A recent post on Japan Powered talks about certain anime titles that even people who hate anime could watch and enjoy. The idea it’s bringing out is that, despite how much we love it, we know that all anime – from shonen to slice-of-life – is full of tropes and character archetypes we see over and over again. Many of these cliches we love, some we don’t, but generally what makes us stay fans is that we don’t mind such things in our anime or even have specific tropes we can’t get enough of. But for some people, anime-specific tropes such as bishy guys, moe girls, giant robots, wild fantasy battles, and cuteness for cuteness’ sake, just aren’t their thing. So today I wanted to think about what anime are virtually free of these cliches and seem to cater to universal tastes rather than otaku tastes…
Favorite anime groups
I’m sure many of us have listed our favorite anime characters at some point. But what about favorite groups instead of individual characters? What I mean is favorite groups of characters in a specific series, as in favorite duos, trios, foursomes, etc,. I don’t think lists of favorite anime groups have been done much before, so I decided to give it a go…
My 5 favorite anime of 2009
So 2009 has come and gone, and 2010 is now underway. Exactly a year ago today I picked my 5 favorite anime of 2008. So now it’s time for me to decide which of the 2009 anime I enjoyed the most…
Kemono no Souja Erin review: remembering the journey
One of the best and most underrated anime of the year, perhaps of the decade, has recently come to an end…
12 moments of anime 2009: #6 Kemono no Souja Erin
Continuing with my 12 moments of anime for 2009 (in order of significance to me personally), here’s #6:
Kemono no Souja Erin 2010 calendar scans
Scans (and a mini-review) of the 2010 Kemono no Souja Erin calendar that I recently purchased…
Underrated series of 2009: Kemono no Souja Erin
Kemono no Souja Erin (Beast Harpist Erin) first began airing on NHK in January of this year and is scheduled for a 50 episode run. The series is based on novels by Seirei no Moribito creator Nahoko Uehashi, with animation by Production I.G. Personally, after seeing only 17 out of 50 episodes so far, I think KnSE is one of the best quality TV anime I’ve seen in recent years, both in storytelling quality, and the animation aesthetics are not too shabby either. Unfortunately, I also feel it’s one of the most underrated series of the year since, when compared to just about all other current anime, hardly anyone is talking about it or watching it…