April 2021 Monthly Favorites

Welcome back to my humble monthly feature of content from everyone but me! This month has a pretty solid stack from all the usually places, and even more! Let’s not beat too long around the bush, and just dive right on in!

Firstly, is the very interesting world of Anime/Anime-Inspired tattoos. Tattoos and fans of anime who have them are for sure on the rise. It can be pretty daunting to find an artist that 1) knows what you’re talking about and 2) can render your favorite character on your body, forever, incredbily well. It also helps that both Courtney Raimondi, and Kimberly Graziano the tattoo artists featured are engaging and entertaining to watch. Of course, their art rendered on skin is striking as well!

Anime

Kicking off this section is a difficult, but important blog post I really encourage everyone to give a look. From Shuu’s Wonderland we have, “Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice) in the Eyes of a Physically Disabled Bully Victim“. Because wow, I am very much the person who only heaped praises on this series and managed to ignore the truly horrible parts especially since I don’t have the perspective Shuu has. Of all the blogs I am featuring this month, this is the must-read folks.

Next we have food for thought since I never really connected any dots the way that planet Jane has with “Becoming The Battle Girl: How The 2010s Transformed The Magic in Magical Girl Anime“. Seeing their timeline of events and examples, it truly is interesting to see how Magical Girl’s have transformed over the years and now have more weapons and plotlines at their disposable aside from friendship and transformation scenes.

Manga

Well, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve cracked open some new manga (I have a lot unread on my shelves currently). But I might have to hunt down a few more thanks to the following two posts. First up is I Drink and Watch Anime “The Witch and The Beast – Manga First Impression“. It’s got that style of art that’s right up my alley, so… it’s on my never ending plan-to-read list. Give this a read and see if it ends up on yours!

“Yakuza Lover: Volume 1 – A Chance Meeting” is actually a series I originally put on my plan-to-read, only to take it off because I couldn’t remember why it had gotten on there. However, thanks to Scott’s review linked above I have re-committed to putting this on my list!

Dramas and Movies

Ahh, this next one hits close to home. Especially after the events I’ve experienced this past month. That’s a story for another day. From, Should You Watch This Movie? “Departures / おくりびと” is a short but succinct review of one of the best Japanese films from 2008. It can be hard to watch a film about death and dying in times like these, but I swear that this film will make you oddly calm or at least help your process it all.

On the flip side from blogger, letters to the future is “asadake: give me a film about photographs and i might just cry“. I’m so glad other’s have been able to see this. It’s one of my favorite films from 2020, and I hope letters to the future’s review convinces you to give this film a chance if you have the opportunity!

Music

From Hallyureviews we have “ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: JO1, A Japanese Produce-Made Act Giving Us Top Quality Music“. I’m not familiar with any competition/survival project, it’s always interesting to see how the international audiences see them. For anyone in the JPop sphere it’s worth taking a look and seeing where JO1 has landed since they’re definitely impacting the scene.

“Can We Call Them Metal Now?: BAND-MAID — Unseen World Album Review” from Weeb Revues, makes a good point. When does JRock shift into JMetal? Where does BAND-MAID land in that bubble? I can’t answer these questions, but both Weeb Revues and I agree it doesn’t really matter since the new stuff is so good.

As soon as I saw the title, I knew it would be in this feature. I’m talking about Zuihitsu’s blog, “DIV – SEASONS Translation“. One of my favorite bands of all time, with a new look at the lyrics, deserves to be noticed. (Also, make sure to peek the MV as well.)

Others/Bonus

It’s always important to get ahead of something before it becomes a problem. Sometimes it doesn’t occur to you that something terrible could happen to you. So we’re lucky that Crow’s World of Anime has us covered with “Recover from a WordPress Hack – Blog Shop Talk“. Be sure to give it a read and save it somewhere because you never know when you’ll need this info!

So this is the second time I’ve feature the Youtube channel In Praise of Shadows; if you have not clicked yet you should. Especially since Homunculus the live-action film adaptation hit Netflix earlier this month. This deep-dive into the source material will really clarify anything missing, and will convince you to get your hands on the manga.

That’s all for now! I’ll see you at my usual time and place now that I’m back to blogging. See you at the next Monthly Favorites and beyond!

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