I should have grown out of anime by now

"Koi wa Ameagari no You ni", or "Love is Like After the Rain", is a short 12 episode anime by Studio Wit, known best for their renowned show "Attack on Titan". Airing in winter of 2018, "After the Rain" did not get much traction and was looked past by many, grouping it in the box with the overwhelming number of other seasonal shows that are quickly forgotten. For me however, this show absolutely sparkled, and is one of the more memorable anime I have watched.        "After the Rain" is by no means a phenomenal show, nor does it bring up any topics that reshape how the audience views something. In fact, it is a very simple show. "After the Rain" is about Akari Tachibana, a high school girl who falls in love with the manager at her part time job at a family restaurant. Her manager, Masami Kondou, is a divorced man in his mid 40's. Tachibana's unrequited love is what carries the plot forward.        On its own, this...

“3-gastu no Lion”, or “When March Comes in Like a Lion” is a multi season anime adapted from a manga by studio Shaft, known for many shows, including the Monogatari series and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. The first season of Lion aired in the fall of 2016, and since then it has received three seasons, and has been very well received globally. The first episode of Lion stood out to me through its use of silence. For the first eight minutes, the main character Rei Kiriyama does not speak. Two characters speak to him briefly, however the first half of the shows beginning is filled with silence. This is taking the concept of “show don’t tell” to an extreme, however it is effective in both filling the audience in on key plot points. Let’s break down what Lion shows its audience, despite a lack of dialogue. While the first scene of the episode is of a woman talking about Kiriyama, I am going to ignore this. It does a wonderful job of creating a general mood for the episode, but the info...