So fleeting, this fragile beauty. There’s definitely a metaphorical component to watching the snow melt away almost as quickly as it arrived in Tokyo. We ended up getting 27 CM officially (just about 11″) which is a respectable snowstorm even by Chicago standards. For Tokyo it was the largest snowfall […] Read more
There’s definitely a method to Miyuki’s madness, but madness it is. In case anyone has any doubts about the importance of pitching inside, here’s a noted baseball expert explaining why it’s so important. “I own the inside of that plate” indeed – especially for a guy with no breaking pitches, […] Read more
I keep recycling the quote from Jerry Seinfeld, but nothing else feels so right for situations like this: it’s so nice when it happens good… This was, for me, by far the best Space Brothers episode among all the ones that have omitted Mutta (or almost omitted, in this case). […] Read more
I love snow. The Japan Meteorological Association issued its first Heavy Snow Warning for Tokyo in 13 years today. I feel really lucky to be here for this, because I love snow. I love the way it looks, the way it sounds when shoes crunch down on it, everything about […] Read more
How can a kid with such great language skills have no much trouble with one two letter word? Boy, was that episode ever a tale of two halves. The A-part was very much a continuation of the mostly slice-of-life mode that the series has been in for the second season, […] Read more
Yep, definitely the oddest series of the season… I’m glad I don’t have to work on this series’ marketing campaign for Sentai Filmworks, because I wouldn’t want the job of trying to sell this series for all the caterpillar fungus in China. I have a suspicion anyone still watching it […] Read more
Well – baby steps, I suppose. Nishimura Junji (director of True Tears) is the credited screenwriter for this episode, which should be a good sign any way you look at it. Of course he also wrote some of the most inane episodes of Hanasaku Iroha and some of the best […] Read more
What is it about these Shinto series and 4th episodes? I’m not trying to make Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha into something it isn’t. I recognize that this show isn’t – for example – Gingitsune, or even Natsume Yuujinchou. This is a conventionally plot-driven romance-oriented series with broad comedy that happens […] Read more
That was a new spin on identity theft. Witch Craft Works – 05 The danger of any show whose primary appeal (for me, anyway) is randomness is that when it focuses on plot or character – or, God forbid, starts to make sense – some of the magic is gone. […] Read more
Watching this arc really is the agony and the ecstasy… I wrote a lot about last week’s episode, and I suspect next week’s is going to be impossible not to likewise discuss at length – so I feel as if I really need to control myself now. In my defense […] Read more