Anime Review: Urusei Yatsura

Anime Review: Urusei Yatsura Ataru Moroboshi is not precisely your average teenaged boy.  For one thing, he’s an incurable skirt-chaser, constantly hitting on any pretty lady who happens by.  Also, he’s incredibly unlucky.  So unlucky, that when alien invaders declare that a random person from Earth must compete against their champion in a game of… Continue reading Anime Review: Urusei Yatsura

Anime Review: Tsuritama

Anime Review: Tsuritama Yuki Sanada is a high school student who has no friends and limited social skills.  Whenever he’s in an uncomfortable social situation, Yuki  freezes up with anxiety, depicted as him drowning.  From the outside, his anxiety face makes him look wrathful and unapproachable.  It doesn’t help that his grandmother’s job requires them… Continue reading Anime Review: Tsuritama

Anime for Speculative Fiction Fans

Wolf Children

This last weekend at Minicon 49, I moderated a panel on “Anime for Speculative Fiction Fans.”   As is common at this sort of thing, a lot of series and films were mentioned very briefly, and not everyone had the opportunity to write them all down.  Therefore, I promised to put up a list.  I… Continue reading Anime for Speculative Fiction Fans

Anime Review: Samurai Flamenco

Anime Review: Samurai Flamenco Masayoshi Hazama is an up and coming male model with a superhero fixation.  Since superheroes don’t exist in real life, Masayoshi decides to become the first, as non-powered masked hero Samurai Flamenco.  He goes out to fight minor crime like jaywalking and littering, and it doesn’t go well.  His first adventure… Continue reading Anime Review: Samurai Flamenco

Manga Review: Vinland Saga, Book Two

Manga Review: Vinland Saga, Book Two by Makoto Yukimura To recap for those of you who haven’t read the review of Book One, Vinland Saga is set in the early 12th Century, the time of the Vikings.  Our protagonist is Thorfinn, son of Thors, who serves in the war band of Askeladd.  Askeladd murdered Thors, and… Continue reading Manga Review: Vinland Saga, Book Two

Anime Review: Kill la Kill

Anime Review: Kill la Kill In the indefinite future, Ryuko Matoi is the delinquent daughter of a mad scientist who arrives home after a long time away at school to find him murdered with one blade of a giant scissors.  The killer, too far away to identify, has the other blade.  Ryuko vows vengeance. In… Continue reading Anime Review: Kill la Kill

Movie Review: Kill Devil

Movie Review: Kill Devil (2004) A teenager wakes up on a deserted beach, sometime in autumn.  He doesn’t remember who he is or how he got there, but the blanket he was under indicates he wasn’t on that beach by accident.  He’s wearing a strange metal wristband with the name “Shougo” on it, so that’s… Continue reading Movie Review: Kill Devil

Movie Review: Chushingura (The 47 Loyal Ronin)

Movie Review: Chushingura (The 47 Loyal Ronin) (1962) As mentioned in my previous reviews of book and comic book versions, the tale of the forty-seven ronin is one of Japan’s great stories, based on true events.  Briefly, in 1701, Lord Kira provokes Lord Asano into breaking the rules of the Shogun’s court, a crime that… Continue reading Movie Review: Chushingura (The 47 Loyal Ronin)

Manga Review: Weekly Shonen Jump (USA)

Manga Review: Weekly Shonen Jump (USA) It’s the first anniversary of my blog!  To celebrate, I thought it would be nice to update the very first review that appeared here.  http://www.skjam.com/2012/12/09/manga-review-shonen-jump-alpha/ Shounen Jump is still Japan’s number one best-selling manga anthology title.  Although the primary market is still middle-school through high school boys, people of… Continue reading Manga Review: Weekly Shonen Jump (USA)

Anime Review: Servant X Service

Anime Review: Servant X Service Like America, Japan has had its economic woes in the last few years, with unemployment a serious problem for many people.  One of the jobs considered “safe” and steady if not spectacular work, is being a civil servant.  So it is that a certain city Health and Welfare Office comes… Continue reading Anime Review: Servant X Service