Anime / Manga Archives

There’s No Weight Behind Your Attacks, Demon Girl

Analysis, Anime / Manga, Combat | 27 November 2023

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End — Stark vs. Linie

My anime of the year for 2023 is Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. I don’t watch much anime these days, but I had been looking out for this anime adaptation of one of the best manga I’ve read in recent years. Not only does it have a compelling premise, but it also has lots of juicy ideas in it. The writing of Kanehito Yamada and the animation of Madhouse combined make for one of the best anime series for even non-weebs. For my first post on this show, I’d like to talk about a specific episode that briefly gets into an important martial arts concept. (more…)

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Review — Iron Oxide

by: Sonny Go

Anime / Manga, Reviews | 31 July 2016

In the first part of my “redeem myself for giving Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis a 6/10” series of Spring 2016 anime reviews, I tackle something Wit Studio churned out from the carcass of its slowly decomposing reputation. Okay, that’s an exaggeration for the sake of humor, but there’s some legitimate concern due to the wait for the second season of Attack on Titan. I was fine with Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress at first—excited even—but I later saw why this show got a good bit of hate from a lot of people. (more…)

Reviewing My Anime Review Process 2: Out of the Blue

by: Sonny Go

Anime / Manga, Blog, Site Updates | 11 May 2015

In the last blog post I posted about my troubles with reviewing anime, I was trying to get my finger on why I was finding it a bit difficult to write anime reviews that actually made sense of the madness that tend to pervade that medium. As I continue to wrestle with those bits of self-doubt as an online critic, I then watched a video that helped me make more sense of it all. It was just a matter of getting back to the basics of storytelling, which is something I had been struggling with as a writer for years. (more…)

Shokugeki no Soma First Impressions

by: Sonny Go

Anime / Manga, Impressions | 22 April 2015

As my first pickup of the 2015 spring anime season, Shokugeki no Soma (also known as Food Wars) made me scratch my head right off the bat. I tend to only go for anime that is mostly about sexualized aspects when there’s something extra to go with the creepy bullshit (i.e. Kill la Kill). However, since food anime and manga are quite relevant to my interests (i.e. Cooking Master Boy), I had to look into this title. (more…)

Shirobako Review

by: Sonny Go

Anime / Manga, Reviews | 01 April 2015

This is an anime series that I had to review due to its premise, although it did take a bit of brain-twisting to get a finger on its strengths and weaknesses. Shirobako seemed to be on a mission to show the animation industry in a more honest light, and it seems that P.A. Works succeeded there. It may have started slow and hard to follow, but it did finish strong. If you’re fascinated with art or animation and have some patience, you won’t regret watching this series. (more…)

Reviewing My Anime Review Process

by: Sonny Go

Anime / Manga, Blog, Site Updates | 10 February 2015

This is me confessing to struggling and being perplexed in the task at hand. In 2014, I started posting reviews of anime in this website, and I now admit that I may not be doing that well so far. Ever since taking that first step, I posted 2 anime reviews in this site, both of which were indicative of the problems I encountered in the process, and I wish to talk more about them here. They range from the difficulty with taking anime tropes and culture into account to dealing with the typical audience of the said medium. (more…)

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis [Review]

by: Sonny Go

Anime / Manga, Reviews | 05 January 2015

After twelve episodes, the anime based from the card game has now concluded, and here’s where I assess whether it lived up to my first impressions and had jumped the shark along the way. It’s a good thing that it didn’t do so for the most part, although there are a few parts that may induce some head-scratching, especially due to how short it turned out. It’s still pretty sweet though, which made it worth tuning in. (more…)

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis [Impressions]

by: Sonny Go

Anime / Manga, Impressions, Reviews | 30 October 2014

It seems easy to dismiss an anime series with a name similar to the famous Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan), but this is definitely no copycat. Shingeki no Bahamut has its own charm and flair, and it actually does do well to impress early on and promises to be a lot more later on. The name in English is “Rage of Bahamut: Genesis”, which is better to go with to avoid confusion with the other show. I’ll stick to the Japanese title though since it’s not one of those really long ones. (more…)

Kill la Kill [Review]

by: Sonny Go

Anime / Manga, Reviews | 06 April 2014

This is my first ever anime review, and it’s a case of “perfect timing”. For a long time, I hadn’t actively followed anime, and whatever I would watch every now and then would usually not be those in the current season. When I decided to write anime reviews for the first time as a personal challenge, this was one of the first new shows that I ended up viewing, and I’m glad that I came in at the right time as watching Kill la Kill was indeed a blast. (more…)