This month, for Christmas, David, Tora, & I are taking a look at the 1979 Sanrio stop-motion animated film “Nutcracker Fantasy”.
Read moreAnime Explorations Episode 3: Nutcracker Fantasy (1979)
Anime Review: Godzilla Singular Point
2022 is the first year that I have finally decided to knuckle down and get involved with a thing I’d been meaning to do for quite some time. Well, two things – one being doing a convention panel, the other being taking part in Anime Secret Santa. I’ve been a long-time listener of the Reverse Thieves Podcast, so I’d heard about it through them – and more recently it has shifted to being organized by the All Geeks Considered podcast, with Kate & Alan of the Reverse Thieves still taking part. So, when the call came out for participants (and which was repeated on the Reverse Thieves Discord), I tossed my hat into the ring as a participant. So, I was tremendously pleased to see a series that I’d been meaning to watch for quite some time was among the three series put before me – specifically, Godzilla Singular Point.
Read moreAnime Explorations Episode 2: Boogiepop & Others (2019)
This month, David, Tora, and I look at the 2019 adaptation of some of the Boogiepop light novels – Boogiepop & Others.
Read moreFuuto PI: Anime Review
We’ve been getting a fair amount of anime and manga spinoffs of Tokusatsu series lately. The main ones I’ve covered have been the Ultraman manga series and its anime spinoff on Netflix, and Studio Trigger’s Gridman universe series – Gridman and Dynazenon – in addition to ones I haven’t gotten to yet, like the Garo spinoff anime series. This fall’s Fuuto PI (or Fuuto Tantei) is another of those – this time tying in with Kamen Rider W.
Read moreAnime Explorations Episode 1: Keep Your Hands off Eizouken
We have the inaugural episode of the Anime Explorations Podcast! I and my friends David and Tora take a look at Masami Yuasa’s 2020 adaptation of the manga Keep Your Hands off Eizouken!
Read moreDeep Red: Movie Review
Film Review: The House That Dripped Blood
It’s not October without a review of an Amicus film, and this year I’ve got another Amicus Anthology here – the one with the title that grabbed my attention the most – The House That Dripped Blood. Unfortunately, it’s also probably the most disappointing I’ve seen to date.
Read moreFilm Review: Jigoku (1960)
We have our second horror review for the month, with the 1960 film Jigoku.
Read moreSlaughterhouse Rock: Film Review
And now we move fully into the horror films with an ‘80s supernatural horror slasher film – Slaughterhouse Rock, with a bunch of college students being terrorized by a supernatural terror. Also, it’s scored by Mark Mothersbaugh and Devo, so it’s gotta be good – right? Right?
Read moreCall of the Night: Anime Review
Moving belatedly into horror content for the month of October we have Call of the Night, the last of the anime series from the Summer 2022 season that I watched. Okay, frankly it’s not exactly horror – at least not until the back half of the series, but I would describe it as being somewhat horror adjacent. By which I mean, there are vampires.
Read moreCyberpunk: Edgerunners Anime Review
There are not a lot of anime series explicitly based off of tabletop RPGs – Record of Grancrest War, Record of Lodoss War, Rune Soldier Louie, and Night Wizard are some of the few that come directly to mind. None of those – I should mention, are particularly based heavily on Western tabletop RPGs (aside from Lodoss starting as a D&D campaign, before moving through Tunnels & Trolls and eventually becoming a Sword World campaign). So, it is impressive to see Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to be perhaps one of the first anime series to wear the western TRPG connection right on its sleeve. Yes, the show is tied in to CD Projekt Red’s video game – but right from the jump the series credits leads off with “Based on a world created by Mike Pondsmith” – showing how much of its influences it wears on its neon sleeve tattoo. Thankfully, Studio Trigger, who animated this, also does right by its source material far more Cyberpunk 2077 did from the jump.
Read moreAnime Review: Lycoris Recoil
Lycoris Recoil is something of a modern retooling of a genre that we haven’t seen in a while – the Girls With Guns anime series. In particular, Lycoris Recoil in this case has a mix of “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” as a recurring B-plot, with the conspiracy thriller elements covering the series A-plots, with action informed now not by the John Woo films of years past, but the modern John Wick films. All of this works tremendously well.
Read moreFilm Review: Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
It’s time for the first of my two horror film reviews for this year, with a look at the 1959 version of Ghost of Yotsuya.
Read moreAnime Review: Engage Kiss
Engage Kiss is one of the lighter fanservice series from the Summer 2022 season – there were much (*ahem*) harder shows (like Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World – which was borderline smut – and also leaned into some of the grosser elements of the isekai genre) – but Engage Kiss was more palatable about it. Even more, A-1 Pictures paired some of that fan-service with some gorgeously animated fight scenes, making for a series that, while flawed, was really enjoyable to watch. Some spoilers below the cut
Read moreAnime Review: Tokyo Mew Mew New
Tokyo Mew Mew was an oversight in my anime viewing when I was growing up. When I was a kid and watched cartoons with any degree of regularity on Cartoon Network or on Saturday Mornings, the main Magical Girl Show was Sailor Moon. When I got older, 4Kids picked up Tokyo Mew Mew as Mew Mew Power – but by that point I was familiar enough with anime, but immature enough when it came to my opinion of my own taste to dismiss almost anything licensed by 4Kids by reflex. Switch to this year, when we get a remake of Tokyo Mew Mew, appropriately titled Tokyo Mew Mew New, released a little bit after the passing of the original manga’s creator – Reiko Yoshida – and I figured now’s as good a time as any to look into what I missed.
Read moreAnime Review: Ranking of Kings
Ranking of Kings is a show that, frankly, I missed the boat on. It was a show that everyone on AniTwitter, everyone on the anime podcasts I listened to were praising to high heavens, but I pushed off watching it. Until now. Now I’ve finally watched it and it’s time to give the show the consideration it deserves.
Read moreAnime Review: Barakamon
These have been a stressful few years, so certainly, now has been a great time for some nice healing anime, so among the ones I’ve been watching has been Barakamon – a very chill series about life in a rural Japanese town.
Read moreKomi Can’t Communicate: Season 1 & 2 – Anime Review
It is to my great shock that I did not review the first season of Komi Can’t Communicate on this blog. Having now also seen the show’s second season, I think I’m way past due to give this show a review, so it’s time to review both of those seasons.
Read moreDocumentary Review: Eye of the Beholder – The Art of Dungeons & Dragons
Our third documentary review for this month is a look at a documentary on the history of the art of Dungeons & Dragons, with a focus on the TSR years of the game.
Read moreShikimori’s Not Just A Cutie: Anime Review
Back in May, I gave my early thoughts on Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie – one of the rom-com anime series I’d decided to watch last season. It’s time to follow up on my early thoughts to discuss how the complete show fits with my earlier assessment.
Read moreDocumentary Review: Secrets of Blackmoor Part 1
I’m continuing with the tabletop RPG documentaries with a look at the kickstarted documentary “Secrets of Blackmoor”, about the formation of the Blackmoor campaign and Dave Arneson’s early life.
Read moreEye of the Beholder: Documentary Review
It’s time to review another of the RPG documentaries I’ve previously backed on Kickstarter, with Eye of the Beholder, covering the art of Dungeons & Dragons. For those who prefer video reviews of this, there will be a video review coming later this month.
Read moreSecrets of Blackmoor Part 1: Documentary Review
Time to cover a the first of a couple documentaries about the history of tabletop RPGs that I’ve previously backed on Kickstarter, starting with Secrets of Blackmoor – Part 1. There will be a video review forthcoming later this month if you prefer that.
Read moreDocumentary (Video) Review: The Dwarvenaut
For the month of GenCon, it’s time to take a look at a documentary about Tabletop RPGs – or in this case dungeon terrain for Tabletop RPGs.
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