Category: Essays
-
Next Fest: October 2023
It’s that magical week once again as the floodgates are opened on Steam and we all are collectively drowned in a torrent of demos. Despite the number of games that are already out which I haven’t had time to play, I find it impossible to resist the siren call of seeing what’s on the horizon.…
-
Boy’s Abyss – Tragicomedy
Content Warning: Domestic abuse, suicide, bullying Boy’s Abyss by Ryo Minenami is a manga that fascinates me with how far what it wants to be is separated from what it actually is. Minenami is clearly trying to craft a serious narrative with high stakes and drama about very dark subject matter, but the execution is…
-
A Revolving Library: Why I Sell Most Manga
Do you know what Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, Tsutomu Nihei’s Blame!, and Yuu Someya’s Pleasure and Corruption all have in common? They are all manga that I purchased volume-by-volume, then sold as a collection once I finished reading them. It wasn’t because I didn’t like them, Monster is great and Blame! is still Nihei’s best work,…
-
Looking Back on WSJ – 2022
I just want you to know that the entire reason this article exists is because I was getting very annoyed trying to find the answer to a simple question. All I wanted to know is what series started in Weekly Shounen Jump in 2022, and it was a whole thing trying to find that. I…
-
AI and NFTs Will Not Save Anime
You know, things had been going pretty well for me this week. I just finished Kirby’s Return Dream Land Deluxe, the second Wo Long demo was super fun, and I even managed to get ahead of schedule on some manga I was sent to review. With that all done I was finally going to get…
-
The 3 Episode Rule: I Wish You Would Die
I have a mental exercise that I would like you to participate in. Imagine that you are talking to one of your friends (if you don’t have friends imagine that you do) about an anime that you’ve recently dropped. You’ve spent the last few minutes listing your grievances and summarizing to them why you don’t…
-
Evil West – The Dissonance of Traversal
Evil West was a game that I had been looking forward to since stumbling across its gameplay trailer at the tail end of June. The promise of a high-octane third person shooter with a robust melee system was all I needed to add it to my Steam wishlist. Having now finished the game I can…
-
Images That Haunt Me: Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter
I have, conservatively, written this essay no less than 30 times. Who knows how many re-writes the version you are now reading has gone through before I published it. I stopped counting a few days ago. Yet I am compelled to write this because the only cure for a haunting is an exorcism. This essay…
-
Bayonetta 3 – A Triumphant Let-Down
October 28th, 2022 was a miraculous day. After so many years of waiting, speculating cancellation, and periods of total silence from Platinum Games, Bayonetta 3 was finally released. I was beside myself with anticipation, furiously refreshing my eShop connection to open the game when it wasn’t available at exactly 12:00am ET. I had taken time…