Features 738
Books: The Impact of Akira
By Andrew Osmond. If you were asked which singer comes to mind in connection with Akira, most readers would think of Kanye West cosplaying Tetsuo in his pants in the “Stronger” video. A few of you might remember Michael and Janet Jackson’s video for “Scream,” which samples Akira in its last moments. But in his […]
Human Lost
By Jonathan Clements. Tokyo, 2036. A revolution in medical treatments has conquered death. Thanks to the SHELL system, which controls a benign plague of nanomachines, human beings no longer suffer from diseases or death. A 120-year lifespan is entirely possible, but this glimpse of quasi-immortality has also warped modern Japan. Drunk on their own extended […]
Kill la Kill
By Jeannette Ng. Kill la Kill rests on a panoply of ridiculous puns, the central pair of which work just as well in English due to them being loanwords: “fascist” and “fashion” do sound very similar. The title itself plays on another set of puns that only really works in Japanese: “to kill” (キル kiru), […]
Ujicha
By Tom Wilmot. One of the most appealing aspects of animation is that the form offers so much variety. From traditional hand-drawn cel animation to stop-motion work, the medium has continued to grow, giving creators numerous ways to express themselves. And then there’s geki-mation, the production method that 35-year-old auteur Ujicha uses to bring his […]
Children Who Chase Lost Voices
By Shelley Pallis. Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below, also known as Journey to Agartha, was a landmark moment in the career of anime director Makoto Shinkai, his second chance at big-budget feature directing, six years after the relatively poor performance of his first full-length feature, The Place Promised in Our Early Days. […]