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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or so the saying goes. If so, Battle Skipper is ninety minutes of genuine sycophancy towards the whole of the anime canon. This pretty-looking 3-OVA series (wrongly advertised as a movie in its DVD incarnation) has action, giggling teenagers, fan service, mecha, and girlpower galore. Problem is, …
For years, AnimEigo has been the boutique shop of American anime distributing. They’ve established a reputation based on releasing older favorites and occasionally picking up a new license, rather than being gung-ho to get their hands on the latest and greatest titles. They’re also known for quality in their physical product, going back and correcting [...]
First impressions are important. The interview for that position you’ve been drooling over is going to go better or worse based on what the people on the other side of the table think of you after just a couple of minutes. The date that just walked across the room to your barstool may already have [...]
It’s hard to review a movie, even a great one, if you’ve only seen the first hour. Could you imagine watching Jurassic Park and ending off just when the raptors escape? Or what if Star Wars ended with the death of Obi-Wan and the Millenium Falcon’s escape from the Death Star, without the battle to [...]
It’s always interesting to deal with the Japanese understanding of our language. Watch enough anime, and you’ll see folks strangle the English language in all sorts of unique and interesting ways. (Not that I could do any better with Japanese…) Then there comes a show called Bastard! It actually gets it right, amazingly enough. The [...]
Recently, I’ve had an ongoing online conversation with some friends at the seminary I am attending on the subject of “just war”. The central argument revolves around this question: can a Christian support war in any form and still remain true to the teachings of Jesus? And if war can be supported, what are the [...]
Many years ago, Viz released several small manga titles for short runs in the US, among them a minor work called Baoh. With a run of only 10 issues or so, it certainly wasn’t a really popular title, but it was still OK for a story filled with psychic powers and strange, secret organizations. AnimEigo [...]
Some diversions are better than others. I like watching a baseball game every now and then on TV–and the scent of the ballpark itself makes a live game even better–but I can’t remember the score of a single game I’ve seen. Such is the entertainment value of Babel II. Simply put, its initial plot is [...]
When Rocky won the Best Picture Oscar in 1976, it spawned a genre. Films about sports certainly existed before Balboa came to blows with Apollo Creed, but the concept of a lovable loser breaking into the top resonated with audiences. By the time Rocky V thudded into theatres into 1990, however, the deathknell had sounded: [...]
Look, I’m an old-school guy. There’s no getting around it, especially as I start to realize that I don’t even recognize the titles of many of the current releases in the anime world, let alone their creators, their plots, and so on and so forth. Am I with it enough to know about shows like [...]