During adolescence, teenagers get to learn and discover themselves and the world, but for most people, this means going through puberty, maybe taking up a sport or hobby, and not the occult vs alien shenanigans of DAN DA DAN. The science fiction-fantasy mix is unhinged and chaotic, throwing Momo and Ken directly into the worlds […]
With a wolf deity, wheat harvesting rituals, and farmtown folklore, it may seem that Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf would be a traditional fantasy, filling in the genre void after Frieren’s finale. However, new viewers such as myself would be surprised that this series is known as the “Economics anime”, a reboot […]
Regardless of age, most viewers would be familiar with the way alcoholic drinks are portrayed in the media as a gateway to uncontrollable debauchery and addiction, but rarely has the art of mixing them been depicted. Bartender: Glass of God mixes cocktails in a refreshing way, portraying the bar not just as a glamorous place […]
An oni/human hybrid, a severed head in a birdcage, and a bayonet-wielding maid step into a vampire’s house to solve a murder. And that is truly the essence of Undead Murder Face. Blending gothic with supernatural, creatures of global and Japanese lore converge in a turn-of-the-century historical anime. In only two episodes, the show establishes […]
With its slice-of-life approach, A Sign of Affection immediately tugs at the heartstrings with its sweet romance between a deaf university student and a multilingual traveller from manga duo Suu Morishita. The anime adaptation sees the world in Yuki’s eyes, with delicately lined shapes and pink-tinted watercolor paired with Sumire Morohoshi’s sweet voice, and it’s […]
In fantasy worlds, races with different lifespans are a given, but rarely does a work actually contemplate how these variations would affect relationships between them. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End starts after a great war, at the moment of peace, and to the titular elf, her shared journey with the human Himmel and their party feels […]
Usually, being swallowed up by a dragon means death. However, for Rentt Faina, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, becoming a skeleton is just a little setback in achieving his dream of becoming an defender for the kingdom. That’s because in this world, dying doesn’t mean dying– it just means that he has to kill other monsters […]
Slaying monsters online is definitely more exciting than typing on a computer all day, but having to do so in real life might be a different story. The highly anticipated anime adaptation Solo Leveling depicts a world where those online adventures are a mundane but dangerous day-to-day gig for some people with unique abilities set […]
From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke is a high school romance drama. It’s sweet, it’s wholesome, and it’s comfortingly familiar. It leans more on its romance than its comedy. It doesn’t have high stakes fantasy or action-packed battles, but it captures the high school experience in such a lovely way. Of course, the show […]
Usually, when whisked away to a fantasy world, there’s usually some grand reason, like a prophecy or a destined quest to go on or a villain to defeat, with the hero having some secret powers to discover. The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic instead, starts with an unintentional, average protagonist that gets accidentally transported […]
For the unfamiliar, isekai is the fantasy subgenre where a character is transported into a different world. Usually, this is just one transfer, with an everyday character being transferred to a more fantastical world. Doctor Elise isn’t just a reverse isekai– with a surgeon transported to medieval royalty– it also happens to be a double […]
Part court drama, part medical procedural, and part detective mystery, The Apothecary Diaries is the sort of anime that easily handles multiple genres and does it so well. With the insatiably curious Maomao investigating certain court ailments as a poison tester, it naturally creates a new mystery of the week, all deduced from her apothecary […]
Making a bucket list at the height of a zombie outbreak seems ridiculous, yet totally reasonable when you’ve spent the last three years overworked and undervalued. In real life, our workforce already feels zombified as higher-ups enslave the working class to high production and insufficient pay, so it’s nice to see Zom 100 exemplify that […]
Understandably, people get nervous when delinquent boys team up into groups and start beating the hell out of people, but in WIND BREAKER, masculine strength isn’t used for aggression– instead, the boys of Furin High use their fighting skills and penchant for violence into protecting the town. Of course, with this premise, there’s fun fight […]
Simple yet captivating, Skip and Loafer is a slice-of-life anime with a refreshing approach to the high school experience. While the anime genre is mostly known for its bright, high-saturated colors and action-filled, fantastical plots, this show celebrates the ordinary, with its pastel toned design, sweet humor, and clean animation. The series is centered around […]
With most of early January 2024’s slate focused on fantasy, Metallic Rouge is a fairly decent cyberpunk refresher. With fantastic, mostly 2D animation, studio Bones’ 25th Anniversary project has spectacular mecha match-ups between government android Rouge Redstar versus various members of the excellently designed Immortal Nine, as well as humorous, expository banter from Rouge’s human […]
After his team loses in the prefectural tournament finals, Yoichi Isagi is invited to join an isolated training program designed to create the best striker in the world in hopes of Japan winning the World Cup. The program’s designer believes that great strikers are selfish and egoistic players. As a more intense sports anime, the […]
It’s a new term at Kimberly Magic School, an academy with an 80% survival rate. Immediately we are introduced to the school’s magical compound and our two main leads, Oliver Horn and Nanao Hibiya. Nanao, in particular, sticks out in her samurai garb and nonchalance toward danger (and most social cues), which is saying something […]
Part fantasy, part road trip, and part coming-of-age, Suzume is a rich and fast-paced tale with no dull moments in between. The energy is relentless and the animation, as expected, is dazzling, so even though there are occasional plot holes and melodramatic reaches, you’d be hard-pressed not to forgive them. Suzume still wins you over. […]
Sengoku Youko isn’t bad. With a historical setting, fantastic powers, decent action, and teenagers out to save the world despite societal differences, the anime has teen-friendly entertainment that anyone can enjoy. So far, the show is a better adaptation than mangaka Satoshi Mizukami’s other work Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, so fans of the artist […]
As the world tries to shift to more environmentally-friendly tech, it would be interesting to see how these shifts will play out. MF Ghost presents a near future world where street racing is the last arena standing for internal combustion cars, as the spiritual successor for the popular 90s manga Initial D. MF Ghost’s animation […]
Surreal, strange, yet wondrous, Penguin Highway never takes a straightforward approach to its story. Penguins pop up out of nowhere, leading the nerdy and precocious Aoyama to study them via empirical observation and logical deduction. These studies don’t end up with a feasible explanation– in fact, by the final act, the film abandons all laws […]
On-screen, we’ve seen downtrodden Cinderella-esque leads, we’ve seen humans transform into animals, and we’ve seen whole families cursed, but Fruits Basket takes all these plot devices and transforms them into something completely different. As Tohru Honda gets to learn about the mysterious Sohma family, and she and friends gets into fun and wacky hijinks with […]
Being reincarnated as a vending machine is, admittedly, a good hook. But when you’re watching a machine fight frogs in a new dimension, the plot starts to lose you. At its core, it’s an easy watch, without any nefarious characters (yet), but even though Boxxo always finds a way to utilize the powers of his […]
With a forest home destroyed, leaving an adorable cat spirit child displaced, The Legend of Hei seemed like a Studio Ghibli-esque tale, at least in themes, child protagonist, and fantasy flying. There’s charming moments where Hei appreciates the day-to-day– moments where he diligently learns his powers, enjoys the simple human pleasures present in the modern […]
Intricately constructed and unbearably suspenseful from beginning to end, the first season of The Promised Neverland is a masterclass in using the episodic structure of TV to maximize the effect of a mystery-driven thriller. By placing us firmly within the perspective of its child protagonists (who are, to be fair, incredibly smart and determined), every […]
When it comes to fantasy anime between two races, usually there would be some sort of romance between the leads. But Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms does it differently. Instead, between the humans and the immortal humanoid lorph race that weaves a chronicle of their history is a mother-son relationship, with the human son […]
A best friendship break-up can be the most devastating thing that can happen to you in high school, especially when it’s because you’re leaving for separate colleges. Liz and the Blue Bird depicts one dynamic through two girls preparing for an orchestral concert. By pairing the two girls with the faux fairy tale that they’re […]
Featuring almost no external conflict for its protagonist to face, this story of a young, ill-tempered calligraphy artist—sent to recollect himself at an island community—makes the private process of soul-searching as inspiring as it is cathartic. It’s a series that understands how one’s art is informed almost subliminally by the smallest observations and interactions, transforming […]
Fun, wholesome, and relatable, Haikyu!! celebrates the highs and lows of high school volleyball. The show starts off focused on two freshmen volleyball players from opposing middle school teams, who have to learn teamwork in order to be accepted into their high school club. While the team might initially come across as self-conscious, over-the-top, highly […]
Millennium Actress, from famed animation director Satoshi Kon, is about lives lived and unlived. It follows Chiyoko Fujiwara, an actress from Japan’s golden age of cinema, as she recounts her life to two documentarians making a film about the history of the now-defunct Ginei Studios. Kon employs a metafilm narrative approach, framing Chiyoko’s lifelong search […]
When a film adaptation takes the story of a beloved Japanese children’s novel, and depicts the characters travelling to heaven as cats, it kinda seems like a random addition. Yet, this decision makes sense for Night on the Galactic Railroad, because while the magic and the dreaminess of the trip to the stars still remains […]
The Boy and the Beast is somewhat like the Jungle Book, except the jungle has Japanese supernatural creatures competing for deity status, and the human village nearby is the bustling district of Shibuya. But what makes the film different is the main relationship. As boy and beast learn to become apprentice and master, and eventually […]