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I Want a Punch-Out!! Soulslike
I started playing Elden Ring recently, and it’s my first time with a Soulslike of any kind. Having to make my character stronger while also improving my own…
Miki Kinemi and the Electrifying Characters of Blue Period
I’ve been catching up on the English releases of the Blue Period manga, and I’ve come to a few realizations. I Really Like Miki Kinemi Miki first appears…
A Lesson Learned: My Brief Stint Going Viral on Social Media
Recently, I made a tweet that got over 100,000 likes. This is not a brag. I had nothing to do with its schedules, seeing as it was someone…
Bringing the Band Back Together: Sound! Euphonium 3
Sound! Euphonium 3 concludes a nine-year journey that follows the students of the Kitauji High School Music Club through the drama of high school and band competition. Taken…
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Kibutsuji Muzan’s Great Flaw
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s Hashira Training Arc has just finished, acting as the prelude to the end. There’s a controversy over its pacing (namely that it streeetches…
How Takanashi Kiara’s Retro Outfit Reflects Changing Beauty Standards
hololive VTuber Takanashi Kiara revealed a new outfit last month: a 1980s aerobics ensemble that ties into one of her songs, the vaporwave retro–themed “Fever Night.” The look…
Muscling Through: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for July 2024
Things are looking dire in the United States because of the recent Supreme Court decision that grants presidents broad powers with few if any checks. I will admit…
Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights June 2024
The big thing this month is the announcement of the Kio Shimoku artbook! Also, a drawing of Darkness from KonoSuba! Kio is going to have an artbook! (I…
La+ Darknesss Is Now a Shoujo Manga Author
hololive’s La+ Darknesss is now a published manga author! As an anime blogger and a Plusmate, I had to write about it. Shoujo manga magazine Hana to Yume…
Kio Shimoku Is Releasing a 30th Anniversary Artbook!
Kio Shimoku, author of Genshiken, recently announced that he’s going to be releasing an artbook collecting his work from across his 30-year career! It will also include an…
Rivalry at Its Finest—Haikyu!!: The Dumpster Battle
In a sports anime where relationships on the court are centrally important, the defining team rivalry of Haikyu! is undoubtedly Karasuno vs. Nekoma. In Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,…
Checking out Holostars: Vanguard Debuts and Movin’ On
Over the past month, there have been a number of events for Holostars, the men’s side of hololive. While I don’t usually watch them often, I decided to…
The Dragons of My Childhood: In Remembrance of Ruth Stiles Gannett
Ruth Stiles Gannett, author of the My Father’s Dragon trilogy, passed away on June 11 at the age of 100. I can’t overstate how important she was to…
Revisiting “The Transformers: The Movie”
The 1980s Transformers movie looms large in my memory. I can still feel a part of me reacting to moments I first saw when I was maybe five…
The Psychological Price of Distance—Gundam Reconguista in G Part IV: The Love That Cries Out in Battle
It’s been over two years since my last review of a Gundam Reconguista in G movie. In Part IV: The Love That Cries Out in Battle, the series…
The Ideon Singer Has a Youtube Channel
Taira Isao is a Japanese singer famous for his contribution to multiple anime songs. Famously, he can be heard in the openings to Space Runaway Ideon, Muteki Robo…
Soul of Where’d My Money Go: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for June 2024
As we inch closer to summer (and all the fun and horror that entails), I find myself a little spend-happy. What can I do when the Soul of…
Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights May 2024
Not very many tweets this month, but starting off with some fun insight into how Spotted Flower has changed. Kio laments that Spotted Flower (a series that was…
Back to Basics: The Blue Beetle Film
On a whim, I decided to watch the recent superhero movie, Blue Beetle. I’ve been feeling a little burned out by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I figured…
Ultimate Character Combo: Idols, Gals, and the Jougasaki Sisters
As character types, the “idol” and the “gal” (or gyaru) have both been around in Japanese media for decades. However, they seem to have hit even greater notoriety…
Happy Birthday La+ Darknesss 2024
Decided to try and do a quick analog ink drawing of La+ Darknesss for her 2024 birthday. As always, VTuber outfits are hard… (I also talked about her…
Bringing the Heat to Prime Time—Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange
Cop-themed media is ubiquitous, but firefighter stories are far less common—maybe it’s the lack of “bad guys.” But here comes Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange, an anime that’s…
A Titanic Tag Team in Every Sense—Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
For almost as long as Godzilla has existed in fiction, there have been essentially two versions of the giant reptile. The first is “Godzilla as force of nature…
When the Shounen Good Boy Gets Hate: Tanjiro, Deku, and Anti-Antiheroes
The first time I learned that some anime and manga fans dislike Tanjiro from Demon Slayer, I was genuinely surprised. To me, he’s one of the best shounen…
A Hot Spring Inn in Ogiue’s Home Prefecture: Meigetsuso
On my trip to Japan last year, I stayed briefly at Meigetsuso, a hot spring ryoukan located in the city of Kaminoyama in Yamagata Prefecture. The reason I…
Crawling Through the Dark: End of Evangelion
In March, I went to a screening of End of Evangelion. While it wasn’t my first time seeing the movie, it had also been many years, and this…
Too Many Good Shows, Really: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for May 2024
The spring 2024 anime season turns out to be absurdly good! There are many highlights among the new shows, but I think chief among them are Train to…
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, Shinkalion: Change the World, Train to the End of the World
Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights April 2024
Momentous events in Spotted Flower’s side chapters gather some fanfare this month in Kio’s tweets. And the end of Elden Ring at last! Spotted Flower online side chapter…
Old-School Noodle Goodness: Kanda Yabu Soba
While in Japan last winter, I decided to check out one of the oldest soba shops in Tokyo, Kanda Yabu Soba. The restaurant dates all the way back…
Bara Bara Obari: Bang Brave Bang Bravern
Bang Brave Bang Bravern is like an anime that has traveled through time to reach us in 2024, but it’s not clear whether it came from the past…
Bad Dudettes, Good Fighting: Holo X Break
When I first tried the hololive fan game Holocure, I was stepping into a recent video game genre that I had never experienced. But things were different with…
One Piece, the Five Elders, and Going Beyond Expectations
I’ve been keeping up with the One Piece manga for many years now, though I don’t write about it all too often because I don’t feel the need.…
Time Well Spent: “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End”
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a major hit, and deservedly so. In an age where fantasy anime and manga often lean heavily on gaming and RPG tropes to…
Alter Egos in VTubing and Pro Wrestling
Sometimes, I think about how so many members of hololive have “other personas,” and I don’t mean past lives as other streamers or entertainers. More than simply being…
Never Stop Sparking: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for April 2024
March was a hell of a month and kind of a bad time for fans of Japanese creators, between the deaths of Toriyama Akira, Tarako (the voice of…
Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights March 2024
Not a particularly momentous month for Kio Shimoku tweets, but still a decent variety. Spotted Flower Chapter 45 is out in the physical edition of Rakuen (digital…
My First Experience with Sumo Stew: Chanko Kawasaki
I’m always interested in trying new foods. That’s why, on my trip to Japan last year, I had a particular restaurant in mind as I landed: Chanko Kawasaki. …
Above and Beyond: hololive 5th fes. Capture the Moment
Over the past few years, hololive Super Expo & hololive fes (a combination convention and live music event) have cemented themselves as the premiere event of not just…
A Boy and Girl Making (It) Out: Won’t You Escape with Me?
There are plenty of manga about a boy and a girl growing closer, but I only know of one where the relationship centers around escape games—Watashi to Dasshutsu…
Dare to Defy the Past: Soaring Sky! Precure
20 years of Precure is an astounding milestone, so it‘s only appropriate for this magical girl franchise to celebrate hard. To wit, we’ve seen a sequel where characters…
The Gargantuan Shadow of Trauma: Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color
Godzilla is practically a genre unto itself. With a 70-year history, the movies featuring the world’s most famous reptilian titan have run the gamut, from thought-provoking to spine-tingling,…
I Found Out FUWAMOCO’s Favorite Genshiken Character
When the Virtual Youtuber group “hololive English Advent” debuted last summer, something in particular caught my eye: The twin demon guard dogs known as FUWAMOCO listed Genshiken as…
A Bird Among Dragons: Remembering Toriyama Akira
On a recent trip to Japan, I walked past a shrine. Next to that shrine were statues of Dragon Quest monsters. Seeing them reminded me of the sheer…
Eating Among the Trains
Continuing my visit to train and train-adjacent locales in Japan, here are my thoughts on two eateries in and around Tokyo: Platinum Fish Cafe and Curry Niagara. Platinum…
Virtual Tumult: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for March 2024
I broke an internal rule this month, which was that I try not to post about VTubers more than twice in a month. However, extenuating circumstances resulted in…
Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights February 2024
Spotted Flower voice comic! Genshiken LINE stickers released! And more from February! Spotted Flower has a voiced manga version now! …Unfortunately, I can’t seem to register for the…
BaeDay 2024: The Unceasing Force of Hakos Baelz
February 29 is the birthday of Hakos Baelz, the red-headed rat Virtual Youtuber. Because it falls on a leap year, 2024 is technically her first “official” birthday, and…
La+ Darknesss Solo Live, the hololive EN “Mind Craft” Cover, and Other Recent Music Events
A lot of cool music-related things have happened in hololive land over the past few months, so I just wanted to give some brief, unorganized thoughts about them.…
Genshiken LINE Stickers Now on Sale
Kio Shimoku just released a set of Genshiken LINE stickers! Best of all, they’re available outside of Japan (unlike so many others). He recently went through a process…
Shinkalion and Japan’s Railway Museum
On my winter 2023 trip to Japan, I happened to do a good deal involving trains and train accessories. This is Part 1 of my experience, focused on…