Spring 2016 – Week 5 Spotlight – The Shanghai International Settlement in Joker Game

The fourth episode of Joker Game had an astonishing setting, both in terms of its historical context and for the presentation of its story.  Yet, how was such a locale and situation even possible for a plot like this?  This episode was set in Shanghai and between 1937 and 1941, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War when Japan was invading and controlling large regions of China.  You may be wondering, with war between Japan and China raging across the nation, how was such a setting possible for Joker Game to utilize?  How was a military police unit, Chinese revolutionaries, and America and British citizens able to coexist in such a place with such turmoil and conflict?  This post on the fourth episode of Joker Game attempts to describe all the details and history of the Shanghai International Settlement and why it was such a remarkable setting for this episode’s narrative.

Spring 2016 – First Impressions (Part 3)

This post reviews: Joker Game, Sousei no Onmyouji, Bungou Stray Dogs, Anne Happy, Koutetsujou no Kabaneri, Sakamoto desu ga?, and Shounen Maid.

Winter 2016 – Week 9 Anime Review

Back during Week 9: the symbolism of clothing in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, questioning whether anyone else is ‘special’ in Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, praising the tsukkomis in Dagashi Kashi, and posting pictures of Clarion from Koukaku no Pandora because why not?

Winter 2016 – Week 4 Anime Review

For Week 4: adoring the transformation and westernization of the setting in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, the authenticity, weight, and significance of battles in Hai to Gensou no Grimgar, why the letterbox formatting is my favorite directing decision of Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, and disruption in the sense of community in Durarara!!x2 Ketsu.

Winter 2016 – Week 3 Anime Review

For Week 3: gushing about the setting of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, questioning Satoru’s treatment of Hiromi in Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, a personality shift with a positive cause in Dimension W, and highlighting the brilliant animation in Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!

12 Days of Anime (2015) – Day 1 – Imai Kami’s Shoukan! Kengou Gakuen

Imai Kami’s premier manga, Needless, concluded with Chapter 114 in June of 2013, following a cherished 10 year run. In December 2013, Imai Kami’s other long-running manga of 7 years, Shirasunamura, also concluded. At the time Needless concluded, Kami expressed interest in taking a well-deserved break before returning to draw the latter half of Needless with his planned continuation called Needless 2. However, since that summer, Kami has been quiet as a mangaka, only working on 4koma comics for Arcadia magazine and releasing an art book in 2014. It wasn’t until January 2015 when I discovered that Kami had been working on a new manga in Arcadia magazine, Shoukan! Kengou Gakuen, with the first volume being available in February. Unable to find any useful information online, I waited patiently for the manga to be imported from Japan. Imai Kami’s new manga, Shoukan! Kengou Gakuen will be the focus for Day 1 of my 12 Days of Anime for 2015.

12 Days of Anime (2015) – Day 12 – Watching “Uncensored” Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works

**Warning: spoilers below**

Although I wasn’t able to spend much time at this year’s Sakura-Con, I am grateful that I was able to attend the Pacific Northwest’s largest anime convention for my fourth consecutive year. One of my lasting memories from this convention, as well as for 2015 as a whole, was watching the first three episodes of the second half of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (TV) before it even premiered in Japan. How awesome is that, getting to watch three episodes of one of the best anime of the year before anyone else? But… that’s not exactly the point of this post. Instead, one scene in particular from the fifteenth episode of FSN: UBW really stunned me… and it stunned me again when I realized it was omitted from TV broadcasts in Japan three weeks later. In fact, the event that’s reserved for the beginning of my 12 Days of Anime for 2015 is a rather strange tale of censorship, and of how the most emotional scene, to me, in all of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works went unseen to a majority of its anime fans.