Content Warning—This article briefly discusses sexual assault as presented in both Boys Over Flowers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love a good redemption story. From the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker to the conversion of Saul, stories about redemption strike a nerve. These tales remind us that our humanity remains beneath our own… Read More Newman’s Nook: Redeeming Evil Flowers
I feel inadequate in so many ways. This feeling is on display each time I write, preach, teach in the church, or try to share the Gospel. While I have advanced degrees, none of them are for those actions, and I sometimes feel like I don’t even have a diploma in writing, preaching, or teaching,… Read More Newman’s Nook: Inadequacy, Depression, and Shinji
The saga of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure crosses many years and multiple generations of the Joestar family, but the stage of all that follows is set very early on by one of the first characters introduced in the series. George Joestar is the father of the first JoJo, Jonathan. His life and actions have a powerful… Read More Newman’s Nook: The Grace of George Joestar
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is an ongoing anime/manga series that tells the tale of the Joestar family across multiple generations. Their story involves high adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones with the addition of magical artifacts, musical references, and intense posing. As is fitting of the title, multiple characters are each given the nickname JoJo… Read More Newman’s Nook: JoJo’s Bizarre Family Impact
In my last Newman’s Nook column, I thought I was done talking about Sarazanmai. I was wrong. There are two more characters that merit attention—Reo and Mabu. Reo and Mabu appear to be the show’s antagonists. The duo are serving the otters by creating kappa-zombies when introduced in the series. Through flashbacks, forced reveals, and… Read More Newman’s Nook: The Martyrdom of Mabu
Last time on Newman’s Nook, I examined Kazuki and Toi of Sarazanmai. For the sake of completion, I decided this piece will feature our third kappa-boy, Enta. A complicated character, Enta is a boy in love with his best friend. He is confused about his sexuality and tossed into a world of kappas, zombies, and… Read More Newman’s Nook: Enta’s Dueling Goals
Sarazanmai continues to tackle complicated issues of desire and lust with gorgeous visuals, kappas, and of course, butts. In my first piece on the series, I spoke about secret revelations. This time I want to speak about two of our leads—Kazuki and Toi. Warning: Spoilers from the first five episodes will follow. Kazuki gives the… Read More Newman’s Nook: You. Me. Same.
Sarazanmai is a series that is hard to explain; however, I will try anyway. After a series of very strange events, the three eighth grade boys—Kazuki, Toi, and Enta—are transformed into kappas and forced to prevent zombie kappas from endangering the world. They do so by removing a fictional organ called the shirikodama from a… Read More Newman’s Nook: Secrets Revealed
An early 90s nostalgia trip, Hi Score Girl is an anime series about hardcore 2-D fighting game enthusiast, Haruo Yaguchi, and the two girls he meets at the arcades. The first is Akira Oono, who is one of the most popular girls in school. Akira gets top marks in all of her classes and will… Read More Newman’s Nook: Haruo’s Passion in Hi-Score Girl
I like anime and manga. New anime. Old anime. New manga. Old manga. However, I find myself distracted from time to time by the new hotness, be it a new anime series that strikes my fancy or a fresh manga series of which I can’t seem to get enough. Something always finds a way to… Read More Newman’s Nook: Old Classics vs New Hotness