Full of Bias

K-On is a series full of hilarious and emotional episodes, memorable for a whole host of reasons. But quietly laying among its most amusing sitcom hijinks and its most emotional dramatic high points, lies an episode that, in my opinion, goes severely overlooked as one of the series most interesting and well crafted. The episode in question is 16 of the second season, titled "Upperclassmen," an episode that is low on drama and isn't particularly comedic, and thus tends to get overlooked. But I truly believe that it's one of the most important and interesting episodes in the series, not only playing a big role in Azusa's character arc but also being structured and shot in a very intentional and clever way. So no flowery fanfare for this one, I want to dig in to K-On!! episode 16 (directed and storyboarded by Noriko Takao), and try to get across why I consider it to be one of the most underappreciated episodes of the series.  First, I want to establish a bit of set-u...

 With the generation 9 Pokémon games on the horizon, I've been thinking a lot about the 8th generation that's about to end. Pokémon has always had its ups and downs as a franchise, but the 8th generation games Sword and Shield seem to be among the most contentious and divisive in the series. Personally though, I thoroughly enjoyed Sword and Shield, pretty much the same amount as I've enjoyed every other main series Pokémon game not named Black and White (or B/W 2). In spite of some steps taken backwards and some very awkward choices, the games go in a direction narratively that I feel really works for the series. It tells a smaller stakes character driven story that works, and though its attempts at experimentation didn't completely enrapture me, they still added a lot to my experience of the game. This seems to be a bit of a hot take though, so I want to take this opportunity to highlight two aspects of Sword and Shield that really aided my enjoyment of the game, that ...

After a pretty mediocre Winter anime season, this Spring season seems like it's looking strong. So as always, I'll be trying out just about everything, giving my thoughts, and ranking each premiere. These thoughts don't represent any overall opinions on the shows, simply my first impressions of them after one episode. I will by trying out all new shows, as well as sequels to shows that I have already seen previous seasons of. I will not be including sequels of shows I never finished (Shield Hero, Komi-san, etc.), I will not be including spin-offs of series I'm unfamiliar with (specifically for Black Rock Shooter and Detective Conan), and I won't be including A Couple of Cuckoo's, as it will not be airing until a bit later into the season. These will be ranked to some extent, and placed under categories that I will give very appropriate names to, but as this is simply my initial reaction to first episodes in the heat of the moment, my thoughts on these are subjec...

When I was about 2 years old, my parents realized that I was learning how to walk and talk later than most other kids. They took me to a developmental specialist, and they determined that the diagnosis was Asperger's Syndrome, though that name is no longer being used and has been replaced by the more general blanket term of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I remember my parents retelling the story, and the shocked and almost sad way my mom said "he has autism?" in her retelling. I think that even among people who sort of have an idea of what the symptoms are, there's a lack of understanding of the way these symptoms actually manifest themselves. Which is why watching 2019's Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu was such a surreal experience for me. It's a piece of media that made me feel understood, and moreover, made me feel like it cared about me. The show is one of those shows that I feel like I had a very different experience with than other people, even among ...