The Trouble with Focusing on Media in the Digital Age

Fellow blogger Thoughts That Move recently put out an article describing how hard it is for him to choose media in an environment that bombards him with it from every direction. It’s a problem I share to some extent: there’s just too many things I want to do, too many works I want to get around to. I’m not very old, so I assume I’ve got plenty of time left on this planet, and yet I know that I’ll never be able to consume all the media I’m currently interested in, and the amount of interesting media increases by the day.

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My Shifting Perception of Serial Experiments Lain

Lain is a series that I primarily remember for its mood. Lain is very dark and very lonely, and at one point that was something I could heavily relate to. Paranoia jumps out at you from the unnervingly large shadows, while Lain’s social ostracization leads to little dialogue and therefore little sense of safety. From the beginning it’s clear that Lain can’t really make human connections, and that leaves her feeling fairly depressed. This depression is reflected across the entire show, and it’s something that was once incredibly comforting.

Why Anime First Appealed to Me, and why I Still Watch it

As of this Spring season I’ve been an active part of the anime community for four years, and I’ve been a knowing fan of anime for around five. At this point anime seems less like an ordinary hobby I could eventually drop, and more like a permanent fixture of my life. I’ve started putting some thought into why that is, and I’ve come up with some interesting ideas. My reasons for watching have shifted a lot over the years, and I’m sure they’ll shift more in the future, but I think all those reasons are worth exploring.