Anime Watcher / Manga Reader

At least, a review of the mighty Akame Ga Kill.  It's supposedly a new kind of anime, but how much different is it really?  Let's find out together. Akame Ga Kill main claim is that any character can die at anytime, so no one is safe.  To an extent, this is true.  Your favorites likely WILL die.  The most impactful death has to be when the first major character dies.  It was a surprise, not just because the character actually died but how early in the show it happened.  She didn't die fighting heroically in the final battle, but very early in the series.  When characters die, they don't come back as spirits or any of that other weird crap.  They really die. Speaking of death, this is a violent anime.  It may look like a normal, teeny-bopper anime, but stuff gets pretty gritty in a hurry.  Tatsumi (the main character) sets out on a journal with two friends at the beginning of the anime.  They get separated and once reun...

Genshiken.  A comic for the otaku in you.  It has everything an otaku could want.  Cosplay, videogames, toy models, manga drawing, doujinshi conventions, school life, and even love.  Genshiken is a masterpiece...for the first half, at least.  More on the later, but for now, let's get down to business. The story follows a college club for otaku.  The characters include an average guy, a full-blown dork, a cosplayer, a costume designer, a manga drawer, a cool guy, and the cool guy's girlfriend.  The goal is to simply live everyday life as otaku. The cool guy's girlfriend is only there because her boyfriend is an otaku and she wants to be with him.  She has no interest in the group and is actually counterproductive at time.  Sometimes, she reluctantly jumps into group activities, but she's best when she's being a bitch (which is roughly 97.5% of the time).  It was so rewarding (and hilarious) when she got her just desserts by tripping a...

Funny, hard-hitting, and entertaining.  These are all words that accurately describe Tokyo ESP.  It is a manga filled with big battles, humorous situations, and some gritty stuff, too.  Heck, even Steven Seagal and Yoda make cameo appearances (yeah, seriously). Glowing fish fly through the city, bestowing superpowers on whoever they touch.  Rinka Urushiba is one of these fortunate (or unfortunate) recipients of these powers.  She has is given the power to phase though things and make things phase through her.  She has trouble controlling these powers at first, phasing through the floor and winding up naked in another room.  Eventually, though, she learns to properly use them, beating the crap out of criminals. It doesn't take long for her to find out that other people have powers and that her own powers have a weakness.  She learns that she can't phase through living things, a lesson she learns by taking one of the most brutal beatings ever se...

Do you like mass murder?  Do you hapless teenagers?  Do you like time travel and/or dimension hopping?  Do you like scary crap?  If the answer to any of these questions is "yes", then this is the manga for you. Things start of like any normal high school drama manga.  Kii Kogami is bored with his everyday school life.  He has friends, a crush, and everything else a teenager could want.  Then a bunch of monsters that resemble girls come and start killing every person in sight.  Seriously.  Everything and everybody Kii takes for granted is destroyed.  To make matters worse, some of these "girls" turn whoever they kill into bloodthirsty "zombies", for lack of a better word. Somehow Kii, a childhood friend (a key character), and a few others escape the school only to learn how bad things really are.  These magical girls and their "zombies" are everywhere, maiming and killing anything that has the nerve to be a human being.  Add...

What a manga this is.  You have an unlikeable protagonist doing unlikeable things, surrounded by unlikeable people.  What somehow, some way, you probably like this manga. Tomoko Kuroki is the protagonist and there's no denying she's a loser, based on the way other characters act toward her.  On top of that, she can't talk to anyone.  Unpopularity doesn't run in the family, as her little brother (who also doesn't like her) is a stud.  Admittedly, this does make you feel for her.  She seems like an average person who's only problem is that she can't get a break. Her solution to her unpopularity is to fix it herself.  Naturally, everything she does to make friends fails.  Most of the time these failures leave her worse off in terms of her standing with others.  Of course, it's not her fault that she isn't popular.  It's everybody else's fault, hence the title. Tomoko has many misadventures, most of which are pretty darned funny. ...

Prepare to enter a world of myths, magic, empowered women, and guys that look like women.  No, this isn't a description about America under Barack Obama's presidency.  It's a basic rundown of The Ancient Magus' Bride. The story follows a girl called Chise, who's as depressed as she is depressing.  Anyway, when we first start reading, Chise is in the process of being bought some creature the looks like Skeletor's pet dog who goes by the surprisingly human name Elias.  This doesn't seem to bother Chise as she's too depressed to care.  Immediately, you start asking, where are this girl's parents.  We learn about them a few issues in, but that comes later. Anyway, what makes Chise so special that this skeleton headed guy just had to buy her.  It turns out she is something called a Sleigh Beggy, a wizard with so much magic power that it will kill her unless she can keep it in check.  This, however, takes second place to the real theme; Ch...

What a fun manga Food Wars is.  Seriously, there isn't much to dislike about it if anything.  It's just so silly, you have no choice but to love it.  The story follows a teenager called Yukihira Soma as get enrolled into a culinary school and cooks the competition under the table.  Yep, that's right.  This isn't some overpowered protagonist's epic quest to save the world.  This is some overpowered protagonist's epic quest to be a good cook.  It's quite a breath of fresh air compared to other shonen books and it's still just as fun. Fans of shonen manga don't have to worry through.  There are lot's of laughs, tension, and waifus to go around.  Fan service is still present, but even this is presented in a fresh way.  It has everything a shonen series needs besides all the fighting and death, but you won't miss it. Yukihira is a highly likeable character.  You just want to root for the guy.  He's dead set on being ...