Arina TANEMURA

Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - After School Nightmare
Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga 2011-08-25

The X Button - Chant Rant
This week brings dungeon hacking and shin-kicking with Chantelise! Also: Black Knight Sword, Rise of Nightmares, Virtua Fighter, and the sudden return of Elevator Action. 2011-08-24

Anime News Nina! - 2011-08-24
Paola runs afoul of the cutthroat capitalism in Artist's Alley. 2011-08-24

Brain Diving - Colony of the Wild
Brian thumbs through Colony Drop's "last American fanzine", complete with pink spot coloring. 2011-08-23

Shelf Life - The Idolmeister
Erin floods herself with school shows this week, and decides to launch an idol agency of her own.
- Blue Exorcist ep. 1-13
- Idolm@ster ep. 1-3
- Soul Eater - Meister Collection BD
- Uta no Prince-sama ep. 1-7
2011-08-22

Rurouni Kenshin Haiku Contest
Show us your haiku skills for the chance to win the Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal Blu-Ray!
The top 25 haiku as ranked by readers has been posted! Vote for your favorite! 2011-08-14

RIN-NE GN 6
RIN-NE is a fun take on the supernatural school story, and if it isn't innovative or a work of staggering genius, it does show us why Rumiko Takahashi still sells – the woman can keep you reading.

Vampire Knight GN 12
After dragging the characters into their future and radically rewriting their relationships and relative positions last volume, it's a bit of surprise to discover that this volume is as timid as it is.

Hyakka Ryōran Samurai Girls Blu-Ray
Samurai, harem romantic comedy, and magical girl elements combine with a unique visual style and plentiful fan service to create one of anime's weirdest cross-genre experiments. Though the content is often stupid, the concept works better than it probably should.

Dorohedoro GN 4
For every forward step that the story takes, there are two sidesteps into confusion and distraction. This is truly an eye-opening world to explore—but what happens when no one has any sense of direction?

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit GN 7
Ikigami on autopilot is still better than most other series on their best days. This volume may not dig deep into political issues, but it handles the emotional ones well.

Monster Episodes 46-60 Streaming
The Prague material concludes and twists pile on as new mysteries open and pretty much everyone gets their own arc. One of the most complicated stretches of Monster, and also one of the least satisfying.

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers GN 6
While Ooku is still a slow moving tale of an alternate past, it also remains interesting and engrossing, particularly as we get closer to the series' starting point. Despite the difficulties inherent in the translation, it is a solid story of what might really have been behind Japan's closed door policy and an interesting study of who might have sat on the throne.

One Piece DVD Season 3 Part 5
Unlike the last couple of arcs, the Navarone arc doesn't lean on One Piece's formula; it plays around with it, tweaking it in interesting and amusing ways.

Night Raid 1931 Blu-Ray
This very ambitious original project sports some great technical merits as it details the activities of super-powered Japanese spies in Shanghai and Manchuria during 1931 and 1932. It should appeal to history buffs and fans of espionage stories.

Itsuwaribito GN 3
Itsuwaribito still has a strong premise behind it, but this series has no overarching storyline to bring everything together into a cohesive whole. Every time it shows signs of potential greatness ... it turns out to be a lie.

Pastel GN 1
To understand Pastel, it's essential to look at the central theme of the series. And that theme is: boobs.