This May, a week after the election of Leo XIV, I visited Japan for the first time. I have many wonderful memories of that one-week trip with my wife and her family, but my favorite was a boat tour on the Sumida River. As the sun set over the riverside and lights turned on in the streets,… Read More 12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 7: Astro Boy and the Consolation of the World
There’s something satisfying about an old-fashioned revenge story—seeing justice served and the bad guys getting their just deserts. But what is the price of vengeance? And what sort of culture does it breed? These are some of the questions Mamoru Hosoda explores in his latest film, Scarlet, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Scarlet retains the… Read More Film Review: Scarlet
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a gift, right? And we’ve got one for you that’s just in time for a new season of one of our favorite anime—and one of the most popular and critically acclaimed ones of recent years: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End! And it depicts one of the series’ silliest and most memorable… Read More 12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 3 x Kissing Frieren Figure Giveaway!
Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Anime! Starting today and marching right through the 25th, we post about Christmas anime each and every day in hopes that these little connections will point you to the joy, love, and redemptive meaning of the holiday. We might post a piece of fanart, chat about a classic… Read More 12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 1: SANDA, Santa, and the Fatherly God-Man
Roland, the fourth prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, is awakened from a drunken stupor by his servant to attend to an execution, but this farce of a trial is no usual one—the woman about to be hanged is accused of being a witch. And indeed, the accusation is true; her powers were witnessed during… Read More First Impression: Release That Witch
Yamada Kenichi is a hardcore gamer, but he’s sick of games that end their service after a few years, and he scoffs at the hardest level of most games, deeming them not challenging enough. But his curiosity is piqued when he discovers a game that is said to go on perpetually and offers a “hell… Read More First Impression: HELL MODE: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing
Tani and Suzuki may sit next to each other in class, but they inhabit different worlds. The bespectacled Tani is quiet, resolute, and unafraid to speak his mind. Suzuki is happy-go-lucky and always full of joy—at least on the outside. Inside, she’s riddled with anxiety, always concerned about what others think of her—especially Tani, whom… Read More First Impression: You and I Are Polar Opposites
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