Over the last few years, Mrs. Desperado and I have become serious anime fans. On the rare occasions when we can see a new show on the big screen, we jump at the chance. Recently we saw “Weathering With You” a feature-length anime by Makoto Shinkai, creator of the acclaimed 2016 film “Your Name,” which […]
I love historical fiction, and one of the most fascinating settings for that genre is feudal Japan. The culture was quite alien to that of modern America, yet there were shared values like honor, bravery, and chivalry. Mojo Mori’s Six Expressions of Death is a murder mystery set in this era. Though I’ve never been […]
My wife Arlys and I are long-time anime fans, but it’s become difficult for us to find something we like. Like American TV networks, Japanese animation studios produce many series that are maudlin and unoriginal. We prefer shows that are out of the ordinary, generally with a sci-fi, supernatural, or crime element. Recently we encountered […]
In 2008, when Twilight hit the big screen, vampire stories were everywhere. I was getting pretty sick of them. Even publishers wouldn’t buy vampire books. Yet the vampire legend, like the creatures that people it, refuses to die. The Japanese are just as intrigued with the concept and have produced several vampire series in anime […]
I approached this Netflix streaming movie with trepidation. Recently this network funded a live-action adaptation of the classic manga/anime Death Note that drew the ire of fans, myself included. I sincerely hoped this wouldn’t be another proverbial train wreck. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn’t. The Fullmetal Alchemist movie (see my review […]
We all love mashups – the combination of characters and elements that are not supposed to be together. They don’t happen often, outside of unofficial fan fiction, due to the logistics of copyrights and such. But sometimes there’s an idea that’s so cool it has to be made. One of those ideas was to combine […]
