Category: Features

July 4, 2017 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. The new cinema film Genocidal Organ is rather unfortunately named. Many people may assume it’s some sex-and-violence exploitation anime with precious few brain cells. A few old-school fans may wonder if it’s linked to Detonator Orgun (sic), a mecha miniseries from 1991. Actually, Genocidal Organ does have fleeting sex, and intense, shocking […]

July 1, 2017 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. Japanese Notebooks: A Journey to the Empire of Signs is somewhere between a comic strip and a picture book. Either way, this 180-page hardback, published by Chronicle Books, is a thing of beauty. It’s not a manga, being originally published in Italy, but its author Igort Tuveri has a rare distinction; he’s […]

June 29, 2017 · 0 comments

By Lee Brimmicombe-Wood. If you were hoping for Anime Architecture at the House of Illustration to show a futurists’ view of architecture, you’ll be disappointed. It’s the subtitle, Backgrounds of Japan, where the show’s true focus lies. This is not an exhibition of design, but rather of scenery, highlighting the background illustrator’s craft. It is […]

June 26, 2017 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. Anime movies have tackled heavy subjects for decades, and the recent crop has been no exception. Some address their topics head on, like the shocking Genocidal Organ. Others are more indirect. Your Name was a teen romcom fantasy that implicitly raised the horrors of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. A Silent Voice used […]

June 23, 2017 · 0 comments

By Helen McCarthy. Belladonna of Sadness, the last film from Osamu Tezuka’s groundbreaking studio Mushi Pro, crashed and burned soon after the studio itself. It failed at the Japanese box office, and made little impression on the world outside Japan. French film journal Les Cahiers du Cinema recently hailed it as “the hidden treasure of […]