Author: Jonathan Clements

September 11, 2017 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. The most common symbols of Japan in the outside world include Mount Fuji, cherry blossom and the film star Toshiro Mifune (of Seven Samurai). In his new book A Brief History of Japan, author Jonathan Clements suggests a less obvious metaphor for the country – the game shogi, Japan’s version of chess. […]

September 9, 2017 · 0 comments

By Roxy Simons. A new century approaches, and the whole world waits in anticipation to see what the New Year will bring. Having suffered through not one but two magical wars, the god-like governing group the Novus Orbis Librarium (NOL) want to maintain their power, but the existence of the powerful warrior Ragna the Bloodedge, […]

September 4, 2017 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. Early on in Mamoru Hosoda’s new film The Boy and the Beast, a child is whisked – dare we say spirited? – to a world of strange, magical beings. As the terrified boy rushes pell-mell through bright lights and food stalls, anime fans will think of a certain Ghibli film, and wonder […]

September 2, 2017 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. Japan’s biggest global hit just got even bigger this year, as Your Name became the first ever anime to receive the IMAX treatment. The new giant-screen version premiered in Tokyo back in January, extending the theatrical shelf-life of a film that had already long ridden high at the domestic box office since […]

August 23, 2017 · 0 comments

by Jeremy Clarke. Wind. Trees. Tall grass. A road barely discernible but for the occasional top of a hedge. A fluttering, white banner of a funeral procession moves imperceptibly across the landscape, a futile ritual for an unknown person. A room’s corner between two windows. Beyond them: wind and trees. Against the corner leans the […]