The Otakusphere: Cheese and what am I doing with my life?

Good morning, afternoon or evening wherever you are in Internet-land. It is Sunday out here in my corning of the hinterlands, so it’s time for another trip around The Otakusphere. Before I get too deep, I just wrapped up a collaboration with Ashley over at The Review Heap this week, where we finally shared out […]

Reflections: Am I too old for anime high school?

For most of my adult life, I’ve put on this guise of being an old, world-weary man who had it all figured out. Even when I was 24, I would look around at 18-year-old college students, and I would say, “Jesus. You’re all young. Wait until the stiletto heel of life comes around and pins […]

Love in the time of existentialism in Galaxy Express 999

No one really gets to live happily ever after in Galaxy Express 999. OK. That might not be entirely true. There are a handful of stories about people chasing their dreams that end happily — Chromeria the revolutionary, Fraiya the artist, Sakezan, the booze-swilling Tarzan ripoff. But these are the exceptions. What is strange is […]

Why I appreciate Ergo Proxy more at 44 (A collaboration with The Review Heap)

Hello everyone. Welcome to the second half of my collaboration with Ashley from The Review Heap. First, I really want to thank him for his patience with me. To give you all some perspective, I agreed to do this before COVID-19 really started. Then work took over my life, but he stayed patient with me. […]

Ergo Proxy (Collaboration with In Search of Number Nine)

Very excited to kick off this collaboration with Iniksbane at In Search of Number Nine, since we’re writing on one of my all-time favs, Ergo Proxy! I’d put off reviewing Ergo Proxy for a long time but being able to work with Cameron took a bit of the pressure off, and I’m really happy with […]

The Otakusphere: Good romances, bad detectives and realism

Good morning or afternoon or evening or whatever time it may be for everyone out there in Internet-land. It’s Sunday here in my corner of the hinterlands, so it’s time for another trip around The Otakusphere. I have finally done it. I have achieved my second shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and it has […]

My moral quandary over cake in 86

A long time ago, I read Animal Farm. For those unfamiliar with the story, it’s basically a retelling of the Bolshevik revolution and the immediate aftermath. In this case, George Orwell, a socialist himself, used an English farm as a metaphor. The animals rise up and overthrow their human masters. At the start, everything seems […]

The Mysterious Maetel in Galaxy Express 999

I’m going to get meta here for a second. As I’ve been writing about Galaxy Express 999, I’ve noticed lately that I tend to focus on a particular episode. This has become more true the deeper I get into the show. This is pretty different from how I’ve handled other series. When I talked about […]

The Otakusphere: Education, media and pretty pictures

It’s Sunday again, so I’m back for another tour around the Otakusphere, and I feel like every time I start looking around, I come up with a bevy of blog posts that all are pretty great. This week is no different. We have a little bit of Mother’s Day, a little bit about social media […]

Angels, kaiju and the noble failure of SSSS. Gridman

Sometimes a reaction to a show feels so diverse that I wonder if the two sides are legitimately watching the same show. A few months back, I watched SSSS. Gridman, along with everyone else in the #Anitwitwatches crew. It’s a group organized by Jon Spencer Reviews that I’ve been part of for over a year […]