Category: Features

May 15, 2021 · 0 comments

By Jeremy Clarke. With a title that seems to proclaim, “look at me, I’ve arrived”, Daiei’s The Invisible Man Appears (1949) is a Japanese manifesto, a statement that they can match American movies. Eiji Tsuburaya‘s effects are as good as anything in Universal’s The Invisible Man (1933) and were almost certainly produced at a fraction […]

May 12, 2021 · 0 comments

By Gianni Simone. In the world of Japanese animation, one company that has consistently come up with original and beautifully produced works is Production I.G, one of the hundreds of studios located in Tokyo’s western suburbs. I had a chance to talk about Production I.G’s history and philosophy, and recent developments in the anime industry […]

May 9, 2021 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. This blog has already run an in-depth article on Castlevania’s game origins and the people who produced it, which you can read here. The second season carries on very directly from the first, with the three principals – vampire-hunting heir Trevor Belmont, young woman magician Sylpha, and Dracula’s estranged son Alucard – […]

May 6, 2021 · 1 comment

By Jonathan Clements. In one of the most widely discussed scenes in Mitsuyo Seo’s 1945 animated feature Momotaro, Sacred Sailors, the frenzied activity of building a South-Sea military base grinds to a halt for the animal soldiers to teach Japanese to the natives. An unruly outdoor classroom of apes, tigers and even a somewhat out-of-place […]

May 3, 2021 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. Of the thousands of films released every year, few are subjected to a high level of controversy, critical acclaim, or commercial success, let alone all three. Yet with Battle Royale, director Kinji Fukasaku was dealt a full house. Even those unfamiliar with Japanese cinema are sure to have at least heard of […]