Episode 152 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. It's the winter anime season once again, so Ben, Duncan, and Jeff drink deeply of anime good and bad. There's the austere, mature palate of Scotch whiskey in the drama of Journal with Witch, but maybe Golden Kamuy's straightforward, crowd-pleasing breadiness, so much like a macro lager, is more your style. Careful about the latter, though: it might have a bitter finish. And don't confuse the bright zip of You and I Are Polar Opposite's gin-gin mule with the bubbly sweetness of Trigun Stargaze, another drink that might not leave you with a satisfying finish. Regardless, the point of booze is to have fun with friends, so be sure to share your faves of the season just as we did ours!
Discussed:
Journal with Witch (0:56)
SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table (13:13)
Fate strange/Fake (30:24)
Trigun Stargaze (33:13)
Jujutsu Kaisen 3rd Season: The Culling Game Part 1 (40:35)
Golden Kamuy 5 (46:22)
Tis Time for "Torture," Princess 2nd Season (51:36)
Medalist 2nd Season (56:53)
Sousou no Frieren 2nd Season (1:07:07)
Sentenced to Be a Hero (1:14:22)
Oshi no Ko 3rd Season (1:19:34)
You and I Are Polar Opposites (1:22:06)
The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife (1:31:34)
Beastars Final Season (1:35:39)
Related Links:
On the line between artistry and pretension in anime
That video Ben with "advice" for someone time-traveling to the Middle Ages
What is the subgenre of LitRPG?
Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You gets an anime!
So does Red River, a proto-isekai about being transported to Bronze-Age Anatolia!
JEFF IS BACK LETS GO
I really enjoyed your commentary on Journal with Witch, but I also thought your analysis of Makio's character kind of missed the mark. You always spoke of her as an actor, doing things, narrowing or sabotaging her own life, and put the other characters in opposition as a sort of rescuing force to get her back on track (or at least that's how I read it). I think this is wonky on two counts: firstly, I think Makio's lifestyle is not primarily a result of her agency (as an abstract, free individual), but mainly the product of her smartly adapting to the ways she experiences the world, what her body and mind find irritating, the things that stress her out or overwhelm her. It's not so much that she decided to live that way out of ignorance or a lack of guidance, but rather it's her way of negotiating her lived experiences (the contradiction of feeling negative feelings in situations where her peers feel positive ones) with her more abstract ambitions (i.e. gaining recognition, social contact, seeking fulfilment, etc.). Secondly, Makio does not need rescue. I feel like this implied assumption rests on the idea that she doesn't have her life sorted out and needs positive reinforcement by others to improve it. But she is 35 years old (if I'm not mistaken), meaning she has many years worth of experience tuning her life to fit her rythm (a different rythm than most people around her). I think the flashbacks to her youth underscore that quite nicely. That's the time she reflected on her otherness and noticed, discussed with herself why she acts differently to her peers, why she just goes wandering off somewhere durung class, etc.
All that, I think, betrays the sort of 'person comes into your life and changes you' narrative that I see spun up around this series. I just don't think those tropes apply here. That's why I think Journal with Witch is so interesting. Because it is at its core a study of two people with different rythms, experiences (as in, how they experience the world), different fabrics in their minds, a different source code that they work with on a daily basis - those two having to negotiate their differences and live together.
Sorry for going all essay on you (with the pretentious little dash there at the end too).
🙂
Thanks for the episode as always!
Nod
Hey! I'm going to throw this comment and your previous one following up on Ruri Rocks out to the rest of the hosts, so that hopefully we can address them on the podcast proper. Hope we're worth the wait!
Okidoki!