The Hozuna Blog
Reviews, deep dives, and what's new in anime: where to watch it, and why it's worth your time.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Review: Trigger's Neon Tragedy
Studio Trigger turned a troubled video game's megacity into ten episodes of chrome-plated heartbreak. The result is one of Netflix's best.
The Long-Runner: Why Some Anime Keep Going
Anime that seem endless follow a form of their own, shaped by weekly broadcast economics. Filler is part of the cost of keeping that machine running.
CloverWorks and the Shape of Modern Anime
CloverWorks handles warm romance as comfortably as gothic horror. It also gambles on formal experiments that go viral, leaving its refusal to settle on one signature as the best case for the studio.
The Seven Deadly Sins Review: A Terrific Fantasy Opening That Later Seasons Failed to Match
A-1 Pictures made the first season a warm, quick-moving adventure through Britannia, led by framed knights and a tavern keeper with frightening hidden power. The later switch to Studio Deen turned the franchise into a famous production warning.
Studio Pierrot: The Home of the Shonen Titans
The "filler factory" reputation gets Studio Pierrot exactly backwards: endurance, not sakuga, is the craft it mastered, and Bleach is the proof.
My Hero Academia Review: A Big-Hearted Underdog Shonen That Earns Its Plus Ultra
My Hero Academia rides Deku's underdog charm and Bones' explosive set-pieces to become the best modern gateway shonen, even as its long run picks up tournament bloat and a few later-season lulls.
DanMachi Review: The Ridiculous Title Hides a Solid Dungeon Adventure
Behind the absurd title is an earnest, carefully built dungeon adventure about a broke rookie fighting his way up from the bottom of a fantasy world run by gods. The fanservice comes with it.
From Webtoon to Anime: How Manhwa Became an Adaptation Mainstay
Korean webtoons have become anime's second serialization pipeline. The resulting shows deserve to be judged by how well they translate the source, not by where that source was published.
The Price of Fame: Anime's Darkest Look at Stardom
Oshi no Ko saves its harshest accusation for the audience that pays for a corrupt entertainment industry. That is what makes it anime's darkest story about stardom.