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Anime Reviews

Can you make a giant killing happen inside of you?

This is a show about football (out of respect to Bateszi I’ll avoid using the word soccer…). The featured team, East Tokyo United (ETU), is dysfunctional. ETU’s fans are running away, the team keeps losing managers and players and worst of all, they just can’t win. At this point in the summary, anyone who has watched a feel-good sports movie knows the premise: a team of misfits need to come together and miraculously win the J-League!

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Anime Reviews

The town where nothing ever happens: FLCL & I

Frankly, I lack the words to talk about Satoshi Kon’s passing; there are others who have said and will say things more eloquently. Instead, I offer you a diversion: FLCL.
I meant to write this post a while back, but never go around to it. Somehow, it’s been a very long, and a little bit of a crazy summer. Without many noticing, the 10th anniversary of a certain anime came and went in late April. You probably know it by one of it’s many names – FLCL; Furi Kuri; Fooly Cooly. I love FLCL. I’ve watched it so many times over the last decade that I’ve lost track.

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Anime Reviews

This is the Naruto I remember

There were times when I considered dropping Naruto.

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Anime Reviews

One Piece, or when the anime is better than the manga

Before I start, a preamble: One Piece is a great anime. Ever since our little agreement a month back I’ve been tackling the series, from 229 onwards at a pace of about 3 or so episodes a day. Unlike the other One Piece addict around here, however, I must admit the plot and characters aren’t the focus of the experience for me. Rather, I was interested in how One Piece transitioned from manga to anime, particularly in light of some of the other Shounen Jump adaptations that came out in the neighboring years.

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Anime Reviews

Opinions on current anime

Although the vast majority of my recent scribblings concern mostly older series, I am (and have been) keeping up with some newer anime, too.
Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu is a name that suggests parody, but this new fantasy series is surprisingly serious, with magic, monsters and adventure. 4 episodes in, it’s difficult to see whether or not it’ll follow through with its potential, but at least the characters are interesting. I picked this up because it’s referred to as Berserk-lite elsewhere and, indeed, it has a very Griffith esque destined-to-go-wrong personality in the smooth-talking, crazy ambitious Sion Astal. I’m holding out for some fascinating character arcs in the future, but it could fast devolve into light-hearted, generic monster-slashing too. Patience is the key, I guess.

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Anime Reviews

How the Cowboy Bebop ending explains the meaning of “You’re gonna carry that weight”

What is the Cowboy Bebop ending trying to say? It feels like such a waste! Spike doesn’t have to face Vicious, he could just stay with Faye and Jet, leave Mars and fly away, but he doesn’t.

No matter how many times it’s replayed, there will always be that choice hanging over Spike in the end, but then, isn’t that why Cowboy Bebop‘s still so fascinating? Consider Faye Valentine.

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Anime

The candy-colored afterlife

Occult Academy, you’ve made a fan out of me.