An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Anime Reviews

They Identify as Bugs – Blue Gender Spoiler Review

Putting humanity on the brink is nothing new in anime. Threatening our species with extinction at the ends of the various appendages of some menace, alien or otherwise, goes back a lot farther than some people seem to think. As evidence, I recommend breaking out the bug spray, turning on your CRT TV, and preparing to watch anime like it’s 1999 with Blue Gender.

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The Clothes Make the Waifu – Tsugumomo Spoiler Review

So, I think Tsukumogami are a sort of interesting subject. Surprising probably no one, in addition to anime itself I kind of have an interest in the culture and folklore of various regions, including Japan. For those who might not be aware, a Tsukumogami is a sort of supernatural being (usually a sort termed a Yokai, but not always) that is, in essence, the spirit of an artificial item.

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“Twenty-four! Ah-ah-ah! Twenty-four Episodes of this!” – Plunderer Spoiler Review

Anime has a lot of premises that are pretty odd, doesn’t it? Concepts you just sort of have to roll with in order to even start the show, no matter how insane or weird they may appear. The pantheon of weird core ideas includes both epic shows and epic misfires so this is no particular indicator of quality, but Plunderer has got to have one of the strangest setups I’ve seen in quite some time.

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A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Where There Is Only War – Armored Trooper Votoms Spoiler Review

Sometimes I feel like I don’t crack into enough vintage anime on this blog. Before streaming, before DVR, the industry for basically all things television was a different place, and that includes the anime industry as well. I’ve touched on 90’s shows before like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Record of Lodoss War, but I haven’t really taken a deep dive into a show that old that often.

Well, seeing as it’s Mecha March and I’m fresh out of model kit anime to assemble, let’s work to course correct that just a little bit with the 1983 vintage Mecha anime, Armored Trooper Votoms.

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The STL of a Double Feature – Gundam Build Divers & Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE Spoiler Reviews

I love model kits. I have made no secret of that this month, and will probably be happily assembling various mechas and mecha musume into the future. I also happen to have a fondness, from the days when I consumed more Western media, for a little cult classic of a film called Tron. For those who know Tron is – I would say – a delightfully dated little adventure that tries to show what goes on deep inside a computer realm, with some very memorable visuals and basic conceits and characters, it can kind of be considered the granddaddy of the “Trapped in a video game” genre that underscores a lot of the “VR MMO” stories you see these days when, you know, MMOs exist and VR doesn’t seem equally implausible compared to digitizing a person’s entire physical existence.

Naturally, where all this is going is Gundam Build Divers. Along with its sequel, Re:RISE, Divers takes the Gundam Build idea and translates it into cyberspace, and we’re going to be looking at it as a double feature this week.

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The Plamo of a Double Feature – Gundam Build Fighters & Gundam Build Fighters Try Spoiler Reviews

Ah, Mobile Suit Gundam… it’s kind of a marvel that no entries in such a huge and venerable series had made it onto the review blog up until now. But, the very scope and scale of the affair is part of why: Gundam is huge, and that makes tackling it in more bite-sized sections a rather difficult. Of course, it’s not entirely a single continuity, and there are certainly entries that can be looked at in isolation, but if I’m really going to address Gundam I want to do it with some sort of semblance of purposeful direction.

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It’s Only a Model – Busou Shinki Spoiler Review

So, some time ago I reviewed Frame Arms Girl, a show based on a line of plastic model kits, depicting the mecha musume girls from the kits as animate… well, plastic models, leading to a kind of odd living toys setup. Well, it turns out that I might have started in the wrong place: before there were Frame Arms Girls, Busou Shinki from Konami was the main and arguably original line of mecha musume snap-fit models. Being Konami, it was a multi-media franchise including model kits, manga, games, and of course an anime outing as well, which is probably what we have to blame for Frame Arms Girl taking the “tiny androids, VR Battlefields” sort of approach, because that’s exactly what Busou Shinki does. The question will be whether or not it does it better than Frame Arms Girl.

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Earnest Fakery – Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (plus .flat and Fine) Spoiler Review

Rounding out a February of warped love we have Saekano: the harem romcom about making a dating sim visual novel. On paper, Saekano is about the trials and tribulations of otaku Tomoya Aki as he tries to transition from fan to creator, expressing his love of 2d despite, perhaps, the prospect of an extra dimension of romance being closer than he thinks. In reality… well, let’s take a look.

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Sisterly Lust – Kiss x Sis Spoiler Review

Well, it’s Feburary, and because this month contains a holiday certain cultures associate with love and sexuality, I end up slotting it full of reviews of shows that have similar topics. This year, I’ve done heavy ecchi and pervy romance, so clearly I’m going for the twisted end of the spectrum. So, what better topic to continue the month with than Incest?

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