Jun 042014
 
Five Crunchyroll Manga Series Worth Reading

It’s been around half a year since the anime simulcast website Crunchyroll expanded into the realm of digital manga distribution. In that time, the company’s stable of titles has slowly grown to include several dozen titles from a variety of genres. Now that the program has had some time to expand and refine itself, it seems as good a time [Read more…]

May 282014
 
Why the Attack on Titan Dub Matters

It’s been an interesting few weeks since the English dub of Attack on Titan began airing as part of Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming block. Through all the discussions, arguments, and analysis, one thing has been made overwhelmingly clear: the show’s established fanbase is watching very closely. Hopes and expectations are high for the show’s localization, and not without good reason. [Read more…]

May 212014
 
The Impossibly Contagious Energy of Love Live

Anime fans, like anyone else, can be more than a little stubborn when it comes to the subject of favorite and least favorite genres. We like to think that we know what we like, and we’re absolutely certain of what we don’t. Every once in a great while, though, a series comes along that challenges us to rethink our supposedly [Read more…]

May 142014
 
Norse Mythology in Anime

With the first season coming out on DVD this month and a fancy Blu-ray box on the horizon, Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions has wandered in and out of my mind a few times recently. I was in the middle of describing Dekomori’s endlessly amusing “Mjolnir Hammer” attack to a friend when something odd occurred to me: anime is bursting [Read more…]

Apr 232014
 
The Hard Sell for Hardcovers: Premium Manga Releases in the US

Here in the US, we’re most familiar with manga in its standard paperback form.  For around ten dollars, we get between 150 and 200 pages of content in black and white on decent-quality paper.  Early-adopter types might also be used to digital formats, be they individual downloads or subscription-based services.  Whether in print or online, we’ve grown familiar with a [Read more…]

Apr 162014
 
Five Promising New Shows for the Spring Anime Season

It’s that time of the season once again: the time when anime fans cram their schedules full of more shows than any reasonable person could possibly watch.  Most folks will soon scale things back as it becomes clear what is and isn’t worth watching, but for now we’re still all caught up in the manic flood of possibilities.  Just to [Read more…]

Apr 092014
 
Arpeggio of Blue Steel Shows how to Make a Good Series Great

Back in the fall of 2013, an anime series called Arpeggio of Blue Steel premiered in a season filled with big-name titles.  A sci-fi series boasting some impressive naval combat sequences, Arpeggio faced stiff competition and was quickly torpedoed by fan-favorite shows from a variety of genres, including Non Non Biyori and Kill la Kill.  With the original manga now available [Read more…]