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Anime Reviews

Changing your destiny: Dororo

Before he was born, Hyakkimaru was sold to demons.

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Anime Reviews

Winter 2019 impressions

When it came to writing up my top anime of 2018 list, I realised that there wasn’t much from 2018 that I could really recommend. I would even go so far as to say that 2018 was a poor year for anime. However, in comparison, 2019 is already looking good.

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Anime Reviews

A game of faces: The Promised Neverland episode 1

There are some early visual cues that all is not right for the orphans in The Promised Neverland.

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Anime Reviews

Dororo episode 1 is superb

This is what I needed.

Dororo episode 1 is a visual treat, with its Mushishi esque painterly backgrounds and moody period setting.

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Anime Reviews

Anxious and otherworldly: Boogiepop and Others first impressions

My gut feeling is that Boogiepop and Others won’t be a crowd-pleaser.

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Anime Reviews

Seriously?! The end of Banana Fish

Seriously?!

That was my reaction to the ending of Banana Fish.

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Anime Editorials

The visual eccentricity of Mob Psycho 100

The new Mob Psycho 100 II trailer was released last week and I’m pumped! I admire its story but what’s really pushing me over the edge is the animation. It’s such a weird looking anime, heavily influenced by One’s manga, but brought to life by Bones in a rare and lavish attempt to go all out on a story that emphasises the rough and messy over the clean and consistent.

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Anime Editorials

Surviving as an anime fan

It’s easy at first. You just need to watch anime. That’s all it takes. For a few years, that’s all I did. I finished one anime and moved to the next. At some point though, things changed. I became curious and the sub-culture opened itself to me. Why anime? I don’t know. It’s been this way for a long time. I enjoy other hobbies, but anime, being an anime fan, is still important to me.

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Anime Editorials

When it’s easier to pay than to pirate

Earlier this week, Netflix announced that it will begin streaming Neon Genesis Evangelion in April 2019. The 1995 Evangelion TV series is not only one of the most popular anime ever made, it’s also one of the rarest to own on US/UK home video. Since 2005, for various reasons, it has seen neither a home video release nor a legal internet stream, meaning a whole generation of Western anime fans have grown up without (easily) being able to own a copy of the infamous mecha anime.

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Anime Editorials

Winning & losing, running & writing – Run with the Wind

If the end goal is to win, how easy is it to enjoy doing a thing?

Be it playing table tennis, running in a marathon or just writing for your blog, we do things for complicated reasons that don’t always mean having fun.

In Run with the Wind, Kakeru is a talented runner and the best in his team, but whilst the others are happy just competing in a race, he’s gutted that he wasn’t able to win. So after the race when they are sitting around drinking and eating fried chicken, he’s breaking up inside, furious at himself for losing.

If he isn’t winning, then the whole race is tainted.