Do I Tell Him

[rynling]

I have now watched Azumanga Daioh, Nichijo, Encouragement of Climb, and Yuru Camp with my husband. We've also watched a handful of anime movies like Whisper of the Heart, Ride Your Wave, and Weathering with You.

Being a straight adult man, my husband is the target demographic for these sorts of "cute girls doing cute things" slice-of-life anime, and he really enjoys what we've watched so far. He also seems to be a fan of the pastel moé art style.

So this morning he picked up my Blu-ray set of Madoka Magica, and he was like, "This one looks fun, do you want to watch it together?"

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[rynling]

We watch things slowly, like maybe one episode a day, while skipping days.

Right now we're watching the Violet Evergarden movie, which is a very quiet KyoAni slice-of-life story about a robot lesbian in fancy dress going to boarding school and then working at a post office. (This is not an exact description, but it's close enough.) It's a short movie, but we're watching about fifteen minutes a day on days when we watch it. It will be a few days before we start something new.

So on one hand, I'm interested in what it would be like to watch Madoka Magica with someone who is completely unspoiled and has no idea what he's walking into.

On the other hand, I don't want to set him up for a bad trip, especially since he'll have to deal with the show unwinding at such a slow pace. I think most people who grew up with Neon Genesis Evangelion and Revolutionary Girl Utena were amused and delighted by Madoka Magica, but I also think it might be genuinely disturbing to someone who's not prepared for it.

I mean I personally could watch Madoka Magica on loop any day of the week, but I don't want to get divorced over it.

(And thank god I never bought the Made in Abyss Blu-ray, even though I dearly wanted to. Damn that show is fucked up, even to me. I actually walked into one of those brick-and-mortar Amazon bookstores a year or two ago and saw the first volume of the manga right at a kid's eye level on the "Recommended for Young Readers" shelf, and I did a serious double-take right there in real life.)

I think we're probably going to watch the movie version of Colorful next. An English translation of the original novel is scheduled to come out later this summer, and I'd like to prepare myself to write a lengthy review. And then, after that, I'm thinking about the Studio Ghibli movie Up on Poppy Hill.

And then, by that point, hopefully everyone will be vaccinated enough that the city of Philadelphia will lift its restrictions and we can get someone to run a internet cable up to our apartment so I don't have to worry about alienating my loved ones forever with my garbage taste in anime.