Episode 20 of Mawaru Penguin Drum was cryptic and full of mysteries, and as always raised new questions with every one it answered. But as a whole, the emotional impact was as powerful as any episode in the series’ entire run. Maybe it’s my tryptophan and wine-addled mind that’s the […] Read more
There’s no Fall anime that guards its secrets as closely as UN-GO, and none that makes you think so hard almost every week. Whether you consider that a positive or a negative probably determines how much of a fan of this series you are. I’ve actually had to think quite […] Read more
I don’t know what’s more remarkable – that Guilty Crown keeps finding ways to get stupider, or that it continues to by oddly entertaining in spite of it. After a little break, the anti-internationalism is back in full force this week – more specifically anti-Americanism in this case. It arrives […] Read more
Towan no Quon continues to traverse some pretty dark territory, and still feels very much at home smack dab in the middle of the BONES tradition. While we still aren’t getting much in the way of background, bits and pieces are continuing to trickle out. We also saw a continuation […] Read more
Complete this sentence: "Chihaya x…" Finishing order: Taichi winning comfortably, and Arata edging out Karuta for second place. Poor Harada-sensei finishes a distant fourth… It didn’t surprise me to see Taichi come out on top, though the margin did. I was surprised to see “Karuta” fare as well as it […] Read more
Subtlety and understatement pretty much went out the window in this week’s ep of Mashiroiro Symphony. Cute kittens abandoned, angelic Miu working herself to collapse – Manglobe pretty much went straight for the hard stuff. I don’t know id ever seen a kitten flag in a romance before, but we […] Read more
Romance takes a back seat this week, as it’s all about the club and the sport itself. The last piece of the puzzle is finally in place with the arrival of Nishida Yuusei (Nara Tooru) on the scene. As I’ve said a hundred times there are no coincidences in anime, […] Read more
Slice of life Tuesday time again… Tamayura Hitotose – 08 I think I’ve realized one reason I’m having a hard time bonding with Tamayura. Shows where the characters smile too much annoy me – call it a pet peeve if you want, but it feels unnatural. It bothered me in […] Read more
There have been some wonderful chapters this season on Ika Musume, but with a somewhat different tone than last. Finally, we have an episode that strings three solid sketches together and feels pretty much indistinguishable from that first season. If I were to try and describe the tonal element that […] Read more
The last four minutes of this episode probably explained more about what’s really happening this season than the previous 19 put together… I’m not going to be hard on this episode, as it was thoroughly entertaining if not quite as much so as the last two. And I think this […] Read more