Cleverly Titled Column: Brain Powerd review

Yoshiyuki Tomino is quite a prolific anime director, being the driving force behind series like Zambot 3, Aura Battler Dunbine, and most notably the original Gundam series and many of its sequels. In this week's Cleverly Titled Column, I'm taking a look at the 1998 anime Brain Powerd, one of his more recent works, which I think serves as good example of some of his characteristic flaws and is probably my favourite mediocre anime.

Something I've Read: Claymore

Claymore (written by Norihiro Yagi) is an interesting manga series. It is filled with intrigue, spectacular fights and pretty interesting characters which, despite the number of them that are juggled around by the story, feel like they have enough page time each to justify their existence, which I like. At the same time, the entire thing feels almost low key, despite the superpowers and giant monsters….but exactly why that is so is difficult to explain without looking at what it is about.

Cleverly Titled Column: Kamen Rider Fourze review

 Cleverly Titled Column is my weekly (honest) column, where I'll be talking about anime, manga, and tokusatsu (live action special-effects shows) that catch my eye. My main focus will be on the mecha genre, tokusatsu hero shows, and romance manga, but I might branch out into other things if I feel strongly enough that I need to rant or rave about them.

Okay, so this isn't exactly anime or manga, but hey, it's close enough, I'm just expanding your horizons. What I'm reviewing this week is Kamen Rider Fourze, a tokusatsu (live-action special effects) hero show. If you haven't heard of this stuff before, think Power Rangers (or Masked Rider, which was used footage from Kamen Rider series). I assume most people in the society haven't heard of tokusatsu, or if they have then they've probably not watched it, but that's why I'm reviewing a show that's both a lot of fun and quite accessible.

Cleverly Titled Column: Sweet Blue Flowers review

Cleverly Titled Column is my weekly (honest) column, where I'll be talking about anime, manga, and tokusatsu (live action special-effects shows) that catch my eye. My main focus will be on the mecha genre, tokusatsu hero shows, and romance manga, but I might branch out into other things if I feel strongly enough that I need to rant or rave about them.
 
Normally, if someone said "you should read this manga about high school lesbians, it's the best thing", I'd assume it was full of pandering to the yuri fanboy audience with no real substance. But Shimura Takako's Sweet Blue Flowers (also known as Aoi Hana) is a wonderful manga with excellent characterisation, really well-written relationships, and absolutely no fanservice or anything of the sort. In other words - you should read this manga about high school lesbians, it's the best thing.

The Manga Snob: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

“ We are born of the assembly of those experiences that humans savour.
Alpha. We are humanity's children.”

The setting is Yokohama, Japan in the not too distant future. The world is in it's twilight. Many towns have been lost to the rising sea levels of global warming. The population is in a slow decline. Soon all that will be left of humanity is the cities, the strange luminescent mushrooms that look eerily like lampposts and the androids. No reasons are given as to why these things are happening, there is no lecture on the destructive nature of man. Humanity is just declining. So it goes.
Faced with this ecological apocalypse, mankind has decided to live out it's last days in peace.

Something I've Read: K-On!

Slice of life, particularly comedy ones, often suffer because writing funny characters is actually rather hard, without making them overblown, unlikeable or really in need of help. This series falls into these traps a lot. And I mean a lot. But…I still love it.

Something I’ve read: K-on!

Something I've Read: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Something I’ve Read: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

KHR (written by author Akira Amano) is one of those stories that tried to go from light hearted goofiness to serious fighting, and failed. Well, mostly.