Author: Jonathan Clements

January 4, 2017 · 1 comment

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ALDNOAH.ZERO S1. PSYCHO-PASS creator Gen Urobuchi’s superb hard SF mecha show Aldnoah.Zero seemed to reach a final and tragic finale at the end of its first season.  That tale, of renewed hostilities between the Mars-based VERS Empire (former human colonists living in a feudal society based around control of alien tech) […]

January 1, 2017 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. Takeshi Honda is an animator’s animator. When we interviewed Aya Suzuki earlier this year, she highlighted Honda for mastering both ends of the craft: huge, muscular action animation and emotionally subtle human acting. Honda has drawn gigantic, charging Evangelions, and delicately human figures for Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Hosoda and Hayao Miyazaki. “His […]

December 29, 2016 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. The Art of Castle in the Sky may be the final large-format Ghibli art book to be translated into English… at least for a while. Over the years, the art books for all Miyazaki’s films from Totoro onward have been published by VIZ Media (the Wind Rises book came out in 2014). […]

December 26, 2016 · 0 comments

by Jeremy Clarke. In the middle of Martin Scorsese’s new film Silence, a Japanese is made to dig a pit in the middle of a rainstorm. “How long will he be doing that?” asks Jesuit priest Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) imprisoned nearby. “’Til he’s finished,” comes the reply. The speaker might be describing the film […]

December 23, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jonathan Clements Readers of the 25th December 1880 issue of the London Illustrated News were treated to a seasonal gift – a full-page account of the mysteries of an English Christmas, as drawn by a Japanese artist. Its highlights include a Christmas pantomime, rendered in kabuki style, an impressionistic rendering of the making of […]