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Summer 2023 Supernatural Round-Up
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Dark Gathering, My Happy Marriage, Undead Murder Farce, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Ayakashi
Special Review: Princess Mononoke
Posted: 9/10/2023I n anticipation of the upcoming release of what may well be Hayao Miyazaki’s final movie, Fathom Entertainment is rereleasing many of Miyazaki’s past films in American…
Summer 2023 Non-Isekai Fantasy Round-Up
Posted: Last week, I did a run-through on the various isekai titles for the Summer 2023 season. Despite isekai tending to dominate the fantasy genre these days, this…
Bleach, Classroom for Heroes, Helck, Reign of the Seven Spellblades
Summer 2023 Mid-Season Isekai Round-Up
Published: 8/21/2023 The Summer season features seven isekai titles and one reverse-isekai title. I have followed six of these beyond the first episode (the exceptions being Sweet Reincarnation…
Review: Ruroni Kenshin 2023 eps 1-6
Posted: Saturday 8/12/23 I had intended to have this review up last week, but a certain large gaming convention and the hectic start of the school year got…
Review – Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune
This is an ONA series consisting of six episodes – a 45-minute first episode and five additional episodes ranging from 27 to 30 minutes long – with a…
Mushoku Tensei s2 eps 1-3
This is the first installment in a rotation I intend to do for the Summer 2023 season, where each week I will choose one title that I’m following…
Review – Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King
Posted: Wednesday 7/19/23 Now that the seasonal Preview Guide is over, I’m planning to post a couple of reviews that I had been putting off. This is the…
Black Clover, Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King, Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune
Spring 2023 Wrap-Up
A fairly stacked spring season has finally come to a conclusion, so it’s time to take a look at how an assortment of titles turned out. Title of…
Summer 2023 Preview Guide
Last Update: Saturday 7/1 4:51 p.m. EDT Welcome to my seasonal Guide! (For the debut schedule, see here.) I expect to cover every full-episode series that will be…
Oshi no Ko episode 11 (season finale)
Rating: A- For a series which has idols at its heart, Oshi no Ko has been remarkably light on actual idol performances. Since episode 1, the closest the…
Oshi no Ko episode 10
Rating: B+ Aqua and Ruby are the centers of this series, and that’s not going to change. As much as character development might focus on other characters, these…
Oshi no Ko episode 9
Rating: B+ Though setting Ruby into the footsteps that her mother followed has been a plot element since episode 2, she has largely remained on the back burner…
Oshi no Ko episode 8
Rating: A- One of the things I love about this series is about how it plays all sorts of different angles, and yet all of it is, to…
Love’s Gentle Spring. . .
Among the sea of isekai (and isekai-like) titles in the Spring 2023 season are a couple of sweet, tame, more old-fashioned anime romantic comedy titles: TONIKAWA: Over The…
In Memoriam, Anime-Style
Though many countries have their own versions of holidays to celebrate the dearly departed, Memorial Day being on the last Monday of May is a uniquely American thing.…
Oshi no Ko episode 7
Rating: A After producing one hell of a hard-hitting ending last time around, the series faced a difficult assignment: find a way to follow through and resolve the…
Oshi no Ko episode 6
Rating: A- “Egosurfing” (the apt title for this episode) is the act of looking one’s self up on social media to see what others are saying about you.…
Oshi no Ko episode 5
Rating: 4 (of 5) In a recently posted interview on ANN, the writer for the source manga, Aka Akasaka, explains how he came up with the idea for…
Spring ’23 Isekai Round-Up
Posted: Tuesday May 9, 2023 With some series hitting their sixth episodes this week, we’re now approaching the midway point of the Spring 2023 season. That means it’s…
Oshi no Ko episode 4
Rating: B+ The writer for the source manga, Aka Akasaka, is probably even better-known as the creator of the acclaimed Kaguya-sama: Love is War source manga. That manga…
Oshi no Ko episode 3
Rating: B+ Since episode 2 aired, news has broken that the first episode of Oshi no Ko was HIDIVE’s biggest debut ever, and also that opening theme “Idol”…
Oshi no Ko episode 2
Oshi no Ko delivered one of the best and most impactful opening episodes in years (though admittedly its extra-long length gave it an unfair advantage!), but because of…
Review: Suzume
Suzume is the latest movie from acclaimed director Makoto Shinkai, and it would be unmistakable as one of his projects even if you didn’t know the director going…
Special Preview: Oshio no Ko
Streams: HIDIVE on Wednesdays Debut Rating: 5 (of 5) Wow. I read the first volume of the source manga a week before, so I knew all of the…
Spring 2023 Preview Guide
Last Update: Welcome to my seasonal Guide! (For the debut schedule, see here.) I expect to cover every full-episode series that will be debuting this season and several…
Winter 2023 Wrap-Up
I had hoped to get a couple more full-series reviews in before the Spring ’23 season hits in earnest, but it looks like I’m going to run short…
Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don’t Believe in Humanity Will Save the World (series review)
What do you get when you form an adventuring party out of rejects and cast-offs from other adventuring parties? You get the Survivors, a bunch whose members all…
Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don’t Believe in Humanity Will Save the World
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV episode 22 (season finale)
Rating: B+ Between last episode and this one, I saw some commentary in some online forums lamenting that Bell was once again be the hero and solo the…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV
Has The Angel Next Door Spoiled You Rotten?
Review: The Angel Next Door Has Spoiled Me Rotten eps 1-10 I would absolutely forgive anyone for dismissing this one as just another generic romcom about an ordinary…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV episode 21
Rating: B+ Original novel writer Fujino Omori is on record as wanting to have as many characters as possible fall for Bell, and he’s proven that statement to…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon IV episode 20
Rating: A- The inevitable has arrived: the episode-opening flashbacks on Ryu’s past with Astrea Familia have finally led to the pivotal moment where the rest of her familia…
Fantasy Farming Done Right
In an interesting coincidence, the Winter ’23 season marks the second in a row that a farming-themed fantasy series has aired. While last season’s I’ve Somehow Gotten Strong…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV episode 19
Rating: A- Episode 19 is the first one in the second half of season 4 to exclusively focus on Bell and Ryu’s plight on floor 37. That’s primarily…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV episode 18
Rating: B+ In some respects, writing reviews when familiar with the source material is actually trickier, since you have to avoid spoilers and carefully gauge if an anime-only…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV
A Second Chance at Greatness: Reincarnation Stories in the Winter ’23 Season
One substantial recent subcategory of reincarnation series in anime (and its source materials) has been one where a man has achieved the height of power, but for one…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Episode 17
Rating: A- There’s a great line from the recent series 86 which immediately came to mind a couple of times while watching this episode: “It’s a child’s right…
Sword Art Online The Movie – Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night
The second of the Sword Art Online Progressive movies, Scherzo of Deep Night debuted in October 2022 in Japan and is now making the rounds in the States…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV episode 16
Rating: B+ The split between three fronts continues in this episode, but this time the third front isn’t the rescue party, but rather Hestia talking to Hephaestus about…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV episode 14
Rating: B+ To a certain extent, this part of DanMachi has become a tale of two redheads. On one side is Alise, the Captain of Astrea Familia and,…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV episodes 13 and 14
NOTE: Due to me somehow forgetting that I hadn’t written up episode 13 yet, these two episodes are being covered together. Rating – Both Episodes: B+ After focusing…
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV
Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV episode 12
The first half left off on one hell of a double-cliffhanger: Bell and Ryu are stranded in the Deep Levels, while the rest of Bell’s expedition must face…
Winter 2023 Preview Guide
Last Update: 7:30 p.m. EST Tuesday 1/3/23 Welcome to my Winter 2023 Preview Guide! (For the debut schedule, see here.) I expect to cover every full-episode series that…
2022 in Review: The Best and Strangest of the Year
As we say good-bye to 2022, it’s time to take a look at the highlights of the year. Prior to Anime News Network starting its current “Best of…
Isekai³: The Isekai Quartet Movie
Isekai Quartet The Movie: Another World Japanese Premiere: 6/10/2022 English Premiere: 12/21/22 (on Crunchyroll) Though American media has a tradition of cross-overs going back at least 40 years,…
Who Lurk in the Shadows?
The Eminence in Shadow, episodes 1-12 Minoru Kageno was a young man who never outgrew his childhood desire to be a hero – specifically, a warrior from the…
Princess Principal: Crown Handler
The recent BD English release of the second installment in the Princess Principal: Crown Handler OVA series led me to realize that I never did get around to…
The Magic of the Inner Palace
Raven of the Inner Palace episodes 1-11 While I don’t specifically consider myself a fan of Chinese Imperial Court-influenced fantasy series, I must have a high tolerance for…
Review: Is the Novice Alchemist Managing?
Management of a Novice Alchemist One interesting trend in anime in recent years (and by extension its common source material) is fantasy series with an entrepreneurial bent. While…
Dual Review: Farming vs. Taming
Note: My apologies for getting nothing posted last week! I had fully intended to continue rotating through various series airing in the Fall ’22 season, so to make…