Yep, Blood Lad still entertains the heck out of me. Blood Lad is a sadly under-appreciated series, and something of a poster child for what’s wrong with the anime industry these days. It only got 10 episodes from Brains Base, which was just barely enough time to scratch the surface […] Read more
It’s not a dream, apparently. I always suspected Mushishi was one of those shows that was more popular in the West than in Japan, but we’re getting a second season this April. Just like that, Spring became one of the best prospective anime seasons since… Well, since Spring 2012. Mushishi […] Read more
Is that unambiguous enough? Since I’m topping old series recommendations for the new year, why not the ultimate recommendation for the ultimate anime? Original post date 7/3/2010. I’ve watched an awful lot of series, movies, OVAs. Been impacted by many of them, moved by many, changed by a few. Certainly […] Read more
I love the newly born year in Japan. Hatsumode is the tradition of visiting a shrine or temple to pray during the first three days of the year, and one which Japanese folks overwhelmingly observe, irrespective of their daily spiritual inclinations. There’s a strong element of family and community to […] Read more
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. To be honest, I’m pretty much of the opinion that if I never see another “He was a normal high school boy living a normal life until she showed up…” anime it’ll be too soon for me. It’s probably not much of […] Read more
How about a little trip back in time? Author’s Note: Recently VVV tweeted me about Cross Game, which got me thinking about this show for the first time in a while. He made reference to the soundtrack, which got me thinking about “Koi Kogarete Mita Yume” (the first ED), which […] Read more
Four words I never thought I’d say pertaining to anime – thank goodness for summer. As I speculated in the 2012 edition of this post, 2013 didn’t turn out to be quite the year 2012 was. But thanks to a better second half than first, it recovered from looking like […] Read more
Well, what do you know – that almost felt like an actual ending. I won’t pretend for a moment that Yozakura Quartet is anything profound or brilliant, but there’s a certain charm to this series that usually manages to put a smile on my face. It drifts and sputters sometimes, […] Read more
Well – mostly. Hard to believe it’s my second New Year’s in Tokyo already. I actually have a TV this time, so I decided to start out with the classic Japanese New Year’s Eve tradition – the Kouhaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Competition) on NTV. It would be […] Read more
This was one brutally hard list to compile. Without a doubt, the cuts for this list were even harder this year than the ones for the Top 10. Looking at the first 10 as compared to last year, I think they come up short as a group. The second 10 […] Read more