Mardock Scramble is an anime movie (divided in three parts), adapted from its homonymous light novel. It presents some very thought-provoking scenarios and deals with crude themes such as rape, suicide, murder and the ontological dilemma of the worth of a life. It behaves somewhat as a noir and a murder mystery narration, while also…
Category: Animation & Comics
Spins on Stampedes
It has always difficult to take a classic and try to give it a different spin, even more so in anime. This approach thrived on occasion and for various reasons: think for instance of Hellsing Ultimate (which to be fair, the OAV was just a better visual overhaul) or for the innovative style in JoJo…
Of Ojisans and Isekais
The Isekai genre This is not going to be an in-depth or exhaustive article on the anime genre itself since that would lead me to open too many parenthesis and I would probably end up wasting too much space. I will however give a brief overlook on this subgenre to at least make you understand…
Of androids and men
There are several significant differences between robots and androids: while the former tend to be conceived only as mechanized (sometimes humanoid) constructs with specific functions and no capabilities for emotions, the later tend to be more advanced (thinking for instance about A.I.). We might think of androids as a new stage in technological evolution, constructs…
The worth of a life
I sold my life for ten thousand yen per year or more simply Three days of Happiness is a novel written by Sugaru Miaki; it received a manga adaptation illustrated by Shoichi Taguchi that I recently had the pleasure to read. I wanted to share some thoughts (without spoilers) on the manga since, in my…
The Old and the Chivalric
Chivalry (2022) is a graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Colleen Doran. If you have already read my article on The Sandman then you already know what I think about Gaiman’s brilliance as an author. As far as the artwork goes, I read up on Colleen Doran’s endnote and it’s safe to…
Mr. Sandman, bring me a Dream
This article is an homage to The Sandman comic book anthology; it is in anticipation for the upcoming series which I sincerely hope will somehow make justice to the source material. Admittedly, it will be hard to adapt such a brilliant work and I do not believe that even my own words could hope to…
The warm notes of icy snow
Slice of life anime have a way of creating characters that make the very act of feeling reverberate within you. In some cases the premises may seem strange, something that normally would never get your attention, and yet relying on good characters they compel you to continue watching. In the case of Those snow white…
Dystopian worlds (of mushrooms)
Sabikui bisco is a light novel series that recently received an anime adaptation and premiered at the beginning of 2022. Given that it is a pretty decent watch, I would like to share some thoughts on it. The world building in this anime has its interesting points if you are willing to accept the craziness…
The empathy within the Fruits Basket
I knew the title for it to be somewhat a classic, but I never expected to remain so impressed it. Fruits Basket is a shōjo written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya, recently re-animated by TMS/8Pan and Funimation. I thought it to be a classic story of high school love and drama, something to put in…