Casting Aya Hirano as the lead character is not the worst thing that Fairy Tail does, but it comes close. Her voice is so identifiable and her status so confoundingly overwhelming that it overshadows many of the other more accomplished actors such as Rie Kugimiya (Alphonse from Fullmetal Alchemist) and Tetsuya Kakihara […]
3 Episode Taste Test: Tegami Bachi (Letter Bee)
Visually at least, Letter Bee is remarkably striking: washes of indigo and pinpricks of grey-whites make it aesthetically strong; however in the perpetual twilight of the fantasy world it portrays, appreciation turns quickly into indifference. The motif of particles drifting softly from the sky is overused to the point where its original […]
3 Episode Taste Test: 11eyes
How many eyes? 11eyes. Certainly more than 3×3 Eyes and The Girl with the Blue Eye, numerically at least. A fascination with eyes and in particular eyepatches (see also Rental Magica, Tenjou Tenge et. al.), this series has the standard outfitting of an enigmatic past and hidden powers connected with said eye […]
3 Episode Taste Test: Yoku wakaru gendai mahou (Properly learned modern magic)
There are many good panty episodes in anime: episode four of Mai-HiME springs to mind as one, episode three of Yoku wakaru gendai mahou is not. Whereas the former had comic timing well beyond what one would have expected its studio to be able to produce, the latter is tawdry, boring tripe […]
3 Episode Taste Test: Night Wizard
The first thing one notices about Night Wizard is the gradated hair. The second is that it isn’t as laughably comical as its name would suggest it to be. Pitching itself as a fantasy romp with school children, the series’ first three episodes focus more on slice of life than slicing of […]







