The age-old debate over whether certain animation is "anime" continues. Join Chris and Nicky this week as they navigate this ongoing discourse, exploring the evolving world of animation with series like Scott Pilgrim and Suicide Squad ISEKAI.
Aug 22, 2023 • Subscribe
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This Week in Anime - When Criticism Meets Anime Fandom
More often than not, critics take the hot seat when reviewing a work subject to the ire of its fandom when it does not align with their views.…


East Meets West #13: Spirited Away .vs. Alice In Wonderland
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…
Auto-tagged Spirited Away


East Meets West #18: Your Lie In April .vs. Amadeus
I was only a few months into high school when I first watched the 1984 film adaptation of the Peter Schaefer’s biopic Amadeus, which chronicles the career of…


East Meets West #16: Anime Sanjushi .vs. The Three Musketeers
Wishing everyone a blessed and happy Easter on this fine Easter Monday. Christ indeed has risen from the grave, and conquered death at the same time, giving us…
Auto-tagged The Three Musketeers


East Meets West #25: Little Nemo .vs. Slumberland
Last November, I learned that Netflix released a live-action adaptation of Windsor McCay’s Little Nemo comics, and my first response was “What?” It seemed odd that producers would…
Auto-tagged Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland


East Meets West #27: Summer Wars .vs. WarGames
Before Mamoru Hosoda released Summer Wars, the concept of an “evil AI” is a trope that had been explored countless times in Western media over the past decades.…
Auto-tagged Iron Man, Summer Wars


East Meets West #8: Konosuba .vs. South Park
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…


East Meets West #9: Lucky Star .vs. Spongebob Squarepants
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…


East Meets West #12: Your Name .vs. 17 Again
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…


East Meets West #10: Nichijou .vs. The Looney Tunes
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…
Auto-tagged Nichijou - My Ordinary Life


East Meets West #28: Mewtwo Strikes Back .vs. Detective Pikachu
For the first time in this blog, I am going to address media from the Pokemon franchise. Arguably considered the most prominent of Japan’s anime, video game and…


East Meets West #6: Digimon Adventure .vs. The Last Airbender
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…
Auto-tagged Digimon: Digital Monsters
East meets West – Playing Kingdom Hearts for the First Time
Lately I’ve been staying at home a lot. Oh who am I kidding, I’ve always been staying at home a lot… And I figured this was a prime…


East Meets West #19: Neon Genesis Evangelion .vs. Pacific Rim
Since the advent of literature, epochs of man fighting monsters has been a popular storytelling genre. Greek legends feature the exploits of figures thwarting mythical creatures, medieval knights…
Auto-tagged Neon Genesis Evangelion


East Meets West #5: Vatican Kiseki Chousakan .vs. Father Ted
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…
Auto-tagged Vatican Miracle Examiner


East Meets West #1: Dragon League .vs. The Mighty Ducks
In professional hockey and basketball leagues like the NHL and NBA, two conferences exist: the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, each with their own set of teams…
Auto-tagged Dragon League


East Meets West #11: My Neighbor Totoro .vs. The Wind In The Willows
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…
Auto-tagged My Neighbor Totoro


East Meets West #26: Japanese Digimon Movies .vs. Digimon – The Movie
Ooooh, I think it’s time for another Digimon post. For this month’s East Meets West, I’m going to be doing something that I’ve never done before here (surprisingly…


East Meets West #2: Steins;Gate .vs. Back To The Future
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on…
Auto-tagged Steins;Gate


East Meets West #30: Little Witch Academia .vs. The Worst Witch
Some shows, while thematically different, can nevertheless contain elementally similar to one another. I’ve already pointed that out plenty in this series of posts: starting from the first,…
Auto-tagged Dragon League, Little Witch Academia


East Meets West #23: Sword Art Online .vs. Ready Player One
Five days prior (6 November 2022) marked the start date of the events of the inaugural Sword Art Online (hereafter SAO) anime. It was on that Sunday when,…
Auto-tagged Sword Art Online


When anime meets litterature
Just so you know, the idea from this post comes from the book Ikebukuro West Gate Park because, as normal it is that the first 2 volumes…
Auto-tagged Blue Exorcist, Genji, Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Black Butler, Durarara!!


East Meets West #14: Castle In The Sky .vs. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…


East Meets West #3: Boku No Hero Academia .vs. The Karate Kid
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…


East Meets West #7: One Punch Man .vs. League Of Super Evil
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…
Auto-tagged One-Punch Man


East Meets West #4: Super Mario Bros. Super Show .vs. Sonic X
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…
Auto-tagged Sonic X


East Meets West #31: Dark Side Of Dimensions .vs. Pyramid Of Light
To my readers:The last time I posted on Monday was Easter Monday of 2022 (April 18) – coincidentally, that was also an East Meets West post! However, today…


East Meets West #17: 5 Centimeters Per Second .vs. The Great Gatsby
Many of us are familiar with the works of Makoto Shinkai, the famous Japanese director of modern hits like Your Name or Weathering With You. Throughout parts of…
Auto-tagged Weathering With You


This Week in Anime - We Love Boys' Love
In celebration of the Sasaki and Miyano film, Chris and Nicky share their favorite BL series and why the genre is for everyone.
Auto-tagged Sasaki and Miyano


East Palace, West Palace (Intro)
Text of an intro given at the Barbican Cinema, 29th June, 2023


This Week in Anime - Can Newbies Enjoy the Arknights Anime?
Steve and Nick discuss what the series has to offer and the pros and cons of joining a militarized medical force staffed by furries.


East Meets West #20: Super Mario Bros (1986) .vs. Super Mario Bros (1993)
It’s been more than a year since I last discussed the Super Mario Bros. anime, sub-titled The Quest To Rescue Princess Peach. It’s a colourful, yet unassuming anime…


East Meets West #15: Boku No Hero Academia (Reprise) .vs. The Avengers Quintology
This week I continue my next batch of posts for the East Meets West series, dedicated to comparing/contrasting anime and Western media of similar premises, and, based on a specific…
Auto-tagged Avenger


East Meets West #21: Sonic The Hedgehog 1996 .vs. Sonic The Hedgehog 2022
Today’s comparison covers another video game film, namely that of the Sonic The Hedgehog series. Although many associate his first movie appearance to have occurred in February of…


East Meets West #24: The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya .vs. It’s A Wonderful Life
It’s not uncommon to have an episode of an anime set around the Christmas period, such as in Toradora, Digimon Adventure, and basically every single slice-of-life show (K-On,…
Auto-tagged Azumanga Daioh: The Animation, Digimon: Digital Monsters


This Week in Anime - When Your Fav Anime Protagonist is Problematic
Heroes who do bad things aren't new to anime, but when is a protagonist flawed and complex and when are they an irredeemable scumbag?


This Week in Anime - When Your Fav Anime Couple is Problematic
Chris and Nicky take on fandom shipping discourse and coming to grips with your problematic favorite couple.


This Week in Anime - When Does an Anime Need a Reboot?
Steve and Chris consider the necessity of rebooting popular anime like One Piece and Hunter x Hunter in the larger anime media landscape. Strap in, they talk about…
Auto-tagged Fullmetal Alchemist, Hunter x Hunter, One Piece


This Week in Anime - Can the Villainess Find True Romance?
In its second season, everyone wants to be or do Catarina Claes, but can our heroine with macrons for brains find true love?


This Week in Games - We Never Asked for This
The reaction to Square-Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda's New Year's letter discussing NFTs in gaming was swift and profoundly negative – it felt like everyone was dunking on its…


Day 1: Call me when you want, Call me when you need – Demon Contracts in Anime
Hello hallowed souls and welcome to the first day of Otakutober! Today, hot off the press to kickoff this celebration of spook is contracts. But not any old…


Godzilla: The East and West Dilemmas
I have seen this topic get a bit heated from time to time and recently it really got deep into my head. This is very much because of…


This Week in Anime - Why Do We Love Animated Food?
Nick and Steve dive into some of the most delicious-looking anime around while talking about why they have been (and continue to be) so popular.


This Week in Anime - When in Rome, Bathe as the Romans Do
Thermae Romae Novae looks to reinvigorate Mari Yamazaki's historical comedy manga about bath culture with a brand new series on Netflix. Does this version manage to bring the…
Auto-tagged Thermae Romae


This Week in Anime - Can an Anime be "Carried by its Animation"?
This week, Nick and Lucas sit down and tried to decide if saying a show is "carried by its animation" actually has any meaning due to the subjective…


This Week in Anime - The Casual Sexiness of Call of the Night
This is, fundamentally, a show about why insomnia kicks ass and seeing the sun is for losers. I respect that a lot.
Auto-tagged Call of the Night


This Week in Anime - Will We Ever Know Why Anime Get Cancelled?
Nick and Chris recount some of the most frustrating anime cancellations, from the Yuri on Ice movie to the second half of Stars Align.
Auto-tagged Stars Align


This Week in Anime - Are We Experiencing a Retro Anime Gold Rush?
With shows like the original Urusei Yatsura and GTO coming to Netflix, Chris and Lucas take a deep dive into the retro anime world to answer the question:…
Auto-tagged Urusei Yatsura


This Week in Anime - Can Makoto Shinkai Only Make One Movie?
Director Makoto Shinkai reached worldwide recognition with his film your name., one of the biggest box office successes in Japan's history. With his new movie Suzume on the…
Auto-tagged Suzume


This Week in Games - Chris Pratt Meets The Banana Slamma
The new Mario Bros. movie trailer reignites discussion about Chris Pratt's casting, Balan Wonderland's Yuji Naka is arrested, and Team Ninja teases a return to their classics.