With the huge amount of animated shows that come out of Japan every year it’s natural that some are going to slip of the radar and end up in relative obscurity, even if they deserve to be more well known. The last anime I finished, a decade old shojo series titled Ashita no Nadja (Nadja of the Tomorrow/Tomorrow’s Nadja), is certainly one such show. The story begins in England at the dawn of the 20th Century. It’s here that we…
Well, bait-and-switch time begins again. After a two-week hiatus, the show doesn’t do breathers at all. It feels like a huge sucker punch, giving Ryuko half an episode where she angsts about her how she can control Senketsu, only to take that away the moment she gets back on her feet. Like, you genuinely expect her to be back in full form and fight the school because Shinjiro riled her up, but the moment you see what’s behind his bangs,…
It’s a new year, and that means it’s the perfect time to reflect on the previous one! Please join us as we discuss some of our favorite and least favorite anime of 2013. (There certainly were a lot of shows involving scissors in some major way last year. Don’t know what’s up with that.) Oh yeah, there was also that show about the giant naked people everyone loves. We don’t talk about it here, but yeah, Battle of Onslaughting Eotenas…
When I did my first writeup for Valvrave (episode 1 for the 2013 Spring Clusterfuck) I simply dismissed it as a standard Sunrise robot show. The plot was pretty basic: an angsty kid’s girlfriend dies a horrible death so for revenge he jumps into a nearby super robot, unwittingly turning himself into a monster as a result. If it had continued in that direction, the show would have probably been ok, utterly unmemorable, but ok. Alas… it didn’t. Said girlfriend…
So here it is, the final Valvrave. In 25 minutes, writer Ichiro Ookuchi will have to provide an ending that ties up all the loose ends, finally dispatch the villains in a satisfactory way, and explains what the hell was the deal with all those weird flash forwards the show gave us now and again. Unsurprisingly, he utterly fails at all three, suggesting that my fear last week of a Valvrave Final Plus may be warranted. We pick up where…
2013, when all is said and done, will probably be remembered as a slight improvement on its immediate predecessor. It gave us some instant classics (Kill la Kill, Samurai Flamenco, From The New World); some utter horseshit (Flowers of Evil, Il Sole Penetra Li Illusioni, Unbreakable Machine-Doll amongst other steaming garbage); and some memories that will stick with us for a very long time. One of the latter is the subject of this article, Valvrave The Liberator Season 1 Episode…
In this, the penultimate installment of Valvrave The Liberator, lots of ground has to be covered. This is not surprising as Valvrave, due to MBS’ apparent policy for Animeism shows to be in the twelve episode range (don’t be surprised if Kill La Kill only has 24 genuine eps) and its own oddball split season sked, is short one episode. Last week’s, while necessary to clear out all the secrets that Haruto, Shoko, and L-Elf were keeping from each other…
As seasons change, so do our nature. Just as Ryuko grows enough to outmatch anybody in front of her, the oceans widen for big fish to become mere minnows. A titan in a sandbox is a mere footman in the stadium. Whatever strength or vitality we see in ourselves only dwindles when our world broadens, necessitating the desire to become stronger. This is the ultimate vexation of the food chain, that there will always be a challenger to our climb…
Since I have taken the reign in blogging Kill la Kill, now’s a better time as any to discuss the show’s counterpart this season. Kyoukai no Kanata, or Beyond the Boundary in case this ever gets dubbed, has proven to be an irksome watch. You might ask me why I would continue this show if I dislike it, but there’s a certain catharsis in seeing a show stumble like this. I often feel like I’m watching a mirror of the…
Last week’s episode of Valvrave was the Valvrave for people who hate Valvrave as hundreds of vapid teens were mowed down by underpaid government bureaucrats armed with submachine guns. It was disgusting, it was insipid, it was the most entertaining 24 minutes this morose lumbering trainwreck has yet produced. For my part, I can say that me and my colleagues in the Thaumatroop were quite entertained by the bloodbath, however judging from some random tweet I got after this week’s…