Welcome back! It’s been quite a while since we last met. Like, a while. How have you been? Yeah, me too. It happens. Back when the days when there had not yet been an insurrection on American soil during the new millennium, and we were only dealing with a deadly worldwide pandemic, we started a wee holiday project of introducing more people in America to the best of what anime, the colloquial U.S. lumping together of (mostly-) Japan’s rich modern animation arts, has to offer. Gone are the days when bootlegged videotapes featuring often-ridiculous, amateur-written subtitles were the only way to get access to the products of an animation industry that could match or beat whatever Disney had on offer. Gone, too, are the days when American studios and audiences alike were so baffled by the concept of animation not aimed at children that shows like The Simpsons or South Park counted as “edgy” merely for being attempted. Animation is once again recognized as a medium that can tell stories for adults as well as it can for children. Read more