James Brusuelas's Recent Posts

So, I’m not exactly the RPG type. And I haven’t played the game yet. But I did happen to grab a few minutes with Spike Spencer. A notable voice actor in the anime and gaming worlds, Spike lends his vocal talents to the characters Connor Ganson and Menicks Rence.

Don’t get me wrong. A film like this can’t avoid some cliché and sentimentality. But Midnight Sun is surprisingly human.

Dubbed a “sci-fi manga,” Bokurano initiates the tale of fifteen kids whose lives are altered by a chance meeting. A strange man in a seaside cave invites them to play a cutting-edge video game that pits giant robots against alien invaders. But they have to sign a contract first. And when the purpose of their agreement is revealed, the game stops being fun.

If you couldn’t tell, we’ve got an odd couple here worthy of a network sitcom, complete with laugh track. But what I like about this anime adaptation is not simply its loyalty to the manga (no filler), but Yazawa’s ability to create a captivatingly feminine coming-of-age, one unburdened by rampant cliché.

Viz Cinema, the nation's first theater devoted exclusively to Japanese film and anime. If you're in town, here is the list of events for February.

Here are few new titles to keep a critical eye open for.

After all, for mecha lovers, this show has a lot of potential. But, as of now, I would place it somewhere between a so-so derivation of Full Metal Panic and Evangelion “light.”

I just got the list of Viz’s manga releases for the first half of 2010, and it’s a long list. So, rather than give you my fun, yet abridged synopses of these undoubtedly great titles, especially since I have yet to read any, here’s the initial installment straight from the mouth of PR:

Focused, artfully drawn, a steady pace, a much older protagonist, Naruto Shippuden The Movie extracts everything you love about a given episode and lets it pervade 94 minutes of film. That’s right.