UQ Holder! is a relatively new series from Ken Akamatsu. The series is set within the same universe and 70 years after as his previous work, Negima! Magister Negi Magi, but readers can jump into UQ Holder! right away with no trouble if they haven’t read the work that comes before. With that said we’ve jumped into the first volume of the manga to take a look at what it has to offer.
In the past few year’s we’ve had a bit of a boom in titles that are set around gamers being transported to a video game world or trapped within a video game (See Sword Art Online as the best recent example), but No Game, No Life takes this to a different level in an attempt to stand out from the crowd.
The story sets out by introducing us to brother and sister Sora and Shiro, who make up an ultimate team known as ‘Blank’. The two can complete any video game that crosses their path with amazing scores and are known as the best gamer in Japan, if not the world. One day a chess challenge is posed to them via email and upon completion the two are transported to a brand new world known as Disboard. In this world everything is decided by games, something which the two take great joy in partaking in.
The Wind Rises marks the first time I’ve seen a Studio Ghibli movie on the big screen. Considering that it’s the last film from the studio to be directed by Hayao Miyazaki it seems fitting that this be the title I see on the big screen. The film is currently being released in UK cinemas, so I went along to Leeds screening to see what the film was all about.
The studio has a rich history of turning out visually striking films that capturing the audience with heart warming tales. From more simple slice of life tales like My Neighbour Totoro to more somber affairs like Princess Mononoke, whatever Miyaskai puts his hand too generally turns out a masterpiece in its own right. So, with such a rich history behind it and an director taking his last stand, just how does The Wind Rises measure up?
Last season saw Studio BONES take to the stage with two brand new shows, one of which was the somewhat amazing Space Dandy, while the other was an adaptation of the Noragami manga. To put it lightly the show was an underdog, with so many top quality shows to compete against in the winter season Noragami had it pretty rough. It didn’t sound like the most amazing show, and even with the BONES name behind it, many opted to ignore it in favour of better or longer running shows. However, Noragami ended up being quite a strong title in its own right.
It’s no secret to anyone who knows anything about the anime business that Sunrise are a huge name when it comes to Mecha series and their latest offering, Valvrave the Liberator, was another big hit for the studio. With a distinct Code Geass feel to the relationship between our two lead characters, and a more than intriguing story and feel to the series, Valvrave was the type of series we’d been waiting to see since Code Geass ended.
I’ve recently been watching this series through with a very close friend of mine, and while I posted the review up on Anime Plant after watching the series the first time around, I thought it might be fun to share it here too. A lot of what I thought about the series still stands.
Sunday Without God ended up being one of the pretty hyped anime of the season, despite the poorly translated name. Set in a world where death is no more, and with many mysteries to unearth, just how interesting was this show?
The summer anime season might have been filled with a number of highly anticipated anime, but maybe none more so than Silver Spoon. The manga series is another hit series by Hiromu Arakawa, best known for Fullmetal Alchemist, but with that in mind can the anime do it justice?
Dogs & Scissors is likely the series I’m going to struggle writing about the most this season. It’s quite a simple story and idea at heart, but the series spends so much of its time being utterly insane that it’s very hard not to lose track of what its original goal was. Nevertheless I’ve gone through the crazy and attempted to pull my thoughts together about it.
Wolf Children, one of the most talked about animated movies last year, and for good reason. With Mamoru Hosoda leading it, the movie was probably headed for big things, however maybe none of us were really ready for just how perfect Wolf Children would turn out.