An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Realest Robot – RoboMasters the Animated Series Spoiler Review

The real world has many robotics competitions. While actual robots, often built by students and hobbyists have nowhere near the capability of even the simplest fictional robots and seldom fight to the death – unless you, like me, grew up watching Battlebots, which was amazing – they’re still pretty cool. So why not make an anime about one, in this case the Chinese-based RoboMasters tournament?

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Succs to be You – Vermeil in Gold Spoiler Review

Remember Familiar of Zero, the show about a student wizard who seemed incompetent but who was actually awesome summoning a human familiar and the wacky hijinx that resulted therefrom? While that show may have ultimately disappointed, especially in its second season, the premise was anything but dead on arrival. I must not be the only one who thought so, since Vermeil in Gold reuses the same basic skeleton, shaking it up by having the wizard be the boy and, to make things seem less creepy than Louise rather than more, having the “human” familiar instead only be human as a cover for actually being a powerful demon.

I know that doesn’t sound that similar, and it is certainly more than enough to get out of any shadow Familiar of Zero might have cast, but there are still comparisons to be made and I have to intro these things somehow.

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