Behind the Tangles
Twwk talks about what we're currently working on and what's to come
For my musings this month, I want to invite you into a little of the behind-the-scenes of Beneath the Tangles and inform you about some of the current goings-on as well as plans for the coming months.
As director of the ministry, I not only contribute to the content we produce—though that’s largely directed and created by our wonderful leaders and other volunteers—but also focus on administrative tasks and relationship-building. And May’s been a banner month for the latter! I visited the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex last week, where I reconnected with friends of our ministry:
The Cruzes: Jordan Dash (Stark, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End) and Kelsey (Yinghua, The Apothecary Diaries)…
Emi Lo (Maomao, The Apothecary Diaries)…
and Jeremy from Anime Diet!
Check out these interviews I previously conducted with Jordan, Kelsey, and Emi:
Faith and Love: Interview with Voice Acting Couple, Jordan Dash Cruz and Kelsey Maher
Video Interview with Sing a Bit of Harmony’s Kamen Casey, Jordan Dash Cruz, and Caitlin Glass
Interview with Lee George, Ivan Jasso, and Emi Lo of Appare-Ranman!
I also met up with Ariel Lee, who is a long-term missionary to Japan. One of the things our meeting led to is a presentation he’ll give to our small group on Discord! That’ll be coming soon (small groups meet on Sundays).
Speaking of Discord, our server is currently in a collaboration with the Gabriel and the Guardians server! As part of this collab, the GatG members will be submitting illustrations of BtT-chan for an art contest, while our members are submitting voice recordings of GatG manga panels for a voiceover contest.
And if you don’t use Discord? No problem. We have another contest coming up—you’ll find out about that in next Friday’s newsletter! (That’s called a tease hehe)
We’re also looking forward to the summer when we have all sorts of other special projects planned. It’s convention season, for one, and once again, we’ll be covering Anime Expo. But before that, we’re headed back to France for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival! It kicks off in June. We’ll be covering the anime and anime-related content that is screened there.
This summer also marks the 15th anniversary of Beneath the Tangles. We’ll have a few things planned for that special occasion to celebrate God’s goodness through these years of ministry. Plus, summer anime first impressions and more are on the way! So while much of the world takes a vacation during the summer, you can expect even more from us during the coming months—and I’m so glad you’ll be joining us for it all!
God bless and have a wonderful weekend!
~ Twwk
* header image illustrated by Swandive (reprinted w/permission)
BtT in Review
What does Jephthah, the Old Testament judge who took an unholy vow, have to do with racing horse anime girls? Quite a lot, actually. Check out Claire’s thoughts on how we sometimes turn away from God when our dreams come crashing down as demonstrated through Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray!
Sleepminusminus and Claire team up for a joint review of a new Bocchi the Rock featuring everybody’s favorite “heavy-drinking” bassist, Kikuri Hiroi!
In this week’s Reader’s Corner, Laura and Twwk review the newest volumes of a pair of uber-popular series (Solo Leveling and Kaiju No. 8), budding classics (Bocchi the Rock and Hirayasumi), and more! Plus, we introduce you to two new series: Cosmos—a galactic insurance agent series from the mangaka behind Beelzebub—and Not So Shoujo Love Story, an original English language webtoon!
Finally, our Fanart Friday posts from a week ago feature two memorable duos: Frieren and Fern gathered ‘round a campfire and Vash and Wolfwood in their Trigun Stampede designs!