Category Archives: Reviews
Anime movie review: One Piece Film Z
While I had watched a few episodes of the One Piece anime many years ago, for whatever reason I stopped watching it. Then when the Netflix live-action series came out a few months ago I watched it immediately and was really impressed––it seemed like one of the best anime to live-action adaptations to date. The… Read More »
Review: Sakuraco snack box (reprise)
Japanese educational book: 筆ペン練習帳 (Calligraphy pen practice notebook) by 鈴木 曉昇 (Gyoushou Suzuki)
On a recent trip to Hawaii I stopped by a BOOKOFF store that had an excellent selection of used books, and I wanted to write a review about one of the books I ended up purchasing there. It’s called 筆ペン練習帳 (fudepen renshuuchou) and is written by 鈴木 曉昇 (Gyoushou Suzuki). You can roughly translate the… Read More »
Japanese literature review: “The Glimmer of Ink” (墨のゆらめき)By Shion Miura (三浦しをん)
Being busy with various things, I haven’t had a chance to read much paper-media Japanese literature in the last few months. But when I saw “The Glimmer of Ink” (墨のゆらめき)by Shion Miura (三浦しをん)in the Beaverton Kinokuniya bookstore, I decided to take another dive back into the delightful world of Japanese literature. Shion Miura is known… Read More »
Japanese Netflix drama review: “Tiger & Dragon” (タイガー&ドラゴン)
For anyone who is even the least bit picky about what they watch, it’s easy to get annoyed by the lack of quality shows and movies available on Netflix, whether it is anime or live action productions. I try to limit the amount of time I spend watching Netflix, but with a few exceptions most… Read More »
Japanese Netflix Drama review: “Alice in Borderland” (2nd Season)
Around two years ago I reviewed the first season of the Netflix drama “Alice in Borderland” (with the Japanese title 今際の国のアリス, “imawa no kuni no arisu), which you can find here. It was quite a wait for the second season, but when it finally came out I couldn’t help but watch. Fortunately, it was definately… Read More »
PC game review “Ghostwire: Tokyo” (a realistic trip through the streets of Japan)
These days, with so many other responsibilities (and hobbies) I find it hard to make time to sit down for a PC game for any length of time. Part of the reason is that playing games a few minutes at a time is just not as satisfying as those hours-long sessions that I could do… Read More »
Movie review: Bullet Train (a surprising connection to Japanese literature)
I’ve had a special interest in Japanese culture for almost as long as I can remember, and can often appreciate books, movies, or TV series that try to highlight some interesting, unique, or significant part of Japan’s culture. But I’ve developed a good sense of which of these have an authentic feel and intent, and… Read More »
Anime review: “Cyberpunk Edgerunners” (a modern classic)
When I was first learning Japanese over two decades ago I watched a huge number of anime movies and series, and especially loved classics like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Cowboy Bebop. It’s fair to say Japanese anime was one of the driving factors that motivated me to seriously study Japanese language and culture,… Read More »