Vrai Kaiser Sep 8, 2022. 7 minute read
The Best Anime You’ve Missed Since 2020
The anime industry has been going through hard times since COVID, just like everyone else. We’ll likely be seeing the effects of 2020’s lockdown for years to come, as shows that would’ve just entered production that year begin to find their way to air and studios struggle with the additional…
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TV/FILM
Vrai Kaiser Jul 4, 2022. 7 minute read
LGBTQ Anime to Watch for (Almost) Every Mood
I personally believe that queer anime is something to be enjoyed 365 days a year, but Pride is a great opportunity to let people know about titles that might’ve escaped their notice. While LGBTQ+ media still makes up a tiny sliver of the 30-plus anime that are made every season (especially…
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FEATURES
Vrai Kaiser Jun 14, 2022. 6 minute read
‘Revue Starlight the Movie’ is the Best-Looking Film This Year
Back in 2018, seasonal anime fans were treated to the world of Revue Starlight, a 12-episode marvel that combined the world of theater with life-or-death allegorical sword fights, musical numbers, and an ominous giraffe. Revue Starlight is a full-fledged franchise in Japan, with re-edited film recaps of the show, multiple…
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REVIEWS
Vrai Kaiser Oct 19, 2021. 5 minute read
‘Midnight Mass’ Review: Spoiler, The Church is the Real Monster
To imagine the mood of Midnight Mass, the latest work from Netflix darling Mike Flanagan, you need only conjure the words of John Mulaney: “Now, I was raised Catholic. I don’t know if you can tell that from the everything about me.” While Flanagan has become something of a household…
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REVIEWS
Vrai Kaiser Jul 15, 2021. 2 minute read
ODDTAXI is a Perfect Ensemble Noir About Funny Animals
It’s a tough world out there for furry anime. Sure, there will never be a shortage of shows where basically human teens sport tails and ears to frequently horny ends, but instances of fully anthropomorphized animals are generally expected to be intrinsically Saying Something with their use of animal-people. Given…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Jul 13, 2021. 11 minute read
What the Hell Happened to Wonder Egg Priority?
This piece discusses suicide, transphobia, sexual assault, pedophilia, and rape apologism at length. Wonder Egg Priority premiered to dazzling praise back in January, with almost film-quality animation and a creative team of talented newcomers either beginning their careers or stepping into new roles. Its story, about four adolescent girls each…
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FEATURES
Vrai Kaiser Jul 1, 2021. 2 minute read
Nagata Kabi’s Latest Book Tackles the Cost of Writing Nonfiction
A Nagata Kabi book is not unlike a Bo Burnham special: a compellingly personal bit of art that leaves you slightly terrified that you should be calling into a crisis hotline on the artist’s behalf. Nagata shot to acclaim in 2016 when her autobiographical webcomic was published in a printed…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Jun 29, 2021. 3 minute read
Enjoy the Hunky Queer Magical Boys of Fairy Ranmaru
My favorite anime are the ones where I sit down every week and gleefully scream “what the fuck is this?!” at the top of my lungs. The sheer number of shows being made every season means that there are a lot of genre-followers and comfort food offerings, not because of…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Jun 3, 2021. 3 minute read
Boys Run the Riot is a Manga by and for Trans Men
To this day, one of the best-known manga about growing up trans is Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son, a ground-breaking title that ran from 2002 to 2015 which followed a group of kids from grade school through graduation. Though parts of it still ring powerfully true, particularly for trans women, it’s…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Apr 15, 2021. 2 minute read
Otherside Picnic is a Passable Anime Based on a Great Horror Novel
Few winter anime announcements made me more excited than Otherside Picnic, an action horror series about two college-aged women — Sorawo, a loner who studies urban legends; and Toriko, a survivalist looking for her missing mentor — who hunt cryptids in a strange cosmic horror otherworld and eventually fall in love.…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Apr 15, 2021. 3 minute read
Cells at Work: CODE BLACK is a Cell’s-Eye View of Labor Abuse
I didn’t have high expectations for Cells at Work: CODE BLACK. The original Cells is an earnest edutainment series about the anthropomorphized workings of the human body, where the invasive germs look like Power Rangers monsters and the characters deal with ailments like “allergies” or “sunstroke.” CODE BLACK, meanwhile, was…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Jan 11, 2021. 3 minute read
Twittering Birds Never Fly is Engrossing Gay Yakuza Melodrama
Among its many horrors, there was one small silver lining to this year: the transition to digital screenings of new films meant that film fans outside of a small cluster of major cities finally had the opportunity to watch limited run and festival films. This was true in the world…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Jan 6, 2021. 8 minute read
9 Anime that Need Blu-Rays Now that Sony Owns Crunchyroll
Sony recently announced its acquisition of streaming webservice Crunchyroll, in a move that brings the majority of western anime streaming under one roof. While there are still a handful of outliers, including Netflix, classic title refuge RetroCrush, and niche holdout Sentai Filmworks, Sony has essentially secured a monopoly on the…
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LISTS
Vrai Kaiser Jan 5, 2021. 2 minute read
Sleepy Princess in Demon Castle is the Perfect Quarantine Comedy
Ah, 2020. The year of quarantine. A dumpster fire previously unmatched, which feels like I’m challenging 2021. While being stuck indoors is a comparative privilege, given how many workers still had to go to customer-facing jobs during an ongoing plague, that doesn’t make it any less of an agonizing experience.…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Aug 28, 2020. 6 minute read
Darkest Dungeon is a Landlord Simulator
Something about the apocalyptic state of the world has recently sent me once more into the arms of cosmic horror. It can be appealing to watch society fall apart in a way the viewer can plan for, with trigger warnings that can be verified and an ending that can be…
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FEATURES
Vrai Kaiser Aug 20, 2020. 2 minute read
‘Scream, Queen!’ Revisits the Gayest Nightmare on Elm Street Movie
Last year, streaming service Shudder gained critical and audience acclaim for its in-house documentary Horror Noire, which centered Black voices both in front of and behind the camera. Earlier this year it debuted Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, a deep dive into slasher sequel Nightmare on Elm Street…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Jul 10, 2020. 6 minute read
In Ascendance of a Bookworm, “Women’s Work” Changes the World
The isekai (“another world”) genre is a staple of anime. The definition is broad, fluid, and constantly being argued over, but in general it involves a protagonist being transported to another world and trapped there, whereupon adventure ensues. The genre gained its official name with the boom/revival arguably kicked off…
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FEATURES
Vrai Kaiser Jul 8, 2020. 2 minute read
Gal & Dino is a Media Mash-up for Your Inner Stoner
Pop Team Epic took Twitter by storm a few years ago, transforming the beloved four-panel comics into an aggressive and audacious multimedia experience that used rapid-fire punchlines and multimedia segments over a mere eleven minutes to create a surreal experience. Then, for the truly patient, it repeated those jokes for…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser Jun 26, 2020. 2 minute read
My Next Life as a Villainess is as Perfect as its Bisexual Disaster Heroine
While Ascendance of a Bookworm has taken on the role of an isekai series with a well-realized fantasy world starring a heroine slowly working to bringing down the class system, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! has a much more straightforward goal: to be a…
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TRENDING
Vrai Kaiser May 28, 2020. 2 minute read
Magia Record is the Aliens to Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s Alien
Mobile game adaptations are a staple of modern anime, with one or two popping up almost every single season. While not inherently bad, they tend to share a series of predictable shortcomings: some, like trouble picking a personality for a blank-slate protagonist or weeding out early gamified repetition, are hurdles…
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TRENDING