Features 575
Inuyashiki
By Roxy Simons. Ichiro Inuyashiki has it tough; he has no friends, he’s shamed publicly at work on a regular basis, and even his family despise him. His only source of solace is a stray dog named Hanako, but, despite how the world treats him, this middle-aged loser still wants to be a good person. So, […]
Teiichi: Battle of Supreme High
By Roxy Simons. Teiichi (Masaki Suda) wants to create his own empire. How’s that possible? By controlling the student council of Kaitei Supreme High School, of course. If he could run the school then Teiichi would become a shoe-in for a prestigious government position, and from there he could even become Prime Minister. With his father’s […]
Takahata: The Exhibition
By Andrew Osmond. The magnificent exhibition “Takahata Isao: A Legend in Japanese Animation” (the title puts Takahata’s family name first, Japanese style) runs at Tokyo’s National Museum of Modern Art until 6th October. Struggling to take in Takahata’s career of over 50 years, I was reminded of an immodest quip made by Orson Welles in […]
Books: Japanese Media Cultures
By Jonathan Clements. Originally appearing as two issues of the online journal Arts, Japanese Media Cultures in Japan and Abroad: Transnational Consumption of Manga, Anime and Media-Mixes, edited by Manuel Hernández-Pérez, makes a brave stab at defining a number of important baseline issues in the study of anime and manga. It does contain several tooth-itchingly […]
Zeta Gundam
By Andrew Osmond. Gundam is a big franchise, encompassing nearly 40 years of anime, and leaving even some seasoned fans lost amid, say, G Gundam and Gundam 00. Zeta Gundam comes from 1985, when the franchise was in its early days. It’s the sequel to the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam, which Anime Limited released […]