Anime roundup 8/2/2013: Take a Number
Gatchaman Crowds #3 – This is the first sf work I know of to grapple full-on with the implications of widespread social networking. In any medium. You can point to any number of stories where […]
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Doujinshi: Distinctly Japanese
There are many expressions of fandom that cross genres and cultures – fan fiction, fan art, even cosplay. But there is one form in particular that is distinctly Japanese, both in its origin and in […]
Anime roundup 7/26/2013: The Safety Dance
Gatchaman Crowds #2 – Gatchaman Crowds has declared its thesis topic, which is the gamification of human interactions as mediated by the Internet. Gamification is, broadly, the application of game-like scoring systems to Internet sites […]
Super Absurd Japanese Name: Shin Megami Tensei IV
The thing that’s kept me coming back to Shin Megami Tensei over the years has been its most Sci-Fi element: its sense of discovery. IV, the series latest entry for the 3DS, emphasizes this point; […]
Anime Neverland
One of the challenges of liking anime is having to sometimes admit that you prefer cartoons to more “grown up” forms of entertainment. And sometimes you can defend yourself with a really adult title like […]
Anime roundup 7/19/2013: Expository Lumps
And now, the rest of your season premieres! For those who were eagerly awaiting Symphogear G or the new Milky Holmes, I regret to inform you that they haven’t been picked up for international streaming. […]
Wonder Woman’s Foreign Successors
I’ve been reading Mike Madrid’s The Supergirls, a really fantastic look at the history of superheroines in mainstream American comics. I just reached the 1970s, and the karate-chopping, white-pantsuit-wearing, depowered Wonder Woman era that came with […]
CHARACTERS: Rintaro Okabe of Steins;Gate
Just so you all know, I didn’t intend this series to feature so many anime characters. I wanted to talk about the characters from books I’d read, movies I’d seen, and television shows I’d watched. […]
Who Got Cultural Studies In My Fandom?
Bendições from Brazil! By the time this post goes live, I will have been in this lovely country for two whole weeks, and will be getting ready to head back Stateside. But being here has […]
Humanity’s Armored Hope: A Pacific Rim Review
It’s bizarre to consider, but I’ve been plagued all week on how to begin my review of Guillermo Del Toro’s new giant monsters versus giant robots movie, Pacific Rim, not because I couldn’t parse how I […]
Anime roundup 7/12/2013: The World Is Illusion
It’s season premiere time, so let’s set aside the continuing shows for a week to look at new stuff. (Space Brothers is taking the week off, anyway.) Day Break Illusion premiere – Akari Taiyō is an […]
Gunbuster: Adventures in Shonen Tropes
Studio Gainax veteran Hiroyuki Imaishi has been in the news lately for his upcoming project, Kill La Kill, which reminded me–I’ve been meaning to write a big fat recommendation post for the 1980s classic, Aim for the […]
Review: Attack on Titan
Remember that really creepy painting done by Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring his Son? Well, someone in Japan thought that would be an interesting motif for an Anime series / Manga, and they were damn right. […]
Anime roundup 7/5/2013: The Moving Finger Writes
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, end – By golly, they managed it. The big fight scene and enough time left over to wrap up all the loose ends, including what Earth was doing as one […]
Characters: Jet Black frmo Cowboy BeBop
Rounding out the characters from Cowboy Bebop, we end with Jet Black, the Black Dog. Yes, there’s still Ed, but what else can be said about her than, he’s a seven foot ex basketball pro, […]
Evolution of an Otaku: Conflict of Identity
If you had asked me at the age of fourteen if I considered myself an otaku, I would have raised one snarky eyebrow at you and said, “Obviously.” And it was pretty obvious, too, what […]
Anime roundup 6/28/2013: Fall of the Guardians
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet #12 – Is it an act of insubordination if you refuse the orders given by your superior officer’s ghost? Or does that mech fight just count as damaging government property? […]
Summer 2013 Anime Preview
So, you heard about that Sailor Moon reboot everyone is all excited about? It’s been pushed back to 2014 at least. Instead, here are the more notable examples of what you’ll have to tide you […]
Pixels and Panels #2: Online Comics
Here are two web comics that feature world-building on a grand scale.
Hidden Treasures: Review of a Manga Reference Book
Used bookstores are veritable treasure troves, as I’m sure many Amazing Stories readers will agree. Digging through the shelves and piles of every type of book imaginable is a bibliophile’s dream especially when it doesn’t […]
Anime roundup 6/21/2013: The Great Chain of Beating
Hunter x Hunter #84 – One of the recurring features of shōnen series is a tendency to look at characters exclusively through who they can and can’t defeat in a fight. The shōnen world can […]
Characters: Faye Valentine From Cowboy Bebop
My last article talked about Spike from Cowboy Bebop. I decided to write this week’s article on Bebop’s other fan-favorite character, Faye Valentine. Originally a theif who trusts no one, Faye becomes an important […]
The Lasting Impact of Miyazaki’s Princess
There are some artists who leave a lasting impression on every life their work touches. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Hayao Miyazaki is one of those artists; I know that his […]
Anime roundup 6/14/2013: Strange Aeons
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet #10 – So the magical glowing trails from which all the fleets of Earth draw their electricity are, basically, squid dandruff. Next it will probably turn out that the lightbugs […]
Michiko to Hatchin is the Best Anime You’ve Never Watched
Michiko to Hatchin is as good as Cowboy Bebop. There, I said it. It’s also as good as Serial Experiments Lain and Neon Genesis Evangelion, but Bebop is the important comparison here. Did you enjoy […]
That Fighting Spirit! Yankees, Bad Boys, and Yakuza
Girls just love a bad boy, right? At least that’s what we’re led to believe in Western media. But I’ve never been into the bad boy trope myself (we are momentarily excluding Buffy the Vampire […]
Anime roundup 6/9/2013: Meeting the Enemy
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet #9 – Now Ledo knows what, or rather who, he’s been fighting… almost. The descendants of the human/squid symbionts went to space, copied the wormhole technology, put on some better […]
MCM Expo (Comic-Con) Part Deux
I was recently in London – less than a week ago to be exact – and had the great pleasure of once again attending another MCM Expo at the Excel Centre in east London. It […]
Characters: Spike Spiegel
Ask someone to name the most important SF anime of all time, and chances are they’ll say Cowboy Bebop. It’s hard to argue. The sometimes-drama-sometimes-comedy about spacefaring bounty hunters had most of what you could […]
Slice-Of-Life and the Open Ending
I have noticed a trend in newer anime in the last few months: The completely open-ended conclusion. To be fair, anime stories have always had a different flavor to their endings than Western cartoons, in […]
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