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Timelessness and anime / Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG
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Read More →: Timelessness and anime / Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIGIn the four weeks since this blog was last updated, I’ve seen at least 80 episodes of anime! Not bad, eh? But to write anything of decent length, more than ever, I need to feel like what I’m writing about is really worth your time. That isn’t to say everything airing right now is poor,…
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When all that's left is dust
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Read More →: When all that's left is dustWhen I think about Boogiepop Phantom, I’m also reminded of other recent Madhouse anime, like Shigurui and Casshern Sins. Each has a strange aesthetic; seductive yet tinged by an under-lying sense of sadness and desolation. It would be easy to categorise them as dark and depressing, but they are more complex than that. It’s not…
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Why Boogiepop? You wouldn't willingly escape into a nightmare, right?
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/ ReviewsRead More →: Why Boogiepop? You wouldn't willingly escape into a nightmare, right?The coolest thing about Boogiepop Phantom is that it’s just really messed up. Too often in anime are teenagers romanticised. Everything’s so sweet, so melodramatic; no permanent damage. It’s just easier to watch something like Toradora, where everyone’s so cheerful, ready to communicate and fix their problems.
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Naruto Shippuuden episode 82 is a masterpiece
Read More →: Naruto Shippuuden episode 82 is a masterpieceAfter all these years, I still love watching Naruto. I’ll place it on hiatus every now and then, but it still is, and always will be, one of my biggest favourites. This past weekend marked the end of my latest break from Shippuuden, but already, here I am again; writing away. I couldn’t let this…
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Bee Train's bullet ballet Phantom is really good
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/ AnimeRead More →: Bee Train's bullet ballet Phantom is really goodBee Train doesn’t exactly have the best of reputations, be it their bias for girls with guns or their notoriously poor production values, fact is their work polarises opinion and attracts its fair share of detractors. I’ve seen neither Noir nor Madlax, was horrified by the low budget vibe I got from Blade of the…
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The quietness of Cross Game
Read More →: The quietness of Cross GameWhen writing about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I noted that I think it’s great because it has moments of exciting, fluid animation. I realise that’s a fairly superficial thing to say, but I think it’s true, too, and now, as if to immediately contradict myself, I’m going to write about Cross Game. This doesn’t have great…
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Island manga: an isolated town enclosed by huge, unscalable walls…
Read More →: Island manga: an isolated town enclosed by huge, unscalable walls…The island is an isolated town enclosed by huge, unscalable walls, where the outside world is a mystery that no-one even has laid eyes on for 400 years. As its culture dies a slow death, the town’s people have forgotten how to read and write, but the children still dream of escaping, wondering what they…