Welcome to a very special Valentine's Day edition of The Owl in the Rafters! This week I'm going over the career of an anime director and one-man animation team who took the industry by surprise nearly a decade ago now. This man is none other than Makoto Shinkai, the anime prodigy lauded with the title "The New Miyzaki" by several reviewers. This name may not ring too many bells with Western Audiences, but his debut short film, ...

Welcome to the Owl in the Rafters! In my past two updates I went over the careers of two very talented but sadly under appreciated artists: the first being Komi Naoshi, author and artist of the little known and short lived serial title Double Arts that ran in the weekly Shounen Jump for just 6 months, and the second being Yuusuke Murata, the artist of Eyeshield 21 a sadly overlooked sports title with more general appeal than the subject ...

Tyto, here! Welcoming you all to another installation of The Owl in the Rafters. Last time I covered the little known but much loved underdog artist/author, Komi Naoshi, and his lineup of heart warming one-shots, and one very special, but sadly short-lived serial title. I praised Naoshi as an up and coming artist to keep an eye for in the future of JUMP magazine, and this week I've got another buzz name to keep your eyes open ...

A nice warm “Welcome Back!” –or maybe just a first time “Welcome!” for some of you- to another installment of The Owl in The Rafters, where I, Tyto, (that’s “Tai” like how you make a knot, and “Toh” as in the ten wiggly things on the ends of your feet), your lovable, (or detestable), ramble-o-matic wind bag of an anime/manga reviewer, gives you the bird’s eye view on the careers of various artists, authors, and directors.

Hope you all weren't scared away by my filler update. Assuming you're back and ready for more this week, we're finally getting back to the story.

Welcome back! If you didn't get the chance, I'd like to direct you first to my previous article, A Tale of Two Kubos: Book The First, and ask that you read through it thoroughly before starting with this article, or else you may find yourself very, very lost. (Although I can't really promise you that you won't be lost anyway, even once you've read the first article.)

Well, well, well... As fate would have it there have been some small technical complications with the updating schedule as of late and so this update will likely be seeing little to no front page time. To counter balance the effects of this small set back I've decided this will be the day I tackle a more mainstream title, one which is very much near and dear to many of our hearts: BLEACH. BUT WAIT! Before you venture ...

As many of you may already know, October 2nd marked the debut episode of the animated adaptation of one of JUMP’s top selling shonen manga and one of the most anticipated titles in anime this Fall season: Bakuman, not to be confused with Bakugan Battle Brawlers.

Well, after nearly two weeks trying to resolve my personal tech problems, I’ve got a working computer back in my possession. I’d like to thank Mollybibbles for covering for my last update and apologize for the delay in this one. I originally intended for this to go up the week following Kon’s death, but due to previously mentioned tech problems that didn’t happen.

Naoki Urasawa is a name that many of you may already know as one that has been gaining popularity in the American anime/manga scene over the past few years.