[WARNING: Brisk language]

OK, there are a lot of animes that I couldn’t fucking WAIT for the next episode to show up (or two episodes, in my case, as that is how I like it). They include “Attack on Titan” (until it got stupid), “Black Clover” (until IT got stupid), “Erased” (until the last two episodes, when it got stupid), and “Spice and Wolf” (until they decided NOT to have a third season, the fuckers; please excuse the salty language, as I have had to endure a lot of fucking stupidity from the fucking parent companies).

We can also argue as to whether “Spy X Family” is either having a ‘Second Season’ or ‘Season One, Part Two’ (but I JUST found out it is the latter). You know, marketing and whether or not you have the gumption to wait for a combined disk and not piecemeal it, right? It’s all corporate greed. Who the fuck cares on that part of it? I mean, this is one goddam fabulous show. (more…)

Historical drama in anime is few and far between, as there is always some kind of twist to it. You want real history? Go to the History Channel, OK? “Samurai Champloo” certainly is the king of AUHD (Alternative Universe Historical Drama) in that it takes modern sensibilities and imposes it on, in their case, the samurai era. The same thing goes on with the dramedy “Shine On! Bakumatsu Bad Boys” (“Bucchigire!”) (more…)

The thing about this show is that it slid right into the second season with nary an introduction to it. Well, in a sense, but there was the two OVA side stories, but it really is more of a second season than a mere extension of the first season (more on that later), so we are continuing with the isekai of “Ascendance of a Bookworm”, (“Honzuki no Gekokujō: Shisho ni Naru Tame niwa Shudan o Erandeiraremasen” or “Ascendence of a Bookworm: I’ll Stop at Nothing to Become a Librarian”). (more…)

We have always viewed dragons as proud and dangerous creatures. They breathe fire. They crush people underfoot. They lay waste to those around them. They hoard gold. They can fly. I mean, THEY CAN FLY!!! You do not want to mess with them. Even the bravest of the brave have second thoughts when they have to go up against dragons, even if it is a ‘little’ dragon. (Hahahaha! You said ‘little’ like it makes a difference! Hahahahahaha!). Well, what if the dragon was as big of a doofus as the rest of us? (Look, I believe in recycling. Just think of this intro as the return visit). We meet another less-than-meets-the-eye dragon in the mile-long titled “A Herbivorous Dragon of 5,000 Years Gets Unfairly Villainized (“Yowai 5000-nen no Sōshoku Dragon, Iwarenaki Jaryū Nintei”, or “A 5000-year-old Herbivore Dragon Was Recognized as an Evil Dragon For No Reason”). (more…)

Normally, I wouldn’t touch a vampire anime with a ten-foot wooden stake. I feel it is a badly overworked genre, as there is seemingly little more you can bring to it, unless you want to see tons of impalements and neck biting and spurting fountains of blood and other unpleasantness. However, when you are confronted with the title of “The Vampire Dies in No Time” (“Kyūketsuki Sugu Shinu”), it deserves at least a few minutes of time from your busy day, especially as you want to see how they are going to make a full series of it. (more…)

I often wonder why you would want to reboot a series, especially one that still has life in it. Perhaps you want to offer it to a new generation, who doesn’t have the time to see the original (kind of a weak argument). Perhaps you want to take it in another direction and free yourself from the past that YOU created (another weak argument). Perhaps you just want to make a profit from all this (another weak argument, but this one makes better sense). And so, we have “RBWY: Ice Queendom”. (more…)

There are some absolutely brutal animes out there: “Berserk”, “Elfin Lied”, “Gantz”, “Deadman Wonderland” and “Redo of Healer”, to name a few. But the artwork supported the notion that it was going to be a bumpy ride. But what if you have an anime that is equally as brutal, but the artwork lulls you into a false notion as to what is lurking out there? Such is the case with “Made in Abyss” (“Meido in Abisu”). And after the first season and the three-movie arc, we now have the second season, with the multi-worded title “The Golden City of the Scorching Sun” (“Retsujitsu no Ougonkyou”).
(more…)

What is it about con men and great heist epics that enthrall us? Is it the intricacies of the plot in order to make this succeed? Is it the panic of potential discovery? It is that the person who is the mark is far and well deserving of them being taken to the cleaners? Is it a battle of one set of amoralistic forces against another set of amoralistic forces? Well, it’s all of that and a bag of chips. Now, if you or I get taken, it’s a travesty. But to those high rollers, that’s a different story. And that different story is “Great Pretender” (not to be confused with the Platters hit, which is called “THE Great Pretender”). (more…)

It’s hard enough to tell an anime story. You may have a manga to act as a guide, but then comes the hard decisions as to what stays and what goes. I mean, I can take as many pages as I want to tell my story, but 24 minutes is 24 minutes and that CAN’T be argued with. It gets even harder when you try to tell two anime stories at the same time, but that is what you get with “Plunderer” (“Purandara”). (more…)

Another magic show. I know that I really shouldn’t be sniping too hard about them, but it’s just that it runs in cycles and everyone seems to be cranking out a magic show. At least this one puts a rather odd take on things, to the point that it might be a bigger fantasy than that there are people can do magic. This is “The Wise Man’s Grandchild.” (“Kenja no Mago”). (more…)