Tentacles! I think Norio Wakomoto must be contractually obligated to play the King of Hell – how could it have been anyone else? All the pieces are now in place. I don’t know if the 1973 series had some of the really dodgy stuff that this one does, but […] Read more
These little snips of Letter Bee continue to amuse. The irony of this release is that Niche & Steak are pretty much identical in chibi form to their regular form. The topic of the first mini-episode this week is “Dingoes”, and the second focuses on the much-rumored arrival of a […] Read more
Well, this had “heavy hitter” written all over it coming in – Kenji Nakamura as director, NoitaminA time slot (though ratings-wise, that’s meant more of a slap-hitter lately), Tatsunoko producing. They’re one of the pioneers of the business, having directly given birth to Pierrot, Production I.G. and Bee Train among […] Read more
SHAFT series are relatively rare in one aspect – they’re never boring. Sometimes I end up loathing them, usually because the pretentious dialogue and visual tics get out of control. But even then they’re at least interesting. It’s the funhouse mirror of a studio in a sense, incapable of showing […] Read more
This is certainly an odd series. I suspect it’s one of those deals where you really have to know the source material to have any real idea what’s happening. Not having encountered the VN that should be extremely frustrating, but so far at least it’s rather fun. It’s still hard […] Read more
Clearly the best series of the Spring so far, one of the things I love is that Hanasaku Iroha is a show that’s about something. In fact, it’s about rather a lot of things, being as deep a character drama as it appears to be. But what really strikes me […] Read more
It’s been the case since the beginning that Gosick was better as a character study than as a mystery, so this week’s episode should, on paper, have been among the best. And as it happens, it may have been my favorite of the series so far. Victorique and Kujo may […] Read more
So far this is surely the season for retro concepts dressed in brand new clothes. Dororon Enma-kun is already a delight after its premiere, and I’m more convinced than ever that Tiger & Bunny is a winner too – the second episode was even better than the first. The first […] Read more
Brains Base is a seriously underappreciated studio. They’ve done some outstanding work over the past few years, and real kudos to them for the variety of projects they’ve taken on. It’s a versatile studio with an adaptive style, and they’ve created something wonderful with this remake of Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera. […] Read more
Well, that’s better. For a change with this season, I came into a series with low expectations and enjoyed it more than I expected. To be sure, there’s no reason to suspect this is going to be spectacular. I’m not crazy about the character designs CD/AD Haruo Ogawara has put […] Read more