All Posts: Page 10
January 26, 2024 · 0 comments
Books: I Could Never be a Succubus
By Shelley Pallis. The story of I Could Never be a Succubus begins with a striking Gotterdammerung, as a bold hero and an evil demon lord fight for their lives in a burning castle. But this is not one-on-one, the hero is the leader of a stereotypical party of adventurers, and the adversary soon realises […]
January 23, 2024 · 0 comments
Lonely Castle in the Mirror
By Shelley Pallis. Kokoro (Ami Touma) has a name that means “heart”, but feels that hers is constantly being stamped on. Mean girls at school make her life so difficult, that eventually she gives up altogether, and stays home with an alleged stomach-ache. Lying on her bed and feeling sorry for herself, she discovers that […]
January 20, 2024 · 0 comments
Books: Ghibli and Grief
By Zoe Crombie. As one of, if not the, most popular anime studio in the world, Studio Ghibli has attracted attention from academics, authors, and journalists globally – most recently, the book Now Go: Grief and Studio Ghibli explores the studio in a fresh and highly individual way. Relating much of Ghibli’s oeuvre to personal […]
January 17, 2024 · 0 comments
Patlabor XIII
By Andrew Osmond. The film’s title card reads, “Patlabor Movie 3.” The functional name is in line with the previous Patlabor films – and at least this one has an extra tag, “Wasted XIII” – but it’s the most misleading part of the movie. Released in 2001, eight years after Patlabor 2, Wasted XIII isn’t […]
January 14, 2024 · 0 comments
Patlabor 2
By Andrew Osmond. The first Patlabor film is an excellent cerebral thriller. Patlabor 2 The Movie, though, is an artistic statement. Thirty years old, it’s still the anime that feels the most like live-action. It’s only tangentially a mecha film, with the title Patlabors on screen for a fraction of the running time. This is […]
January 10, 2024 · 0 comments
Great Pretender
By Andrew Osmond. Great Pretender is a crime-caper series, not unlike Lupin III, but less cartoon-zany. This is a hardboiled show, with sex, drugs and real-world grit; it has bold, unreal colours without feeling lurid; and its character designs are by Evangelion legend Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Jan 10, 2024Jonathan Clements