Project Raildex – Worth a Watch for Modern Fans?

Mostly, I Just Wanted to Watch it

When it comes to what I choose to cover here on this website it’s easy to see that there are a few patterns for what I’m partial for. Among these are big retrospective pieces on large franchises, making today’s topic of conversation in the Index, Railgun and Accelerator series long overdue. In fact, I’ve wanted to cover this franchise for several years but always found excuses in watching other programs. Since my Funimation subscription was about to end, this made for an ideal last hurrah for that platform as Crunchyroll didn’t have the full series dubbed (for some reason). With this all out of the way, let’s get on with the main event:  is this franchise worth watching?

9 μ’sings about Love Live! School Idol Project

Finally, I Watched Love Live!

I’ve actually been quite interested in watching Love Live! School Idol Project for some time now. Unfortunately, the series only had the second season of the first series available for several years. That is, until recently when Funimation (now Crunchyroll) got the streaming rights to the first season. While it’s true I could have started with future entries, I wanted to start from the beginning and make my way slowly through the franchise as I’ve been doing with Fate and others. Today I’ll be sharing 9 thoughts, or “μ’sings” if you will, about my experience with Love Live! so far.

Anime Fans & Children’s Media – A Look at Muteking the Dancing Hero

Uso’s Getting his Money’s Worth!

Well, in a figurative sense at least. Before we begin, today’s article is sponsored by Uso, or as you may know him on Twitter as @obamasnowToo. Having won the New Year’s AMQ special event, I awarded him my $15 Patreon tier where you can suggest just about anything for me to take a look at and cover in some capacity. In keeping with the New Year spirit, he gave me a few suggestions from the 2021 anime lineup to choose from and I ended up selecting Muteking the Dancing Hero. He knows that I’m a fan of Tribe Cool Crew and Brave Beats, so this was something I had some interest in anyway, but thanks to him I had a nice excuse to watch the whole show. With all this preamble out of the way, today I want to talk about anime fans and children’s media, why so many fans seem drawn to it, and what exactly it can bring to the table while looking at this Muteking reboot along the way.

Fruits Basket – Old or New?

Did Fruits Basket get the FMA Treatment?

Awhile back I watched the original 2001 version of Fruits Basket which is a slightly dated, partial adaptation of the source material of the same name. I enjoyed it, but didn’t have enough to say to write a full piece. Now I’ve had the chance to watch through the first season of the 2019 version, and it begs the question:  Did this receive the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood treatment? By which I mean, is the old one worth watching, and by extension, do you need to watch the first season of the new one afterwards? Today I aim to answer these questions and walk you through exactly what’s been improved upon, and what hasn’t.

Found in Translation – A Discussion on Accessibility in Media

We’ve ALL Heard the Sub VS Dub Debate…

When it comes to anime, the conversation surrounding accessibility in the community is a weirdly contentious one. I don’t just mean the usual sub VS dub debate either, as the conversation goes well outside that but for several reasons, supposed “fans” of the medium are quick to dismiss these ideas all too often. The weird thing though, it’s not really an issue in live-action media. That’s why I’d like to take a moment to talk about two recent things I watched:  Amazon Prime’s Cinderella and Netflix’s Squid Game. What do these two experiences have in common when it comes to accessibility, and why anime licensors and distributors should be taking a page from their books? Well, you’ll have to read on to find that one out.

Samurai Flamenco – Technically Perfect, Ultimately Lacking

Everything’s Here But…

While watching Samurai Flamenco I couldn’t help but notice the show shares a flaw with it’s prominent theme. The main character, Hazama, struggles with his sense of identity in his pursuit of justice. In the same way, the show struggles to tow the line between genre parody and its more serious narrative elements. So would I recommend this one? Yeah, but it comes with a pretty big caveat. Let me explain.

Worst in Season – Spring 2021

Still Too Much Anime!

Alright, the Spring 2021 season was stacked, and after taking a closer look, I realized I watched a pretty big chunk of the shows. Rather than do a bunch of individual reviews, I thought it’d be fun to do a best and worst of list featuring five shows for their respective categories. Today I’m looking at the shows that left a bad taste in my mouth or otherwise missed their mark, along with why I thought this was the case. You’ll likely disagree with some of these, and if you do, that’s fine! I’m glad some folks enjoyed some of these shows, even if I don’t agree. Of course, just like last time, let me know what would have made your list in the comments below.

Best in Season – Spring 2021

Too Much Anime!

Alright, the Spring 2021 season was stacked, and after taking a closer look, I realized I watched a pretty big chunk of the shows. Rather than do a bunch of individual reviews, I thought it’d be fun to do a best and worst of list featuring five shows for their respective categories. Today I’m looking at the cream of the crop, along with why I thought they were great. Keep in mind some stuff I didn’t watch on purpose (looking at you Fruits Basket finale) or it just may not have interested me, so if your favorite show is missing that’s likely why. Let me know at the end of the article what would have made your list.

#Anitwitwatches Season 13 – Astra Lost in Space & Announcement

Welcome to the Thirteenth #Anitwitwatches!

It was a longer one, but From the New World was certainly a pretty great watch the second time around for me. Based on the conversations, I’m pretty sure most of you had fun with it as well! However, it’s now time to say goodbye to that show and bring on our next one which will be Astra Lost in Space, a more recent title I reviewed back in 2019. Personally, I found this to be the right kind of sci-fi story the anime community hadn’t had in a long time. So strap in for some twists and turns as we welcome you to Season 13 of #Anitwitwatches!

Below you’ll find information on what the watch is as well as the schedule for the thirteenth season of #anitwitwatches. Thank you to everybody who has participated in the past and all of you who will be joining for the first time with this series!

What is #Anitwitwatches?

This is a weekly community event meant to bring folks together to revisit old favorites and discover new shows. It’s meant to be something you can get as involved in as you want, there is no pressure to participate every week or every watch, but we’d love to have you to share in the experience and discuss the shows we are watching all the same!

I was inspired to do this after seeing the “rewatches” that people do over at Reddit in the r/anime sub. Since I interact with a lot of you guys on Twitter, I thought it would be the perfect place to do something similar! That said, even if you do not have a Twitter you can still join in by posting any content via WordPress, YouTube, or whatever suits your fancy. If you do, be sure to send me an email at jonspencerreviews@gmail.com so I can share your wonderful creations!

For everyone else, simply watch the episodes for the week based on the schedule below. Make sure to use the hashtag, #anitwitwatches when you do, and that’s it! Discuss with the other folks participating, create content, and generally just have a fun time!

This next show was chosen based on YOUR votes, so let’s get to the watch schedule.

Astra Lost in Space Schedule

We will only be taking our usual one week break for this one, so the show begins later this June. Be sure to save the schedule so you can stay up to date with all the conversation.

If you have not done so, you can see where you can watch Astra Lost in Space for free, and legally, by using reelgood.com. Unfortunately, I cannot realistically check all regions but I aimed to make this as accessible as possible. That said, I won’t stop you from doing what you need to in order to participate. The more the merrier!

Here are the dates (all Mondays) and the episodes for each:

That’ll make this watch 8 weeks long. I hope you’re excited to watch this one and I look forward to all the excellent discussion!

Solty Rei – Gonzo Does Father-Daughter? Sign Me Up!

Cool Creative Combo

It hasn’t even been a month and I’m already back with another father-daughter review in Solty Rei. During one of our weekly Anime Music Quiz games, the opening for this show played and several players brought the absence of this title on my list to my attention. A Gonzo show? A father-daughter show? Well, sounds like a gross oversight on my part. So now that the meme is out of the way, just how exactly does Solty Rei stack up?