A fortunate number of us got to encounter one of those “special” teachers growing up. You know the type; ones that actually instilled something more profound than fractions or long division into your skull and their concepts and values helped forge your very identity. These gifted professors often adopt a…
Read MoreEvery season of anime comes with its requisite ecchi and harem shows and Absolute Duo fits both bills rather nicely. So far it has presented a few notable tweaks to the formulas of genres that I feel have become oversaturated in recent years, which should appease the fans of the…
Read MoreFrom the animation studio behind Attack on Titan comes Rolling☆Girls, another series where war is a crucial element. That’s about where the similarities die off, but Wit Studio has got something special on its hands with this new property. Perhaps it’s because Rolling☆Girls has no source material from which to…
Read MoreImpressions by Clark A. There was plenty of hearsay that Tokyo Ghoul’s second season would diverge from author Sui Ishida’s original story and, given the varying quality of anime-exclusive stories in recent years, fans were justified in their paranoia. Sure enough, the first few episodes of √A have made it…
Read MoreImpressions by Clark A. Anyone sentimental can attest to the strain that occurs upon performing a task associated with powerful memories. For me, it’s as trivial as revisiting particularly nostalgic games from my childhood, but others such as Kousei Arima aren’t quite so fortuitous with their ticks. Arima dreads playing…
Read MoreImpressions by Clark A. Princess Yona leads a peaceful life. She’s got more liberty than you’d expect from a family of nobility and one of her few “worries” is whether or not her hair colour suits her complexion. When her childhood sweetheart, Soo-Won, stops by the castle one day, Yona…
Read MoreImpressions by Clark A. Celestial Method follows the young Nonoka Komiya as she returns to her homeland of Lake Kiriya City. After settling in, Komiya stumbles upon childhood friend, Noel. Oblivious to Noel’s identity, Komiya winds up falsely accusing her once-pal of damaging an invaluable photograph. The two eventually resolve…
Read MoreImpressions by Clark A. What happens when five high school students gain such superpowers as time control, elemental manipulation, and flame manifestation? Almost nothing, apparently. In Studio Trigger’s comedic When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, there are neither grand villains to be combated nor the need to thrust vigilante justice upon…
Read MoreImpressions by Clark A. Anthropomorphising video game consoles is nothing new, but as the many Hyperdimension Neptunia fans here at Digitally Downloaded will tell you, it remains novel as a means to poke fun at and criticise the games industry. The usual order is to convert those old hunks of…
Read MoreImpressions by Clark A. Balancing heavy-handed death scenes with comedy in anime seems as if it’s a herculean task at times. Dark juxtaposition can work brilliantly when executed appropriately, but I typically don’t care for trivialising serious affairs by having characters undersell heart wrenching situations with cheery or unmoved demeanours.…
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