Columns

The Irregular at Magic High School: Episode 01 Review

The Spring 2014 Anime Season is upon us, and I have decided to investigate one of Aniplex of America’s new acquisitions, The Irregular at Magic High School. After reading a synopsis online, this anime sounded interesting. Since it took place at a magical high school I hoped to have something in the same vein as Little Witch Academia, but I was sorely mistaken. To be bluntly honest, this anime bored me within the first five minutes.

Paradise Kiss: Girls, Interrupted

While Yukari’s story is a wonderful coming age story of a girl learning not to be defined by those around her, the female secondary characters, Miwako and Isabella, are not so lucky. Although they too are coming of age in their own right, their storylines are severely lacking compared to Yukari’s.

An Insider’s Look at Japan: Driving in Japan

As an American, my biggest living-abroad concern was learning to drive in Japan. While Americans drive on the right side of the road, Japanese drive on the left. As my company reminded everyone in a one-hour PowerPoint presentation, forgetting this fact is a great way to get into an accident.

Nanana’s Buried Treasure: Episode 01 Review

Nanana Ryuugajou was a special girl – she and her friends together tracked down some of the world’s most ludicrous treasures. However, one day, in her apartment, Nanana was killed. Ten years later, Juugo Yama moves to the man-made island Nanana called home and only has enough money to rent her former room…which she still haunts to this day.

La Corda d’Oro: Blue Sky Episode 01 Review

The exposition of this series is conveyed very effectively; necessary backstory is delivered in a fast-paced, yet mostly believable manner. However, Ritsu suddenly asking his friends to join the academy just to help with the competition seems to be a bit of a cheap move to tie the plot together.

Captain Earth: Episode 01 Review

Spring is here, and with a new season of anime comes new a opportunity for growth in the industry. The mecha genre has always been in the periphery of my circles of interest, even while acknowledging its essential contribution to the medium as it exists today.

Is the Order a Rabbit?: Episode 01 Review

Cocoa Hoto has just moved into a new town, and she enters the Rabbit House Cafe in a wonder-filled daze. Inside she meets Chino Kafuu, the granddaughter of the cafe’s owner, and they eventually realize that Cocoa has previously made arrangements to be living there – but little did she know that her residence doubled as such a cute cafe!

Kamigami no Asobi: Episode 01 Review

You can’t just have a regular old dating game anymore. You’ve got have a catch these days—vampires, monster girls, pigeons—some sort of hook to pull people in beyond the usual tropes that separate each route. Kamigami no Asobi, true to its name, pulls gods from all sorts of pantheons, reimagining them as attractive high school boys.

Haikyuu!!: Episode 01 Review

Inspired by a match on TV in which the “small giant” from Karasuno High jumps to amazing heights, even getting over blockers, Hinata gets his middle school friends together to form a volleyball club and sets his sights on one day getting into Karasuno and playing volleyball in the footsteps of the small giant he idolizes.

By Bernard Gagnon (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

An Insider’s Look at Japan: Ueno Koen

While there’s plenty of modern hustle and bustle in Tokyo, one of my favorite places I visited was the Ueno district, which is home to the famous Ueno Koen. This park is one of the largest and most popular in Japan, with thousands of visitors showing up every year for the springtime tradition of hanami, or cherry blossom viewing.