Features 710
Melancholic
By Roxy Simons. “It’s dangerous to know something you’re not supposed to,” Kazuhiko’s boss at the local bathhouse tells him in Seiji Tanaka’s Melancholic. Feeling nosy over what is going on late at night at his workplace, Kazuhiko (Yoji Minagawa) decides to stake the place out, but quickly realises that there’s something far more ominous […]
Music: Golgo 13
By Shelley Pallis. As Golgo 13 was Japan’s nihilistic answer to both Bond and the master-thieves of many a crime caper, many elements of the score (now re-released on vinyl) echo the kind of 1970s action movies that would surely have been on the mind of the film’s producers. It’s baffling, in fact, listening to […]
Gundam Seed
By Andrew Osmond. Broadcast in Japan from 2002, Gundam Seed was the first TV Gundam of the twenty-first century and yes, you can definitely start with it. A space adventure tailor-made for newcomers, Gundam Seed was a vital gateway Gundam for Western fans, second only to Gundam Wing. Seed is a “new” story in a […]
Books: Manga in Arts Education
By Jonathan Clements. Masami Toku and Hiromi Tsuchiya Dollase’s newly published Manga! Visual Pop-Culture in Arts Education is one of the most pleasant surprises of 2020, sneaked out mid-pandemic by a Portuguese foundation that is literally giving it away. It is by no means the first publication to grapple with the joys and miseries of […]
Music: Wicked City
By Shelley Pallis. I confess, I didn’t really remember anything from the soundtrack to Wicked City until this album turned up on the in-tray. In my defence, it has been more than 20 years since I saw it. Whereas there are snatches of Masamichi Amano’s score from Return of the Overfiend that I can still […]