Elfen Lied has a very memorable opening. A naked girl with her face covered by some sort of helmet breaks free of her laboratory imprisonment and kills more than twenty people while walking out of the building. She doesn’t appear to touch any of them, …Read more »
You can read my formal review of Right Stuf's Gasaraki re-release in the January 2012 issue of Otaku USA magazine, but I had a few more things to say on the topic that wouldn't fit into a 650 word review. In case you haven't read …Read more »
You can say Dark Souls is “hard,” the whole Internet has, but let’s not stop there. Let’s call Dark Souls particular. Let’s call it fussy. It requires patience. Sometimes it requires too much patience: it’s ponderous. Sometimes calling it ponderous is giving it too much …Read more »
Nobody quite expected Tiger and Bunny , a recent Japanese animated TV series about American-style superheroes, to be the big hit anime series of 2011. Where had Japan been hiding the people who could make such a show? For the answer, let's look back in …Read more »
Princess Tutu is one of the anime series that sticks in my mind and one I’m happy to recommend. The only real complaint I have about it would be its title. In my opinion, it’s a helplessly dorky title that sounds so gooey. I’m afraid …Read more »
Zombie-related entertainment used to be something I would flock to blindly; all I needed was a hint that the shambling dead would be present and I was ready and rarin'. Sadly, as is the case with most great things—like ninjas, pirates and cats—the Internet has …Read more »
Hello Everyone, While writing this followup to my article in this month’s Otaku USA an earthquake shook Virginia, and Hurricane Irene hit the U.S. just this past weekend. This article relates to the Earthquake and Tsunami that took place in Japan earlier this year so …Read more »
Hey, remember back when they used to release anime and the Japanese would include professionally made AMVs of their own stuff, such that when the show got released in the US, companies would just use the AMV as the trailer to sell the show? And …Read more »
Ah, university life. Whether a distant, quasi-fond memory or something you've only been given a small reprieve from this summer (for those of you still in high school and yet to know the joys of university life, the phrase "Abandon hope all ye who enter …Read more »
“…unusually intelligent and challenging science fiction, aimed at smart audiences.” The above quotation by Roger Ebert along with its “Two Thumbs Up” rating featured prominently on the VHS—and later, DVD—packaging, convinced a substantial amount of American cinema fans and casually interested “geeks” alike to watch …Read more »
Heads up: contains some Eden of the East spoilers As we know from grade school in the U.S., a democracy is rule by the people. So how about a gerontocracy? Is that a state ruled by the old (the geriatric)? This fancy-pants term comes up …Read more »
There was a lot of laughter in the audience at the Japan Society during “Beat” Takeshi Kitano’s vicious yakuza murder-thon Outrage . This was no giggling multiplex crowd, nor were we laughing from sheer discomfort (okay, maybe a little bit) over the film’s constant, brutal …Read more »
While not related to any existing anime/manga property, G-Rev’s new game Strania - The Stella Machine may feel strangely familiar to otaku. As the company’s previous effort Senkou no Ronde ( Wartech ) was full of winks to Keiko Takemiya’s sci-fi shoujo classic To Terra …Read more »
Crows Zero II is but part of the Crows x Worst universe of tough-guy delinquent fight manga, a footnote to a sprawling high school soap opera of rivalries, beatdowns, and true bro-dom. I’m not too proud to say that I was lost. Luckily for me, …Read more »
With his latest film, Tetsuo: The Bullet Man , raking in an assortment of mixed criticism—an example of which you can find in the latest issue (June 2011) of Otaku USA —there's no better time than the present to look back at the works of …Read more »
Danica Davidson
Alexandria Hill
Dave Riley
Daryl Surat
Joseph Luster
Yunmao Ayakawa
Caleb Dunaway
Erin Finnegan and Noah Fulmor
David Cabrera
