Usagi-tei

Akane-banashi streams on Netflix in the US, not Crunchyroll. A high schooler takes up rakugo to clear her father’s name, and the cast performs the routines for real. Here’s where to watch it.

I watched this for the first time in a Tokyo theater in 1995. I was a teenager, the internet was barely a thing, and the word "cyberspace" still

I almost skipped this one. The poster looked too cute, the premise sounded too sweet, and I'd just come off a streak of heavy psychological thrillers.

I have a confession. I don't like overpowered protagonist shows. The whole "unbeatable hero wipes the floor with everyone" premise? It bores me.

Full disclosure: I don't throw around the word "greatest" lightly. As a Japanese anime fan who watched this series week by week when it first aired in 2013, and then…

I almost didn't start this one. Sixty-four episodes felt like a commitment I wasn't sure I wanted to make.

I almost skipped this one. Eight hour-long episodes of a Netflix anime about robots being murdered? Based on an Astro Boy storyline from 1964?

"That's lame." — One throwaway line from an awkward teenage boy, and it stuck in my head for days.

"Lies are the ultimate form of love."—By the time 90 minutes have passed, these words will pierce straight through your heart.

"It was silly, but we were dead serious."—If you spent your youth haunting arcades in the 90s, that single line says everything.