Top Favourite Anime of 2019 (List Only)

2020 may be one month underway, but who says we it’s too late to look back on the best of the past year of anime! Okay, this is very delayed and will be very brief, pretty much just a ranking without any discussion, at least for now. My reasoning for this is two-fold. First off, …

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Thinking of Family – Why I Love Summer Wars (10 Years Later)

*contains moderate spoilers for Summer Wars* On August 1st 2009, the animated movie Summer Wars, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, released in Japanese cinemas. Ten years later to the day and after nearly a dozen watches, Summer Wars currently stands as not only one of my favourite anime but also my favourite movie, animation or otherwise. …

Girls’ Last Tour Retro(?)spective – Volume 6

*Reminder that this is my first time reading this final volume, so it will include a little less analysing of themes I’ve previously experienced and, instead, some theorising on how the series will end as I write chapter to chapter, however inaccurate those theories may end up being. ------ After the Tower #6 lift reaches …

Girls’ Last Tour Retrospective – Volume 5

As we move on to material not covered by the anime, I’ll still be similarly talking about the stories chapter by chapter and what they mean, whether they are more thematically or character driven, and how well they work as a whole. As opposed to the thematically cohesive episodes of the anime though, the manga …

Girls’ Last Tour Retrospective – Episode 12

After they realise Cut has wondered off on its own as they explore the submarine, Yuuri brings up it feels different with Cut in the group, livelier even. Chito asks if she feels lonely with just the two of them, a question which Yuuri returns to her. Chito replies she does feel a little lonely. …

Girls Last Tour Retrospective – Episode 11

Yuuri’s reckless curiosity strikes again as she feeds their new companion one of their bullets. Strangely enough though, Nuko (who I’ll now refer to as the localised name Cut) not only enjoys chowing down on the ammunition, it even asks for more. The creature seems to have a big appetite and wants to eat the …

Girl’s Last Tour Retrospective – Episode 10

Plot wise, “Train” is one of the simplest stories we’ve seen in the show for a while. The girls board a train and take a long journey to their next destination while pondering about their speed as they travel relative to the earth and the flow of time. As the girls move toward the front …

Girls’ Last Tour Retrospective – Episode 9

OR How Empathy Can Change the World Following our every-three-episode trend, this time the girls find another acquaintance on their journey, only this time they’re much less human, at least in appearance. Chito and Yuuri come across a small robot and a much larger, multi-story high construction robot conducting maintenance on a fish farming facility. …

Girls’ Last Tour Retrospective – Episode 8

Thinking back on my first viewing of the series, I remember episode 8 being the point where the series picks up from an already pretty high standard. This is certainly the case with the uniquely melancholic “Memories”. We open on the girls driving through an endless span of black drawers, many closed but some containing …

Girls’ Last Tour Retrospective – Episode 7

It turns out Ishii’s directions to the food production plant from last episode were pretty vague and the girl’s find themselves lost in a labyrinth of pipes and are quickly losing light with no end in sight. Chito’s scared of continuing through the darkness on the precarious pipes, doubtful they’ll find food at their destination …