Everything I say is my subjective opinion
Hello all! My name is Curly, and I have been watching anime ever since I was a kid, but I've only been tracking it since 2020. My favorite genres/themes are Mystery, Suspense, Drama, and Horror. My favorite themes are Psychological, Adult Cast, Detective, Organized Crime, High Stakes Game, and Survival. I don't prefer isekai, harem, sports, or romance, but there will always be exceptions. I watch just about everything. When it comes to romance I prefer GL/BL.
I am a 19 year old girl and a university student majoring in English. I speak English and some Spanish. I'm more positive than I am negative. I find I am much happier focusing on the good parts rather than the bad. No anime is perfect but I still dish out 10s if I feel the flaws don't detract enough from what makes it fantastic.
Besides anime I am also really into video games and animation from anywhere else in the world. I only recently started tracking manga on here, so it is not perfectly up-to-date.
Movies aren't included in my favorite anime anymore, but when they were, Kiki's Delivery Service and A Silent Voice were inlcuded
It won't let me put my rating system under a spoiler tag for some reason, so here it is:
10: This anime goes above and beyond to do something spectacular, and is particularly special. Any flaws it has aren't strong enough to detract from this
9: This show also goes above and beyond, but it isn't quite as spectacular as a 10, or has a glaring flaw I can't ignore
8: A really good show. Either I have no issues with it, and it was generally good, or it was otherwise very impressive but I took issue with something.
7: A good show. I probably had a few decent criticisms of it, but I still undeniably liked it
6: Mixed feelings. It did stuff I didn't like at all, but other stuff I also did like. I don't like it that much overall, but I still got something out of it
5: Same as 6, but I liked it less. This is kind of a complete neutral. The good and the bad balance out.
4: I did not like this. It had a few things going for it, but overall the bad stuff just ruined it
3: I can get very little out of this show, but maybe there were a few good things
2: This show is very bad, with maybe like one redeeming quality
1: Something about this made me so viscerally offended I cannot give it any points for any good it has.
I don't rate shows I feel I am ill equipped to rate, mainly if I didn't fully understand it or I watched it a long time ago. I also often do not rate specials/OVAs/etc
Q: What happened to your original review of Black Butler?
A: I took it down. I know some of you really liked it, but it was too vitriolic and mean, which is silly for a fictional story. I put up a new one with the same criticism but taken much softer. And if you’re here to tell me you disagree with my review (which I’ve gotten before), don’t waste your breath because it doesn’t matter. It’s fine that people like manga I don’t like. It’s good, even. It’s not real and I’m glad we’re all having fun. It’s good to disagree with people. If we all agreed it would be very boring.
Watching this season
Last completed anime
Publishing manga
Last completed manga
Some games I like!
My taste in games is varied. This top ten has been accumulating since my childhood. Here's my backlogg'd if you're interested https://www.backloggd.com/u/Curlybrace101/
Honorable mentions include Your Turn To Die, just about every famous RPGMaker horror game ever, the Five Night's at Freddy's series, a bunch of other Pokemon entries, Fran Bow, and Undertale
Statistics
All Anime Stats Anime Stats
- Watching12
- Completed288
- On-Hold4
- Dropped10
- Plan to Watch521
- Total Entries835
- Rewatched0
- Episodes3,717
All Manga Stats Manga Stats
- Total Entries138
- Reread0
- Chapters1,517
- Volumes204
All Favorites Favorites
Anime (10)
Manga (10)
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Pocket Monsters Special
Manga·1997
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Koe no Katachi
Manga·2013
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Baccano!
Light Novel·2003
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Devilman
Manga·1972
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Kuragehime
Manga·2008
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20th Century Boys
Manga·1999
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Yakusoku no Neverland
Manga·2016
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Sabishisugite Lesbian Fuuzoku ni Ikimashita Report
Manga·2016
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Gyakuten Saiban
Manga·2006
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Houseki no Kuni
Manga·2012
Character (10)
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Iwakura, Lain
Serial Experiments Lain
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Reigen, Arataka
Mob Psycho 100
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Sonozaki, Mion
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
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Hatsune, Miku
Downloader
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Madotsuki
Yume Nikki
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Prochainezo, Firo
Baccano!
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Karuma, Mei
Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari!
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Naegi, Makoto
Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei The Animation
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Viola
Majo no Ie: Ellen no Nikki
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Red
Pokemon: The Origin
All Comments (63) Comments
Also, I see you recommended Karasu as a similar anime to Apothecary Diaries. I'll definitely check it.
But no matter what I think about Magical Index, I still plan to watch Scientific Railgun, and I heard that it's fine if I only watch that.
Well, as you wish. I don't think anyone will mind if you describe it as an interesting interpretation.
"Baraou no Souretsu" shows this on an almost tragic level, essentially replacing the well-known theme of Richard III's inferiority with the idea of a life broken due to intersexuality. This is a show for a female audience, so the drama level is much stronger than in many seinen. Of course, with a noticeable amount of NSFW content. Kanata no Astra is less tragic since it is a sci-fi shonen and the anime censors the explicitness of the characters discussing it. But overall this is a good show about how children are not the property of their parents. If you want serious dark themes, then you can also try Scum Wish, or Gravitation, which depict bisexual relationships in a rather agnsty manner. But both shows are pretty moe-ish, if you know what I mean. The author of the first one then began illustrating Oshi no Ko.
I think this is because their appearance is completely androgynous while working and some female characters even fall in love with them due to the androgynous but hundsame appearance of the protagonist in this form. But I don't really want to make any hard-and-fast judgments until I rewatch the show again someday. But yes, there are enough queer characters for a place in such a stack.
Meaningful and important queer shows? So how about Aoi Hana and Bloom into you? In my opinion, these are some of the best yuri when you want shows that actually explore the theme instead of building yuritopia or teasing ships. You can also look at "Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo" as a show that explores different forms of female sexuality, including queer ones. While this may seem a little disappointing if you're not into shipping, the author is one of the most prominent feminists in the anime industry, so it makes a lot of sense. Also "Kanata no Astra" and "Baraou no Souretsu" for the theme of intersex, an optimistic and depressive version. Mainly showing how strongly gender influences how others perceive a person.
If you wanted to describe it as something compromising or more neutral, then I would suggest it as a show that both shows a positive portrayal of bisexuality and consensual intimate relationships, and criticizes the devaluation of the homosexual experience as just a “phase” or “a special form of friendship". The show's universe treats these relationships as temporary social connections, but we're never told whether the characters ended their "gay arc" because they had no romantic attraction or simply had too strong a heterosexual affections already. In the sense that if you are bisexual, then refusing a gay relationship because you have already built fairly significant straight ones does not yet turn you into a straight person. So, again, based on interpretations, you can easily choose this view as well.
I was talking about Kino and Boogiepop. Because in the first case, the girl accepts a male personality as a symbol of her break with her past life and acceptance of the lifestyle and outlook on life of her “teacher”, and in the second, we are talking about a male spirit that inhabits the body of a female character and with the help of this fight crime. Both characters are still open about being girls, so I don't really understand the trans interpretations. But now I think that, at least metaphorically, you could easily interpret Kino's rejection of her past life as a metaphor for transsexuality, if you like. As for Boogiepop, despite the trans question, as I mentioned, there is still significant gay content with a number of gay and bisexual characters. I barely remember the details, but it seems like the anime shows at least half of them.
I think this is a good activity. I appreciate queer work that doesn't limit characters' identities to their sexuality or gender identity, instead showing them as living people with a queer identity that influences their lives but isn't the only description of it. For example, you could easily describe Sayaka from Bloom into you as a "closeted lesbian", but the manga and LN spin-off actually show her as a very realistic girl who is finding her place in life through exploring her sexuality. Or Komi-san's Najimi, for whom gender identity never becomes the root of their entire personality, but just one element that emphasizes their cheerful disposition and eccentricity. Not only does this help bring out important themes in the show, but it also shows that we are all still people with personalities regardless of identity.
Yeah, if I wrote it like that, I may have forgotten that trans interpretations read her as a trans man. Although in the past there have also been many interpretations of her as a trans woman, as many people have suspected her dislike of androgyny to possibly imply that she is a trans woman and it is painful for her. I find this unlikely due to the fact that it is not used or mentioned in any way during interactions with Kaoru, but if you are interested, you can also look into such a theory if you want.
Well, I think he's objectively queer and Anno meant only the blurring of their relationship as such. But I don't remember why I decided that, so I'm just keeping it as my headcanon.
Yes, it can be annoying when a work clearly has no canon or the issue is quite controversial, but people say “this is the only interpretation that is correct.” I apologize if I gave that impression :D. This is one of the reasons I don't like the word "implied"; people often use it as a justification for demanding that other people accept their theories as canon. By the way, I remembered that I have an old stack on a similar topic, you can look at it if you want. https://myanimelist.net/stacks/13449
Well, in my opinion that just cheapens it. Because if we assume that Momoe is a trans man, that would turn off the idea of "women can be androgynous" and replace it with "androgyny means you're trans." This works for Kaoru because it helps Momoe realize how the girls that was attracted to her felt and how important acceptance is to queer people. If you like interpretations, then if I were you, I would point out that when Momoe is clearly touched by Kaoru's attraction to her as a girl, it can be interpreted more broadly than the joy of being seen as a girl. But this is 100% pure interpretation, since due to the sad fate of the show, we will never know any possible implications.
Why do you think I don't do this? I'm quite open in my reading Kaworu as queer and even accepting queer readings of their relationship, even though I'm a passionate Shinji x Asuka supporter. I just think it's important to emphasize that whether this is canonic depends on your perspective. Another question is who Shinji should end up with at the END, which is why you could even find huge essays on the Evangelion wiki where people dissected every interaction Shinji had with a particular characters to prove it was canon.
Well, the problem here is that the story, on the contrary, is very important that Momoe is a woman, because its subplot is dedicated to the fact that it is normal for a woman to be androgynous and to be the object of gay attraction, even if she is straight. Therefore, the show connects her with Kaoru, although not in a romantic sense. They both realize that Momoe knows that Kaoru is biologically female, so Momoe expresses fundamental support for Kaoru, saying that she is attracted to men and sees Kaoru as an attractive guy and the latter experiences catharsis by appreciating it. Perhaps the show would have developed this somehow if it weren't for the complete mess with production, but for now it is what it is.
With Kaworu it’s actually easier, since Anno himself puts it on the plane of deliberate intrigue, the essence of which everyone decides for themselves. Kaworu is an objectively queer character and was clearly meant to be an archetype of the "akogare ideal", if you know what I mean. But since Anno created him under the impression of a “homoerotic” experience in a relationship with Ikuhara and apparently did not want any implications, he insisted that even translation into other languages make it blurry.
In general, if we talk about interpretations, then in my opinion there are only two shows in your stack where there was an objectively non-queer context. Although one of these shows still had an important plot with gay characters.