The GKids Kokuho subtitles had an interesting approach to the kabuki performances. Only choice bits of dialogue were translated, and instead a few lines of description about what each play was about would appear on screen.

Kokuho (9.5/10) Starts to resemble a cut-down mini-series in its 2nd half (lot of off-screen development), but words cannot describe how GORGEOUS the make-up, costumes, and overall production design is. It truly feels like watching 50 years of a performers' life.

I don't know if you noticed, but ANN Editorial is hitting it out of the park this month.

Finally, are you following Anime News Network on social media so you can see what our video team is up to? Jacki Jing (@jackijing.bsky.social), Kennedy (@redbardiscool.bsky.social), and Stephen Shin (@stephenweirdy8.bsky.social) put one a new video every day!

Watched a few eps of Yatterman for this. 4 names popped up as ep directors: Noboru Ishiguro Takashi Annou Yoshiyuki Tomino Mamoru Oshii

8 eps into Black Butler when it hit me. “This was just Fujo Hellsing all along!”

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (7/10) Studios: "All right Gore, your Skynet-via-GenAI movie sounds great. Can we just take out the school shooting clone episode?" Gore Verbinski: "But that's the best part!" I agree! IN FACT, that should've been the whole movie!

They deadass play Attack on Titan in the background of the new Gore Verbinski movie.

Macross 7 (8/10) The key to understanding Macross's shifting approach to music and war, but I honestly don't think I'd have powered through were it not part of the franchise. The one entry without a recap movie, despite needing it the most.

With more people getting the opportunity to play Metal Gear Solid 4, it means more people will understand one of my favorite posts online

Scarlet (1/10) Just because you set it in purgatory doesn't excuse the movie itself feeling lifeless. Imagine watching the middle section of Deadpool vs Wolverine populated entirely by NPCs. Also the most hackneyed take on a get-over-revenge arc I've seen.

Saw Scarlet

Sometimes I wonder how I've gotten this far

Had to rewatch this in chunks on the plane home. On a smaller screen without those technical aspects, it's an extremely empty film. Dropped to a 4.5/10

Avatar: Fire and Ash (4/10) Congrats to Cameron for figuring out how to make Avatar culturally relevant: tall evil woman 😈 Too bad it chooses to mostly double down on the framerate and reheat entire scenes not just from the original but Way of Water.

Most of my winter break was spent gathering footage of Penacony for this. 😅

My imports arrived

Iron Lung (9/10) Holy Shit, Markiplier. You just delivered the closest thing to a finished Event Horizon. Ridley Scott WISHES he still had the sauce with Alien that you now have. Yeah it's a bit long in the middle, but no sitting through 5 logos because it's self-distributed.

#Anime #HellsParadise 5 A lot of set-up this episode but I can't help but be charmed by the ways the gang end up being so cute. Gabimaru holding up Mei so she can reach the etchings. Yuzuriha wearing Senta's glasses in teacher mode. Gabi doing it too but having no concept of normal. XD

#Anime #PolarOpposites 5 I love that this series manages to be absolutely bonkers hilarious AND refreshingly straightforward & sincere about its relationships.

Do this in America too please

This year's Superbowl ads for no reason:

LA Lounge vs Honolulu Lounge (Both Delta)

I've gotta say, Hawaii might have permanently improved my opinion of smoothies and sherbets. Anything here with coconut, pineapple, or mango blended in SLAPS!

#WonHobby40 Figure Update! Good Smile Arts Shanghai BanG Dream! Tomori Takamatsu: Zero Gravity Ver. WonHobby Gallery: https://gallery.whl4u.jp/wh40/en/#images/198#WonHobby40#images#BangDream #WF2026W #goodsmile

That's no kitten. Its a grown-ass cat.

Bakushin fans... Happy for you or sorry that it happened

"It's just a few steps." The steps:

Will the chicken cross the road?

The version i read in elementary is on the left.

Used my own footage for the sped-up Lynx 😅

THATS WHAT YOURE CALLING IT? ARE YOU SURE?

First meal here. Yeah, Loco Mocos hit different in Honolulu.

Link Click II (7/10) As its own crime action thriller, there's actually a lot to like here. But I struggle to call it a sequel due to how disconnected it is from the original. No amount of re-explaining scenes we just watched could make the departure from S1 any less jarring.

one hell of a kitchen sink movie, but goddamn, does it have the seemingly limitless energy to pull it off. i think you have to be a gen z (and/or very online) lesbian weeaboo to get the most out of kaguya, and it will become the favorite movie of many of those girls. deservedly so.

Epstein is the reason lootboxes got shoved into every AAA release...

Cosmic Princess Kaguya (10/10) If you think about it, Vtubers are just like Princess Kaguya: Shine Brightly, then gone in a flash living on only in memory. Forget about Belle: THIS is what a 2020s Summer Wars should be.

Say bye to this gremlin 👋

Visiting Hawaii for the first time this week, so gonna have big gaps between posts in that time. 🫡

Arco (5.5/10) Starts on a solid 1st act, but then Act 2-3 got crunched into under 40 mins. The Sound and Aesthetic scream Ghibli-core as advertised, but the core concepts feel more like French Tezuka (robot caretakers, holographic calls, round cars, weather domes).

Alright, let's see one of the two French nominees this year

I gotta give special thanks to Ken Iikura Gross for finding me his Gaogaigar moment. 🫡

Gege is totally capable of cute moments like this, regardless of the direction the story takes.

I've just discovered School Days has a Spanish dub. It is now legit a Telenovella.

Golden Kamuy IV (6/10) Don't get me wrong: the cinema ep is PEAK, and congrats to Tanigaki entering his dad arc. But it says alot that the only time this season was talked about after the delay was the jizz firefight towards the end. It felt like 12 OVAs with the amount of dicking around.

I see why no one talked about Golden Kamuy IV after the delay: it's the only season to feel like a slog to get through

To Be Hero (7/10) Funny enough, THIS feels more like Chinese Gintama than Scissor Seven (which turned into Mob Psycho hitman). Sometimes a bit too crass and the ending twist is clumsy, but its held together by a comfy story about being a better dad and some out-of-pocket jokes.

I've got complicated views regarding my other home 🇰🇷. But when two civilian lives were taken at the hands of its regime, they tore it down and built it anew. When one leader tried bringing it back, they turned him down overnight. 🇺🇸 leaders need that resolve. Abolish ICE.

Kimengumi is quite the interesting specimen as a gag series, because it might actually be the first pure school comedy. Magical girl and sports series definitely tapped in first, but Kimengumi came right between these two and it feels the most like shows I've seen every season.