My heartfelt congratulations to Manglobe. Animation studios have been doing these adaptations for years and years, and you’ve finally gotten it right. It’s no surprise that the Mashiro-Iro poll is the closest one I’ve ever had at LiA (I’ve kept all polling places open an extra day due to the […] Read more
One of my favorite sitcoms back when I was a little kid was “The John Laroquette Show” (as with most of the shows I loved, it was a ratings failure and flared out like a supernova). Laroquette is a very funny man who’s lived a very hard and painful life, […] Read more
The difference between Yozora and Ume from Ben-To is that if I could pick pick one Yozora scene to excise from every episode, I might just not hate her – in fact, I might just feel sorry for her. Alas, that’s not how it works, and she always manages to […] Read more
With only two episodes remaining after this one and so many unanswered questions hanging over things, it seems very likely that this is the arc that will take us to the end of the series. If so, they’ve chosen to go out with what looks to be a good mystery. […] Read more
What do you know – a conventionally good episode of Guilty Crown this week. It’s nice to be able to praise this series without being ironic for a change. While the exposition was a bit muddier than it should have been and we had no shortage of clichés added to […] Read more
Kimi to Boku – 10 I’ll give this series credit – it knows exactly what the target audience is, and goes straight for the jugular. Yet another cross-dressing ep this week, as it’s culture festival time. KtB manages to get all but Yuki (who was himself dressed as Ketaro for […] Read more
“Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below” I honestly don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Shinkai Makoto is the most important anime director in the world. But while I’ve been arguing for years that the endless examples of him being called “The Next Miyazaki” were off base, […] Read more
I’m convinced at this point that grouchy old Miyauchi-sensei knew exactly what she was doing when she forced the Karuta Club to name Taichi as President. And right now, she looks like a friggin’ genius for doing it. I’m quite struck with just how thoroughly Chihayafuru blends its genres to […] Read more
This is certainly a show that holds up well. With each new opportunity to revisit it I’m reminded of just how much I love it. I confess I sat on this episode for the better part of a week, wanting and yet not wanting to watch it. As long as […] Read more
One of the things that’s always set Shinryaku Ika Musume apart from lesser comedies is that when it decides to go straight for the heart, it’s aim is usually perfect – and this week’s last chapter was proof that’s still as true as ever. Before that, we had a couple […] Read more