An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: December 2024

Otome Sentai Apocalypse – Scared Rider Xechs Spoiler Review

Ho, ho, ho. Well, it’s just about that time of year again. Last year I went easy on myself and had my holiday review of something that was good, wrapping the show up as a present for all of you. This year we’re back to old traditions, as ol’ Krampus has deposited one of the famed worst on my doorstep, and your reward is hearing how I fared with Scared Rider Xechs.

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SyntheThighs – Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout The Animation Spoiler Review

Ryza, Ryza, Ryza… there’s a reason I always have to mention when I bring it up that Atelier is a fairly venerable series with many editions and nearly as many protagonists, and that would be because it got a huge signal boost from the game (and later, games – plural) featuring Reisalin Stout, aka Ryza, as the main protagonist. It was darn near impossible for a long while to escape seeing or hearing anything about her, and even now that her trilogy is probably complete and Atelier looks to go on to new protagonists, she’s probably who folks are going to think about as synonymous with the series for a long while. Everybody loves Ryza… or at least, her thighs.

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Magical Deserts & Desserts – Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky Spoiler Review

So, back in the Fall 2022 season, I took a look at Managment of a Novice Alchemist as my seasonal anime of choice, and I opened up likening the pitch to the venerable Atelier series of games. In a sense, this was the elephant in the room: Atelier already had an anime outing back in 2014. The other elephant in the room, which I partially addressed, would be the massive popularity of Ryza. She got her own anime outing in Summer 2023, and we’ll talk about it in due time. For now, though, it’s Escha and Logy.

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School of Corporate Knocks – Classroom☆Crisis Spoiler Review

Ah, school anime: a topic so prolific that even though I typically run September as Back to School Month, I’ve got to look into it during the rest of the year as well if I’m to have any hope of addressing the sheer quantity of its offerings.

Classroom Crisis (I will be omitting the star at my discretion) at least tries to keep its academic scenario somewhat fresh by placing it on a future Mars colony. It’s also an anime original property, rather than one that initially came from its manga or light novel outings. But with bigger ambitions come bigger expectations, and a show needs to take care to not let its pitch write checks that its content can’t cash. How does Classroom Crisis hold up?

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