In the opening scene of Studio Trigger’s BNA (Brand New Animal), beastman protagonist Michiru hides in breathless silence in an air vent while a group of faceless delinquents defaces a poster nearby. Michiru stares at the poster after they’ve passed on and it’s safe for her to emerge. …

A thought experiment: You’ve taken a mystery novel out of the library, and you’re almost at the end. As you curl up with a nice cup of tea and prepare to read the last chapter, your mind is whirring with theories and questions — you’re pretty sure you’re supposed to…

Promare, the first feature-length movie offering from Studio Trigger, is one of those things that I first heard of as a gradual tide of tweets I didn’t quite understand. Bits of fanart and references that went over my head; people lamenting the rather limited US release because they’d just driven…

(Warning! This piece contains major spoilers for Promare. Read on at your own risk!) The first image of Promare is a triangle constrained inside a rectangle, distorted and maimed as the walls close in around it. There’s a place for subtlety in art, but there’s also a place for distilled…

I burst into tears at the end of episode three of Sarazanmai. Queer storytelling is important to me for so many reasons, both personal and sociological. I spend so much of my energy shouting from the rooftops about all the complex, intricately layered, purposefully ambiguous narrative and linguistic tools that…

One of the best depictions of an intense adolescent crush that I’ve ever seen is in the middle of episode 28 of Hikaru no Go. Eighth grader and professional go player Akira Toya has just finished his match in round one of the Young Lions tournament. The camera lingers on…