Episode Focus: Tokyo Ghoul :re episode 10

It’s been a really intriguing season for the latest instalment of Tokyo Ghoul so far. Given how highly I rated Root A (that is, not very), I didn’t have particularly high expectations this time around but somehow it seems to be hitting the spot.

Episode 10 continues the CCG’s hunt of the Tsukiyama Family or Rosé as they have become known. Meanwhile Haise’s inner conflict with his former self continues to grow as he encounters a link to the notorious, yet mysterious ‘eyepatch ghoul’ and Shirazu comes to terms with having to come kill ghouls.

MCM Comicon London May 2017

It’s a rare thing in the UK to be able to go to an ‘anime event’. If you don’t count the increasing amount of cinema screenings, you wouldn’t need more than the fingers on one hand to list off the events you go to where you’ll find a congregation of anime fans doing anime things. 

Today though I got to go to MCM Comicon in London’s Excel Exhibition Centre a convention I described to one person before going as ‘a massive geek fest’. I’ll come to the anime in a minute, but MCM was full of all things nerdy from esports and games through to comic books and Japanese sweets. These are all things I enjoy but I was pleasantly surprised with just how many anime and manga stands there were ranging from memorabilia, t-shirts and hoodies, posters, DVD’s and Blu-Ray and, oh, so much manga.

If you’ve never been to a convention like this before (like me) the first thing that you’ll notice most obviously is the amount of people cosplaying. Going through the underground it took just one change to see the switch from people going about their normal Sunday mornings to an abundance of Harley Quinns, Harry Potters and Survey Corps Scouts. I didn’t cosplay and didn’t particularly feel out of place, but if you’ve ever had the urge to dress up as your favourite character, this would certainly have been the time to do it. For some people it was a simple costume to simply signify that they were visiting the event while for others it is serious competition with huge amounts of effort and time put into an outfit.

Why marathon TV viewing is one of the best things to come from today’s internet

If you watch any kind of TV show (anime or otherwise) you’ll probably have discovered the joy of finding a show you absolutely love and watching episode after episode. It might range from getting in after a busy couple of weeks at work and catching up on three or four episodes or discovering a show that aired long ago in the past with eight seasons all readily available.

We use the internet for a lot of things: today I’ve completed online reading at university, checked several social media sites, browsed clips and screenshots on the Xbox, found a very useful prompt on WordPress (!) and watched several episodes of Haikyu!.

On the face of it watching TV online probably doesn’t seem all that big a thing to anyone – everyone does it all of the time, right? Well yes, but this is still a relatively new thing – especially for most people. Facebook and Twitter are great for keeping in touch with friends and family as well as generally wasting some time but being able to open up Crunchyroll (or whatever else it might be) and choose any show out of hundreds and watch as many episodes as I want one after another is just brilliant.

I’m proud to say that on one occasion just over a year ago, when I had the house to myself, I watched 11 episodes of a show (AnoHana – it comes highly recommended!) I’d never seen before in one evening. I found myself hooked very early on and before I realised I was over half way through – with all the power and no lack of desire to watch the rest I was happy to settle in for the duration.

So find an interesting show, get comfy and prepare for a long evening.

via Daily Prompt: Marathon

Kuzu no Honkai Episode 1 and a comment on Winter 2017

Over the past two weeks the Winter 2017 season’s shows have been airing their first episodes and the anime community has reacted largely with disappointment. Unfortunately I can’t help but agree with the majority of people and say that original shows this January are a huge let down – though there are some big name titles getting sequels that have helped lessen the issues (KonoSuba, Blue Exorcist and Chaos;Head most notably).

On the one hand we’ve got some bland rom-coms like Masamune-Kun’s Revenge (if that’s even a romance!?) or Fuuka (which I’ve yet to start but appears underwhelming even from the promo material). Then at the other end of the spectrum we’ve got ridiculous fantasy shows epitomised by the abhorrent Hand Shakers (the article on that one will be scathing, I promise).

But this evening I saw the proverbial silver lining to this season in Scum’s Wish or Kuzu no Honkai. Having seen and then ignored the manga on Crunchyroll, I was eager to have a look at what sounded like an interesting premise for anime adaptation.

My top anime of 2016

2016 has come and gone and it we can start looking forward to some really exciting new anime this year. Before 2017 gets any older though, I thought it would be a good idea to write about some of my favourites from last year.

I’m not going to order them in any particular way as there were several shows that could easily be ‘the best’ for different reasons.

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi

The first anime to really capture my attention in 2016 was Boku dake ga inai Machi or it’s English title, Erased. The feeling towards the show at the time of airing shifted as it went on, with some people criticising the ending and pacing of the show. And while there are always holes to pick when you’re dealing with time travel but on the whole I felt Erased achieves what it sets out to effectively.

Satoru has the ability to go back in time and change events that have happened in the past. The anime follows him as he goes back in time to save a fellow student and his mother. I enjoyed how the random element of Satoru’s ability kept me gripped right up until the end. One particularly refreshing aspect of the show was the development of the relationship between Satoru and Kayo – though it might not be quite what you would have liked, it’s definitely ends with (if you can say this in time travel anime) the most realistic outcome.

How to legally watch anime (UK version)

So you’ve been watching anime on your favourite not-quite-legal streaming website for a while ago and a strange feeling hits you – guilt. You might not feel any guilt but you might just be surprised at the free and affordable legal ways in which you can access and contribute to your favourite hobby. For you folks living in the UK, I’m going to go through streaming services as well as online and high street stores that distribute anime.

Online Streaming

The first step for anyone looking to move away from the dark side of anime viewing would be to find a free ad-based streaming service. In the UK we’re fairly well served by several streaming services that offer various series free of charge.

Crunchyroll

Perhaps the first port of call for streaming is the omnipresent Crunchyroll. After a while in anime world it might feel like Crunchyroll dominates your browsing history but it does so with good reason as it holds most titles that haven’t been licensed by Funimation.  The service is free with ads or available to subscribe to as a member from £4.99 a month which gives you access to new shows a week early as well as getting rid the ads. Downsides are the lack of English dubs.

Is there a time when streaming isn’t enough?

There are plenty of ways to access dubbed and subbed anime on the internet, regardless of what country you’re in. This ranges from official websites offering subbed only, stream cast content such as Crunchy Roll through to less than legal sites such as Anime Freak with a seemingly limitless catalogue of shows.

It struck me though that, as a student in a dark corner of the UK, I am in no way contributing to the anime industry. As I pointed out some sites are totally legal, with revenues coming from adverts, while others, such as Netflix, are based on subscription fees. I’d be lying though if I said I used these sites all of the time; besides anything else the majority of dubbed content isn’t available online legally for any price.