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Sword Art Online
Anime Review by Karen Gellender
Playing an MMORPG can be a lot of fun, however, sometimes you have to wonder if it's really the best use of your time. So you got to level 74: great, but maybe you should have studied a little harder for an upcoming test instead. So you beat a vicious boss and got a rare item; that's nice, but maybe you could have spent the same amount of time doing some more work on The Great American Novel? Getting really into an MMORPG basically creates a giant time vampire that robs you of sleep and other useful pastimes. Read More...
Space Battleship Yamato 2199
Anime Review by Tim Eldred
Once per decade or so, a story comes along that grabs onto the pop culture psyche in such a way that it seems inexhaustible. In the 1970s, it happened twice on opposite sides of the globe; Star Wars grabbed America in 1977 almost exactly the same way Space Battleship Yamato grabbed Japan in 1974. The proof was in the staggering number of ways the story could be absorbed in the years before home video. Between scattered TV reruns, the first Yamato series could be relived through multiple novelizations, manga adaptations, children's books and records, trading cards, and slowly publications aimed at older audiences appeared that lead the way to the anime boom. Read More...
Mysterious Girlfriend X
Anime Review by Linda Yau
Watching this anime definitely involves setting anyone's level of comfort probably a bar or two higher. Now this is perhaps a warning for the first episode, and if that threshold is passed, then the desire to see what would happen in Mysterious Girlfriend X might outweigh feelings of being grossed out. The gross factor is the main character's daily activity of swallowing saliva/drool as a mean of communication.
The story of Mysterious Girlfriend X is this, Tsubasaki Akira, a relatively average student meets Urabe Mikoto, a seemingly mysterious girl who he later swallows spit from a sleeping Urabe. Read More...
Animal Treasure Island
Anime Review by Karen Gellender
Most anime fans have seen at least some of the classic films brought to life by esteemed director Hayao Miyazaki: My Neighbor Totoro, The Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc. However, how many fans have seen the films he made back when he was just a hired hand at Toei Animation, years before founding the highly respected Studio Ghibli? One of those films, Animal Treasure Island, a 1971 production from that Miyazaki played a major role in creating, hasn't aged as well as one might have hoped, but for the seasoned anime fan, it provides something priceless: the chance to be a Miyazaki hipster. You just know you want to be able to say you know his work from before he was famous. Read More...
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Warriors of Legend: Reflections of Japan In Sailor Moon
Anime Book Review
by Karen Gellender
Brace yourself: enough time has passed that the kids who grew up watching anime like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z after school are now old enough to write post-college papers on them. Depending on what kind of experience you have with literary criticism, this could be a scary thought, but if Warriors of Legend: Reflections of Japan in Sailor Moon is any indication, this is actually a good thing.
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Kimi ni Todoke
Manga Review
by Linda Yau
In high school, cliques exist -- and this is both a negative and positive experience for teenagers growing up. It allows friendship to be born, but it also creates the sensation for some individuals as being left out or bullied. For Sawako Kuronuma, she is a socially introverted girl in her class who happens to be feared by her classmates due to her uncanny resemblance to Sadako, the character from Japanese horror film 'The Ring'. Sawako tries not to let this ostracization let her down, as her actions also attract the attention of Shota Kazehaya, the 'ikemen' in her class (ikemen is Japanese slang for good-looking guy). Read More...
Aoki
Japanese Crafts Book Review by Linda Yau
Traveling and spending time with friends is important as a social activity. Aoki is a Kokeshi doll character that travels to visit her friend Yoko, another Kokeshi doll. With imagination to choose as the story dictates, pretty pictures, and flaps to open, this is French author Annelore Parot's presentation of Japan. Read More...
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