Enter the dragon. Or should I say, dragons. Without any question, this has been the Karuta season on Chihayafuru – as a percentage of screen time, competitive matches are about 4-5X more prominent this season than they were in the first. So it’s hardly surprising that the season should close […] Read more
Summer is already here in Tokyo, even if anime still thinks it’s Spring. It’s pretty much a given that Summer is going to be a step-down from Spring for anime. In fact, in any given year it’s most likely to be the weakest season, with a relatively smaller number of […] Read more
If you were thinking of taking a week off from GKMP, this would probably be the one to do it. To say that not much was accomplished on this week’s Majestic Prince would be a pretty kind assessment. Really, I consider this one step above a recap episode – maybe […] Read more
I guess your take on this ep probably depends on the standard you use to measure. To say this is a tough episode to “grade” is putting it mildly. On the one hand, I think it was the most conventionally successful Valvrave episode in the entire series, apart from the […] Read more
In terms of consistency, Hataraku Maou-sama is right up there with the best of them. The appeal of this series is both simple and complex. It lies in the straightforward way it goes about things and the effortlessness that’s imbued in every frame, but the real trick is in making […] Read more
Be careful what you wish for. indeed… It’s been clear pretty much since day one that Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge was a dark ride, but in many ways I think the episode took it farther down that road than any previously (and that’s saying something). The normal rules don’t […] Read more
Sometimes the fiercest battles come without the raising of a single fist. There’s no question that Kingdom sports some of the finest writing of any series in the past year. It stands out like a sore thumb for a multitude of reasons, that being only one: as a sweeping military/political […] Read more
It’s all fun and games till someone loses an eye… The great Arata mash-up of 2013 is underway, and scheduled to run for the next two weeks. Something, as they say, had to give – there was no way the adaptation was simply going to present about 20% of the […] Read more
Sengoku warlords just keep turning up in the strangest places. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san – 10 I’ll say this much for Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, it’s definitely embraced the stupid unreservedly again. I think the humor is about the same as it was in the first season, but a little bit of the novelty […] Read more
More than ever, the split personality of this series is asserting its presence with authority. The ship has already sailed on Suisei no Gargantia being a masterpiece, or even the best series of the season – both of which certainly seemed like strong possibilities after the brilliant fourth episode. But […] Read more