I say this without hyperbole that the last episode of Charlotte was the worst twenty minutes of anime this year. The episode of Ranpo Kitan where the fat guy made cement blocks out of lolis? All the times in Dragonball Super where the characters were just circles and dots? None of them compare to the torrential incompetence of Yu having to scour the world for mutants and then taking away their powers without even a second thought or even question…

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Normally when a series follows conventional story cliches, it just comes across as boring or mediocre. After all, when you’re checking off points on a list rather then going out of your way to add bad plot elements, you’re going to end up with a serving as bland as ham on wheat bread. But oh, does Isuca deliver. Isuca is in fact a fascinating case study on current Japanese animation. It’s the descendant of years of inbreeding within the industry,…

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You know what was one of the most polarizing anime this year? Yuri Kuma Arashi. One faction thought it was a wonderful take on lesbian relationships both grizzly and calm. Another smeared this anime as nothing but pandering fluff for the creator to masturbate to. You can say this show either touches upon many facets of the human identity, or just uses them as a platform to show naked girls licking each other. Or you can be a stuffy little…

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There are a lot of bad works of fiction in this world, dear reader, and I have had the displeasure of “enjoying” many of them. But for the most part, they do not provoke any real emotion from me. Yes, they’re awfully written, sloppily passed, and often offensive in content, but they’re still fiction, so I often feel bored the whole way through. You become desensitized to things eventually, after all. Then….there’s Grisaia. Grisaia is such a convoluted concoction of…

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There are some pieces of media that are hard to recommend without revealing a twist that occurs within it, as said twist is often integral to the very identity that the show, film, or book has for its fanbase. It was difficult for my fellow Thaumatropists to get me to watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica without them constantly promising that “the twist is coming” or that “this episode will change everything.” They ultimately refused to tell me what made this…

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For 13 years a very vocal section of the Digimon fandom has been clamoring for a continuation of the Adventure series, despite the controversial epilogue in 02 that wrapped up the series in a nice little bow, fans would much rather forget that flash forward (and for good reason) in exchange for a third Adventure series. In 2014, they finally got their wish, cue Digimon Adventure Tri. Tri promised to show the adventures of the now teen-aged Digidestined and their…

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Shimoneta and Prison School made plenty of controversy this year involving obscenities, sexuality, and a certain dub line that I’ll decline to talk about. They were made to challenge controversies to the point where even fans of this comedy style would get annoyed at how much their excesses invaded the screen. Subtlety was unheard of as episode after episode of these two shows pumped out meat for Sankaku Complex articles while some couldn’t tell whether or not these shows were…

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