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Jul 16, 2024
I only read 3 volumes, but this manga is so pointless it actually angers me.

I was naively hoping for an evolution of what had come before. But instead it's basically a remake. A retread. Regurgitating everything we've seen already. Daigoro is once again travelling the land with a badass ronin, riding in a cart, being chased by ninja.

WE'VE SEEN THIS SHIT ALREADY.

If it were up to me I'd have time skipped forward a decade and rejoined Daigoro as a young adult, and explored what his horrific upbringing had done to his personality and worldview.

Oh well. At least the art was fine, if lacking in kineticism, ...
Feb 19, 2024
Mixed Feelings
This review assumes the reader has already watched either the original two seasons of Code Geass, or the recap movie trilogy, as this particular movie, Lelouch of the Resurrection, follows on from the trilogy (which created its own timeline).

Something just felt so off with this movie to me, that it did not feel sincere at all. Like, literally every single character from the previous two seasons of the original show / movie trilogy are all somehow ok with Lelouch now, a guy who had angered both sides of the conflict between Japan and Britannia, a guy who had ordered the deaths of thousands of people, ...
Jan 4, 2024
Venus Senki (Anime) add
Look, I'm just going to say it: I like Venus Wars more than Akira.

Let's get two things out of the way.

1) Reasons to compare the two movies. One came out only a year after the other. They're both about rebellious youth living in a cyberpunk landscape who are thrust into an apocalyptic conflict that is drawn painstakingly well in that 80s anime way.

2) I wrote a 4000 word dissertation on Akira at university, so I am not what you would call a 'hater'. It was one of the first anime I ever saw, so it holds a special place in my ...
Dec 27, 2023
This is literally the only anime I've watched in my life where:

a) people of colour outnumber white characters
b) a character has vitiligo

The show is already noteworthy for those reasons. It's simply refreshing to see something so different. One of the strengths of anime as a medium is its variety. There is an amazing variety of characters, premise, themes, you name it. Yet often, despite stories set in fantastical worlds where the creators have the freedom to make up any characters they want, they can still be lacking in diversity. Quite frankly it can be tiring when an entire cast of characters are the ...
Aug 4, 2023
This is a profoundly disappointing manga, exhibiting the worst traits of the medium, namely the sexual 'male gaze' of children, a nauseating relationship between a young teen and an adult double her age, and depiction of women as simple-minded folk obsessed with getting into the protagonist's pants.

It's disappointing because the manga's premise is bold and its themes highly compelling, exploring the suffering and injustice of children during wartime, and the predicament the protagonist finds himself in. Using children as soldiers is obscene, and yet the protagonist believes the alternative for them is even worse (prostitution, death, etc). Their justification is to somehow make enough money ...
Dec 24, 2022
Chainsaw Man (Manga) add
Mixed Feelings
Well-writtenWell-written
Preliminary (97/? chp)
Chainsaw Man is torn between being seinen and shonen, while failing to be adept at either.

It's as violent as seinen with its body horror, but with nothing remotely meaningful to say or thematically explore that you can't read in stories aimed at young children (killing's bad m'kay? Humans emotions are good m'kay?). It's as creative with its battles and abilities as a shonen, but without the coherent rules of the genre.

The author regularly pulls undeserved plot twists and powers out of his ass during battles, making it seem like we've just seen a pay-off. But pay-offs don't work without set-ups. Visit the forums to see ...
Aug 29, 2022
Bamboo Blade (Anime) add
Mixed Feelings
This has the worst structure of a show I've ever seen. Despite that baffling aspect, Bamboo Blade is a lighthearted irreverent comedy maybe worth your time.

Let's get the negatives out of the way.

First off, the show's premise is that a school's kendo sensei, Ishida, makes a bet with his friend that his team of girls can beat his friend's, with the reward being a year's worth of eating at a restaurant.

This weak hook to the show is resolved in a handful of episodes. Let me repeat: the reason for this show existing is resolved in a handful of episodes.

After some meandering, the show comes up ...
Aug 19, 2022
Akira (Manga) add
Mixed Feelings
InformativeInformative
Well-writtenWell-written
Oh boy. Re-reading this was eye-opening. It's been on my personal favourite list for decades, it was the first anime and manga I ever saw, so it'll always have a special place in my heart. I rewatched the movie on 4K bluray recently and it holds up well. The Akira Club artbook is also gorgeous. The manga though...

I'd recently bought all 6 volumes (the long-selling English ones by Kodansha), and was excited to re-read them for the first time since the late 1990s, but after reading one volume I was shocked to feel that nothing meaningful had happened. Despite the fact that the story is ...
Aug 18, 2022
Inuyashiki (Manga) add
Hiroya Oku's follow-up to Gantz continues his exploration of nihilism in a hyper-real Japan, with an enticing premise and promising protagonist. There's not enough older folk utilised as main characters in manga, and Oku relishes the chance to shove Mr Inuyashiki into excruciating scenarios and to pull him out in cathartic fashion. He's joined by a malevolent antagonist who has a heavy presence all throughout the tale.

Which is a problem. But more about that later. Let me get some positives out of the way.

Oku really nails the banal cruelty of internet comments that you see everywhere online, from 2chan to reddit to MAL itself. We ...
May 30, 2022
Mixed Feelings
How far the mighty have fallen.

The Ghost in the Shell franchise used to be pioneering. It created new visual iconography, new visual language and cyberpunk tropes. In SAC_2045 we witness a franchise flailing about in a last gasp attempt at being relevant. It's a show that has nothing to say about anything. I found the many references to the Wachowskis Matrix series during the 2 seasons of this show profoundly pathetic.

As mentioned above GitS used to create iconography that influenced cinema and animation, and now it has devolved into blatantly ripping off the Matrix, with no grace about it. Instead we just get straight ...


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