It’s…it’s…Hideyoshi!!! We got a welcome break from blood and guts this week in an episode that was heavy on the humor and slice of life, with a dash of plot development thrown in at the end. It wasn’t the most eventful ep you could want but it solidified this series […] Read more
She’s not wearing any! 80% is a pretty good success rate for a sketch comedy, and that’s about what Mitsudomoe hit this week for me. I’ll take that if it keeps up every week – as for this episode only the “Emergency Drill” sketch didn’t cut it. Kuriyama-sensei is definitely […] Read more
Did someone call for a plot twist? After a pretty steady progression – well, slow but steady – in a uniform direction, we have one of our biggest tectonic shifts in episode 16. Some of the seeds planted in the last several episodes are finally being sown, and things are […] Read more
It’s always interesting to see a Japanese take on a very Western construct – in this case the detective story in the Doyle/Christie tradition. BONES understands the genre well, and their effort has all the right parts in all the right places – but like so many times when West […] Read more
After my semi-regular pilgrimage to Mitsuwa Marketplace today for Santouka Ramen (always the #9 – large shio ramen with special pork) I decided to pop my first Ramune today. In case you don’t know, Ramune is a carbonated soft drink popular with the younger set in Japan. Over the […] Read more
Looks like we’ve hit the reset button. Gauche is Noir again – or so it appears – and Lag and Sylvette are missing him and crying. This is a development that was certainly flagged in the previous episode, both by Dr. Thunderland’s comments and by the disappearance of “Gauche” at […] Read more
Part two of the “Queen of the Adriatic” arc was another winner, though a little short of last week’s classic in the humor department. It was a nicely balanced episode, a kind of all-purpose “Index” entry that should satisfy almost all the fans. This was exposition week for the current […] Read more
Three episodes, three very different personalities for this one. It’s a fascinating journey so far but I wonder whether this series is going to find a groove and settle into it or simply shift in tone from week to week. Episode 3 was not nearly as frenetically paced or content-driven […] Read more
Infinite Stratos is nothing if not a full-service cliche machine. Two osananajimis, no waiting! Our new childhood friend – somewhat ingloriously dubbed by Ichika as “Second Childhood Friend” is Fan Rinin. She’s a spunky little lady from China with twintails and a fang, and she moved next door to Ichika […] Read more
She was eeeeeeeeeeevil… I suppose I should mention that there are major spoilers in this review, so don’t read it if you haven’t seen the episode… The third episode of Madoka was certainly interesting. Of course, being uninteresting was never an issue with this show – like most of Shinbo’s […] Read more