05 May 24
For this week's feature, we have a pair of series that start with the main character dying (or near enough to it). Both dungeoncrawlers, too, albeit in rather different settings. First is one that's been hyped up for a long time and put in motion by the fine folks at A-1 Pictures, Solo Leveling. The other is a more conventional fantasy story, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer. It probably would've made sense to add Undead Unluck to this list, but rather than get caught up on that, I went down a different rabbit hole (one that still just happens to involve death and resurrection shenanigans) with Season 1 and Season 2 of the 2000s mecha series Godannar. Because I had recently purchased the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Edition, I decided to revisit that 90s classic, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. And for our extra movie reviews, we have the 1949 version of All the King's Men and 2015's Aloha... because I thought about going to a Hawaiian hamburger place two weeks ago? (It's just coincidence that I was able to come up with something. As you may recall, I'm going alphabetically through my backlog of reviews.) I don't currently have a theme idea for next week. I can't even promise that I'll get caught up on anything before then, especially since I've picked up the still ongoing Dungeon Meshi (which is really good and I can't believe I nearly slept on it). Anyway, I'll see what I can do there while getting together the next chapter of EM3 amid the flood of work I've got waiting for me once I get back to the office. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 18:47:56
04 May 24
In the States, a lot of things get dyed green for St. Paddy's Day, but I've never heard of doing anything similar for Greenery Day here in Japan. As such, the mascot is white as ever (not that I'd dye her green on any occasion). This might be relevant if I was going to revive the running gag of Ally from the Tico series turning green, but instead this intro is going absolutely nowhere. While the intro may have been a waste of your time, hopefully you'll find Chapter 20 of TWH to be anything but a waste of your time. Look for reviews tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 13:55:30
01 May 24
It's that special time of year once more, International Ayame Jellybean Day. The lady of the hour thought that the more tangible reward of being cradled for a bit was more important than this little digital tribute. Anyway, I won't say I'm going to work on the mascot's gallery this time, so if it actually ends up happening, it'll be a pleasant surprise. Look for the story update this weekend. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 13:17:43
29 Apr 24
We have yet another TWH delay, and with me being behind on my viewing for review purposes, we might have been without a review post as well, but thanks to His Majesty the Showa Emperor (with apologies to the aggrieved former members of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere), I have Monday off and so have been able to put this post together only a day late rather than a week late. We kick things off with some mecha action in the form of Brave Bang Bravern! and Synduality: Noir. There was a third series I wanted to add to this pile but didn't have time for it, so instead we'll turn our attention to movies. First is the 1935 version of A Tale of Two Cities. Next we have the legendary screen couple Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn engage in the battle of the sexes in Adam's Rib. We then have some fun with the birth of Anglicanism in A Man for All Seasons. Next, surely you can't be serious, but it's Airplane!. (I am serious, by the way, and don't call me Shirley.) Last, and probably least, is a Western from the director of Action Jackson, Aces n' Eights. That being the dead man's hand and all, we can cover a couple of series that start with death next week (and possibly some more if I manage it). Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 13:55:46
21 Apr 24
Magic is in the air for this week's reviews. First off is Season 2 of The Ancient Magus' Bride from last year, which leads us to two series from this year, Season 2 of Mashle and The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic. Next up is movies. Last week we had one about WWII, one filmed during it, and now one set after it in the form of Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair. We then have A Fistful of Dollars, the first entry in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, the musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the deliberately (and amusingly) anachronistic A Knight's Tale. For next week, I'm thinking we'll have some mecha. Look for more TWH as well. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 15:51:33
20 Apr 24
The time I've spent putting the site back together has delayed this release, but now it's time to get to it. I'm rolling the dice a bit with this one, but I'm going to trust the reader will grant me enough rope to hang myself. What am I talking about? Well, first off, go ahead and read Chapter 2 of RttW and if you're not liking what you're seeing, head over to the blog so you can hear what I've got to say for myself. We'll see how things go from here. Tomorrow's reviews are less likely to spark any contraversy, so look forward to that. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 13:52:25
14 Apr 24
A minor housekeeping note, but I've decided to delete the site's Gab account. The place had always been a bit of a cesspit, but that's social media for you. Will I replace it with anything else? At this point, I doubt it. If I was that committed to social media engagement, I would've stuck with Twitter and Facebook, but as I ditched them as a matter of principle, it wasn't all that tenable for me to stick with Gab as long as I have. Well, so it goes. Not much is lost. The Cats Group was nice. Anyway, that takes care of that. Now back to work for me.
Posted by: James
UTC 14:02:20
My original viewing goal for this week proved too ambitious for the time I had available, so I opted to take an alternate route that I could put together quicker. We're looking at The Dangers in My Heart, last year's Season 1, the recently completed Season 2 and the ONA short Bonus Dangers (TwiYaba). For movie reviews, we kick things off with a big ensemble war film A Bridge Too Far and then a movie made when WWII was still ongoing, 1942's A Date with the Falcon. Next is crime time with kidnapping in A Cry in the Night and murder in A Bucket of Blood, and singing in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I'll pick up a few more Winter 2024 series for next week, so look forward to that. We'll also have more RttW. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 12:17:10
13 Apr 24
It's time for Chapter 23 of EM3. It's not all that long, but we're getting set up for the final stretch of the story. You excited? Speaking of things to be excited for, my plan for the reviews this week has changed. I didn't have time for the catching up that needed to be done, so we've got something light and fluffy instead. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 13:16:24
08 Apr 24
We kick off with three of my favorite series that ran from Fall 2023 to Winter 2024. It's Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Shangri-La Frontier and The Apothecary Diaries. Outstanding. I know book reviews are much less common for me, but because I'm such a fan of The Eminence in Shadow, I've got Volume 1 of the light novels. The books are pretty chunky as light novels go, but I'm moving along at a fair clip with them. Last but not least, we have our bonus movie reviews, 1932's A Bill of Divorcement and A Blueprint for Murder. I think I'll pick up some more two-cour series for next week's reviews. Look for more EM3 if I manage to get it done. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 14:13:32
07 Apr 24
A day late and a dollar short as usual, but here's Chapter 19 of TWH. I'll try to get the reviews out tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 12:47:09
01 Apr 24
I've been holding off on trying to get new content out while I've been busy restoring all the old stuff, but at this point, I think I'm going to try running the two pipelines in parallel. One of the main reasons for this is that I've finally gotten to see Dune: Part Two. Now, what I'm thinking about doing with update posts for the immediate future is to provide a couple additional movie reviews from my backlog so I can get them out of the hopper. I do like grouping reviews by theme, and we'll still do things that way for the main part of the post, but these extras will just be me going down the alphabet. For today, at least, we've got two to round out the usual five plus the two bonus ones. First is the 1954 version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which I can connect to 5 Fingers via James Mason. Then there's 100 Degrees Below Zero and 8 Million Ways to Die, which I suppose can be connected because both films have a lead actor named Jeff. (That's more connection than I'll be able to have for most of these bonus additions.) Moving on to our manga coverage, we have Volume 6 of Oshi no Ko and Volume 28 of One Punch Man. I plan to start my coverage of the Winter 2024 anime next week and dip into more of the backlog from last year. I'll try to get the new chapter of TWH out as well. I don't have that much more to write on it, so I'll just have to make time for it amid my continued efforts to repost reviews. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 06:34:31