Reviews

From Truant to Anime Screenwriter: My Path to “Anohana” and “Anthem of the Heart” is an incredibly honest and insightful look into Mari Okada’s life. This book tells the remarkable story of someone with deeply rooted social anxiety and depression and their journey into the working world. A highly recommended read!

A high school descendant of a line of demon-fighting warriors ends up living with a succubus and a future demon lord in The Testament of Sister New Devil.

A light, delightful little series that will appeal to all cat lovers. Chi’s Sweet Adventures has the added bonus of being a manga that can safely be shared with younger readers.

Digimon Tri Chapter 4: Loss has its moments, but ultimately undermines the consequences of its predecessor.

Masaaki Yuasa barfs rainbows straight into our eyes.

Bleach Volume 72 continues to steer the manga towards its final end, an end that happened in 2016 for Japan, but (unless something gets delayed) for us here in the UK, the series will end this November. So just two volumes out from the finale, how is the story shaping up?

After a sadly long eight months wait, the second half of the 2016 hit ERASED finally makes it to disc here in the UK. After such a promising first half, does the series get the big pay-off it deserves? Read on to find out! (Although you’ve probably already watched the end on Crunchyroll or Netflix in the past 8 months due to understandably running out of patience, but hey-ho…)

Fate/Apocrypha overall is a fun romp of fantastical action, memorable side characters and inconsistent but mostly good animation, that any new or old Fate fans should find enjoyable.

Kiss Him, Not Me! is a true delight for shojo fans. While there might be some questionable content in terms of its realism, the series is undeniably great fun and not as shallow as the first episode or two would suggest. Shojo, especially good shojo, is so frequently not brought to home video in the UK that this is a rare treat all fans of the genre should give a go.

It’s a shame that this is likely to be the only way for U.K. fans to experience Fate/Grand Order in any form, but as a movie meant to be a long commercial for the app itself, it’s not bad.

An unconventional friendship develops between two lonely individuals. My Boy delivers a sensitive and beautifully drawn story that will make readers think about the pressures of modern life on adults and children alike.

GATE is a hard show to talk about without getting into nationalistic propaganda debates and general right- wing unpleasantness, but ignoring this argument for the time being, the show has some merit, not least its premise of a modern army fighting a bunch of races and animals from a typical fantasy land. Is there more good than bad, though?

Wotakoi is a heartwarming comedy series with a firm message to convey in that love is difficult - not just for otaku but for everyone. Your hobbies can be judged and make people run for the hills but that isn’t right, and Wotakoi does its best to show you the great times you can have when the people around you do accept and understand you.

Class 3-E are about to graduate, but can they kill their teacher and save the world before that?

Just when you thought Manga was done releasing two Dragon Ball Z short-length films, they… well, they release two TV specials which are roughly the same length as the 13 films released previously. While there are differences between the films and TV Specials (and not all of them good), story-wise it’s hard to find two better examples of the Dragon Ball franchise taking itself uncharacteristically more seriously. Is that a good thing, though…?

From the creator of Nichijou comes more surreal comedy, featuring a student in debt, a really strong granny, and a woman worshipping a god she made yesterday.