Yowapeda is the fastest 22 minutes in anime, even on the climbs. This is a tough business, this competitive cycling. There’s a reason Grand Tour specialists who make their living in days or weeks-long endurance events have turned to PEDs so extensively that they’ve caused the sport incalculable damage in […] Read more
My name is Guardian Enzo, and I admit it – I really liked this episode. If I’d read a detailed description of this episode before I watched it, or hell, even the whole script, I would have bet a considerable sum of money that I wouldn’t have liked it as […] Read more
This constant examination and competition may be pretty heartless, but I can’t deny it really separates the wheat from the chaff. As I said last week, this training arc is a pretty good zone for Uchuu Kyoudai. Group dynamics and Mutta’s internal conflicts are the meat and potatoes of this […] Read more
We have met the enemy, and he is us. It’s 9:35 PM in Tokyo, and another excellent sports anime is going virtually unnoticed in the English-speaking world. I’m used to it by now but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing to me, yet it’s an inescapable fact – sports […] Read more
Um, so yeah, that whole thing you guys are doing? It really doesn’t work. Plan A: Invite girl you know loves your boyfriend along on an onsen weekend over Christmas. Plan B: Make lobotomy appointment. At this point, the realization is hit me that the reason White Album 2 hits […] Read more
As much as any episode in Little Busters!, this one felt as if it was a long time coming. Inohara Masato has always been something of a singular figure at the heart of Little Busters. He’s the guy that was always there – Riki’s “best friend”, in his own words […] Read more
Oh, Valvrave – it’s like I’m watching you grow up before my very eyes… As I’m wont to do, let me get the niggling out of the way early so I can focus on the good stuff – and there was a ton of good stuff (and better) in this […] Read more
When it comes to Okada Mari, context is everything. There are a very few writers in anime who have the impact of making it nearly impossible to discuss one of their shows without focusing on them specifically – Okada and Gen Urobuchi being two of the most obvious. Maybe that […] Read more
Of all the shows I’m closely following this season, this is the one that has me the most confused and conflicted. If you’ll indulge me, I find myself fitting everything about this week’s episode of Golden Time into the box called “duality”. There’s always been a bifurcated nature to this […] Read more
OK, raise your hand if you saw that coming. Under normal circumstances you don’s start an episode post by talking about the end of the episode, obviously. But it seems to me that it would be pretty silly to even attempt to focus on anything else first when all anyone […] Read more