What is Anime?

Let’s start out by talking about what anime is. Anime is a Japanese style of animation that is extremely popular over there. Think kind of how classic Disney has a certain style, so you can tell when something is a classic Disney film. When you see something that is anime, it generally has a somewhat unique style.

I think the best way to talk about anime is to give examples. The best known anime is probably Pokemon or Dragonball Z. These have specific looks to them and a lot of it is setting up for fighting and then fighting. Now, you might think that anime then equates to a kids cartoon. That isn’t really the case, though. There are a lot of anime that delay with much more mature themes. A lot of them fall more into the adult animated or at least teen category. Think something that’d be on Adult Swim, they do have an anime block, but often less goofy.

So, what are some hallmarks of anime. The first is over the top plots. Chasing down magical dragonballs to then get a wish, that’s pretty normal for anime. You might have mechs fighting giant kaiju or an anime about the worlds best cooking school and the craziness that happens there. But it can be over the top in a much more serious way. Stiens;Gate is an anime about time travel that doesn’t pull it’s punches.

What Do I Look For In An Anime?

This is a bit more like my campaign game one. I look at a lot of factors but I’ll care less about certain factors if others are good. I will spoil my first one is going to be plot. If the plot is amazing, I can put up with a lot of other things.

1. Plot
2. Amount of Filler
3. Quality of Dub
4. Amount of Fan Service
5. Animation Style

Plot

Like I said, plot is always going to be the first thing that I look at. Why, because there are a lot of anime with similar plots. I don’t mind at all if an anime has a goofy plot, but I want it to be interesting. Some of my favorite anime, the likes of Stiens;Gate and Cowboy Bebop are quite serious. Others, like Food Wars and Assassination Classroom are not nearly as serious.

Amount of Filler

So this is a term that I’ll define quickly. Filler is basically anime episodes that are used to pad out the length of anime either because they have caught up to the manga it is based off of, or to get more episodes into a season. Basically, episodes that don’t have anything to do with the main plot and are added in there to fill out the out the amount of content. Clearly, I don’t want a ton of those.

There are some anime, Bleach being an example, where around half the episodes in the whole series are filler. Oddly enough that’s better than the anime where 20% are filler. Why, because when half are filler it’s easier to skip those large chunks. When it’s less you might have every third episode is filler and that’s hard to skip them when you don’t know if it’s filler or not.

Quality of Dub

Now, this one some anime fans will say is sacrilege. Anime should be watched in Japanese with subtitles according to them. And some anime are definitely better that way. In fact, ones with poor quality dubs into English or another language, do watch with subtitles. But I sometimes want it on to only half watch. If I half watch with subtitles I miss most of what happens in the anime. So having a quality dub in terms of the voice acting is very important.

Amount of Fan Service

Another term to define, what is fan service. This is basically when a movie has some nudity to make it edgier, that’s the best American comparison I can think of. Basically nudity, or scantily clad characters, for the sake of the audience not for the sake of the story. And while American shows and movies might slip in a little bit, anime can put in a lot.

Now, this doesn’t rule out an anime for me, Food Wars has a lot of this in it. It kind of makes sense for the plot of the show. But there are other anime, A Wise Mans Grandchild for example, where it is just added in for no reason. And in particular it starts to show up a lot in the middle of that show and just doesn’t make any sense. So it depends on the anime for sure, but generally too much fan service and I’m less interested in the anime.

Animation Style

Finally, we have animation style. Now, this one is very subjective. There are some styles that I think are pretty fun, there are others that don’t work well for me. Some are more cartoony while others try and draw their anime more realistically or with more detail. But the animation style can make a difference, it if it doesn’t look as smooth in terms of movement then I’ll be less interested. And generally older animation can be harder to get through in animes.

Are All Criteria Equally Important

I think you can already tell how I’ve written, the answer is no. Now, plot is always going to be important. If the plot isn’t engaging I’m not going to stay interested. Blue Exorcist is a great example of this, the plot started out interesting and then it just dragged on and on. Eventually I wasn’t interested anymore so I stopped watching it because there was just too much left before the payoff.

Other than that, I can work through most things, fan service might be the next one where if it’s just too much, then that might get me to stop watching an anime. For the fan service, at least, you can checkout IMDb and see the parental ratings on a lot of them to get an idea of the level. Granted, I’ve watched some with severe amounts of fan service, I’m looking at you Food Wars, and it was still worth watching.

Let’s Do An Example

In fact, let’s do an example using Food Wars as to why I picked out that anime to watch. And how well it does on every scale in terms of being an anime that I would have picked. Some of why I picked it, I will say, is because it was recommended to me.

The Plot

So, the plot on this one is really weird. That generally interests me because there are some anime about food, but about food and a culinary school where they battle each other by cooking, that is different. A unique plot or an isekai plot will generally interest me, I’ll write about isekai later and what that is in the future.

Amount of Filler

I hadn’t heard that Food Wars had much filler. I won’t always look it up ahead of time. If I haven’t heard it has a lot of filler then I will assume that it hasn’t had a lot of filler. Watching it, I will say, not much filler in the show. For some other anime, like Bleach again as the example, if I’ve heard there is a lot of filler I’ll look up to see how much actual filler there is.

Quality of Dub

For the quality of the dub, I always test out the anime. If the voice work isn’t good I’ll stop watching it. It’s hard to know about the quality of the dub. Most of the time newer anime the dub is going to be pretty good. But some of the older dubs are going to be rough. And, I won’t lie, with something like Food Wars, I wouldn’t have watched it if it hadn’t been dubbed.

Amount of Fan Service

Now, this is there I’m fairly different from what I said, this anime has a ton of fan service. Is it needed for the plot, most certainly not. Does it enhance the plot, kind of. I think they could have gotten across how wonderful the food was without the fan service. But I will say, it matches the tone of the anime, this is not a serious anime. And while it is way over the top, especially in the first episode where it is almost done for the shock factor, it blends in better in the subsequent episodes.

Animation Style

This is an animation style that I like. I think I’d say it is what most modern anime’s look like in terms of animation. The design is nice and clean and it just works well. There’s nothing wrong about it, there’s nothing that makes it stand out. And while I’m watching an animated show, I want the plot to be the lead on it, so this work out well for me.

Will This Work For You?

Yes, I think that this will work for you. However, you can see a lot of them are subjective, what level of dub you’re willing to listen to. If you’ll like an animation style or if you’re willing to get around filler. And maybe you don’t like isekai or fantasy as much as I do, then you can find the sci-fi or slice of life plots instead. There’s probably an anime out there for everyone, just know that compared to some of the others topics I’ve done thus far, there is a ton of anime to sift through an with the varying taste, it can be a lot of work.

What is your favorite anime?

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Pros

• Penguins
• Dexterity
• Aesthetic
• Price and shipping

Cons

• No Kickstarter History
• Kickstarter Exclusives
• “Uno” rule

Thoughts On The Page

I really like how this page is laid out. There’s a kickstarter standard of where you put things, what sections are expected, and for a first time kickstarter company/individual, they have done a good job. I’m also impressed when I see multiple languages done well on a page.

The game play itself seems fine. I think that they do a good job of laying out how the game works on the page. The game looks hopefully simple, which dexterity should generally be. I’m hoping that the amount of symbology is easily clear in the game. It does have Uno rules of having to say something or draw more, and to me that is not a good thing.

Back or Brick

For me this is a brick. In terms of penguin games, I already have Icecool, in terms of dexterity games, I have Icecool. What makes it tempting though is that the game seems quite simple, which I want dexterity games to be. So a cute little game. But the fact you call out “Penguin” when you’re down to a card and if you don’t you have to draw a new card, that is not a good rule. I think that the game probably would just end up being a kids game when all is said and done because of how it works whereas something like Icecool works well with kids and adults.

Is this a back or a brick for you?

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Cyberpunk 2077 – Keanu Reeves

That joke will never get old. But in all seriousness, that’s really one of the largest reasons. I also really like the idea of a game that is in a Cyberpunk setting. Right now I’m enjoying Horizon: Zero Dawn, which isn’t cyberpunk, but has some interesting cyber elements to it, and I am curious to see a game take on something a bit more focused into the genre. I really hope that it is a well crafted game with a good story.

Ghost of Tsushima – A game that is set in Japan where you are playing as a Samurai sounds interesting to me. I also like games that have fighting, but don’t require me to poorly shoot things, since that is not my strong suit. I hope that this game has a bit of a slower feel to it, so that you get what seems more like a Samurai aesthetic as compared to a hack and slash game. Don’t know a ton about it, but definitely is one that’s caught my eye.

Diablo IV – This is a game that I might get in 2021, why is it on this list, because it’s coming out in 2020. Why would I wait, because Diablo III was unplayable at the launch. Things were changing almost every day, and one character build would go from poor, to overpowered to unplayable, to poor in the span of two weeks. Now, hopefully that won’t be the case with this one, but I’m going to take a wait and see approach before I get this loot heavy game.

NIOH 2 – Apparently I like the Japanese aesthetic, because it’s the second one on the list. This one is based off of Dark Souls in terms of play style, so I’m assuming it’s going to be punishing. Maybe they’ll put in a mode for the level of video gamer that I am. I’m more curious to hear about this one when it comes out and how the game actually plays before jumping at it.

Marvel’s Avengers – I’m curious about this one, but I’m not that confident that it’s going to be amazing. The footage thus far is just off, mainly because they decided to keep the characters looking close to the MCU versions of the characters without it being exact so they don’t have to pay for image rights. If the game play is good, that’ll make up for the odd looks but it’s a very much wait and see for me.

Iron Man VR – This is probably my most anticipated game, maybe after Cyberpunk 2077, but one that I’m not that likely to play because it’s VR and I get motion sick at times, but also because it’s VR and I don’t have a Playstation VR set-up. If it gets good reviews, I might get a Playstation VR set-up because there’s also Boardlands 2 in VR, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m just really curious for the technology and what it’ll mean for video games and is it there to do it well.

I came up with more games than I thought I might. Like I said, I tend not to buy games right away because I already have too many to play. For the video gamers in the audience, what is the standout game for you? I know I skipped over some big titles.

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Now, that could be less exciting, because there are a lot of generic themes out there, and a lot of games that are using themes over and over again. Especially now with copyrights not being extended to kingdom come, there are more works that are now public domain. A few years ago Sherlock Holmes became public domain and HP Lovecrafts work some time before that.

So what are some of my favorite themes on board games?

Epic Fantasy –
Super generic, but I really do enjoy a good fantasy game. Especially since a lot of them have a better developed story than most. Now it helps that I’m a big fantasy fan, so I can quickly understand what is going on with the various fantasy tropes and it allows me to get quickly into the story being told. Games like Gloomhaven and Legends of Andor do a good job of baking story into the actual game play themselves. I think what I like about the fantasy theme on board games is that it gives me a bit of that feeling of playing an RPG in a lot of the games and I can make my decisions like I am that hero. In a lot of ways it scratches my itch to play an RPG when I can’t be in a game as a player or as the GM.

Lovecraftian –
I did a big board game battle post about all of the Fantasy Flight games that I’ve played with the HP Lovecraft world theme on them. I’m a bit surprised with how main stream Lovecraft is in board games, but it works in most of the cases. I will say that it gets slapped onto a lot of games that don’t need it. Like in Unspeakable Words, you’re just doing a pretty standard word game, but it has the Lovecraftian theme and cute Lovecraftian artwork on it. Now, that’s fine because it takes a game that wouldn’t have artistic direction and gives it some, but it’s kind of silly. Then there are games like Arkham Horror, Mansions of Madness, and Arkham Horror LCG that are just steeped in theme. Those games seek to make you feel like an investigator of some background who is really going through this world, dealing with the monsters, progressing the story, looking for clues, and sometimes dealing with the events of the normal world. It also does a good job of setting an aesthetic that is generally pleasing to play in but also being a horror focused game. It really doesn’t rely on blood and guts like some horror games would.

Sci-Fi –
Another super generic option, like epic fantasy, but I figured I should say more than just Star Wars. While the Star Wars games are great that I’ve played, Imperial Assault and Star Wars: Rebellion, there are other sci-fi games out there that I’ve liked as well. It’s interesting because you have a wide variety of scope with games in the Sci-Fi genre. Games like Star Wars: Rebellion, Battlestar Galactica, and Cosmic Encounters are planet level Sci-Fi games. And while Cosmic Encounters doesn’t feel like quire as grand a scope as Rebellion, it’s still a bigger game in some ways. Compare that to Imperial Assault and Clank! In! Space!, those games have a focus that is much more on a smaller part of the world. You’re on a planet or in a space ship dealing with things, but you aren’t as worried about the whole cosmos. Having that variety is what makes Sci-Fi such a strong genre to me.

Now, there are so many more genres out there, but you’re not going to have that much issue finding games in these genres, and I tend to gravitate towards them. There is one that I want to see more of though.

Weird West –
I really enjoy the weird west setting. Some might say that it’s a bit Lovecraft mixed with the wild west, and that’s probably pretty accurate. But when people say a Lovecraft game, that’s generally meaning 1920’s and Arkham area. Weird west can be a lot more than just that, and I like Shadows of Brimstone for that, though I’ve only gotten it to the table once. I need to go back and fix the monsters and hopefully stream that game at some point in time so I can actually play it some more. But the game is interesting and has some cool big moments to it.

Mythological –
Now, some might say this is part of fantasy, but I think I would qualify it differently than “Epic Fantasy”. Theming of games like Lords of Hellas, which I haven’t played or Santorini which is really an abstract game, but has the Greek mythology added to it, that’s a theme that I can get behind. What makes it generally pretty thematic is that all the deities have their own powers which really do track with the mythology that you’re in. Even if you aren’t going the standard Greek, there are now a lot of games with Norse Mythology. Blood Rage on the cards you draft does a really good job of creating that mythological feel for each deity that you can draft cards from. In fact, those cards are where you really get the theme of Norse Mythology in Blood Rage.

I could go on talking about more themes in board games. There are games with a heavily influenced theme by Japan and/or Anime. There are games t hat have cool adventuring themes that give you the Indiana Jones feel. There are a few themes that I’ll generally avoid though. If a game has the “trading in the Mediterranean” theme, that’s a hard pass for me. I’m also kind of done with the zombie theme at this point. I do like Dead of Winter, so I’m not opposed to it, but a zombie themed game isn’t all that interesting to me most of the time.

What are some themes you like in board games. What are themes that you want to see more of in board games?

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My first suggestion would be a game by Fantasy Flight, Legacy of Dragonholt. This game has you create your own characters, but then with your character, which you could probably create five character in under an hour, you take them through various scenarios and adventures. by reading passages in a book and taking turns making decisions. What I like about this game is that it is inclusive, both in the NPC relationships, but also in the fact that it isn’t a dark and gritty game, so you could play it with younger children and have them make decisions for their own character easily as well. You’re not getting the gory or graphic descriptions of death, and in fact, it can be fairly hard at times to actually kill a goblin instead of just knocking them out. But it’s a fun game, and while parts are fairly linear, if you go into it expecting to have goofy fun, you can definitely succeed.

Next, Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger. Now, you could just get the book, but the game is actually a ton of fun. Especially if you take turns reading the text, and making decisions as a group, but whomever is going to read next has the final say on the decision being made. This game is much faster to get up and running then Legacy of Dragonholt, but that’s because you are a generic investigator. So it loses the individuality of your characters as you are all playing the same person. That makes this game easy to solo play, and you can solo play Legacy of Dragonholt as well, but because you have characters with skills, you can miss out on some skills and paths just with playing my yourself.

Finally, there is a series of books, these are again more solo play focused books, though you can pass them around and let people take turns making decisions. The books, put out by Van Ryder Games, are graphic novels where you are creating your own character and have skills, it changes depending on the book, but you can play through a lot of different scenarios, with one scenario per book. You could take on a case with Sherlock Holmes, travel to Japan, or take on a Werewolf. With these being graphic novels, you might think that they would, like the other two, be solid options for kids or maybe even focused more so that way. I would say that these are the least kid friendly of any of the games, and while I’d strongly consider the other two with kids, from what I know about the graphic novels, I wouldn’t recommend these until they are older teenagers, but that will depend upon the kid.

There are certainly more options out there as well in the Choose Your Own adventure style of game. A game like Near and Far gives you that opportunity in a heavier board game. Most dungeon crawl style games put you in the roll of a certain class of character and you can get into the role playing aspect of that. However, with both Near and Far, and a dungeon crawl, it is going to have that longer set-up time than any of the games mentioned here, with the exception of Legacy of Dragonholt, but that, even, is only before the first game.

What I like about these games is that they are more accessible to get people into role playing than jumping straight into something like Dungeons and Dragons. Especially with Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger, people remember those books and how goofy those are, and because of the nostalgia they are going to be more apt to jump into playing that game.

One final thing to add in, there are games like Fiasco and Dreamchaser. These games are much more of the classic RPG. Fiasco doesn’t have a game master, so that is nice, while Dreamchaser does. Both of them, however, the character creation is really important and part of the game creation as well, so you feel like you’re playing more so immediately as compared to just something like Dungeons and Dragons where your character might not directly tie into the main plot of the game. These games can end up having a longer total time commitment though as compared to some of the other games, though Fiasco does focus itself down pretty well. These games also require a much heavier involvement in role playing.

When you get that RPG itch, what games will you be looking to fill that need? Have you had any experience with any of these games and preferences with them?

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What Is it About?

Lelouch, in line to be Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, has been exiled to area 11 after his mother was killed. He went there along with his younger sister. He’s held a grudge ever since, and that’s putting it pretty lightly. He is pissed off at his father, the emperor, and is worried for his sisters safety. He’s still a highschool student but it bent on taking down his father. Things start to move faster with his plan than expected when he meets a girl, C2, that the empire was keeping hostage. She’s not normal and gives him the power of geass. This power allows him to, only once, convince someone to do what he tells them to. With that in play, he can start his plan using the rebels from Japan (which is area 11) to draw the emperor out. He soon becomes a power and a faceless mastermind known as Zero. His actions don’t always work as he plans, but with his mind for strategy, he almost always wins.

So How was it?

I liked the show quite well, but I did have some issues with it. With a power like he has, he’s clearly not going to be using it for good most of the time. That causes some issues in terms of consistent tone of the show. It’s a lot about his downward spiral into more and more difficult and destructive situations where he is not the good guy. You realize pretty early on that Lelouch is interested in the safety of his sister, but is much more interested in revenge at any cost. This makes the show very bleak at times, and while you wait for him to be redeemed, it just continues to spiral further and further down.

It’s also odd because it juxtaposes the Zero side of Lelouch versus the face he puts on for the school. There are full episodes that are just silly and goofy. There’s a clear reason for it, otherwise the show would be too heavy,  and it also sets up future consequences for Lelouch. However, it often drags out the show. I personally think they could have cut the number of episodes in half and had about the same impact. It starts to get very heavy and dragging as you know what is likely going to happen and while most episodes do have one or two really interesting moments, it could be cut down for the same impact by a lot.

It’s not to say that it’s a bad show. For a show that is heavy, they do a solid job of never feeling like Lelouch is completely lost and can’t be redeemed, though it keeps on being harder and harder to actually believe that he could be. And the ending is a solid payoff for the series. You have a bit of an ah-ah moment about it while watching the last handful of episodes, and that is something that I always appreciate. Is the payoff in the end worth the amount of time that you’ve put into the show, probably, but like I said above, it could certainly be written tighter and would have had the same effect.

Also, subs versus dubs on this one. I watched it dubbed, so I can’t tell you how it sounded with subs, but I’d guess it would be better to watch it subbed. The voice acting wasn’t bad in Code Geass, it just isn’t great. Most likely it would be more compelling to watch in subs to get the full proper emotion.

Finally, how trope heavy is it and how much fan service is there? This is a pretty adult anime. There is nudity, Zero/Lelouch is trying to take over an empire, so there is a fair amount of violence, and while there isn’t a ton of gore, there’s enough blood and consistent violence throughout the show. So for fan service there is a fair amount, just be warned. However, I do think that Code Geass does a solid job of subverting a number of tropes, especially with Lelouch and how it ends. There would be ways to make it very tropey throughout, and it isn’t too heavy in that aspect. Also, there’s a unique element to this anime compared to most others I’ve watched that moves from heavy to light in terms of the episodes and even during some of the same episodes. It’s interesting to see how it does that, and that’s one of the things that can keep it going.

Final Thoughts

It’s a tough anime for me to really love. I think that there are plenty of solid parts to it that make it quite enjoyable, however, it just takes too long. While the end of the anime subverts a trope, you can really see the telegraphed movements up to that point, and for that reason, it should definitely be shorter, because you know what is going to happen. It would make the ah-ha moments or the what just happened moments stronger as the anime just drags and you don’t get fully wrapped up in it.

Would I recommend it? For a more serious anime fan, I would. I think that I’m at the point where I’m picking up most things that come up, but I know that I’m not catching everything that might make me appreciate it more. However, as I said above, there’s a fair amount of fan service, and there’s a lot of violence, so be warned about that if you do decide to watch it. I’d say that it’s generally worth it for the payoff, and I might right about the payoff in another article about character arcs or something along those lines later. Overall, not bad, could be better, probably worth watching.

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Since my to-be-watched list of anime series is still really long, there’s a chance that at least some of the spots on my top 5 list will change as time goes on — but for now, here are my five favorite series!

5. Kamisama Kiss

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This series is one I’ve gotten into more recently — I’ve been watching through it casually when I have some spare time and am in the mood for something lighthearted. It’s a romantic comedy about a girl named Nanami who, through a bizarre chain of events, ends up becoming the Earth deity of a nearby shrine, taking over the post from the former deity, who has gotten tired of the job. A fox demon named Tomoe, a resident of the shrine, becomes her familiar, and is bound to her by — you guessed it — a kiss. Nanami’s feelings for Tomoe quickly grow into something more than gratitude and respect, but can a romance between a human and a fox demon ever work? Well…I’m still waiting to find out!

As I’ve said before when describing this series to friends, it’s like someone took all the best parts of Inuyasha and Fruits Basket and fused them together into a fun new anime that’s reminiscent of both of these, but that is still very much its own story. This series is an absolute delight for so many reasons — it reminds me of the series I loved when I first started watching anime, it has lovable characters whose interactions with each other are by turns hilarious and heartwarming, and it has just enough conflict to keep things interesting while still having plenty of fun, fluffy scenes to enjoy. I can’t wait to see the rest!

4. The Devil is a Part-Timer

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This is another recent watch for me, and one of two on my list that overlaps with Peder’s choices. We watched this one during the depths of last winter, when I was craving something goofy and fun to get me out of my annual February funk. It did the trick perfectly, let me tell you. I won’t go into the summary much, as Peder has already done the honors, but suffice it to say that as this series starts off, it behaves as though it’s going to be a high-stakes, high-concept fantasy piece, and then does a total heel-turn, becoming a silly slice-of-life story about an incarnation of the devil who’s stuck in our dimension and has to make a living as a part-time manager of a burger joint. Bizarre and hilarious doesn’t even begin to cover it, my friends.

My favorite parts of this show are when Sado (the devil) and his right-hand-man-turned-roommate are trying to figure out the ins and outs of everyday life in our dimension. They may look like normal humans, but just knowing that you’re watching two beings from a fantastical world try to set a budget for their meager income and deal with their overly eccentric landlady takes the absurd hilarity to new heights. It’s one of my favorite fish-out-of-water stories, and was exactly the kind of lighthearted fun I needed at the time I watched it.

3. Ouran High School Host Club

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This was one of the first anime to become a favorite of mine. It follows the story of Haruhi, a scholarship student at the elite Ouran High School. Early on in the story, she’s mistaken for a boy due to her androgynous appearance and clothing — not wanting to deal with the hassle of setting the record straight, she decides to just go with it. The members of the Ouran High School Host Club (a sort of flirty high society club that primarily caters to young women) take Haruhi under their wing, and before long, she’s the most sought-after member of the host club.

The premise of this show is pretty farfetched, and it takes at least a base knowledge of some aspects of Japanese culture to really get what’s going on in the story, but once you’re on board, you’re bound to have a great time watching this series. In my opinion, it’s shojo (anime aimed at teenage girl viewers) at its finest and most delightfully over-the-top, and watching it feels like reading a really fun yet really weird contemporary young adult novel. It’s a series I enjoy from start to finish, and one I’ll most likely end up returning to again and again.

2. Inuyasha

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When I was a fledgling anime fan, this is one of the first few series I really got into, and was also one of the first I watched all the way through (not too shabby, seeing as there’s over 160 episodes!). The story focuses on Kagome, a teenage girl who falls down the well in the shrine her family tends, only to be transported through time to feudal-era Japan. There, she meets a rough-and-tumble young dog demon named Inuyasha. He leads her through all sorts of adventures and scrapes as they fight off the other demons who are trying to get their hands on the shards of the Shikon no Tama, a sacred jewel that’s rumored to give great power to any demon who wields it.

This is one of those series with a premise that’s really hard to explain when talking about it, but which is really easy to get into when watching it. There are a lot of different opinions about this series — some (like me) find it really enjoyable and rewarding to watch, while others see it as too mainstream and formulaic. While it does fall into the monster-of-the-week rut fairly often, I love it anyway, and I can’t get enough of the great characters it’s filled with, or the unique settings and plot lines that set it apart from other anime I’ve seen. Regardless of others’ thoughts on this series, it’ll always have a special place in my heart.

1. Steins;Gate

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Soon after I started watching this series, I knew it was going to end up ranked among the very best anime I’ve ever seen. By the time we reached the end of it, it was my new favorite. As with my #4 choice, I won’t go into great detail with this one, since we’ve already talked about Steins;Gate quite a bit on this blog, but I can’t close out this list without talking about just how truly great this anime is. As we’ve noted before, the story of Steins;Gate focuses on the concept of time travel, testing the limits and possibilities therein, and finding out just how far-reaching and dire the consequences of messing around with it can be.

As we’ve mentioned before, Steins;Gate seems to almost transcend its own medium — more than being a great anime, it’s just a great story, period. The characters are masterfully rendered and feel so believably human, the themes the series focuses on are weighty and important, and the plot is (for the most part) tightly woven and emotionally satisfying. I can’t say I’ll rewatch this one often, as it’s pretty heavy (despite some humorous elements), but I know I’ll revisit it again someday. And regardless of how many times I do or don’t rewatch it, it’s a story I know is going to stick with me, no matter what.

To close–some honorable mentions: Bleach (so good, but so fraught), Soul Eater (just a good, solid anime with a great premise), Naruto (I loved it for a while, but it caused even more mixed feelings for me than Bleach did), Cowboy Bebop (space opera at its best), The Daily Lives of High School Boys (I’ve only watched a few episodes, but have absolutely loved what I’ve seen so far), Haibane Renmei (the definition of short and sweet anime), Little Witch Academia (just adorable and delightful in every way), and Fairy Tail (another I haven’t gotten far with, but am really looking forward to watching more of).

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This was actually my first idea for the series, to tackle what Pacific Rim, the themed meal or at least themed snacks would look like. However, after a couple of early ideas, got a little bit stuck with it. But it’s time now to get my brain unstuck and see what I can come up with.

 Pacific Rim

Drinks: 

Blue Margarita

Jagermeister

Tropical Punch (Kool Aid)

The reason behind both of these drinks is that they are just fun. When you think of the Pacific Rim, you think of oceans, so we are going with drinks that have that sort of tropical feel to them. Tropical Punch just makes a lot of sense as a non-alcoholic option. And adding Blue Curacaco to a margarita just gives it a nice ocean feel. Plus, there is a lot of blue going on in Pacific Rim in terms of color choices. Finally there is Jagermeister, because Jaeger/Jager obviously. Less themed, but a fun play on words.

Appetizer:

Calamari

Now, the monsters aren’t technically squid monsters, but they come up out of the ocean. So to keep that water theme going, deep fried (or baked) Calamari bites makes a lot of sense. You get into the head space of being near the water, and a lot of people are going to think about squid as being from Japan.

Main Course:

Crab (or Salmon) Cakes

Coleslaw

This is where I had gotten stuck originally. The blue margarita and the calamari just made a ton of sense, but what would make good sense for a main course? So as I’ve been typing out this post, what I came up with was crab cakes. This plays towards the monsters which are sea creatures and often times have some sort of tough outside shell. Crabs are just their tiny baby cousins and they must be destroyed before they kill us all (or something like that). But crab can be a little bit more expensive than getting frozen salmon and thawing it out and using that. So if you want to stick to a slightly lower budget, crab can easily become salmon, or if you want to go to an even lower level than that, you can make fish cakes out of swai or tilapia. Cole slaw is going to give you something lighter to go along with this meal. Sure, fish and calamari aren’t very heavy, but the crab cakes are going to be fried and the calamari might be as well, so you’ll want a slaw in a light dressing to balance out the main course.

Dessert:

Popcorn Balls

Now, there isn’t a direct thematic correlation for this, other than in my head. When I think Pacific Rim, I think of something that is really shiny. The visuals are really good, and it just seems very flashy and bright. So I’m thinking not of caramel popcorn balls  (though that would make a decent light desert), but of ones that as kids we’d make for Valentine’s Day. Where you melt down red hot candies into sugar and some other stuff to make it into a caramel, but when you tossed the popcorn in it, and as the caramel hardened, it had a really cool shiny red color to it. So in my brain, that is why red hot popcorn balls makes a lot of sense. I’d also say that because it is a movie, you’re probably going to want some sort of popcorn, and this is fun way to change it up.

So, what do you think on this menu? I don’t know that it pulls you into the theme quite as much as the first, but I also do know that I really want to eat it (partially because it’s near my dinner time as I’m writing it and partially because it just sounds really good).

We have one final menu that will be coming out next week. This one came in through a suggestion on Twitter from @BeskarTom, he had a board game that I wasn’t familiar with “Race for the Galaxy” but also suggested Dead of Winter, so I’m going to try and tackle that next, who doesn’t like theming a meal around a game where you could end up losing because you can’t feed the colony.

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