Romance takes a back seat this week, as it’s all about the club and the sport itself. The last piece of the puzzle is finally in place with the arrival of Nishida Yuusei (Nara Tooru) on the scene. As I’ve said a hundred times there are no coincidences in anime, […] Read more
Slice of life Tuesday time again… Tamayura Hitotose – 08 I think I’ve realized one reason I’m having a hard time bonding with Tamayura. Shows where the characters smile too much annoy me – call it a pet peeve if you want, but it feels unnatural. It bothered me in […] Read more
There have been some wonderful chapters this season on Ika Musume, but with a somewhat different tone than last. Finally, we have an episode that strings three solid sketches together and feels pretty much indistinguishable from that first season. If I were to try and describe the tonal element that […] Read more
The last four minutes of this episode probably explained more about what’s really happening this season than the previous 19 put together… I’m not going to be hard on this episode, as it was thoroughly entertaining if not quite as much so as the last two. And I think this […] Read more
It’s another triumph for gritty, hard-headed realism in episode 7 of Mirai Nikki. In all seriousness, this arc would seem to be pretty high on the suspension of disbelief scale but I’ll direct anyone who’s really bothered to check out the manga, where a side chapter explains a lot of […] Read more
OK, you can start the series now – Khamsin has arrived. Shakugan no Shana III – 07 No question, this was the best Shana episode of the season so far for me. I’m that rare specimen that actually likes Yoshida, so it was nice to see her get some development […] Read more
Psychopathic, eyepatch-wearing commanders aside, I’m still wondering how seriously we should take the threat of an empire that has eight ships stolen by a little girl so easily that the thefts didn’t even make it onto the screen… I tend to find the scenes inside the bowels of the Ades […] Read more
Hunter x Hunter seems to have found its stride, delivering the goods with arguably it’s most “shounen-ish” episode so far. It’s a really good sign when you’re surprised when an anime episode ends, and that was the case here. I felt as if it had lasted about 10 minutes, and […] Read more
After hundreds of iterations you wouldn’t think anime could still find something new to offer in the pool episode, but credit where it’s due – Ben-To sort of did. This was a pretty good return to form for the series after what I thought were two overly serious and mediocre […] Read more
What was without question the best arc in two seasons of Bakuman wraps up this week on a highly satisfying (if slightly puzzling) note. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the solution to the impasse at “Shounen Jack” was. The serialization going on hiatus until Mashiro’s release […] Read more