Hatchan the Villain It’s during the Arlong Park Arc of One Piece that readers are first introduced to a group of fishmen who, led by Arlong, have taken over Cocoyasi Village, the home of Stra…
Jun 4, 2021 • Subscribe
More like this
Newman’s Nook: The #1 Hero
My Hero Academia is a great series that, unlike everyone else out there, I only got into in October. A series about a world where superpowers (quirks) are…
Newman’s Nook: Living Tools
Claymore was a manga (and later anime) series set in a medieval fantasy world filled with monsters called Yoma. To combat the monstrous Yoma, an unnamed organization establishes…
Newman’s Nook: Pandemic Loneliness
Novel coronavirus is changing the way most of us are living out lives. Through the pandemic, we find ourselves separated from each other. Schools, businesses, universities, and churches…
Newman’s Nook: Pirate Family
One Piece is a long-running story about pirates. It is one of the biggest franchises in the world. A huge reason for that, in my opinion, is how…
Newman’s Nook: Astro’s Family
Two Similar, but Dissimilar Men Barrage was a short lived manga series from 2012 written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. The story is set in a futuristic, yet…
Newman’s Nook: Bakuman and Women
For 2022, I decided to tackle a number of manga that I had not yet read. Some I owned digitally via older Humble Bundles. Others were planned based…
Newman’s Nook: I Am Kasane
Sukeyo Fuchi was a renowned stage performer, a beauty well known for her gripping performances. Her daughter, Kasane, however, is known as the ugly girl in school and…
Newman’s Nook: Somali and the Imperfect Dad
Somali and the Forest Spirit is a series that aired in the winter 2020 season about a golem father and their human daughter. A golem is an artificially…
Newman’s Nook: Welcoming as Straw Hats
A few weeks back, I was looking through my Twitter analytics and something hit me: I realized that I’d been losing followers pretty much all year. It was…
Newman’s Nook: Moriking’s Wisdom and Grace
In the world of Moriking, our titular hero is hoping to one day be crowned the King of the Forest. He represents the beetle tribe and, like other insect…
Newman’s Nook: Don’t be a Doormat
Wakana Gojo is a shy high school boy with a passion for sewing clothing for hina dolls. Marin Kitagawa is a popular girl who is very interested in…
Newman’s Nook: Biblical vs. Cultural Angels
Angels are prominent figures in our culture and others, and have been for thousands of years. They are biblical beings that are commonly used culturally to connect a…
Newman’s Nook: What’s in a Name?
I first watched Neon Genesis Evangelion as an 18 year old, new to the anime medium. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I was just enthralled by all the large-scale combat…
Newman’s Nook: Yozakura and Church Family Ties
Mission: Yozakura Family is a relatively new Shonen Jump manga series about painfully shy high school student, Taiyo Asano, as he enters the world of the Yozakura family. …
Newman’s Nook: Every Story Has an End
So, there I was in early December, minding my own business, when an announcement that Boys Over Flowers Season 2 was coming to an end showed up on…
The Potluck Parable
This post began as an in-joke between me and my husband, who was the one who came up with the analogy of ambrosia salad . The rest just…
Newman’s Nook: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Animal Crossing
It was 2004. I was a senior in undergrad living in an off-campus apartment. My bedroom was on the first floor and that was where I did my…
Summer of SoL: Slice-of-Life as Parable
When we kicked off this summertime series celebrating slice-of-life, I ended my introduction with the hope that over the weeks to come, we’d be able to highlight the…
Ya Boy Kongming, ep. 11: The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
There’s a certain parable that’s always intrigued me. Ok, more like, bothered me. It’s the parable of the shrewd manager, the one where the guy basically defrauds his…
Otafu Susume 26 – Recommend Your Own Adventure (The Stanley Parable)
Wife recommends The Stanley Parable and makes spouse reminice on the good-old-days of choose your own adventure books and how these games have evolved.
2024 Annual Interest Nook Honor Awards, reflections + resolutions for next year!
Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well! It’s again that time of the year to discuss the all-encompassing year of media that I have consumed! This includes…
Ayakashi, Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture, GAMERS!, Urusei Yatsura, Vampire Dormitory
2023 Annual Interest Nook Honor Awards, reflections + resolutions for next year!
Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well! It’s that wonderful time of year again for reflections, nominations, and general good vibes as we review the greats and…
Kodansha Light Novels are Now Available on Barnes & Noble NOOK Platform
Kodansha USA unveiled today that people can now purchase and read the publisher's light novel titles off of Barnes & Noble's NOOK platform.
Reader’s Nook: Frieren: Past Adventure’s Finish (Vol. 9), It Takes Two The next day, Too (Vol. 1), and Laid-Again Camp (Vol. 14)
What an exciting week of reviews! We’ve got a collector’s edition of a CLAMP classic (but does it hold up); the latest volumes of two of the most…
Revenge Of The Kickstarter Of The Dagger Of Kamui
Japanese animation, anime, cartoons, manga, 1960-1990, Tezuka, Miyazaki, Ishinomori, Matsumoto, Yamato, Gatchaman, Star Blazers, Captain Harlock
The Roast of Classroom of the Elite
Classroom of the Elite is an anime that I watched. That's not quite the nicest thing I can say about it, but it's close, so here's a new…
The Making of 'The Swallows of Kabul'
The story of a modern, underrated treasure from Europe.
The Adventure of the House of Darkness
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,
1872: The Beginning of the End of the Kingdom of Lūchū (Ryūkyū)
This year has seen numerous events commemorating or marking or otherwise being held in connection with the 50th anniversary of Okinawa’s “reversion” to Japan in 1972, after 27…
Review: The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Though written, produced, and given a musical score by non-Japanese individuals (including Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson from the live-action The Lord of the Rings movies as Executive…
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
For the most part The War of the Rohirrim was very satisfying and it (again, mostly) looked stunning. Glad I finally got to see the film! On the…
The Best of Us, The Worst of Us, The Lot of Us: Saitama
Dicussing Saitama, the bald hero with a dream of…losing?
The Best of Us, The Worst of Us, The Lot of Us: Bakugo
My Hero Academia’s latest season has put its characters into a final battle of sorts. A winner takes all scenario where Tomura and All for One are fighting…
The Best of Us, The Worst of Us, The Lot of Us: Rikka
The grand adventurer of delusion: Rikka
The Legend of Zelda: Queers of the Fandom
I’ve been streaming my favorite game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, on YouTube in the lead-up to the next big entry, Tears of the Kingdom. As…
#101 - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Put on your masks, it's a toxic jungle out there! This time, Tobias, Austin, and Sully discuss Hayao Miyazaki's sophomore feature, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, an…
Pick of the Week: The End of Adulthood
MICHELLE: This is one of those “Welp, I never managed to read any of these, but now that it’s ending I will tout its final volume” weeks, in…
The rise of sight, the fall of sound
Perhaps we don’t often think on the settings in which people watched older TV anime. But quite basic facets of TV’s nature have changed through the decades, in…
The Impossible Journey of 'The Secret of Kells'
Plus: global animation news.
Manga of the Month: The Rose of Versailles
The Rose of Versailles (ベルサイユのばら) by Riyoko Ikeda July 2015 will probably be remembered as the summer when anime and manga dreams came true. Sort of. The month…
Banner of the Stars: Thunder of the Empire
By Hiroyuki Morioka and Toshihiro Ono. Released in Japan by Hayakawa Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino. And so we finally…
Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,
Custody of the Eyes and of the Mind
The misfortune of spending one’s money unwisely always leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth, which can only be alleviated by not having spent much. Buying four volumes…
Blood of the Wise, Blood of the Fool
We often want to go back home, but where is home now? As we live, cities change, the mighty of yesterday fall, new players rise, and unthinkable things…
The Testing of 'Son of the White Mare'
Plus: 'The Storm' and more animation news.
The Power of Threes: The Flowers of Evil
I’m not fond of the Eternal Triangle or the Love Triangle as a trope because it’s usually just too trite. So you’ve got person A, who is being…
The Performance of Power: The Saga of Tanya the Evil
Power is one of those topics that pops up over and over in writing and in life. For instance, power underlies a lot of the relationship stuff I’ve…
The Wonder of Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
This week, I'm joined by Mel of AniMel! Mel is a content creator sharing her thoughts and insights on her favorte anime, manga, manhwa, and webcomics. Whether she's…
The First of 2021 – The End of the Tiny World
I’ve braved the theater once again, for the first time in 2021! I mentioned this series as a highly anticipated one, and it did not disappoint. So now,…
Tune of the (Spookyish) Week: High School of the Dead’s Highschool of the Dead!
A legendary series needs a legendary song! The Tune of the Week is the opening theme for High School of the Dead: Highschool of the Dead by Kishida…