11 comments

#Viz Media: Alright, so I lied. We're not done with our SigIKKI coverage. I just couldn't help myself, really: Bokurano is probably one of their most popular titles when it comes to the SigIKKI label, and I'...

12 comments

#Video games: I have to admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for the Tekken series. It was one of the first fighting games for the Playstation and, at least in my opinion, was a step up from it'...

12 comments

#review: Of all the cool stuff I picked up at NYAF this year, Collateral Damage was by far the coolest.  I had no intention of buying a board game at the convention, but once I heard the concept for ...

1 comments

#Viz Media: Some of the stories over at SigIKKI are only a single chapter long, but they show some real promise -- especially their comedy works. Two works in particular caught my attention, and really deser...

6 comments

#Viz Media: There's always one bad apple in the group, and in the course of reviewing all the titles up for grabs over at SigIKKI.com, Shunju Aono's I'll Give It My All... Tomorrow fell utterly flat with me....

3 comments

#shoujo: At a glance, Boys Over Flowers may seem like your typical shoujo manga, and perhaps at its heart that's what it is. Still, once you've fallen in love with the characters of Yoko Kamio's epic tale...

3 comments

#Viz Media: As popular as samurai tales are over in Japan, it seems like we get a cherry-picking of the best. Ruroni Kenshin, Lone Wolf and Cub and Vagabond are just a few of the titles. Not that I'm complai...

2 comments

#Viz Media: Let's fill a high school with the clones of all sorts of famous characters in history. Unlike the amazing Clone High, this story is all serious-business, and our protagonist, Shiro, is the only n...

2 comments

#Viz Media: Imagine the entirety of the Earth designated as a nature preserve, and human society has moved up to an artificial ring circling the Earth. Pretty cool, right? Well, along with that is the usual ...

0 comments

#Viz Media: I never really got into 4-panel gag manga before. Oftentimes I'd simply chuckle at it and wonder if I really spent my money well. Too often I feel like the joke that went on the strip just wasn't...

9 comments

#Viz Media: Ever dream of a store that has all the manga that you could ever want? Well, you could say Kingyo Used Books is that place. "But wait, how can a story about a manga store be all that interes...

9 comments

#Japanator Recommends: Do you remember the feeling of trying to come up with an opinion on something like, say FLCL, after watching it for the first time? It's sort of hard to pin down with the right words. It isn't so...

5 comments

#Japanator Recommends: Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunsou), to put it loosely, is a show about alien frogs trying to take over the earth. The mission to invade Pekopon (earth) is abandoned due to the fact that human beings love ...

12 comments

#review: Enthusiastic applause, shortly followed by a familiar ethereal voice, and the music of the Velvet Room --  this is the way Persona Music Live opens, and I tell you now, if you're even a remo...

10 comments

#Japanator Recommends: I'm a very forgiving viewer. Whenever I make the decision to buy or commit to any given work, I more or less vow to find something worth enjoying, even if only to justify my purchase or time spen...

9 comments

#videos: I have this strange attraction to sports series like Big Windup and Eyeshield 21. I suppose it's the message of team building and "we can all do this together" that gets me excited. Rat...

5 comments

#Vertical: When I finished reading MW for our review last week, I was suddenly hooked on Tezuka. I needed to have more. I had already read through the volumes of Black Jack several times over, and came upon...

4 comments

#music: It's another year and time for another album from Polysics, a band that's been releasing a new album every year since their first release in 1999 (not to mention a constant stream of singles, EPs...

10 comments

#yen press: There are several kinds of horror. The one we know all too well here in America are the "monster in the house" stories. Ones where some external threat, often back from the dead or from...

5 comments

#Vertical: There are two Tezukza in the world of manga: The Osamu Tezuka that many people know as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack, and then the other Tezuka. The one whose work...

2 comments

#review: The members of sgt. fall into a lineup a bit more like that of a jazz quintet than a traditional rock band. Drummer Hitoshi Ono and bassist Kouji Akashi form the band's solid backbone, proving th...

12 comments

#Video games: At first I was a bit reluctant to post this, seeing how our big sister typically handles the majority of the coverage related to games, but I'll just come out and say it--Chrono Trigger...

2 comments

#review: Now, I'm no video games journalastic historianist, but I seem to remember that the very first Katamari Damacy game was something of a slow burn. In my own circle, it was the very definition of a ...

3 comments

#review: FLOPPY is a chiptune/8-bit/electro project from Sharaku Kobayashi of Metronome and Hiromu Toda of Shinjuku Gewalt. Since 2004, they've been producing some of the best and craziest chip-fueled ele...

2 comments

#review: First time author Nina Matsumoto’s Yōkaiden rocked my face with a fun, lighthearted and well thought story. Known for her manga-ized versions of The Simpsons on DeviantArt, she gained...

4 comments

#review: Sometimes we have to realize our favorite things from Japan, may it be manga, anime, MAD videos, doujinshi, or even video games are made by people, of flesh and blood. Until robots take over the ...

8 comments

#Video games: Last month, I previewed Fate/unlimited codes--Capcom's latest fighter for the PSP, based on the hit anime and eroge, Fate/stay night. Originally released as a PS2 game of the same name overseas, ...

3 comments

#Viz Media: One of Viz's newest ventures has been their Haikasoru line of Japanese pop fiction books. In the sci-fi/fantasy vein, these titles bring us a taste of Japanese culture that we haven't seen much o...

10 comments

#shoujo: Loving shojo manga is one of those half blessing/half curse things: you know more or less what direction they're going to go in after a few chapters, the girl is always shy and bumbling and the h...

30 comments

#TV and Film: You know, Ponyo is only Hayao Miyazaki's latest smash hit from Japan. Why shouldn't you go watch it when it opens across 800+ theaters in America on Friday?  Sarcasm aside, there are no real...

3 comments

#review: Last time I wrote a recommendation for this series, it was met with some resistance. I'm not really sure why either. Nobody really went out of their way to explain what they didn't like about it....

21 comments

#review: The moé phenomenon has become something to be reckoned with in the anime industry. It seems that the most successful shows are the ones that feature doe-eyed girls with giant racks that ar...

3 comments

#Tokyopop: Would you like to create a fictional world?Those are the words that kick off the adventure for all the girls in Chain Mail by Hiroshi Ishizaki. A part of Tokyopop's Pop Fiction line, the story fo...

16 comments

#review: Fillers.Few words are as maligned as the one written above. It can kill a show faster than a 300 pound man in a bikini top and booty shorts can kill your mood. It usually means that a show's prod...

12 comments

#review: I've been a fan of CLAMP since way back in the Chobits days, and my love for that series has fueled me to keep an eye on their work. Of course, I'm a sucker for supernatural themes as well, so it...

3 comments

#TV and Film: How many manga (or in this case, Korean manwha) can you recall that use the following formula:1. Take a legendary figure or epic adventure2. Twist it to become dark and gritty or something, then ...

5 comments

#videos: When it comes to vis-kei (that is visual chaos) bands, there are two camps. First there's the side that doesn't really care so much for the visual end, maybe dressing in lots of black plastic shi...

14 comments

#romance: For some reason I feel like we haven't seen enough series that feature a strong female protagonist. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think we could all stand to see more of it, especially one that isn't ju...

1 comments

#Japanator Recommends: Our last snack chip Recommends didn't go so well. In fact, my stomach still churns at the thought of those rotten rings of death. I'm pleased to say that today's snack is much better.Calbee's Piz...

11 comments

#TV and Film: When it came time to sit down with this film, I couldn't help that I was already a bit apprehensive. I had recently watched the old Rurouni Kenshin OVAs (again), which some of...

36 comments

#videos: It's tough to listen to Triangle (officially "▵" but that's too much like the whole Prince name thing) for more than 30 seconds without crushing boredom setting in. Of course that...

6 comments

#review: Frozen yogurt is one of the healthier snacks you could consume. It's not as heavy as custard, and or as thick as ice cream and there are added benefits such as helping with digestion, and lactose...

0 comments

#review: I'm undergoing something of a struggle. You see, right now there are two albums out that are both freaking amazing, but as you well know, there can be only one "Album of the Year." One ...

20 comments

#review: For being as big a manga reader as I am, I'm surprised this is the first time I'm bringing up a manga title for this column. Well, Sundome is a great one to fix that with. The title, published by...

12 comments

#robots: Blassreiter is one of those anime that was released during the wrong season. In a season saturated with great titles like Soul Eater, The Tower of Druaga, Kure-nai, and Kaiba, there was hardly an...

24 comments

#review: SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU! Now that I have your attention, let me tell you about THE GREATEST ANIME EVER MADE. Mobile Fighter: G Gundam has everything you need to help fuel your manly spirit.Enough tal...

15 comments

#review: So, it's Friday night, you've just gotten back from work, classes, or whatever, and now you've got nothing to do. Perhaps it's because of the weather, as it's pouring rain outside. Or maybe your ...