13 Oct 24
As mentioned last week, the series premiere of Dandadan gave me my inspiration for this week's theme. I decided to combine alien abductions and ghosts. The pics above should tell you which kind of movie I enjoyed more. (I guess I'm more of an Okarun than an Ayase-san.) Let's start with the alien abduction movies, first with the Christopher Walken-starring Communion, then Fire in the Sky and the movie that may well have inspired it, The UFO Incident, starring James Earl Jones. For ghost movies, we have 2012's The Apparition and the first Paranormal Activity. Ghosts are lame, though. Or maybe just American ghost stories are lame. I probably would've done better to find some Japanese ghost movies instead. So it goes. Next week we'll see a selection of classic Halloween critters, our good friends Dracula, Frankenstein and such. Hopefully we can get the next chapter of TWH out at long last while we're at it. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 14:10:36
12 Oct 24
We close out a busy first day in the World in Chapter 7 of RttW. We'll have reviews tomorrow, so brace yourselves for some close encounters of the spooky kind. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 14:51:34
06 Oct 24
For this year's October spookyfest, we kick things off with some kaijuu action featuring none other than the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla. To connect this year's selection, I've chosen Mechagodzilla to be Big Daddy G's nemesis across the eras. We start with 1974's Godilla vs. Mechagodzilla and its sequel, Terror of Mechagodzilla, which mark the end of the Showa Era of the franchise. We then get the unrelated (contrary to what the English title would have you believe) Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II of the Heisei Era. We then close on a duo from the Millennium Era: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. In other news, while I have ideas for Weeks 3 and 4 of the month, I was at a loss for what to do next week, but then I saw the premiere of Dandadan and I had an apostropheepiphany. We're going to be having aliens, ghosts and maybe even alien ghosts. Also, be on the lookout for the next chapter of RttW. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 12:48:28
05 Oct 24
Well, it's a been a long run, but we finally bid farewell to the Everyday Magic series with the epilogue of EM3. We also have the character glossary, the map of Altamira, and the military ranks of the New Earth Empire. I still haven't decided what I plan to take this slot in the lineup, but I have three weeks to figure it out. Look for some Godzilla reviews tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 17:06:31
30 Sep 24
This is a bit late, but I didn't want to have to postpone this one until November. We continue our Summer 2024 anime coverage with a pair of dueling shows. Which flavor of obliviously strong protag-kun do you prefer? I Parry Everything: What Do You Mean I'm the Strongest? I'm Not Even an Adventurer Yet! or The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible? Next up is a pair of series from PA Works: Narenare: Cheer for You! and Mayonaka Punch. Last but definitely not least, and in fact it's one of my favorites for the season if not the year, is Too Many Losing Heroines! Starting next weekend, we'll be kicking off our October reviews starting with a selection of outings by the King of the Monster, Big Daddy G. Before that, though, I'm going to post the conclusion of EM3, so look forward for that. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 15:08:23
22 Sep 24
We continue our Summer 2024 anime coverage with a couple of romcoms, the rather high-profile Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian and the more under-the-radar Pseudo Harem. Next is movie coverage, featuring a selection of airplane movies from my recent summer vacation. We start with a Mel Gibson double feature of Lethal Weapon and Braveheart, follow it with original Ghostbusters, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and then we close on the clever little character drama Freud's Last Session, featuring Sir Anthony Hopkins as the eponymous Dr. Freud. We have one more week where we can focus on the summer anime before we start our October coverage. I'll make yet another stab at getting TWH out Saturday, but you know better than to hope for too much. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 18:30:41
16 Sep 24
I ended up finishing more anime than I was expecting, so we're going to be doing an all-anime feature. We start off with two series featuring the vocal talents of Jun "Lelouch vi Britannia" Fukuyama: Suicide Squad Isekai and The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord's Army Was a Human. Which one do you think makes the most of his talents? Next, love is in the air with last year's Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible and this year's My Toaster Can't Possibly Be This CuteMy Wife Has No Emotion. Lastly, it's a review that's been oft-delayed, but I finally finished Undead Unluck and can now share my thoughts with you. And I know I've been adding film reviews from the backlog lately, but I'm going to leave it here for today. It's Respect for the Aged Day here and I think I'll show my respect through imitation and have a nice afternoon nap. The kiddos are going to be busy with bunkasai this week, so hopefully I can squeeze enough writing in to finally get that chapter of TWH finished. Something to shoot for. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 05:19:29
15 Sep 24
I was just too tired to get this put together yesterday, but because I have a three-day weekend, I can afford to have a little shift in the schedule. Anyway, here's Chapter 6 of RttW. Reviews will either be out later today or tomorrow. I've managed to get a bit of an anime selection for you, so look forward to that. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 01:43:45
08 Sep 24
I said yesterday that today would be the first entry in the Summer 2024 anime reviews, but I did do Terminator Zero last week, which felt a bit different as Netflix tends to just dump eps all at once. What we're looking at this week was initially released here in Japan as a four-part film series, but it was released to streaming as a 12-ep series and that was how I consumed it. Anyway, it's Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture. We then turn back the clock to 2012 for another one of my random rabbit hole dives in Sankarea. I've also been continuing to make progress in The Eminence in Shadow LNs, so we've got a review of Volume 3, featuring the debut of my girl Yukime. For movie reviews, I haven't had time to get caught up on writing reviews for my viewing over the break, so we'll just dip into the backlog with the fictional Space Race story Countdown, a wartime entry in the Lone Wolf series Counter-Espionage, the 1935 Peter Lorre version of Crime and Punishment, and the Burt Lancaster film Criss Cross (not to be confused with the backwards clothes-wearing rap duo). If I can actually get caught up on my work-work, maybe I can get those movie reviews that I was promising written, among other things. Look for more RttW as well (which I really need to start buckling down on before I run out of lead time). Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 15:49:58
07 Sep 24
I'm still not making any appreciable progress on TWH, so let's cycle to our next feature and give you Chapter 26 of EM3. Honestly, I'd lost track of where I was an thought that it was time to post the epilogue, but that's still three weeks off. Enjoy the big finale for now and look for the denouement in the near future. We've got review tomorrow, including the first entry in the Summer 2024 anime reviews. Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 17:21:15
01 Sep 24
I still have a lot of current viewing to get caught up on, but I ended up getting sidetracked and picked up something from last year's lineup that I hadn't gotten to, and I'm glad I did. It's Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku. What I'm less glad about is Terminator Zero, but at least it has dear Hayamin, so that's something. For movie coverage, we'll be looking at some films I watched during last Christmas break. To tie in loosely with T0 (in that they deal with robos and/or AI), we have The Creator and Free Guy. We then have Gerard Butler actioning it up in the creatively titled Plane and last but not least is Napoleon Dynamite. We might have more sidetracking into other titles in the anime backlog and definitely more vacation viewing. Might I even get some writing done? Who knows? Stay tuned.
Posted by: James
UTC 16:42:46