Jumping in Headfirst

Starting off with all of its main characters "awakening" in a fantasy world clearly unlike their own, Grimgar evokes memories of Sword Art Online and Log Horizon.   Though there are some differences, are there enough to justify returning to such a recently well-used idea?

Batgirl I keep forgetting we left the flying Batmobile behind in the pre-Flashpoint days. Admittedly though, a flying bike is pretty sweet. Either way, this month's Batgirl features Bluebird and Spoiler helping Batgirl work a leg of a case. As much as Bluebird annoys me as a character and as much as I think Stephanie Brown's the One True Batgirl, I liked this issue. Batgirl's got about as much seniority as Dick Grayson so it's cool to have her show some of the "junior members" around. I DO miss Babs Tarr though--two artists couldn't quite measure up to her art, even if this panel's adorable.

Let's preface all this by saying that Rich could be yanking my chain and we could all be panicking over absolutely nothing.  It's rare--most of the time Bleeding Cool is on point with its biggest rumors--but it's happened before.  To explain: there's a rumor ( started by BC ) that DC is planning on relaunching their entire line from #1, adding some new titles that focus on more of the television/movie properties they'll be using for the next three years, and double-shipping a lot of their biggest sellers.

Active Raid has been described by some as similar to the 2014 series Rail Wars , where a collection of youngsters join a group that protects the Japanese Public Railway system. Having watched the first episode of both, I'd say that I agree: Active Raid is like Rail Wars if it weren't horrendously, depressingly boring.

2016 just got started, and even though the fall season is largely a mystery, there's still a lot to look forward to in the way of good TV.  Possibly even too much, which is why I tried to narrow this down to the seven best series--and three honorable mentions--coming to the screen this year.

Phantom World is probably the clearest example of what the otaku fanbase has done to anime. It's an anime with a relatively novel concept and a great way of explaining it, but falls prey to having to adhere to classic "ecchi" tropes and situations. The series takes place in a world where a virus infects the entire human race, fundamentally altering our brainwaves to allow us to view the supernatural inhabitants that share the world with us. These inhabitants, called Phantoms, can be anything from cute mini-sized fairies to giant, malevolent demons. Humans try their best to live in harmony with the Phantoms, but when that's impossible, intervention is required. Enter our main characters, part of a school club that deals with sealing phantoms. Haruhiko, a young boy with the ability to seal phantoms after sketching them, whose intellect offers Intel on the various Phantoms they encounter. Also, his friend Ruru, a Phantom herself who happens to be a little pixie g...

It's still early enough in the year to do Most Anticipated Lists, right?   So, expect to see them for the next week or so.  We're going to kick things off with films because for me that's as easy as it gets.  Pile all the superhero films and a couple of choice comedies in and bam, that's done.   I'm skipping January because frankly it looks terrifyingly dull, so let's just start with February and go from there?

Divine Gate's plot is the kind of gibberish that you only get from anime. 

When I started the PSO2 anime, I expected a Sword Art Online clone--something like Log Horizon but nowhere near as clever or with as detailed a display of MMO mechanics, classes, and gameplay.   The opening minutes seemed to confirm my suspicions...and then the OP finished, and suddenly I was plunged into your stereotypical high school setting, complete with it's own Omnipotent Student Council. 

After hem-hawing about for a few days, I finally sat down to watch this "special preview" of the first episode of Macross Delta.  I'd checked about a few forums for comments and giggled at how people seemed absolutely dumbfoundead at the first episode of this newest entry in the Macross franchise, wondering if series creator Shoji Kawamori had finally lost it.  I mean, magical girls in Macross?  How absurd is that?