Kodo Iwamoto, a student from a military academy, is sent to investigate a strange rumor: a village that allegedly experiences black snow. Upon arrival at the village, he begins his investigations, which lead him to a beautiful garden with an odd variety of flower. When he picks one of them, the ground gives way beneath… Read More First Impression: Recommendations from Iwamoto-Senpai
There is no way that Mizuka Tsurumaki will work at anything having to do with a circus. The visuals may fill us with wonder, the music may be epic, the chief performer may mention how there’s a smile on every face, but she is not buying. You see, Mizuka is the daughter of a legendary… Read More First Impression: Grow Up Show: Sunflower Circus
Our man on the ground, T.R. Racki, watched the world premiere of the second season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the first episode of which screened at Anime Expo 2026. The series drops this fall. Visceral. Chaotic. Traumatic. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 throws the audience immediately into a high-stakes heist that goes violently, spectacularly wrong. There are no… Read More First Impression: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 (Anime Expo World Premiere)
Once an orphan, carrying out his parents’ wishes for him to help others by caring for other orphans, Dias became part of a war effort for the kingdom that lasted 20 years. He was good at warfare—so good, in fact, that the king granted him a domain for his heroics. But as Dias surveys his… Read More First Impression: The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects
Content warning: slavery; suicide. In 1213 AD, in the city of Tus, a young girl named Sitara is sold as a slave. The family that buys her is kind, even teaching her how to read the Quran and to practice Islam. At first distraught over losing her mother, Sitara eventually comes to accept her circumstances… Read More First Impression: Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia
Our man on the ground, T.R. Racki, watched the world premiere of To You in the Beyond at Anime Expo 2026. The film releases in Japan later this year. A sixteen-year-old girl washes ashore on a remote Japanese island. Her first word in the year 2026 is “1974.” Kazuki, a fifteen-year old boy, takes refuge… Read More Review: To You in the Beyond
An imaginative little girl named Ai Yasumi discovers manga and falls in love. Flash forward seven years and Ai is in high school, still reading manga. A grumpy teacher named Teshima reprimands her on the way to school for engaging in such an immature pastime. Also along the way to school, Ai helps out some… Read More First Impression: Draw This, Then Die!
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