Features 502
7 Reasons Why Yoko Kanno is the Queen of Anime Music
According to Tom Smith From bringing the funk to Cowboy Bebop and helping to make it one of the coolest anime, ever; to creating the haunting, cyber-punk soundscape of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex; Yoko Kanno has not only cemented her place into Japanese animation history, the famed composer is also one of […]
The Making of Giovanni’s Island
By Andrew Osmond Giovanni’s Island is a story of cultures meeting, a meeting caused by war, accompanied by hardship, and yet also a source of new friendships, communities and love. It starts in 1945, as the inhabitants of a small Japanese island hear a radio broadcast of Emperor Hirohito, announcing their nation’s surrender. Soon Soviet […]
Durarara!! Music: OKAMOTO’S
By Anthony Thomas Durarara!! series one followed the crazy misadventures that can be found in the back streets of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district (from kidnapping gangs to headless bikers!). Series two, entitled Durarara!! x 2 Shou, takes place six months after all that madness, and sees things return to relative normality. But things can only remain […]
Patema Inverted: Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s Topsy-Turvy World
By Andrew Osmond One of the century’s great philosophers sang that everything you know is wrong, black is white, up is down and short is long. Patema Inverted, by director Yasuhiro Yoshiura, confines itself to Weird Al’s middle axiom, that up is down. The heroine Patema begins in an underground world, falling ‘down’ a chasm […]
Cowboy Bebop and Leiji Matsumoto
By Raz Greenberg Back in the beginning of the 21st century, there was a short period when people believed anime was on the verge of breaking to the mainstream audience in the west. People beyond the limited circles of anime fans started talking about anime productions, and science fiction and fantasy fandom in particular began […]