I am not certain what starts a trend, but there is some trigger. Usually, one company does a particularly themed show, it really takes off and then everyone else rushes to produce a show in that area or sub-genre. I had this with a ton of biking shows a couple of years ago and now, I am seeing it with outdoor shows. I ran into a short pull series about girls who hike up mountains and now, I am given “Yuru Camp”(“Laid-Back Camp”). (more…)

Rating systems are always odd, as it is someone else’s opinion as to what that threshold is between being a child and being an adult (of sorts). It also varies by country so what is OK for one land is verboten in another. I bring this up, as this is kind of the plot of “R-15”. (more…)

Calloo callay! Our favorite demon bureaucratic wonk is back for a second season of marvelous mayhem in “Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 2” (“Hōzuki no Reitetsu”). (more…)

Another Japanese obsession I cannot wrap my noggin around is the theme café/maid café fetish. OK, I have never been to Japan and I don’t even do the Maid Cafes that pop up at anime conventions. It’s a bit of a culture clash for me. And though this show doesn’t define it any better for me, “Blend S” (“Burendo Esu”), was fun to watch. (more…)

I caught this delightful entry at AX 17, where we were the first to see it, which also spurred me to eschew a couple of other offerings to take advantage of actual ballroom dancing classes at the Pony Canyon booth. Even if you know nothing about competitive ballroom dancing, this series, “Bōrurūmu e Yōkoso”(“Welcome to the Ballroom”) will introduce you to it. Yes, the story is as old hat as it gets, but it is executed with a great deal of heart and vigor. (more…)

It has sadly gotten to the point where I am tired of NEETs or hihikimoris or shut-ins or whatever you want to call those people who willingly shut themselves off from the real world to pursue a virtual one. However, this offering, “Netojū no Susume”, (subtitled “Recommendation of the Wonderful Virtual Life” or “Recovery of an MMO Junkie”) does something a bit different than just locking us inside a darkened room, the glow of the monitor giving us companionship. (more…)

I feel that I will never understand the magnitude on the Japanese psyche regarding WWII and the dropping of the bombs. It permeates every fiber of their being and colors almost everything they do, consciously and unconsciously, even so many years after the events. We have another film that looks at the war experience, but it is done in a different manner. The inevitable comparisons between “Grave of the Fireflies” and this one, “In This Corner of the World” (“Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni”) will happen, as both are depressing, but the latter approaches it in a more hopeful, but less natural-looking, manner. (more…)

Slapstick is a harder genre to master than one thinks, as you have to balance the mayhem with the results. It doesn’t succeed as well as it should, and so “Aho-Girl “(“Aho gāru”, or “Stupid-girl”) kind of dissolves into sit-com madness. I say ‘kind of’, as it doesn’t grasp the elements correctly and comes off as more vicious than it needs to be. Let me explain….. (more…)

Untethered OVAs, for me, are a bother, in that I end up getting plunked into the middle of something and since there is not going to be anything to come home to or go on from, it is merely a way to spend a half-hour, looking at the problems of others. Such is the case with “Rescue Me”. (more…)

More Japanese weirdness. OK, sure, this is another “Girls Who Save the World” tale, but what they are doing is saving their city from neglect. Huh? Wha? Eh? This is more of a way to promote the virtues of your particular city, and this is done via ‘action heroines’, some superhero girl who battles the baddies, while extolling some aspect of the city she represents. Well, everyone wants to get in on the act and Hinano City is no different. Thus we have “Action Heroines Cheer Fruits” (“Akushon Hiroin Chia Furūtsu”). (more…)