Scott over at mechanical anime reviews promotes Jon Spencer’s Showcase for June 2021. If you never heard of the showcase, it’s an event according to Jack Scheibelein over at Animated Observations is “an event held once a month where creators of all kinds and sizes are invited to submit things they have worked on in the previous month. This can be blog posts, videos, podcasts, or whatever else you feel like submitting. While I do mainly cover anime and gaming here, these posts can be about basically whatever, so feel free to share what you care about the most.”
Scott decided to add a theme to the showcase this month, Celestial Being. An independent group from Gundam OO, the Celestial Being aims to “create peace across the world by fighting all the other parties with their gundams.” If you wish to join the tour head to Scott’s site and post in the comments. Make sure you do so by June 29th.
- May 2021’s Jon Spencer’s Showcase
- Jon’s Creator Showcase
- Jon’s Creator Showcase – Third Anniversary Edition
Children of the Sea
Back in September of 2020, I mentioned briefly a review of Children of the Sea in the New York Times. The author, Maya Phillips complimented the music of Joe Hisaishi, but found the use of CGI and drawing conflicted making the “C.G.I. look artificial,” and the “drawings look flat.” Children of the Sea was released in 2019. An adaptation of Daisuke Igarashi’s manga, the movie focuses on a high school student, Ruka, and a mysterious pair of brothers, Umi and Sora.
The animations are clearly the draw, but the plot seems messy. Takuto recommends “visually watching the film.” The complex themes and plot points are difficult to understand. Takuto suggests everyone give it try and gives the film a 7/10. Check out his full review below:
The Top 5 Time Travel Anime
I love a top 5 list and Irina over at the drunken anime blog makes some of the best. Irina is a fan of the “device,” “I get fascinated by when it’s [time travel] done well and appreciate the effort when it’s done badly.” I’ve never noticed this but time travel is common in anime, especially the isekai genre. Irina limits the list to anime “where time travel is isolated,” or anime that remains in the same “place.”
Furthermore, Irina keeps to anime “where the time travel element was actively used throughout the series and important to the plot. So anything with a character waking up in the past or future and then having adventures from that point on is out!” Her lists include two anime I have heard of, but none I’ve seen. Check out her list of top time travel anime.