Arlene BACAY

The List - 7 Intellectually-Challenged Heroes
For every super genius secondary character, there's a dumb-as-bricks leader who fights their way through trouble with pure determination and spirit! 2013-05-11

ANNCast - 50 Years of Anime
Longtime anime writer Geoff Tebbetts, curator/editor of the Golden Ani-Versary Project, which has a multitude of incredible writers covering each year of a 50-year span of anime history, joins us to chat up the project and dive in to his results. 2013-05-10

Hey, Answerman! - Window Addressing
This week on Hey, Answerman! Brian clears up some confusion about "licensing windows," and the proper sealant to use in order to keep heating and cooling costs down! Later: He riffs and raffs about under-appreciated yuri fans, and grapples with explosively selective amnesia! 2013-05-10

Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Two-for-one Special: The Tankoubon Hunter
Jason goes for a twofer with manga about falconry and snakes. 2013-05-09

The X Button - Industrial Evolution
This week: how Steam will or won't change imported games! Also: New Etrian Odyssey, company business, and yet another aborted remake. 2013-05-08

K-ON! The Movie Blu-Ray
The movie finishes what the TV series began, with a story that goes beyond a typical episode, but stops short of being an epic, life-changing experience.

Sailor Moon GN 8 -10
The fourth story arc of Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon saga, known to many fans as “Sailor Moon SuperS,” may have a reputation from the anime as being one of the weakest arcs, but the two and a half volumes that make it up in the manga are among the best the series has to offer.

Kids on the Slope Blu-Ray
Jazz music is much the stars as the main cast in this story about teens who become friends in late 1960s Japan. Great sounds and good character development bolster what is otherwise a fairly pedestrian character drama.

One Piece DVD Season 4 Part 4
When the set ends, it's on a note of combined hope and sadness that drives us onto the next volume as surely as the mounting disasters of last volume drove us to this one.

Baka and Test OVA BD+DVD
You may not get anything substantial from this brief OVA, but it's a lot of fun to watch regardless.

Vampire Knight GN 15 & 16
Overall these are both a good read and may help to renew flagging interest in the saga, particularly if you keep paying close attention to the details. The devil may not be in there, but some of the plot threads most certainly are.

Dawn of the Arcana GN 8 & 9
If you don't like drawn-out fantasy, this probably isn't the series for you, but if you don't mind the pace, Dawn of the Arcana remains an interesting story with a heroine who isn't as strong as Story of Saiunkoku's Shurei, but is still nobody's damsel in distress.

The Flowers of Evil GN 5
Flowers of Evil reveals adolescent sexuality for what it really is: desperate, awkward, even embarrassing. These emotional mind games are what make the story irresistible.

Psychic Detective Yakumo Sub.DVD 1-3
Psychic Detective Yakumo manages to carry subplots through connecting episodes with an impressive smoothness and to maintain an even pace throughout, giving us a real sense of what the novels might be like rather than feeling like a rushed adaptation.

A Certain Scientific Railgun DVDs 1 and 2
Sometimes spin-offs can be better than the original, and this A Certain Magical Index offshoot is one such case. Though not spectacular in any respect, it offers solid, consistent entertainment with flashes of stronger content.

Gad Guard DVD 1
If Gad Guard were being graded on visuals alone, it would be among the higher ranks of action-adventure anime -- but the surface polish will only take it so far before the brain starts to demand more satisfying material.