I’m wrapping up my October horror reviews with an Academy Award winner – Silence of the Lambs.
Anime Explorations Episode 37: Mieruko-Chan
Anime Review: Anne Shirley
Anne of Green Gables was a part of my life for a significant chunk of my childhood without having read the book. The Anne of Green Gables TV series and its sequel, Avonlea, was ever present when I was growing up. So, when we got a new anime adaptation of some of the early novels, titled Anne Shirley, I had a real “Why not?” moment, and added the series to my watchlist.
Read moreFilm Review: Tenebrae
It’s been a while since I’ve discussed a Dario Argento film, so it’s time to get back to some Giallo with Tenebrae.
Anime Review: Nukitashi
Something which has a history in Japan that we don’t get as much in the US is political satire through adult film. We get some stuff in the US occasionally, but in post war Japan, it almost became an art form – when the film censors looking at adult films are more worried about whether you are properly hiding penises and vagina than whether you’re slipping messages about Japan signing on to the US mutual defense treaty puts them on the road to increased militarization and puts the country in Soviet nuclear crosshairs (or criticisms of the lack of equity in post-war reconstruction Japan, or just straight up Marxist themes) then you have the makings of a way to deliver political messages with a shovelful of smut to help the medicine go down. (Did the Right also know about this tactic and use it themselves? Absolutely!) So, when I read the premise of Nukitashi, I recognized pretty quickly what it was here for – like Shimoneta it’s doing social satire, in this case aimed squarely at the political messaging of Shinzo Abe (though the game it was based on was released before his assassination). Unlike Shimoneta, though, there’s fuckin’!
Read moreAnime Review: There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…
The rather long titled There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… was the big romantic comedy anime I watched in the Summer 2025 season, and I’d describe as the big “disaster lesbian” show, and I think is a series that worked out well, and I’ll be happy to watch more of.
Read moreFilm Review: Horror Express
We have more Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee this week, with the Public Domain horror classic, Horror Express.
Anime Review: DanDaDan Season 2
Season 2 of DanDaDan starts on a messy cliffhanger that, I will admit, makes for a rough start, with Momo Ayase facing assault (with sexual overtones, but not actually sexual) in a Hot Springs, while Okarun and Jin are facing physical assault from a bunch of incredibly powerful old grannies in the home that Jin and his parents are renting. The question because, how well does it handle the payoff?
Read moreFilm (Video) Review: House of the Long Shadows
Kicking off my October Spooky Horror reviews with the underrated Cannon films horror-comedy House of the Long Shadows.
Anime Review: Call of the Night Season 2
While the first season of Call of the Night was a series that was heavy on vibes and less on horror, the second season of the series does delve a little more into Vampire society – and also is something that really gets that while our little low-fi Camarillia is generally very chill, vampires are monsters – and even if the group that Ko is around doesn’t act like monsters, other Vampires can be monstrous.
Read moreAnime Review: My Dress-Up Darling Season 2
My Dress-Up Darling was one of the first shows we did for Anime Explorations, and it was a show we generally really enjoyed. Yes, it was a somewhat horny-on-main romantic comedy anime, but it was tonally light, and didn’t feel leering in the way that other fanservicey series did, combined with a romance between Gojo and Marin that was very sweet, so I’ve been looking forward to a second season, and was quite pleased when we finally got one this year. I already had some high expectations, but this season blew those right out of the water.
Read moreFilm Review: A Taxing Woman
When it comes to the Procedural genre of film, generally these works tend to put their focus on law enforcement – cops and robbers, literally. However, the cops the generally don’t cover are ones who deel with what are considered more “boring” crimes – white collar financial crimes. Smuggling is sexy, robbers are sexy, gangsters are sexy. Tax fraud is still sexy… except people stealing from workers by not properly paying taxes, people stealing from the community by not paying taxes to pay for the services the government provides that they use are still robbers. So, it’s up to a more financial cop to catch them – one like the protagonist of A Taxing Woman.
Read moreAnime Video Review: Overtake!
As we go through this season of Formula 1, I talk about the anime series that got me into watching motorsport, rather than just playing racing video games – Overtake.
Film Review: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
One of the things about having read Paperbacks From Hell is that Grady Hendrix does a really solid job of laying out that for all the ways that the horror genre can be progressive, it can also be tremendously conservative as well, drawing the root of the threat of the horror from societal prejudices. The same lies with the thriller and disaster genres – a place where The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) falls. When a screenwriter or author succumbs to the temptation to make bystanders and victims into archetypes as a shorthand, what archetypes are used matter.
Read moreFilm Review: Dune Parts 1 & 2
With Dune Parts 1 & 2, I wanted to hold off on seeing those movies until the story was complete. Dune was a complete novel after all, and getting half of it without the whole thing would have been frustrating. It’s the same reason why I haven’t watched part 1 of Wicked as of this writing. Part 2 isn’t out yet, so there’s only half the story. I wanted to watch the story – but I wanted to watch the full story. So, once Dune Parts 1 & 2 were released on 4K, I felt it was time to sit down and watch them both together.
Read moreFilm Review: To Live & Die In LA
Haven’t done a live-action film review in a while – time to take a look at To Live & Die In LA, another crime thriller from the director of The French Connection.
To Live & Die In LA is property of MGM, footage used under fair use.
Read moreAnime Review: My Hero Academia: Vigilantes
I’ll admit, to my shame, that I’d dismissed My Hero Academia: Vigilantes as a manga originally as something of a nothingburger side story that wasn’t worth paying attention to. This was a mistake. Instead, MHA: Vigilantes serves as a well executed prologue to the core story, giving us a chance once again to see characters we haven’t seen for a while, plus meeting a new cast.
Read moreAnime Review: Kowloon Generic Romance
Kowloon Generic Romance is one of the romance anime airing in 2025, and is a series that felt the most like a shojo or josei, but is instead a Seinen series. It’s also a series that I feel like the art style doesn’t quite work out in animation.
Read moreAnime Review: Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty
It’s been a minute since the last music anime I’ve watched. There have been idol anime that have aired, but while I’ve enjoyed some idol music, I’ve never really been grabbed by series like the Idolmaster franchise. However, after watching Bocchi The Rock, I found myself looking for more rock band anime, so when Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty came up in the schedule, I decided to give it a watch. I found myself getting more than I bargained for, in a good way.
Read moreAnime Explorations Episode 34: Ghost in the Shell (1995)
This month, we take a look at Mamoru Oshii’s Cyberpunk masterpiece, Ghost in the Shell (from 1995), along with giving some thoughts on the live-action adaptation from 2017, joined by Blaine Dowler.
Next month, we take a look at Macross II.
Blaine can be found on the Babylon 5 30 Years Later Podcast (https://shows.acast.com/babylon-5-30-years-later), and the 99 Years 100 Films Podcast (https://shows.acast.com/99-years-100-films)
Read moreAnime Review: Your Forma
In the past few years of anime streaming, we have had escalating forms of “Streaming Jail”. First, there was Netflix Jail, where a show would sit on TV in Japan but was licensed for streaming in English on Netflix, so you had to wait until the show was done. Then there was Disney+ Jail, where the show was licensed on Disney+ internationally, and you had to wait and see if it went on that service in your region. Now, with Your Forma, we have Smart-device Specific Jail, where a series is only licensed for streaming to a service that’s locked to a specific company’s smart devices. Good news for me – I have a Samsung smartphone and tablet. Bad news for Your Forma – it can’t make it to viewers who don’t.
Read moreAnime Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Quuuux
Gundam Quuuux is a bit of a tricky series to recommend. First, it has the continuation of a problem that appears to have started with Witch From Mercury of series that just didn’t have enough time for their plot and characters to breathe, and not (as was the case with First Gundam) because it was cut short due to poor ratings or sponsors bailing. Second, it’s an alternative universe take on the Universal Century that doesn’t provide a lot of hooks for people who are new to that timeline. I enjoyed it, but I wonder how much of that is due to my own familiarity with the events and characters it’s playing with.
Read moreAnime Review: Wind Breaker Season 2
Wind Breaker’s second season, at first glance, seems like it’s characterization is weaker than the series first season, with protagonist Haruka Sakura taking a backseat to some of the supporting cast. Instead I’d say the characterization of Sakura moves in a different direction, though we do get more development for one of the members of Bofurin’s Four Kings.
Read moreAnime Review: Please Put Them On, Takamine-San!
Ghu Bless the Reiwa-era rom-com! We have, with Please Put Them On, Takamine-San!, which I’m just going to call Takamine-san going forward, a fanservice comedy that generally nails the character dynamics. This includes sexual slapstick that has consent (except one bit in the first episode)! This isn’t a bar that you’d think would need to be cleared, but it is, and it has, though its head did strike the bar.
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