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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

I am starting to question if we really need to base animes off of video games. On the one hand, a lot of the footwork has been done for you, as far as preproduction; on the other hand, you have to come up with real mysteries and not those tales that could be solved in five minutes if I had ALL the clues in front of me. Such is the dilemma with Layton Mystery Tanteisha: Katori no Nazotoki File (“Reiton Misuterī Tantei-sha ~Katorī no Nazotoki Fairu” or “Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Kat’s Mystery Solving Files”). (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…)

Part of the problem with the spy genre is that everything gets tethered to James Bond, so you end up missing some really good spy work (think more of George Smiley). So we have a spy drama before us that not only plays the cat-and-mouse game, but does it with more going on at the same time and with this many chainsaws being juggled, catastrophe is a mere distracted moment away. Welcome to “Spy X Family.” (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…)