Yurikuma Arashi Recap – Episode 1: “Never Back Down on Love”

From the director of Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena comes a show about magical bears, invisible storms, and some of the least subtle imagery in anime history.

image

So I’d planned on doing weekly posts on Yurikuma Arashi this season, and as of right now that’s still happening. This first episode was concerning in a lot of ways, but also pretty darn fascinating, so it’s not as if I don’t have a lot to talk about. Besides, I’m a huge fan of Ikuhara’s past works (Utena is both a masterpiece and my all-time favorite anime, and I quite liked Penguindrum, for all its flaws), so he gets at least a few episodes to prove to me that he knows what he’s doing.

I really hope he knows what he’s doing.

Continue reading →

Panning the Stream: Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, Yurikuma Arashi, Absolute Duo

Well, the Winter Season certainly wasted no time in making an impression, did it?

As a reminder, I watch every licensed premiere and do at least a brief writeup about them. I’ll do full meet ‘n’ greets for shows that caught my interest enough to warrant it. Everything else gets a blurb explaining what I liked, didn’t like, and why the show might not or didn’t make the cut.

So here we go! Magical boys, magical bears, and a boy named Thor. Oh, anime. For better or worse, this is why I love you.

Continue reading →

Utena Watch Party: Episode 20

In which it turns out that some episodes are even sadder the more times you watch them.

image

Click here for an explanation of the watch party, and an invitation to chime in with your own thoughts (Tumblr tag: #Utena Watch Party).

For Returning Viewers, Vrai’s episode analysis is here for your reading pleasure:

And my own newbie-friendly commentary is below the jump.

Continue reading →

The Josei’s Top 10 Anime of 2014: Part 2 (#1-5)

Panning the anime stream to bring you the year’s shiniest gold nuggets.

image

Did you miss out on Part 1? Fear not! You can click here for the year in review and the bottom half of the Top 10, including honorable mention(s). Or, if you’re ready to check out the cream of the crop, you can hit that jump and read on for more.

The Rankings

As a reminder, all shows that ended in 2014 are eligible for this list, including sequels, even if they began their run in 2013 or earlier. Ongoing series (like Parasyte or Aldnoah.Zero) will be eligible in 2015.

So here we go, my picks for the best shows of the year! Drums rolled? Fingers crossed? Angry comments about the series I didn’t include typed and at the ready? Perfect. Let’s do this thing.

Continue reading →

The Josei’s Top 10 Anime of 2014: Part 1 (#6-10)

Because no anime blog is complete without a proper Top 10 list.

image

Glancing Upstream

I’ve seen some people calling this a weak year for anime, but I’m not sure it’s that so much as it’s just a very top-heavy year—the upper tier was a massive cut above the pack, making the rest of the shows seem a little lackluster in comparison. It also featured some disappointing adaptations and originals, and any time you get excited for a series and it doesn’t live up to those expectations, it can make the whole year feel weaker. Fortunately, off-the-radar “sleeper” series had a very good year, particularly when it came to comedies and sports shows, and a few strong sequels and long-running series helped give 2014 a much-needed boost in terms of quality.

Continue reading →

Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 67-68

It’s a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey kind of day in the Mooniverse.

image

Okay, so I take back my earlier rant about how we’d have to wait 20 episodes to find out what’s going on with Chibiusa. The creative team didn’t string us along for very long at all, and we pretty much have all the gaps filled in at this point. Now all that’s left is for Usagi to take down the baddies, save the future, and rescue the Queen. Who is, um… herself. This probably won’t cause any gaping rifts in the space-time continuum. Probably.

But first: Dinosaurs?

Continue reading →

Glancing Upstream: Fall 2014 Retrospective and Review

Fall is at an end, but that doesn’t mean its best shows have to be.

image

We saw two forms of storytelling make a welcome comeback this season: The high fantasy and (perhaps even more importantly) the long-form anime series. As anyone who’s been watching simulcast anime over the past few years will know, one-cour shows have become the norm, and anything longer a happy exception. This season, though, a whopping nine of the 13 shows on my watchlist ran longer than that, and seven of them will be continuing into the coming seasons. So there are a ton of “midseries” reviews in this bunch – and hey, what better time to catch up on some great shows than over the holiday break?

Overall it wasn’t the best of anime seasons, full of shows that fluctuated dramatically in tone and quality (Fate/stay night, Gugure! Kokkuri-san, Your Lie in April), one that shot itself in the foot (Yuki Yuna is a Hero), and a few that suffered to varying degrees from not getting more episodes to tell their extensive stories (Rage of Bahamut, Laughing Under the Clouds). But hey, no season with Mushishi will ever be a total failure, and there were two incredibly consistent, solid, just good old-fashioned well-told stories to round out the Top Three. So let’s focus on those first, starting with one of the great masterpieces of anime, back for its (sniffle) final round of episodes.

Continue reading →

Utena Watch Party: Episode 19

In which everyone gets trolled, even the elevator.

image

Click here for an explanation of the watch party, and an invitation to chime in with your own thoughts (Tumblr tag: #Utena Watch Party).

For Returning Viewers, Vrai’s episode analysis is here for your reading pleasure:

And my own newbie-friendly commentary is below the jump.

Continue reading →

Sailor Moon Newbie Reviews: Episodes 65-66

Better late than never, no?

image

Delayed SM post this week, courtesy of the hectic holiday season. (Note that I announce these delays in the Chirp-o-sphere, so if you ever notice something isn’t coming out when it’s supposed to, you can check there for more info.) It was a fun week, with some subtle plot bombs and slightly varied character dynamics—all good things, really—but in the interest of getting this out before the end of the weekend (I’m typing this during the, like, three-hour window between parties and chores), I’m going to unleash my little-used superpower: EXTREME BREVITY. Prepare yourself, Kakarot!

Continue reading →