How do you even review a Zelda game? They're some of the most overtly influential video games in the medium's history and are directly responsible for the art form's growth several times over. It's impossible to review a new mainline entry into the Zelda franchise in a vacuum because the series is forever linked to a legacy of industry-defining greatness. These are the questions I would be asking if The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom didn't live up to the standards set by the franchise, but...

The last chapter of Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen manga released on September 29th, 2024 and I’m now convinced that we’re living in the endgame of “shonen” as a genre. The popularity of the series and its impact on popular culture goes without saying; after all, the manga regularly tops sales charts and the anime adaptation swept this year’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards. Jujutsu Kaisen is clearly a landmark achievement in manga with characters, artistic sensibilities, and themes that resonate with m...

Model, panel host, and sex worker Ronnie/Bunni Black described the anime community as having "cognitive dissonance" towards adult content. As sex workers in the anime community are quick to note, anime conventions court noteworthy cosplayers, but give them little support to make the most of their attendance. There's a misogynistic contradiction of femme cosplayers needing to meet fetishized beauty standards...

Even if you've played every Persona and SMT title, probably don’t know is that the first games in this franchise are based on a series of books from the 1980s called Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, and that each and every one of the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games in this series still draw inspiration from these books today! These books are the origin and future of the Persona franchise, and if you want to know about where they've been and where they’re going before starting Persona 3: Reload, you need to know about Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is on track to be gaming’s best hidden gem of 2023. Described as a must play for horror fans by But Why Tho’s own Kate Sánchez; the game is a masterclass in occult horror, ensemble cast storytelling, and narratively intuitive game design. Available for only $20 on both Steam and the Nintendo Switch eShop, this game is an exemplary visual novel that both advances the genre and serves as a fantastic introduction for those new to the form.

I hate that there's a sexual assault scene in this season of Baki, and mad enough about it that this review is opening with my analysis of what's easily the worst part of the season. The second episode of this season opens with revived caveman Pickle sexually assaulting a news reporter live on air. This is gross, gratuitous, and ultimately lazy writing...

Anime production studio MAPPA hosted two panels at Anime Expo this year, both sponsored by Crunchyroll. The first panel featured studio CEO Manabu Ohtsuka and executive director and rights management director Makoto Kimura, who answered questions. The second panel included Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill director Kiyoshi Matsuda and director Kaori Makita, expanding the guest list. While the highlight of these panels was a new preview for the Part Attack on Titan Final Season THE FINAL CHAPTERS 2, they also covered upcoming original projects from the studio and provided rare insights into the production of some of their most high-profile anime of this season.

It is a special kind of devastation when a series has such a catastrophic ending that previous, beloved parts of the work become difficult to return to. Much to my dismay, we can now add the Bayonetta games to this list. Developed by Platinum Games with series creator Kamiya Hideki acting as a supervising director, Bayonetta 3 fundamentally misunderstands the themes of the previous games and gives its beloved lead a soul-crushing send off.

There’s a lot of media that glorifies cops. In fact, there’s so much pro-police propaganda that it’s reached ubiquity, meaning it is largely unnoticed by viewers and accepted as a part of the entertainment landscape. This kind of law enforcement propaganda is dubbed copaganda...

About once every three or four months I find myself asking, “Do I even like anime?” While anime and manga make up some of my formative media experiences and tie into the personal and professional achievements that I’m most proud of, I just can’t deal with them sometimes. I think this is why 'No More Heroes', a 2007 game for the Nintendo Wii, resonates so deeply with me. Developed by Suda 51’s Grasshopper Manufacture, this game’s protagonist, Travis Touchdown, is a parody of undeservedly boisterous cishet fanboys who wrongly think that they are the only real anime and manga fans.