Gundam: The Origin
By Andrew Osmond Gundam is the greatest anime franchise, 36 years of warriors duelling in giant metal suits of armour, finding death or glory across several different histories and universes. Gundam: The Origin rewinds to the first Gundam in 1979, which envisaged a space war without aliens, fought between Earthlings and off-world humans, where both […]
Arslan vs Game of Thrones
By Andrew Osmond The new anime version of Heroic Legend of Arslan is underway. Our recent preview of the show went through the basics; how it’s a serious fantasy about human not magic conflicts, based on a manga by Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist), which in turn comes from novels by Yoshiki Tanaka (Legend of the […]
The Wings of Honneamise
By Andrew Osmond The Wings of Honneamise, Studio Gainax’s debut film, opened in Japanese cinemas in March 1987, just over a year before Akira. While the films are very different, they share common ground; they’re both anti-establishment SF movies which could be made in lavish style, thanks to Japan’s national prosperity in the 1980s. Those […]
Seraph of the End
By Andrew Osmond This time it’s vampires. In recent years, we’ve seen civilisation ended umpteen times over, often by zombie apocalypses, but now the bloodsuckers get a turn. It makes a difference. Zombies and Titans may tear you up and eat you, but at least they don’t laugh sadistically and tell you how much they’re […]
The Music of Hiroyuki Sawano
By Andy Hanley Ask the average viewer what makes a good anime series into something truly great, and they’d probably cite animation quality, visual style or something along those lines. As a result, one aspect of such productions which is often overlooked is the role that the soundtrack and incidental music which accompanies a series […]