Oh, I watch anime with keen eyes on details that are more than just what they seem to be.
For example, I love how in Koe no Katachi Shouya fails to grab Shouko when she leaps into the river back when he still fails to grasp how much hurt he caused Shouko. In turn, when Shouya slid off a slope, Shouko fails to grab him. Now, it’s Shouko’s turn to fail to catch Shouya’s sincere effort to connect with her, to let her know she's not a burden at a time when she thinks she is a burden to everyone she loves. And the third time's the charm. Shouya reached Shouko. Literally. Figuratively. Finally.
I love noticing how Kumiko's hairstyle in Hibike! Euphonium tells a story. The first season was about Kumiko's growth from a distant person who never really tries hard too much for fear of finding out that she may not as good as she thinks she is, to a person who now takes things seriously and is willing to try her damnedest to be better. She goes from uncaring and aloof, exemplified by her flabbergasted reaction in S01E01 when Reina said dud gold wasn't good enough, to her finally understanding why Reina was so upset over that in S01E12 when she was trying to improve herself and yet her efforts were thrown in her face. Her hairstyle the first episode was a ponytail as she pins for a new start. Her sister then calls her out saying "You even wore a ponytail. You're trying too hard on your first day." And she never wore a ponytail ever again, except in flashbacks, even in Sunfest Festival, up until S01E13, after the events of S01E12. You could argue that of course she did, they were competing, but then I raise you the Sunfest Festival.
I love this quote:
“In the good mystery there is nothing wasted, no sentence, no word that is not significant. And even if it is not significant, it has the potential to be so - which amounts to the same thing. The world of the book comes to life, seething with possibilities, with secrets and contradictions. Since everything seen or said, even the slightest, most trivial thing, can bear a connection to the outcome of the story, nothing must be overlooked. Everything becomes essence; the center of the book shifts with each event that propels it forward. The center, then, is everywhere, and no circumference can be drawn until the book has come to its end.”
― Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy
and use it to explain why I love the world-building aspect of Log Horizon.
I dislike Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul but I love how this moment:
that slight tightening of the fist, aptly sum up his total surrender to the destiny he was shaped for, he was reared for, all in a single, easy to miss moment, without any need for words.
I live and breathe in the details. |