The Otaku Exhibition

Tag: sports

  • Blue Lock Review: The Anti-Anime

    Directed by Tatsuaki Watanabe Produced by 8bit Streaming on Crunchyroll I have already written a glowing essay where I praise just about everything in Blue Lock and then some, and you can read that here. It’s one of my favorite manga of all time, I’ve made no secret of it. If the anime managed to…

  • I’m Obsessed with Blue Lock

    Every season, I pick up a couple of volumes of manga, in an effort to learn a bit more about the anime I’m going to review. It’s how I got into Horimiya, The Case Study of Vanitas, and more, but this time, something was different. When I took that first volume of Blue Lock off…

  • Blue Box Review: Shonen Jump’s Sports Romcom Scores

    Art and Story by Koji Miura All chapters available on the Shonen Jump app I’ve been doing my best to catch more manga in the early stages so it feels like I’m actually reviewing a new series, not just what’s out there and popular. Unfortunately, that’s pretty hard if you’re not fluent in Japanese; by…

  • How Haikyuu Does Character Growth on the Court

    Haikyuu is in many ways the definitive sports anime. Not the first, but no sports manga since Slam Dunk and Eyeshield 21 has had this level of influence and popularity. Despite a simple concept and equally plain execution, it managed to reach the upper echelon of anime, all while centering on a relatively niche sport.…

  • Re-Main Review: Does MAPPA Sink or Swim?

    Studio: MAPPA Director: Masafumi Nishida Streaming on: Funimation For better or worse, MAPPA has become one of the most dominant studios in the anime studio, and a household name in the anime community. After producing popular and well-regarded anime for much of the 2010s, they experienced an explosion in popularity thanks to their high-profile adaptations…

  • Backflip!! Review: Not Just Another Haikyuu Rip-Off

    Studio: Zexcs Director: Toshimasa Kuroyanagi Streaming on: Crunchyroll You cannot overstate the importance of Haikyuu, and the impact it has had across spheres of influence. It catapulted the popularity of boys’ school volleyball, with a defining point in Japanese membership skyrocketing since the manga was first published in 2012. It had subtler impact in the…

  • Haikyuu!! To The Top Season 2 Review: More Of The Same Is A Compliment

    Director: Susuma Mitsunaka Studio: Production I.G. Streaming on: Crunchyroll To be clear, I am not a fan of sports. I understand the appeal, having played them as a kid and watching the occasional local game in high school, but I can’t put myself into them fully. I think it is because professional sports rely on…