Diamond no Ace may be on its best run yet, and much of that momentum is coming from an unlikely source. Read more
First Impressions – Osomatsu-san
Osomatsu-san may put your conventional ideas of how comedy works to the test. Osomatsu-san is the first of my sleeper picks this season (well – I only had two, and one of them turned out to be a short), and it delivers the goods with the funniest episode of the […] Read more
Haikyuu!! Second Season – 01
The exclamation points are back!! OP: “I’m A Believer (アイム・ア・ビリーバー)” by SPYAIR I’ll say this for Haikyuu – this is one series that knows how to make an entrance. It blew onto the scene with one of the best premieres of the year in 2014, and it returns with another […] Read more
First Impressions Digest – Comer Lucifer, Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan, Heavy Object, Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou
Sorry, but with nine shows in the queue, brevity is the soul of wit. Comet Lucifer – 01 This series comes from 8bit, not BONES, but as much as anything the premiere of Comet Lucifer played like a low-rent Eureka Seven. You’ve got a middle-school-aged male lead living with a […] Read more
First Impressions – Kidou Senshi Gundam: Tekketsu no Orphans
Whatever one might think this series will ultimately become, it’s not one to be dismissed easily. This series probably has more baggage than any other this season. There are so many eponymous words attached to it – Gundam, Sunrise, Nagai, Okada – that it’s impossible to go into it with […] Read more
First Impressions – Noragami Aragoto
The return of Noragami feels like getting together with an old friend. OP: “Kyouran Hey Kids!! (狂乱Hey Kids!!)” by THE ORAL CIGARETTES Any anime weekend that gives you premieres by both Madhouse and BONES (there are actually two of those) has a chance to be a pretty good one, and […] Read more
First Impressions – One Punch Man
OK, the season can officially start now. OP: “THE HERO !! ~Okoreru Kobushi ni Hi wo Tsukero~ (～怒れる拳に火をつけろ～)” by JAM Project Naturally the first weekend of the new season is a traveling one for me, and I’m now hopelessly buried and reduced to short posts to try and catch up. […] Read more
First Impressions – Young Black Jack
Once again, let’s start this dance… The parade of the new starts with something old – or at least, something new based on something really old. That would be Tezuka Osamu’s Black Jack, the story of a patchwork quilt of a rogue surgeon named Hazama Kuroo, which Tezuka began in […] Read more
Ushio to Tora – 14
What it comes to bang for your entertainment buck, Usio to Tora is hard to beat. Another stellar episode of UshiTora this week, maybe the most consistent series of the Summer season. This show is simply a marvel of efficiency, rarely wasting a moment of screen time without appearing (unless […] Read more
Akatsuki no Yona: Sono Se niwa (OVA)
OVAs like this are the very epitome of mixed emotions. This certainly isn’t the last time this year I’ll be writing about Akatsuki no Yona, a series I’ve come to love unreservedly. But it may be the last time I’ll be writing about new anime for the franchise, which is […] Read more