“The Bells of St. John” It’s a big year for Doctor Who – the 50th Anniversary, something it’s safe to say doesn’t come along too often in the world of TV series (we’ll overlook that little matter of the 16-year hiatus). Show runner Steven Moffat has big plans, though all […] Read more
“Valar Dohaeris” The longest off-season in television – at least it feels like it – is finally over. With the premiere of Season 3 of Game of Thrones came the interesting tidbit that GoT is the most illegally downloaded series ever. That’s fascinating in its own right, but I especially […] Read more
This is just between us, but that was a great finale to a great season. It seems fitting that the two best comedies airing this season should end with a full cast O-hanami – it’s hard to overstate just how much this annual ritual means to the Japanese. This finale […] Read more
It seems to me that we’ve had an unusual number of girls with eyepatches in anime lately… I think in terms strictly of narrative execution, this may very well be the best episode of Little Busters! to date. As a self-contained story with internal drama and humor, it worked pretty […] Read more
The hits just keep on coming – in every way. You and I have met here before, Dear Reader, and danced this dance. Incredible suspense, spectacular character modeling and combat animation, perfect pacing – blah, blah, blah. But my not saying it again wouldn’t make it any less true. Madhouse […] Read more
Space Brothers says farewell to Winter – and its morning time-slot – with a satisfying conclusion to the Nitta arc. I think the groundwork of this episode had been laid out to the point where there were never likely to be many surprises. We’re in very familiar territory here – […] Read more
I was a guest at Australian anime distributor Siren Visual’s podcast this month – it’s online at the Capsule Computers website, check it out! Read more
Hey, I can’t help myself – they’re pretty. Two more rounds of cherry blossom shots. The daytime ones are from Shinjuku Gyoen, a large former Imperial garden just steps away from the madness of central Shinjuku. It was a drizzly and overcast day, which never lends itself to getting good […] Read more
It’s not hard to see a pretty big difference between Kanto’s two rival anime industry conventions. This was my first visit to Anime Contents Expo – it’s only the second that’s ever been held – so I didn’t really know what to expect. As I mentioned in my TAF post, […] Read more
OK, I confess I’m starting to get a little worried. A couple of weeks ago someone might have joked about this entire season taking place at Omi Jingu with the national high school championships, and I would have gotten a good laugh about it. But now I’m not so sure. […] Read more