100 word anime by Karandi James

I received a review copy of Solo Leveling Vol 1 as an audiobook. You can read the review on my blog or listen to the podcast.

There are a lot of magical girl anime out there and some amazing protagonists that get shimmering transformations and attack sequences. However in this post I want to look at some of the supporting characters who may or may not also be magical girls but are certainly not granted main-character plot immunity. These are memorable characters who really help elevate the story and potentially the actual protagonist to heights they may not have reached had this character not been around. I did limit myself to one supporting character per show so while I could potentially just have found five awesome supporting characters from Sailor Moon, I have limited myself to just the one. 

From an anime that didn't impress me much on a first attempt to one that has a place amongst some of my most rewatched series of all time... How did Ouran Highschool Host Club win me over?

When I finally got to my review of season 1 of Moriarty the Patriot one of the points I kept getting stuck on was that in order to make Moriarty seem so smart so many other characters ended up feeling like they were being dumbed down. This made me wonder about the difficulties faced in authors creating smart and genius anime characters. 

While anime names, particularly those that derive from light novels, are known to be a little bit on the long and convoluted side, it is amazing how often a series has equally long, strange or thematic episode titles. My list today looks at 5 series and episode titles that caught my eye for being a little bit odd but still quite interesting. That said, I'd love to know which series had episode titles that caught your attention so be sure to leave me a comment on the blog.

I really do love anime and I'd love to celebrate its successes, but every now and then a series comes along that just makes you want to shake your head. Arifureta was a highly anticipated series with a large group of fans from the source material. However, once the anime series started a lot of the enthusiasm waned. Here's my thoughts on just what went wrong.

Whether it is the visual spectacle that the K anime delivered or the slick presentation of the witches in Madoka, the question of whether style can compensate for the absence of substance (whatever that even means) is one that many an anime fan asks. Join the discussion and share your thoughts around whether an anime can survive on the merits of being stylistically interesting even when it may not have anything particularly new to say.

We all know red-haired characters are the best... okay maybe that's my personal prejudice... however there are some amazing red-haired female anime characters out there. This post was originally my very first top 5 post on the blog though has been updated since, however it remains the list that started all of my lists. Be sure to let me know which characters you would have included and I will absolutely get to the red-haired males very soon.

This is the sweet story of two boys who are lost in their own ways but find a way forward with one another. Here is my review of the Given Anime series.

I kind of love magical girl anime being a Sailor Moon fan from a young age. When Madoka Magica came out I fell in love with the genre all over again for a slightly different reason and after many rewatches wanted to discuss my thoughts on this strange series that seems like it is a magical girl series but has some key differences.

So you want to recommend an anime to someone and they've told you they don't like shounen (which rules out a huge number of titles before you even start) - this post might just help you figure out how to overcome this obstacle.

Where do you start when we look back at the anime of 2020. 

Ever wonder if you should watch seasonal anime or just wait and binge?