Mermaid Forest–Anime Review
Rumiko Takahashi is surely the most successful living manga artist, and the most influential since Osamu Tezuka. Just about every anime fan is familiar with at least some of her… Read more »
Category: Anime
Daughter of Twenty Insults
Chinese President Hu Jintao has just completed a rare state visit to Japan, supposedly establishing an “everlasting warm spring” in the relationship between the two countries. Meanwhile the writers of… Read more »
Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE–Anime Review
Even if you didn’t already know it, the title of this series should tip you off that the team of manga artists known as CLAMP has a weird sense of… Read more »
Planetes–Anime Review
This show has a special meaning for me because it reminds me of the science fiction stories that I loved as a boy, stories by people like Heinlein and Clarke… Read more »
Delayed Realization
Jeff Lawson reports that two years after watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia he finally figured out that Kyon is a jerk. Which of course is true, but necessary. Haruhi… Read more »
5 Centimeters Per Second–Anime Review
What would you get if you gave Makoto Shinkai, who created Voices of a Distant Star on his personal computer, enough money to hire a professional staff and make a… Read more »
xxxHolic Season 1–Anime Review
This anime is best thought of as a series of clever, spooky short stories with some continuing characters. Viewed that way it is quite entertaining. There’s another way to look… Read more »
Wertham’s Crusade
Jeet Heer in Slate revisits the story of Fredric Wertham, an American psychiatrist who started a campaign against comic books in the 1940’s and 50’s, arguing that they promote juvenile… Read more »
Voices of a Distant Star
This is mostly interesting as a proof of concept: a demonstration that if you were sufficiently talented and fanatically dedicated you could create a professional-quality anime all by yourself, or… Read more »
Simoun–Anime Review
This story is a bit too melancholy for my taste, but it is interesting and original and has a small but devoted following. One thing to keep in mind is… Read more »