It’s the New Year, which means it’s time for some new anime. Here is what I am watching this season: Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister! This was my most hyped anime of the season! People who know my creative output will probably say it’s just on-brand for me to like the little sister show, but for me the genre was secondary to the fact that the Mushoku Tensei team is working on this. Shingo Fujii’s been on my radar ever since I saw his Precure action animation years ago, so of course I was going to tune in for his series directorial debut. And the production did not disappoint! Call it cursed, but ..read more

The last few years have been great for English light novels. We have now reached the point where there are dozens of new releases per year. There’s also more diversity than the popular anime adaptations will have you think, so you don’t have to read a story the same “transported to another world” setup if you don’t want to. If you are looking for something new and fresh, you’ve come to the right blog post. Here are my favourites among all the new releases this year: 5) My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex Digital-only from J-Novel Club. This series got an anime this year, so you might already be aw ..read more

The Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen light novels by Keishi Ayasato finished their English run last month, and I’m here to tell you why you need to check them out. It’s quite possibly my favourite light novel series of all time. Considering that I’ve read hundreds of light novels throughout the years, this is no light accomplishment. What’s It About? Technically, Torture Princess is an isekai series. A young man named Kaito is summoned to another world by the eponymous “Torture Princess” and gets made to serve as her butler. But this isn’t a straightforward video game-esque fantasy world wh ..read more

Although I haven’t watched the Eminence in Shadow anime, I started playing the mobile game which came out last week out of mild curiosity. To its credit, the game doesn’t actually look cheap—it has detailed 3D animations, which especially shine when you’re interacting with the cute female characters. As far as anime gacha game goes, it would actually be okay if it weren’t for a couple of major flaws that became more and more noticeable as I kept playing. This is not a user friendly game at all First of all, this game suffers from significant technical issues, like long loading times and inter ..read more

The Do It Yourself!! anime is an underappreciated gem. The setup, of course, is not for everyone; it’s one of those relaxing slice-of-life anime about girls in a niche hobby club. Beyond some low-key science-fiction elements, the story does little to stand out in its subgenre. If you’re not already into this kind of show, then you might need some extra convincing to try it out. Fortunately for me, I happen to be in exactly the right place at the right time for it to resonate. The other day, my partner and I succeeded in buying our first house—exciting! Amid all the jubilation over finally hav ..read more

Once again, dear readers, it has been a while. Alas, this blog has well and truly settled into its post-retirement years where half the posts are me apologising for not posting. Anyway, I’d like to fill you in on some things that happened in the last couple weeks. First off, after five years of living in Tokyo, I’ve moved back to Australia. The long and short of it: the COVID years took their psychological toll on me, so I’ve moved back to my home country to be closer to the people I care about. Fortunately, I still have my job at Anime News Network. I was in the very privileged position of b ..read more

Note: This is an edited repost of an article I originally wrote for Crunchyroll in May 2017. With permission, I put this up on my blog in November the same year. I’m rerunning it today out of respect for the light novel series, which is ending next month. If there’s one series that will attract strong opinions, it’s Eromanga Sensei. The story appears to be a romantic comedy about a boy and his little sister, and is based off a light novel written by the author of OreImo, another series that is no stranger to controversy. Having read the light novel, I can say that the ..read more

I don’t talk about this enough online, but I’m a huge fan of Chrono Trigger. It’s my number one video game of all time, and it’s had an immeasurable impact on my life. (As a matter of fact, my online username was inspired by the sword-wielding frog in that game.) Despite my fondness for Chrono Trigger, however, I never actually found the opportunity to play its critically divisive follow-up, Chrono Cross, until the remaster came out last month. I’ve been playing it off-and-on ever since—on my second playthrough now!—but mostly I’ve been thinking and pondering about it a lot. It’s the kind of ..read more

Hello, folks! I’m back with another blog post. This time, it’s not about a light novel I read – it’s about something I wrote myself! I wrote what I’d like to call an “isekai” short story. It’s called The Librarian at the End of Worlds. Alas, it doesn’t have any frogs in it, but it’s a self-contained short story that captures the essence of what I like about isekai fantasy web novels. Check it out and see what you think! (The link opens in a new tab.) The rest of this blog post contains some brief commentary about why I decided on this genre and theme. I recommend you read it after you finish ..read more

I recently started reading Classroom of the Elite. I watched the anime around two years ago, but although I enjoyed it, the experience didn’t stick with me. I’m glad I picked up the light novels, though, as even the introductory arc had quite a lot to chew on. In fact, I’d go as far to say that I was emotionally moved by the story told in these first two volumes, in a way that I didn’t expect at all. I’m going to discuss these two books in detail, so let’s get to it. SPOILERS AHEAD. The Purpose of COTE’s First Arc COTE‘s first two volumes have an obvious purpose: Setting up the characters and ..read more