Features 456
Books: Anime Supremacy!
By Andrew Osmond. Anime Supremacy!, a translated Japanese novel published by Vertical, takes on the real-life side of the anime industry, more frantic and quirky than any 2D antics. The author, Mizuki Tsujimura, is not an anime pro, which would seem to reduce the book’s interest greatly. But wait! The last pages have an impressive […]
The Toys That Made Us
By Raz Greenberg. In case you missed the hype, The Toys that Made Us is a Netflix documentary show devoted to successful toy brands, made from an unapologetic fannish perspective. With each episode telling the story of a different brand, the show’s producers treat such cultural landmarks as Lego and cynical moneymakers as Masters of […]
The Best of Impossible Worlds
By Mitchell Lineham. After the global success of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, virtual reality is back in style, but in the anime world, it never really went away. While Spielberg’s movie appeals to fans for its deep-seated references to pop culture, Japanese animation offers plenty of virtual reality stories that resonate more with today’s […]
Re: Zero
By Andrew Osmond. Re: Zero takes one of the most familiar templates of recent anime, then bends it into a phenomenally twisty series. It starts with a high concept – Sword Art Online meets Groundhog Day. One moment our hero, who’s your common or garden teen boy gamer, is in the “real” mundane world, shopping […]
Early Man
by Jeremy Clarke. Nick Park and Aardman Animations’ latest epic, out on Blu-ray and DVD, is set in a prehistoric world of cavemen, rabbits and mammoths. For good measure it also throws in dastardly Frenchmen and football. Park coaxes great voice performances out of his all-star cast, while physical animation is in the capable hands […]