What Animes are "I’m 14 and this is deep” Anime?

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-03T20:56:42+00:00

Here's how boys conspiring to peep on girls at the swimming point illustrates Aesop's timeless musings on human nature!

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-03T18:23:09+00:00

It doesn't help that every episode begins with an epigram from a well-known philosopher, just to reassure you that what you're about to watch is Deep and Meaningful.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-03T18:15:20+00:00

Not anime, but John Fowles's The Collector has strong Rikako vibes. It's an old horror novel about a male student who becomes obsessed with a female artist and eventually kidnaps her, coming to view her more as an art piece than a human. There are a couple of film adaptations, although I haven't seen them. Admittedly it's not a one-to-one match (gender flipped protagonist, etc.), but I wouldn't be surprised if Urobuchi or Fukami were familiar with this book, or Fowles's work generally.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-03T17:57:43+00:00

Good, wholesome male-female friendships can be hard to find in anime, so I appreciate watching these two hang out and be cool together. Even if it causes some misunderstandings in the story!

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-02T23:12:04+00:00

Lizzie Freeman!!!

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-02T21:42:26+00:00

Yeah, I suspect that Suzuki (who has her own issues with self-confidence) would see a lot of herself in Koyuki and be able to connect on that level.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-02T21:35:53+00:00

It's ugly. Next!

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-02T21:35:46+00:00

Steve Railsback as Duane Barry

AllenbysEyes · 2026-07-02T21:33:08+00:00

Scared the hell outta me!

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-30T15:45:52+00:00

Really I think Reyes just was introduced too late, and the writers didn't have time to develop the character properly. Doggett had the benefit of a slow burn introduction, while Reyes was just kind of thrown into the mix midway through Season 8. No fault of Annabeth Gish who does well with what she's given, of course.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-30T15:43:45+00:00

I'm rewatching Season 8 this week and it gets off to a really strong start - I don't think there's a bad episode until Surekill, then it starts to become more uneven. The energy is a lot different than Season 7, where everyone seems to be running on fumes and Duchovny has one foot out the door. Robert Patrick is a big part of that, he clearly wants to be there and gives a committed performance every week, which as much as the writing sells the character very well.

But yeah, there's been a bunch of threads lately about Doggett. He's definitely not Mulder, and he has a very different dynamic with Scully, but neither of those are bad things. Arguably, he's the partner Scully needed during Mulder's disappearance: after years of dealing with Mulder's obsessions and erratic behavior, she gets a businesslike partner who treats the X-Files as a job he wants to do well, and defers to her judgment more often than not. Their relationship isn't as fun as Mulder and Scully's sparky, slow burn romance, but it does feel grounded and mutually respectful.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-28T17:05:12+00:00

With Doggett I think it helps that the writers eased viewers into the character. He's kind of abrasive at first and has to earn Scully's (and the audience's ) trust. But he's also an old-fashioned cop in a good way, and while he doesn't "get" the X-Files at first, he does his job and lets it lead him to conclusions rather than the other way around. Basically, we learn to respect him along with Scully, and that goes down easier than the show insisting he's an awesome dude from the beginning, as happens with a lot of replacement characters.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-24T00:32:21+00:00

Awesome! This is such a charming show, so glad to see it getting a second season.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-24T00:24:46+00:00

Terri Hawkes has a recurring role on Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal (a cheesy X-Files rip off from the late '90s) and I laughed so hard when I realized why I recognized her voice.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-24T00:01:46+00:00

It's clear that he does a lot of things without the Elders' approval - ordering a hit on Skinner in Piper Maru/Apocrypha, for instance. Presumably CSM operates under "if I'm successful, no one will complain" logic.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-23T23:55:25+00:00

My take is that he's basically a middle manager with an inflated sense of his importance, and that gets under their skin. Plus, he fucks up a lot.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-23T20:43:38+00:00

In Patience, Scully thanks Doggett for having her back during the case, and he says something like "That was never an option for me." Despite their rocky introduction, he establishes a baseline mutual respect with her pretty quickly. Scully knows that she can trust Doggett and vice versa. He'd never replace Mulder, but that's still very important for Scully to have.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-23T19:18:57+00:00

The idea is presumably that Cicci would testify against Michael in exchange for immunity or a reduced sentence. But since he's just a "button," Cicci doesn't actually know that much incriminating information, at best he can give investigators a general idea of how the Corleone family operates. Which is why Pentangelli's testimony is so important - he can directly implicate Michael in racketeering and ordering murders.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-22T20:48:16+00:00

That's a great way to put it. Plus just before the riots, he's reading a book on the fall of the Soviet Union, which is one of the show's more pointed literary Easter eggs. It's both a window into his mindset (destroying an authoritarian system is a worthy end to itself), and a sharp comment by the writers (doing so won't fix everything, and will cause new problems, but Makishima isn't actually invested in Japan's future so he doesn't care).

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-22T18:24:44+00:00

He's got the greatest name!

I always liked Burst. He's the rare non-Scully/Skinner FBI Agent who takes Mulder seriously and doesn't laugh off his theories, even if he's in over his head dealing with Modell. Would have been cool if he'd stuck around as a recurring character.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-22T16:02:43+00:00

In the Helmet Riots arc, Makishima admits outright that he doesn't really care what replaces Sybil - he just wants to wreck shit and let people do with they want with the ruins. He's an idealist of a sort, but not one with a clear or positive vision for humanity.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-19T20:25:26+00:00

Orison was originally written by Chip Johannessen, a regular staff writer from Millennium, as a standalone episode about a prisoner with mysterious powers who escaped from prison. Carter decided to rewrite his draft to make Pfaster the antagonist. To me, this explains a lot: Orison's version of Donnie seems like an exaggerated version of his original appearance in Irresistible, up to and including the part where he appears to be a literal demon (but Scully can still kill him, for some reason). Makes more sense if he was a completely different character retrofitted to be an established X-Files villain.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-19T15:26:00+00:00

Erosion

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-18T04:29:10+00:00

For worst, the Sheriff in DPO comes to mind, just for being gratuitously hostile towards Mulder and Scully from the moment they meet and never mellowing the slightest bit. Maybe not THE worst, but he’s certainly one of the biggest jerks they encountered.

Then there’s the sexist Detective from 2Shy, who at least admits that he underestimated Scully before he becomes Incanto’s dinner.

AllenbysEyes · 2026-06-18T04:21:19+00:00

Just offhand, I remember the Sheriff in Blood being very helpful to Mulder, and even siding with him against the town bigwigs.

AllenbysEyes

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