Anime Back in the Day

Anime Back in the Day

Back in high school and college when I was first getting into the anime scene, I came to notice a recurring and highly vexing phenomenon. Bootleg VHS tapes were still the main source of new stuff from Japan back then. Getting our fix legit meant sending away via a mail…
October 22, 202025 Comments
Mecha Resurgent

Mecha Resurgent

Forbes is bullish on the mecha genre's future.What with a giant walking Gundam to be unveiled in Yokohama at the end of this year, it’s worth realizing that this kind of thing doesn’t happen in cultural isolation. So much so, that the last five years has seen a real resurgence of…
October 21, 202015 Comments
Anime Neurotyping

Anime Neurotyping

Anime review YouTuber Digibro has unveiled his magnum opus: a rival for the Myers-Briggs personality inventory that neurotypes you based on how you think. And because he's an otaku, he neurotyped a whole bunch of anime characters first. Watch the video. Don't let the run time deter you. Digibro's profiles of…
April 15, 202032 Comments

They Still Make Dubbed Anime?

Last night on Twitter, a reader asked me if I had a take on the Vic Mignogna controversy. I had to admit I didn't, since my schedule has been rather full with my own anime-adjacent projects. Plus, I stopped watching new anime back when it became clear that Bleach was spinning its…
February 12, 201917 Comments
Sieg Zeon

Sieg Zeon

In their ceaseless campaign to eliminate fun, SJWs have finally gotten around to condemning Gundam. The pretext? They find the Zeon flag problematic. Because blah blah blah Third Reich something something. Unfortunately for the SJW scolds, #GamerGate veteran Lo-Ping proved more than a match for their grade-inflated public school B-…
November 12, 20185 Comments
Perpetual Episode One Syndrome

Perpetual Episode One Syndrome

Back in high school and college when I was first getting into the anime scene, I came to notice a recurring and highly vexing phenomenon. Bootleg VHS tapes were still the main source of new stuff from Japan back then. Getting our fix legit meant sending away via a mail…
September 10, 201835 Comments
Tumblr: The Anime

Tumblr: The Anime

If you're an up-and-coming indie author who's a Millennial, a member of Generation Y, or even a Gen Xer, your dream scenario for publishing success probably includes getting your IP optioned as an anime series. For years the common refrain anytime an American voiced such hopes was, "Anime studios don't…
August 22, 201859 Comments
The Gundam that Wasn’t

The Gundam that Wasn’t

I've made no secret of my desire to make #AGundamForUS, but longtime reader Lee recently called my attention to a little-known failed Hollywood production that almost brought us a live-action Gundam movie in 1983. But the most ambitious and obscure of these false starts came relatively early in the franchise's…
June 19, 20188 Comments
#AGundamForUs

#AGundamForUs

This could be your Gundam, even though it's not technically a Gundam. Writer Bradford Walker concurs with yesterday's post on the need for a Western answer to the moribund Japanese mecha franchises and adds his own rallying cry. Left unsaid is this: fixing the issues is on us. We have…
March 22, 201827 Comments

The Decline and Fall of Mecha

This video, which was recommended to me by multiple trusted sources, endeavors to chart the course of mecha anime from its post-WWII origins through its peak in the 80s and 90s to its current malaise. Do give it a watch. My comment: I dropped out of the mecha scene--and anime…
March 21, 201819 Comments