Chronicle–Movie Review
Chronicle is the most original take on the basic superhero/supervillain trope since 2009’s Watchmen. But the two aren’t very similar. Both are dark, but Watchmen is whimsical and ironic, while… Read more »
Bodacious Space Pirates–Anime Early Impressions
OK, we’re getting into pretty silly territory here. Planetes this isn’t. Watching the first episode I found myself making a list of implausibilities, but I had to stop when I… Read more »
Inu x Boku SS–Anime Early Impressions
Inu x Boku Secret Service (The Dog and Me Secret Service) seems unlikely to become a great classic but it is still one of the more interesting and unusual shows… Read more »
Nisemonogatari–Anime Early Impressions
Nisemonogatari is a sequel to 2009’s Bakemonogatari, a smart, stylish, edgy supernatural comedy that I liked a lot. (“Bakemonogatari” can be translated pretty accurately as “Ghostory.” “Nisemonogatari” is a similar… Read more »
Animation Oscar Nominations
The Oscar nominations are in. Naturally I went directly to the “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” category and got a bit of a shock. There was no nomination… Read more »
Natsume Yujin-cho Shi–Anime Early Impressions
So far the 2012 Winter anime season has been rather disappointing. It’s not that everything is terrible, but nothing strikes me as truly new and outstanding. The two best new… Read more »
The Iron Lady–Movie Review
For a British biopic The Iron Lady is unusually controversial. It’s not that Margaret Thatcher is not a suitable subject for a biopic. I think that any reasonable person would… Read more »
Real Men Call Themselves “Ore”
Fans of my post on Japanese pronouns will be interested in Kaori Shoji’s article on pronoun usage in the contemporary Japanese dating scene. She describes an ojou-sama who can’t stand… Read more »
Cyberglasses Coming Soon?
Fans of Dennou Coil may be able to buy a working pair of cyberglasses sooner than they expected. The “SmartGoggles” just announced by Sensics at CES appear to have all… Read more »
Not just any sale, it’s a #$&@^’ sale
If you don’t believe that different cultures have different notions of what is and is not offensive, then this item should help convince you But whatever you do in Japan,… Read more »