SHAFT has had a wild journey from early support roles to defining hits like Madoka and Monogatari. The studio’s history, creative identity, and recent projects reveal both its lasting influence and the challenge of evolving in today’s fast-changing anime industry.

From "Luca", the first Japanese indie short film by Nina (who had previously directed music videos for Ado, Yaosobi, Olivia Rodrigo...). Full 12-min film >> www.catsuka.com/news/2026-02...

got two games to recommend for the ongoing RPG Maker sale: Helen's Mysterious Castle (store.steampowered.com/app/418190/H...) is a cult classic. you don't level up, but you can upgrade weapons and progress further into the game.

indigo child

Almost ten years ago, I wrote about how dot hack changed the way I looked at video games. It is a series that means so much to me & influenced my life in countless ways. One day, I'd like to write about dot hack again. www.rpgsite.net/feature/4875...

A year ago today I published my essay on Thaddeus Tuleja's Tibetan historical fantasy(?) novel LAND OF PRECIOUS SNOW (1977). It's obscure as hell, pretty fascinating, and I even tracked Tad down and interviewed him about this book!

ICMYI: We launched a monthly newsletter breaking down recent developments in the manga and manhwa world. This month: a manga competition, the collapse of an online piracy network, and new laws regarding generative AI in South Korea.

Sayonara Baby by 悄悄对折 Published: 2025-10-10 #sm45495964 #音MAD

@danmorris.bsky.social on masamune shirow manga, @fujoshiunite.bsky.social on snake god bl, and i wrote about mortality

omg everybody go draw a horse this is what the internet was made for gradient.horse

Astro Boy

it is my honor and privilege to post to this webiste the single jpeg that has done the most damage to my everyday vocabulary, "serval is leaning extremely" x.com/airacg005/st...

Hi everyone!!! If you joined for Fate/stay Night, or want to catch up and join, please fill this out: forms.gle/NcwW2cuaG4r5... !!!!!!!! This is for a headcount and checking everyone's reading pace!!!!!!!!! I want to organize this the best I can for you all so I'd appreciate it so much if you did 😃

Perfect Tides: Station to Station is now available on Itch for PC & Mac! You can get it (along with the first Perfect Tides) here: granulac.itch.io/perfect-tide...

hollywood in the news this week. i'll take it?

This year, Yatta-Tachi is really going to ramping up and lock the fuck in. We already launched a manga/manhwa newsletter & next month we are starting a whole new resource. We plan to work closely with more publishers & kick off things that have been simmer in the back burner so y'all get ready!

@startmenu.bsky.social writers joining forces across the internet to review yakuza kiwami 3 & dark ties

yakuza kiwami 3 is an insult to the game rgg has purported to remake, its players, the studio's previous quality output and, bewilderingly, women. oh, and the casting of an admitted sex pest. i'm somewhere between dejection and fury. my review for vgc: www.videogameschronicle.com/review/yakuz...

Technically poor and hurried, devoid of the original's charm, and full of filler content and baffling changes, Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a 20/100, a 2/10, a one-star game. It's a seismic miss that left me questioning my love for the series. My review: www.gamerguides.com/yakuza-kiwam...

Relooted, a game about freeing real African artifacts from Western museums and collections, interrogates history through sharply designed heists. Our review: www.avclub.com/relooted-gam...

It occurs to me that many people don't know about the GameFan coffee incident. In 1993, GameFan published a manic 6-page review of the game Cybermorph that was written while tripping on LSD that somebody put in the office coffee pot The review declared that Cybermorph was the first "real" game

Gonna need everyone to pitch in and tell a couple hundred of their friends to watch the LP of Gabriel Knight 2 that @shirokumahi.me and I did. If you don't, you love fascism. 🤷🏽‍♀️ youtu.be/T7qwFEtWstI

The Girl at the End of the Line explores obsession and forbidden love through two students drawn toward Enoshima. Tender and uneasy, the film stands out as one of 2025’s most surprising coming-of-age stories.

its february 9 and you know what that means. its tasogare's 25th anniversary! maybe ill write down my thoughts and stuff i thought was interesting. i feel like i should because theres almost no english information about this game online

Ironic, as this was the magazine that referred to Pokémon as a "pestilential Ponzi scheme" in 1999, characterising its creator Satoshi Tajiri as a literal monster "His eyes are bloodshot; dark circles ripple beneath them... His monsters are a child's predelictions." He never gave another interview.

on benito, and america

Cure Arcana hasn't even showed up in an episode yet and she's already suffered more than any other Precure character

hidamari skate

let me hop on this wave and recommend some good books on Puerto Rican history for people that feel inspired by Bad Bunny to learn about us, our history, and our culture

FROZEN SOLID DC -- to a degree we seldom see. CWG photographer Kevin Ambrose (@dcstormchaser.bsky.social) visited and photographed the National Mall on Sunday morning -- after two weeks straight of mostly freezing weather. Here are four of his photos.

lost a relative to terminal illness this weekend. don't forget to speak with folks while you still can

wowaka's "rolling girl" (featuring hatsune miku) turns 16 years old this week. sometimes it's still hard to believe wowaka himself's already been gone for almost 7 of them.

Weekly reminder to watch Ikoku Nikki.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa journal with witch

HUGE news, this changes everything I thought Ikoku Nikki was amazing and no one should skip it, but actually, it's better & watching should be mandated by law

I blogged about the decades-long push to make Dragon Quest a mega-hit in the US and Europe, from Nintendo giving away 500k copies of the original to the *multiple* remakes of Dragon Quest 7. Plus: where to start.

Ingo is still in hisui #pla #submas

Super Sentai has now ended its 50 year run

Him ♥️

One of the absolute greatest comics of all time

Land 11 Volumes, Complete Highly Recommend! An interesting story that slowly unravels. Complex and interesting characters. Best to go in blind without knowing much about the plot. Solid ending, just wish there was more!

journal with witch and shiboyugi are my two favorite series of the year so far b/c they are exceptions to this!

If you enjoy Bloodborne you really owe it to yourself to read EM Carroll's WRITHE (it's free) emcarroll.itch.io/writhe

ﾄﾞﾑ🍊

I need to know this guy's DPS. I need to know his tactical niche. How much damage can he tank? How well does he synergize with a Quiggle? HD 1d6+2 or 1d8? Does he get a natural +2 to AC like Shoryu and Dralik?

Finished Fantasy Maiden Wars Maybe the greatest fangame ever made, a true passion project. FMW is a game that loves every facet of both Touhou and SRW. As a huge fan of both, It was engaging both gameplay and writing wise from start to finish, and I loved every second of it.

Vicar Amelia #skeb [ twitch.tv/genczilla ]