Category: Essays, Criticism, and Analyses

Sentient Sailor Uniforms are Serious Business: Trope-Twisting in Kill la Kill

 Today, I’m very pleased to welcome a guest post from R. I invited her to write a post after our discussion in the comments section of my Queer la Queer post. R highlights Kill la Kill’s trope play and Senketsu’s vitality to the entire plot. Thanks, R, for writing this! If I told you that I… Continue reading Sentient Sailor Uniforms are Serious Business: Trope-Twisting in Kill la Kill

My Little Pony: Diversity is Magic

It’s been a long time since I’ve last blogged exclusively about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I’m catching up with the show again and was recently fascinated by the dystopian two-parter in which the Mane Six travel to a village in the far reaches of Equestria where the ponies who live there willingly give… Continue reading My Little Pony: Diversity is Magic

The Allegory of Giha Village: Platonism in Gurren Lagann

How could I invest so much time and energy analyzing Kill la Kill without watching its predecessor? Though I didn’t react as heavily to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as I did to Kill la Kill, I still have plenty to say about the series. One of those things is its Platonism. At the start of… Continue reading The Allegory of Giha Village: Platonism in Gurren Lagann

Baltimore.

It’d be disingenuous to simply allow my weekly blog post queue to continue without commenting on the situation in Baltimore. Though I don’t live in the city (and therefore have the luxury of avoiding the focal points of recent events), I work and play in the city. Today’s events occurred a mere five minute drive… Continue reading Baltimore.

My Little Sato: Asami, Rarity, and the Femme Fatale Stigma

I can’t say how or why the comparison between Asami Sato from Legend of Korra and Rarity from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic came to me, but it did and I laughed. Then, I thought about it some more and realized that these two characters are actually very similar both in design and audience… Continue reading My Little Sato: Asami, Rarity, and the Femme Fatale Stigma

Contradiction is Truth: The Divine Illogic in Kill la Kill

It should come as no surprise that I’m talking about Kill la Kill yet again. I will probably come back to this series several more times because, as I’ve said elsewhere, there’s so much to unpack. Today, I’d like to expand on my theology of clothing post and talk more in depth about illogic in Kill… Continue reading Contradiction is Truth: The Divine Illogic in Kill la Kill

Platonism in Orphan Black

So, I recently took a MOOC about three of Plato’s dialogues (Euthyphro, Meno, and Republic Book 1). By the way, I highly recommend taking MOOCs, especially if you’re a writer and/or also like me in that you miss the structure of college classes, but don’t want the hard commitment of actually going to grad school.… Continue reading Platonism in Orphan Black

Eschatology in The Legend of Korra

Seasons two and four of Legend of Korra end with some kind of radical, permanent change to the world. First, Korra opens the spirit portals, allowing spirits to live together with humans in Republic City. This also revives airbending and sparks the birth of the Air Nation. In season three, she has to deal with… Continue reading Eschatology in The Legend of Korra

Kill la Kyriarchy: Building and Destroying Power Structures

The last post in this series. Today’s theme: how KLK’s oppressive systems work and how they’re dismantled.           Kill la Kill presents a very overt metaphor for systematic privilege and disenfranchising. At its core is a dichotomy between nudity and clothing. Nudity represents total shame and disgrace while clothing affords socioecomonic standing… Continue reading Kill la Kyriarchy: Building and Destroying Power Structures