as someone who tends to dabble in sports anime/manga and whose favorite work of all time is haikyuu, ao ashi is such a breath of fresh air !!! as someone who isn’t as well-versed in sports i loved how ao ashi was able to make such compelling matches and comparisons while really delving into the youth system. i haven’t even known that such a system existed until recently !!! even as someone who’s not super into sports, there’s always going to be athletes that we intuitively know (messi, ronaldo, yuzuru hanyu, to name a few…) but i’ve never really thought about the pathways for people to become such legends before !!! unlike haikyuu that focuses on the experiences of high schoolers trying to pursue such an intense endeavor, i think ao ashi’s strength is being able to really convey the stakes and challenges of wanting to become a professional. whenever i hear of kids my age becoming pros (alysa liu, oliver bearman, alex aela and the like) i begin to question myself and compare my life to theirs. in actuality, i don’t think that theyre even that comparable !!! if even a quarter of ao ashi conveys what actual young athletes have to go through then the real pros in our world must be going through so much more than that. i’m so lucky that there’s a whole world of sports for me to explore and as a spectator, i can’t wait to cheer these athletes on !!! thank you so much ao ashi !!!
while fujimoto is far from my favorite mangaka, i do appreciate how his works always try to explore a greater narrative theme rather than just trying to deliver a coherent storyline. yes, it’s weird and yes, it’s disgusting but you can’t accuse fujimoto of not swinging. fire punch, like chainsaw man, tends to be incredibly nihilistic. the world is in an eternal winter by an ice witch that was never really real. the cold that erodes the earth turns everyone crazy — so much so that they can justify anything for the sake of survival. whether that’s eating human flesh, killing others, or using others to heat up the world again, fire punch tries to show the variety of ways human morality deteriorates when faced with the absurd. because, yes, an eternal winter is one of the most bizarre things a human being can encounter when used to a world of warmth. but it also highlights our own trivial and petty motivations — the ice witch (forgot their name) and togata both wish to survive just to watch movies. agni only wants to be with luna again. san only wishes to worship his god — even in the face of the absurd, the human spirit tends to be itself: ordinary and childish. there are many times when agni is ultimately abandoned by those he loves through increasingly disturbing ways, yet all of them tell him to live even when it only leads to more suffering. this is when fujimoto’s philosophy comes through: while living is certainly painful and there is often no reason why WE get to be chosen to live at all, we bear both the gift and punishment of seeing another day. agni, no matter hen he did good or bad, continued to live because his time simply hasn’t come yet. i think that fire punch also tries to grapple with the process of mythologizing and how people also tend to see only what they want to see. there are many times where we see agni through the eyes of others — the protagonist, god, the fire punch, etc etc. fictionalizing such a human character can only go so far. the people who tried immortalizing agni never end up understanding him (san) and the people who wanted him to follow a narrative ultimately missed out on the simpleness of his character (togata). in the end, agni also ends up not understanding himself anymore after being seen through the perspective of many outsiders who push their ideal towards him. there’s so many things to say about fire punch and it’s not even my fave but i do appreciate it for what it tries to be
coincidentally read this as i a professor’s words from casual conversation resonated with me, “what is being a mother, if not caring for others?” and i feel like this story encapsulates that concept so wholly. humans are social creatures, we cannot live alone and we cannot survive without the care of others. so it only makes sense that mori’s moms is everyone who took care of him along the way — yes, the story communicates how it takes a village to raise a child but also, on a more fundamental level, that what it takes to be a parent, a mom, isn’t blood relations or anything fancy. all it takes is the urge to care for a child. you don’t have to be perfect at it, as seen by the clumsy ways ryder and miria try to give mori a home, you really do just have to try. i think that at a time when children’s needs are being ignored more than ever (the sexual exploitation of children around the world, man-made famines, wars, genocides, just to name a few) that this story couldn’t have come out at a more appropriate time. this story reminds me and challenges me to be more compassionate and empathetic towards children, especially when they have yet to wield an adult’s tool of speech and articulation yet. my hope is that children never have to feel loss or loneliness, which is reflected quite heavily in this work
thank gawdddd that nagi x leo is OUT they were so lukewarm to me and totally felt out of place inside blue lock’s “every man for himself vibe” i admit that he had peak moments but that’s js 1% of the time and right after he got better he js went back to his yaoi story w leo which wasnt compelling at all.. the best moments of blue lock are ones filled with despair and desperation to survive which nagi lost lmao hoping the villain arc turns him better but this is just a kunigami story line rehash..
in an era before anime was considered cool, khr was the very first anime i intently watched and ultimately the series that made me into (though the term is very dated) the weeb that i am today. i think most people watched/read khr when they were very young and compared to others, i think i got into it pretty late in life (towards the end of elementary) but every time i come back here or watch the anime (muse asia is uploading episodes every week btw!) i am overcome with such a strong feeling of nostalgia and i can’t help but be sentimental over my childhood days — most of it spent obsessing over this series despite the fact it ended so many years ago. i love khr and it made me love shounen. after rewatching some of the eps and rereading some of the chapters, i’ve come to once again realize just how special khr is. it’s quintessential shounen — in the way that tsuna and reborn unconditionally trust each other, in the way that the guardians are able to overcome things through the power of friendship, and even the silly made up power system of this world. khr was ahead of its time, and now in a era of seasonal animes and powerscaling, khr was able to create, maybe not the most meaningful, but a fun story that showed people who cared for another in its weekly updates. characters basically having a battle royale at the end of the series or even the real stakes presented by the future arc without being too bleak… revisiting khr feels like taking a breath of fresh air and i’m so amazed at how pure it is as a series. khr doesn’t really affect my life nowadays, but i will never forget the friends and fanfics and experiences i was able to gain just because i cherished this 2000s anime. although the reboot seems far into the future, i hope that one day it happens (and animates the story all the way through!) so that i can have another excuse to revel in all of the good feelings it gives me. <<3









SAY SIKE RN !!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO