Sometimes, you do not honestly know what you are getting into when you dial up any given anime. For many, the capsule description is either intentionally vague or underwhelmingly written, so you could miss something. So, when I ran into “Killing Bites” (“Kiringu Baitsu”), I really got a genre-busting show. (more…)

This is one seriously deranged offering. This is a very binary show: either you like it a lot or you hate it a lot. You also need to understand how it works BEFORE you go in (Wait! How can I understand what I am seeing before I see it? That’s what I’m here for!) Greeting from “Pop Team Epic” (“Poputepipikku”). (more…)

Horror is a genre that is down the list for me of what I wish to see in anime. I want something psychological that doesn’t involve severed limbs and blunt instruments and buckets of gore stored around the house, as it’s the maid’s day off and there is just so much to clean up. However, when I was presented with an anthology of tales derived from the disturbed pen of manga horror artist Junji Ito, since it was going to me more like “Night Gallery” or “Tales from the Crypt”, I decided to take in the “Junji Ito Collection” (“Itō Junji Korekushon”). (more…)

I often talk about what I don’t enjoy in anime. This is done more than to allow me to rant and rave about ‘slights’ foisted against me and more to let you know that even with this issues, I will not dismiss most anime out of hand (except “Initial D”; it would take divine intervention to plunk me down in front of that.) So when horror raises its head, I am wary. (more…)

Well, it came around faster than I imagined, but I realized why. So, we have had the second season of “Gin no Guardian” (or “The Silver Guardian”), which really upped the stakes, but also really left you hanging in the balance. (more…)

I was greatly relieved when the series, “The Ancient Magus’ Bride” (“Mahō Tsukai no Yome”), came to fruition and actually explained the proper position of the apostrophe. (more…)

We have, for your perusal, another in the long and grand tradition of “Girls Who Save the World” shows. On its face, this is no different. No, seriously, it is no different than “Symphogear” or “Yuuni Yuka” or “Battle Girl High School”. Gee, even “Panty and Stocking” could fall into this category. Anyway, “Toji No Miko” (“Katana Maidens” or “Sword-wielding Shrine Maidens”) actually tells two parts of the same story, neatly divided at episode 12/13 (there is a recap episode at 12.5, which might make for a good lead in for the seconds part. I usually don’t do recap shows). But we will get to that break point later. Let us take up the sword, so to speak, and relate our tale. (more…)

Not only is it a sports anime, it’s a driving anime and it is estrogen-heavy! What were they thinking? Well, you know me, I’ll look at almost anything, so I took in the oddness of “Two Car” (“Tsūkaa”). (more…)

One the one hand, I personally enjoy realistically rendered anime. It is far too easy to fall into tropes and traps when you deal with a ‘traditional’ anime style, so when it is more like-life (let me direct you towards “Basilisk”, one fantastic-looking anime), I glom onto it. However, I do not dismiss the experimental; especially when there is a compelling story behind it (let me direct you towards “Dead Leaves”, one imaginative and strikingly insane anime.) (more…)

This is initially a hard show to get into, in that one is uncertain where it is heading to from the outset. It came off as a war series, but evolved into some else, something different, something better, than merely watching a person trying to recover from the devastating effect of combat. “Violet Evergarden” (“Vaioretto Evāgāden”) follows the tale of our heroine up there. (more…)