Leshy from Raving Otaku gives us the lowdown on why Bungou Stray Dogs is their favourite anime. If you’re not already a fan, you probably will be after reading this. I used to think that the supernatural genre in anime could not catch my attention anymore since I felt it was too repetitive, but the Stray Dogs from this series made me change my perspective. Bungou Stray Dogs’ premise revolves around Atsushi Nakajima, an orphan that was expelled from the orphanage and had nowhere to go. While thinking about what he should do, he meets Osamu Dazai who helps Atsushi realise that he has the ability ..read more

Freelancer Michael Iaboni dives into this long-titled anime to find out if it’s one worth watching (spoiler: it is). Don’t let the title fool you. Higehiro is a surprisingly wholesome show. A salaryman, Yoshida, houses a teenage girl, Sayu, for the night after his crush rejects him. The next morning he finds out she’s a runaway from Hokkaido sleeping with men for places to stay. Upset she’s resorted to this, and of men using her like that, he lets her stay as long as she needs. He asks only that she do some chores around the apartment. The anime explores two different themes. A question can be ..read more

Freelancerr Michael Iaboni gives us the lowdown on why you should be watching Vivy-Fluorite Eye’s Song-. If you’ve ever watched The Terminator and thought “I wish Sarah Connor was also an AI and that the Terminator was actually a teddy bear”, then Vivy-Fluorite Eye’s Song- may be the anime for you. A songstress AI, Vivy, teams with an AI occupying the body of a stuffed bear, Matsumoto, to stop an AI uprising 100 years in the future. But despite my comical take on the premise, the anime does have the potential to be the sleeper hit of the year. It sprinkles moments where Vivy acts more human th ..read more

If you’re not already watching To Your Eternity, let Michael Iaboni convince you. The hand drops ‘It’, an orb and immortal being, to Earth without emotions or identity. ‘It’ captures the form of objects around it and changes and learns in response. First a rock, then a white wolf, then a human. From the first episode, you’ll discover To Your Eternity ranks among the finest anime from the Spring 2021 season (and 2021 as a whole). Not a lot of shows make you care about a cast of two characters – with one of them speaking 95% of the dialogue – in a frozen wasteland. But, To Your Eternity does. Th ..read more

Lupin III: The First not only serves as the swansong for franchise creator, the late great Monkey Punch, but marks the franchise’s first foray into CG animation. To say it was going to be contentious is a bit of an understatement. Simply put, the film looks fantastic. The animation is dynamic, kinetic and possessing of all the charm that made the manga and its myriad animated adaptions such a joy to behold. Of course, this is CG so where previous instalments have existed in a flat environment, here Lupin and the gang have a whole new playground to wreak havoc in. That’s both a blessing and a c ..read more

Most long-running anime series will have at least a few filler episodes. The internet abounds with viewing guides to cut out filler entirely and focus only on the meat of the story. That’s a shame, because there’s plenty of great filler episodes out there to enjoy. A case in point is Naruto. This guest post from Naruto Filler List showcases some of the best filler episodes from Naruto that are actually worth your time. 1. Kidnapped! Naruto’s Hot Spring Adventure! (Episode 97) This episode is about Jiraya, Tsunade, Shizune and Naruto – that’s the main reason to watch this funny episode. While g ..read more

If I were to give Fruits Basket a tagline, it might be ‘dessert before dinner’. Because the more acquainted you get with the series, you more you begin to realise that all the cake and ice-cream of young romance and new-found friendship is just sweetening you up for a full dish of seriously savoury drama. By the time you’re full up on sugar, you’re not sure how much room you have left for the main course. But then, there’s always a bit of space for something yummy that’s made with love.  This second part opens with Tohru and friends commemorating the anniversary of her mother’s death. As is to ..read more

Certain stories are such a perfect storm of ideas and spectacle that they resonate with the zeitgeist and leave a lasting influence. It’s a double-edged sword that leaves many stories so much a product of their time that revisiting them can undo the magic that made them so special and effective in the first place. So it is with Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. From the vantage point of our current climate, the setup is politically naïve at best, while the themes of xenophobia, cultural erasure and media manipulation are handled with such broad strokes that big ideas are framed almost enti ..read more

This year in the Chinese calendar marks a new year of the Rat, something Fruits Basket’s Yuki Sohma would perhaps feel quietly happy about. The myth in Chinese astrology goes that being in the year of your own zodiac animal could bring bad luck for the whole of that year. But old Sohma is a laid back kind of soul and not one to kow-tow to superstition, and so we can see him thinking of 2020 as his year. Of course, in a way, he’s absolutely right. The remake of the Fruits Basket anime returns this spring for its second season, and as ever it’s proved to be a celebration of the intercultural pow ..read more

If you’re anything like us (i.e. pushing thirty or so) you will hold the voice of Brice Armstrong as an inseperable part of your childhood. He was the narrator for the English dub of Dragon Ball, and so his passing will be mourned by a legion of anime fans. Armstrong was 84 years old when he died of natural causes on January 10th. Mary Collins Agency released a statement with a few words from fellow voice actor Christopher Sabat, who said “Brice was the kindest, funniest person I’ve ever known. He was always humble, never in a bad mood–not the attitude you’d expect from such an industry legend ..read more