If you have ever caught an episode of Robot Wars or BattleBots, or even seen the opening of “Big Hero 6”, there is something exciting about metal-on-metal competitions, as they proceed to rip each other apart. And, to a larger extent, isn’t that what ALL mecha anime is about? However, in this case, this is more of a school vs school approach, seeing which team has the wherewithal to best the other in a more specific competition than merely doing 137 picks at your enemy. This is “Robomasters – The Animated Series”. (more…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

Steampunk is a genre that I genuinely do not fully understand. I can grasp bits and pieces of it and I have seen a few steampunk-themed shows. I even saw “Steampunk”, the anime movie, but I am uncertain what it wishes to accomplish. I bring this up, because the series I just viewed, “Code: Realize − Guardian of Rebirth”, is a strong entry into Steampunk, even though it started out as a video game. (more…)

There is always a problem with having a large cast in an anime, in that everyone needs to be there all the time. However, for this show, “Yōkai Apāto no Yūga na Nichijō” (“Elegant Yokai Apartment Life”), it actually works in its behalf not to showcase them all at once. You see, there are a few key people who need to be there, but the rest can come in and go out, as it befits their character and the plotting. (more…)

At its core, this show is no different than “Future Diary” or “Eden of the East”, where a group of people (in this case, twelve) are brought together to slug it out for domination in a single-night event. Thus, we have “Juni Taisen” (“12 Wars”). There are twelve ruling families, each one a representative of the Chinese Zodiac. (more…)