Frog-kun

Here’s a recommendation for a visual novel from someone who doesn’t play a lot of visual novels. Out of the blue one day, PCube Asia offered me a review code for Iwakura Aria, a suspense/horror visual novel, which I accepted for three main reasons: It’s a short game (<15 hours) The art style is very un-anime-like, like The House in Fata Morgana It’s a sapphic romance, and very unambiguously…

One of the big distinguishing points between “light novels” and “regular novels” is that light novels are born into a multimedia ecosystem. They aren’t made up of text alone—they have insert illustrations and distinct anime-esque character designs, making it easy for them to make the leap from book to screen. Kadokawa’s business strategy revolves around streamlining this process as much as…

I’ve been quiet on this blog for a while, and by the end of this post you will understand why. (It’s all good news, don’t worry!) Continue reading Bunch of Updates!

When light novel titles swap the same couple dozen keywords between them, I wouldn’t blame you for getting them mixed up. Last season, there was an anime called Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, and this season there’s one called The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases. Based on those titles, you’d think they were the exact same story, but…

The first arc of The Apothecary Diaries begins and ends with a mystery that relatively few people in modern Japan have to reckon with: why would a baby die before their first year of life? Continue reading Untitled

It’s that time of the year again! Looking back on this year’s English light novel debuts, there were a handful of titles that I was really looking forward to but which ultimately disappointed me (Agents of the Four Seasons, The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey, and Days With My Stepsister, to name a few), but I was also blown away by some unexpected surprises, which I’ll talk about below.…

I am shook. I am trembling as I write this post. I did not expect Butareba: The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig to actually be a good series. I did not expect it to tug on my heartstrings and leave me staring blankly at the ceiling for a long while after I read it. What the hell? Wasn’t this supposed to be some trashy isekai anime? How did it turn into such an emotional story about powerless…

In the afterword of Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me‘s first volume, author Makiko Nagaoka remarked: “If I got lucky enough to date a beautiful voice actress I admired, would I give up on the idea if I found out she wasn’t a virgin? There’s no way I would…” Continue reading Untitled

At first glance, the I’m In Love With the Villainess anime isn’t a huge game-changer. It takes the oversaturated “villainess” trope and applies a yuri twist to it, which is, like…neat, but not unheard of in anime. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! and The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady both already have yuri elements in them (and is…

Liar, Liar is a pretty darn half-baked anime. Like a lot of trend-chasing works of fiction that don’t really understand the appeal of the things they’re copying, you can easily identify which popular series each story element was directly inspired from: Continue reading Untitled

I don’t want to write another post-mortem about a light novel anime adaptation. The Reign of the Seven Spellblades anime technically isn’t a bad adaptation; unlike the Spy Classroom anime it covers all the plot points in a coherent manner. While the production values are modest, there are some action highlights here and there, like the extensive garuda fight in episode 4. Episode 6 also pulled…

The title of this blog post says it all. I was really happy to read a You Can Have My Back in English! It ticked most of my boxes in terms of what I wanted/expected from the fantasy BL genre. Continue reading Untitled

It’s a tale as old as time: a girl from an abusive family meets her prince and experiences a brief and sweet reprieve from her miserable existence. But it can’t last forever—when the clock strikes midnight, she must return to her old life. But the prince swears not to give up on her, and he searches the entire kingdom to find her again… The My Happy Marriage anime follows the classic template of…

When it comes to anime boys, I have a Type. All you have to do is stick an earnest knight guy into your story and I am suddenly incredibly invested. The reason I’m called “Frog-kun” online is because I love the frog knight character in Chrono Trigger. For years, Suzaku from Code Geass was one of my favourite anime characters ever. I was (and still am) obsessed with Eugeo in Sword Art Online,…

I absolutely loved watching the Fate/strange Fake -Whispers of Dawn- TV special. Sure, it’s more of a highlights reel than a proper adaptation, but it sure got me pumped for the forthcoming full TV series. Although I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a hardcore Fate fan, I’ve enjoyed most of the franchise installments. I was particularly looking forward to seeing Fate/strange Fake animated…

The premiere (titled “episode 0”) of Mushoku Tensei season 2 is a noticeable visual downgrade from the stellar first season. Stiff animations and inconsistent character art, especially for Ariel, are coupled with unfocused direction, leading to an episode that simply lacked the impact of season 1’s debut. Continue reading Untitled

Last month, I resigned from Anime News Network. I met a lot of great people and learned a lot during my time there, but ultimately I decided earlier this year that I wanted to go independent. Continue reading Untitled