Tag: Reviews, PAGE 2

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is One of the Series’ Strongest Features

The elements that make up a great Dragon Ball movie probably don’t differ that much from one fan to another. Some may value the lore of Akira Toriyama’s 30-plus-year-old franchise more than others, but in the end it likely comes down to how memorable the …Read more »

The Undead Stay Well Fed in Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits Manga

January 11, 2019

Danica Davidson

College student Aoi is mourning the death of her grandfather, but that doesn’t stop her from feeding yokai when she sees them. Yokai, usually called ayakashi in this manga, are just a regular part of her life, and they have been since she was little. …Read more »

Dementia 21 [Review]

December 28, 2018

Shaenon K. Garrity

Chirpy, eternally hopeful young Yukie works as a caseworker for elder care company Green Net. Unfortunately, thanks to the meddling of a jealous colleague, the senior citizens she’s dispatched to care for are the toughest cases: difficult, dangerous, and frequently supernatural. Yukie’s assignments include a …Read more »

Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network [Review]

December 21, 2018

Gerald Rathkolb

With Ghost in the Shell, it’s hard to find a more enduring franchise in anime that’s not made for children. Originally a manga created by Masamune Shirow in 1989, it’s been continuously adapted into anime and manga since its inception. Ghost in the Shell: Global …Read more »

Ran and the Gray World [Review]

December 21, 2018

Jason Bradley Thompson

Ran Uruma, a fourth-grader, lives with her teenage brother Jin and their father in their cluttered house. Ran dreams of following in her mother’s footsteps, which is no small dream, because Ran’s mother Shizuka is a powerful sorceress … so powerful that when she visits …Read more »

Megalo Box [Review]

December 21, 2018

Joseph Luster

Junk Dog is a bum with little room for positive forward trajectory in his life. Part of that has to do with his general way of living, but the rest falls firmly in the lap of his coach, Gansaku Nanbu. You see, Junk Dog is …Read more »

Robot Carnival [Review]

December 7, 2018

Austin Price

It seems impossible we’ll ever again witness an anime like 1985’s Robot Carnival. The last great anthology film, Short Peace, went almost entirely ignored. The last great anthology series, Space Dandy, was at best misunderstood, at worst excoriated. Not for its quality, mind: as Jacob …Read more »

Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer [Review]

November 30, 2018

Austin Price

There’s no time of year I dread so much as late summer. Even now, almost a decade removed from the concept of summer vacations and the dread of school’s impending return, the wan lighting and redoubled, oppressive heatwaves that herald the last gasps of the …Read more »

Slum Wolf [Review]

November 30, 2018

Jason Bradley Thompson

Born into a poor family in 1941, Tadao Tsuge grew up in the chaos and poverty of immediate postwar Japan: a rundown Tokyo of open sewers and ruined buildings, populated by thugs, prostitutes, and occupying American GIs. In the late 1960s and 1970s, these memories …Read more »

Just Because! [Anime Review]

November 21, 2018

Joseph Luster

Originally revealed as an April Fools’ joke in 2017, Just Because! eventually came to fruition as an original anime TV series by studio PINE JAM (Gamers!, Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiide-sukara), director Atsushi Kobayashi, and The Pet Girl of Sakurasou creator Hajime Kamoshida. The results are …Read more »

20th Century Boys Perfect Edition [Review]

November 21, 2018

Brittany Vincent

Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys is a sprawling epic that began in 1999, though it’s hard to gauge what era this time-jumping story hails from. Flashing back to as early as 1969 and forward to a version of 2017 very different from the one we …Read more »

Escape Journey [Review]

November 21, 2018

Che Gilson

In this reunion romance with a twist of awkward and a splash of drama, Naoto and Taichi were secret lovers in high school, but lust soon turned into animosity. Several years later, they’re reunited in college. Naoto is looking forward to making friends and kicking …Read more »

The Subtle Symphony of Liz and the Blue Bird [Review]

November 13, 2018

Joseph Luster

One song. One relationship. One timeless children’s tale. That’s all that’s at the heart of Liz and the Blue Bird, a beautiful capsule capturing a brief moment in time with the type of gentle subtlety at which Kyoto Animation and director Naoko Yamada (A Silent …Read more »

Little Devils [Review]

November 9, 2018

Che Gilson

Super-cute shenanigans ensue in this light-hearted exploration of what happens in a video-game-style world after the quest is over. Not too long ago, the King of All Devils rose up and took over the world. God anointed the hero Byron to save the world from …Read more »

Radiant [Review]

November 2, 2018

David Estrella

Depending on what generation of manga readers you belong to, the idea of manga made outside of Japan might conjure up all kinds of images. Some might think of manhwa, Korea’s homebrewed answer to Japanese manga, while others will have flashbacks to the glut of …Read more »