So it’s the 25th anniversary of the time the world got a whole lot worse. Terrorism, wars for profit, Patriot Acts, airports permanently sucking, the destabilization of the Middle East, 99% of politicians across the spectrum doing the dumbest shit you’ve ever read and getting away with it, but for the purpose of this blog, pop culture getting smacked across the face and never really turning back. An era when you were expected to watch Jack Bauer and American Idol,…
Just finished watching the second season of Batman: Caped Crusader, and it’s… fine? It’s serviceable, I was interested enough to watch the whole thing, and yet, there’s something off. In the same way a lot of those DC Animated movies felt off. Because on paper, this should be great. A street-level Batman animated series by guys like Timm, Brubaker, Rucka with Reeves overseeing the production. Like I said, it’s fine. At least there’s something to tide Batman fans over while…
After many requests from Marquis, who should honestly get all credit for this blog still being functional or thought about at all, I have updated everything and made this part of AR usable again. I will try to make it look a little prettier and get stuff sorted better in the near future. It only took 5 years… sorry y’all. Thanks for reading if you’re still here! 🙂
It’s a tale as old as time, where two Australian brothers make some crudely-animated Mario shorts and find enough success to form their very own animation studio. Then a little voice pops up in their head whispering “You should make cartoons that remind people of Reboot. Remember Reboot? Remember Hexadecimal? ‘Member?” and they do so, making so many CGI shows about video game worlds that make viewers like you go “Yeah, I remember Inklings. I remember Gaia Online culture. I…
“I didn’t take Lazarus for an anime adaptation of Driving Miss Daisy.” – Mumi on The Weeb Crew So yeah, the new show by acclaimed director Shinichiro Watanabe, about a select team of individuals sent to save the world from a mad scientist’s plot to kill most of humanity using pain-relief medication, wrapped up a few weeks ago. Short review: It sucked. Long review… Okay, good things about Lazarus first: It gave artists I like and respect paid work. I’m…
Assault Lily Bouquet Yet another battle school anime, except this time the girls call themselves Lilies and the monsters are called the Huge. Huge what? How should I know? Euphemisms aside, I don’t know how some anime fans can do it, talking about shows that tread through the same formula and the same thing season in and season out. I’m sure every anime season is always someone’s first, but for longtime fans, what do they get out of shows like…
Deca-Dence So here’s a show with some nice world-building, a lot of attention to detail, and something grander clearly in the works. But it doesn’t connect together, and I just sat there thinking this show should be blowing me away but isn’t for some reason. Then I realized, “Wait! I’ve seen this first episode before over a decade ago.” Post-apocalyptic world. Main character’s stuck in a bottom of the barrel job. Her mentor is played by Katsuyuki Konishi. Giant monsters…
Arte It’s 16th Century Italy. A noble teenage girl wants to be artist. Her name is Arte because she likes art. But her mother tells her she can’t be an artist because she is woman, and must marry man. Art does not want to marry man, so she runs away and cuts her hair, because Mulan did it in that one movie called Mulan. Art becomes apprentice to a vague approximation of Leonardo Da Vinci. Leo tells her she can’t…
22/7 I don’t know what to make of a first episode where a girl with crippling depression forced out of her job has to join an idol group to have her emotional needs met. It’s almost like someone taped the scripts to two completely different shows together. One minute, she’s off on a rant about adults and their lies. The next, a scene all about gorillas. 22/7 really tries to have it both ways by portraying how much teenage life…
Azur Lane Azur Lane is a mobage featuring WWII-era ships anthropomorphized into cute girls with giant guns and cannons strapped onto them. “Wait a minute Hellrider, isn’t this just Kancolle?” And you’d be correct, dear reader. Not one to be outdone by glorious Nippon, China has decided to go in on that gacha money and release their own equivalent to the WWII mobage, but with the added benefit of something resembling actual gameplay. Unlike Kancolle this anime follows an ensemble…