[Script] Citrus: The Most Disappointing Yuri Anime in a Long Time

I want to start things off by making it clear that I don’t think Citrus is an awful anime or manga. I really don’t hate it at all. This is not going to be a video where I simply attack the show the entire time. This thing primarily exists because people asked for it and because it would be hard not to cover it given my incredibly strong yuri focus. Reading the first 10 or so chapters as they came out served as an important moment in my development as a yuri fan. Just two months ago, when I caught up on the manga for the sake of being fully educated before making this video, I ended up really liking the direction it went after expecting that I would hate it. My feelings on Citrus are not negative as a whole, not at all. If anything, they’re mixed, leaning positive, particularly when you take the manga into account. However, I do feel that Citrus is massively disappointing, more than any series I can think of in recent memory.

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[Script] The Politics of Gatchaman Crowds

Gatchaman Crowds is a very interesting anime. For one thing, it stands out among most shows that air in a given year, not only having political dimensions to it but actively attempting to say something about the world and how it’s shaped by people as political actors. It uses the framework of a tokusatsu-esque hero show to question what heroism really means, how much power individual people could have and should have, and the ways that technology will inevitably shift democracy and the way we interact with the broader world. These aren’t ideas anime has never explored before, but the way it does so is unique, and even doing so is pretty uncommon in the first place.

[Script] The Most Disastrous Anime of Winter 2018

I feel like, in general, my taste leans towards valuing writing over production. That’s not to say I don’t care about production of course. Just a month or so ago I put out a video on why Violet Evergarden’s production makes it a pretty great show. How a show looks and feels is obviously something important to me. But a glance at my favorites will indicate that the writing, especially the character writing, is really what I’m looking for in the average anime.

[Script] The Rise of Yuri Fandom with Sailor Moon

In my last video on the history of the yuri genre, I left off in the early-to-mid 70s, where Class-S and the Year 24 Group had led to the creation of a new genre. At the time, it was mostly seen as nothing more than a certain form of shoujo manga and hardly had widespread recognition. Today, it’s time to look at where the name yuri came from, how the genre spread to other audiences, and how it became an entrenched part of otaku culture.

[Script] Is the K-On! Movie Just a Rehash?

At this point, everyone loves K-On! That might be a bit of an exaggeration of course, but gone are the days where it spelled the death of the anime industry, the proof of “moe’s” imminent takeover. Nowadays, it’s pretty well-regarded in more critical circles and for good reason.