Summer 2014 – Season Preview

The Summer 2014 anime season is already upon us! With no time to spare due to all the thrilling and sensational anime that are already out or going to air soon, this Summer 2014 Season Preview will provide a glimpse of what I have planned for the season and some of my initial expectations for all the new shows and sequels this season. So what exactly am I looking forward to the most for the next three months? Let’s find out!

Winter 2014 – First Impressions (Part 1)

This post reviews: Buddy Complex, Space Dandy, Nobunaga the Fool, Noragami, and Tonari no Seki-kun.

Top 12 Anime and Top 12 Characters of 2012

The year of 2012 saw the debut and broadcasting of well over a hundred television anime and even more in the forms of movies and OVAs.  Over the past dozen months, I’ve spent countless hours watching these anime and documenting my thoughts, opinions and evaluations on each and every show.  Now with the year coming to a close, it’s time to summarize this year of anime with two simple lists: one on the top 12 characters of the year and the other on the top 12 favorite anime of the year.

12 Days of Anime (2012) – Day 11 – Joining the Anime Community on Twitter

Although I officially joined Twitter on Christmas Day last year, it was 2012 when I discovered the bustling, chatty and sociable anime community there and began to frequent the service on a regular basis.  In my entire first year of blogging, I failed to capitalize on the dynamic resource that was Twitter which supports a lively community of numerous anime- and manga-fans.  Most other anime bloggers have accounts and use the media platform as a means to communicate with each other.  So throughout 2012, I began to use the service to connect with other anime- and manga-fans which had an unfathomable affect and influence on how I watch and appreciate anime.

Spring 2012 – Season Review

With the conclusion of the Spring anime season comes a period of evaluation and judgment based on everything that was watched.  In the end, a final mark is given that encompasses our thoughts and feelings on the series and is the assessment we return to when looking back at the series.  Though this closure for an anime series may seem shallow compared to the experience we had over the past twelve or so weeks, it does feel like a way to properly finish a series before we fully immerse ourselves in the Summer anime season.  And with that, here is the final review for the Spring 2012 anime season.

Sakamichi no Apollon – 12 (Finale)

In an era where ambiguous and open-ended finales are the norm, an unspoken prayer for the chance of a fiscally-successful sequel in the unforeseen future, an anime receiving proper and satisfying closure has become an rare indulgence.  Conclusions such as these leave the audience with a sense of gratification and completeness, as we like to believe we just watched the tale of a beautiful story rather than 12 half-hour segments of some manga/light novel advertisement that cuts off at whatever rushed or broken point seemed to be the best in the pre-planning stages.  No, what Sakamichi no Apollon was able to do with its story, its characters, and its themes is truly refreshing and rewarding.  It’s a shame not every anime can end the way Apollon did.

Sakamichi no Apollon – 11

At the center of Sakamichi no Apollon is the essence of drama.  From here, the story has been able to structure itself on this basic foundation and incorporate the various elements of romance, jazz, and growth that have allowed this anime to flourish as it had.  However, when there are faults and cracks within the drama that is the establishment for this series, then the story, characters, and anime overall begin to suffer as a result.  And that’s exactly what happened with the poorly manufactured drama that occurred in the scenes following the traffic accident in the eleventh episode of Sakamichi no Apollon.