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A Certain Magical Comment
12/31/2025
A Certain Magical Comment
Dec 30, 2025 8:24 PM PST I have been consuming more anime than usual due to my current situation. More so the subbed versions of the shows on my list and it has been kinda nice actually. A true silver lining in my current situation. However, my current situation does not allow me to properly record an episode so I am doing this the old fashion way and typing it out since I do not think that I will be back to record anytime soon and I want to document my thoughts in real time. I first wanted to address the current news in the anime world that is all over my feed no matter where I’m logged in and that is Evangelion's Hideaki Anno commenting on anime, or at least his creations, should not be aimed at the west or to sort of Americanize (because that’s what he really means, let’s be honest) productions and keep the content aimed for the Japanese market and have the rest of the world adapt. Or something like that. I believe I have a very unique perspective on this because I have been watching anime for a long time; since the 1980s to be exact. Honestly I do not understand why Hideaki Anno’s comments are news or even controversial. From my point of view, the old shows have mostly been made for a Japanese audience and I have never questioned or even wished for any show to be Americanized for me. I am very happy with the content of the past and how it was handled for the overseas market. Other countries have their own versions of animated series and I dare say adult orientated animation with a very western approach. The reboot of Voltron, Vox Machina, Castlevania are examples that immediately come to mind regarding the series type of animation. No need to mention the movies available as well. So why the spreading of the comment? I do not mind or even care that he made the comment. What bothers me is the way it is being spread/shared on the internet with what is seemingly a negative vibe. “OOOHHHH, look what the creator of Evangelion said…” Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. What are we supposed to do with this type of reporting? Am I to get angry? Am I to boycott his work? I am not really sure about this sensationalizing for likes and views. The craving for attention from these outlets is cringy to say the least. I did not read the articles just based on the headlines alone. Who cares?! I feel like in a time when we should be striving to unite anime and not let the big corporations continue to support pretty similar and boring story lines, we should not be making headlines that may cause issues with the anime world. I think it is safe to say that Hideaki Anno’s catalog of work was never meant to please western audiences yet his work is a universal bench mark. We all get it in some way. I think where his frustration lies is in what I mentioned before where corporations are making really bad decisions about the direction of anime and who gets to see it. I just finished watching two shows with very similar plots and endings. The Water Magician and Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer! And really the shows were not terrible but they were both pretty similar. Actually let me throw one more in there that I just thought of: The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows. All three shows overlap in content and plot. I would like to know who is consuming all of these shows. The podcasts I follow are all 30 somethings and I cannot imagine that they are happy with the current repetitive content that is released. So I wonder if it really is teenagers and pre-teens driving the market and the rest of us are just along for the ride. Where is the Cowboy Bebop, Robetech/Macross, and other more complicated and diverse shows from Japan? The previous American shows that I mentioned all have diversity with an adult complex plot that are just amazing to watch and yes even the Voltron reboot was fine. Maybe that is another point of frustration from the Land of the Rising Sun. Their productions have become a bit stale and are really second rate to non Japanese work in an industry ruled by them in the past. But that is not to say that there have been some pretty decent shows within the last five years. Anyway, enough about that. There is still a lot of anime to be watched. Not too long ago I finally finished watching Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood (Fall 2015) and I thought it was a really great show. The middle part was a little slow but I love the way it ended with a great plot turn I really did not see coming. The show did leave it open ended for another season or spin-off but since it has been 10 years, I doubt I will get to see what happens. I’m sure there is a manga or light novel fishing the story but man, that would have been a great show as well. But alas, it went by the way of so many great shows that may never get another season. Whatever happened to A Certaine Magical Index and all the spin-offs?! That was another cool series I enjoyed along with Black Clover. It’s been a minute and there is probably news about the shows that I haven’t read up on so I’ll double check the sites soon. Wouldn’t it be nice if they actually listened to some of us? I’ll keep dreaming… I’ve done enough rambling for today. Thank you for reading this and keep watching anime.
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