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Macross Zero Anime Series Review
Zero relies heavily on CGI, not just for its mech battles, but also for some backgrounds and scene transitions. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it looks horribly dated.
― A five-episode OVA released over the space of almost two years (2002-2004), in
release order, Macross Zero sits between 1997's Macross Dynamite 7 and 2008's Macross
Frontier. Chronologically, its events occur before every other ...
Arifureta - From Commonplace to World's Strongest Season 3 Anime Series Review
It all means that for an extra-special, extra-long helping of Arifureta, this season feels mostly obligatory. Perfunctory.
― Given the unenviable circumstances of its rocky start, it will always be generally impressive how far Arifureta has come. The anime has soldiered on for multiple seasons and extra ONAs, and even carved out a solid story identity for itself beyond the "dark vengeful power fantas...
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? 4K Remaster UHD & Blu-ray Review
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? is one of the most important films in anime history, but this new 4K restoration might not be the release it deserves.
― If you're around anime old heads for long enough, there's a good chance you'll eventually hear about the mythical year of 1984—a year that wowed audiences with now-timeless classics like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ...
Demon Lord 2099 Anime Review
Hung around the skeleton of established genre tropes is an engaging cyberpunk mystery.
― The greatest praise I can come up with for Demon Lord 2099 is that it's solid. Every aspect of it is competently executed, without any one part that really stands out from the others for better or for worse. The peaks are more like gently sloping knolls, and the valleys are slight dips. It is, to be honest, like ...
Bubblegum Crisis Perfect Collection Anime Review
It's always the right time to discover, or rediscover Bubblegum Crisis, and this Perfect Collection from AnimEigo provides the ideal way to do so.
― A flagship title not just for AnimEigo, but for the anime medium itself, it's easy to see how Bubblegum Crisis caught on all those decades ago. It's arresting before you even know what it's about: a moody intro pans over grimy cyberpunk backdrops ripped ...
Mononoke The Movie: The Ashes of Rage Anime Film Review
All in all, Mononoke The Movie: The Ashes of Rage delivers another philosophical and emotional look into the lives of feudal Japanese women in the imperial harem.
― The first Mononoke film was focused on the lower rank of concubines in the imperial harem. Thematically, it was about giving up one's individuality to serve a role—and how doing so brought misery to the human soul. However, this was a fat...
PreCure Splash Star Episodes 24 - 49 Anime Review
Futari wa Pretty Cure may be where the franchise started, but this is where it starts to hit its stride.
― Each season of the greater Pretty Cure franchise typically brings something new to the table. That all begins with Pretty Cure Splash Star. The second team of Cures may have looked awfully similar to the first, but this latter half of their story cements them as not only very much their own team...
The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows - World Premiere Review
It won't be topping any “best of the season” lists but it should be enjoyable to anyone who likes the non-revenge-focused “kicked out of the heroes' party” stories.
― The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows is an upcoming spring 2025 anime series. It had a special premiere showing at a movie theater in Tokyo recently. However, unlike the many other premieres I have attended, this time we were ...
Loner Life in Another World Anime Series Review
Even a thrown-in novelty like a harem of moeblobs can’t save Loner Life from having all of the hang-ups you’d expect out of a generic isekai.
― Just one look at the trailer and the key visual and you can already tell that Loner Life is
going to be another run-of-the-mill isekai. I'd be willing to bet you can even tell where its
strengths and weaknesses lie as well. To be fair, the music isn't bad,...
Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 Anime Streaming Review
Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and 2202 show how to handle a reboot with masterful precision.
― Certain series will always hold a special place in your heart because of the time when you watched them. Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 will always be one such work for me. Once upon a time, this was the show that brought me back from a decade-long hiatus from anime fandom. I had no...
Wonderful Precure! Episodes 37 - 50 Anime Review
At the end of the day, Wonderful Precure! is all about hope.
― It's an inevitability of children's media that deals with animals that, sooner or later, the topic of death comes up. Most animals people love as pets don't live as long as humans, and the loss of a pet is often one of the first encounters with death a child has. I was four when my cat Oliver passed, and the conversation my parents had wi...
Sound! Euphonium Season 1 Blu-ray Review
Nearly ten years after it first aired, Sound Euphonium’s first season comes back to us on Blu-Ray, and it’s as dazzling as ever.
― The release of this Blu-ray comes at a very timely moment. Its December release marked the six-month anniversary of Sound Euphonium's triumphant final act, and this upcoming April will mark an entire decade since the anime first aired on Japanese airwaves. To watch this B...
Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse Season Two Part One Anime Series Review
This may not be the best shounen fantasy series out there, but it's still good enough to get its hooks into you and keep them there.
― What is Camelot? Most lore will tell you that King Arthur's fabled court is a Medieval utopia, a land where equality rules and everything is just as it should be. Far be it from The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse to throw that out entirely; original...
Psycho-Pass Providence Limited Edition Blu-Ray Review
I guess you could sort of call this movie an action-packed political thriller. But while it’s definitely action-packed, there’s nothing thrilling about it.
― There's plenty of anime out there that are widely regarded as having gotten worse the longer they went on. But I struggle to think of an anime that's had a bigger and faster glow-down than Psycho-Pass. What began as a fascinating exploration int...
Pokémon Horizons: Season 2: The Search For Laqua Anime Series Review Episodes 1-11
As probably the strongest batch of Pokémon episodes in a very long time, these eleven episodes will make a modern-day Pokémon fan happy.
― These eleven episodes made me happy to be a modern-day Pokémon fan. I will not mince words here, this is the strongest batch of Pokémon episodes that I have watched in a very long time. I was worried about the initial setup, considering they seemed to be stepping ...
The Apothecary Diaries Season 1 Part 1 BD Anime Review
With a good story, great characters, and spectacular animation, The Apothecary Diaries is one of those series that begs to be owned on disc and rewatched frequently.
― The recipe for The Apothecary Diaries is deceptively simple: take one acerbic young apothecary with a very sharp tongue, add a gorgeous young eunuch, put them both in the rear palace of a Chinese-adjacent emperor's court, and season wi...
Tokyo Ghoul - Complete Series - 10th Anniversary Box Set Anime Series Review
Like Kaneki, the Tokyo Ghoul anime is a messy hybrid, with one-half of its adaptation feeling like the product of unfulfilled ambition, while the other feels hollow.
― It's been over 10 years since Tokyo Ghoul first came onto the anime scene, and in that time, it has managed to leave a strong impression. Sui Ishida's original manga has been a critical and commercial success domestically and abroad. W...
Blue Miburo Episodes 1-12 Anime Series Review
The plot hasn’t developed in any particularly interesting ways, to the point it’s hard to write anything positive about the show.
― The Bakumatsu period, the final years of the Edo period, was an era of great social change and should be a fertile choice to set a historical drama. The mid-1800s brought an end to the Tokugawa Shogunate, a mode of government that had persisted over 250 years, while also...
Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin Arc Season 1 Anime Series Review
I think there are a lot of anime fans—a lot of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure fans, in particular—who would love Kinnikuman if they only gave it a try.
― A few months ago, when FLOW was on their world tour, I went to one of the shows. At one point, after having played several familiar hits, the band asked excitedly, “WHO HERE LIKES KINNIKUMAN!!” For the uninitiated, FLOW did the opening song to this first ...
Sengoku Youko: Thousandfold Chaos Arc Episodes 1-10 Anime Streaming Review
It’s a narratively and thematically rich show that rewards close attention to character development and dialogue in-between moments of larger-than-life characters beating seven kinds of hell out of one another.
― After the bitter disappointment that was The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer's abysmal anime, Satoshi Mizukami fans were understandably wary about studio White Fox's subsequent adaptation of ...
Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions Season 2 Anime Series Review
This anime doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but what it does, it does well.
― By now, Sherlock Holmes has been reimagined through the anime filter more times than I can count and to mixed levels of success. Usually, it's done more through the lens of inspiration—which is to say, having a character who's Sherlock Holmes-inspired but isn't supposed to be Sherlock Holmes. As I sit here typing this, we have t...
Macross 7 Episodes 27-52 Anime Streaming Review
Say what you like about Macross 7, it sticks to its guns from beginning to end with a consistency of tone and intention that’s admirable.
― Compared to watching modern anime's shorter single-season lengths, completing a watch-through of Macross 7's fifty-two episodes feels like a real achievement. Forty-nine of those were broadcast on TV weekly, without a break, from October 2004 until September 2005...
Failure Frame: How I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells Anime Series Review
It shouldn’t set Failure Frame apart that Touka doesn’t take any of these characters as his slave, but it does. Does that make Failure Frame a good show? Heck no!
― It may be tempting to dismiss Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low-Level Spells. The wordy title alone promises a series that offers little originality, considering how many isekai and non-isekai LitRP...
One Piece Film Red 4K SteelBook Blu-ray Review
One Piece Film Red is a feast for the eyes and ears, but is more spectacle than substance.
― Disc 1 – The Movie One Piece movies can be understood to come in two distinct types: Arcs summaries, such as The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta, or a single new adventure, complete with a new character to be rescued and a new bad guy to be defeated. One Piece: Red is an example of the...
Days With My Stepsister Anime Series Review
Despite its run-of-the-mill storyline, there is a surprisingly cinematic style to it that makes it stand out among other romance stories of its ilk.
― With a title like Days With My Stepsister, you might already expect how this story
will unfold. But this is just at first glance. Despite the tale dipping its feet into the taboo waters of
NBR relationships, the anime does what it can to subvert its g...
COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing Anime Film Review
COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing is a movie made for one group of people and one group only: Players of the smartphone game Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage.
― While far from the biggest Hatsune Miku fan, I'd dare to claim I am “familiar” with the franchise. I have played several Project Diva games, listened to more than a few Vocaloid songs, seen her “live” at various events, and even pl...
PreCure Splash Star Episodes 1-23 Anime Series Review
Despite its clear borrowing from its mother series, Splash Star is able to establish itself as its own story, creating sympathetic heroines and villains, and reminding us that everything makes a difference.
― After the disappointment that was Pretty Cure Max Heart, it's a relief and a delight to see that the third series, comprising the second team of Cures, in the franchise is a step in the right di...
Love is Indivisible by Twins Anime Series Review
Without a doubt, Love Is Indivisible by Twins is one of the most realistic and relatable depiction of twin relationships I've ever encountered. However, it's mired up in an uninteresting plot and an unbelievable love triangle.
― The way twins are represented in the media is frustrating. They're treated as creepy at worst, a single unit at best, and more often than not, a gimmicky curiosity. Although ...
Tower of God: Workshop Battle Anime Series Review
It doesn't look as bad as Return of the Prince—however, that is an incredibly low bar to set and damning with faint praise more than anything else.
― Workshop Battle is a major step up from Return of the Prince. It is a far more focused story with an understandable core conflict. Bam is trying to keep everyone he cares about safe at his own expense. At the same time, his new friends and Khun are putt...
The Rose of Versailles Anime Film Review
How do you adapt a seminal classic that took 14 volumes of manga and 40 episodes of TV to tell into a feature film? You make it a musical.
― The Rose of Versailles is one of the seminal works of early shōjo manga. With over 23 million copies sold worldwide, it's no surprise that it still holds a place in popular culture over 50 years since its original release. This brings us to this new MAPPA-animat...
Demon Lord, Retry! R Anime Series Review
This is a bad sequel in almost every way. Barely a thing has improved over last season, and many of its flaws have been carried over to here.
― Demon Lord Retry! R is a bad sequel in almost every way. Barely a thing has improved over last season, and a lot of its flaws have been carried over here. The action is as flat as ever. The animation barely moves an inch. The battles are unengaging and anti-...
As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill Season 2 Anime Series Review
This is the story of a young man who will do what must be done but nonetheless strives for an unobtainable ideal—not just for his people but also the enemies he comes across.
― The first season of As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill was centered around putting the band together. With Ritsu, Ars gains the ultimate warrior, and with Charlotte the ultimate mage. He gains the ultima...
Most Notorious "Talker" Runs the World's Greatest Clan Anime Series Review
There is a lot to The Most Notorious "Talker" Runs the World's Greatest Clan that feels one note, but it’s quite the note if you’re in the mood for some anti-hero cheese.
― There is a lot to The Most Notorious "Talker" Runs the World's Greatest Clan that feels one note, but it's quite the note if you're in the mood for some anti-hero cheese. This is a light novel adaptation that really, really lives ...
Castlevania: Nocturne Season 2 Anime Streaming Review
It may have taken a few tries, but with this second season of Nocturne, the animated Castlevania franchise has finally produced a true masterpiece.
― Castlevania is one of the series that I have been privileged to cover since the original Netflix animated project premiered back in 2017. It has certainly been a wild ride seeing one of gaming's most venerated (and most neglected) bloodlines get the big...
Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow Saga Anime Series Review
This season works fine, as long as you're still invested in Blue Exorcist's world and characters enough to follow them through an action-light season with a sprawling plot.
― This review covers the dozen Blue Exorcist episodes streamed from October to December 2024. For anyone new to Blue Exorcist, this is not where you start. This far into the series, the season's a case of what TV Tropes calls Cont...
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- Anime Film Review
This film is a fantastic addition to the Gundam franchise—and one you can't even begin to talk about without getting into massive spoilers.
― Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- is a compilation film containing the first four episodes of the upcoming TV anime, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX. The trailers made it look to be something similar to G-Gundam (much like how Gundam 00 shares many elements...
MF Ghost Season 2 Anime Series Review
While it would’ve been nice to see this series pick up some much-needed speed, all it did was put the brakes on.
― Suffice it to say that season 1 of MF Ghost, the newest series by Initial D creator Shuichi Shigeno, didn't exactly drive me wild. In a word, it was underwhelming. So, going into MF Ghost season 2, I was expecting another middle-of-the-road racing anime. And my expectations, as it turns ...
The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest Anime Series Review
While I didn't expect much from this anime, there were still enough shortcomings that left me high and dry.
― There are about four or five settings The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest has at its disposal: a labyrinth, a guild hall, the city streets surrounding said guild hall, and the fields between said city and labyrinth. The world doesn't feel like a sprawling fa...
Digimon: The Movies - Movies 1-3 - Anime Blu-ray Review
In an era when digital media is getting lost, destroyed, or put on a shelf to collect dust forever, having this collection is nothing short of a miracle
― I never thought we would see the day we would get something like this. In the 2000s, I was a kid taken to see a film called Digimon: The Movie, an original film based on one of my favorite franchises, Digimon. At the time, I thought the film was fu...
Macross Plus Blu-ray Movie + OVA [Ultimate Edition] Review
This isn't just a collection centerpiece for hardcore Macross Plus fans, but an incredible archival release for animation scholars.
― At Anime Expo 2022, Macross license holder BIG WEST announced that they would be partnering with multiple distributors to bring almost every post-1987 entry in the beloved franchise to North American home video for the very first time. One of these distributors is Anim...
How I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer Anime Series Review
How I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer isn't bad, but it hardly feels like it's taking advantage of any of its potential.
― How I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer is not a complex show. The story's premise of its ostensibly straight male leads winding up dating a trio of hot drag kings certainly lends itself to the potential of exploring gender presentation, roles, and sexuality in relationships. But while tho...
Be Forever Yamato: Star Blazers: REBEL 3199 Episodes 1-6 Anime Review
I'm happy to report that Star Blazers REBEL 3199 blasts out of spacedock, immediately firing on all cylinders.
― Space Battleship Yamato is back with a bang in this latest continuation of the
remake series that began in 2012 with Yamato 2199, and continued with Yamato 2202 and
Yamato 2205 over the subsequent decade. While 2199 was top-tier space opera, 2202 wasn't as universally loved, with a muddled...
Let This Grieving Soul Retire! Anime Series Review
There are no deeper themes to be explored or musings of human nature break down. However, there is a cast of silly characters and fun fantasy mysteries.
― Let This Grieving Soul Retire! is far from the first anime about a dummy of a protagonist who lucks their way into victory while still managing to lose on a personal level time and again. The issue with stories like this is that all too often, the ...
KamiErabi GOD.app Season 2 Anime Series Review
This feels like a show that wants so badly to be deep.
― Let me be up front about something: I didn't enjoy the first season of KamiErabi. Its three cardinal sins were poor writing, characters who made no sense, and rigid CGI. So the prospect of a second season—which was confirmed pretty early on into the first season's airing—wasn't exactly something I was thrilled about. A sentiment among viewers w...
Love Live! Superstar!! Season 3 Anime Series Review
More superlative ideas occasionally break through, but overall, this is easily the weakest season of what had been the strongest series of Love Live! yet.
― The second season of Love Live Superstar felt like the kind of miracle the school idols of this franchise so frequently make happen. Classic Love Live series writer Jukki Hanada and director Takahiko Kyogoku built upon the smart foundation of Sup...
Seirei Gensouki - Spirit Chronicles Season 2 Anime Series Review
With this second season, I am beginning to think that Yuri Kitayama’s original light novel series is simply a poor fit for animated adaptation.
― With this second season, I am beginning to think that Yuri Kitayama's original light novel series is simply a poor fit for an animated adaptation. That's not necessarily because the story is a bit hackneyed; it is, but that's hardly the problem here. The gr...
Fate/strange Fake – Episode 1 (Special Airing)
This episode serves as an inversion to the start of Fate/stay night with a Saber that shouldn't have been summoned and a protagonist who outright refuses to become one.
― The 2023 special Fate/strange Fake -Whispers of Dawn- began the story of Fate/strange Fake by introducing us to the various mages and their summoned heroes. It also laid down the ground rules for this story and how it deviated from ...
Tying the Knot With an Amagami Sister Anime Series Review
There's no pretending this harem anime is particularly good, but it's rewarding to see it recover from a disastrous start and rise up to something decent.
― There are anime that blend heart-warming wholesomeness with something more lewd. One case is Your Name, a chastely yearning love story with jokes about boob-groping, and arguably non-consensual boob-groping at that. Then there are shows like Dan ...
Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2205 Anime Review
More kinetic than Legend of the Galactic Heroes (but sharing its naval theme) and less frenetic than Macross, Yamato strikes a good middle ground for exciting animated space warfare.
― Much like that other pillar of classic anime space sci-fi, Macross, the Space Battleship Yamato franchise experienced a frustrating journey to Western TV screens. The original 1974 series came to the US as Star Blazers...
Trillion Game Anime Streaming Review
Author Inagaki asks us to find entertainment in the story of a man who wants to be the most viciously successful corporate shark of them all. I say, “No thanks”.
― At any point in history, has a man ever been more wrong than in my recent review of Trillion Game's manga? I rated it four out of five and remarked, “I love it.” I highly anticipated the anime version and quite enjoyed the first few episod...
Kinokoinu - Mushroom Pup Anime Series Review
This isn’t a laugh-a-minute comedy, despite the prominence of its weird mushroom-blob animal-thing. Instead, it starts as an almost uncomfortably frank exploration of grief and loss.
― I wasn't sure what to expect when I first picked up Kinokoinu, but it wasn't the overly somber, almost maudlin first episode likely to alienate viewers looking for the comfy, amusing show its promo images seemed to pro...
Tonbo! Season 2 Anime Series Review
One of the best things about sports anime is the deep insight into the passion of people who play. That passion runs very deep in Tonbo! Season 2.
― One of the things I love best about sports (and games) anime is that you won't really learn how to play the sport or game, but you will get deep insight into the passion of people who play the sport or game. That passion runs very deep in Tonbo! Season 2...
PreCure Max Heart Episodes 26-47 Anime Series Review
It pains me to say this, but at the end of the day, Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart just isn’t as good as most of the other seasons of Pretty Cure officially released in English.
― It pains me to say this, but at the end of the day, Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart just isn't as good as most of the other seasons of Pretty Cure we've had officially released in English. (For the record, I'm not counting...
Macross 7 Episodes 1–26 Anime Streaming Review
This lighter, sillier tone feels like the entire series was made as a prolonged shitpost poking fun at the seriousness of the prior Macross franchise entries, and I am absolutely here for it.
― This is the series I've been waiting thirty years to watch officially in English, and it's finally here (at least if you live in non-U.S. English-speaking territories). I'm more than a little sad that it's me ...
Tasokare Hotel – Episodes 1-3 Review (Press Screening)
This is a series that will live or die based on how interesting the “mysteries of the week” are—and how invested we become in the overarching mysteries of those working at the hotel.
― Without question, the biggest thing Tasokare Hotel has going for it is its fantastic setting. It's full of the outright supernatural—i.e., bedrooms changing shape when no one is looking to help jog the memories of thei...
Vinland Saga Season 2 Blu-ray Anime Series Review
While this Blu-ray release is incredibly lacking, Vinland Saga season 2 is as good as it gets.
― I haven't seen a lot of anime/read a lot of manga that hit me even half as hard as Makoto Yukimura's Vinland Saga. And season 2—often called the farm arc, slave arc, and/or Ketil's Farm arc—is arguably the strongest part of that punch. Or—actually, it doesn't feel thematically right to call it a “punch” i...
Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast - Episodes 1-3 Anime Review
Ave Mujica is even more melodramatic than MyGO—and that's probably why you're here.
― Despite what some of its promotion might lead you to believe, Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast - is absolutely not accessible for BanG Dream newcomers. The preceding series It's MyGO!!!!! is required reading for kick-off context on this dark group of distressed theater kids and how they came together to form this bizarr...
Übel Blatt – Episodes 1-2 Review (Premiere Screening)
Übel Blatt feels like an anime from a different era, like a throwback to turn-of-the-millennium dark fantasy stories like Claymore and Berserk.
― These first two episodes of Übel Blatt do very little regarding hand-holding. We're given some brief on-screen text about the mission of the 14 warriors and are shown the brutal murder of Ascheriit—the last of the four who actually completed their mission—a...
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Film Review
This year was already stacked to the brim with Sonic content but does the film close out the year on a strong note? I would have to say the answer to that question is a resounding yes!
― Sonic 3 was one of the most anticipated movies of the year for me. Not only were the previous films solid in their own right, but I was also curious to see how they would handle the second most, if not the most, popu...
BEASTARS Final Season Part 1 Anime Series Review
BEASTARS' final season is nothing so transformative as Trigun Stampede; even as the same fundamental story as Paru Itagaki's manga, it benefits so much from its clarity of vision and purpose.
― I will admit that I felt more than a little bit of trepidation going into this first run of episodes for BEASTARS' final season. I have been singing the praises of this series for years, and without spoiling ...
Delico's Nursery Anime Series Review
If other unconventional combinations like chocolate covered potato chips and dungeon crawler rhythm games can find an audience, then why not a vampire parenthood anime?
― Have you ever watched an anime about parenthood and thought, “Golly, you know what this anime needs? Vampires. Vampires would really spice this up.” Or, similarly, have you ever watched a vampire anime and thought, “If only they wou...
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Movie Review
WotR probably won't become a must-watch addition to your LotR marathon any time soon, but it's still an enjoyable—if a bit underwhelming—adventure movie.
― In 2024, do I even need to explain what The Lord of the Rings (henceforth LotR) is? J. R. R. Tolkien's deeply iconic and highly influential masterpiece is widely considered among the all-time greatest works of fantasy. And even if you haven't read...
Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World? Anime Series Review
Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World? is an anime with a captivating story hook and characters hampered by a substandard presentation.
― Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World? is an anime with an excellent mystery at its core. Kai finds himself in a post-apocalyptic version of his world (at least when it comes to the state of humanity). Yet explanations are hard to come by. Is he in a parall...
Interstella 5555 - The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem 4K "Remaster" Review
Do you remember that story about the fresco that was “restored” by an amateur who clearly had no idea what she was doing? That's exactly what this “remaster” is.
― To say this supposed 4K remaster of one of my favorite movies of all time leaves me with mixed feelings would be an understatement. My initial excitement at hearing this one-of-a-kind collaboration between Daft Punk and their childhood her...
The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible Anime Series Review
This is one of those shows that feels like it's better than it has any right to be. It drags out overused plot contrivances but then uses them perfectly as tools to explore the characters on a deeper level.
― The Ossan Newbie Adventurer is split into two distinct arcs. The first follows Rick as he attempts to get his F-rank adventurer's license. This arc is all about introducing Rick, the world, and ...
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League Anime Film Review
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League is an insanely fun film. It's got the perfect mix of action and comedy while still providing a story that looks into what makes some of the world's most famous superheroes who they are.
― I was filled with more than a bit of trepidation heading into Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League's world premiere at Tokyo Comic Con 2024. Simply put, I felt that the first Batman Ninja fi...
Solo Leveling -ReAwakening- Anime Film Review
Solo Leveling: ReAwakening is a film with a very specific shelf life—one measured in weeks.
― As a film, Solo Leveling: ReAwakening is more than a bit of a mess. This is because it's not really built like one. With a runtime of two hours, the first hour and fifteen minutes are a recap of the first season. The remaining 45 minutes? The first two episodes of the upcoming second season. This causes all ...
Pokémon Horizons Episodes 35-45 Anime Series Review
We have come down to the end of the first major arc of the Pokémon: Horizons anime and it certainly does end on a high note.
― We have reached the end of the first major arc of the Pokémon Horizons anime that ends on a high note. It is impressive how far Liko, Roy, and Dot have come as characters, stepping outside their comfort zones to fully embrace a lifestyle that they never originally thought pos...
Hajime No Ippo Episodes 51-76 Anime Series Review
If you have not taken the chance to watch this series, then fix that.
― The final stretch of episodes for the Hajime no Ippo anime truly feels like we are building up to a climactic event. Throughout the series, Ippo fought other rookies or people in a similar age bracket. But now, we are starting strong with him going up against a seasoned veteran of the boxing world. This is a man who everybody els...
Murai in Love Anime Series Review
Murai in Love is a very strange show. Its premise is strange, its characters are strange, and its animation is strange. So strange that it practically begs to be watched.
― Murai in Love is a very strange show. Its premise is strange, its characters are strange, and its animation is strange. So strange that it practically begs to be watched. I admit that I was mildly non-plussed by Murai in Love at f...
Trigun Stampede Limited Edition Blu-Ray/DVD
Trigun Stampede may well be the jewel in the crown of an anime studio seemingly addicted to producing incredible anime that pushes the entire medium forward.
― The original Trigun anime and manga managed to pass me by in my youth, despite the perfect timing and appeal of the property. I caught a stray episode or two when it aired on Toonami back in the day, but for whatever reason, Trigun never stuck...
Megazone 23 - The Complete Trilogy Anime Blu-ray Review
Megazone 23 is the kind of title that deserves a place on every serious fan's shelf. With all the versions and extras included, there's little doubt this is the definitive release.
― Megazone 23 is a strange thing to review. Although the three installments' stories make up a cohesive whole, they were produced under wildly varying circumstances with different directors and staff, so each has a differe...
Tomo-chan Is a Girl! Limited Edition Blu-ray Review
Tomo-chan Is a Girl! manages to balance its comedy and more poignant bits beautifully.
― It's not always easy to mix comedy with something sterner. Although it's absolutely possible – just look at Terry Pratchett, whose books regularly have messages that belie their comedic style – it takes a special kind of flair to pull it off. Tomo-chan is a Girl could easily have fumbled in trying to combine its ...
Make a Girl Anime Film Review
Make a Girl is, simply put, a film with some interesting ideas but poor execution.
― Three major problems hamper Make a Girl as a film. The first is its very premise. Akira offhandedly makes Zero, a literal living, breathing girl, from nothing. Born a teenager, his lab-grown girl already knows at birth all the information needed to live in human society (like language skills and critical thinking)—ev...
Ghost Cat Anzu Anime Movie Review
Ghost Cat Anzu is a deeply strange but entertaining film that, although it seems to start as a silly comedy, proves to be profoundly emotionally intelligent and interesting.
― On paper, Ghost Cat Anzu would seem to be this year's most family-friendly offering at the annual Scotland Loves Anime Film Festival, now in its 15th year. Compared to most other films, the audience was certainly composed of a ...
Look Back Anime Film Review
The struggle to answer what it means to draw defines Look Back, and despite its short runtime, it manages to encapsulate everything that’s both beautiful and ugly about that struggle.
― “So why is it that you draw?” That's the question that's pondered at the end of the film and ultimately lies at the heart of Tatsuki Fujimoto's original one-shot manga. It's a question that artists across just about a...
Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe Anime Movie Review
While I enjoyed the action aspects of Birth of Kitaro, I can't say it works that well as an entry point for new fans.
― Modern folklore-focused anime and manga owe a huge debt to the work of 1960s manga GeGeGe no Kitaro's artist and writer Shigeru Mizuki. A second world war veteran, the traumatic amputation of his left arm, due to an air raid explosion, never held back his pre-existing artistic ambit...
PreCure Max Heart Episodes 1-25 Anime Series Review
It may be early days for Pretty Cure, but the bones of what has made it such an enduring franchise are there.
― It feels obvious to say this, but Pretty Cure Max Heart, the second series in the franchise and a direct sequel to the first, is still finding its way in the greater scheme of things. While direct sequels aren't unheard of in the franchise (and indeed the fifth season is a direct sequel to ...
Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom Anime Film Review
Now in U.S. theaters, this film shows why this is one of the series' most popular arcs—even if a bit too much was left on the cutting room floor.
― One of the most interesting choices that came from adapting Overlord IV is that the series skipped an entire arc—two entire light novels worth of story. This left an odd gap between episodes seven and eight of that series—where we go from Ainz dealing wit...
Otaku no Video Anime Blu-ray Review
Otaku no Video is an interesting cross-section of what otaku was into at that time.In a sense, that captures the essence of Otaku no Video: a product of its time that remains timeless.
― Otaku no Video is a work full of contrasts that remains an endearingly absurd classic. For the modern viewer, Otaku no Video must seem like the consummate product of its time. It is an original video animation or OVA...
Give It All Anime Film Review
Within its sports narrative, Give It All is a fantastically realistic depiction of how mental hang-ups stay with a person.
― At first glance, this seems like a story told in a billion anime before. A peppy transfer student arrives, joins a dead or dying club, and revitalizes it into a top-tier competitor with a real chance to win “the big competition.” What's different about Give It All is that the a...
Plus-Sized Elf Anime Series and OVA Review
It's good that the show isn't terribly toxic, but simultaneously, as a fan of tasteless comedy, it's disappointing to have nothing that makes me chuckle even slightly.
― I am in the fourth month of a complete relapse of my diet and exercise plan. Meaning that I've been off exercise for as long as I've been on it. And ladies and gents, you best believe it's been a glorious foodie renaissance. I'm talk...
One Piece Fan Letter Anime Special Review
We see major battles through their eyes – distant laser beams visible only from the sparks of light and titanic punches that can be felt miles away as they shake the earth – and realize what it means to be an average person in these times.
― One Piece Fan Letter is precisely what its title describes in the best possible way. What a breath of fresh air this was. It's hard to encapsulate all my feeling...
Gridman Universe Anime Film Review
Widely available in North America for the first time, Gridman Universe successfully ties up the loose ends of SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon, while fan-favorite character Akane looms heavy over the film.
― Gridman Universe is a direct sequel to both SSSS.Gridman. and SSSS.Dynazenon. It continues the plotlines and character arcs of both series, tying up loose ends for some and giving epilogues to oth...
Macross Delta Anime Streaming Review
While the central couple of Hayate and Freyja are easy to root for, Macross Delta's muddled, unfocused story hampers the overall viewing experience.
― At last, the frayed, exhausted patience of (non-US) English-speaking Macross franchise fans has been rewarded. Apart from the 1982 original Super Dimension Fortress Macross and 1984 movie Do You Remember Love (both still held to ransom by Harmony Gold ...
Wonderful Precure! Episodes 25-36 Anime Series Review
The Cures need Niko and their transformations to fight, but their true strength comes from themselves and their relationships.
― While this season of Pretty Cure is unique in several ways, there are two that stand out, at least among legally available series in the west. The first is the overt romantic subplot that truly gets off the ground in episode thirty-six; while Delicious Party Pretty Cure did...
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- Anime Film Review
Now streaming on Crunchyroll, the BLUE LOCK movie makes Nagi an even more interesting and nuanced character, but the last 10 minutes almost upends the film's otherwise interesting plot.
― BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- is a retelling of the early events of BLUE LOCK through the eyes of Nagi and Mikage. However, that's not to say this is a recap or compilation film. Rather, a good 70% of the film ...
ATRI: My Dear Moments Anime Series Review
Because ATRI can't decide what sort of story it wants to be, it fails to excel at anything it attempts, ultimately becoming a lukewarm mishmash of genres.
― Anime based on visual novels must often take drastic measures to cram their frequently verbose, lengthy stories into digestible animated form. Sometimes, this works spectacularly well (Steins;Gate), conversely it can lead to disaster (Umineko, Ts...
Red Cat Ramen Anime Series Review
If there's chicken soup for sick days, Ramen Akaneko is the anime version of that.
― If there's chicken soup for sick days, Ramen Akaneko is the anime version of that. It comforts like a warm blanket, asking nothing of the viewer, except maybe occasional sympathy and understanding. There's otherwise no critical thinking required, no sprawling storylines to detangle, no long list of characters to reme...
The Magical Girl and The Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies Anime Series Review
It's terrible that Cocoa Fujiwara couldn't see The Magical Girl and The Evil Lieutenant, but it's also a way for us to keep enjoying her work, even after she is gone.
― The worst thing about The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies is that there won't be anymore. Or at least, no more based on the original manga by Cocoa Fujiwara; Fujiwara tragically passed away before completin...
My Hero Academia: You're Next Anime Film Review
Now playing in U.S. theaters! This movie is built around a villain who misinterpreted All Might's final words as a hero—and was inspired by them in all the wrong ways.
― My Hero Academia: You're Next is the fourth tie-in film to the wildly popular My Hero Academia TV anime. Taking place around the start of Season 7, this movie is built around a villain who misinterpreted All Might's final words as a ...
Macross Frontier Anime Series Review
Macross Frontier is a hell of a good time and a reminder of why anime is such a fantastic storytelling medium in the first place. What other media dares to mix fighter pilots exploding monstrous aliens with dainty teenage girls singing poppy show tunes?
― Until very recently, being an English-speaking Macross fan has been hard. Thankfully, with the resolution of a long-standing legal dispute regardin...
Hajime No Ippo Episode 26-50 Anime Review
Season two of Hajime no Ippo perfectly transitions from a boxer's humble beginning into the more intense world of professional boxing.
― Season two of Hajime no Ippo perfectly transitions from a boxer's humble beginning into the more intense world of professional boxing. After the rookie championship ends, Ippo interacts with more people who make up the world of professional boxing, such as other tra...
Café Terrace and Its Goddesses Season 2 Anime Series Review
In a genre that so commonly relies on asking, “Will they or won't they?” CTG makes no secret that they will—they all will.
― On paper, there's nothing terribly unique about The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses (henceforth CTG) that sets it apart from the bajillions of other ecchi harem anime. It may be set in a café, but it's still one guy and several girls breasting boobily. In many ways, CTG is very ...
Dungeon People Anime Series Review
Dungeon People is a cute, cozy mash-up of the fantasy and workplace comedy genres that mostly succeeds at what it sets out to do.
― Dungeon People is a cute, cozy mash-up of the fantasy and workplace comedy genres that mostly succeeds at what it sets out to do. While not as relentlessly creative or compelling as this year's earlier Delicious in Dungeon, Dungeon People maintains a pleasant, gently ent...
Tonbo! Season 1 Anime Series Review
While Tonbo! isn’t an outright terrible show, it fails at making golf feel exciting and giving the audience much outside of that, both of which make for one of the dullest sports anime I’ve ever sat through.
― There are two things that I should probably mention here. The first is that I'm not much of a sports guy. I don't dislike sports per se, and I enjoy watching football and basketball games on oc...
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