Power ups are a staple of shonen anime, and like anything else that becomes so ubiquitous in a genre, the specific way it is utilized can tell us a lot about what that series is saying. With this in mind, let’s take a look at One Piece.

Video games are a medium where repetition is fundamental, so let’s talk about how it’s used in storytelling.

There is an early scene in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse that I feel is worth taking a closer look at. This isn’t one of the big action scenes, or a piece that gets into all the lore. No, just a small quieter scene, that breaks down the thematic metaphors this movie is working with.

Today let’s look at the pilot episode of Psych. Most pilots are just the average length of an episode for the specific series. Some are 2-part episodes. But then there are some, like Psych’s, with a runtime that’s about equal to an episode and a half.

This is the story of Tim Drake, Batman’s third Robin, having the realization that he’s bisexual. It’s a story of identity, and how much of a struggle it can be to understand what it is that you want when it is something that doesn’t fit with how you previously defined yourself.

I want to take some time to talk about Digimon: The Movie (2000), its history, why I find it so fascinating, and why I think people who don’t even care about Digimon might be fascinated too.