Quotes October 2012, Part I

Melinda Beasi: "I’d read a lot of shounen manga and a lot of fairly uplifting shoujo, and one of the things that nearly always happens in those series, is that characters we initially perceive as villains will turn around and become very sympathetic characters, by way of backstory or some other kind of revelation later on. The message driven home by that trope is that understanding is the key to learning to love someone, or perhaps that anyone can be granted salvation (of a sort) by way of understanding. These series are careful to always give us something to latch on to—to help us understand even the most seemingly depraved characters before the end."

Connie on the Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese: "They’re both flawed, and their flaws keep them from growing closer."

Arwen Spicer on Banana Fish: "I’ve heard him called a Mary Sue, yet I disagree–because, although he’s a bit of a superhero, he carries deep psychological scars that fit coherently with his experiences and contribute to the self-marring of his life and relationships.  He is not perfect or even a “pretty sufferer” in Mary Sue fashion.  He is a brilliant but damaged young man who will carry some form of that dysfunctionality for life.  Thus, he wins my suspension of disbelief for his magic, and he wins my sympathy."

Sean Gaffney: "Now admittedly the three series have flaws. Library Wars doesn’t have enough war for some people; Otomen continues to be a BL series with no BL; and Oresama Teacher is written by Izumi Tsubaki, who is the ‘oooooh, shiny thing!’ of Beat authors. This does not make the series less awesome."

Jessi Silver on reviewing anime first episodes: "Despite arguments to the contrary, I cannot name a series that I've seen which has a terrible opening episode and which has somehow improved itself sufficiently to crawl back into my good-graces."

TV Tropes on Zoids CC: "Zoids. The first series (Chaotic Century) in particular. The entire script is so laughably bad it's amazing that everyone keeps a straight face. (Van and Raven's exchange in episode 33 is a personal favorite example) But that's the reason it works. The whole universe speaks in narm and once you get used to it you realize that it's the language of the universe and it's a much more entertaining universe as a result. "