Category: Reviews

Dengeki Stryker: The Bittersweet Rewards of Being a Hero

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I already did a fairly thorough review of the Dengeki Stryker demo from MangaGamer already so there is no need for me to reiterate what I said there already. But I felt I should do a bit of a follow-up article now that I have played the full game. While the MangaGamer demo is undoubtedly meaty I don’t think it tells the full story of game. This is not really MangaGamer‘s fault. All the game changing stuff always comes in the last fourth of the two paths in the story. So other than plastering a big disclaimer that “STUFF GETS SERIOUS SOMETIME AFTER THIS” or a list of spoilers after you play through the demo there was not much they could do. But I do feel it is enough of a change that I should update my review. I will try to avoid spoilers for anyone still thinking about buying the game. Continue reading →

Manga of the Month: Binbogami ga!

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Binbogami ga! (貧乏神が!) by Yoshiaki Sukeno

Some manga genres are safer than others. Shonen fighting manga don’t always sell gangbusters but they are usually a fairly safe bet. They are the blue chips stocks of manga. Josei manga on the other hand have yet to have anything close to a major success story. Josei has had several critical successes but nothing that sets the world on fire in English in terms of sales. But there is one category of manga that neither get critical praise nor major sales numbers. That is comedy manga. Even titles that you think would sell great due to animated popularity like Azumanga Daioh don’t particularly sell well.

And so American manga companies always seem very reluctant to pick up anything comedy related unless it has a stronger hook that moves it into another category where it might do well. There are a few exceptions to this rule but manga companies tend live by the motto of “once burned, twice shy.” So while I love Binbogami ga! I don’t think it is going to get picked up by Viz anytime soon. Which is a shame because it is a great series.

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Mardock Scramble the Second Compression: Eggs Sunny Side Up and Poker Chips Down

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Old hippies may ask, “Where have all the flowers gone?” but old anime fans ask, “Where have all the cyber punk anime gone?” It seems like one of those genres that occasionally still appears in anime but overall has faded away from the general milieu. Some elements of the genre have permeated their way into the rest of the medium and that is all that is left of it. But on a rare occasion you do get a full case of the real deal. For the longest time the only stand out examples were any entries in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series but recently the Mardock Scramble movies have come along to round out the roster a bit.

We did not talk about the first movie as a unified effort. Narutaki saw it way back in 2010 when she caught a premiere at the NYAF but I did not see the movie until I watched it on Hulu in December of last year. So if your intimately curious you can go back and read our brief reviews there. Sufficed to say we both enjoyed the movie as a return to the combination of sex and violence with brooding philosophy that was the hallmark of so much 80’s OVA anime. We included it on our “New Anime for Older Fans” panel for a reason. But is this the Empires Strikes Back or The Matrix Reloaded for the series?

I’ve had to wait quite a while to see the conclusion to one heck of cliffhanger in Mardock Scramble the First Compression. Seriously guys, it was just plain mean. So understandably there was quite a bit of anticipation for this next part in the series.

Mardock Scramble the Second Compression gives us that closure as well as opening up a slightly wider look at its world.

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