Category Archives: Anime

Anime

Quick Update on my Anime Holy Grails

Another item on my Anime Holy Grail List is getting a US release – AnimeNewsNetwork has reported that Gkids, in addition to distributing Angel’s Egg in theaters, will also be giving the film a physical release as well. Now, this is just one item on the list, so I’m not going to do a full revision as yet (I’ll want 3 items off the list before I add some replacements), but it’s good to see this title get distribution.

Here’s hoping I don’t have to wait too long for those next two titles to make it off the list.

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Anime

Anime Review: Metallic Rouge

Metallic Rouge is Studio Bones celebrating its 10th anniversary by going back to its routes with an original anime series, with an action show about a pair of ambiguously lesbian characters going on a journey – in this case a science fiction trip through various planets in the solar system, in the process uncovering several mysteries about the world. The problem is that the series, at 12 episodes, doesn’t quite have the time to really do justice to all the themes that they want to cover.

Spoilers below the cut.

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Anime

Anime Review: Solo Leveling

Solo Leveling was one of the web novel titles that I remember seeing promoted heavily by Yen Press. It was one of the first of these Web Novel turned Light Novel titles that got an audiobook release in the US, and generally it had a fair amount of buzz behind it. So, when an anime adaptation came up on the Seasonal charts, I decided it was time to find out what all the buzz was about.

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Anime

Anime Review: Brave Bang Bravern!

I don’t know what I expected coming into this show. On one hand, I got drawn in by the Real Robots Meets Super Robot take on the show, combined with the involvement Masami Obari. Obari as a director is someone who I almost became more familiar with through his involvement on the Fatal Fury anime series, animating the Brave franchise, along with creating the Angel Blade franchise – putting him at the confluence of strongly choreographed action, spectacularly done super robots, and a lot of… actively heterosexual fanservice. So, I was a little surprised to see just how incredibly queer – and particularly gay, Bravern is.

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Anime

Anime Review: Frieren – Beyond Journey’s End

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End was the anime series in the Winter season that was most able to make me ugly cry. It starts off with some heavy reflections on grief and mourning and every few episodes it manages to slip in another shot in the feels. That said, this isn’t a depressing show – instead, it’s a bittersweet reflection on the fact that we and the people we know will eventually grow old and die, so we should value our time with them while we can. It then proceeds to do all of this interspersed with some tremendous fight scenes.

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Anime, Podcast

Anime Explorations Episode 17: Fate/Stay Night (2006)

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David & Tora are back, and we’re getting caught up on this season’s anime, before discussing Fate/Stay Night (2006)

Episode 17: Fate/Stay Night (2006)

David & Tora are back, and we’re getting caught up on this season’s anime, before discussing Fate/Stay Night (2006) Fate/Stay Night (2006) is available: Physically from Amazon (Affiliate Link): https://amzn.to/3SBbI5U Streaming on Hidive: https://www.hidive.com/tv/fate-stay-night Next month we’re watching My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at Lv. 999.

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Anime

Notes on Watching Anime With My Parents

One of the things you normally don’t think about when talking about watching anime, is watching anime with your parents. It often comes up as something to be avoided – as opposed to something to be embraced, particularly with the amount of sex that comes up in Anime. However, once you get older, it gets a bit easier to talk about watching anime with your parents – and it helps if your parents are long-time fans of Speculative Fiction. So, with that in mind, I figure I’d give an update on how it’s gone, and give some notes on some of the shows we’ve watched.

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Anime

Anime Review: Our Dating Story

Our Dating Story: The Inexperienced Me and the Experienced You almost feels like the polar opposite of Girlfriend, Girlfriend. While Girlfriend, Girlfriend is aggressively polyamorous with some hints at bisexuality, Our Dating Story is very monogamous and heterosexual. The other series is very horny, much more horny than the first season, while Our Dating Story is fairly chaste (while being aware of sex).

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Anime

Anime Review: Bullbuster

When Bullbuster was announced, it was viewed as a more grounded successor series to Dai-Guard, a Super Robot anime series that had its tongue firmly embedded in cheek, as it grappled with the tough questions of how do you financially justify operating a Super Robot to fight kaiju. Bullbuster revisits those questions, except with a more grounded Real Robot (though still fighting fairly large monsters), and couches the story in the conflict between small businesses and big corporations.

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Anime, Podcast

Anime Explorations Episode 15: Anime Music Videos & Arcadia of My Youth

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This month we memorialize Leiji Matsumoto and the creator of the Anime Music Video (not necessarily in that order).

Episode 15: Anime Music Videos & Arcadia of My Youth

This month we memorialize Leiji Matsumoto and the creator of the Anime Music Video (not necessarily in that order).

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Anime

Anime Review: Overtake

In the Fall 2023 season, we had an interesting occurrence of two different racing series, each covering different kinds of racing, scheduled on the same day, in adjacent time slots (and I believe on different channels). One was MF Ghost, the sequel to Initial D, and the other was Overtake – a series about Formula 4 Racing. While both were about racing, the two were remarkably different.

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Anime

Anime Review: Blood Blockade Battlefront

Yasuhiro Nightow is a creator with style by the truckload. Trigun and Gungrave both are works with a tremendous sense of flair, with Trigun also having a strong heart as well. So, when I learned about Blood Blockade Battlefront, I went “I should watch that” — and then never got around to it. When this year’s Anime Secret Santa came around, the show was among my options, and I decided now it’s time had come. I chose wisely.

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Anime

The Anime Music Videos Playlist and Commentary

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In the previous episode of the Anime Explorations podcast, I mentioned that this month’s episode is going to include some discussion of Anime Music Videos, in memoriam of the creator of the medium, James Kaposztas, passing away this past year. I had put together a playlist and had some notes on each of the videos, so in advance of the episode, it’s only appropriate to embed it here, along with my comments on each video selection.

If you’d like to join the conversation in the next episode, please E-mail [email protected], with your comments, and they may be read on the show.

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