Tag: noitaminA

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 11: Backflip!! Episode 5

I always tell people that I’m a fan of sports anime, but that comes with the caveat that I’m extremely picky about the sports anime that I actually watch. If the tone is too juvenile or if the characters are too unlikeable (for a genre that relies so much on character interactions and growth, it’s wild to me how many contain just shitty characters), I won’t actually continue watching the series. So I suppose that I might not really be a sports anime fan, but instead just a general anime fan who happens to like some sports series (in the same way that I enjoy a few comedies, some mecha anime, etc.).

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 8: Hakaba Kitaro

We’ve gotten more than a week into this Halloween list without talking much about Yokai, so I figure it’s about time to remedy that. Yokai are a category of spiritual entity within Japanese folklore. It’s a broad term that encompasses both malevolent and benign spiritual beings, with forms that run the gamut from inanimate objects to animals to humanoids. While the concept of Yokai has existed in Japanese culture for centuries, it was the late manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, who as a child was taught about them by an older female relative, who re-popularized them within a pop-culture context.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

God is Dead – The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace

This essay contains plot and thematic spoilers for the entirety of The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace. I would suggest a blanket Content Warning for the series due to its inclusion of violence, religion, rape and pedophilia.

Read my First Impressions HERE

I’m once again at that point where I’m playing clean-up with my anime seasonals in a mad rush as I find myself with a huge new batch of current series I’d like to watch more of. It’s the constant struggle of someone who watches way too much anime. Often when I’m in this hyperdrive mode, I find myself drawn back toward the anime series which I initially had ambivalent feelings about. I’ve always been that kind of person who pushes her favorite foods to the side of her plate in order to enjoy them last, so I suppose that this makes some sort of sense.

The Summer 2021 season had plenty of series that featured intriguing story elements and themes, but which were also hamstrung by some missteps that made them a little harder to love. The most iconic of these, to me, was The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace, an action series with a lot of cool visual style and a total banger OP, but also an off-putting reliance on some particularly violent and grotesque story elements. And yet, as I was settling in to play a little anime catch-up in preparation for letting myself continue some of the entries from Autumn, Idaten was the one series that I couldn’t get off of my mind.

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Favorites Special Features

A Decade of Favorites – 2010

Halloween 2010. Guest-starring my friend Anthony!

I’ve been through a lot over the past year, and it’s just now occurred to me that we’re about to enter a new decade (well, depending on how you count your years… due to work-related reasons I’m more inclined to start a new set of 10 things on a “1,” but I suppose that’s pedantic and also completely beside the point). This decade has definitely been an interesting one for anime series and movies. At the beginning of the decade the industry was still in the process of shoveling itself out from beneath the the remains of its busted economic bubble and because of it there were a few years where there just weren’t as many series being released. That’s not to say that there weren’t still some very good and memorable ones, but there were few enough that a decently-motivated person could catch all of the year’s stand-out series without investing a lot of extra time.

Nowadays we’re comparatively inundated by anime (at last count this year we were somewhere around 150 anime series, and that number doesn’t include films, ONA series, or OVAs… yowzers!). I’m continually both thrilled and frustrated by the fact that, as much as I would like to watch every better-than-average anime series that comes around, it’s almost impossible for me to do so without sacrificing something else in my life. Still, I’ve seen a lot of anime over the past 10 years, and looking over lists of the various series and films has been a good reminder of how much good the industry has been able to accomplish with its storytelling, even while sometimes struggling financially and in areas related to the treatment of its workers. Like many other bloggers, I think it might be fun to look back on some of my favorites over the years, as we prepare to plunge forward into a new decade.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Given

Ritsuka played guitar but has lost interest in the instrument. One day, he meets Mafuyu, who is holding a broken guitar. Ritsuka unwillingly starts teaching Mafuyu the guitar, but when he hears Mafuyu’s voice, things suddenly begin to change for Ritsuka. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 11

Source: Manga

Review: Note: this review may contain mild spoilers for the anime series.

When I was in high school I played flute in the concert band. I enjoyed it so much that I even took outside lessons and participated in the annual solo competitions put on by the area schools. I didn’t have a great time in school overall, but being able to express myself through music is one of the better memories I have of that time in my life. I came to the realization at some point that when your emotions operate outside what other people are willing to tolerate on a regular basis, it’s life’s other more artistic avenues that serve as an alternative outlet for those complicated, powerful feelings.

Given is the story of a budding relationship between two high school students, a tale it heartily accomplishes through sensitive, slow-burn character development. But it’s also a peek into the life of someone dealing with trauma and the shame that seemed to crop up in its aftermath. Unsurprisingly, it’s music that seems to tie everything together.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2019 First Impressions – The Promised Neverland

Emma, Norman, and Ray are the three most brilliant children the Grace Field House has produced in decades. Unlike in a typical orphanage, they, and their fellow children, eat well and are given an intensive education. However, despite living in a peaceful environment with fun games and a caring mother, there’s something not quite right. When six year old Connie is “adopted” by foster parents, she forgets her favorite stuffed rabbit, and Emma and Norman sneak out to return it to her. When they arrive at the scene, the two realize exactly why they had always been isolated from the outside world. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, and HIDIVE

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Emma, Ray, and Norman are three orphans at Grace Field House. Kind-hearted Emma loves all the other children deeply as members of the only family she’s ever known. They’re cared for by “Mom,” a kindly young woman who ensures their safety. The children spend their days learning and playing together among the fields and forests. However, they’re forbidden from approaching the gate or the fence that surrounds the property, because of untold dangers.

When Conny, one of the younger children, is adopted into a foster family, the other children wish her a tearful goodbye and ask her to write them letters before Mom escorts her to the world outside. Emma realizes that Conny left her favorite stuffed animal, and she and Norman rush to return it to her. As they approach the open gate, however, they discover something so terrible that, as the traumatic images begin to settle in, they realize that their only option is to plan an escape for themselves and the other children.

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Book Club Special Features

Anime Book Club – Mononoke Week 2: Zashikiwarashi

It’s interesting to make note of the rituals of ours that develop innocently out of tendencies and habits. Lately when I’ve been sitting down to write, I’ve lit a candle that I keep on my desk. It doesn’t really do all that much beyond creating a nice-smelling atmosphere and a friendly-glowing light, but I find that lighting the wick now puts me in a certain state of mind. It’s a signal to my brain that it’s time to think, focus, and use my words. Mononoke, and many other anime, are similarly ritualistic in nature; listening to the theme song allows me to focus on the story ahead, and the theater-like sliding screens and the clanking of wooden blocks puts me in a meditative state of mind. It’s definitely not the only reason why this series is so striking or memorable to me, but it definitely makes full use of itself as an art form.

This week marks the beginning of the series proper. While I would still encourage those of you with access to watch Bakeneko if you’re able, I don’t believe this series suffers much for not having seen it. I personally watched Mononoke before realizing that it was a spin off, and mostly just felt that finding Bakeneko was a welcome bonus. Luckily Mononoke is now available on Crunchyroll, so it’s much easier for those of you watching along to participate!

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2018 First Impressions – Banana Fish

Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of “Papa” Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him. But the hideous secret that drove Ash’s older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into Papa’s insatiably ambitious hands–and it’s exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to make Ash Lynx’s acquaintance… – ANN

Streaming: Amazon Prime Video

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Ash Lynx has made a life for himself among the gangs of New York City. A runaway plucked off the streets by Papa Dino, a ruthless mob boss, he’s now beginning to rebel against the man who raised him. After Ash witnesses the death of a man who hands him a vial of white powder and whispers “Banana Fish” with his dying breath, he begins to suspect that it might have something to do with his older brother’s break with reality in Vietnam years earlier. Cue the appearance of Eiji, a photographer’s assistant from Japan who’s helping with a story about Ash and how he brought together New York’s various gang factions. Eiji is pure and innocent, but manages to make a connection with Ash almost immediately – just in time to end up in the middle of a fight between Ash and Papa Dino’s thugs. Eiji and Ash’s young friend Skip are shoved into a car, and it’s all Ash can do to give chase.

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