Fruits Basket remake so heartfelt and pretty A sad life transformed by a black-and-white kitty Vikings and vengeance and princes and kings These are a few of my favorite things Saitama’s awesome but he is no gamer Miku’s best girl, ain’t that a no-brainer? Manga with Vader, Leia, and X-Wings These are a few of… Read More My Favorite Anime Things (2019 Edition)
Last year, leading up to the release of Alita: Battle Angel, we discussed every volume of the original manga. The article below was one of two we wrote on volume six—MDRMN’s excellent post made it to print, while this was left as a draft. I finished it up, though, and present it to you as… Read More Battle Angel Alita, Vol. 6: Falling Fish and Glimmers of Hope
We’ve entered the age of big-blockbuster, live-action adaptations of anime and manga properties. While common in Japan, it’s been a slow build in the U.S., with most early adaptations flopping commercially (Speed Racer) and/or critically (Dragon Ball: Evolution). While recent ones have been a mixed bag (see the resounding failure that is Netflix’s Death Note),… Read More Miyazaki Declined Nausicaa Live-Action Adaptions (But We Cast One Anyway)
The first conveyor belt sushi restaurant I went to was in L.A., in the middle of Koreatown—BYOB. They definitely didn’t have their liquor license. Conveyor belt sushi, if you’ve never had the pleasure of trying it (the first such restaurant opened in Higashiosaka sixty years ago), is an experience as much as a meal. My… Read More Voice Actress Elizabeth Maxwell on Sushi, Screams, and SXSW
Near the end of Alita: Battle Angel, the title character’s boyfriend utters an emotional thank you to her: “You saved me.” I tried to stay in the sentimentality in the moment, I really did, but my mind couldn’t help but wonder, “Okay, but who’s going to save us?” And then more seriously, to this: “Could… Read More Alita: Battle Angel (Review)
If you were looking for a conclusive ending…then you haven’t been paying attention to Battle Angel Alita. Volume nine, which ends the manga run proper (Kodansha does bundle in an alternate ending of sorts and there are additional entrants in the series that continue the tale), is as furious in its action as volume eight,… Read More Battle Angel Alita, Vol. 9: And Our Story Goes On
It’s hard to end a story, especially one that’s become so successful that it has perhaps gone on longer than the author originally intended. This happens all the time with manga and anime—overbloated plots, meandering storylines, and too many characters often contribute to such failures. After two mediocre volumes, Battle Angel Alita is sitting on… Read More Battle Angel Alita, Vol. 8: More Than the Sum of Your Parts