My October Horror reviews begin with the 1977 version of Suspiria, as we make our way through Dario Argento’s Three Mothers trilogy.
Read moreSuspiria (1977): Film (Video) Review
Fruits Basket Season 1 (2019): Anime Review
When I was in High School, Fruits Basket came out in the US and it was a phenomenon. the manga was the flagship of Tokyopop’s unflipped manga (or “100% Authentic Manga”) initiative, and its success led to the majority of manga in the US being published unflipped, and also cemented a longstanding partnership between Tokyopop and Borders which lasted until both went bankrupt – all of that fueled as well by the success of the anime. Now, about 18 years later, long enough for the high school kids who grew up on FuruBa to have kids of their own, there is a new anime adaptation of Fruits Basket, with the first season airing this year.
Read moreHow Heavy Are the Dumbells That You Lift?: Anime Review
I’m a sucker for anime series that are intended to be somewhat educational. So, when How Heavy Are the Dumbells That You Lift came up on the seasonal anime charts, it ended up on my to-watch list. While there is some debate about how healthy this show is, I’m glad it exists.
Read morePromare: Anime Review
This past week I saw the theatrical release of the first film from Studio Trigger – Promare. Here are my thoughts.
Read moreAstra: Lost in Space – Anime Review
A while back, when I had started my fanzine with the intent of getting established science fiction fans, in particular, those who read fanzines (a demographic that is generally more likely to vote and nominate in the Hugos), to watch and nominate speculative fiction anime – I started with a list. I gave a list of anime series that had come out since the turn of the millennium which I thought literary speculative fiction fans would enjoy. Among them was Bodacious Space Pirates, a science fiction anime which I felt took the sense of adventure and wonder that was a fixture of ‘50s and ’60s YA Space Adventure science fiction, kept that, and dropped the obsolete political and social views that fill so many works of that period. Astra: Lost in Space is the next anime that tries this and pulls it off spectacularly.
Read moreLaid Back Camp: Anime Video Review
This week I’m starting my September Anime block with a very chill anime about camping in the off season – Laid Back Camp.
Read moreRobiHachi: Anime Review
RobiHachi is a very different show than most of the anime series I’ve seen – particularly those about travel. Most anime series that are about travel and tourism that I’ve seen tend to be chill slice of life comedies, like Laid Back Camp. RobiHachi, on the other hand, is a very silly, wacky, over-the-top comedy – though one with some thematic elements in common with those other series.
Read moreGundam 0083: Stardust Memory – Anime Review
I first watched Mobile Suit Gundam: Stardust Memory when I was in High School, a little after 9/11. The story worked for me at that time, when all the Gundam I’d seen had been the Gundam compilation films and Char’s Counterattack. Since then I’ve seen considerably more Gundam (including Zeta Gundam) since then.
Read moreWe Never Learn: Anime Review
A lot of fanservice anime tends to be gross. Maybe it’s because the fanservice comes through sexual slapstick of the “Whoops I fell and groped you or looked up your skirt” variety. Or it comes through battle damage of the “Female character gets their top shredded in combat and now their boobs are hanging out” variety. Or it’s of the “Male lead openly sexually harasses female characters variety.” Perhaps that’s why the fanservice that comes up in We Never Learn feels like a breath of fresh air.
Read more5 Anime Series to Watch After Neon Genesis Evangelion
Well, you’ve just finished watching Evangelion on Netflix, and you’re wondering what to watch after this. I have a few recommendations here for you. The video is fairly spoiler-light so if you’re making your way through the show now, you should be fine.
Lists of all the works I recommend below the cut/further down, with affiliate links for Amazon and the Crunchyroll Store, and streaming links, where available. Buying anything through affiliate links helps to support the show.
Dororo: Anime Review
There are works of anime and manga which view feudal Japan with a less than critical eye. Dororo is not one of those works. The original manga by Osamu Tezuka was a work that, while more than a little cartoonish (as this was ’60s Tezuka), looked on the realities of Japan leading into the Warring States period with a critical eye. The 2019 anime adaptation of the work keeps a similar appraisal of the period.
Read moreSpider-Man: Far From Home – Movie Review
I give my thoughts on the epilogue for this wave of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Read moreAnime Video Review: Today’s Menu for Emiya Family
This week I’m taking a look at a cooking anime series from last year – Today’s Menu for Emiya Family.
Read moreGodzilla: King of the Monsters – Film Review
The latest installment of the Legendary MonsterVerse has come out – how does Godzilla’s latest film fare?
Read moreJohn Wick Chapter 3: Movie Review
This week, the grace period is over, as John Wick Chapter 3 has hit theaters.
Please refrain from spoilers in the comments until July 2019.
Read moreDetective Pikachu: Film Review
We get the first of the slated live-action films featured cute fuzzy video game mascots who can snark. Let’s see how this one fares.
Read moreLaid Back Camp: Anime Review
Never has an anime been so perfect in its title as Laid Back Camp. This is a chill, relaxing, and also educational anime.
Read moreAvengers – Endgame: Movie (Vlog) Review
This week I’m taking a look at the end of an era with my (relatively) spoiler-free review of Avengers: Endgame.
Read moreSpace Runaway Ideon: Anime Review
Yoshiyuki Tomino has something of a reputation as an anime director, for multiple reasons. Tomino has a reputation for being full of himself. His interviews about Brainpowerd in Animerica magazine demonstrate this. Anyone who has gone to an anime con and asked a Japanese guest who worked with him for a “Tomino story” can attest to this. Tomino also has a reputation for his absolute ruthlessness for killing off characters in his work. The normal examples of this are Zeta Gundam, the last half of ZZ Gundam, and Char’s Counterattack. However, the work that started Tomino down this road was Space Runaway Ideon. (Pronounced E-day-on).
Read moreFate/Extella: The Umbral Star – Video Game Review
One of my guilty pleasures is the Dynasty Warriors games. They’re fun, engaging, somewhat mindless hack-and-slash games. However, they are not without their faults. There comes a point where you’ve put the Yellow Turban Rebellion down enough times that you just can’t play through it anymore. Thus the appeal of the other takes on the concept from within Koei and without. Such is the case with Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star.
Read moreMy Hero Academia: A Neurodiverse Reading
This past year, as part of my weekend anime viewings with my parents, we watched all of My Hero Academia over the course of a few months. As I watched the show, something struck me. Deku and his struggles with mastering One For All are a really good metaphor for my experiences with Autism.
Read moreHellboy (2019) – Movie (Vlog) Review
The Hellboy movie series has been re-booted, now without Guillermo Del Toro and after superhero movies, in general, have become more mainstream. How does this new film fare?
Read moreAnime Review: The Magnificient Kotobuki
If you’d read my review of Area 88, you may recall that I gushed over the gorgeously depicted dogfights in that show. Since then I’ve been looking for something that scratched that itch. Not necessarily with the amount of grit that Area 88 did – but still, something that had exciting, tense fighter dogfights. The Winter 2018 anime season brought me the thing that I’d been waiting for. Specifically, it brought me The Magnificent Kotobuki, from the writer and director of Shirobako and Girls Und Panzer. Now, the series had some difficulty taking off for some fans because of the stylistic choices the director made. However, once it got airborne, in my view The Magnificent Kotobuki became a fantastic action anime.
Read moreAnime Review: Boogiepop and Others (2019)
In my review last week of the first Boogiepop Omnibus, I talked about this year’s Boogiepop anime series. Since I recorded that episode, I’ve finished watching the series, and have some thoughts of the show.
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