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From time to time, an anime series will release a spin-off. These anime tackle familiar characters from a new angle. Sometimes this places beloved characters in a darker universe, while other times characters are given a much needed break from the chaos their canon universe puts them through.

Several of these anime, such as Isekai Quartet, have become quite popular with fans. However, some of these anime that deserve to be well-loved have unfortunately slipped under the radar. These unique takes on popular anime deserve the chance to finally shine brighter than the original without slipping into obscurity.

Not Every Meister Is a Master in Soul Eater Not! Not Currently Streaming

Soul Eater Not! takes the gothic shonen anime adventure of Soul Eater and replaces it with peaceful school days. Maka Albarn and Soul Eater Evans may be a proper Meister and Weapon pair, being part of the Eat — Especially Advantaged Talent — class.

Any action-oriented anime needs an outstanding final battle to end the story on a strong note, and plenty of finished manga have delivered on that front. In some cases, a manga's final fight is equally strong in anime form, while some action manga have an incomplete anime adaptation or never got one at all. Manga readers tend to get a more satisfying experience with any action story, being able to read the entire adventure to the end.

A good action manga series needs more than powerful techniques to create a great final battle, however. It's also important for the manga to create intense and compelling stakes, making it perfectly clear what horrible things will happen if one side or the other loses. Those final fights also benefit from strong character drama, deep themes, and perhaps some lingering questions or moral ambiguity to encourage manga readers to keep pondering the ending...

Takeshi Obata, the official artist behind Weekly Shonen Jump's Death Note manga series, is celebrating an important anniversary with a brand-new illustration of Misa Amane, one of the story's key characters.

Per a recent X (formerly Twitter) post from Obata's official account, fans got a look at the new Misa Amane artwork, showcasing the fan-favorite character in a stark black-and-white style. The post is captioned, "This marks the 40th anniversary of [Obata's] Tezuka semi-finalist award. We will be introducing many of his works and sharing the latest news... To commemorate the opening of our account, we received an original illustration from Obata-sensei!"

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A scientific research group announces the discovery of a new fish species that bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous Ghibli warrior princess.

Death Note's Takeshi Obata Reveals New Misa Amane Artwork in First Social Media Post...

Any anime series, aside from episodic and intentionally aimless slice-of-life series, will benefit greatly from excellent pacing to keep the story moving along smoothly. Series in the slice-of-life genre are at times the exception since they're about the journey rather than the destination, so they lack major story beats to hit. However, most other genres rely a great deal on solid pacing to remain entertaining. If the story is rushed, the results are unsatisfying, and if the story is drawn out, audiences might get restless.

The sweet spot is when a well-paced anime series delivers plot twists and character development often enough to keep things moving, while also taking time to let those developments sink in before the next one arrives. Good pacing also means an anime will spend quality time on important scenes or phases of someone's life, while skimming over unimportant passages of time to get to the meat of the matter.

Every anime fan has an old and timeless manga series that they can never put down. Fullmetal Alchemist and Pandora Hearts are a couple examples of manga with a loyal fanbase that remains enthralled to this day. There might be questionable elements here and there, but very little can take away from the exhilarating tale that unfolded with every panel and speech bubble.

Some manga, however, have problems so big that bringing up the title or the author alone opens a can of worms that no one wants to clean up. There are a plethora of once prized and now problematic oldies that are difficult to speak of today without getting a strange look or two because times have changed and society has simply grown more aware and mindful of the kind of media they consume.

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Van Life Manga Migratory Birds and Snail Confirms TV Anime: Release Date Predictions Explored - Main Image

The roster of slice-of-life anime is getting a new and exciting addition, as the release date of the Migratory Birds and Snail TV anime is set to be announced soon.

It’s about time for a van life manga series to come to life and take viewers on a thrilling road trip across Japan!

Migratory Birds and Snail Gets Greenlit for Anime Adaptation

Anime and manga fans are winning this year with the announcement of the Migratory Birds and Snail anime adaptation and the manga series’ return after its four-year hiatus.

There’s no promotional video yet for the upcoming slice-of-life anime, but a celebratory and/or announcement visual for the anime has been released on the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the manga series.

In addition, the author, Makoto Takatsu, also...

The following contains spoilers for various manga series.

Plenty of Japanese manga series and one-volume stories have happy endings that can make a reader feel good about themselves when the story is over. This is especially true in shonen and shojo manga series, which nearly always end with joyful triumph and accomplishments, from defeating the final villain to getting together with a lover to getting into one's intended college. However, there are some manga series that take another route, denying their characters a happy ending that they may or may not deserve.

Such manga series tend to be grim and dark, and some are downright subversive by refusing to end on a high note. Such manga series may have a bittersweet ending that's not quite a typical "happily ever after," and some manga series are even rougher, ending with a dark or twisted ending that challenges the reader to think...

Romance manga with adult leads offers a refreshing change from high school love stories, allowing mangaka to explore more complex components in mature relationships. Perfect World and Tokyo Tarareba Girls explore bittersweet complexities and self-discovery in adult romance. My Androgynous Boyfriend and Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You feature adorable couples with vibrant chemistry.

The romance genre has always been popular among anime and manga fans, with plenty of diverse stories and couples to keep fans entertained. However, many mature manga readers can often run into burnout from reading high school romances over and over again. Thankfully, due to the diverse nature of romance manga, there are plenty of excellently written series with adult leads.

Having adult characters taking the spotlight in a romance series is a great opportunity for mangaka to push their creativity, especially in a slice-of-life setting, by tackling very real issues that adult couples face. Whether...

A number of people in Amp, including this author, have a soft spot for Kiyohiko Shibukawa, an actor who has proven a true chameleon in the way he jumps from one part to another, with equal success. Shibukawa, born July 2, 1974, actually started his career as a fashion model under the name Kee. He started acting in TV with “Twinkle”, in 1998, and he got his first role in cinema in Toshiaki Toyoda's “Pornostar”, with him actually accompanying the director in most of his later works, something that actually happened with the rest of the filmmakers he was casted by over the years. These include, among others, Takashi Miike, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and Eiji Uchida. Currently, his credits number 160, with the majority of them being non-protagonist roles, which, still, though do not prevent him from shining quite brightly, particularly to the more “trained” eye.

Without further ado, here are 10 of his most iconic performances,...

Here we go again. Matt and Ross Duffer, the duo behind the Netflix powerhouse "Stranger Things," have announced the formation of their new production company, Upside Down Pictures. The studio will produce series for the streaming platform and to mark the special occasion, they announced a few of the projects they have in store.

One of these projects might come as a shock to anime fans, and that is a live-action reboot of "Death Note." Before everyone groans, this will not be a sequel or continuation of the "Death Note" film Netflix already released. However, it is slated to be the newest adaptation of Tsugumi...

The post Death Note Reboot Series: Everything We Know So Far appeared first on /Film.

Child abuse is a topic that both society and cinema have been dealing more intently with during the last decade, with Japanese filmmakers in particular being especially pointed in their remarks, in films like “Sunk Into the Womb” for example. Keiichiro Sawa, however, focuses on an extension of this issue, by presenting the blights children who have suffered from abuse face when they grow up.

Resident of Alice is streaming on TodoiF

Tsugumi was sexually abused by her father as a child, and is gripped by regret and trauma for not telling her mother. Among the repercussions of her abuse is that she also suffers from “Alice in Wonderland Syndrome” a rare neurological disorder characterized by distortions of visual perception, the body image, and the experience of time. It is during one of this crises that she stumbles upon Kenji, a young man who has just started working in a hotel,...