An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Your Princess Is In Another Video Game – Circlet Princess Spoiler Review

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – there’s this fancy fictional sport that seems to be played primarily or solely by girls…

And you’ve stopped me. And probably rolled your eyes at me for using that tired intro that I think I’ve used at least annually on this blog. But if the intro is predictable, overused, and passionless, then perhaps it’s fit for the material on offer this week.

Read More…Read More…

The Butterfly in the Skull – Beautiful Bones -Sakurako’s Investigation- Spoiler Review

Oh boy here I go watching detective fiction again.

There’s something that I’ve said or at least alluded to in previous reviews that I feel like I need to make clear for new viewers each time I take on a series that treads within the genre: this stuff is hard. I don’t mean on the viewer, I mean for the writer. Done well, mysteries are some of the most engaging media to approach, but they’re also incredibly challenging, whether you try to follow the famous rules of fair play or not.

Beautiful Bones is not, by in large, a “fair play” mystery, but it has a lot in common with the genre, featuring a brilliant detective (whether or not the character actually holds that job title), a more common but more down to earth assistant, and an improbable lot of dead people turning up to be investigated.

The twist this time is that we’re taking from CSI as well as Holmes, and when you know enough about the human body (or at least skeletons), dead men do tell tales.

Read More…Read More…

Seasonal Selection – Witch Hat Atelier Premier (Episodes 1&2)

Often times, I try to highlight things that are sight unseen for me, especially original properties, with my seasonal selection entries. This time, I’ll be doing something a little different: the manga of Witch Hat Atelier is pretty well known to me, so I’ve been ready for this anime for a while.

And I’ll just be frank right away, the material deserves to be a masterpiece.

Read More…Read More…

From the Apocalypse with Love – Zaion: I Wish You Were Here Spoiler Review

Zaion (or I: Wish You Were Here. Easy to see why it was localized with a proper noun added in there.) is a 2001 mini-series put out by then-relative-newcomer Gonzo, a studio with something of a checkered record, particularly when it comes to things I’ve reviewed. Their arguably most famous outing, Hellsing, debuted a week after this had its first outing.

Of course, they have pretty much nothing in common, so what’s the pitch for Zaion? The series takes place in a world where humanity is getting owned by an alien virus, we have a sci-fi mystery centered around a nanotech cyborg soldier who fights the problem, and a mysterious esper girl who might be the key to actually solving it.

Promising stuff. Let’s dig in before we think about that too deeply.

Read More…Read More…

Top Five Shows I Will Never Review

Well, it’s opposite day, so instead of dropping a review, I’m providing this: a countdown of the shows that I have no intent to ever review here… and an explanation of why.

Read More…Read More…

Lord of the Space-Flies – Infinite Ryvius Spoiler Review

Since it seems I’m going vintage for the better part of this year’s mecha offerings, let’s take a look at 1999’s Infinite Ryvius. And quickly, before saying that a show that continued its first run into 2000 counts as vintage causes my knees to start hurting.

Read More…Read More…