Tag Archives: anime

The Demon King’s Burden

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Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit
And work another’s gain
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly) to the light:
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
“Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden-
Have done with childish days-
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

— Rudyard Kipling

This is Maoyuu Yuusha in a nutshell. (Except better written, of course.) Continue reading The Demon King’s Burden →

Robotics; Notes 15 — A Virtual Loli Imouto Sob Story

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Last week:

So from now on, I’m going to try to stop expecting Robotics; Notes to uncover some brilliant mindfuck conspiracy or to have our heroes fight robots. I’m going to try to just accept it as it is, and enjoy Frau slobbering over a half-naked Kaito on the couch.

Right after I say that, Robotics; Notes proceeds to ditch the only parts I like about it and dives head first into gathering more stupid Kimijima reports and adding more placeholders to the harem. Continue reading Robotics; Notes 15 — A Virtual Loli Imouto Sob Story →

Zetsuen no Tempest 16 — Abusing Shakespeare

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Why does this show feel the need to heavy-handedly mention Shakespeare at every opportunity? Can’t their show stand on its own merits? I don’t get it.

Take the quote above. What the hell is that supposed to have to do with anything? Usually when you quote something you take a good quote that says something about the topic under discussion. “Seems, madam! Nay it is; I know not ‘seems.'” This is an awful quote. In context it means something, but out of context it’s completely useless. It doesn’t even sound particularly good. Zetsuen no Tempest appears to flip to a random page of Shakespeare and choose a line. “Oh, look, it’s Shakespeare, this is some brilliant writing!” No it’s not. Not when you just take a random not-particularly impressive line out of context. Continue reading Zetsuen no Tempest 16 — Abusing Shakespeare →