Features 536
Outlaw Star
By Andrew Osmond Should space be serious? It’s a question which worries Hollywood, because space operas become preposterous very easily; maybe it’s best to play them for laughs to be safe. Last year’s hit Guardians of the Galaxy was full of distanced, mixtape-scored knowingness. But any film with a talking racoon as a main character […]
Durarara!! Music: THREE LIGHTS DOWN KINGS
.By Tom Smith. The first series of Durarara!! was a journey through the madness of Ikebukuro’s backs streets. The bands fuelling its soundtrack were just as crazy and outlandish, and the second series is no different, not least because of chiptune-abusing electro-metallers THREE LIGHTS DOWN KINGS. Thankfully, the relatively new band is also go by […]
Tiger & Bunny music: Aobozu
By Anthony Thomas It’s time for a brief lesson in Japanese language, mythology and classic punk music courtesy of Tiger & Bunny closers Aobozu! This four-piece rock band, who supply the fun series’ first ending theme Hoshi no Sumika, are named after a ghostly figure from ancient Japanese folklore – kind of. Way back in […]
Shinsengumi
By Jasper Sharp. The Shinsengumi was a self-appointed law-enforcing militia loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate that emerged in Kyoto during the Bakumatsu era of the 1860s. At its peak numbering around 300 members, it appeared at a turbulent time in the nation’s history. The whole feudal applecart was on the cusp of overturning following the […]
Animating Cyborg 009
By Andrew Osmond. A cyborg is a creature which combines the mechanical and the organic. 009 Re: Cyborg is about cyborgs, as you’d expect from the name, but you could also argue the film is a cyborg, yoking together rival traditions of animation; traditionally drawn animation, going back to Snow White and Astro Boy, and […]