If you knew the past and could use that knowledge to make a better future, would you be able to do it? That’s the question Naho Takamiya is faced with when she receives a detailed letter from her future self with instructions on how to save a boy she hasn’t even met yet. That boy, Kakeru Naruse, is the boy Naho will fall in love with and the boy who will eventually break her heart when he’s killed in a car accident on his 17th birthday. But the present Naho has been given an opportunity to avoid this future of regrets, guided by the letter in the ways she can save Kakeru.
Your Lie in April, Episode 8
Emi may have been playing a piece titled “Winter Wind,” but there was an incredible warmth to her performance. Even the chill of loneliness, it seems, can’t overcast the heat of her passion.
YuYuYu Midseason Thoughts
This piece was originally published in the tri-weekly Crunchyroll Newsletter. You can read the article, and others on the Newsletter page.
I initially picked up Yuki Yuna wa Yusha de Aru (officially abbreviated as YuYuYu) as my requisite “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” anime of the season and, well, it has occasionally filled that spot and occasionally…not. That is, unless you consider slashing through world destroying monsters with giant swords or punching through rock hard monster souls or flying through space on gun chairs to be cute—if so, then YuYuYu’s cute all the time.
Fall 2014, Week 8: Highlights of the Week
Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving Day, but there will still be a post coming out (bless you, WordPress post scheduling). As for this week, as I look back on it now, it was a pretty darn good one. The strong shows continue to do their thing, but a few of the mid-tier shows really showed up with some quality anime entertainment.
PSA: Akatsuki no Yona might be one of the best written shows of the entire season.
Akatsuki no Yona, Episode 8
Well, that was maybe a little more of Yun’s backstory than we needed—but it did a really fine job of setting up a few more contrasts and bringing back the theism-atheism theme that seems like it’s going to be a fundamental part of the show going forward. And man, Yona‘s just so dang good at working the dualisms that we humans live with every day. God or no God? Selflessness or selfishness?
Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Review
There are always a few shows each season that, for whatever reason, don’t get licensed for streaming. One of the more egregious omissions in recent memory, at least as far as I’m concerned, is Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta [Tatsunoko Production, 2013], an adaptation of Suzuhito Yasuda’s popular manga. A beautifully crafted production, YZQ is charming and tons of fun, fitting it nicely into my ratings at a 6/10 (Rankings).
Your Lie in April, Episode 7
Yuki Kaji (eh…) and Saori Hayami (yay!) take the stage this week—as does stage fright for everyone involved in the Maihou Music Competition and one intensely green-eyed cat.
Fall 2014, Week 7: Highlights of the Week
This is going to be one of the shorter highlights posts I’ve ever done because I wound up dropping one show this week, but compensated by writing episodic posts for three shows. So this is what it’s like when you get to the level of being an ANN reviewer…yikes.
Oh, and on Friday I finally discovered what WIXOSS is really all about.
Akatsuki no Yona, Episode 7
We traded out sakuga for great character work and one heckuva a fascinating conflict this week, and I’m totally okay with that.
Inou Battle, Episode 7
I tried to fit this all in a paragraph for my highlights of the week. I couldn’t do it. The pain of watching good cartoons is real, guys. I’ll try and keep it as short as I can.








