With Blueonic on vacation, King Baby Duck brings in two friends to geek out about two things the Bastards haven't really touched on in awhile: anime and ponies! Anime Jam Session's DJ Ranma Satome and Scarlet Rhapsody's Scarlet Prettycure Skype
It's no secret that Goro Miyazaki had to go all out for his next film. His first foray into anime, Tales of Earthsea, was not just a disappointment, but the worst film made in the Studio Ghibli library. Fortunately, thanks mostly to his famous dad, he has learned from his mistakes, and instead of taking the fantasy realm head-on he chose to helm a realistic slice-of-life period piece: From Up On Poppy Hill.
Mamoru Hosoda is like no other animation director. From his days doing Digimon and One Piece movies to making a name for himself with such critically-acclaimed films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, Hosoda has showcased a sort of unique talent regarding how a story is told and how it looks. Because of his talents he has been called "the next Miyazaki" by many critics in Japan and the rest of the world.
With his latest film Wolf Children, Hosoda doesn't just reach the top of the anime directorial mountain; he claims the throne that rests on its peak.
The concept of a person hearing what everyone thinks has seen some success in the romantic comedy realm (What Women Want, anyone?), so it should be no surprise that someone in Japan would take this idea and run with it in so many directions. What I didn't count on is an anime series that reaches a sort of greatness that rivals even most American dramatic comedies. Such is the case of Kotoura-san, a show that may already be the clear winner of best comedy of 2013.
**WARNING: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
After recovering from their first live show in a long time the Bastards reconvene for another new B3pisode!
Let me be frank: role-playing games are my least go-to genre in the video game realm. Sure I've played a plethora of titles -- from Final Fantasy adventures and a couple Tales games to Skies of Arcadia (my all-time favorite in the genre) -- but it's usually difficult for me to get into this style of gaming. Is there anything that could draw me into diving headfirst into the RPG realm no questions asked? Sure enough, Level-5 knew how to do just that with Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch.
Back in 2009 I came across an anime series called Seitokai no Ichizon (translated here as The Student Council's Discretion), which featured five students in a student council discussing their lives, opinions, and thoughts regarding the rules of their school. The series mostly took place in a single room, with almost no changes in the settings and pace of the program. Despite this Twelve Angry Men approach to animating the series, the show delivered a lot of surprising laughs, especially when it came to poking fun of itself. (Watch the first couple minutes of the first episode, and you'll see how good they do this.) Now after over three years of waiting a new season has come to fruition, and while they change the formula a bit the chuckles still keep coming at the same pace as before.
It's surely a coincidence when two four-panel manga-based anime series of almost the exact same premise and run at the same length of time arrive in the same season, yet it has happened here this winter of 2013 with the release of Choboraunyopomi's Ai Mai Mi and Kagari Tamaoka's Mangirl! Does one series fare better than the other, or do both show have their highs and lows?