That certainly wasn’t the first time Dekin no Mogura has gotten very dark. I would say dark is its usual motif, in fact, but what sort of darkness varies from week to week. This week’s tale had a disturbingly grimy, realistic feel to it. It ties in very much with the “seeing is noticing” idea …
Witch Watch – 18
One gets to thinking sometimes, as one does. As I watched another robustly amusing episode of Witch Watch, what I was thinking was “Is Witch Watch a gag manga?”. We certainly don’t tend to think of Shinohara Kenta in those terms. When it comes to gag manga it’s maybe Roboco for WSJ, and that’s about …
Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun) 2 – 17
Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun certainly is a funny old show. It just hums along, delivering one of the most sophisticated experiences in anime in terms of writing and production. And nobody talks about it. People buy the manga, and they even vote for the series in places like Anime Trending and Anime Corner. But it seems …
Patron Pick Summer 2025: Ame to Kimi to – 05
It’s a function of today’s anime landscape that we can get surprisingly polished productions from unexpected sources. There are so many studios out there now, many with very little track record. There’s a spectrum of expectations with known quantities – say, Production I.G. or Bones on one end and J.C. Staff on the other. But …
Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu (The Summer Hikaru Died) – 05
There are three summer anime that are really exploding commercially, based on the bump in manga sales (which is really the most important metric these days). They could hardly be more different, too. Takopii no Genzai and Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku are two of them – Kaoru Hana has seen the largest bump …
Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru (My Dress-up Darling) Season 2 – 05
After the weakest ep of the season by a good margin, Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru rebounds decisively this week. Having less focus on the Ouran satire obviously helped. Having some serious focus on the romance angle obviously helped (a lot). But I think this show just generally works better when it focuses …