There’s no hiding the fact that 2015 wasn’t a great year for anime, but if you squint hard enough you can see signs of hope. As I take stock of what’s happened in anime, not just in the year just-ended but the last several years, a few things become clear. […] Read more
In assessing an anime year, this list is almost as important as that other one. In looking back at my Top 10 list, my original take that 2015 was a slightly below average anime year seems to hold true. Apart from Death Parade – which while not my all-time best […] Read more
What’s last shall be first – and truthfully, I never really doubted what series that would be. #1 – Death Parade The truth is, I knew as soon as I watched Death Parade that if it wasn’t going to take the top spot for 2015, something very special was going […] Read more
Fall 2015 is notably light on surprises, for better and for worse. I had a pretty good idea of what shows figured to be good coming into the season – and judging by the poll, so did you. I haven’t been taken aback by much of anything so far this […] Read more
So how does Summer 1995 2015 stack up so far? Summer doesn’t tend to be the best anime season by any means, but that’s been changing somewhat over the past few years. Summer 2013 being the best season of the year was certainly an aberration, but 2014 had its share […] Read more
Fittingly, I think this season marks progress – but via baby steps. As always, Spring is a critical lynchpin for any anime year. It’s the busiest season of the year, and in good years it tends to be the best. That wasn’t true in 2014, and given the nature of […] Read more
If one is determined to look for bright sides, this generally dismal season at least provides a couple of them. In a vacuum, the Winter 2015 season wouldn’t be too concerning – merely disappointing. But coming on the heels of one of the weakest seasons in years and one of […] Read more
It’s “Oscar” season, and again time to pay tribute to the best anime had to offer in 2014. And once again my earnest congratulations to Studio Ghibli for representing anime at the Academy Awards this year – this time (at long last) in the person of Takahata Isao. And the […] Read more
The accolades just keep rolling in. The results at the top of the LiA favorite series poll are far from surprising, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some interesting numbers here. Starting off with the fact that the 2014 poll had the exact same number of votes as the 2013 […] Read more
2014 is in the books – time for you to weigh in… Here’s the 2014 LiA reader poll – please choose your 5 favorite series of 2014. It’s a huge list, obviously, so I’m going to pin this post to the top for a week during voting rather than hijack […] Read more