Enter the…. Well, whatever the hell Raichi is. Brat? It’s a complete change-of-pace for Ace of Diamond this week. We bid a fond farewell to Yeung and Akikawa, obviously, but also largely set the main characters to the side in favor of a focus on the game that will determine […] Read more
The most damning of all faint praise – “it could have been worse”… Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii – 06 I was tempted to limit my review of Soredemo Sekai to a single sentence this week – “The less I say about this episode the better.” But the truth is by […] Read more
Now that’s presenting taking the piss in a wholly different light. In the time I’ve been blogging, no show has ever survived “On the Respirator” status in the season check-in post. But Sidonia no Kishi might just be the first one, if the last two episodes are any indication. I […] Read more
I’ll never o-hanami the same way again. One of the dirty little secrets about Mushishi is that most of the time, it’s not really about Mushi but about people. Each story is like a self-contained parable about the vagaries of human nature – our hopes and dreams, our capacity for […] Read more
Some series just boil down to that old carnival sign on the wall in The John Laroquette Show: “This is a dark ride”. What a fascinating and subtle series Ping Pong is. There aren’t many series about which I would use the term “deep”, but this one is – there […] Read more
I suppose I’d consider that a bullet dodged. Given the last few seconds of last week’s otherwise solid episode of Hitsugi no Chaika, I was seriously worried about where the series might be headed (much as I am about Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii and Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou, and for […] Read more
Well, damn – I hardly know where to start with that one… This is a snippet of what I wrote two weeks ago, after the blooming of the miniature rose: I’m very, very reluctant to try and dig into the deeper meaning of what we saw… It will simply invite […] Read more
Enter the dragon. Well – the freak, anyway. Way back in the Fall Preview post I said of Yowamushi Pedal that “There’s everything here that should make a series appealing to a broad audience – it just happens to be sports-themed.”, and after watching a few episodes, in the Check-in […] Read more
Seki-kun wins! Kanojo ga Flag o Oraretara – 05 The phrase that leaps to mind for Gawoware is “curiously compelling”. Surely, this is one of the strangest series of the year. That’s not enough to make a show worthwhile on its own, obviously, but it is interesting – and so […] Read more
Funniest show of the season, hands down. If you’d told me before the season started that I’d be sticking with Gokokoku no Brynhildr because it makes me laugh harder than any other series, there’s no way I’d have believed it. But that’s the case, no denying it – this show […] Read more