Category Archives: Review

Death Parade – Review

Posted on by

YEAHHH DEATH PARADE. I really wanted to write about this show, but I only had so much time before preview week, so I settled on a review that also includes the major thematic breakdown stuff I wanted to hit. Plus I get to talk about craft, in both aesthetics and the way the show juggles genre structure. And also about the crazy contradiction at the heart of the show’s goals – demonstrating the impossibility of judgment through vignettes that imply people are more than vignettes. It’s a neat trick! Death Parade is an excellent show, and I have sky-high hopes for its director. It’s not a Kyousogiga-level debut, but it’s not that far off, either.

Here’s my full review!

Death Parade

Your Lie in April – Review

Posted on by

The reviews keep coming! This time it’s KimiUso’s turn, a show so damn pretty that I really wish it were just slightly better constructed. This was one of my shorter reviews, but I got through what I wanted to say – I’m sure plenty of other people can talk about which specific characters could have used more texture, or which episodes exactly could have been excised to fix the pacing overall. I was going for tone here, and I’m pretty happy with the result.

You can check out my full review over at ANN!

KimiUso

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis – Review

Posted on by

More streaming reviews! These reviews are actually a pretty great compromise between doing a Wrong Every Time piece and just, well, not writing about a show at all. Some shows don’t really reward the full theme-based pieces, but it’s still fun to talk about them. Although between Eccentric Family and all the Monogats, I do think I’m getting better at adapting what I liked about my old style into ANN pieces…

Anyway, Rage of Bahamut! Fun show, breezy and stylish and fairly unique among anime adventures. You can check out my full ANN review here!

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis

Hitagi End – Review

Posted on by

It’s Monogatari time again! I don’t even know what words I have left to intro this piece – I’ve written the crap out of Monogatari, and will likely continue to write it up until the sun goes black in the sky. But Hitagi End is definitely a special one. Kaiki elevates the series, many characters reach dramatic personal revelations, and there’s virtually no Araragi at all. Everything you could want in a Monogatari arc.

Here’s my full review over at ANN. Lots of viewing notes below!

Continue reading →

Genshiken Second Season, Volume 3 – Review

Posted on by

Back on the Genshiken train! I had a whole ton to say about this volume, since these chapters really dig into a lot of the nerd culture and identity stuff that makes Genshiken so interesting. Stuff about social cues, stuff about gender performance, basically just all sorts of interesting stuff. It’s nice to have a work to talk about that rewards these discussions!

Anyway, here’s my full review over at ANN. Lots of notes below!

Continue reading →

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – Review

Posted on by

Awww yeah, let’s start some fires. Yep, reviewed the newest Fate series for ANN, which has already sparked several pages of Type Moon-flavored forum shenanigans. Honestly, I don’t think my actual piece is controversial in the slightest, but you can’t really talk about Fate without making fans mad. As for the show itself, it’s a fun ride! I like how the character work builds off what we know from Fate/Zero, and the action scenes are goddamn fantastic. Hope you enjoy the review!

Unlimited Blade Works

The Eccentric Family – Review

Posted on by

I got to take another crack at Eccentric Family! Which is good, because I never felt all that happy with my original essay on the show. This one doesn’t go as deep into the show’s central themes, since you can’t really focus entirely on that within a standard review structure, but it also doesn’t just retell the entire damn story. I hopefully was able to articulate the key reasons the show is so great this time, and man, is the show ever great. Plenty to talk about!

My full review is available over on ANN. I don’t have a full rewatch’s worth of notes this time, since this was actually my fourth watch of the show, and thus after the first couple episodes I didn’t really feel it was necessary. But I do have classic timestamp writeups for the entire show, along with new notes for the first couple episodes below. Enjoy!

Continue reading →

Log Horizon Collection Two – Review

Posted on by

There’s always time for more Log Horizon! That said, I think I might be ready to take a slight break from Log Horizon. Pretty happy with this review, though – I think I covered the compelling stuff more gracefully than I did in the first one, and even got in a bit about Log Horizon’s politics. Having just rewatched all of season one, I think can solidly confirm that season two has just been a step up for the series – the original had highlights, but it also had plenty of slow stretches, and Log Horizon 2 has been stellar for a long time now. But who knows – we’re still in 2’s hot streak, so I might just be misremembering how interminable the Akatsuki arc in the first half was.

Anyway. My full review is available here. Notes below!

Continue reading →

Valvrave the Liberator, Season One – Review

Posted on by

Yeaaaa Valvrave. I had a lot of fun with this one, as I hope is clear in my review. I couldn’t get in all my favorite ridiculous quotes and moments, but Valvrave offers so many that it’d be impossible not to miss some. I also get in some discussion of narrative tension and plot twists that somewhat echoes my earlier post on the subject. The one interesting thing I couldn’t find time to mention was the show’s focus on social media as a form of power – I liked how consistently Valvrave returned to that idea, but since it didn’t really go anywhere and didn’t directly play off any of the other stuff I talked about, I couldn’t find a way to gracefully include it in the review. And the review was long enough as it is – this is close to my longest piece for ANN, actually.

My full ANN review is available here. If you want the loose notes that actually get to revel in Valvrave’s silliness, they’re below!

Continue reading →

Genshiken Second Season Vol. 2 – Review

Posted on by

Genshiken reviews continue! This volume felt a bit bumpier than the first, mainly because the Angela drama felt kind of artificial. Madarame’s harem is beginning to assemble, which… yeah, I don’t even know what to say about that. But the best elements here were the same stuff Genshiken’s always been good at (natural banter, brief, bracing moments of personal truth, graceful character work), and Genshiken remains good at that, so I can’t really complain. And who wouldn’t fall for Madarame, anyway?

My full ANN review is available here. Notes below the cut!

Genshiken

Continue reading →