Pardon me as I just breathe a little sigh of relief, even as I don’t allow myself to relax yet. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: to paraphrase Roger Ebert, I love Baby Steps. Love, love. love, love, love Baby Steps. Clear enough, I hope. I make no pretense […] Read more
OK, exclamation points just in the title line only. We’re two episodes in, and so far the Haikyuu adaptation is doing pretty much everything textbook perfect. I’m hard-pressed to believe the only thing Mitsunaka Susumu has directed before this was Cuticle Detective Inaba – a mediocre series if ever one […] Read more
To thine own whack be true, BONES… If there were ever a show that was emblematic of the studio that produces it, Captain Earth is it. Some of the top tier studios – Production I.G. is a good example – don’t have a signature identity, per se. They produce all […] Read more
Now that’s change I can believe in. In case you missed it, this week it was announced that Daiya no A was going to have a 52-episode run. It seems ungracious to complain about a full year’s worth of anime in this day and age, but I was hoping we […] Read more
Now that was an example of a show living up to its title. I haven’t had great luck with my main sleeper picks this season – apart from this series only Hitsugi no Chaika still has a pulse in that department – but I’m pretty confident Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii […] Read more
In the immortal words of Azuma Yuhei, this is getting complicated. Life with Chihayafuru was certainly easier when Suou was someone we knew little about and were given no real reason to like, and we could unabashedly root for Harada-sensei with a clean conscience. But as any fan of Hunter […] Read more
Some shows have the merit of at least making mediocrity look good. Escha & Logy no Atelier – 01 Escha & Logy has an interesting history – it’s the 15th game in an RPG series called “Atelier”, though the first to get an anime adaptation. I already had some interest […] Read more
I can already tell that Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou is going to be one of the toughest decisions of the season. I don’t know how many series I’ve followed based entirely or mostly based on visuals, but I can tell you it’s a very small number and I can’t remember […] Read more
Another wonderful episode of Mushishi. Is that the sun setting in the west I see? Has there been another multi-cour anime as consistent as Mushishi? It may not be in a class by itself, but it sure doesn’t take long to call the roll. What’s truly astonishing is that the […] Read more
As Yin and Yang shows go, these two are pretty Yin-Yang-y. Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin – 01 I’m at the point now where I pretty much look at NoitaminA as just another hour on the schedule. Why? Because there’s clearly no longer a broad mandate to air a certain type […] Read more