Features 764
Taisho Secrets
By Tom Wilmot. The unprecedented success of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba continues to perplex spectators, with the franchise’s film entry, Mugen Train, shattering records to become Japan’s highest-grossing film of all time. Much of the attention on the property is paid to the stunning animation and action-packed narrative. However, there is something to be said about the […]
Giants and Toys
By Tom Wilmot. As three caramel companies, World, Giant and Apollo duel for market share, fresh-faced World employee Nishi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) assists his ambitious boss, Goda (Hideo Takamatsu) in making a star out of the rotten-toothed tomboy Kyoko (Hitomi Nozoe), who is to be the face of their space-themed campaign. As each company’s marketing drive […]
Books: History of Chinese Animation
By Jonathan Clements. Released as part of a Routledge series of translations of Chinese scholarship, Sun Lijun’s two-volume History of Chinese Animation is the largest work yet published in English on the subject, boasting 572 pages on a century of innovation, tribulation and entertainment in the Chinese cartoon business. The book is unforthcoming about its […]
Asei Kobayashi (1932-2021)
Asei Kobayashi, who died on 30th May from a heart attack, was an unlikely candidate for musical composer, or actor, or game-show champion…. Pushed by his parents into studying to be a doctor, he transferred without telling them to the department of economics at Keio University, where his classmates included another future composer, Isao Tomita. […]
No Returns
By Jeannette Ng. Alice in Wonderland remains a towering influence on fantasy, both in English and in Japanese. Europe-inspired fantasy lands can take on new meaning in a Japanese media fascinated with the strange and exotic West, where even Paris and London can sometimes seem like alternate dimensions. Anime adaptations of English children’s classics, often […]