A new chapter for LiA begins... Read more
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LiA Bespoke Project: Honoriffic!
It's fair to say that honorifics play an outsized role in the Japanese language. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – Pachinko: Balls Out
You may think you know pachinko, but you probably don't know the full story. I sure don't.
LiA Bespoke Project – The Tournament Arc
When you've watches hundreds and hundreds of series like I have, how are you supposed to recall all of them on demand?
LiA Bespoke Project: Yakyuu For You
It may be American’s national pastime, but baseball is more popular in Japan these days than it is in the U.S..
LiA Bespoke Project – Hanko? You’re Welcome!
If you want quirky, Japan is the culture for you. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Omake – Ranking Rumiko
I could easily have gone five deep just with Inuyasha.
LiA Bespoke Project: Itadakimasu! – Japan’s Food Culture
The Japanese have certainly become quite sophisticated foodies, but it wasn’t always that way.
LiA Bespoke Project – New Year’s in Japan
Akemashite Omedettou. Read more
Protected: LiA Bespoke Project – The Chrysanthemum Taboo
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
LiA Bespoke Project: Dessert – The Perfect Dinner (and Companions)
The food and drink is important, but so is the company.
LiA Bespoke Project – Live-action Anime on Stage and Screen
Anime and manga has another side, little known in the West. Live-action animanga is a huge and lucrative industry in Japan.
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga
The people have spoken. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Tournament Arcs Overtime – Best Battles
As a companion piece to the main tournament arcs article, Nicc asked me to include some of my favorite battles from anime.
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga
It goes without saying that this list was incredibly difficult to put together. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – Tying the Knot in Japan
As is so often the case, Japan's relationship with the spiritual is quite unique.
LiA Bespoke Project: Natsumatsuri – the Summer Festival in Anime and Life
Natsumatsuri which have been part of the fabric of Japanese life for centuries and anime virtually since it started. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga List
The people have spoken. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – Truth in Advertising: The Japanese Konbini
Finally, an institution that lives up to its name.
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga – #10
In many ways, this is the perfect sports manga. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Tying the Knot – Extra Marital Affairs
A series is about more than the protagonists.
LiA Bespoke Project – Anime Pals From Around the World
Anime may be a Japanese medium, but its settings know no borders.
LiA Bespoke Project – Anime’s Top 5(ish) Product Placements
The recent overload of Suntory self-promotion in Bartender prompted a discussion of product placement in anime.
LiA Bespoke Project: Best of the 2000’s in Anime – Project Engage!
Let's get noughty. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Hello, Goodbye – Anime’s Best First and Final Episodes – #5
The hardest thing about this topic is trying to remember - in this case, all the first and last episodes I’ve really loved.
LiA Bespoke Project: Yakyuu For You Extra Innings – Ballpark Food
And no ghost runner either.
LiA Bespoke Project : A BokuYaba Senryuu For Dark Flame Master
With 136 brilliant BokuYaba chapters in the books, how am I supposed to limit myself to 17 syllables and no spoilers?
LiA Bespoke Project: Best of the 2000’s in Anime
This project would be really interesting to take on. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: The Tournament Arc Double-Overtime – The Olympics
You gotta love sports.
LiA Bespoke Project : The Top 10 Sports Anime – Honorable Mention
LiA Bespoke is back. Once again the benefactor is the incredibly generous LiA MVP Nicc. And the commission this time is a straightforward one.
LiA Bespoke Project: The Music Never Stopped – Anime’s Top Soundtracks
What a subject to tackle.
LiA Bespoke Project: Ayakashi, Mononoke, Youkai – What’s in a Name?
October. Halloween, Beltane - the occult is in the air.
LiA Bespoke Project: Hello, Goodbye – Anime’s Best First and Final Episodes (Wrap-up)
As always, whenever one compiles a "best of" (or personal favorites) list, what's not on it draws as much attention as what is.
LiA Bespoke Project: The 2000-2009 Anime Top 10 – Honorable Mention
Any Top 10 list is, by nature, highly personal. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Automatic For the People – The Japanese Vending Machine
Not all the legends are true, but the true ones are amazing enough.
LiA Bespoke Project : The Top 5 College Anime (for Dark Flame Master)
This is another one of those requests that sounds easy but it actually maddeningly difficult.
LiA Bespoke Project: It’s a Rumic World – The Career of Takahashi Rumiko
When you’d almost universally referred to only by your given name, that’s a mark of high status indeed.
LiA Bespoke Project: Good Things Come in Small Packages – Top 5 Short Anime
This is a format anime can do extremely well.
LiA Bespoke Project : That Niche (You Know the One I Mean) – Top 10
You've heard met talk about a certain "niche" on the schedule, and it's easier to give examples of it than to define it.
Announcement: “Project: Revamp 2025”
It’s a new year (kind of), and we have long since been teasing you about the big things we have in store for the future of the site;…
Nibiiro no Hako no Naka de Review
Drama: In the Blunt Box / In The Dark Gray BoxRomaji: Nibiiro no Hako no Naka deJapanese: 鈍色の箱の中でDirector: Shinji KumaWriter: Tomohiro Shinohara (manga), Haruka OkitaActors: Sayu Kubota, Riku…
●ANNOUNCEMENT● THE COMPLETE WORKS PROJECT
Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira, Bibliography, Otomo, Animation, Manga, Steamboy, Japanimation,
●ANNOUNCEMENT● AKIRA new anime project started!
Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira, Bibliography, Otomo, Animation, Manga, Steamboy, Japanimation,
Lia - Tori no Uta
So...Nintendo announced their newest console, the Nintendo Switch 2. Yeah, its $450, but I can get around that by having my parents buy it for my birthday, which…
Lia - Tori no Uta
WHAAAAAAAAT?!??! THERES GONNA BE A NEW ANNE OF GREEN GABLES ANIME IN SPRING 2025?!?!? HOLY SHIT YAAAAAAAAY LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! And Im still not even finished with the English…
Ao no Hako (Blue Box) – 14
If I hear a complaint most often about Blue Box, it's that everything (generally they mean the romance) takes too long to develop.
Ao no Hako (Blue Box) – 06
This passage of the series is pretty much a slog for me.
Ao no Hako (Blue Box) – 05
With Blue Box, you just have to take the bitter with the sweet.
Ao no Hako (Blue Box) – 23
It strikes me that the things I like about this series are the things that drive most fans crazy. And the things that drive me crazy are the…
Ao no Hako (Blue Box) – 13
We start out the cour with a very strong episode decidedly light on the tropism Blue Box leans into a bit too much of the time.
Ao no Hako (Blue Box) – 18
Amazing how fast a dream can turn into a nightmare... Read more