Features 589
Selector Infected WIXOSS
By Andy Hanley. We’ve probably all heard – or perhaps even used – disparaging remarks around an anime series that refer to it as a “glorified trading card commercial” or “blatant toy advertisement”. It’s an accusation that can have some merit at times, but it also forgets that the very foundations of anime are its […]
Star Wars & the Hidden Fortress
By Hugh David. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the immediate horizon, it is worth remembering how important the original Star Wars was in widening the Western audience for Japanese storytelling and action. American filmmaker George Lucas drew on a wide range of influences in bringing his third feature to the screen, including 1930s […]
Full Metal Panic!
By Hugh David. One of the all-time great modern Japanese multi-media franchises is finally getting a re-release of its animated incarnation in the UK, which also includes the previously-unreleased and much-anticipated The Second Raid. Full Metal Panic!’s manga adaptation of the best-selling light novel series is a textbook example of how to balance action, romance […]
We Are Perfume
By Andrew Osmond. An upcoming Anime Limited release, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, has a brash title rock song, proclaiming in English: “I was made to hit in America!” In many ways, J-pop faces the same challenge as anime in the world market. Do you customise yourself for the foreign audience? Or do you sell yourself […]
Shigeru Mizuki 1922-2015
By Jonathan Clements. Shigeru Mizuki, who died today, was one of the most enduring and influential creators in the manga tradition. His career arguably pre-dated manga itself, in the chaos of the post-war period, when the young Mizuki arrived back in Japan with the world’s most unimpressive CV. Maimed in an American attack on a […]