Anime Review

Release the Spyce offers a highly enjoyable espionage romp with bombastic execution, focusing on a group of high school girls who operate as secret agents in the organisation Tsukikage, as they fight to protect the city of Sorasaki from the evil organisation Moryo and stop its attempts to take over the world.

In/Spectre follows the story of Kotoko Iwanaga, a girl who, in exchange for one of her eyes and a leg, gained supernatural powers and became the God of Wisdom to yokai around Japan. Now she spends her days solving their problems and exploring mysteries related to them, all to fulfil her duty as their God of Wisdom.

Alice in Borderland follows Ryohei Arisu and his two friends who find themselves in a post-apocalyptic parallel world where they must take part in death games to survive.

Another excellent early Kyoto Animation adaptation of the Key visual novels, with tragedy, humour, and a girl with an angelic backpack.

In this noughties-throwback and quirky action-focused thriller, we join Sumire Takahana as the new girl at Venus Vanguard, a secret organisation that fights and protects humans from demonic creatures known as Viruses that consume human souls. As she pairs up with Lucia and the rest of the gang, Sumire must learn to use her supernatural powers to fight off the Viruses and figure out why she and Lucia are their prime targets.

A wonderful early anime from Kyoto Animation, full of emotion and tragedy.

Dog and Scissors follows Kazuhito Harumi, a bookworm who dies and is reborn as a dachshund after refusing to pass on peacefully without reading the conclusion to a series by his favourite author. This same author ends up being the one who adopts him, which seems perfect until Kazuhito learns she wields a dangerous pair of scissors!

Season Two of Golden Kamuy is a solid improvement over the first, going deeper into the series’ fantastic cast of characters with some moving backstories and character development, while wrapping up this arc of the story with a thrilling climax.

For the third series, we follow the girls engaging in cosplay, making their future life choices, and setting up a beer hall (serving foaming apple juice).

It's time for some self-deprecation as Ooarai take on a school inspired by the Japanese army.

The girls of the Ooarai tankery team find themselves taking on some pirate-like classmates to find a new tank and then taking on some French-inspired foes.

In this dumb-but-fun harem rom-com, Yoto Yokodera and Tsukiko Tsutsukakushi both make wishes on a stone cat statue, but when they are fulfilled, they realise they’ve swapped personality traits with someone else! The two resolve to track these people down and work out how to swap back. However a mischievous cat god and the feelings of the other girls that gather around Yoto are set to get in the way!

While it can seem a little unfocused and slow to get going, Golden Kamuy is a gritty and thrilling Japanese-styled Western adventure that pits the various factions of its eccentric cast against each other in the hunt for a hidden stash of Ainu gold, where the treasure map is tattooed on prison escapees of all things!

Yoshitoshi ABe's Haibane Renmei finally comes to Blu-ray in the UK, but is it worth upgrading your DVD release for?

Disgustingly sexy and brilliantly grotesque, Kakegurui takes a silly and over-the-top premise and just rolls with it, producing a show that you can giggle at like a lunatic as the cast really get their gambling freak on.

Can a new retelling of Osamu Tezuka's classic manga work for today's modern anime audience? Let's dive into this 24-episode series on Blu-ray and find out.