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Rating: 70/100
Happy Halloween, everyone! We all love the yearly holiday of ghosts and ghouls, costumes and candy, vampires and vexing creatures aplenty, and what better way to get into the spirit of Halloween by reviewing a spooky anime? Vampire Princess Miyu was a title that I knew about to some extent, but never actively pursued. This 1988-1989 OVA actually does have some historical significance in the American anime landscape, as it was technically the first anime to have subtitles put on it, making it the first anime to have fansubs, done by the people who would go on to form AnimEigo, who would then proceed to release it on home video. This interview with AnimEigo co-founder Robert Woodhead confirms as such. Based on the manga by Narumi Kakinouchi, the series centers on a vampire named Miyu, who is tasked with hunting down and sealing away malevolent creatures called Shinma, who wreak havoc on humanity, all told from the point of view of a spiritualist named Himiko Sei, who isn't too happy with Miyu's shenanigans. While the manga did start around the time the OVA began, the OVA is the first complete Miyu product to come out, and can be watched independently from the manga. As someone who never grew up during the era of OVAs and obscure anime VHS tapes (I was born in 1993), Vampire Princess Miyu is definitely an intriguing product of its time and a good Halloween watch, but it's not going to be for everyone.
If there's one thing Vampire Princess Miyu absolutely nails to a T, its the atmosphere. If you're going to watch this for the creepy horror vibes, VPM absolutely delivers on this front, especially on account of its stellar art direction. Not only are the backgrounds absolutely lush and a feast for the eyes, but the artists did a stellar job at using all sorts of different techniques to establish the tone and mood of the series. Tree branches are made to look like creepy eyeballs, certain environments are rendered either completely red or gray to convey an eerie, unsettling mood, and the compositing of various shots helps to establish an equally oppressive, heavy atmosphere that never manages to quite leave your mind, which is absolutely warranted for a horror series. The animation itself is also fantastic, a few cut corners notwithstanding, and even still images and limited motion are use to deliberate, purposeful effect, not to mention the monster designs are also pretty damn good. Though one has to wonder just how Miyu is able to style her hair the way she does with just a single ribbon. Never change, weird anime hair. There's always an underlying discomfort that permeates the entire series, and it thrives on its desire to feed on your fears before throwing you into monstrous magical viscera, and the staff for VPM absolutely understood the assignment.
From an audio standpoint, the soundtrack also helps to sell VPM's eerie, dark atmosphere, and Kenji Kawai doesn't waste any effort here. Anyone familiar with 80s synths will recognize the distinctive sounds produced from back then, but there's also a serving of pianos, ensembles, drums, shamisens, and even Kabuki music. But other than the Kabuki vocalizations in episode 2, there's no traditional opening or ending theme songs. Speaking of the audio, the Japanese voice track is definitely strong, the two English dubs less so, with AnimEigo's original dub for it being the worst of the bunch. Good lordy, you can tell this was baby's first attempt at dubbing, as the voice actors either sound really wooden or are completely miscast. Seriously, no wonder Manga Entertainment commissioned their own British dub, which is definitely the better dub, even if it has its own issues such as mispronouncing names (Aiko is pronounced like Ay-ko rather than Aye-ko) and the occasional stiff performance. Hell, the blu-ray even has the UK dub listed as the default English track rather than the original US dub. That should tell you all you need to know.
If you're going into this anime expecting a deep exploration of both the plot and characters, here's my advice: Don't. Being a short, four episode OVA, it can only do so much in terms of time, and narratively, it's a fairly episodic series with not much in the way of an ongoing narrative, not to mention barely having a satisfactory ending. Most of the characters besides Miyu don't do much, and feel more like props made to progress the story rather than believable characters in their own right. Considering the manga had only just started when the OVA was being made, I can only assume Kakinouchi was still trying to solidify what directions she wanted to take the characters in for the manga and was sussing things out in the OVA. I have heard that Miyu is depicted differently in the various adaptations. Here, she's a whimsical, manipulative trickster who doesn't really care much about humanity despite helping save them from the Shinma and isn't afraid to be outright cruel at times, with the OVA having her at her most morally ambiguous, especially in regard to the nature of her relationship with Larva. The manga and the TV anime would make her more genuinely noble, though still not a complete saint, and her relationship with Larva in those continuities is much more genuine and equal, whereas in the OVA he's little more than her personal slave. Himiko, who is made to be the primary central point of view character, doesn't really accomplish much on her own, and is more of a passive observer despite her attempts to be more active. Miyu's lack of humanity in the OVA does make her seem intriguing, especially for those who prefer their heroes to be more complicated and rogue, and her backstory does get explored in the final episode, but she doesn't get the opportunity to be more fleshed out after the fact. Everybody else in this series is similarly limited, though with the series being as intentionally ambiguous as it is, I have to wonder if that was deliberate.
Seeing as I'm not normally into horror anime, I hadn't really planned on watching the OVA at all, and I would have kept it that way...if not for the absolutely batshit insane, whack-a-do licensing shenanigans it wound up getting involved in. For anyone curious, Japan is extremely bureaucratic in how they approach basically everything, and if any company wants to license an anime, manga, or game from there, you cannot do so without their express approval, and this goes for literally anything and everything, no matter how small. If multiple parties are involved, you need their approval as well. Everything from blu-ray package artwork to bonus features need to be approved by the licensors if you want to include them, and not getting their approval will land you in hot water. This also extends to the creators of the works in question. In February 2025, AnimEigo announced they'd give Vampire Princess Miyu a new blu-ray...but after a year and a half, there was no release date set because they hadn't gotten approval for any packaging artwork. Every effort to reach out had been completely stonewalled, and as this post explains, their license for Miyu would expire next spring. If a licensing contract expires, the series will fall out of print, and if the license can't be renewed after the fact for whatever reason, there was a strong possibility that the OVA would never be re-licensed or re-released ever again. So with package approval being the only thing holding them back, the staff at AnimEigo decided to do something crazy, if only to at least get the licensors' attention: Release the series as is...but with absolutely no package artwork, just a completely blank white cover with nothing on it. If this were Crunchyroll, they would have just shelved the whole thing and left it to die, but not AnimEigo, and sure enough, the gambit not only worked, it actually went viral to the point that it caught attention in Japan, including that of the OVA's scriptwriter, Noboru "Sho" Aikawa. Not gonna lie, I thought this move was both awesome and hilarious for its sheer audacity and the "sticking it to the man" energy. Luckily, the licensor did finally approve the package art, and while this did result in the blank white cover version never being released, the gambit did what AnimEigo intended for it to do, and now people can buy the OVA on blu-ray. At least until the licensing period ends, that is. I admit, this is what got me to buy the OVA, and while I wouldn't call it my favorite anime ever for the reasons I mentioned above, I enjoyed my time with it.
Those that Vampire Princess Miyu got its fangs into back in the day have likely already picked up the blu-ray, but for those who haven't, this OVA is a fascinating little bite-sized horror tale that makes it the perfect Halloween watch. It's not going to give you all the answers, as its much more focused on intrigue and being creepy than being satisfying, and for some, that's complimentary. While I wouldn't call this OVA a masterpiece, it definitely has a lot to offer for the horror lovers out there, and its legacy in the American anime landscape definitely shouldn't be swept under the rug either. Definitely check it out if you want a short Halloween watch, but keep your expectations tempered. I am curious about what the manga is like, so I might check that out whenever I get around to it.
Phone Screen Cracked
Oct. 2nd, 2026 08:57 pmUuuuugh. I have no idea how this happened or why, but the bottom right corner of my phone screen is cracked. Not too badly, and the phone still works even with the crack, but it's still pretty noticeable. I called a phone repair place to see if I could potentially get it repaired, but they said they don't have any screens for a 6-year-old phone like mine, and any screens they would have are, 1. Imported from Europe, and 2. Probably not very good quality. Eh, it is what it is. I've been careful with it for six years, and I'm glad it at least still works. My phone's been real good since I got it in 2020. I'd really rather not have to get a new phone, especially since most new phones nowadays are being hopped up with all that AI crap that keeps getting shoved down our throats.
Rating: 82/100
Digimon really hasn't had it easy as a franchise before 2022. Between the Tri movies, Adventure 2020, and Ghost Game being unmitigated disasters, promised video games being stuck in development hell, and Bandai's lack of interest in the franchise, fans like myself feared that Digimon would be neglected and left to flounder. Luckily, from 2022 onward, things started to change. A webcomic called Digimon Liberator put eyes back on the franchise and renewed interest in the card game. The aforementioned video games, Digimon Survive and Digimon Story Time Stranger were finally completed and released, with the latter being such a massive critical and financial success that it pretty much made Bandai realize that Digimon was worth investing in as a franchise again. There's a new mobile game, Digimon Alysion, due out sometime, though no news of its release date have been revealed as of yet. But fans like myself really wanted Digimon to get a good new anime again, since previous attempts fell completely flat on their face, so naturally, we were pretty guarded when Digimon Beatbreak was announced. I dropped Ghost Game at episode 33 because it became clear to me that the series had no interest in exploring its characters or its overarching plot, and that decision wound up being validated when I heard that the show's ending was a complete and utter clusterfuck. Not gonna lie, the whole time I was waiting for Beatbreak to air, I was thinking "Please let this be good! Please please pleeeease let Beatbreak actually be good for once! Digimon needs a new good anime again!" Thankfully, Beatbreak wound up being exactly that. I was hooked from episode 1 and didn't look back. Yes, THIS is what Digimon fans wanted after so many years of subpar offerings, and while it's not a perfect series, it delivered in the places it mattered!
Far into the future, an energy called "e-pulse" is generated from human thoughts and emotions, used to power specialized AI smart devices called Sapotamas. Sapotamas are so ingrained in society that humans are expected to use them all throughout their lives. 15-year-old Tomoro Tenma couldn't care less and has his own problems to deal with, between being stuck in poverty and his e-pulse glitching any Sapotama he touches other than his own. However, one day, a strange creature called a Digimon pops out from his Sapotama, called Gekkomon. Not long after, Tomoro is pursued by more creatures called Digimon. In the ensuing chaos, his brother Asuka gets attacked by a Digimon and has his e-pulse drained, which causes him to become frozen. From then on, Tomoro's life is turned completely upside down, as not only are Digimon considered problematic glitches by the World Union and therefore meant to be deleted regardless of whether they're dangerous or not, Tomoro is considered a criminal by association. The only way he can escape being pursued by the World Union is by becoming a Cleaner, a World Union backed bounty hunter that's tasked with pursuing Digimon that commit crimes. With nowhere to go, Tomoro finds himself joining Glowing Dawn, a down-on-their-luck Cleaner team led by Kyo Sawashiro, who seems to be well-acquainted with his brother. Tomoro is determined to track down the Digimon that froze his brother...if his own angst and personal demons don't do him in first.
I want to start off by talking about what I feel Beatbreak's biggest strength is: Its setting and worldbuilding. Being a sort of futuristic cyberpunk series, Beatbreak leans HARD into how AI technology that's completely ingrained in society informs its entire world and the people living in it, exploring both the good and the bad aspects of it. Practically everything in Beatbreak revolves around its setting: How Sapotamas birth Digimon, the history behind how Sapotamas came to be, the government wanting to cover up the existence of Digimon, how the bounty hunter system works, and how capitalism and classism are exacerbated with society pushing the usage of AI. Kinda like real life, currently! While I admit it's been a while since I've seen some seasons, especially Tamers and Frontier, I feel that out of all the Digimon series I've seen, Beatbreak manages to make the best use of its setting. If anything, the setting is a character in and of itself, and not just as a timely and very much needed social commentary on our current society and where it's going. The characters have to navigate the world they live in, and how they approach every problem is still informed by the society they have to live under, which makes its themes and messaging actually feel like they have weight and gravitas, especially for something aimed at middle school kids or young teenagers. Beatbreak spares absolutely no effort in utilizing its setting as much as humanly possible, and I think the writers hit a home run on this front.
What makes Beatbreak even better compared to Adventure 2020 and Ghost Game is that unlike both those series, the writers had the sense to plan the series out, ensuring that the plot could effectively fit in a 49 episode run time, and make as much use of the time they have as possible. Beatbreak is divided into six arcs total, with the first arc setting up the characters and the show's foundation, the second arc expanding the scope of the plot, the third one being a laid-back breather, the fourth arc sets up plot points that the last two arcs make full use of, and the final two have everything come together. Because the creators actually bothered to plan the series out and figure out how to approach everything, the series never feels like it's dragging on. Every episode is chock full of cross-references to either past or future events, there's quite a bit of foreshadowing, and most of the time you won't recognize something as foreshadowing until after what they hinted at has already happened. Granted, the series doesn't quite manage to answer all of its underlying questions, especially near the end, and even raises further questions, but I found that they didn't hurt my enjoyment of the show all that much. When you consider that Adventure 2020 put way too much focus on action and sakuga at the expense of all else, and Ghost Game being episodic to the point that it completely ignored any plot points it set up, not to mention its absolute garbage fire of an ending, I'm just happy Beatbreak learned from their mistakes.
Another aspect Beatbreak improved upon compared to Adventure 2020 and Ghost Game is actually having a well-developed cast of characters for once. That said, I am rather mixed on this because Beatbreak's approach to its characters is rather uneven. Some characters get a lot of focus and are wonderfully developed (Tomoro, Kyo, Makoto, Klay, Granit, Hotaruko, Haruomi), while others either don't get as much focus, have parts of their backgrounds unexplored, or are woefully underutilized (Any Five Star who's not Klay, and any girl who's not Maki, Hotaruko, or Miharu). It's hard to maintain a good balance when you're writing for a large ensemble cast, so it stands to reason that some characters won't get to do as much as you want them to, but there are several characters you could have just cut from the story and you'd lose nothing, with Rose's two flunkies being the biggest victims of this. Seriously, they never got to be anything other than living props that never grew beyond their base archetype. Kaito in particular is made out to be super important, then he just disappears for 80% of the series and doesn't become relevant again until the final arc, not to mention he's just another shounen character whose only personality trait is that he wants to defeat Kyo and be stronger than him just because. That said, for as flawed and uneven as Beatbreak's character writing is, this is still an improvement over Adventure 2020 and Ghost Game, which barely bothered to truly develop their characters at all. I still enjoyed following everyone's adventures and was invested in them throughout the series' run, even if I wish more had been done with them. Not to mention it was pretty ballsy of the series to have Tomoro be an unapologetically flawed, angsty teenager who is not happy about his situation and actually has to grow, change, and own up to his own issues, have his views be challenged, and not have it be a clean and pretty process. It's especially notable because these days, it seems like a lot of more casual anime fans want the shows they watch to have instantly perfect, likeable characters who never face any challenges, overcome them easily, or are never challenged on their views and flaws. If characters in a story were perfect and had everything handed to them on a silver platter, there would be no stakes or conflict, therefore no reasons to care about them or invest in them. Even the early Digimon seasons like Adventure and Tamers understood this. Mad respect to Beatbreak for trying to go back to that ethos, even if it didn't manage to stick the landing for half the cast.
Beatbreak's animation is also a noted improvement from Ghost Game. I won't lie, Ghost Game's animation most of the time looked like it was made on a literal budget of shoestring and pocket lint, between flat backgrounds, muted colors, and often coming off very stiff, the evolution sequences notwithstanding. Beatbreak's is much more colorful and dynamic, but also puts just as much care into the backgrounds and setpieces so the world actually feels like it's alive. It does use some CGI here and there, but other than a few conspicuous instances, I never felt like it was too intrusive. I was often surprised by how consistent Beatbreak's animation was throughout its 49 episode run, and any dips in quality were few in number from what I noticed. The soundtrack is also an absolute bop, featuring a variety of versatile pieces fitting the show's cyberpunk leanings. I certainly remember it more than Ghost Game's soundtrack. Not gonna lie, the only things I remember about Ghost Game's soundtrack are First Rider being a great song and Faction being absolutely unbearable for my ears. Sorry to fans who like that song, I just couldn't stand it.
On its own, Digimon Beatbreak is a decent series that manages to be an effective commentary on our current society that's still accessible to children, even if it struggles with a lot of balancing and narrative issues, especially in the final stretch...though that's not much different from the original Digimon Adventure series, now is it? It'd be easy to dismiss Beatbreak as just another generic shounen children's show on its own, but when you have the context of coming after Adventure 2020 and Ghost Game, two Digimon seasons that are riddled with tons of issues, one of which made an absolute mockery of the original Adventure season, Beatbreak is a welcome return to form, and a much needed shot in the arm for the franchise. Watching this series week after week made me feel like a kid again watching Digimon on Fox Kids and Jetix on TV whenever I could. I know for a fact that I would have devoured this season if it had come out when I was younger, but I'm happy I got to experience it as an adult. Verdict: Beatbreak is great, ya know!
Rating: 89/100
(According to both MAL and AniList, this is my 660th completed anime!)
I don't know how exactly I learned about manga, but I know I was fairly young when I did, probably around 2004-2005. I would have been around 11-12 years old. I do remember the very first manga I ever bought: This version of Pokemon Adventures volume 6, where all the artwork was flipped in the American left-to-right format instead of the Japanese right-to-left format. My first unflipped, authentic, right-to-left manga was volume 3 of Tokyo Mew Mew. This was before I learned the concept of Japanese reading right-to-left and that manga followed a continuous story that you had to keep up with across multiple volumes. I was already diving deeper into anime back then, but learning about manga on top of that was a total game changer. From elementary school to college, I had big dreams of going to Japan and becoming a mangaka...though due to family circumstances requiring me to move out of state, going to a school that had no art major or comic classes, struggling through my Japanese language classes, my art skills never improving no matter how hard I tried, and learning about the horrible working conditions mangakas face put a complete stop to that dream. That said, my love for anime and manga never wavered and I continue to collect my favorite series to this very day. Not to mention there's plenty of series about people who work to become manga artists, like Look Back, Bakuman, Kakushigoto, Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun, and so on. I saw two of those and like them, but they didn't quite manage to connect with me on an emotional level. There is one series, however, that did, one that had completely slipped under the radar until I read about it on ANN's Summer 2026 Preview Guide: Draw This Then Die. On a whim, I watched the first episode...and was completely and utterly hooked from then on. Man, dropping Grow Up Show: Sunflower Circus and replacing it with this show was one of the best decisions I ever made.
On the surface, the story seems rather rote: Ai Yasumi is a girl living in the remote island of Izu Oshima, and she's always had a big imagination. One day, while walking home from school, she comes across a book rental shop (Not to be confused with a library. Apparently book rental shops are a thing in Japan and operate differently from libraries) and is drawn to a particular manga: Robota and Pokota by Rei Hoshino. She falls head over heels in love with the book and becomes a regular customer at the store, renting every manga they have, along with renting Robota and Pokota over and over again. Her love for manga never wavers even as she enters high school and has to deal with her stern teacher Rei Teshima, who doesn't have the highest opinion of manga. One night, Ai discovers the author of Robota and Pokota is selling a new book at Comitia and decides to travel all the way to Tokyo to go buy it. While there, she is shocked to learn that the author of her favorite manga is none other than Teshima, her manga-hating teacher! It turns out Teshima had a tumultuous time in the manga industry and would rather that Ai not go down that same path. Too bad Ai and her friends decide to start a manga club and rope Teshima into being their advisor.
Much like Zenshu and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, Draw This Then Die is a story celebrating creativity and what drives someone to pursue the act of creation. In this case, making manga and comics is the main focus, while being careful not to paint it entirely in a rosy light, showing the downsides that come from working in the manga industry, such as publisher expectations, tight deadlines, rejection, creative burnout, and the dilemma of choosing whether to create what you want to create versus creating solely for appealing to a mainstream audience. It's a delicate balance to achieve, especially so in light of the current controversy around generative AI and the animation industry not respecting its creatives, both of which have put animators and creators out of work. Not to mention the manga industry's working conditions have been reported to be so horrible that many creators have developed debilitating health issues as a result. Thankfully, even though Draw This Then Die is a light-hearted comedy first and foremost, it doesn't try to invalidate or downplay the struggles of those who worked in the manga industry, which definitely helps the drama land as effectively as it does. Nor does it try to dissuade the kids from pursuing their passions and at least letting them explore what reading and creating manga means to them. I appreciate that Draw This Then Die highlights the issues that come from working in the manga industry and other avenues creatives can explore.
But you can't have a winning execution of a tired premise without good characters to root for, and thankfully, Draw This Then Die delivers extremely well on this front. While the primary characters themselves don't exactly have the most depth, nor are they the most layered, they do shine in both their relatability and simplicity, and they're pretty easy to care about and root for. I won't lie, I love these dumb kids and want them to succeed in all their endeavors. The only character I admit I'm not entirely sold on is Hikaru, who's okay for the most part, but has a moment at the very end of episode four that is absolutely NOT okay yet is played for laughs when it really shouldn't. Hikaru's kind of the reason why I didn't rate this series higher than the rating I gave it. At least she doesn't feel like a living plot device who exists to make things more convenient for the girls like Kanamori in Eizouken. That said, whether you'll enjoy the series or not will depend on how much you can tolerate Teshima. In the first episode, she starts out being the kind of jaded, cynical, unnecessarily mean teacher who is guaranteed to be the bane of every neurodivergent child's existence, trying to dictate how Yasumi spends her time outside of school and even take her property for a fairly minor infraction. Granted, she does mellow out over the course of the series, and half the show is exploring her history behind why she struggled so much in the manga industry, which informs how she advises the girls in their own pursuits. I do appreciate that the series does go through the effort to develop and humanize her, allowing her to learn from her mistakes and grow, rather than just reducing her to a generic antagonist the kids have to deal with.
So between its mostly excellent character writing, dynamic animation that really brings the series to life, and a cute soundtrack that helps to sell the show's tone when necessary, Draw This Then Die should be a total slam dunk, right? Well...not necessarily. There are some things that it fumbles on, though those moments are fairly small and don't necessarily hurt the show's overall quality. For one, I feel Kokoro's issues with her mother got resolved way too easily and that more could have been done with it rather than just having her change her mind just because Kokoro made a manga. Second, there's one minor character from Teshima's past who comes dangerously close to being an unflattering fat person stereotype, since we know nothing about her other than that her name is Poteko (Seriously, who names their kid that?!) and that she's always eating. Japan, when are you ever gonna stop with this? Well, considering a second season was just announced, maybe we'll learn more about her there. I already mentioned my issues with Hikaru, so I don't think that bears repeating. Thirdly, I admit I'm not a huge fan of the ending theme song. It's a bit too shrill for my tastes, but I know that's more of a me issue than anything. That's pretty much it as far as the show's issues go.
Man, if this anime had come out when I was a child, it probably would have easily dethroned Shounen Onmyouji as my favorite anime of all time. Because of the issues I mentioned above, it didn't quite crack my top ten, but boy did it come close. That said, Draw This Then Die made me feel like a kid discovering anime for the first time all over again. It's such a delightful series that absolutely deserves more eyes on it, and it certainly won my heart for sure. The fact that there's a second season coming and the manga is now coming out in English means I'll have more opportunities to chow down! I wanna see more of these dumb kids, and I'll keep shouting this show's praises to the world! Also, hey Netflix or Crunchyroll, I know there's an English dub of the show locked to Asia, can you bring it to the US sometime soon? It's a pretty damn good dub all things considered.
Rating: 41/100
Man, you have no idea how much I wanted to enjoy this show. Look, historical fiction has always been one of my personal favorite anime genres. So many of my favorite anime of all time are historical fiction stories, whether they be adaptations of Western children's books or manga/light novels. Sparks of Tomorrow's premise alone sounded really interesting to me, and with this being a KyoAni project finally seeing the light of day after that awful arson attack, why wouldn't I want it and the staff behind it to succeed? I'll repeat this until the day I die, I NEVER go into something wanting to hate it. I really wanted to enjoy Sparks of Tomorrow, as it has all the ingredients for what could have been something good. Not perfect, but fairly nice if it played its cards right. However, in light of reading an in-progress fan translation of the novel, learning more about KyoAni's adaptational decisions when it comes to stuff they own, and seeing just how much was changed from the source to the show...I can't lie to myself. As happy as I am that KyoAni is back in action after the awful arson attack, Sparks of Tomorrow is not just a mediocre show on its own, but pretty much the amalgamation of everything bad about KyoAni's recent modus operandi since probably Love, Chuunibyou, and Other Delusions.
Taking place in an alternate Meiji Era where electricity hasn't caught on and steam still rules the roost, the series centers on two 15-year-old teenagers, Kihachi Sakamoto and Inako Momokawa. Inako is a girl who can't seem to do anything right no matter how hard she tries. Her perpetual clumsiness has caused non-stop problems and resulted in many a scolding from her strict father. Her only relief is praying to the Gods at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. On one such pilgrimage, she runs into Kihachi, who not only doesn't believe in Gods, but is an aspiring inventor who hopes to fulfill his older brother Seiroku's dream of bringing in the age of electricity. Long ago, both he and Kihachi made a book called the 20th Century Electrical Catalog, filled with all their ideas for potential inventions. Seiroku had taken it with him when he was sent off to fight in the Russo-Japanese War, but his whereabouts remain unknown. Not long after their encounter, Inako receives terrible news: In exchange for ensuring her family's sake brewery doesn't be forced into bankrupcy, her father has arranged for her to be married off to Yosuke Mizoe, the wealthiest man in town. Yosuke is also looking for the Electrical Catalog for his own reasons, and he's determined to get his hands on it no matter the cost. It's up to Inako, Kihachi, and their friends to both ensure the engagement doesn't go through, and to find this Electrical Catalog and unlock its secrets.
I'm not going to mince words here: If there's any anime that embodies the phrase "style over substance", Sparks of Tomorrow is it. But in the interest of not wanting to start off completely on a negative note, I want to get the positives out of the way. Yes, the animation looks stunning. That's one thing I'll never knock KyoAni for. They go all out with their animation, both in the backgrounds, the set design, the character motion, the aesthetics, and so on. One thing I admittedly like is how the anime chooses to depict what goes on in Kihachi's mind, such as how his idea of what the world with electricity looks like is depicted in a paper cut out puppet theater style. That's a great way to show what a character's inner world can be like, and there's a lot you can do with that. I also like how in the first half of the show, the visuals for the opening theme are not only different for each episode, but used as ways to explore a character's backstory. That's a great idea! It's an interesting way to show a character's background without going to deep into needless exposition or melodrama and in a way that lets the visuals tell the story on their own. The soundtrack is pretty nice as well, even if its not all that memorable and I admit I'm not a fan of the ending theme, as it's a bit too hard rock for my tastes.
Not to mention the voice actors in the show across both languages are trying so hard to make this material sound more important than it actually is. I really want to give praise to the English dub as that's definitely one that spared no effort. I legitimately never heard of Hunter McCoy before this, but now I want to hear him in more stuff, and after having initially been put off by Audrey Hsieh's performance as Suzu in Medalist, both this and Ai from Draw This Then Die changed my opinion on her. I really hope she'll be allowed to play to her strengths in future dubs, though she could stand to be less shrill when she voices small children. And damn, for as much as a terrible character as Yosuke is, Paul Castro Jr absolutely understood the assignment and managed to sell me on his performance as the hammy, theatrical, petulant villain that you want to see get completely demolished. Honestly, he probably did the character more of a service than even the show itself did.
And...that's it. That's all the praise I can truly muster for this show. Because good lord, the writing in this show feels like none of the staff have ever attended a single writing class in their entire life. It's like the show's staff put all their hard work into the animation and completely neglected everything else in the process. For one thing, the characters either never seem to really change much or when they do, it's because the plot demands it. Motivations and allegiances change on a dime, often for little to no reason, and some characters only exist to just be plot devices to either move the story forward or in Suzu's case, pull something out of their ass just to make things more convenient for the heroes. The most egregious example of the former is Kengo Kuga. He's supposed to be this battle-hardened war veteran with PTSD who really wants to tell Noriko he loves her, but for the first half of the series, he mainly spends his time either chasing people because someone told him to or randomly hulking out like some X-Men villain, often with no real reason for him to do so. It's like the show has no idea what to do with him, and like I mentioned, he's often switching sides because the plot demands he do so. At least in the novel, he has a legitimate reason for going after the two leads! There'll also be times when characters will start off one way and then suddenly change for no real reason. Jinemon starts out as an abusive jackass who looks down on Inako and wants to marry her off to Yosuke, but later on he suddenly changes his tune when everything's all over, with no reason given as to why or how it happened. Whatever character development some people do get, it never feels earned because it either comes out of nowhere, is something the audience already knew or could see coming, or the methods getting there make absolutely no logical sense. I don't think I even need to get into the fact that Yosuke is not only a terrible villain, but pretty much every single offensive gay stereotype made manifest.
All of this isn't even getting to just how bad the actual writing for the plot is! The show never seems to have its priorities straight most of the time, which is especially prevalent in the early episodes, mainly because rather than take the time to explore its characters and flesh them out, the show would rather start out with bad episodic vignettes involving Kihachi making a machine of the week to solve some problem. Most of the time this involves shoehorning in bad comedy that completely clashes with the show's tone and just drags the episode out for no real reason. Like...did we really need an episode involving a college guy lusting over a teenage girl shouting "LIEBE!" at the top of his lungs all the time? Did we really need a whole sequence where Inako and a bereaved widow go through this overlong, over-the-top running sequence straight out of Looney Tunes? Did we really need an elaborate cartoon chase scene that ends with a random baby smelling Kengo's visible shoe odor? Did we really need an entire episode dedicated to the girls making up their own rock band, which anybody with half a brain can see is just there to pander to the K-On fans and literally serves no other purpose? Do we really need constant shots of Yosuke's ass and the seams of his underwear showing through his pants every single time he appears on screen (I'm not even exaggerating about this. They do this even in his character reference art!)? It's the same problem that shows like Elusive Samurai have: The show doesn't trust that the story or characters can create compelling drama on their own, and feels the need to just randomly shove in unneeded slapstick comedy even when it's completely inappropriate for them to do so. Like, I'm pretty sure even my high school writing teachers can tell you that writing a story about a group of teenagers helping a woman and her family deal with the loss of the patriarch won't benefit from having Looney Tunes style spin sequences where an adult man is shouting "MOMMY!" constantly because it would clash too much with the tone! Not to mention I honestly have to question why they even felt the need to make the story into some alternate Meiji era-verse to begin with. It feels like they only did this so they can have an excuse to throw in technology that wouldn't become possible for several decades, and when you continue to have stuff like teenage girls being put into arranged marriages and still adhere to the customs of that time period, why not just keep it in the regular Meiji era to begin with?!
On its own, all of this is already bad enough, but do you want to know what makes everything about Sparks of Tomorrow even worse? None of what happens in the anime is in the novel at all. A Tumblr user going by the username Thefinalcinderella took it upon themselves to translate the novel. I've been reading it...and I was utterly shocked by how different it was compared to the anime. And you know what? The novel is better in literally every way. Everything I mentioned the anime did completely wrong, the novel managed to do properly. All the characters are given their time in the limelight and actually develop, their actions make sense even if you don't like the decisions they make, the plot is much more coherent and streamlined, there's no constant slapstick comedy shoved in every other scene, and it actually understands its own themes. From what I've heard, from the 2010s onward, KyoAni's adaptations of existing source material haven't been the most faithful, as they've gone on record saying they prefer to use it as inspiration and do their own takes on it rather than simply recreate them in anime form. While this has worked for some stuff they've worked on, this absolutely did NOT work for Sparks of Tomorrow, and in my opinion, they utterly botched it by changing it into something completely unrecognizable. Characters' personalities, backstories, and motivations were either left out or completely changed (With Yosuke being the biggest victim of this. Seriously, his novel counterpart makes for a MUCH better villain and he's not the buffoonish gay stereotype the anime turns him into), lots of unnecessary new characters and subplots were added to the anime, and even the overall plot was bloated to the point of absurdity.
I almost question why KyoAni felt the need to do all this when just faithfully adapting the novel's plot wholesale would have been better, especially since the novel on its own is perfectly fine! It's a straight forward historical fiction adventure romance that's pretty down-to-earth, all things considered. It's no masterpiece and not winning any awards for originality, but it manages to execute its premise decently enough and is perfectly endearing for what it is. It's especially infuriating because had KyoAni bothered to adapt the characters' backstories and motivations from the novel, they would have made much more sense and made them feel more like characters and less like living props who only act when the plot demands it. It's like KyoAni thought the novel was terrible on its own and felt they could do it better by adding all this unnecessary stuff to it. Man, no wonder the whole show feels like a bunch of ideas haphazardly stapled together and written by a high schooler discovering fan fiction for the first time. Oh, and if you think I'm the only one who doesn't like how the anime approached adapting the novel, I've got news for you: Hiro Yuuki, the author of the novel himself, has tweeted that he doesn't like the anime. Granted, the tweets got deleted, probably due to KyoAni demanding he delete them, but someone on MAL managed to preserve them for public viewing. Creators not liking how a company adapts their work to other mediums is nothing new, as there have been plenty over the years, but I think in this case, Yuuki-san is completely and utterly justified.
But even with the baggage of just being a completely botched adaptation of the novel, taken on its own merits, of which there are very few, Sparks of Tomorrow is a bloated, convoluted, overambitious mess of a series whose staff were just too immature and inexperienced to handle something like this. Seriously, KyoAni needs to hire better writers. They've already refined their animation game, but I think it's time for them to focus on other things. All the ambition in the world won't mean a damn thing if it's ever going to hit a brick wall like it did here. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad KyoAni is back to working after the arson attack. No one deserves to go through something like that, and I want KyoAni to succeed. But this doesn't mean they're immune to criticism, and I think Sparks of Tomorrow is the perfect example of how their recent modus operandi of completely changing everything from the source material can fall flat on its face when not handled or approached properly. When that Tumblr user finishes translating the novel, expect a review of that in the future, because I'll be a LOT more complimentary with that one, if only because it's just better in every concievable way.
Miyu Has A Cover Now?!
Sep. 14th, 2026 06:30 pmAfter all this time, the Vampire Princess Miyu blu-ray finally has a cover that got approved?! Oh wow. I and everyone else thought for sure that this would never happen and that we'd get the blank white cover. Wow, this was an...insane licensing saga. Glad it finally has a nice cover, it's just a shame there had to be so much nonsense just for it to finally get one. Not to mention the license expires some time in spring, so this is gonna be the last official release of Miyu for the foreseeable future.
Rating: 85/100
Man, the summer of 2026 has been a banger year for anime, probably one of the best seasons of it in years. Between a slew of original anime, stellar adaptations of existing manga and novels, and just the sheer variety of different genres and demographics being explored, I honestly can't think of any anime season that's been this stacked since...I think sometime in 2011. I know one of the most anticipated was a little unassuming josei adaptation called Jaadugar: A Witch In Mongolia, directed by Naoko Yamada and animated by Science Saru. I have only vague knowledge of the manga it's based on, A Witch's Life In Mongol by Tomato Soup, but even without that, I have a question for you: What anime, or even any storytelling medium at all, can you think of that's set in the Mongol Empire as ruled by Genghis Khan? That alone set Jaadugar apart from all its contemporaries, as the Middle East is very rarely a setting explored by most storytelling mediums, much less in a respectful manner, and based on stories and interviews I've read about Naoko Yamada and her team actually traveling to the Middle East to do research on its culture and history, Jaadugar has set a pretty high bar on how to do it. I wholeheartedly agree, though saying Jaadugar is only good because of how well it depicts its setting and how well-researched it is is still doing it a bit of a disservice, as it has far more to offer than just being a well-animated history lesson.
In the early 13th century, knowledge and wisdom are as valuable as riches and gold. In the city of Tus in Persia, a young girl, Sitara, is sold as a slave to a family of scholars. Although she initially tried to run away, they taught her the importance of knowledge, and she ended up working and studying in their home. After the heir to the family leaves for Nishapur to further his studies, the Mongols invaded Tus. Everyone Sitara knew and grew to care for was slaughtered, and in the ensuing chaos, she was captured by Tolui's army. After being taken to Mongolia, she takes on the name Fatima and begins to plot her revenge on the Mongols. In doing so, she finds herself in the employ of Toregene, the sixth wife of new Mongol emperor Ogedei, who absolutely hates him because of what he did to her tribe. They bond over their shared suffering and decide to work together to bring the Mongol empire to its knees, by any means necessary.
Now, in order to fully explain my feelings on Jaadugar and the things I feel it both succeeded and struggled with, I have to compare it to another anime Yamada-san and Science Saru worked on, The Heike Story, because if you really think about it, both stories are fairly similar in premise, focusing on young girls who lost their families in turbulent times and are drawn into the ensuing political disputes and fallout, even if their approaches are significantly different. Obviously, the setting is the big standout here, not just from how its animated and depicted, but how it forms the basis of the entire plot. Backgrounds are depicted with impressionist, painterly splendor, every frame being a work of art in and of itself, and the finer details like clothing, tapestries, book covers, tent thresholds, and Islamic rituals are recreated and treated with reverence, bringing Jaadugar's world to life. True to Science Saru's ethos, realism doesn't have to mean drab, colorless, or devoid of wonder, with the aforementioned rituals, afterlife visions, and philosophical framing being elevated with picturesque, storybook-like scenes that are a feast for the eyes and imagination. Of course, Yamada-san's favored directorial techniques are used to great effect here, and I honestly can't say anything else about them that hasn't been said by others already, other than that she's really managed to refine them to a fine point since her first outings, and her years of experience really show here.
But it's not enough to make a place look pretty, but to show what life is like on said setting and truly make it feel lived in. Yamada-san and the team at Science Saru spared absolutely no effort. They went all out in studying Persian and Mongol history and culture of 800 years ago in order to depict it as faithfully and respectfully as possible, both the good and bad aspects of it, and they didn't waste a single detail or take anything for granted. Everything, from how the entrances to the Mongol tents always face south, to the differing views and methods on how Muslims and Mongols slaughter animals for food is similarly treated with reverence for their respective cultures, religions, and ideologies. Being historical fiction, Yamada-san knew that the series' setting was tantamount to everything, recognizing the value in depicting it as is, with all of both its good parts and bad parts (Depictions and views on slavery included, which I'm well aware is a contentious topic nowadays thanks to all the bad isekai light novels using it so flippantly), as doing otherwise and trying to sanitize or water it down for the sake of making it palatable for a modern audience would not only be disingenuous, but no better than whitewashing history. Granted, I'm not Muslim myself, so I can't exactly comment on how accurate Jaadugar's depiction of Islamic culture is from that standpoint, and it wouldn't be my place to do so anyway, but again, the fact that Yamada-san and the people at Science Saru went to visit Persia and put in the effort to immerse themselves into the culture to study how to depict it here tells you that they wanted to do this right.
Jaadugar already set the bar pretty high in its depictions of Islamic and Mongol culture, but the series has way more to offer than just that. Much like Heike Story before it, Jaadugar boasts a large cast of characters with clashing ideologies, agendas, cultures, and religions, all with their own different reasons for making the choices they make, and their motives are never black-and-white. Because Heike Story was made to tell a decades-long epic in just eleven episodes, it had to speed run through important plotlines and character beats, never being allowed time to truly let them breathe and allow important emotional moments to leave an impact. With Jaadugar being an ongoing manga, Science Saru learned from their past mistakes with Heike Story and only made sure to adapt the story up to a certain point, so while the pacing still moves rather briskly and does have several time skips to keep track of, it's able to juggle its characters, pacing, and ongoing narrative much better, so it never feels like you missed something important if you looked away from the TV for a fraction of a second. Characters feel much more fleshed out, it's easier to actually keep track of what's going on and who's who, important moments are actually treated with the appropriate level of weight and gravitas in ways that actually stick, and it feels nowhere near as rushed or compressed as Heike Story did. Sitara is also more proactive and entrenched in the story's narrative than Biwa was in Heike Story, and the show sells her growth from a distraught girl who lost everything to a woman trying hard to navigate a system that she's trapped in, while still managing to keep her from being completely infallible.
If this were any regular story, heroes and villains would be much more clear-cut, but Jaadugar isn't interested in your typical hero defeats the villains story. Actually, Jaadugar has my respect for one particular aspect it does amazingly well: Writing and humanizing its villains. Yes, there's no denying that the Mongols were colonizers who razed whole cities to rubble and committed genocide against different tribes and races in the name of expanding its empire, but Jaadugar is smart enough to not just reduce them to just generic evil Saturday morning cartoon villains. Part of this is because Jaadugar explains the logistics behind how forming an empire the way they do actually works, like establishing trade routes, showing them preparing for inclement weather before a battle, how characters who are experienced hunters use hunting methodology to entrap a whole city and kill everyone in it, not just through mass carnage but through food deprivation and isolation. The series recognizes that the Mongols destroyed everything Sitara and Toregene loved and cared for, but it goes out of its way to humanize characters like Tolui, Ogedei, Sorgaghtani, and Boraqchin, and remind us that these people are human, who love their families, care for each other, and have dreams they want to fulfill, and aren't just cackling supervillains who set everything aflame just for funsies, even if they're either ignorant of what's going on or believe that their atrocities can be forgiven when they make the empire into what they want it to be. The Mongols are smart people who think they're doing the ones whose lives they've ruined a service, and isn't that more compelling than just "Muahaha, I'm going to destroy the world because I'm evil!"?
For all that I praise Jaadugar though, there are some things it does struggle with. While it is better about how it uses its time skips compared to Heike Story, they do still happen rather frequently, and if you're not paying attention, it'll be hard to keep track of how much time has passed and how old the characters are. Sitara starts off as a child, and ends this season as a young adult, but I lost track of how old she's supposed to be after the first three time skips. Also, despite so much time passing, it never looks like the characters' appearances change all that much, with only subtle indications showing that time has passed, like in Sitara's case, how tall she's gotten or the shape of her eyes. It's better than her still looking like a kid even after 20 or so years have passed. There's also one bit in the final episode, I found, that just makes no sense to me, where a character insists on telling Sitara what Ogedei is telling her (While Ogedei is literally right there and right in front of her) when he has no reason to do so beyond "Don't talk to a commoner, my lord!" I did find out that this is because the anime left out an instance of there being a language barrier between Sitara and Ogedei, which is weird because they were totally fine with showing Tolui and other characters speaking Mongolian in the first three episodes. Also, this is a minor thing, but does anyone else think the bit in the opening where Sitara opens her eyes and they just pop out into the camera before the titlecard is a bit of a jump scare? Because it kinda freaks me out whenever I watch it.
Jaadugar as an anime does have another significant flaw holding it back: Due to its nature of being a manga adaptation limited to only having 12 episodes to tell its story, similarly to Witch Hat Atelier and Skip & Loafer as of right now, it's only able to cover the beginning of the series, and therefore, isn't truly finished. The first season only offers a taste of the story to come, so the meat of Sitara and Toregene's quest has only just gotten under way. There's currently no information on whether it'll get a second season, and I have heard that the manga isn't too far along and is on hiatus for unspecified reasons. But even season one, as unfinished as it feels, is a pretty damn fantastic show that absolutely knows what it is and stands far above so much of what's churned out these days, reminding me of why I love the medium of anime so much. Jaadugar as a story that absolutely needed to be told by people who not only knew what they were doing, but were willing to put in the effort to treat it with the respect it deserves and do their due diligence, which is way more than I can say about...other stuff I really like. Looking at you, Studio DEEN and your upcoming anime adaptation of From Far Away.
RIP Mike McFarland
Sep. 11th, 2026 06:31 pmDamn. Yesterday, Mike McFarland, a famous voice actor and ADR director who started at FUNimation way back when it was first founded, died from a glioblastoma, a very aggressive type of brain cancer. It really cannot be understated just how involved Mike was in dubbing anime for the Western market. Many iconic dubs wouldn't exist without him and the effort he and his colleagues put in to make them great. You know he was a beloved talent when even companies like Toei, Crunchyroll, and Hidive have made posts dedicated to him after his passing, that's how revered he is. I'm not as familiar with his more famous works, but I loved the characters and performances I did hear.
Rest in peace, king.
Rest in peace, king.
Apothecary Diaries Game?!
Sep. 9th, 2026 06:32 pmSo...that Nintendo Direct. It was kinda meh, and only three things interested me from it. That new Kirby game looks cool, and that Eternal Anima game looks somewhat interesting, but who knows? The only thing that actually got a reaction out of me other than indifference and boredom was...an Apothecary Diaries game?! No joke, as soon as that clip appeared in the sizzle reel, I legit shouted "WHAT?!" out loud. Out of all the games announced in this Direct, that one is the only one I'm actually excited about. The fact it's coming to Switch 1 as well means it'll likely be available on a cartridge and the Switch 2 will be a Game Key Card. I think you all know where I stand on that one.
Wish we could have gotten more news about stuff like Kyoto Xanadu, Rune Factory 6, or even the rumored Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Switch ports. Maybe there'll be a Pokemon Presents coming later for the latter. Oh well.
Nintendo Direct Next Week!
Sep. 4th, 2026 06:34 pmNintendo just announced two Directs for next week: A Zelda Direct on September 8th, which I'm not interested in, and a regular Direct on the 9th. Apparently it's only going to focus on Switch 2 games, but considering Switch 1 games are still being made, who knows what's going to happen. Looking forward to it regardless.
Man, first my boss leaves (Through her own choice and for a good reason I wish her well in), and now the company I work for fires another coworker I was close to for the purpose of "doing more things with less people" which is total bullshit! He worked his ass off for 11 years to make sure people like me could work there, and this is the thanks he gets for it?! Just awful. I feel so bad for him.
New Car! + Old Car Repaired!
Aug. 26th, 2026 07:20 amWell, this is quite the one-two punch. My dad finally got the new car that he leased, and at the same time, his old car finished getting repaired and we got it back. Though he is planning on selling the old car, as he doesn't want to constantly take it to the repair shop anymore. Fair enough.
Discover/Capital One Merger Today
Aug. 23rd, 2026 06:39 pmMan, I really hope this Discover/Capital One merger doesn't somehow screw up the transfer of my savings. I worked way too hard to save everything I have, and if any cent of it gets lost somehow, I am not going to take it lying down.
