We got the answer to the one major looming question about this show – will there be a recurring plotline? With two cours to fill it always seemed as if there would be, but for five episodes Tiger & Bunny seemed quite content to be an enjoyable superhero slice of […] Read more
Damn, Deadman Wonderland is just unrelenting. It’s incredibly violent and depressing, a world controlled by venal and depraved sickos where innocent kids are tortured and abused. I can see why this show (and the manga) are not for everybody. But in order for this to work for anybody, it needs […] Read more
Pretty garden-variety Doctor Who this week. It’s mostly a stand-alone storyline, with only minimal references to the recurring plot – which is just fine, of course. Unfortunately there’s not much creative ambition on display, though. It’s a historical Earthbound setting, with a boilerplate monster-of-the-week. I don’t know whether it’s budgetary […] Read more
Well, what do you know – in the end, Moshidora was an anime after all, not a lecture series. First of all, it was a safety bunt – Kawashima was bunting for a base hit. That was a nice way of dodging around the whole strategy/integrity issue, I guess. Given […] Read more
This was purely a setup episode for Gosick, but an effective one. I was never blown away by any specific moment on screen, but just at the moment I was expecting the eyecatch the ED started rolling. Fast paced and efficient, it told a lot of story in a clear […] Read more
Not too much change here, really. C continues to be a fascinating intellectual exercise that isn’t quite connecting as a dramatic venture. But there was some progress on that front, as the story of Kimimaro’s teacher packed more emotional punch in half an episode than the hero’s has in four. […] Read more
No real surprises in episode 9, except perhaps that the entire ep has a morose and depressing air that exceeded even what might have been expected given all the foreshadowing. No surprise that poor Yuki died, as it was the most flagged anime death since Sayaka’s. This episode was really […] Read more
I really don’t want this to degenerate into fanboy, slavish praising – but that’s a real danger after tonight’s AnoHana. I think this series has been amazingly close to perfect after four episodes and it’s not going to be easy for me to sound like anything except a starry-eyed fan. […] Read more
Nasu! So far, the the scales are still balanced in favor of good SHAFT with this show. In fact, I’ve enjoyed the last two episodes tremendously, though there was a troubling upswell of SHAFTisms this week that has me a bit on edge. As hinted at, Makoto broke his arm […] Read more
There’s an interesting sort of transition happening with Moshidora as it reaches the late innings. Maybe it was inevitable, but Drucker is becoming less and less important as the show focuses on the drama – there is an imperative to have some sort of dramatic conclusion after all. The problem […] Read more