Blog Archives

Oh yeah. That’s a serious question. Think about shonen for a moment. We have “Fullmetal Alchemist” and “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood”, two of the greatest shows of all time. The former has deeply complex characters and hauntingly effective direction on every level. The latter is incredibly tightly plotted, covers a massive cast of interesting and well […]

Ben Wheeler and I, Anthony Marchetta, with a surprise visit from authoress April Freeman, take a deep dive into “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” with the finale of the Part 5 anime just a few weeks away. (Amos Bellomy is me, just an old Google username that’s still on my account.) Incidentally, part 5 is awesome and […]

So I have lots and lots and lots of ideas (I’ve been meaning to do a write-up on “Hunter x Hunter” for a loooooong time)but am also quite busy. So here’s a great, relaxing, feel-good anime suggestion for you: “Silver Spoon”. Normally this is not the type of show I’d even consider watching in a […]

My issue with shows like “The Rising of the Shield Hero” and “Sword Art Online” largely have to do with the incredibly unhealthy wish fulfilment aspect. The shows are designed for preteens to place themselves in the shoes of Naofumi and Kirito. Naofumi is a random otaku nerd who gets transported to a video game-style […]

“The Rising of the Shield Hero” is everything wrong with the isekai genre. It just pretends otherwise. The show is a trick. It pulled the wool over your eyes. The first twenty minutes or so are some of the worst I’ve ever seen in the genre. They do basically everything wrong – give us a […]

There is a curious phenomenon that you see many times in critical circles, a dogma if you will. This dogma is maintained with near fanatical certainty by some, and among more leftist critics especially (re: most critics) it is VERY popular. The dogma: There is no such thing as objective quality. Every opinion is subjective. […]

I’ve realized that unless I think the battle scenes and characters are really, REALLY awesome I actually prefer watching people deal with politics and economics. This is the exact reason “Log Horizon” is such a great show, and one of the things that makes “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” so great are the vast background machinations going […]

I’ve thought deeply for awhile of how to approach this article. So it’ll be a bit long, but hopefully you’ll find it interesting. I’ll be going forward with the assumption that everyone knows the basic core concepts behind the pokemon franchise. And hey, even if you, specifically, don’t, I know the audience is out there. […]

“Prince of Egypt” is a 1998 animated movie made by Dreamworks back before Dreamworks ruined western animation with “Shrek”*. It is a musical made in a different, more mature and adult style than the Disney renaissance films that were all the rage those days. It is also probably the last great biblical epic ever put […]

Four Anime Reviews is one of the most popular posts I’ve ever done on the site. Since then I have watched a lot – and I do mean a LOT – more anime, and enjoyed almost all of it (I will only actually watch something to the end that I enjoy). In light of that, […]

You all know the debate. Miyazaki is getting up there in age. He’s on almost assuredly his last film, if only because he won’t last long enough for another one. He’s a giant in the world of animation and one of the first true anime film directors with crossover western appeal, to say nothing of […]