OK, first sigh of relief of the season. It isn’t that often that my anime season starts off with one of the very best hopes for an exceptional series (I did actually watch the Bakumatsu Rock premiere first, but didn’t even make it all the way to the end) but […] Read more
In which Suetsugu Yuki displays an unprecedented level of sadism. In my last Chihayafuru post I alluded to the 2009 British Open as a model for what was playing out. For those of you not sports fans, that was the event in which Tom Watson was one hole – one […] Read more
For fans of the USMNT, today is the first day of the 2018 World Cup. It’s been one hell of a ride for the United States in Brazil, a reminder both of what we have going for us as a soccer nation and how wide the gap is between us […] Read more
With Hunter X Hunter, it’s impossible to look back without looking forward. I don’t really know how to start this post, because I don’t really know exactly how to classify this episode. Was it the end of “Chimera Ant”, the beginning of the Election Arc, or something else altogether – […] Read more
If you were pissed the moment the ED started, just remember – it could have been a whole lot worse. Yowamushi Pedal finishes off an excellent three-cour season with an excellent finale, but it certainly raises some interesting questions: did the production committee know along that a second season would […] Read more
The most surprising series of Spring 2014 ends pretty much as expected, but that’s not a problem for me. Gaworare has been an odd series right from the start, and in the final analysis quite a different sort of show than I expected. It a sense it’s as if I […] Read more
Hopefully, the song of the moment on Tuesday won’t be “The Rains of Castamere”. I love Belgium – let me say that up front. They have the best beer, the best chocolate, the best frites and the best waffles in the world – and any country that can say that […] Read more
Even by Byrnhildr standards, that was an unholy mess. What – you you expecting something different? Take a series that’s batshit crazy to begin with, and add trying to do a complete adaptation of 9 volumes (and counting) in 13 episodes and what do you get? One of the most […] Read more
Sasuga. Haikyuu!! simply delivers. I’m not the world’s biggest volleyball fan, but in today’s highly-competitive environment for sports anime where everyone can claim some element that they do best, there’s no question in my mind that Haikyuu’s is this: it does the finest job of actually making the sports itself […] Read more
Those were master strokes, indeed. I was a little surprised by how much negativity I saw from manga readers when this match arrived upon the scene in the Baby Steps anime. Not shocked mind you, as this is one of the more unusual scenarios that plays out in the series […] Read more