Now that I know and understand isekai animes (well, kind of understand), I am seeing them everywhere and they take all shapes and sizes and rather bizarre methods to get from where they are to where they are going to be. At least no one had to be murdered for this one (see “Slime”), but that was a reincarnation, not merely a time-and-place transfer. And so we are at the doorstep of another monstrapatiously titled show, “High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World” (“Chōjin-Kokoseitachi wa Isekai demo Yoyu de Ikinuku Yōdesu!”) Yeah, try putting THAT on a t-shirt. (more…)

There is certainly something appealing about airplanes, especially those that came just before and during World War II. There is a grace in their design, a sharpness in their form, a kind of satisfaction as they soar through the skies. However, there is something about 3D animation that doesn’t always work and it always feels like it is boxy and clunky and inelegant. Thus, we have this confluence of approach with “The Magnificent Kotobuki” (“Kōya no Kotobuki Hikōtai,” or “Kotobuki Squadron in the Wilderness”) all the way around. (more…)

Are dragons back in vogue again? Were they ever out of vogue? Or even in “Vogue”? It’s just that I am seeing an uptick in dragon shows, or perhaps I am catching the end results of the wave. This was a show I caught on Netflix (I was able to upgrade my cable service; still no Anime Network, though. Nor hover boards) and I had a gap in the schedule, so there you go, and that is how I ended up watching “Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan” (“Hisone to Masotan”). (more…)

Why do I keep doing this to myself? I keep going “That’s the last time I will EVER see a ‘Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’ anime!” and the next time it comes around, I’m there. I know that it makes less sense than a presidential executive order, but I can’t help myself, and for this latest turn “Golden Wind” (“JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken Ōgon no Kaze”), it makes even less sense as it goes along. (more…)

Can you run out of ideas for adventure shows? I mean, we can go to the depths of the oceans, the outer reaches of space, the darkest cave, the highest mountain, the hottest desert, even what lies underneath your very feet in the big city. What else can you do? Well, what happens when a continent appears out of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean? Adventure calls, which is what happens in “Magmell of the Sea Blue” (“Gunjō no Magumeru, or “Ultramarine Magmell”). (more…)

There is always a problem when you try to put together a show about the human body. For the most part, the body is seen as some kind of community or village or great megalopolis (think like “Osmosis Jones”) and how everyone gets along together, but the analogies don’t always work well, especially when to have to show how things function. But we make a real attempt with “Cells at Work.” (“Hataraku Saibō”). (more…)

So, it is common knowledge that the Japanese will make an anime series on practically ANYTHING. I mean, there’s one that delves into the fascinating world of….being a public servant! And I saw another one about the struggles to create….a new dictionary!!!! (Be still my beating heart. It is hot in here or what?) So when I ran into this one, “Chio’s School Road” (“Chio-chan no Tsūgakuro”, or “Chio’s Commute to School”), I was ready for the caliber of boredom usually reserved for things like being trapped at the Cleveland Airport for a week. Boy, was I wrong. I mean, about the show, not the Cleveland Airport. (more…)

OK, so we are genuinely building to a series of climaxes, as each season is upping the stakes in “My Hero Academia”, to the point that it is a genuine wonder that none of them have dropped out. I mean, I suppose it’s nice to have a quirk, but some people have a quirk that’s not much better than being able to raise or lower the temperature of a room by 17 degrees. Still, it appears the villains are ‘shoving all the chips in’ to see what goes down. (more…)

I didn’t know what I was getting into when I watched this anime movie. I had seen a couple of series set on an island, one being a group of girls having to survive until help came in, another about a group of people who survive a plane crash, but in another land in another land, and this one started off in the same direction, but when you are greeted with the Japanese title first, then you get blindsided by “Kyochu Retto”, not knowing the English title (“The Island of Giant Insects”), but there you go. (more…)

Hoo boy! Another giant fighting robot series. I keep telling myself not to watch them, as my take on the whole feel and approach to it is flat-out ludicrous. Also, I am still smarting from my decision to catch “Gundam Seed Destiny” a genuine waste of time for me and that was a bunch of years ago. However, when this show came up on the schedule, there was nothing else on tap to view and I would rather be pushed, screaming, from a plane at 10,000 feet, over a seething cauldron of lava with angry wolverines in my shorts than watch a pick-up show like “Tokyo Mew-Mew”, so there you have it. And now, we will have a level-headed discussion about “Darling in the Franxx” (“Dārin In Za Furankisu”). (more…)