The Cart Driver

1 CommentSite News / By Scamp / Published: March 26, 2019

I have a new anime blog

Hi everyone. Let’s keep this short: I have a new anime blog. It’s called Day with the Cart Driver.

Two reasons why I’m doing this. One is The Cart Driver is…old. Old enough that it is starting to have legacy problems. The RSS feed stopped working over a year ago and I haven’t been able to fix it. The categories list is so bloated I don’t know how to sort it anymore and stopped being useful to anyone. The design is dated and was custom-built in the first place so fixing it is impossible for me.

The second is it has proven difficult to get back into writing about anime regularly. I can drum up a season preview sure, but that is about it. One thing that really did help though was doing podcasts with Day, another anime blogger who also happens to be my wife. So we decided to try start a new blog together. There’s already a new post there for a big project recapping the previous decade in anime, something I feel quite qualified to write about. The new season preview should be up there shortly too.

17 CommentsMonthly Roundups / By Scamp / Published: February 11, 2019

Mob Psycho, Love is War, Promised Neverland and more – The Winter 2019 Anime I’m Watching

Everyone bow to your new rap queen.

This winter season has ended up being quite good to me. Not that my watchlist is bursting at the seams, but my barrier for a good season is more than 2 anime I am very excited to watch more of. This season has at least 3, maybe 4 or 5. And I’m gonna write about them and you are going to read it because that’s the contract you signed when you started reading this post.

5 CommentsYear in Review / By Scamp / Published: January 1, 2019

2018 Anime of the Year – Top 10

2018 was a…year for anime, I’ll say that much. There was a lot of anime I did quite like, especially comedy anime for which it turned out to be a bumper year. It ended up being quite difficult to round out my top 10 and I ended up dropping anime I genuinely enjoyed off my list like Hero Academia S3 or Grand Blue Dreaming. But at the top end of the pile it was a rather forgettable year for the 9/10, 10/10, all time favourite anime list. My top 2 on this list are miles ahead of the third place anime, and both of those technically started several years earlier and only got around to finally finishing this year. But hey, let’s celebrate what was good and count down my top 10 anime of 2018! Read More »

20 CommentsSeason Previews / By Scamp / Published: December 30, 2018

Winter 2019 Anime Season Preview

Look at that poster. That is a fucking amazing poster. I came back from Japan a few weeks ago and after strolling around a bunch of bookshops, something I hadn’t realised was just how huge the Tanya the Evil novels actually are compared to all the other light novels. Not just in sheer size, but also the density of the writing. There is a Tanya the Evil sequel movie coming out this season, which is why I’m starting this post by randomly talking about that series. Because yes, it is time for the The Cart Driver’s Anime Season Preview, Winter 2019 Edition. Yeah I may not have made a single post since the last season preview, but you will have to chop off my hands before I stop writing these. The fall season has been kinda awful for me in terms of anime worth watching, but there’s a handful of anime this winter I’m very interested in, and that’s about all I can ask for really. So let’s get to it.

29 CommentsUpcoming Seasons / By Scamp / Published: September 30, 2018

Fall 2018 Anime Season Preview

Did you know there is a Code Geass sequel movie coming out next season? Lord knows when I will ever be able to watch the thing so covering it here feels silly. But given the name of this site and my history with the franchise, to not at least mention that would seem out of place. We will finally, once and for all, know who The Cart Driver actually is. I don’t think I’m ready emotionally.

But enough of that, welcome to The Cart Driver’s Season Preview, Fall 2018 Edition. There’s a lot here, and a lot of it looks like rubbish, so I’m here to help guide you through the trash to pick out those that might be worth checking out. Call me your garbage guide if you will.

9 CommentsAnime Analysis / By Scamp / Published: September 18, 2018

I want Cells at Work to go darker. Much darker

I, like many others, have been enjoying the mini-hit of the summer season that has been Cells at Work. It’s fun and good-natured, using ridiculous anime tropes to explain the inner workings of your body. Red blood cells needing glucose to function being translated as them wanting to eat cakes a lot. Tiny platelets cells who block blood flow to allow your body to repair from cuts being cute little kids with buckets and spades. Bacteria being depicted as monster of the week villains like they have come out of Precure, except with a lot more threats of death and horrific violence (on that note, why do white blood cells bleed? Are there mini white blood cells inside their own blood? How far down does it go? Am I a cell inside a larger body?). It’s all very cute and entertaining as they fight off mild illnesses.

This isn’t enough for me. I can hear the Evanescence wailing in the background. I want the show to go darker.

14 CommentsAnime Analysis / By Scamp / Published: September 6, 2018

Mineta sucks. Like, really sucks

Mineta sucks.

I know you know that. I know everybody knows that. I know it is a frequent joke within the fandom for My Hero Academia.

But still. It is worth stressing just how much Mineta really fucking sucks.

23 CommentsMonthly Roundups / By Scamp / Published: August 29, 2018

The anime I’ve been watching Summer 2018 edition – Really stupid comedies

As you can see, I have only been watching the good stuff, namely Gobdwarf.

In the past few months I’ve moved countries, changed career, started a new job, unpacked an entire home, and generally had a lot happen. I’m finally able to calm down and relax a bit. In that time I’ve suddenly found myself with the itch to write more again. Turns out when you spend the past two years having to churn out articles for a living, it leaves one with little enthusiasm to come home and continue writing as a hobby. That is basically the reason why I stopped writing on this blog for so long. Now that I no longer write that much for a living anymore, I’ve found I actually want to write for fun again. You’ll probably see a lot more of me from now on, at least as I try get back into the swing of writing about anime again.

This also means I have a lot more time to watch anime again. However given the exhaustion of the moving process, I’ve fallen behind on all the more respectable anime like My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Bananafish, Lupin III, Steins;Gate. Meanwhile all I have kept up with have been the incredibly stupid comedies from this season. So yeah, that’s what we will be talking about today!
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