An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: April 2025

Give me a moment… – Kokkoku Spoiler Review

Not enough time for a review? ZA WARUDO!

… For those of you who don’t speak meme, we’re going to be talking about a show centered around the supernatural power of stopping time. As the title indicates, this one is Kokkoku, sometimes with a subtitle as Kokkoku: Moment by Moment.

Read More…Read More…

Somebody Give This Show A Hand – Hand Shakers Spoiler Review

One of the things I love about anime is that, despite having it’s own hellishly overused setups, the medium in general doesn’t seem to be afraid to turn out the occasional piece with an absolutely insane concept. Nothing is too specific or too stupid… and with creativity and effort, a lot of studios can make it work. We’ve seen shows where clothing is an evil alien plot, a show where teenagers body swap via kiss, a show where Earth is overrun by gribbly black monsters that can only be fought by incarnate musical scores, a show that somehow manages twelve episodes of a kidnapped princess trying to get better sleep, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

But just because way more crazy ideas do work than some folks would expect doesn’t mean that they all work; that creativity and effort are key; throwing some bland idiot into a fantasy universe with a modern smartphone adapted to the setting?  That didn’t pan out. Super-teenagers who power up by getting horny to fight lust-eating bug monsters?  About as awkward as it sounds and somehow even less amusing. Stuffing a tecnophobe’s brain into a weird black-box ultratech device, giving him super hacking powers? Worst. Anime. Ever. And I don’t think I can even summarize half the madness that went into Penguindrum, but suffice to say it didn’t stick the landing in my eyes.

What I’m getting at here is that Hand Shakers – a show that forces our lead pair to have mystical death battles while also forcing them to continuously hold hands – was not, I repeat not, dead on arrival. No, Hand Shakers was murdered. Let’s try to find the culprit, shall we?

Read More…Read More…

Seasonal Selection – Your Forma Episodes 1 & 2

Your Forma presents as a cyberpunk mystery/thriller, with interesting comparisons to two other cyberpunk mystery/thriller anime outings. Like ID:Invaded, the show features technology that allows investigators to dive into mindscapes in order to find clues and information. Meanwhile, the main character is voiced by the same actress who voiced the main character in Psycho-Pass. Add in humanoid robots with Asimov-style laws that might or might not be functioning properly (a conceit that’s common enough in scifi, but I’ll claim recalls Beatless because I liked Beatless better than Metallic Rouge in the end), and it seems like we’ve got a pretty good recipe.

Read More…Read More…

The One Only For… – Chobits Spoiler Review

Boy meets girl. Man meets machine. Sixteen years before Beatless there was another show about a boy pretty much stumbling across a robot girl, falling in love with her, and discovering that even among robots she’s something special. That show is Chobits, and it’s based on a manga by CLAMP, a group with several notorious winners including (that I’ve reviewed) Cardcaptor Sakura and Angelic Layer.

Read More…Read More…

Children’s Card Games Are Serious Business – Yugioh, the Abridged Series (April Fools Commentary)

Okay, normally I have a habit of doing something for April Fools. I’ve reviewed dubs that don’t exist, explored alternate timelines, promoted my books, delved into Keit Ai, and when April 1 fell on a Monday even put up with being hacked by Femt. This year, I wanted to talk about something… still a little goofy, but more on the level.

And you know what? I’ve referenced Yugioh quite a few times and will likely do so again… but even just delving through the Duel Monsters era (the stuff everybody knows and mostly liked) would be more raw episodes of anime than all of Macross March put together. So, since today is a silly day for silly things, how about we talk briefly about the version that can be watched in a reasonable time frame?

Read More…Read More…