My Top Ten Anime List, a Decade in the Making

January 15, 2024January 15, 2024 / thesakurasunrise / Leave a comment

Over a Christmas break in 2013, I binged Attack on Titan and became an anime fan. This often surprises the friends that I’ve made since then because, what with how I talk about this industry and my favorite shows therein, one would think I’ve been this way since I was a kid. My high school pals have been watching Dragonball and Naruto since they were kids, but they would likely call me out as the biggest weeb in the group.

A few years ago, I decided that when 2024 struck, I’d have a list of the top ten anime I have watched in those ten years. And then, New Year’s came and went and I realized I’d completely forgotten to write this. Thankfully, I already had the skeleton of a list ready to go and only had to make a few adjustments. I know I haven’t kept up with this blog as much as I would have liked, but I wasn’t about to miss this occasion.

So without further ado, whether you’re a friend or mutual anime blogger with whom I have been blessed to share this platform, here are the best anime I have ever seen.

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“Bang!” | The Guns of Cowboy Bebop

August 30, 2022August 29, 2022 / thesakurasunrise / Leave a comment

Cowboy Bebop‘s cultural influences trace heavily to classic action cinema, be it Hollywood or Hong Kong, western or noir. And though most will remember Bebop for its martial arts and the Bruce Lee stylings that define the leading man, the gunplay in Bebop scratches quite the itch.

It’s not like there haven’t been tons of good gunfights in anime, even in recent years, but they often lose out to melee combat, be it realistic or stylized. There’s something about the gunplay in anime of the 90s and the early 2000s that feels distinct.

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Where Have I Been?

July 22, 2022July 21, 2022 / thesakurasunrise / Leave a comment

Fuck.

I mean this is bad. I’ve been telling myself to continue writing in my spare time for months, but stuff kept getting in the way. At first, my job was taking up a lot of my time and leaving me not wanting to do… anything when I wasn’t at work. And now… things are a little more complicated… but also exciting.

Ladies, gentlemen, and others, I am now an Anime Feature writer for GameRant, and I have been since May. The reason I haven’t had time to write a bunch here is that I’ve been working two jobs, my day job, and my writing job. So I wanted to finally address where I’ve been and talk about where I want this blog to go.

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Yozakura Quartet is Pretty, Quirky, and A Little Horny

February 11, 2022February 10, 2022 / thesakurasunrise / Leave a comment

Plenty of shows feel hard to get into, but some only have such a barrier to entry because it’s not clear where to start. Maybe there are a few different adaptations, alternate continuities, and stories told out of order. If you’re lucky, you’ll have friends to guide you, or maybe a handy watch order guide.

While 2022’s Winter season rages on with much-anticipated sequels, I’m stuck between the years 2010 and 2014 reflecting on a piece of ecchi action many forgot about. From Tatsunoko Productions and director ryo-timo, this is Yozakura Quartet.

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Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is Fine

December 7, 2021August 30, 2022 / thesakurasunrise / Leave a comment

The original title for this review was going to be “The Right Soul For The Wrong Source.” My thinking was that Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop, a 10-episode live-action series from Tomorrow Studios, had an enticing presentation and soul, but ill-fitting for the material it was adapting.

After all, Cowboy Bebop is a certified classic. I can’t really call it a cult classic because if you know anime, you know Bebop. It carries a cultural footprint and critical acclaim in the anime sphere akin to the likes of Breaking Bad or The Soprano’s.

In 24 episodes, Shinichiro Watanabe created an eclectic character study of some of the most lovable, deep, and iconic bounty hunters in fiction. They might suck at their job, but they’re good when it counts. How could anyone adapt this show and NOT come under fire?

And really, why adapt a series like Bebop when it itself is inspired by the cinema of the western and noir genres, with a healthy balance of martial arts for good measure. It’s the same reason that people are boggled by a game like Uncharted getting a movie adaptation. Why make a movie out of a game that’s literally Indiana Jones.

Regardless, I watched the live-action Bebop, even after early reviews damned it early on. I got spoiled on the Ed reveal that EVERYONE knew was coming (more on that later), and my Twitter feed was angry people pulling out the Voldemort tech and not even saying the show’s name.

But something fascinating happened after watching three episodes the day it was released.

I enjoyed it. I was having fun. But why though?

3, 2, 1, LET’S JAM

An Informal Praise of My Hero Academia

November 11, 2021November 10, 2021 / thesakurasunrise / 1 Comment

My Hero Academia is the only long-running Shonen anime that I have watched since its beginning and that I’ve kept up with since. Most other shonen are too long for me to get past the barrier to entry, so getting in on the ground floor was a great feeling. It helped that Bones was producing it and that its premise was so appealing.

80% of the world’s population has superpowers except for our protagonist? And we’re promised that – somehow, despite that – he will become the world’s greatest hero? It’s a great premise with a classic long-term promise of what’s to come. Funnily enough, despite that premise not being entirely accurate, it captured people’s attention in no time. By 2017, it was one of the biggest anime in the world.

… And for some reason I’ve never formally reviewed it until now. And with each passing season, the prospect of rewatching previous seasons to go over them seemed rather ambitious given my already inconsistent binging capabilities. So I had resigned myself to never reviewing the series. But now, five seasons and two movies strong, with the third film in theaters at the time of writing, I find myself tempted to say “screw it” and do it anyway.

So here is my review of all of My Hero Academia before the new movie comes out!

Plus ultra

Disney is Licensing Anime Now; So What?

October 26, 2021October 23, 2021 / thesakurasunrise / Leave a comment

In a turn of events that will certainly rock the anime community, Disney+ is now jumping into the anime streaming market. Depending on who you are, this either results in feelings of utter despair or perhaps a simple “oh, cool.” I’m more in the latter camp.

I suppose it was only natural. Star Wars Visions was an anime anthology the likes of which we haven’t witnessed since Batman: Gotham Knights or The Animatrix. In my review on Whoa! Anime, I likened it to a rekindling of my passion for this franchise. It covered such a wide array of styles from some of the most notable studios in the world. Disney taking an interest in anime should have been obvious.

They’re already attached to Studio Ghibli, the films of which lit up my childhood with unmatched whimsy. Why shouldn’t I have predicted this? I honestly can’t say. All I know is that it’s happening now, and a lot of people I know are probably going to complain about it. And I’m not here to say they’ll be wrong. I just think it’s literally too early to tell.

So what shows are Disney bringing to their platform, and what do their choices indicate as to the kinds of tastes they wish to corner?

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‘The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf’ is the Best Entry Since ‘Witcher 3’

August 31, 2021August 31, 2021 / thesakurasunrise / Leave a comment

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played. A rich yet depressive fantasy epic spanning multiple nations plagued by monsters and war. It’s a story about prejudice and choosing between greater and lesser evils. Amidst all of that, it remains a world that players couldn’t help but get lost in.

After the release of the live-action Witcher series on Netflix, the game saw a resurgence in interest from fans new and old. I should know, I was replaying it too. It was a quirky and often epic show that had its highs and lows, but despite it all, I loved it. News of new spinoffs and films were only natural, but was the franchise biting off more than it could chew?

If I had any concerns, they were minor, because Nightmare of the Wolf, the first of these spinoffs, was a film I highly anticipated. It came from Studio Mir, the studio behind Legend of Korra. Everything looked in place for this to be an enjoyable prequel centered around Vesemir, Geralt’s mentor.

And somehow, this film surpassed every expectation I had.

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Stranger By The Shore Was Great & I Wish It Was Longer

August 24, 2021August 31, 2021 / thesakurasunrise / 1 Comment

I’ve spoken about my thoughts on LGBT anime in the past. I’ve grappled with my thoughts on how homosexuality is portrayed in Japan and my feelings with shows that I’ve loved in the past that had queer-coded elements or queer-baiting. But in the last year especially, I’ve started to look on the brighter side of things. I’ve started to appreciate what my earliest exposures to queerness in anime gave me, regardless of any flaws.

Representation can only get better with time and with more diversity in the room when stories are being crafted. With studios like Blue Lynx producing higher quality gay cinema, gay representation in anime reaching new heights. And after delaying it for FAR too long, I’m happy to say that Studio Hibari’s The Stranger by the Shore is the best gay romance I’ve seen yet, but for very particular reasons…

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Check Out My New Blog For Things That Aren’t Anime!

July 13, 2021July 12, 2021 / thesakurasunrise / Leave a comment

Hey everyone! This blog has seen huge growth over the last year and I couldn’t be happier to have people reading what I write. I’m so inspired by this growth that I’m branching out and writing about far more than just anime. I want to analyze film and television and even books when something interests me. And I don’t want to overhaul this whole blog, so instead I just made a new blog.

It’s called Sakura Shuffle!

And since visual novels are pretty tangential to anime, I figured my newest post would be a fine pitch to get y’all interested in my new site. Here is a review of the 2012 VN from Nitro+, Guilty Crown: Lost Christmas.