Octopath Traveler 1 & 2 Game Review
Square Enix’s experimental RPGs Octopath Traveler I and II are now on Nintendo Switch 2, but is the short-story format and split narrative style all it’s cracked up to be?
― The Octopath Traveler series occupies a strange place in the Square Enix canon. It lacks the superstar power of the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest franchises, but at the same time it’s not a cult darling like Live a Live or Vagran…
Bringing the ‘Art of Manga’ to the Brooklyn Museum
Curator Rousmaniere said, “What Brooklyn has done is really highlighted each of the artists in their own individual fashion, really beautifully spacing it out, and I think it’s the most immersive format they could have done.”
― The Art of Manga exhibit, which made its debut at the de Young Museum in San Francisco last year, arrives on the East Coast at the Brooklyn Museum. The collection of 658 artwo…
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Game Review
Like Sky 1st, Daybreak, and every other Trails that I have had the good fortune to enjoy so far, Sky 2nd is a darn good RPG and a darn good game.
― I am a latecomer to the Trails series. I started last year with 2021’s Trails Through Daybreak. It got its hooks in me (as a longtime film dweeb, I have to salute any game that sets an extended hunk of its story at a film festival). I have since completed…
It’s time to start planning your next trip to Japan
Anime News Network is going to Japan again, and we want to bring you with us. Join us as we weave through the our secret spots in the Tokyo/Kanto area. Our tour includes spots you won’t find on the tourist guides as well as behind the scenes visits to spots closed to the public.
― Announcing our third ANN in Japan tour! Anime News Network and Pac Set tours are teaming up once again to offer a very sp…
Happy Kanako’s Killer Life Manga Gets TV Anime Next April
Gintama’s Shinji Takamatsu helms comedy about woman’s new gig as contract killer
― TOHO Animation announced on Saturday that Toshiya Wakabayashi’s Happy Kanako’s Killer Life (Shiawase Kanako no Koroshiya Seikatsu) manga is receiving a television anime adaptation next April. Shinji Takamatsu (Gintama) is directing the anime at the studio Drive and overseeing the series scripts. Yoshiyuki Ōkubo (Teppen…
This Week in Games – Retro Jets, and EVO Reveals
Even AI-generated nonsense can’t rain on Portland Retro Gaming Expo’s parade. Plus some reveals from EVO France!
― Welcome back, folks! Portland Retro Gaming Expo has come and gone—and make no mistake, we’ll talk about that. But I also beat the remastered Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver over the weekend. It’s very short, and you can see the empty spaces where there would’ve been expansions for the game—t…
Interview: Chrono Trigger Lead Programmer on Directing His Own Time Travel JRPG, Eternal Anima
Director Katsuhisa Higuchi reached out to his old coworkers from Square and gathered other JRPG veterans to make his new retro-inspired adventure.
― At Marvelous’ Pre-Tokyo Game Show 2026 event, I was able to spend an hour playing Eternal Anima, an upcoming time travel JRPG made in the vein of classics like Chrono Trigger and the early Final Fantasy games. In fact, it’s even being made by people who …
Interview: A Deep Dive into the Creation and Philosophy of The Ninth Jedi
Producer Hitoshi Ito and Directors Kenji Kamiyama and Shunsuke Tada speak on the origins of the color-changing lightsabers, the the “State of Nothingness,” and so much more.
― Shortly after the release of Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi, Anime New Network had the opportunity to speak at length with three of the men responsible for Production I.G’s Star Wars anime: Supervising Director Ke…
Hands-on with Eternal Anima: A Classic JRPG for the Modern Era
It’s not a new Chrono Trigger but it may be the next best thing.
― Have you ever felt yourself longing for a classic 90s JRPG made with modern day technology? If so, Eternal Anima is that game—and it has the pedigree to back it up. Directed by Katsuhisa Higuchi (who worked as a programmer on the early Final Fantasy games as well as Chrono Trigger) with a story written by Kazushige Nojima (scenario wr…
Narumi’s Week at Work Anime Series Review
Kaiju No. 8: Narumi’s Week at Work is a charming set of shorts that hits a bit above its weight class without being a total knockout.
― It’s pretty easy to recommend Narumi’s Week at Work for the simple matter of how short it is. There are four total episodes with lengths between 2 and 4 minutes each. Watching and clicking and buffering is probably a total of fifteen minutes out of your day to watch …
This Week in Anime – Incomprehensible Legend Toshiki Inoue
Come meet the man behind L and Light’s homoerotic foot massage scene.
― Come meet the man behind L and Light’s homoerotic foot massage scene. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network. @RiderStrike @BWProwl @LucasDeRuyter @vestenet Chris Coop, Jyuo Mujin Dandivine is out this season, and readers oughta know we’re excited …
Fired? But I Maintain All the Software! Volume 1 Light Novel Review
Corporate revenge meets cosplay coding lessons in this back-to-basics critique of modern working culture.
― Fired? But I Maintain All the Software! is unabashedly a corporate revenge fantasy. Ai has witnessed her department be decimated beyond operational ability for years, and now she gets to watch from the outside as the company’s ignorant CEO reaps what he has sown. For any reader who has suffered…
Interview: The Massive Manga Subgenre You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
English speakers have a major blind spot when it comes to the sheer scope of a certain manga genre: mahjong.
― If you’re reading this, you don’t know manga as well as you think you do. There is a huge subset of manga of which English translations have barely scratched the surface. English speakers have an enormous blind spot when it comes to the sheer scope of a certain existing manga genre: mahjong….
