Hi there! My name is Haruka, and I am the god of a fantastical anime world. It wasn’t always this way, I mean, I used to be a normal person, like you, holding this book, but one thing led to another and here I am! Anyway! Welcome to the land of Abika, where all your anime dreams can come true! In this world, you might find yourself in a fight with a magical warrior one minute, and be dancing with catgirls the next...

It feels like a miracle to even be writing this. After countless budget cuts and tax write-offs that Netflix inflicted...

As a gender-fluid, non-binary individual I can be very picky with the people or characters that I see as role models or even feel inspired by. While I may like a character that I see, it’s not often that I actively look up to anyone as someone that I aspire to be but there are exceptions to this, particularly in the world of anime.

At the tail end of 1993, I was eleven years old. By this time in my life, I had played a few video games, and I knew that I particularly enjoyed role-playing games. Despite this, I had yet to find a game that truly captured my imagination. Sure, I had games that I enjoyed playing, but I never finished any of them. I’d often forget that they existed after only a few weeks each time I started anew. Lunar: The Silver Star for Sega CD changed that, and it’s not an overstatement to say that it also helped to change my life.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you’ve dipped your toes into the waters of casual anime viewing but have yet to take the plunge into the deep end of watching anime seasonally. Admittedly, moving into the deep end can feel like a very tall and intimidating task once you look into it. What is one supposed to watch first? And where do you go to watch these titles legally, anyway? Fret no further, because we’re here to help you navigate these tricky waters and...

Add ‘knitting while listening to heavy metal music’ to the list of things that Japan apparently does better than anyone else in the world. Earlier this month, on a rainy July day in Joensuu, Finland, competitors from around the world gathered together for the first-ever Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship. With teams coming from near and far with names such as 9″ Needles (USA), Crafts with Ellen (Denmark), Backstage Knitter (Sweden), Bunny Bandit (USA), and many more, the competition was fi

During the Fall 2011 anime season, a certain josei sports anime titled Chihayafuru hit the airwaves. And I promptly ignored it. At the time, I had way too much on my plate to deal with. I mean, this is the year that Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero, Bunny Drop, and so many others first hit the web. It was a great year for anime. A flowery show about poems that I knew nothing about seemed to be pretty far outside of my wheelhouse.

Move over, Logan Paul, because a new sensation has spread across Japanese YouTube! Fading are the days of real live people interacting with audiences on the popular streaming site. The new trend revolves around people creating virtual anime avatars using motion capture technology. The reasons as to why fans are flocking to these avatars are quite varied. Some people enjoy watching virtual presenters when they are playing games...

If you’ve been a fan of dubbed anime at any point over the last sixteen years or so, you’ve no doubt encountered the name Steven Foster. For over a decade, Steven has been working in Texas creating some of the most memorable and sometimes infamous ADR scripts in anime history while also directing dozens of titles. Recently I had the chance to talk with Steven regarding his career and future. Over the course of our time together Steven talked to me about his start in the industry, what it was li

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR spoilers for the ending of Assassination Classroom. If you have not seen the ending of this series, you have been warned. I’ve been writing about anime for almost eleven years now. Day in and day out, I sat at my computer and typed out articles about anime and manga. One day in the not so distant past, however, I had a breakdown. I realized that I was working way too many hours of the day and was not getting anything out of it any longer.

The cast of Lucky☆Star can be intimidating if you're not already vaguely familiar with them. With four main cast members and various side characters appearing throughout the show, it can be hard to keep track of who is who. If you want to be able to tell your Hiiragi twins apart or know which otaku is which, you'll want to read this guide.

When I was first beginning my trek into becoming a hardcore anime fan I found that there were a few barriers that I had to overcome along the way including getting used to a different style of storytelling and new character types that I had never encountered in Western animation before. The biggest hurdle that I had to overcome however was the language. When you first watch Japanese animation in its native language it’s only natural that you’d come across words that you don’t understand...

You can talk all you want about what you think is the biggest anime surprise to occur in the last year. For me, that debate starts and ends with the popularity of Hinako. Produced by Primastea and launched in the spring of 2009, Training with Hinako became a hit with fans for reasons I’ve chosen not to think about too much. A few months later the sequel, Sleeping with Hinako, became another surprise hit...