Thanks for a thoughtful response! I must admit I have seen very little of Von Trier’s work, mostly because I’m not a big fan of hopelessness as an aesthetic. That being said, I do believe that nihilism can be used as the basis for great art. But one of the most important things in creating a story that delivers a…

Is anybody else feeling like Marvel is going to do a really solid version of a Green Lantern story before DC ever gets the chance? Dying alien hands off incredible power to a human who takes his uniform and inherits his mission, yada yada. It’d be more on-the-nose if it was the Nova Corps, but to the average viewer…

Naruto’s tech level was never what you’d call consistent. It always had the feel of feudal Japan, but at the same time would occasionally throw in modern photography/cameras, movies/movie theaters, computers, advanced crime labs & forensic science, radios, and other stuff.

The problem the show has is that the first part - “the punishment for callousness” - is contradicted by the second part - “the sad lives people lead.” Every time a character chooses empathy, they are punished for it. All the most empathetic, open-hearted, and kind people in the show suffer the worst punishments of…

I don’t know why pirate puns are always so much fun. I guess they just arrr.

It’s also another counterpoint to the “devilmen = misunderstood outsiders” narrative. If the devilmen represent, say, LGBT people, well... they have literal demons inside them, and if they aren’t “good enough people,” they eat their own family and have no power to stop it. That isn’t being misunderstood, it’s being…

I know that’s probably what they meant to do, using the devilmen as a metaphor for outsider groups enduring hatred and bigotry for being different. But in this metaphor, is humans are humans and devilmen are the minority groups, what are the demons? Devilmen are people with demons inside them who temper (mostly...)…

That’s a solid analysis, and I could certainly see it as the intent of the piece, but that intention is undercut by how it uses the theme of the need for empathy. There are a few key moments when characters use (or attempt to use) empathy or emotional vulnerability as tools to de-escalate violence and create positive…

Exactly! This is exactly what I mean when I say the show undercuts its own themes and symbols. One minute it’s setting up potentially powerful metaphors or giving us what feels like the start of genuine emotional resonance... then it immediately demolishes any meaning it was building by introducing more brutality and…

There was no forgiveness of or by humanity in this anime. Ryo was a brutal, vicious monster who didn’t even truly regret killing Akira, the only single being in all of existence he was capable of feeling even a minor moment of emotion toward. He never truly cared about Akira other than as a pawn, and had only a…

Come on, now - “Masterpiece?” Really? Devilman was, at best, the equivalent of somebody who took a freshman-level philosophy course, understood some of it, and now loves pretentiously showing how “deep” they are. It makes attempts at symbolism and metaphor, but undermines every symbol it tries to evoke with its…

It’s an artifact of male-dominated societies. Their belief was men are stronger and more dominant because they’re less “emotional” and can therefore think more clearly and rationally. Women are controlled by their emotions, but that makes them good caregivers. Therefore, women should be in charge of children and the…

Certainly not with an attitude like that, my friend. Look at it like this - what’s the worst thing that could happen by chilling out a little bit and trading hostility for positive engagement? What do you lose if you let go of the anger? You’re arguing for something that’s good and helpful and I wish more people would…

What’s more important: catharsis or building a consensus that actually gets you what you want? ;)

Look, brother, this is a case where you’re not wrong, but you could frame your argument in a less confrontational way.

+1 for reading Seanbaby in college. His treatises on both Superfriends and Mega Man got me through some hard (re: boring) times.

I was that guy up until a few years ago. I thought this was what HDTV was, because every person’s house I went to had it turned on and didn’t know about it. I’d watch TV on these screens and want to scream, wondering how the hell anybody thought this was an upgrade when it ruined everything you played on it.

I’ve watched episodes of anime at higher speed - I found 1.25x to be the sweet spot, most times - but it’s a wholly different reason: To make action more intense in drawn-out storylines. First discovered the trick in the beginning of Naruto Shippuden, but it works elsewhere. If they’re going to take 2-3 episodes worth…

If I had my way, Marvel never would’ve gotten these rights back. If Marvel had the X-Men and Spidey rights from the beginning, we never would’ve gotten Guardians of the Galaxy. We never would’ve gotten Thor. Probably only one Iron Man movie, maaaybe more for Cap. Can you imagine a world where Marvel was making all the…

So is any mechanical construction process, building or maintaining cars for example. There may be more or less steps, but it all breaks down to “order parts, assemble” if you want to be reductive about it.