Category: Random Thoughts

John’s show and tell of his latest purchases from Mandarake.

Check out the handful of new items I purchased from Mandarake of Japan.

I placed a new order with Amazon Japan and also another order with Mandarake because Mandarake offered an exceptionally scarce manga key issue that I couldn’t resist purchasing.

I’m back again to share another selection of unique and novel anime items delivered from Japan. Highlights in this batch including the cameo first appearance of Piccolo and

For the curious, I share what items I most recently acquired from Mandarake of Japan. Apologies for me looking a bit trashy. I’m a lazy, aging hermit. It’s

On my adjunct professor salary, I don’t get to buy anime collectables as often as I’d like to. So these days I have to prioritize interesting and unusual

I’m amused by the degree of satiric, hyperbolic offense that YouTube anime critic Kenny Lauderdale felt about the 1990 OVA Kentoushi. In an ironic way, I’m somewhat grateful

Apart from the obvious parallels including police spinners, neon umbrella rods, and replicants with red reflections in their pupils, the Blade Runner: Black Lotus anime appears to contain

For a while I’d been thinking that the anime production industry had become a bit stale. I haven’t seen a lot of dramatic technical or tectonic evolution in

The first episode of the Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! anime television series, adapted from the popular manga by Take, demonstrates that even within the era of anime produced for

Part of the reason I enjoy watching anime I’m unfamiliar with is the rare occasional discovery of forgotten gems. The Yankee Reppu-tai OVA series is one such forgotten

I’ve typically never been highly enthused by any anime created by either of the Fujiko Fujio team. Typically their manga and subsequent anime adaptations have either felt redundant,

I’ve related my prominent recollections of AN Entertainment’s dabbling in licensing anime. But I forgot to include the anecdote about our aborted work on character merchandising. I don’t

For little reason in particular I thought to myself that perhaps some people may find interesting or curious my select and limited memories of AN Entertainment’s experiences with

I decided to try out buying merchandise from a different Japanese company, Suruga-ya. Like buying from Mandarake, the experience wasn’t quite as effortless as I would have preferred,