When anime fans make fun of bad animation, they tend to point out frames where characters are drawn “off model” – meaning that they’re way off from the model sheets that dictate what each character should look like. It’s important for artists to stick to these guidelines so the show can keep a clean and consistent look. But what if the director doesn’t want the animation to look clean and consistent? What happens when the art style takes a turn... for the surreal?
If you’ve ever been to the dealer’s room at an American anime convention, you’ve likely perused the pretty pastel products of Tasty Peach Studios. Their boutique-style booth sells unbearably cute plushies, wigs, enamel pins, and other merchandise based on designs by artist and company founder Ryan Zanfei. Her creations often take the form of adorable animals with food motifs, such as mochi kittens called Meowchi, narwhals topped with ice cream called Nomwhals, and a trio of cake-themed foxes. She’s also well-known for utilizing modern crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Patreon to fund some of her projects.
When summer starts to wind down and kids are gearing up to go back to school, Midwestern anime fans know that there’s one last summer tradition to check off their list – have some geeky fun at Matsuricon! This family-friendly convention, despite its modest size of about 6000 paying attendees, has definitely earned its place in the Ohio anime scene. Its three-day schedule is chock-full of industry guest panels, samurai lessons, concerts, and even a charity auction attended (and occasionally conducted) by the visiting voice actors.
Boys love, also known as “shounen-ai” or “yaoi” or “sexy gay anime boys being sexy and gay” (okay, maybe not that last one), is a niche genre that’s seen a huge surge in popularity in recent years. The plots tend to focus on the growing love between two beautiful young men and cater towards a largely female audience. Boys love manga were too obscure and taboo to get more than a handful of anime adaptations in the old days, but now we’ve got plenty to choose from!
The long-running Precure franchise has been a staple of Japanese children’s programming since 2004. It’s less well-known in the West due to its lack of quality English releases, but this sparkly magical girl show is well worth seeking out. Along with its adorable costumes and cutesy themes, the Precure series stands out from the pack because of its heartfelt character moments and its surprisingly hardcore fight scenes.
So you want to check the franchise out; but there’s a problem. Even though you can jump in at any point (since each series stars separate characters in different universes), how are you supposed to know where to start? Well, join us today as we run through some of the best Precure series to get you started on the sparkly path to Cure fandom!
From classics like Sally the Witch all the way to deconstructions like Madoka Magica and Mahou Shoujo Ore, it’s clear that the magical girl genre has been a beloved part of the anime world for a very long time. But strangely enough, the Western world has had very little exposure to one of the most prominent magical girl franchises of the past few decades – Pretty Cure.
Today, we’re going to take a short look at a hidden gem of anime, often overlooked because of its young demographic. But trust us – there’s more to it than just cute costumes and toys. We’re entering the sparkly world of Pretty Cure~!
