This season is full of anime that forgot to check the calendar. And I expect them all to sell like crap. OP: “Boku no Kotoba de wa Nai Kore wa Boku-tachi no Kotoba” (僕の言葉ではない これは僕達の言葉;These Aren’t My Words. These Are Our Words) by UVERworld Watching Arslan Senki kind of makes […] Read more
Turns out BONES + Matsumoto + Nightow = the coolest thing since the other side of the pillow. OP: “Hello, world!” by Bump of Chicken I’m pretty staggered by the sheer braggadocio of Kekkai Sensen after two episodes. Frankly, I’m not sure I’ve seen anything this brashly stylish in anime […] Read more
This show is a tough nut to crack. Spring has offered several what I was call pleasant surprises so far (though this early, those could all still blow up) and the shows that were supposed to be really good have held up their end of the bargain. But if there’s […] Read more
Now that’s one high school that doesn’t do locker searches. Owari no Seraph is a funny series in a number of ways, but most pertinent here is the state of expectations it left for me after the premiere. It was excellent – I’d go so far as to say the […] Read more
For a series about cooking, I think Shokugeki no Souma’s recipe is an extremely simple one. I suppose there are two audiences for every popular WSJ adaptation – fans of the manga and new viewers. That’s true for every adaptation of course, but it seems more germane with shounen titles […] Read more
My one-line synopsis of Punchline: “You had to be there”. At the risk of sounding obsessed with the topic, my instant – and I mean instant – reaction to the beginning of Punchline was “Yay – another series trying to bottle Gainax”. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one […] Read more
When I trial a show based solely on the studio behind it and nothing else, things rarely end well… Houkago no Pleiades – 01 Truth be told, it’s hard for me to watch Houkago no Pleiades without a heavy heart, and that’s because of what it isn’t rather than what […] Read more
No suspense here – I loved it. OP: “Miraikei Answer” (未来形Answer; Future-Tense Answer) by TRUSTRICK There are more premieres to come this season, including a couple of shows that seem to have outside sleeper possibilities, but this was the last big one for me. Like Arslan Senki, Ore Monogatari!! was […] Read more
Tastes vary, I know – but honestly, I think you people are kidding yourselves… At long last, we have an anime about girls in the performing arts that’s honest, free of tropes and pandering, and infectious in its love of the art (which it gets just right). It’s called “Aki […] Read more
There’s an awful lot that’s familiar here, for better or worse. For a while it seemed as if Kyoukai no Rinne was going to be orphaned altogether in the English-language market, which seems a bit of a travesty for a Takahashi Rumiko series – even second-tier Rumiko. But CR has […] Read more