Category: Features

August 27, 2023 · 0 comments

By Tom Arden. Garden of Words was the last film that Makoto Shinkai made before he was boosted to blockbuster status by Your Name. Set in contemporary Tokyo, it’s the story of a schoolboy, Takao, who’s in the habit of walking through a park on wet days, when the rain gives a magic appearance to […]

August 24, 2023 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko is a rare kind of anime, a stand-alone film that presents daily life in the manner we’re more used to in TV series. In this case, it’s the daily life of an eleven-year-old girl, Kikuko, living in a quiet port town under unusual circumstances. Her home is a […]

August 22, 2023 · 0 comments

By Jonathan Clements. In a bold move that you could only get away with in the days of video, the final episode of Gunbuster is shot in stark black and white, coming across like an old war movie. Depending on which version you’re watching, you might also miss the sudden switch to widescreen… after all, […]

August 20, 2023 · 0 comments

The background artist Nizo Yamamoto, who died on 19th August, spent his whole life working in the Japanese animation sector. Born on the Goto islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, he developed an interest in painting and architecture at school before studying at the Tokyo Designer Gakuin. He was not yet out of college when he found […]

August 18, 2023 · 1 comment

By Andrew Osmond. Speaking at 2014’s Tokyo Film Festival, Hideaki Anno mentioned that he once watched a rerun of his series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, and was pleased how well it held up. “I was really impressed… The young me was really enjoyable!” He was right. Nadia is more than enjoyable. At best, it’s superb, an […]