[Highlights] Kino’s Journey Ep. 1

The end of a trip is the start of another! If you still remember, I promised to episodically review an anime series in celebration of 500 followers, and the anime that was chosen was Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World (2003), suggested by  Fred @ This is my place. Now that I am back from my…

Ranking the Mermaid Princesses in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch

Nobody is going to read this because the number of people who have seen this show is surprisingly small, but what else do WordPress anime bloggers do? Mermaid Melody is a classic magical girl/idol show from the 2000s. Now that I think about it, I'm quite puzzled that nobody ever talks about or draws fan…

Mystery Blogger Award (x 3)

Considering the content I write and the IRL tidbits that I Tweet, I'm pretty sure there's not much left about me that remains in mystery. But before we get to the mysterious nominees whom I'm curious about, here we go anyway about myself based on YahariBento, Matt-in-the-Hat, and Emiko's questions (thank you!). Rules Display the…

[Spoiler-free] Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel III. Spring Song Review

Ever since I gave up on my final essays to catch Heaven’s Feel I. Presage Flower on the big screen and failed because all the seats were booked, I’d been committed to watching the rest of the movies in theatres. I am very lucky that I was able to do so for not only Lost…

Visiting Jiufen Pt. 2 (Lanterns, Taro Balls, and Spirited Away)

Pt. 2 of Moya being a tourist. Carrying on from where I last left off, my friend and I arrived in the town of Jiufen, famously (mis)attributed to be the model town for Spirited Away. A few years back when I last visited, you could hear Japanese and English being spoken everywhere, and would be greeted…

Visiting Jiufen Pt. 1 (Mountain, Shrine, and a Cat)

I'd like to start my Kino's Journey reviews, but I'm currently still going on small and sporadic journeys of my own. Been just over a month since I arrived in Taiwan, minus the 14-day travel quarantine. Life is pretty normal here, but masks are still mandatory on public transit and in many establishments. The travel quarantine (and…

[Translyrics] Madoka Magica: Eternal ED “Hikari Furu” (ひかりふる) by Kalafina

Back when Kalafina disbanded, I wrote a series of tribute posts, and opened up an opportunity for people to request my translyrics of any Kalafina song. For whatever reason, I didn't publish my translyrics of "Hikari Furu" back then, but I stumbled across it in my drafts recently and decided it was a good arrangement…

Anime x Lit Crit: Toradora! Episode List

Following our wrap-up of the project with Toradora!'s last episode, here's a master list of all the episodic reviews that NegativePrimes and I did for Toradora!. To briefly recap what this project was about, it's a conversation-style collaboration that focuses on analyzing characters and themes in the anime Toradora!, from a vaguely literature-informed perspective. Compiling them has…

Anime x Lit Crit: Toradora! 25 (Finale)

We did it! After 2 years 2 months and roughly 2 weeks, NegativePrimes and I FINISHED REVIEWING TORADORA! Sorry for the all caps, I couldn't restrain myself. 🥂 Primes: You bring the caps, I'll bring the emojis. For those who didn't start following the project from the beginning (which is probably all of you reading…

Stranger Things Book Tag (Strange Reads Indeed)

As usual, I am about a year late to a tag (that's better than average, actually), but Keiko, I do hope you get to read this when you're back! If it wasn't for the fact that you were the one tagging me, I would have gotten lazy and turned this tag into one about anime/manga,…