relationships. It is exactly like Narutkai said, I it find odd that Shinra gets a free pass. While no one would say that Seiji and Mika’s relationship is healthy there is a near universal approval for Shinra and Celty’s relationship. The first is obviously dark, grim, and clearly sickly while the other one has a lighthearted coating which makes people overlook its rotten core. Our purpose there is to examine Shinra’s actions and show that his motives are not as pure as you might first think.

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