Category Archives: Anime Features

Realistic Shojo and Why It’s Important

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Watching a recent episode of My Love Story I got thinking about how realistic and down to earth the series is being. Sure there are most certainly a few things that are a little on the crazy side, but for the most part it’s doing better than Kiss Him, Not Me for example.

Of course most of us read manga and watch anime and don’t really expect or want it to be down to earth and completely realistic, but in some ways I think it’s important to have a few series that break the trend of being completely sakura blossoms and overblown teenage feelings. Lets take a favourite series of mine, Say I Love You as a perfect example of what I’m going for here. The story is focused on shy Mei who has never really had any friends and certainly isn’t thinking of dating, but when she meets Yamato that slowly changes and the two of them must work through their problems, very real problems that couples have, if they wish to stay together. What makes this better is that the manga, given it has more time than the 13 episode anime, deals with a lot of problems that everyday kids go through at one point or another. I appricate the series a hell of a lot for this, especially author Kanae Hazuko who is heavily writing from her own personal experience.

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Why Plastic Memories Could Have Been So Much More

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One of the shows which was hyped up at the beginning of this season is Plastic Memories. The idea behind the series is that in a city in the near future humans and androids can live comfortable side-by-side. These androids look and act like humans, with human memory and emotions, the only drawback is that the androids only have a short lifespan before they begin to lose their human personality and their memories. It’s then the job of a Terminal Services to collect these androids just before the end of their lifespan to avoid any unfortunate accidents when they begin to lose their personalities and memories. The idea of humans and androids living side-by-side is an interesting one, but ultimately one that Plastic Memories wastes in the end. It’s worth noting that this article will include spoilers for Plastic Memories.

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Studio Ghibli: Why shutting up shop might not be so bad – Anime feature

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We’ve all heard the news in the last 24 hours: Studio Ghibli is taking a brief break from producing anime in order to do a reshuffle of the company. This news has got many people speculating just what would happen if Studio Ghibli really did shut up shop.

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Studio Ghibli was the introduction to anime for a lot of people. Admittedly, it wasn’t for me as I was introduced to anime through Pokémon, Digimon, and CardCaptors. Even though I didn’t get into anime because of Studio Ghibli I still remember the first time I saw one of their films. The first of their work I ever saw was Spirited Away, which I fell in love with very quickly. After seeing Spirited Away I made the effort to seek out every other Studio Ghibli film and found firm favourites in the likes of Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro and The Wind Rises, which I reviewed for the site not long after getting to see it. I love Ghibli movies, what else can I say, but despite this I’m not personally too upset by the idea of them closing.

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Summer 2014 Season: What we think so far! – Anime Feature

With most anime in the summer season four or five episodes in, so I’ve decided to put my thoughts together quickly on the shows I’m watching currently and how they’re doing. This season overall is a more enjoyable season than the last and I’ve found myself watching the following shows:

  • Akame ga Kill!
  • Blue Spring Ride
  • Glasslip
  • Black Butler season 3
  • Sword Art Online II
  • Tokyo Ghoul
  • Terror In Resonance

I’m also watching Fairy Tail and Captain Earth, but neither of which really count in this section… especially considering I’ve quietly fallen behind with Captain Earth. 

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What makes an anime soundtrack great? – Anime feature

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Yesterday I posted up a review of No Game, No Life and upon reading the review a close friend of mine asked why I gave it so low a score for its soundtrack. Overall this led us to discussing anime soundtracks and what makes them stand out to each of us. So, figuring this would make a decent topic to talk about I decided to write a short ramble on the subject.

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Terror in Resonance Episodes 1-2 Review: It’s Shinichiro Watanabe’s Next big Hit

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When Wakanim announced they were going to stream Shinichiro Watanabe’s Terror in Resonance I was excited to say the least. I’m a moderate fan of Cowboy Bebop and Space Dandy but I utterly adored Kids on the Slope and have gained confidence in Watanabe’s anime as he goes on. So, a series which brings together Watanabe at his finest and Cowboy Bebop and Kids on the Slope composer back together can only be a good thing, right? Right.

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