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LiA Bespoke Project: Honoriffic!
It's fair to say that honorifics play an outsized role in the Japanese language. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – The Tournament Arc
When you've watches hundreds and hundreds of series like I have, how are you supposed to recall all of them on demand?
Protected: LiA Bespoke Project – The Chrysanthemum Taboo
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
LiA Bespoke Project – Hanko? You’re Welcome!
If you want quirky, Japan is the culture for you. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Yakyuu For You
It may be American’s national pastime, but baseball is more popular in Japan these days than it is in the U.S..
LiA Bespoke Project – Pachinko: Balls Out
You may think you know pachinko, but you probably don't know the full story. I sure don't.
LiA Bespoke Project: Omake – Ranking Rumiko
I could easily have gone five deep just with Inuyasha.
LiA Bespoke Project : The Career of Toriyama Akira
Even if I never felt a personal connection to Toriyama Akira's fiction, I found myself strongly impacted by his passing.
LiA Bespoke Project – Tying the Knot in Japan
As is so often the case, Japan's relationship with the spiritual is quite unique.
LiA Bespoke Project: Itadakimasu! – Japan’s Food Culture
The Japanese have certainly become quite sophisticated foodies, but it wasn’t always that way.
LiA Bespoke Project: Top 10 Mystery Anime
Yes, I know I didn't include that one. I'm just not that much of a fan.
LiA Bespoke Project – New Year’s in Japan
Akemashite Omedettou. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Natsumatsuri – the Summer Festival in Anime and Life
Natsumatsuri which have been part of the fabric of Japanese life for centuries and anime virtually since it started. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – Truth in Advertising: The Japanese Konbini
Finally, an institution that lives up to its name.
LiA Bespoke Project: Tying the Knot – Extra Marital Affairs
A series is about more than the protagonists.
LiA Bespoke Project – Anime Pals From Around the World
Anime may be a Japanese medium, but its settings know no borders.
LiA Bespoke Project – Live-action Anime on Stage and Screen
Anime and manga has another side, little known in the West. Live-action animanga is a huge and lucrative industry in Japan.
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga
The people have spoken. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga
It goes without saying that this list was incredibly difficult to put together. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Tournament Arcs Overtime – Best Battles
As a companion piece to the main tournament arcs article, Nicc asked me to include some of my favorite battles from anime.
LiA Bespoke Project: The Tournament Arc Double-Overtime – The Olympics
You gotta love sports.
LiA Bespoke Project: Best of the 2000’s in Anime – Project Engage!
Let's get noughty. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project : The Top 10 Sports Anime – Honorable Mention
LiA Bespoke is back. Once again the benefactor is the incredibly generous LiA MVP Nicc. And the commission this time is a straightforward one.
LiA Bespoke Project: Best of the 2000’s in Anime
This project would be really interesting to take on. Read more
LiA Bespoke Review and Project Announcement: Mouryou no Hako – 1-3
A new chapter for LiA begins... Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – A Crow by Any Other Name
They’re annoying - loud, garbage-strewing, pet-threatening - but we remain fascinated by such fiercely intelligent creatures living in our midst.
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga – #10
In many ways, this is the perfect sports manga. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga List
The people have spoken. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – Anime’s Top 5(ish) Product Placements
The recent overload of Suntory self-promotion in Bartender prompted a discussion of product placement in anime.
LiA Bespoke Project: The 2000-2009 Anime Top 10 – Honorable Mention
Any Top 10 list is, by nature, highly personal. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Hello, Goodbye – Anime’s Best First and Final Episodes – #5
The hardest thing about this topic is trying to remember - in this case, all the first and last episodes I’ve really loved.
LiA Bespoke Project: Yakyuu For You Extra Innings – Ballpark Food
And no ghost runner either.
LiA Bespoke Project: Ayakashi, Mononoke, Youkai – What’s in a Name?
October. Halloween, Beltane - the occult is in the air.
LiA Bespoke Project : A BokuYaba Senryuu For Dark Flame Master
With 136 brilliant BokuYaba chapters in the books, how am I supposed to limit myself to 17 syllables and no spoilers?
LiA Bespoke Project: It’s a Rumic World – The Career of Takahashi Rumiko
When you’d almost universally referred to only by your given name, that’s a mark of high status indeed.
LiA Bespoke Project : The Top 5 College Anime (for Dark Flame Master)
This is another one of those requests that sounds easy but it actually maddeningly difficult.
LiA Bespoke Project: Hello, Goodbye – Anime’s Best First and Final Episodes (Wrap-up)
As always, whenever one compiles a "best of" (or personal favorites) list, what's not on it draws as much attention as what is.
LiA Bespoke Project : That Niche (You Know the One I Mean) – Top 10
You've heard met talk about a certain "niche" on the schedule, and it's easier to give examples of it than to define it.
The perfect post dinner film – Food Luck!
I don’t typically eat before a movie. Instead, preferring to enhance my viewing experiance with salty, buttery popcorn and a fountain drink of choice while watching. The new…
Dessert Eagle
The Dessert Eagle is a semiautomatic pistol wielded by a crooked gangster turned city operator in tonight’s show and tell- but it is also the name of the…
Okamisan and Her Seven Companions
Plot Summary: Ryoushi Morino is very afraid of people looking directly at him. Because of this he has become a master at blending in his surroundings. After he…
Review: THE VAMPIRE AND HIS PLEASANT COMPANIONS
The spooky season is upon us again, and The Manga Test Drive is not immune to its charms! We'll be looking at all sorts of supernatural man...
Review: THE VAMPIRE AND HIS PLEASANT COMPANIONS
The spooky season is upon us again, and The Manga Test Drive is not immune to its charms! We'll be looking at all sorts of supernatural man...
Project A-ko: Perfect Edition Blu-ray
The seminal anime film is back and it looks better than ever before! Find out whether this 1986 classic deserves a spot on your shelf.
The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions Vol 1 Review
Long time manga readers might remember an older shojo series by the name of Baby & Me, which was about a young boy trying to be a good…
Sabikui Bisco (Episode 6) – Companions and Prey
Bisco and Milo have to cross a frozen wasteland and surprisingly find Tirol, saving her yet again. She negotiates some stuff to keep them warm from a nearby…
Towering Genius: the Creation and Judgment of a Dessert Frankenstein
You might be a little baffled by this totally extra title, or perhaps you’re already so used to my content that you didn’t stop to wonder why I…
Episode 157: Eternal Companions
After tackling a couple of mini reviews in The Quick and the Dead, CC elaborates on why Undead Unluck is one of the most refreshing Battle Shonen series…
Let’s Watch SABIKUI BISCO Episode 6 – Companions and Prey
Do you want 22 minutes of post-apocalyptic adventure? Bisco is a brand you can trust.
Answer the Dinner call from Kujira
I’ve been a fan of くじら/Kujira for a good while now, ever since I absolutely fell for his song 金木犀/Kinmokusei (Osmanthus) some three years ago. Since then he’s…