Features 690
HAL and Artificial Intelligences
By Andrew Osmond Garden of Words reminded us that a small anime can be beautiful in all ways; visually gorgeous, emotionally intimate, celebrating the real scenery of Japan. HAL has the same blend, though with an SF element. Like Garden, it’s a self-contained short story, only an hour long, but full of exquisitely-detailed images. Once […]
Studio Khara’s Japan Animator Expo
By Andy Hanley I’m sure we all have moments when we cast a cynical eye over the ceaseless light novel adaptations, sequels and the like which dominate every new season of TV anime, sigh wistfully and ask “where has all the creativity gone?” Thankfully, there are still places where an animator or director can turn […]
Giovanni’s Island and the Galactic Railroad
By Andrew Osmond Giovanni’s Island is a blend of history, fiction and fantasy. The main story is about two young brothers, and what happens to them when their home, an island to the north of mainland Japan, is occupied by Russians at the end of World War II. But mixed into the drama are the […]
Space Dandy’s Names to Watch
By Andrew Osmond What’s it like to be a commercial animator? Take a furious, crazy-seeming animation like Space Dandy – can the experience of making it ever resemble that of watching it? Most times, probably not. Don’t trust those jolly ‘making-ofs.’ We know commercial animation can be a soul-destroying production-line, as in the “Banksy” opening […]
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 […]